Geographic Information Sciences Commons^™

Recreational Risk Assessment Using Geospatial Analyses On Beaver Lake, Arkansas, Laura Ahrens

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Accidents and deaths occur regularly on lakes and waterways due to natural phenomena as well as human error and recreation. People use lakes and waterways as sources of recreation, but do not always act responsibly on the water. During summer 2013 and winter 2014, over 100 surveys were administered in Beaver Lake, Arkansas to local and federal agencies regarding their knowledge and perception on accident locations and causes. These surveys were conducted in English and approved by the university after being tested on peers. The surveys included demographic data sex, income, education, as well as Likert-scaled responses. Research was also …

Using Gis To Prioritize Green Infrastructure Installation Strategies In An Urban Watershed, Lauren Owen

All Theses

This study seeks to quantify runoff volume generation and peak flow rates from the urban Sand River Headwaters to determine the most effective placement of additional green infrastructure in Aiken, SC. ArcMap 10.1, HEC-GeoHMS, and HEC-HMS were used to delineate a total outlet watershed along with subwatershed(s) for urban stormwater infrastructure system by 'burning' the stormwater system at an artificial elevation below the existing topologically-based Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The result was a higher resolution DEM that allowed for storm routing and subsequent volume and flow predictions compared to that based on the original DEM created by using Light Detecting …

A Vegetation Analysis On Horn Island, Mississippi, Ca. 1940 Using Characteristic Dimensions Derived From Historical Aerial Photography, Guy Wilburn Jeter Jr.

Master's Theses

Horn Island is part of the MS/AL barrier island chain in the northern Gulf of Mexico located approximately 18kn off the coast of Mississippi. This island’s habitats have undergone many transitions over the last several decades. The goal of this study was to quantify habitat change over a seventy year period using historical black and white photography from 1940. Using present NAIP imagery from the USDA, habitat structure was estimated by using geo-statistics, and second order statistics, from a co-occurrence matrix, to characterize texture for habitat classification. Percent land cover was then calculated to determine overall land cover change over …

Structure, Aboveground Biomass, And Soil Characterization Of Avicennia Marina In Eastern Mangrove Lagoon National Park, Abu Dhabi, Tareefa Alsumaiti

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mangrove forests are national treasures of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other arid countries with limited forested areas. Mangroves form a crucial part of the coastal ecosystem and provide numerous benefits to society, economy, and especially the environment. Mangrove trees, specifically Avicennia marina, are studied in their native habitat in order to characterize their population structure, aboveground biomass, and soil properties. This study focused on Eastern Mangrove Lagoon National Park in Abu Dhabi, which was the first mangrove protected area to be designated in UAE. In situ measurements were collected to estimate Avicennia marina status, mortality rate (%), …

Gis Framework For Spatiotemporal Mapping Of Urban Flooding And Analyze Watershed Hydrological Response To Land Cover Change, Sayed Joinal Hossain Abedin

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Urban flooding is a manmade disaster, and a recurrent problem in cities around the globe. Increased surface imperviousness due to urbanization along with inadequate drainage infrastructure system are the chief culprits for urban flooding. Flooding in an urban area brings about severe economic, structural, and environmental damages, and can be associated with casualties too. In order to evade flooding, an efficient flood model is imperative to study current flooding, and analyze flooding behavior to urban surface characteristics.

This research aims to develop a framework using Geographic Information System (GIS) to perform modeling and mapping of flood spatiotemporal variation in urban …

Landscape Genetics Of The American Badger: Understanding Challenges In Elusive Species, Elizabeth Marie Kierepka

Theses and Dissertations

American badgers are one of the most poorly understood carnivores in North America due to their highly elusive, semifossorial lifestyle. To complicate understanding their biology further, badgers possess life history characteristics that predict radically different responses to habitat heterogeneity. In particular, they are considered grassland specialists, so their movement and population viability could be highly dependent on grassland habitats. Badgers are also highly mobile, which suggests they experience high gene flow. Predicting how these life history traits impact gene flow, however, is difficult based on the high diversity in responses to landscape heterogeneity among carnivores. To assess how landscape heterogeneity …

Applications Of A New Geodata Crawler For Landscape Ecology: From Mapping Natural Stream Hydrology To Monitoring Endangered Beetles, Douglas Ryan Leasure

