Digital Commons Network^™

Exposure Matters: Examining The Physical And Psychological Health Impacts Of Toxic Contamination Using Gis And Survey Data, Christine A. Bevc

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the grassroots environmental movement brought national attention to the issues related to inequities in environmental quality. Previous research addressing these environmental inequities has progressively increased and advanced methodologically. However, the arguments and focus have been primarily limited to examining the socio-demographics in an ongoing debate of race and class. This thesis extends past the methodological stalemate focusing on the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) using survey data in an environmental justice case study of a community in south Florida. This approach examines the social, health and environmental impacts of a Superfund site …

An Application Of Geographic Information Systems (Gis): The Utility Of Victim Activity Spaces In The Geographic Profiling Of Serial Killers, Charles Casey Shamblin

LSU Master's Theses

Today, computer technology is producing new methods of investigation into the complex nature of serial killers; among these are geographic profiles. Yet, due to the lack of proven success, budgetary constraints, and the inherent multifaceted nature of serial murder, these geographic profiles have not been completely embraced by the law enforcement community. Because of this, the academic and law enforcement communities continue to refine and develop new methods to solve serial killer cases. This thesis investigates the possibility of identifying the location of the interaction site of a serial killer and his victims using a commercial geographic information system (GIS) …

Assessment Of Groundwater Resources Using Remote Sensing And Gis, Muna Khalil Al Hammadi

Theses

Geographical Information Systems and Remote Sensing have witnessed an enormous interest in various applications related to geology, hydrology, hydrogeology, and water resources. The use of GIS and remote sensing has become a common practice worldwide. The UAE is no exception. The study of groundwater resources and its sustainability is of prime concern for authorities in the UAE. Although, groundwater may not be suitable, in most cases, for drinking and other potable purposes, it represents the main source for irrigation in the country. About 85% of the total water consumption in the UAE is groundwater.

This study is devoted to the …

Search And Recovery Of The Space Shuttle Columbia: A Geospatial 1st Responder Perspective, Jeffrey M. Williams

Faculty Publications

A first person account of the Texas geospatial volunteers and their efforts to recover the remains of the Space Shuttle Columbia and her crew lost over eastern Texas and western Louisiana on February 1st, 2003.

Gis Modeling Of Desert Root Crop Maturation On The Mid-Columbia Plateau, Mary Michelle Phillips

All Master's Theses

The settlement patterns of the prehistoric inhabitants of the Columbia Plateau were choreographed to match the cadence of the seasons, with movements timed to efficiently utilize available resources. Desert roots, such as lomatium and bitterroot, provided a primary source of dietary nutrition, yet the ideal conditions for exploiting these plant resources coalesced for a very limited time in any one location. It was therefore necessary to possess an intimate knowledge of the plants' lifecycles in order to effectively plan gathering activities. In order to predict the growth patterns and maturation rates of these desert root crops, a GIS model was …

Fractal Compression And Analysis On Remotely Sensed Imagery, Ke Xiao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Remote sensing images contain huge amount of geographical information and reflect the complexity of geographical features and spatial structures. As the means of observing and describing geographical phenomena, the rapid development of remote sensing has provided an enormous amount of geographical information. The massive information is very useful in a variety of applications but the sheer bulk of this information has increased beyond what can be analyzed and used efficiently and effectively. This uneven increase in the technologies of gathering and analyzing information has created difficulties in its storage, transfer, and processing. Fractal geometry provides a means of describing and …

Developing Risk Assessment Maps For Schistosoma Haematobium In Kenya Based On Climate Grids And Remotely Sensed Data, Kelsey Lee Mcnally

LSU Master's Theses

It is important to be able to predict the potential spread of water borne diseases when building dams or redirecting rivers. This study was designed to test whether the use of a growing degree day (GDD) climate model and remotely sensed data (RS) within a geographic information system (GIS), could be used to predict both the distribution and severity of Schistosoma haematobium. Growing degree days are defined as the number of degrees centigrade over the minimum temperature required for development. The base temperature and the number of GDD required to complete one generation varies for each species. A monthly climate …

Development Of Gis As An Information Management System: A Case Study For The Burden Center, Zhitao Su

