Digital Commons Network^™

Addressing The Skills Gap Of Geospatial Professionals In The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Shannon Marie Doyle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders of geospatial organizations are ill-prepared to manage rapid technological change critical to environmental and economic development due to an outdated list of technical competencies. However, there is a lack of consensus in the geospatial industry concerning the desired technical competencies of organizations and a gap in the literature regarding future trends when defining additional geospatial technical competencies. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative modified Delphi study was to determine how a nationwide panel of experts in the geospatial industry viewed the desirability and practicability of forward-looking technical competencies of geospatial professionals. The research questions for this study were grounded …

A Gis-Based Risk Assessment For Fire Departments: Case Study Of Richland County, Sc, Tracy Whelen

Theses and Dissertations

Risk assessments enable fire departments to be better prepared for future incidents and to engage in more effective prevention activities. A combination of physical, demographic, and behavioral risk factors combined form a community’s level of risk. This research shows how spatial and nonspatial statistical methods can be used within a GIS framework to create such a risk assessment, with the Columbia-Richland Fire Department in Richland County, SC being used as a case study. Hot spot analysis and thematic mapping of incident rates were used to assess the first research question – what is the spatial variability of structure fires, carbon …

Comparing Coastal Storm Impact To Decadal Change In Barrier Island Ecosystems, Philip A. Tuley

Theses and Dissertations

Highly dynamic coastal systems respond to disturbance events with a combination of topographic and vegetative changes. Sea level rise impacts on barrier islands have been quantified, but storm effects on vegetation are limited. Here we quantified barrier island vegetation change in response to an isolated storm event and compared to long-term periods. We hypothesized that disturbance-resisting areas with high woody vegetation cover and/or high foredune elevation would experience minimal transitions after a storm event, whereas disturbance-reinforcing areas with low vegetation cover and low foredune elevation would experience greater transitions between ecosystem states after a storm event. Patterns of dissonance were …

Spatial Patterns Of Adverse Birth Outcomes Among Black And White Women In Massachusetts – The Role Of Population-Level And Individual-Level Factors, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Madeline Haynes

Sustainability and Social Justice

This study explores spatial distribution of adverse birth outcomes (ABO), defined as low birth weight (<=2500 g) and preterm deliveries (gestational age <37 weeks), in black and white mothers in the state of Massachusetts, USA. It uses 817877 individual birth records from 2000-2014 aggregated to census tracts (census enumeration unit with population of approximately 4500 people). To account for small numbers of births in some tracts, an Empirical Bayes smoother algorithm is used to calculate ABO rates. The study applies ordinary least squares (OLS) and spatial regression to examine the relationship between ABO rates, seven individual-level factors from birth certificates and nine population-level factors (income level, education level, race) from census data. Explanatory power of these factors varies between the two races. In models based only on individual-level factors, all seven factors were significant (p<0.05) in the black mothers’ model while only three were significant in the white mothers’ model. Models based only on population-level variables produced better results for the white mothers than for black mothers. Models that included both individual and population-level variables explained 40% and 29% of ABO variance for black and white women respectively. The findings from this study give health-care providers and health-care policy-makers important information regarding ABO rates and the contributing factors at a local level, thus enabling them to isolate specific areas with the highest need for targeted interventions.

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Crime Incidents For Forensic Investigation, Jamie Spencer Spaulding

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Crime analysis and mapping has been routinely employed to gather intelligence which informs security efforts and forensic investigations. Traditionally, geographic information systems in the form of third-party mapping applications are used for analysis of crime data but are often expensive and lack flexibility, transparency, or efficiency in uncovering associations and relationships in crime. Each crime incident and article of evidence within that incident has an associated spatial and temporal component which may yield significant and relevant information to the case. Wide variations exist in the techniques that departments use and commonly spatial and temporal components of crime are evaluated independently, …