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An investigation of endangered American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus) ecology led to development of a Geodata Crawler with applications in eco-hydrology. Geodata Crawler includes a national GIS (geospatial information systems) database with layers that quantify climate, land cover, soils, human development, and other attributes of the biosphere. For user-locations in the continental United States, Geodata Crawler can rapidly tabulate site-specific statistics within automatically delineated sample areas: points, site radii, watersheds, and riparian zones, among others. Geodata Crawler supported a multi-scale analysis of N. americanus habitat at a military installation in western Arkansas to produce a Landsat-based monitoring tool. Royle's N-mixture …

Spatial Analysis Of Chipped Stone At The Cypro-Ppnb Site Of Krittou Marottou Ais Giorkis: A Gis-Assisted Study, Levi Lowell Keach

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Krittou Marottou Ais Giorkis (`Ais Giorkis) is an Aceramic Neolithic site, occupied approximately 9,500 cal B.P., and located in the western foothills of the Troodos Mountains on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. This thesis is an intra-site spatial analysis of the chipped stone assemblage recovered between 1997 and 2013 from the site using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. Previous work on the assemblage from 1997 through 2004 had attempted spatial analysis using traditional statistical methods and found no patterning (O'Horo 2008). Using the expanded database and GIS this thesis identifies multiple spatial patterns in the assemblage with implications on the …

Station Exposure And Resulting Bias In Temperature Observations: A Comparison Of He Kentucky Mesonet And Asos Data, James Kyle Thompson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Station siting, exposure, instrumentation, and time of observations influence longterm climatic records. This thesis compared and analyzed temperature data from four Kentucky Mesonet stations located in Fayette (LXGN), Franklin (LSML), Clark (WNCH), and Bullitt (CRMT) counties to two nearby Automated Surface Observation Systems (ASOS) stations in Kentucky. The ASOS stations are located at Louisville International Airport (Standiford Field - KSDF) and at Lexington Airport (Blue Grass Field - KLEX). The null hypothesis states that there is no significant difference in temperature measurements between the two types of stations. To quantify the differences in temperature measurements, geoprofiles and the following statistical …

Local Planning And High-Speed Rail: Responses And Perceptions In A Developing Amtrak Corridor, John-Luke D'Ambrosio

Masters Theses

Incremental speed increases have been a main focus of Amtrak in recent years. Now operating at 110 mph within three different service lines in the United States, Amtrak is making progress toward achieving maximum speeds within rail corridors. This study focuses on Amtrak’s Wolverine service line which operates daily passenger rail service between Chicago, Illinois and Detroit/Pontiac, Michigan. Specifically, this study will look at six cities connected by this service that are east of Chicago. The six cities examined in this research are Hammond, Indiana, Michigan City, Indiana, New Buffalo, Michigan, Niles, Michigan, Dowagiac, Michigan, and Kalamazoo, Michigan. This segment …

A Positive Latitude - Georeferencing And Archives, Tom Belton

Western Libraries Presentations

A presentation regarding a proposed research agenda to determine the advantages and feasibility of using georeferencing and maps to provide access to, or visualize, resources in archival institutions and databases.

Multivariate Spatial Visualization Using Geoicons And Image Charts, Bo Shan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Spatial databases are growing in size and complexity, yet current visual data mining methods are challenged when it comes to multivariate spatial data. The specific research question addressed in this thesis is: how can spatial multivariate data be effectively visualized using an icon based non-fused co-visualization approach? The thesis presents a Python based design and implementation of a visualization program termed GeoIcon Viewer. The program incorporates two different visualization methods: GeoIcon Image Map and Region-of-Interest Image Layers Chart. The GeoIcon Image Map technique uses an icon to co-visualize up to nine attributes at a single location. The Region-of-Interest Image …

High-Resolution Digital 3d Models Of Algar Do Penico Chamber: Limitations, Challenges, And Potential, Ivo Silvestre M.Sc., José I. Rodrigues Phd, Mauro Figueiredo Phd, Cristina Veiga-Pires Phd

International Journal of Speleology

The study of karst and its geomorphological structures is important for understanding the relationships between hydrology and climate over geological time. In that context, we conducted a terrestrial laser-scan survey to map geomorphological structures in the karst cave of Algar do Penico in southern Portugal. The point cloud data set obtained was used to generate 3D meshes with different levels of detail, allowing the limitations of mapping capabilities to be explored.

