Digital Commons Network^™

Spatial Analysis Of Motor Vehicle Accidents In Johnson City, Tennessee, As Reported To Washington County Emergency Communications District (911)., Katharine D. Bennett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study spatially analyzes emergency 911 call-for-service records from January 1, 2000 through December 31, 2009 for motor vehicle accidents inside the corporate limits of Johnson City, Tennessee. Records were compared according to the land use classification for adjacent properties, roadway type, and traffic signal proximity. Data were evaluated through ArcGIS software using proximity analysis, point pattern analysis, and hotspot analysis.

Motor vehicle accidents evaluated during this study consist of accident locations reported to the Washington County Emergency Communications District concerning property damage, personal injury, and fatalities. Results indicate localized areas with the highest number of traffic accidents contain the …

Spatio-Temporal Characteristics Of Mississippi Wildfires, Saranee Dutta

Theses and Dissertations

Based on wildfire data acquired from Mississippi forestry commission from 1991- 2005 approximately 4,000 wildfires occur in Mississippi each year, burning over 60,000 acres of forest and grassland. This study focuses on Mississippi’s wildfires from 1991- 2005 for the summer/fall period defined for this study as the May-November fire season. Statistical analysis indicates that there is significant correlation between vegetation indices derived from remotely sensed data and wildfire size at various time lag periods. Forest areas are correlated with vegetation indices at longer lag periods, nonorested areas are correlated at shorter lag periods. The inverse correlation between wildfire size and …

Farmers' Markets In Kentucky: A Geospatial, Statistical, And Cultural Analysis, Elizabeth Ann Schmitz

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

To assess what factors are driving the exponential growth of farmers’ markets in Kentucky, geospatial and statistical analysis of a database of 121 farmers’ markets was conducted. A statewide survey of market leaders and a case study of a single farmers’ market both identified reasons for growing support of farmers’ markets in Kentucky.

Market distribution, vendor levels, and gross sales were mapped against a backdrop of county urban classification, median household income, and education levels. Kruskal-Wallace analysis was used to identify if Kentucky’s rural, micropolitan, and metropolitan markets differ significantly in terms of their age, number of vendors, and market …

Rich Internet Geoweb For Spatial Data Infrastructure, Tin Seong Kam

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this information age, more and more public statistical data such as population census, household living, local economy and business establishment are distributed over the internet within the framework of spatial data infrastructure. By and large, these data are organized geographically such as region, province as well as district. Usually, they are published in the form of digital maps over the internet as simple points, lines and polygons markers limited or no analytical function available to transform these data into useful information. To meet the analytical needs of casual public data users, we contribute RIGVAT, a rich internet geospatial visual …

Vulnerability-Based Spatial Sampling Stratification For The National Children's Study, Worcester County, Massachusetts: Capturing Health-Relevant Environmental And Sociodemographic Variability, Timothy Downs, Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, Onesky Aupont, Yangyang Wang, Ann Raj, Paula Zimmerman, Robert Goble, Octavia Taylor, Linda Churchill, Celeste Lemay, Thomas Mclaughlin, Marianne Felice

Sustainability and Social Justice

Background: The National Children's Study is the most ambitious study ever attempted in the United States to assess how environmental factors impact child health and development. It aims to follow 100,000 children from gestation until 21 years of age. Success requires breaking new interdisciplinary ground, starting with how to select the sample of > 1,000 children in each of 105 study sites; no standardized protocol exists for stratification of the target population by factoring in the diverse environments it inhabits. Worcester County, Massachusetts, like other sites, stratifies according to local conditions and local knowledge, subject to probability sampling rules.Objectives: We answer …

Geospatial Technology/Traditional Ecological Knowledge-Derived Information Tools For The Enhancement Of Coastal Restoration Decision Support Processes, Matthew Bethel

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the feasibility and benefits of integrating geospatial technology with traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of an indigenous Louisiana coastal population in order to assess the impacts of current and historical ecosystem change to community viability. The primary goal was to provide resource managers with a comprehensive method of assessing localized ecological change in the Gulf Coast region that can benefit community sustainability. Using Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and other geospatial technologies integrated with a coastal community's TEK to achieve this goal, the objectives were (1) to determine a method for producing vulnerability/sustainability mapping products for …

The Development And Use Of A Geographic Information System For Evaluating The Association Between Pesticide Exposure And Prostate Cancer, Kristen Wells

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract 1 – A Geographic Information System for Evaluating Residential Pesticide Exposure and Prostate Cancer Incidence Agricultural pesticide exposure is hypothesized to be a risk factor for prostate cancer, and such exposures are of particular concern for men living in farming communities where large-scale pesticide applications occur. Prostate cancer incidence data were obtained from the State Health Registry of Iowa for the years 1996 through 2006, and county and census tract level age-adjusted incidence rates were calculated. Historical crop-specific land use records and pesticide sales data for the state of Iowa during 1990 were integrated into a geographic information system …