LSU Master's Theses

For a park site, it is very important and necessary to let the local planning authorities realize and understand the important aspects and benefits of the site and to establish the long-range development strategies for the location. In order to succeed during the planning process, the communication and information that flow among all the participants must be well organized. In this situation, a project-wide Geographic Information System (GIS) would be a good solution. The goal of this project is to explore the possibilities for administrative authorities to implement a GIS database system to support the site planning and management of …

Gateways Into The Atchafalaya: Developing A Framework For Water-Based Recreation In The Atchafalaya Basin Parishes, Steven Joseph Lumpkin

LSU Master's Theses

The term “gateways” has been used in many contexts as a means of providing entry or connection. Gateways are where people congregate to leave a realm of familiarity to one of uncertainty and adventure. They can also mark the entrance into an area of interest. Gateways may have a significant impact on an individual’s impression of a particular destination. This thesis provides arguments for using boating gateways into the Atchafalaya Basin (AB) region as the basis for a recreational framework that encompasses eight parishes. A common theme that exists in all eight AB parishes is their boat launches. They represent …

James Madison University Professors Teach Gis In Slovenia, Margaret S. Busé

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

GIS is one of the primary information management tools available for humanitarian demining, and is central to any national demining effort. This workshop focused on strengthening user’s knowledge of the GIS toolbox.

Statmod: A Tool For Interfacing Arcview® Gis With Statistical Software To Facilitate Predictive Ecological Modeling, Christine M. Garrard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As geographical information systems and spatial data become more accessible, predictive spatial modeling in ecology is becoming more common. Unfortunately, not all ecologists possess the necessary skills to successfully combine statistical models and geographical information systems. In response to this problem, I wrote an extension for ArcView^® GIS called StatMod. This extension interfaces ArcView GIS with SAS^® and S-PLUS^® statistical software and walks the user through creating and mapping logistic regression and classification and regression tree models.

StatMod was then used to run a series of analyses that would have been difficult without such a tool. A …

The Use Of Geographic Information Systems To Study Repeat Victims Of Domestic Abuse In The Waterloo Region Of Ontario, Canada, Claudia Saheb

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The importance of repeat victims as an effective target for crime prevention measures has been widely recognised. Many have studied repeat victims of property crimes, but few have studied repeat victims of personal crimes and their spatial distribution. This study used 1996 and 1997 crime data from the Waterloo Regional Police Service (WRPS) in Ontario, Canada and focused specifically on domestic-abuse-related crimes and repeat victims of those crimes. Various methods of mapping and analysis were used to better understand the spatial distribution of those crimes and vulnerability of the victims. Standardised crime rates and crime density were calculated. Thematic and …

A Spatio-Temporal Data Model For Zoning, Philip J. Uhl

Theses and Dissertations

Planning departments are besieged with temporal/historical information. While for many institutions historical information can be relegated to archives, planning departments have a constant need to access and query their historical information, particularly their historical spatial information such as zoning. This can be a cumbersome process fraught with inaccuracies due to the changing organizational methods and the extended historical legacies of most municipalities. Geographic Information Systems can be a tool to provide a solution to the difficulties in querying spatio-temporal planning data. Using a data model designed specifically to facilitate the querying of historical zoning information, queries can be performed to …

Wetlands Replacement Practices And Procedures For Indiana Highway Projects, James E. Alleman, Steve M. Graves

JTRP Technical Reports

It is estimated that Indiana has already lost more than 80% of its original, native wetlands, and concerns have been expressed that some fraction, and perhaps even a sizable fraction, of these losses can be historically linked to highway construction associated with INDOT-related activities. These wetlands are important for several reasons, in that they help keep ground water and surface water clean, serve as reservoirs for floodwaters, help recharge groundwater, provide habitats for many species of animals, and serve as recreational areas. This underlying concern behind this accusation, therefore, is that the construction of state and federal roads historically carried …

Wetland Replacement Practices And Procedures For Indiana Highway Projects, James E. Alleman, Steve M. Graves

JTRP Technical Reports

It is estimated that Indiana has already lost more than 80% of its original, native wetlands, and concerns have been expressed that some fraction, and perhaps even a sizable fraction, of these losses can be historically linked to highway construction associated with INDOT-related activities. These wetlands are important for several reasons, in that they help keep ground water and surface water clean, serve as reservoirs for floodwaters, help recharge groundwater, provide habitats for many species of animals, and serve as recreational areas. This underlying concern behind this accusation, therefore, is that the construction of state and federal roads historically carried …