In addition to cave mapping, the study focuses on 3D-mesh analysis, including the development of two algorithms for determination of stalactite extremities and contour lines, and on the interactive …

Spatial Analysis Of Foreclosures In Hillsborough County, Brian Arthur Sandrock

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the spatial impact various socio-demographic and housing factors might have in the foreclosure lis pendens rate within various Hillsborough County, Florida tracts as well as comparing those results with past research. Hopefully the techniques used in this study can be implemented elsewhere in order to better study the foreclosure crisis. The methods used within this research were chosen carefully in order to best understand what is being observed. One method is OLS regression which helps see the impact of each variable and if that impact has a negative or positive effect on the rate of foreclosure. Bivariate …

Creating Easy And Fun Gis Web Applications, Teresa L. Clark

Purdue GIS Day

Applications for GIS can be far more than just maps, spatial and network analysis, or geocoding. The tools that are available can be fun and useful for many different types of people with varying levels of experience. With the availability with ArcGIS Online Web AppBuilder a person without much experience in GIS can make a professional quality presentation that highlights different related attributes. This talk will showcase recent applications that I created with the ArcGIS Story Map Tour and Story Map Text and Legend templates for a Purdue University GIS class. These tools show the countrywide travels of an airline …

Development Of Simulation Of Short Rotation Woody Crops - Hybrid Populars In Swat Model, Tian Guo, Bernard Engel

Purdue GIS Day

The objective of this study is to establish growth parameters of hybrid poplar in SWAT model. Energy security and sustainable require a suite of biomass crops, including woody species. Selected hybrid poplar is expected as bioenergy feedstock for the capability of rapid growth. The quality of water and soils will be a concern when hybrid poplars are planted at wide geographic and latitudinal rang as a biomass feedstock. In this study, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) modeling was employed to simulate the water and soil impacts of the hybrid poplar. In SWAT, fast growing tree growth parameters for hybrid …

Functional Approach To Simulating Short Rotation Woody Crops In Process Based Models, Tian Guo, Bernard Engel

Purdue GIS Day

Short rotation woody crops (SRWC) such as hybrid poplar have great potential as a biofuel feedstock. Biomass yields and yield stability at potential sites are important considerations when such SRWC is widely planted. To simulate poplar growth accurately, the functional components and parameters of hybrid poplar Tristis #1 (Populus balsamifera L. × P.tristis Fisch) were determined, and related algorithms improved in ALMANAC and SWAT based on improved simulation of leaf area and plant biomass as well as biomass partitioning. The improved tree growth simulation was applied to hybrid poplar plots in Wisconsin, and the modeled biomass yield, and LAI were …

Core Forest Analysis Along The Wildcat Creek For Niches Land Trust, Ryan W.R. Schroeder

Purdue GIS Day

A number of the properties that Niches Land Trust owns and manages are along the length of the Wildcat Creek, a waterway classified under the Rivers Preservation Act of 1973 as a “Natural, Scenic, and Recreational River System” in Indiana that flows through the counties of Tippecanoe, Carroll, Howard, and Clinton (with minor segments in Madison and Grant). The proper management of the land around the Wildcat Creek is crucial to the continued health of the waterway and the terrestrial ecosystems along its banks. Part of my volunteer work with Niches Land Trust involves the establishment of baseline data of …

Estimation Of Forest Interior Condition In Southern Appalachian Mountains Using Airborne Lidar Data, Gang Shao, Songlin Fei, Buddhika D. Madurapperuma, Guofan Shao

Purdue GIS Day

Sustainability of forest ecosystem requires maintenance of forest cover and forest interior conditions. Sustaining forest cover supplies ecosystem goods and services and maintains biomass and carbon and nitrogen storage. Forest interior supports ecosystem functioning and provides particular physical and biological environments for plant and animal species that depend on a type of habitat isolated from non-forest land cover areas and prohibit the infestation of invasive species. Land cover maps derived from satellite imagery were broadly applied to assess spatial patterns of forest ecosystem and its dynamic. However, existing land cover maps at landscape scale are insufficient to provide information of …

Infertmapper: A Mobile Map App For Fertilizer Setbacks, Akshay Kochar, Larry Theller

Purdue GIS Day

Goal: To develop a mobile app decision-support tool which facilitates compliance by livestock producers with the new fertilizer regulations. This tool provides a map which allows users to quickly know where the various setbacks are located in relation to a field being evaluated for a manure application or temporary storage (staging).