Design Of A Comprehensive Geographic Information System For The Administration Of El Camino Real De Los Tejas National Historic Trail, Jeffrey M. Williams

Faculty Publications

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture’s (ATCOFA) Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Laboratory were engaged by the National Park Service (NPS) National Trails System-Intermountain Region to provide GIS services supporting the NPS’s development of a Comprehensive Management Plan for El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail (ELTE). The scope of work was completed under an agreement with the Gulf Coast Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit sponsored by the Texas AgriLife Research Program at Texas A&M University. ATCOFA assisted the NPS in the coordination of local landowner and other local stakeholder contacts, conducted archival research …

Impact Of Robotics And Geospatial Technology Interventions On Youth Stem Learning And Attitudes, Gwen Nugent, Bradley S. Barker, Neal Grandgenett, Viacheslav I. Adamchuk

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

This study examined the impact of robotics and geospatial technologies interventions on middle school youth’s learning of and attitudes toward science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Two interventions were tested. The first was a 40-hour intensive robotics/GPS/GIS summer camp; the second was a 3-hour event modeled on the camp experiences and intended to provide an introduction to these technologies. Results showed that the longer intervention led to significantly greater learning than a control group not receiving the instruction, whereas the short-term intervention primarily impacted youth attitude and motivation. Although the short-term intervention did not have the learning advantages of a …

Development Of An Interactive, Hands-On Learning Experience Of The Google Maps Api, Rushikesh Digambar Kale

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The project is to design and implement a Web application for realizing an innovative, hands-on interactive learning experience for the Google Maps API. This learning environment was developed based on a real-world Geographic Information System (GIS), the Gulf of Mexico Coastal Geospatial Information Support System. Significant efforts were invested not only in development of this GIS system, but also in the design and implement that turns the production system into a learning environment. The Web development aspect attracts computer science students, while the opportunity to learn GIS concepts in an interactive way to attract students from the geography department and …

Tracking Sources Of Enrollment At Etsu Through The Use Of Gis., Charles Thomas Phillips

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research is to look at fall freshmen enrollment data for East Tennessee State University and see if patterns in the enrollment exist. This paper focuses on fall freshmen enrollment during the years 1997, 2002, and 2007 at ETSU. Once the data were gathered, they were mapped and statistically analyzed using geographic information systems (GIS) and statistical analysis software.

Many things were learned from the GIS maps created and statistical analysis. First, the maps showed that from 1997 to 2007, ETSU's enrollment became more consolidated in the East Tennessee region and moved westward into Middle and Western …

Exploring Social Interaction At The Ancient Maya City Of Copan, Honduras: A Multi-Scalar Geographic Information Systems (Gis) Analysis Of Access And Visibility, Heather M. Richards-Rissetto

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation investigates late eighth and early ninth century social interaction at the archaeological site of Copán, Honduras. Two main research questions are addressed: (1) Did people of different social classes experience different degrees of social connectivity? and (2) Did people living in different parts of the city experience different degrees of social connectivity? A Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to quantify social connectivity, that is, degree of social integration or social segregation, using access and visibility as proxy measures for social interaction, and to examine whether Copáns inhabitants influenced social interaction by configuring their city to facilitate or …

Assessing Quaking Aspen (Populus Tremuloides) Decline On Cedar Mountain In Southern Utah Using Remote Sensing And Geographic Information Systems, Chad M. Oukrop

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) is the most widespread deciduous tree species in North America and aspen ecosystems are highly valued for multiple use, being noted for forage production, understory diversity, wildlife habitat, timber, hydrological assets, and aesthetics. However, aspen communities in the Intermountain Region of the western United States are in evident decline, with certain areas experiencing rapid mortality over the past decade. One location of special interest is the quaking aspen on Cedar Mountain in Southern Utah, USA, an isolated population in the southwestern portion of aspen's geographic range.

Lacking critical information on the location, extent, and …

Object-Based Segmentation And Classification Of One Meter Imagery For Use In Forest Management Plans, W. Kevin Wells

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research developed an ArcGIS Python model that extracts polygons from aerial imagery and assigns each polygon a vegetation type based on a modified set of landcover classes from the Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project. The model showed an ability to generate polygons that accurately represent vegetation community boundaries across a large landscape. The model is for use by the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands to assist in the preparation of forest management plans. The model was judged useful because it was easy to use, it met a designated 50% threshold of useable polygons, and it met …

Modeling Bark Beetle Outbreak And Fire Interactions In Western U.S. Forests And The Invasion Potential Of An Invasive Puerto Rican Frog In Hawaii Using Remote Sensing Data, Simon A. Bisrat

