Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mapping Neighborhood Scale Survey Responses With Uncertainty Metrics, Charles R. Ehlschlaeger, Yizhao Gao, James D. Westervelt, Robert C. Lozar, Marina V. Drigo, Jeffrey A. Burkhalter, Carey L. Baxter, Matthew D. Hiett, Natalie R. Myers, Ellen R. Hartman

Journal of Spatial Information Science

This paper presents a methodology of mapping population-centric social, infrastructural, and environmental metrics at neighborhood scale. This methodology extends traditional survey analysis methods to create cartographic products useful in agent-based modeling and geographic information analysis. It utilizes and synthesizes survey microdata, sub-upazila attributes, land use information, and ground truth locations of attributes to create neighborhood scale multi-attribute maps. Monte Carlo methods are employed to combine any number of survey responses to stochastically weight survey cases and to simulate survey cases' locations in a study area. Through such Monte Carlo methods, known errors from each of the input sources can be …

Provenance And Credibility In Spatial And Platial Data, Grant Mckenzie, Martin Raubal, Krzysztof Janowicz, Andrew Flanagin

Journal of Spatial Information Science

No abstract provided.

Trajectory Data Mining: A Review Of Methods And Applications, Jean Damascène Mazimpaka, Sabine Timpf

Journal of Spatial Information Science

The increasing use of location-aware devices has led to an increasing availability of trajectory data. As a result, researchers devoted their efforts to developing analysis methods including different data mining methods for trajectories. However, the research in this direction has so far produced mostly isolated studies and we still lack an integrated view of problems in applications of trajectory mining that were solved, the methods used to solve them, and applications using the obtained solutions. In this paper, we first discuss generic methods of trajectory mining and the relationships between them. Then, we discuss and classify application problems that were …

Enhancing Building Footprints With Squaring Operations, Imran Lokhat, Guillaume Touya

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Whatever the data source, or the capture process, the creation of a building footprint in a geographical dataset is error prone. Building footprints are designed with square angles, but once in a geographical dataset, the angles may not be exactly square. The almost-square angles blur the legibility of the footprints when displayed on maps, but might also be propagated in further applications based on the footprints, e.g., 3D city model construction. This paper proposes two new methods to square such buildings: a simple one, and a more complex one based on nonlinear least squares. The latter squares right and flat …

Mixed Map Labeling, Maarten Löffler, Martin Nöllenburg, Frank Staals

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Point feature map labeling is a geometric visualization problem, in which a set of input points must be labeled with a set of disjoint rectangles (the bounding boxes of the label texts). It is predominantly motivated by label placement in maps but it also has other visualization applications. Typically, labeling models either use internal labels, which must touch their feature point, or external (boundary) labels, which are placed outside the input image and which are connected to their feature points by crossing-free leader lines. In this paper we study polynomial-time algorithms for maximizing the number of internal labels in a …

Editorial, Matt Duckham

Journal of Spatial Information Science

No abstract provided.

Sperner's Lemma, The Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem, The Kakutani Fixed Point Theorem, And Their Applications In Social Sciences, Ayesha Maliwal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Can a cake be divided amongst people in such a manner that each individual is content with their share? In a game, is there a combination of strategies where no player is motivated to change their approach? Is there a price where the demand for goods is entirely met by the supply in the economy and there is no tendency for anything to change? In this paper, we will prove the existence of envy-free cake divisions, equilibrium game strategies and equilibrium prices in the economy, as well as discuss what brings them together under one heading.

This paper examines three …

Minerva 2016, The Honors College

Minerva

This issue of Minerva includes the article "Dear Bill and Betsy," documenting student gratitude for generous Honors donors Bill and Betsy Leitch; an interview with former professor and Honors Preceptor, Walter Macdougall; and an article on Honors student Emily Illingworth and her experiences in Honors. Other highlights include an article on distinguished Honors graduates Mark Pettegrow and Mark Haskell; and an article on the 2016 election as covered by UMaine Journalism students.

Improving The Performance Of Ice Sheet Modeling Through Embedded Simulation, Christopher G. Dufour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the impact of global climate change is a critical concern for society at large. One important piece of the climate puzzle is how large-scale ice sheets, such as those covering Greenland and Antarctica, respond to a warming climate. Given such ice sheets are under constant change, developing models that can accurately capture their dynamics represents a significant challenge to researchers. The problem, however, is properly capturing the dynamics of an ice sheet model requires a high model resolution and simulating these models is intractable even for state-of-the-art supercomputers.

This thesis presents a revolutionary approach to accurately capture ice sheet …

Social Ecological Food Systems: Sustainability Lessons From Maine Dairy Networks, Julia B. Mcguire

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Milk production has played an integral role in the culture, landscape, and economy of Maine’s agriculture. Maine dairy farmers have faced numerous sustainability challenges to economic, environmental, and social aspects of their industry. Like many other complex social ecological systems, the Maine dairy industry faces a gap between scientific knowledge and actionable management or policy. A cultural dichotomy exists between conventional and organic farming. Shifting the focus from this binary, metrics such as social capital may play a key role in solving sustainability issues. Difficulties arise in the governance of complex social ecological systems when the scales of assessment, management, …

Leveraging The Power Of Place In Citizen Science For Effective Conservation Decision Making, Gregory Newman, M. Chandler, M. Clyde, B. Mcgreavy, M. Haklay, H. Ballard, S. Gray, R. Scarpino, D. Mellor, J. Gallo

