Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Assessment Of The Effects Of Desertification In Yobe State, Nigeria, Jibril Musa Phd

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

Desertification is one of the most serious environmental and socio-economic problems of our time. Desertification describes circumstances of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions resulting from the climatic variation and human activities. The fundamental goal of this thesis was to assess the effects of desertification in Yobe State, Nigeria. The present threat of desertification in the sahel has reached an alarming stage where crops cultivation and animal rearing/grazing are no more productive, soil has lost its nutrient/fertility, various infrastructure had given way because of windstorm from the neighbouring Niger Republic and sand dunes had taken over. The …

Critique Of Microcredit As A Development Model, Grace Levin

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

The field of microcredit (otherwise known as microfinance, microlending, or microcapital) has expanded rapidly since the 1980s as an economic means of lifting people out of poverty. Generally, microcredit has been accepted as an effective method for empowering both individuals and communities. In recent years, however, critics have brought to light some of the problems associated with microlending, such as the complex socioeconomic factors that can cause loan programs to fail. These problems stem from the basic tenet of microfinance: the need for lending programs to be managed locally in order to understand the needs of a community and assess …

Tutorial Report: Understanding Spatial Thought Through Language Use, Thora Tenbrink, Tommaso D'Odorico, Christoph Hertzberg, Güzin Mazman, Chiara Meneghetti, Nina Reshöft, Jinlong Yang

Journal of Spatial Information Science

The tutorial "Understanding spatial thought through language use" took place at the International Spatial Cognition Conference on August 31, 2012 at Kloster Seeon in Germany. This report outlines the main rationale for the tutorial along with central contributions by its participants, who considerably enhanced the success of the tutorial by sharing and discussing their own research experiences with respect to the analysis of language in spatial cognition contexts. The tutorial's website is http://knirb.net/TutorialSC2012.html.

Geospatial Images In The Acquisition Of Spatial Knowledge For Wayfinding, Pyry Kettunen, Katja Irvankoski, Christina M. Krause, Tapani Sarjakoski, L. Tiina Sarjakoski

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Geospatial images such as maps and aerial photographs are important sources of spatial knowledge that people use for wayfinding. The rapid development of geodata acquisition and digital graphics has recently led to rather complete geographic coverage of both traditional and novel types of geospatial images. Divergent types of geospatial images vary in their support of human acquisition of spatial knowledge. However evaluative studies about the acquisition of spatial knowledge from the diversity of geospatial images have been rare. In this article we review a variety of literature about the acquisition of spatial knowledge while paying particular attention to the role …

The Influence Of Landscape Variation On Landform Categorization, Maia Williams, Werner Kuhn, Marco Painho

Journal of Spatial Information Science

This paper compares the landform vocabularies of residents from two regions in Portugal. Participants described both their own and the other less familiar landscapes in response to video footage of the regions. The results indicate that participants used more detailed vocabularies to describe the known landscape compared to the less familiar study site with detail triggered by individual place recognition. A relationship between landform lexica content and landscape type was observed in the relative placement of detail within each vocabulary. The observed drivers of categorization were the salient features of the landscape (elevation and land cover) and utilitarian motivations (land …

Approaching The Notion Of Place By Contrast, Stephan Winter, Christian Freksa

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Place is an elusive notion in geographic information science. This paper presents an approach to capture the notion of place by contrast. This approach is developed from cognitive concepts and the language that is used to describe places. It is complementary to those of coordinate-based systems that dominate contemporary geographic information systems. Accordingly the approach is aimed at explaining structures in verbal place descriptions and at localizing objects without committing to geometrically specified positions in space. We will demonstrate how locations can be identified by place names that are not crisply defined in terms of geometric regions. Capturing the human …

Spatial Reasoning With Augmented Points: Extending Cardinal Directions With Local Distances, Reinhard Moratz, Jan Oliver Wallgrün

Journal of Spatial Information Science

We present an approach for supplying existing qualitative direction calculi with a distance component to support fully fledged positional reasoning. The general underlying idea of augmenting points with local reference properties has already been applied in the OPRAm calculus. In this existing calculus point objects are attached with a local reference direction to obtain oriented points and able to express relative direction using binary relations. We show how this approach can be extended to attach a granular distance concept to direction calculi such as the cardinal direction calculus or adjustable granularity calculi such as OPRAm or the Star calculus. We …

Socio-Environmental Considerations At The Usuma Reservoir In Abuja, Nigeria, Fanan Ujoh Mr, James Ikyernum Mr, Olarewaju O. Ifatimehin Dr