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

I used Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imagery to answer two ecological questions. In the first project, I investigated the interactions between bark beetle-caused tree mortality and fire occurrence in western U.S. forests. I used remotely sensed fire data detected by MODIS satellite and bark beetle-caused tree mortality data. I tested the hypothesis that there is an increased probability of fire incidence in bark beetle-damaged forests compared to healthy forests using conditional probability modeling across the national forests of the western U.S. regardless of forest type. My results did not show a consistent pattern (increase or decrease of conditional probability of …

Analysis Of Streamflow In The St. Croix River: A Hydrologic Model, Stephanie A. Kleinschmidt

Geography Honors Projects

This project assesses how streamflow is affected by anthropogenic changes to the environment, looking specifically at the St. Croix River Basin. In 2004 the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) published a report on streamflow in the St. Croix River at two gaging stations: Danbury and St. Croix Falls. The streamflow at the upstream station near Danbury, Wisconsin remained stable over time, while an increase was observed at the station in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin further downstream. In order to evaluate this disparity, this project utilizes a GIS hydrologic model to analyze the factors expected to be influencing the flow rate. …

Mapping The Mahajanga Basin: Using Gis To Explore Spatial Relationships In Madagascar's Geology And Paleontology, Anne Brown

Geography Honors Projects

Tha Mahajanga Basin, located in northwestern Madagascar, is a region of intense geological and paleontological study, but has never before been subject to spatial analysis. Since 1993, expeditions conducted by Stony Brook University, Macalester College, and the University of Antananarivo have uncovered a rich sampling of more than six thousand specimens and observations including fossils of non-avian dinosaurs, crocodiles, and turtles. This paper analyzes the spatial relationships between paired groups within the fossil record as well as wider regional trends to address paleoenvironment. A combination of spatial analysis and statistics are used to determine the patterns existing between fossils or …

A Gis Analysis Of The Environmental Variables Related To Rift Valley Fever Outbreaks, Jacqueline Florette Jackson

Health Services Research Dissertations

Rift Valley fever is a mosquito-borne disease that causes widespread febrile illness and mortality in domestic animals as well as humans (Gaff, 2007). Rift Valley fever virus was first isolated in 1931 (Daubney, 1931), and since then, outbreaks have occurred in sub-Saharan Africa, southern Africa, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Madagascar, proving it to be a virus able to invade ecologically diverse regions (Gaff, 2007). The potential introduction of Rift Valley fever into the United States suggests the potential for human infection and major economic disruption. It is important to understand the role environmental variables have played in historical outbreaks …

Gendered Distances: A Methodological Inquiry Into Spatial Analysis As An Instrument For Assessing Gender Equality In Access To Secondary Schools In Mukono District, Uganda, Patrick Richard Wawro

Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on how accessibility to secondary schools in the Mukono District of Uganda is related to the sex and gender of the student and the distance that separates the student's home from the school they attend. This research is methodological inquiry exploring the use of spatial analysis, specifically how cognitive and metric distances can be used as alternatives to gross enrollment rates (GER) and net enrollment rates (NER) for assessing gender equality in realized accessibility to secondary schools. Student home locations were collected for 756 secondary students, including 437 boarding students and 319 day students from 8 different …

Gis-Based Estimation Of Marginal Implicit Prices Of Housing Amenities: The Case Of High Ground And Stagnant Streams, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

We use GIS and econometric methods to estimate the marginal implicit values of environmental amenities associated with residential land parcels in the mountain town of Logan, Utah. Amenities include proximity to open spaces (such as parks, golf courses and lakes), commercial zones, major roads, streams, and general visibility of surrounding topography in the valley as determined by the elevation of the land parcel. The amenity value estimates are corrected for spatial autocorrelation. We find spatially dependent relationships between (1) a parcel’s value and its elevation, and (2) a parcel’s value and its adjacency to a stagnant stream. To our knowledge, …

Watershed Modeling Using Gis Technology: A Critical Review

Journal of Spatial Hydrology

Understanding and managing water resource problems involves complex processes and interactions within the watershed surface and subsurface. The imposition of total maximum daily load (TMDL) regulations on the pollutant influx to a watershed has created a strong demand for new assessment tools. The spatial scales relevant to transport of the pollutants may span many orders of magnitude, ranging from field plots to regional hydrological systems. As the demand for and development of watershed modeling capabilities have evolved, geographic information systems (GIS) in tandem with remote sensing technologies have played an essential role supporting both data collection and analysis. This paper …

Rescaling The Past Through Mosaic Historical Cartography, Donald Lafreniere, Douglas Rivet

Geography & Environment Publications

Researchers of our past have long used historical maps to place events and to uncover the physical form of an area. A series of maps may be employed to understand a region beyond the extent of a single map. However, rarely are these maps included in publications of research findings. At best, a modern cartographic reproduction will be created to depict the research area. Our maps, created for a historical atlas of Sandwich, Ontario, Canada, are noteworthy for their use of original historical maps in a mosaic to recreate the past. Our objective was to overcome the international boundary between …