Application Of A Rational Model In Gis For Flood Risk Assessment In Accra, Ghana

Journal of Spatial Hydrology

Accra has been experiencing periodic flooding that affect properties and lives. The government seeing the dangers involved has commissioned institutions such as Ministry of Works and Housing, Town and Country Planning and City Engineers to identify flood risk zones and adapt measures that will help reduce flood damages. These institutions identify flood risk zones using conventional methods such as watermarks on buildings and reported cases in the news media. Works carried out by these agencies were not able to give details about potential areas that are likely to experience this extreme event. Hence there was the need to find a …

Assessment Of Kriging Accuracy In The Gis Environment, I-Kuai Hung

Faculty Presentations

The demand for spatial data is on the rise. However, even the latest technology cannot guarantee an error free database in Geographic Information System (GIS). In natural resources the point field sampling is often used for spatially oriented projects and interpolation methods are implemented to predict the values in an unsampled location and to generate maps. In order to evaluate the performance of Kriging interpolation in GIS the Kriging errors were analyzed and compared to the four other interpolation methods using fundamental statistical parameters. The sensitivity of ordinary Kriging interpolation in the GIS environment was evaluated with respect to the …

Propagation Of Errors In Spatial Analysis, Peter P. Siska, I-Kuai Hung

Faculty Presentations

In most spatially oriented projects, the conversion of data from analog to digital form used to be an extremely time-consuming process. At present, industrial and research institutions continue to accumulate large quantities of data that are easily accessible to users worldwide, and consequently less time is spent for data input. In addition, the introduction of Internet2 rapidly increased the transfer of spatial data through the electronic highway and opened new avenues for collaboration among research institutions and scientists. It is apparent that this trend will continue in the future. New regional and national centers for spatial data are being established …

Multiple Spatial Scale Analysis Of Whooping Crane Habitat In Nebraska, Amy L. Richert, Kevin E. Church

Proceedings of the North American Crane Workshop

Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing technologies were used to evaluate whooping crane stopover habitat in Nebraska. The goal of the research was to investigate habitat selection at multiple spatial scales. The GIS database consisted of all confirmed whooping crane sightings reported in Nebraska from 1975-1996 and land cover information delineated from color infrared aerial photographs and Landsat Thematic Mapper data. Results suggest that whooping cranes select roost habitat by recognizing site-level and landscape-scale land cover composition. Wetland is the most strongly selected habitat type at all spatial scales examined. This presentation emphasizes methods used to analyze habitat selection …

Development Of A Gis-Based Framework For Evaluating Space And Parking Utilization, Jyothi S Tallapragada

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

Large organizations such as corporations and universities typically occupy many buildings. A typical university space includes classrooms, laboratories, offices, and parKing The cost of adding additional space is significant. Therefore, effective management and utilization of the space is critical, especially to organizations that are growing. Growth may be measured in terms of the number of employees or students. As the number of employees and students increase, the number of trips to the campus also increase. This poses a growing pressure on the parking supply at the campus; The main objective of this thesis is to develop a framework for evaluating …

From The Field: Observations On Using Gis To Develop A Neighborhood Environmental Information System For Community-Based Organizations, Wendy A. Kellogg

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This paper describes and analyzes an application of a geographic information system (GIS) to create a profile of environmental hazards and resources in an older, inner-city neighborhood in Cleveland. The client, a community development organization, sought the profile as the basis of new organizing and community planning efforts concerning environmental quality and environmental health issues. The objective was to obtain and assemble spatially referenced environmental data existing in the public domain and map that data according to the service area of a neighborhood-based development organization. The study describes and analyzes the utility and data management capacity issues that would likely …

A Spatial And Temporal Analysis Of Riparian Vegetation Along Satus Creek On The Yakama Indian Reservation, Kathryn Gellenbeck

All Master's Theses

Satus Creek provides critical habitat for the Yakima River Basin steelhead. A diverse community of riparian vegetation is important for healthy fish habitat; vegetation changes can affect shade, cover, channel structure, water quality, and food availability. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and illustrate riparian vegetation change, both temporally and spatially, along three separate reaches of Satus Creek. A Geographic Information Systems approach was applied to assess the vegetation change by comparing plant species composition and density on 1949 and 1995 aerial photographs. The GIS approach allowed patterns and trends in the vegetation to be identified. In less …