Dr. Fanan Ujoh

Reservoirs are Man’s attempt towards water re-distribution from regions/seasons of abundance/surplus to regions/seasons of scarcity. This study focuses on socio-environmental impacts of the Lower Usuma dam in Abuja, on its four surrounding communities. Stratified random sampling technique was employed in the administration of a questionnaire to 200 respondents. Using descriptive statistics and the student t-test for the analysis, the study discovered that: (i) there has been no significant improvement in infrastructure provision by Government; (ii) cases of water-borne diseases are high; (iii) the communities have lost land for cultivation; and, (iv) the communities believe that the resettlement scheme is not …

Using Remote Sensing Data To Improve Rice Production In Kutigi, Niger State, Nigeria, Jibril Musa Phd, M B. Yunusa

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

This research work looked in the used of Remote Sensing to improve Agricultural production in Kutigi, Niger State. The aim of the study is to use remote sensing to improve rice farming activities in Kutigi, Niger State. It is very important to identify such methods to improve Agricultural production because experts are always interested in new researches and findings to better the standard of living in any environment. In view of this, Remotely-sensed data could be used or employed to elevate most of these agricultural problems in Kutigi through the following objectives: Using Landsat imagery to assess the present landuse …

Analysis Of Land Use Changes And Its Hydrological Implication On River Niger, Lokoja, Nigeria, O O. Ifatmehin Phd, P A. Essoka Phd, A Ahmed

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

This study evaluates the impact of urbanization on Meme river catchment of 667,560.5Km2 area in the Lokoja urbanizing area of Kogi State. The emphasis was to examine the rate of urbanization, changes in land-use, and changes in meme river channel. Land-sat satellite imageries of 1987, 2001, 2006 and 2011 were processed to examine how land use change processes affects rate of urbanization and impacted on the stream. Hydrological map of Meme River was digitized using ARCGIS 9 software to extract the precise study area. It was discovered from multiple regression analysis that light vegetation (.92), built up area (.81), rock …

Landscaping Israel: Power And Resistance On The Ground, Janey Kemp

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Factors That Shape Environmental Perceptions: The Role Of Health And Place, Elizabeth Langlois

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Risk perception is the judgment people make about the characteristics and severity of a risk. Numerous theories and models exist which have identified the factors that influence risk perception. Among these factors, location, health status, and demographic characteristics are known to shape risk perception. To measure the influence of these factors on environmental perception, a series of surveys conducted in four Louisiana communities between 2004 and 2005 describe community perceptions about environmental issues and health status. The objective of the study was to characterize and compare environmental concerns relative to location, health status, and demographic characteristics. Results indicate that location …

Detection And Mapping Of Phragmites Australis Using High Resolution Multispectral And Hyperspectral Satellite Imagery, Nicholas J. Lantz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mapping invasive plant species is important to establish an invasion baseline, monitor plant propagation, and to implement an effective plan to deal with the invasion. In this thesis, methods are proposed to map invasive Phragmites australis in a Great Lakes coastal wetland. Chapter 2 presents an object-based Phragmites extraction method using Worldview-2 high-spatial-resolution satellite imagery. For the 4024 ha study area at Walpole Island,Ontario, 94% overall accuracy was achieved.

Chapter 3 uses CHRIS PROBA hyperspectral satellite imagery for mapping the pixel abundance of Phragmites using a spectral mixture analysis method. An evaluation method was developed to assess the accuracy of …

Emotional Geographies Of Home: Place Identities Among Senior Women Residing In A Long-Term Care Facility, Malgorzata M. Milczarek

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research aimed to document the meanings and identities attached to the concept of ‘home’ among older women residing in long-term care. The study is based upon semi-structured, open-ended interviews with eleven senior women who reside in a long-term care home in The City of London, Ontario. This study contributes towards theoretical and methodological debates by combining critical humanism, feminism and the newly developing body of work called ‘emotional geographies’ in its approach. Along with the interview, the novel method of using the body as an ‘instrument of research’ is utilized (Longhurst, 2008). The methodology allows for ‘emotional spaces’ occupied …

Kernel Density Estimation Of Traffic Accidents In A Network Space, Zhixiao Xie, Jun Yan

Dr Jun Yan

A standard planar Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) aims to produce a smooth density surface of spatial point events over a 2-D geographic space. However, the planar KDE may not be suited for characterizing certain point events, such as traffic accidents, which usually occur inside a 1-D linear space, the roadway network. This paper presents a novel network KDE approach to estimating the density of such spatial point events. One key feature of the new approach is that the network space is represented with basic linear units of equal network length, termed lixel (linear pixel), and related network topology. The use …

Gender Relations Of Space: Impact On Women’S Leadership In Nigeria [Pilot Study], Oluremi Alapo

Publications and Research

This qualitative phenomenological research study examines women in Nigeria and how they continue to face enormous set-backs regarding development and leadership capabilities. The socio and economic roles that many women occupy in Nigerian society affects leadership roles, especially in the context of sexual division of labor and in decision-making. The national and family culture present prevents women to fully adapt to innovative 21st century leadership. Culture is socialized in a person through the shared values of social groups that in turn play key roles in a person’s cognitive, emotional, and social functioning. The national and family culture is one in …