Innovative Approaches To 3d Gis Modeling For Volumetric And Geoprocessing Applications In Subsurface Infrastructures In A Virtual Immersive Environment, Pragya Srivastava

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As subsurface features remain largely ‘out of sight, out of mind’, this has led to challenges when dealing with underground space and infrastructures and especially so for those working in GIS. Since subsurface infrastructure plays a major role in supporting the needs of modern society, groups such as city planners and utility companies and decision makers are looking for an ‘holistic’ approach where the sustainable use of underground space is as important as above ground space. For such planning and management, it is crucial to examine subsurface data in a form that is amenable to 3D mapping and that can …

The Spatial Historian: Creating A Spatially Aware Historical Research System, James P. Schindling

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The intent of this study is to design a geospatial information system capable of facilitating the extraction and analysis of the fragmentary snapshots of history contained in hand-written historical documents. This customized system necessarily bypasses off-the-shelf GIS in order to support these unstructured primary historical research materials and bring long dormant spatial stories previously hidden in archives, libraries, and other documentary storage locations to life. The software platform discussed here integrates the tasks of information extraction, data management, and analysis while simultaneously giving primary emphasis to supporting the spatial and humanistic analysis and interpretation of the data contents. The premise …

Optimization Of Home Mortgage Mover Predictive Model Applying Geo-Spatial Analysis And Machine Learning Techniques, Natalia Riscovaia

Dissertations

In the last decade digital innovations and online banking services have significantly changed customers banking preferences and behaviour. Banking industry is going through the changes and developments in the provision of banking services that are affecting the structure and the organization of the bank network. However, private home loan, referred as Home Mortgage hereinafter, continue to remain among the products, that customers prefer to have personal interaction about with professional advisors prior making the decision to apply for the loan with financial institution.

Mapping Global Performance On Open Access Gis Research: A Scientometrics Study, Amit Nath, Dr. Sibsankar Jana

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

GIS has emerged in last few decades as an essential tool for mapping of geo-reference data and it can be used by researchers having different disciplines for various aspects. It represents an integration of different subject domains. The purpose of this paper is to examine the research trend in open access GIS research. This paper aims to analyze global output on open access GIS research as index in WoS database during the period 2009 to 2018, in respect of growth rate, year-wise publications and citations, major productive countries in addition to international collaborations, most productive authors and their citation impact, …

Art | Gallery Gis | Cologne – Ein Digitales Mapping-Projekt Auf Dem Weg Zur Deep Map, Nadine Oberste-Hetbleck, Jun.-Prof. Dr.

Artl@s Bulletin

1967 wurde unter dem Namen Kunstmarkt Köln 67 (heute: ART COLOGNE) die weltweit erste Messe für moderne und zeitgenössische Kunst gegründet. Das Open Access-Projekt ART | GALLERY GIS | COLOGNE (kurz: AGGC) bietet am Beispiel jener Messe erstmals eine interaktive, digitale Map für eine Kunstmesse, die mit Fokus auf die Aussteller sowohl die globale Perspektive als auch die lokale Ebene des Kunsthandels in Köln in einem Recherchetool zusammenführt. Anlässlich einer aktuellen Versionierung der Plattform AGGC skizziert der Beitrag den aktuellen Status Quo im Entwicklungsprozess hin zu einer so genannten Deep Map und beleuchtet hierbei kommentierend die Projektphasen, das Frontend und …

A Geographical Analysis Of Gentrification And The Changing Foodscape In Seattle 2010-2017, Alice Tiffany, Michele Romolini

Honors Thesis

Anguelovski defines food privilege as “the exclusive access to desirable ‘natural’ and fresh food thanks to one’s economic, cultural, and political power” (Anguelovski 2015a). Previous studies have demonstrated that access to fresh, healthy, affordable food is correlated with socioeconomic status (LA Food Policy Council 2017; Walker et al. 2010; Alkon & Agyeman 2011; Raja et al. 2008). However, as is being increasingly noted, the introduction of environmental amenities, such as farmers markets and community gardens, can have unintended consequences and trigger environmental gentrification (Kern 2015; Pearsall 2010; Eckerd 2011; Curran & Hamilton 2012; Wolch et al. 2014; Alkon & Cadji …