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Urban Morphology Of Southwestern Ontario Census Metropolitan Areas, David Alan Stubbs

Digitized Theses

Patterns of urban development in North America have changed drastically over time: from dense urban cores to sprawling subdivisions. This study investigates changes in residential forms of Southwestern Ontario cities by characterizing numerous individual features which make up the built environment, and then evaluating spatial patterns and statistical relationships. Using high-quality data regarding the social and physical elements of Ontario cities within a geographic information system (GIS), this research provides improved methods to quantitatively characterize urban development forms at the micro level. Results show that the majority of morphological variables have systematic spatial patterns and are highly correlated. Most variables …

Turning Toward Place, Space, And Time, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

A critical geography and a new historicism have reoriented many humanists and social science disciplines. Like the spatial turn, the temporal turn now grounds the analysis of everything from literature to sociology in new kinds of contexts. The exciting challenge before us now is integrating those new perspectives, taking advantage of what they have to teach us.

Gis Spatial Analysis Of University Of Nebraska At Kearney Alumni Cohorts, 1930–2004, Paul R. Burger, Brett R. Chloupek

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The purpose of this study was to utilize Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and spatial analysis coupled with the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) alumni data from 1930 to 2004 in order to compare and contrast the changing distribution patterns of five-year alumni cohorts. Mean centers, location quotients, and cluster analysis were used to assess the degree to which UNK alumni cohorts have migrated over the 75-year period, the extent to which any regionalization or lack thereof occurs, and the proportion of UNK alumni per county compared to college graduates as a whole. These spatial patterns were then compared …

Changing Perceptions Of Archaeology In Post-Katrina New Orleans: A Geographic Information Perspective, David Patrick Harlan

LSU Master's Theses

Hurricane Katrina had a significant impact on the number and distribution of known archaeological sites in New Orleans, Louisiana. Due to government mandated investigation in heavily damaged areas, many archaeological sites were recorded in geographic locations where there were previously none recorded. This thesis examined the spatial distribution of sites in the context of archaeological predictive modeling to determine the impact of disaster recovery on site location. In addition, decision making processes that led to the discovery of sites were examined to determine how they contributed to spatial bias in the distribution of sites recognized by the Louisiana Division of …

Spatially Heterogeneous Estimates Of Fire Frequency In Ponderosa Pine Forests Of Washington, Usa, James T. Kernan, Amy E. Hessl

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Many fire history studies have evaluated the temporal nature of fire regimes using fire interval statistics calculated from fire scars. More recently, researchers have begun to evaluate the spatial properties of past fires as well. In this paper, we describe a technique for investigating spatio-temporal variability using a geographic information system (GIS). We used a dataset of fire-scarred trees collected from four sites in eastern Washington, USA, ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson) forests. The patterns of past fires recorded by individual trees (points) were converted to two-dimensional representations of fire with inverse distance weighting (IDW) in a GIS. …

Modeling Geographic Awareness Of Road Networks For Consistency Verification, Ari Kassin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Problems related to transportation and inspection of valuable or sensitive assets such as commercial products and materials, cultural items and works of art, and hazardous materials share similarities and can be modeled by a core set of abstract entities including a payload, a vehicle, a driver, and an inspector. To make the load handling capabilities of security monitoring and inspection systems more scalable, security can be increased by reducing the variability of transportation routes to a finite set of authorized routes between trip origin and destination locations. Then trip anomalies, which are unexpected trip variations, can be used in inspection …

Creation Of Soil Liquefaction Susceptibility Maps For San Luis Obispo & Marin Counties Using Geographic Information Systems., Amelia M. Lowman

Earth and Soil Sciences

Liquefaction of soils in response to earthquake shaking is a pressing issue in the state of California. Using Geographic Information Systems, Geological and lithology layers, along with criteria in order to separate out the data into four risk categories, a liquefaction risk assessment map was created for San Luis Obispo and Marin Counties. The accuracy of these maps was then assessed using liquefaction occurrences for San Luis Obispo County, and it was determined that while the map is somewhat accurate, in order to obtain a greater amount of accuracy and increase the usefulness of these maps, more data would need …

Tracing The "Enigmatic" Late Postclassic Nahua-Pipil (A.D. 1200-1500): Archaeological Study Of Guatemalan South Pacific Coast, Carlos A. Batres

Theses

This thesis addressed the Late Post-classic (A.D. 1200 - 1500) Nahua-Pipil of the central Pacific coast of Guatemala. It evaluated archaeological settlement plan data and ceramics in association with regional geography, and ethnohistorical accounts in conjunction with GIS tools for their analysis. The goal is to reconstruct Nahua-Pipil sociopolitical organization, testing the hypothesis that it was based on the Nahua altepetl system.