Monitoring Land-Cover Change In The Las Vegas Valley: A Study Of Five Change Detection Methods In An Urban Environment, Bonnie Diane Weidemann

Theses and Dissertations

Change detection is currently a topic of great interest to theoretic geographic researchers. The necessity to map, monitor, and model land cover change is also important to a variety of applied fields as varied as urban planning and military intelligence. This research compares five algorithms to map urban land cover change in the greater Las Vegas, Nevada metropolitan area. Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery acquired on May 1990 and May 2000 was used as the primary data. The change detection methods yielded simple maps of change vs. no change. These algorithms included image differencing, image ratioing, image regression, vegetation index differencing, …

The Role Of Interdisciplinary Gis And Data Curation Librarians In Enhancing Authentic Scientific Research In The Classroom, Benjamin D. Branch, Michael Fosmire

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Data science is a recently evolved area of scientific inquiry, where data, often collected by others, is analyzed by independent investigators to draw new conclusions. As such, data literacy needs to be incorporated into authentic research activities. The earth sciences in particular have a trove of data that resides in national data centers as well as individual investigators’ labs, which can be repurposed to provide the inputs for students to make their own inquiries into the data. With the amount of data available, students can make more substantive conclusions than if relying just on data they’ve collected themselves.

The Flow Of Water, Power, And Ideas: Water Commodification In Cape Town, South Africa And The Stratified Experiences Of Time And Space Compression, Jenna Washburn

Master's Theses

I use the neoliberalization of the water sector in Cape Town, South Africa in order to test my theory of unequal development. I assert that the neoliberal economic practices of water commodification, business-friendly tariff policies, and prepaid management devices keep people along the periphery from accessing water, power, and ideas – thus causing a stratification of time and space compression between the core and the periphery.

By painting a theoretical picture of world cities, I wish to complicate the dominant views of time/space compression and suggest that, much like development and arguably because of it, time and space compression actually …

Migration, Residential Preference, And Economic Development: A Knowledge-Based Approach Regarding Locational Preferences Of Two Disparate Subgroups Of The Creative Class, Charlynn Alita Burd

Doctoral Dissertations

The creative class literature centers on regional economic development, urban policy, and amenities. The creative class literature is considered at the metropolitan scale and is argued to be highly mobile. According to Asheim and Hansen (2009) , there are three knowledge bases of the creative class, analytic, synthetic, and symbolic. The three knowledge bases vary across two dimensions of ‘climate’. People climate refers to factors that positively effect the location of people, while business climate refers to factors that positively effect the location of businesses. The analytic knowledge base is comprised of economic activities that are based …

Obesogenic Neighborhoods: The Impact Of Neighborhood Restaurants And Convenience Stores On Adolescents' Food Consumption Behaviors, Meizi He, Patricia Tucker, Jennifer D. Irwin, Jason Gilliland, Kristian Larsen, Paul Hess

Geography & Environment Publications

To examine the relationship between the neighbourhood food environment and dietary intake among adolescents. Cross-sectional design using: (i) a geographic information system to assess characteristics of the neighbourhood food environment and neighbourhood socio-economic status; (ii) the modified Healthy Eating Index (HEI) to assess participants' overall diet quality; and (iii) generalized linear models to examine associations between HEI and home and school food environmental correlates. Mid-sized Canadian city in Ontario, Canada. Participants Grade 7 and 8 students (n 810) at twenty-one elementary schools. Students living in neighbourhoods with a lower diversity of land-use types, compared with their higher diversity counterparts, had …

Constraints In Adoption Of Moongbean Production Technology In Sundarban, West Bengal, Ganesh Chandra

Ganesh Chandra

The new agricultural technologies are considered to be the prime mover to the process of agricultural development in India. Understanding farmers’ perceptions of a given technology is crucial in the generation and diffusion of new technologies and farm household information dissemination. Pulses in India have long been considered as the poor man’s only source of protein. Moongbean (green gram) is one of the important pulse crop in India, plays a major role in augmenting the income of small and marginal farmers of Sundarban. Constraints are the circumstances or causes, which prohibit farmer to adopt improved farm technology. This constraint study …

Competing Sovereignties: Corporate Social Responsibility, Oil Extraction, And Indigenous Subjectivity In Ecuador, Emily Billo

Geography and the Environment - Dissertations

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs developed in recent years as the business response to social and environmental criticism of corporate operations, and are most debated in those societies where neoliberalism emerged most prominently, the United States and the United Kingdom. My dissertation expands these debates investigating the CSR programs of a Spanish-owned multinational oil company, Repsol-YPF operating in the Ecuadorian Amazon region. It explores CSR programs as institutions that can facilitate ongoing resource extraction, and particular technologies of rule that serve to discipline indigenous peoples at the point of extraction. I conducted an institutional ethnography to examine the social relationships …