Potable Water Leakage Prediction And Detection Using Geospatial Analysis, Jacob Tittle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Due to increasing water treatment costs and conservation needs, traditional water loss analysis and acoustic leak detection methods are becoming heavily scrutinized by water utilities. This study explores water loss in Johnson City, Tennessee and how geospatial data analysis techniques improve water loss mitigation. This project uses sample water system pressure data and ordinary kriging spatial interpolation methods to identify leakage areas for further investigation. Analysis of existing geographic information system (GIS) water utility datasets with interpolated hydraulic grade values at sample water pressure points produce manageable survey areas that pinpoint areas with possible water leakage. Field detection methods, including …

Analyzing The Relationship Between Perception Of Safety And Reported Crime In N Urban Neighborhood Using Gis And Sketch Maps, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Laurie Ross, Thomas Caywood, Marina Khananayev, Casey Starr

Sustainability and Social Justice

This study analyzes the perception of safety among residents of Main South neighborhood in Worcester, MA, USA and compares it to reported crimes. This neighborhood is the focus of a community-based crime reduction project funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the policy development arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. We collected social disorder and violent crime data from the Worcester Police Department and conducted 129 household surveys to understand residents’ perception of safety in the neighborhood and trust in community institutions. The surveys included a map on which residents indicated where they felt unsafe. The goal of this …

Soil Erosion Analysis Of The Monroe County’S Watersheds In Indiana, Danielli De Melo Moura, Jie Shan

Purdue GIS Day

This study was carried out to spatially predict the amount of soil loss (tons/ha/year ) of Monroe County’s watersheds using Geographic Information System (GIS). Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) was used to estimate potential soil losses by using information such as rainfall data for calculating the rainfall erosivity (R) , soil map for calculating the soil erodibility (K), digital elevation model for obtaining the topography factor (LS) and vegetation/cropland cover for calculating the cover management factor (C) and support practice factor (P). The result of the analysis depicted that the soil loss rate in Moroe’s watersheds ranges from 0 …

Seeing A Better World From Space, Carly Sakumura

Purdue GIS Day

Understanding change is essential to addressing our most pressing global challenges. Organizations need actionable insight to make critical decisions that affect communities, economies, and national security. As a global leader of advanced geospatial and space-based technology solutions, Maxar has an unprecedented ability to observe, analyze, and monitor these global changes. In this talk, I’ll discuss the cutting-edge research, technological capabilities, and imagery products and analytics we develop at Maxar to unlock the power of geospatial data to understand and navigate our changing world.

The Value Of Open Gis In Higher Education, Christina Hupy

Purdue GIS Day

Open source software has become increasingly popular in geospatial research and industry. Despite this trend, higher education has less readily adopted open source in GIS curriculum which has been dominated by proprietary systems for decades. This presentation will discuss the value of bringing open source into GIS curriculum. The discussion will focus on several aspects including GIS curricular standards and competencies, employer demand, generational interest (millennials), pedagogical benefits, and general societal benefits. Strategies for encouraging the adoption of open source in GIS curriculum will be identified.