Parental Choice In Secondary Education : Socio-Spatial Dynamics And Motivation, Edward Michael Parsons

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences Theses

This thesis has two main aims. First, to establish whether the strengthening in 1988 of the right of parents to choose a secondary school for their child has led to increased travel to out-of-catchment schools in a case study area. Second, to identify the extent of socio-spatial variation of patterns and trends in choice of school. Secondary school transfer data relating to over 16,000 children for 1991 and 1993 to 1995 was analysed in a Geographical Information System (GIS). One hundred and sixty two parents of children about to transfer to secondary school were interviewed with the objective of revealing …

A Geographic Information System Assessment Method For Fire Management: Identifying Fire Danger Areas, Richard D. Stratton

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In partnership with the USDA Forest Service and the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire, and State Lands, a geographic information system (GIS) was used to create a wildland fire assessment methodology. GIS layers (or themes) include topography, infrastructure, vegetation, climate, "sensitive" natural values, and fire history. Two phases of assessment are presented: a preliminary analysis designed for planning use at the landscape level, and a detailed analysis for site-specific use.

Results of the phase 1 assessment are density grids delineating areas of high fire occurrence and suggesting to managers where a phase 2 assessment is needed. By using the environmental, …

Manipulation Of High Spatial Resolution Aircraft Remote Sensing Data For Use In Site-Specific Farming, Gabriel B. Senay, Andrew D. Ward, John G. Lyon, Norman R. Fausey, Sue E. Nokes

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Three spatial data sets consisting of high spatial resolution (1 m) remote sensing images acquired in 12 spectral bands, an on-the-go yield map, and a Digital Elevation Model were co-registered and evaluated for spatial variability studies in a Geographic Information Systems environment. Separate on-the-go yield maps were developed for 3, 5, and 12 statistically significant mean yield classes. For each yield class, the corresponding mean spectral and elevation data were extracted. The relationship between mean spectral and yield data was strongly linear (r = 0.99). Also, a strong linear relationship between mean yield and elevation data (r = 0.92) was …

The Use Of Gis To Delineate Potential Urban Deer Habitat, David M. Kocka, Frederick M. Garst

Eastern Wildlife Damage Management Conference: 8th (1997)

Overabundant deer herds in urban environments often require new and creative approaches to properly evaluate the situation and gain support for population management. To determine potential white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) habitat for the Harrisonburg, Virginia, Deer Task Force, a geographic information systems (GIS) map was created that reflected current land use in the city. Data were compiled using 2m resolution Digital Ortho Quarter Quads. Using this backdrop, land use zones were digitized on-screen. Wooded (13%), Agricultural (20%), and Open Areas (14%) land use types accounted for nearly half the city's land area and represent a conservative estimate of …

Using Gis To Assess The Relationship Between Land Use And Water Quality At A Watershed Level, Xinhao Wang, Zhi-Yong Yin

Environmental and Ocean Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

Daily water quality data from six U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) monitoring stations along the Great Miami River and digital land use/land cover and elevation data for the same watershed were analyzed. The validity of using electrolytic conductivity as a water quality indicator was examined by correlating conductivity with 199 other water quality variables, 60 of which were significantly correlated with conductivity. Positive correlations existed between conductivity and dissolved materials. Negative correlations existed between conductivity and insoluble or suspended materials. Conductivity was also found negatively correlated with stream discharge, and so were most water quality variables that were positively correlated with …

Watershed Based Efforts: The Applegate Partnership Of Southwest Oregon, Jack Shipley

Challenging Federal Ownership and Management: Public Lands and Public Benefits (October 11-13)

15 pages.

Using Gis To Identify Critical Areas For Water Quality Protection In New York City's Water Supply System, Paul K. Barten, Krystyna Anne Stave

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

The protection of water quality at its source — the watershed — recognizes that minimizing land use impacts and allowing natural processes to provide in situ biological treatment can complement conventional engineering methods. In contrast to the enormous costs projected for drinking water filtration, the judicious application of watershed management principles and practices is a way to balance the needs of people with the capacity of the natural resource base over time. This paper describes the development and initial application of a geographic information system (GIS) to a ortion of New York City's 2,000 square mile water supply system, the …

Gis Applications In Transit Planning And Analysis, Cutr

CUTR Research Reports

No abstract provided.