Returning The Commons: Resource Access And Environmental Governance In San Luis, Colorado, Keith Lindner

Geography and the Environment - Dissertations

In Lobato v. Taylor (2002) the Colorado Supreme Court awarded Hispano heirs to the 1843 Mexican-era Sangre de Cristo Land Grant returned access to formerly communal land known as La Sierra, the Taylor Ranch, or today Cielo Vista Ranch. The 77,000 acre parcel of mountainous land remains privately owned, yet through Lobato over 4,000 individuals have been awarded legal rights to access the land for the "reasonable use" of pastures and forests for grazing, firewood, and timber. Based on roughly 15 months of ethnographic research in collaboration with the Land Rights Council and based in San Luis, CO, this dissertation …

Situation Analysis Of Somalia’S 2011 Famine, Ahmed Mohamed Askar

Master of Public Health Program Student Publications

This CE examined the contributing factors of famine in Somalia and developed a situation analysis of Somalia’s 2011 famine. The situational analysis was developed using health and famine indicators. Data from geographic information system (GIS) was also used to supplement analysis to look for trends and patterns of the famine. I predicted that conflict was the leading factor in Somalia’s 2011 famine. I concluded that conflict exacerbated the famine situation in the south of Somalia but in the north (Somaliland) famine was due to climate and lack of permanent rivers and water sources.

Producing Edge City: Publics, Perceptions, And The Right To Life On The New Frontier, Ben Alan Gerlofs

Geography and the Environment - Theses

This thesis explores Oak Brook, IL, an edge city (Garreau 1991) in the western suburbs of Chicago. A number of authors have advanced criticisms of edge cities (Beauregard 1995; Marcuse 1997), including that they are particularly exploitative and exclusionary. Some authors have claimed that edge cities are a "new frontier" (Garreau 1991), while others suggest that they are nothing new at all (Walker 1994). I address these concerns by way of an in-depth engagement with Oak Brook, Chicago's truest edge city. I ultimately argue that while edge cities have unique characteristics, they are part of a long heritage of capitalist …

Contextualizing The Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site (40wg59): Understanding Landscape Change At An Upland South Farmstead., Daniel Whitaker Howard Brock

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on a contextual archaeological approach to investigate the historic landscape of the Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site. Tipton-Haynes is a late eighteenth- through twentieth-century upland south farmstead located in Johnson City, TN. Home to two prominent Tennessee families and occupied until acquired by the state in the 1960s, the site has experienced many alterations to the landscape over time. The analysis presented views the landscape as material culture investigated through a multidisciplinary approach including historic research, architectural survey, geophysical survey, dendrochronology, and archaeology. To make sense of the complex nature of the Tipton-Haynes site, multiple methods were used …

Online Social Network Friends And Spatio-Temporal Proximity Of Their Geotagged Photos – A Case Study Of Flickr Data, Sumang Liu

Masters Theses

This empirical study aims to analyze relationships between online social network (OSN) friends and spatio-temporal proximity of their geotagged photos, using Flickr data as a case study. First, this study analyzes whether Flickr friends tend to post geotagged photos that are closer to each other compared to Flickr non-friends in space and time. Second, this study investigates whether the number of geotagged photos posted by users is related to the distance and time difference between their geotagged photos. Third, this study examines the spatial distributions of geotagged photos of Flickr friends within specific distance intervals to further understand the geographic …

Geographic Information Systems For Real-Time Environmental Sensing At Multiple Scales, Samuel Esswein

All Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to design, implement, and apply a real-time geographic information system for data intensive water resource research and management. The research presented is part of an ongoing, interdisciplinary research program supporting the development of the Intelligent River® observation instrument. The objectives of this research were to 1) design and describe software architecture for a streaming environmental sensing information system, 2) implement and evaluate the proposed information system, and 3) apply the information system for monitoring, analysis, and visualization of an urban stormwater improvement project located in the City of Aiken, South Carolina, USA.
This research …

Agriculture, Influence, And Instability Under The Ancien Régime: 1708-1768, Adam J. Polk

Masters Theses

The French Revolution has been studied from myriad perspectives. The majority of scholarship focuses on the political and urban chaos of the times. Agricultural conditions and the influence of onerous taxation and stagnant agricultural options are given only a cursory examination in most research. This thesis aims to investigate the relationship between agronomic and environmental conditions and the eruption of violence in urban centers during the French Revolution and the years leading up to it (1708-1768). This period prior to the French Revolution serves as a template to investigate the nature of the rural-agricultural influences, with a particular focus paid …