Deformable Part Models For Automatically Georeferencing Historical Map Images, Nicholas Howe, Jerod Weinman, John Gouwar, Aabid Shamji

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

Libraries are digitizing their collections of maps from all eras, generating increasingly large online collections of historical cartographic resources. Aligning such maps to a modern geographic coordinate system greatly increases their utility. This work presents a method for such automatic georeferencing, matching raster image content to GIS vector coordinate data. Given an approximate initial alignment that has already been projected from a spherical geographic coordinate system to a Cartesian map coordinate system, a probabilistic shape-matching scheme determines an optimized match between the GIS contours and ink in the binarized map image. Using an evaluation set of 20 historical maps from …

Measurement Of Changes In Forest Fragmentation Caused By Road Construction Between 2000 And 2014 Using Gis In St. Johns County, Florida, Ahmet Karatas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Forests play a crucial role in maintaining the natural balance. They have essential features and structures used in the protection of flora and fauna. Human activities such as road construction disrupt ecosystems and negatively impact natural habitats. Roads cause forest fragmentation, and as a result of this, fragmentation has various negative effects on the natural habitat. These effects lead to loss of biological diversity, road mortality, habitat loss, fragmentation, and air pollution. The major goal of this study was to analyze changes in forest area, forest fragmentation, and forest road impacts using GIS for St. Johns County, Florida, between the …

The Relationship Between Forest Management And Stream Discharge In Mazumbai And Baga Ii Forest Reserves, Tanga Region, Tanzania, Shannon Duffy

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Deforestation is known to alter hydrology by reducing interception, transpiration and infiltration capacity, and increasing runoff which all leads to higher stream discharge. For rural Tanzanian communities, surface water resources are crucial for meeting basic needs, so the integrity of headwater catchments need to be maintained to ensure their reliability. The objectives of this study were to a) map the streams in the two forests because none currently exist and b) determine the effect of deforestation on discharge variability. Over fifteen days of data collection, this study analyzed variability of discharge and the degree of correlation between discharge and rainfall …

Identification Of Mined Areas That May Contribute To Water Quality Degradation At Hobet Coal Mine, West Virginia, Brian P. Murphy

IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt

No abstract provided.

A Least Cost Analysis: Correlative Modeling Of The Chaco Regional Road System, Sean Field, Carrie Heitman, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

During the ninth through twelfth centuries A.D., Ancestral Pueblo people constructed long, straight roads that interconnected the Chaco regional system across the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico. The intent and use of these features has eluded archaeological consensus, although recent research has reiterated the occurrence of long distance timber importation to Chaco Canyon. To enhance our interpretation of these features we offer a large-scale least cost analysis wherein optimal pathways that are modeled to simulate timber importation are compared to the actual road locations. A series of least cost paths were produced through different energy allocation algorithms, at …

Precision Agriculture Gis Technologies For Mississippi, 1st. Edition, Amelia A.A. Fox

CALS Publications

Precision agriculture is meant to improve on-farm efficiency in hopes of ultimately increasing profitability while also protecting the environment. However, this difficult process almost always includes the proper management and interpretation of data. Therefore, it is imperative that those individuals involved in making such decisions are educated on these processes. In a data-driven world, this textbook is a great resource for those wanting to learn how to utilize their data in hopes of making better informed on-farm decisions.

Automation Of State Climate Office Processes & Products: Developing Efficient Approaches For Data Dissemination, Michael Shoop

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

State Climate Offices (SCO’s) in the United States are critical conduits for improving weather and climate data in local communities. Two states do not have a state-recognized SCO: Tennessee and Massachusetts. Efforts are underway at East Tennessee State University to develop the Tennessee Climate Office (TCO). Currently, climate services and products are severely lacking across Tennessee. This thesis provides an improved methodology for an existing TCO product and outlines the development of a new product using Python scripting. Daily storm reports within the monthly climate report are automated and a Weather Forecasts Hazard Index (WFHI) web application is developed. Both …

The Law Of Crime Concentration In Midsized Cities: A Spatial Analysis, Hannah Ridner

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The geographic concentration of crime led to the proposal of the law of crime concentration in 2015 by David Weisburd. This contribution to crime and place literature needs further research to properly define, measure, and confirm this law. This study builds upon measurement techniques used in previous studies to measure crime concentration across a random sample of mid-sized cities, estimate the expected Gini coefficient in mid-sized cities, and analyze the variation in crime concentration across mid-sized cities. Determining the expected level of crime concentration and whether it varies across cities will advance the literature by providing both a benchmark for …