Publications

Many citizen science projects are place-based - built on in-person participation and motivated by local conservation. When done thoughtfully, this approach to citizen science can transform humans and their environment. Despite such possibilities, many projects struggle to meet decision-maker needs, generate useful data to inform decisions, and improve social-ecological resilience. Here, we define leveraging the ‘power of place’ in citizen science, and posit that doing this improves conservation decision making, increases participation, and improves community resilience. First, we explore ‘place’ and identify five place dimensions: social-ecological, narrative and name-based, knowledge-based, emotional and affective, and performative. We then thematically analyze 134 …

Planning For Sustainability In Small Municipalities: The Influence Of Interest Groups, Growth Patterns, And Institutional Characteristics, Vanessa R. Levesque, Kathleen P. Bell, Aram J K Calhoun

Publications

How and why small municipalities promote sustainability through planning efforts is poorly understood. We analyzed ordinances in 451 Maine municipalities and tested theories of policy adoption using regression analysis.We found that smaller communities do adopt programs that contribute to sustainability relevant to their scale and context. In line with the political market theory, we found that municipalities with strong environmental interests, higher growth, and more formal governments were more likely to adopt these policies. Consideration of context and capacity in planning for sustainability will help planners better identify and benefit from collaboration, training, and outreach opportunities.

Exploring The Human Body Space: A Geographical Information System Based Anatomical Atlas, Antonio Barbeito, Marco Painho, Pedro Cabral, João Goyri O'Neill

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Anatomical atlases allow mapping the anatomical structures of the human body. Early versions of these systems consisted of analogical representations with informative text and labeled images of the human body. With computer systems, digital versions emerged and the third and fourth dimensions were introduced. Consequently, these systems increased their efficiency, allowing more realistic visualizations with improved interactivity and functionality. The 4D atlases allow modeling changes over time on the structures represented. The anatomical atlases based on geographic information system (GIS) environments allow the creation of platforms with a high degree of interactivity and new tools to explore and analyze the …

A Context-Sensitive Conceptual Framework For Activity Modeling, Rahul Deb Das, Stephan Winter

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Human motion trajectories, however captured, provide a rich spatiotemporal data source for human activity recognition, and the rich literature in motion trajectory analysis provides the tools to bridge the gap between this data and its semantic interpretation. But activity is an ambiguous term across research communities. For example, in urban transport research activities are generally characterized around certain locations assuming the opportunities and resources are present in that location, and traveling happens between these locations for activity participation, i.e., travel is not an activity, rather a mean to overcome spatial constraints. In contrast, in human-computer interaction (HCI) research and in …

Μ-Shapes: Delineating Urban Neighborhoods Using Volunteered Geographic Information, Matt Aadland, Christopher Farah, Kevin Magee

Journal of Spatial Information Science

Urban neighborhoods are a unique form of geography in that their boundaries rely on a social definition rather than a well-defined physical or administrative boundary. Currently, geographic gazetteers capture little more than then the centroid of a neighborhood, limiting potential applications of the data. In this paper, we present µ-shapes, an algorithm that employs fuzzy-set theory to model neighborhood boundaries suitable for populating gazetteers using volunteered geographic information (VGI). The algorithm is evaluated using a reference dataset and VGI from the Map Kibera Project. A confusion matrix comparison between the reference dataset and µ-shape's output demonstrated high sensitivity and accuracy. …

Creating The 2011 Area Classification For Output Areas (2011 Oac), Christopher G. Gale, Alexander D. Singleton, Andrew G. Bates, Paul A. Longley

Journal of Spatial Information Science

This paper presents the methodology that has been used to create the 2011 Area Classification for Output Areas (2011 OAC). This extends a lineage of widely used public domain census-only geodemographic classifications in the UK. It provides an update to the successful 2001 OAC methodology, and summarizes the social and physical structure of neighborhoods using data from the 2011 UK Census. The results of a user engagement exercise that underpinned the creation of an updated methodology for the 2011 OAC are also presented. The 2011 OAC comprises 8 Supergroups, 26 Groups, and 76 Subgroups. An example of the results of …

Transdisciplinary Research Partnerships In Sustainability Science: An Examination Of Stakeholder Participation Preferences, Karen H. Beiluch, Kathleen P. Bell, Mario F. Teisl, Laura Lindenfeld, Jessica Leahy, Linda Silka

Publications

Sustaining coupled natural and human systems requires multiple forms of knowledge, experiences, values, and resources be brought into conversation to address sustainability challenges. Transdisciplinary research partnerships provide the opportunity to meet this requirement by bringing together interdisciplinary scientists with stakeholders in some or all stages of the knowledge production process. However, building partnerships to produce sustainability outcomes is a complex process requiring an understanding of the social psychological and contextual variables impacting partnerships. Here, we explore local government officials’ (LGOs’) preferences for participation in these partnerships. Using data from a statewide survey, we develop a theoretically and empirically derived model …

Moving Up The Waste Hierarchy In Maine: Learning From “Best Practice” State-Level Policy For Waste Reduction And Recovery, Cindy Isenhour, Travis Blackmer, Travis Wagner, Linda Silka, John Peckenham

Publications

As Maine residents look toward the future, it is increasingly clear that more sustainable waste and materials management solutions will be necessary. A recent stakeholder engagement process involving nearly 200 industry professionals, municipal representatives and citizen groups confirmed this point. As we move together toward a more sustainable waste management system, participants in the engagement process identified an outstanding need to learn more about policies options. This article responds to that need with a review of state level policies designed to reduce waste generation and increase material recovery rates. We find there are a wide variety of state-level policy tools …