Measuring And Understanding Food Accessibility In The Tampa Bay Area, Bailey I. Glover

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the Tampa Bay region, increasing population and changing demographics have begun to alter the characteristics of established neighborhoods. An increase in suburban growth has triggered a shift in the location and profitability of food establishments in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods. Supermarket closures have garnered attention from public health officials who are concerned with the overall availability of fresh food throughout Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. Unfortunately, there has been little research surrounding the quality of food sold at establishments in both the Tampa Bay region and abroad. Instead, many geographic studies have chosen to group both fresh and prepared food establishments …

Habitat Suitability Index Model Of The Florida Sandhill Crane (Grus Canadensis Pratensis) In West-Central Florida, Courtney E. Buck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Florida Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis pratensis) is a state threatened endemic subspecies of the Sandhill Crane (Nesbitt & Tacha, 1997). With a population that was estimated at a maximum of 5,000 individuals in 2003 (Nesbitt & Hatchitt, 2008), it is imperative to identify potentially viable habitats, as Florida is rapidly developing. This research develops a Habitat Suitability Index model to determine unsuitable to optimally suitable habitat locations throughout west-central Florida. To do so, six suitability variables based on the crane’s life history were evaluated: Potential nesting area, immediate nesting area, wetland coverage, foraging area, brooding area, and road proximity. …

Aesthetic Perception Of Urban Spaces: New York, Timur Pozhidaev

Theses and Dissertations

Aesthetic perception is an important field of interest in many aspects of everyday human life. It affects individual and social unconscious behavior and is strongly related to the decision-making processes in the human mind. The current study can serve as an important prototype for planning purposes and social and environmental justice among the regional units of New York City. With the current scientific sphere lacking a comprehensive methodology for assessing social superstructure, an aesthetic framework has the potential for success in evaluating the aspects of sustainable and resilient urban development.

Spatial Variation Of Low Birth Weight And Its Association With Socioeconomic Status, Housing Types, And Accessibility In Kalamazoo County, Eugene Kojo Opare Ahwireng

Masters Theses

Infants with low birth weight due to early delivery or fetal growth restriction face an increased risk of health conditions and deaths. These risk factors and the cost associated with healthcare for infants makes low birth weight a major public health problem. Understanding early precursor challenges expectant mothers face before delivery would help in planning interventions to reduce low birth weight among infants.

This study investigated and evaluated the spatial variation of low birth weight incidence with respect to socioeconomic status, housing types and accessibility in Kalamazoo County. In a broader scope, this research study examined the geographic patterns of …

Greenway Trail Viewshed Characteristics: Planning Applications Using Gis And Remote Sensing, Aric Addison Beehler

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study applies theoretical findings relating greenway trail viewshed characteristics to a proposed greenway trail. Utilizing geographic information systems and remote sensing techniques, this study compares the viewshed characteristics of two proposed routes to connect an existent greenway trail system to Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield in Greene County, MO. Light Detection and Ranging data is then used to map the viewshed of each route and calculate the openness and interconnectedness of each viewshed. High-resolution multispectral imagery is then used to calculate the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index measuring the “greenness” within each viewshed. Finally, parcel-level land use data is used to …

The Applications Of Gis On Lithic Raw Material Source Analysis, Sydney James, Carolyn Dillian

Honors Theses

Raw material sourcing has long been used to identify patterns of trade and exchange in archaeological research. More recently, geographic information systems (GIS) have provided other ways for archaeologists to identify these patterns through data visualization and various spatial statistical analyses. While these methods are frequently used individually, the combined use of these methods has potential to more closely examine the relationships between raw material sources and archaeological sites; this should be considered a necessary measure for methods of spatial analysis. This research applies existing raw material source data to quantitative GIS analysis as a way to demonstrate this claim.