Geography Commons^™

Assessing The Efficacy Of Modis Satellite-Derived Start Of Growing Season For Jurisdictional Determination Of East Texas Bottomland Hardwood Wetlands, Karen Malone, Hans Michael Williams, I-Kuai Hung, Daniel Unger

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Crucial to the determination of a jurisdictional wetland is the definition of “growing season”. Satellite imagery is being utilized in other ecological applications, but is lagging in wetland growing season determination. Both cost and temporal limitations historically have restrained use of satellite imagery in assessing the start up of the growing season. Multiple commercial satellites are available that provide high resolution imagery, but the cost are prohibitive for most studies. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) jointly manage the Landsat and the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite programs. Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper …

Geographic Information System Analysis Of Changing Demographic Patterns And Ethnic Restaurant Locations In Bowling Green, Kentucky, 1940-2005, Shwu-Jing Jeng

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The geography of food has been a popular subject for researchers and scholars who have explored the representative foods of a given region in reference to the area’s cultural identity. Food plays an important role in the development of individual cultures and civilization. Food consumption and dining habits usually reflect individuals’ location, cultural and individual identity, accessibility to food and heritage. United States is a country often called a “melting pot society.” Immigrants in the United States comprise over eight percent of the population, and various ethnic groups have reshaped American society with their unique cultures and foodways.

Driven in …

Islands In The Stream: Searching For Structure In The Aboriginal Fishery Along The Snake River, Travis Jay Pitkin

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The ethnographic literature describing indigenous groups that traditionally inhabited the course of the Snake River commonly cites anadromous fish as an integral and seasonal part of their subsistence pursuit. This study maps known fishing sites and associated landscape variables along the Snake River. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to analyze known fishing sites within the framework of surrounding physiographic features as they related to fishing strategy, salmon behavior, and decisions regarding fishing site selection. Examining the immediate stretch of adjacent river, relevant physiographic features are identified, inventoried, and their intervals recorded. The locations of Snake River fishing sites …

A General-Purpose Parallel Raster Processing Programming Library Test Application Using A Geographic Cellular Automata Model, Qingfeng Guan, Keith C. Clarke

Geography Program: Faculty Publications

A general-purpose parallel Raster Processing programming Library (pRPL) was developed and applied to speed up a commonly used Cellular Automaton model with known tractability limitations. The library is suitable for use by geographic information scientists with basic programming skills, but who lack knowledge and experience of parallel computing and programming. pRPL is a general-purpose programming library that provides generic support for raster processing, including local-scope, neighborhood-scope, regional-scope, and global-scope algorithms as long as they are parallelizable. The library also supports multi-layer algorithms. Besides the standard data domain decomposition methods, pRPL provides a spatially-adaptive quad-tree-based decomposition to produce more evenly distributed …

Random Forests Applied As A Soil Spatial Predictive Model In Arid Utah, Alexander Knell Stum

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Initial soil surveys are incomplete for large tracts of public land in the western USA. Digital soil mapping offers a quantitative approach as an alternative to traditional soil mapping. I sought to predict soil classes across an arid to semiarid watershed of western Utah by applying random forests (RF) and using environmental covariates derived from Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) and digital elevation models (DEM). Random forests are similar to classification and regression trees (CART). However, RF is doubly random. Many (e.g., 500) weak trees are grown (trained) independently because each tree is trained with a new randomly …

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 …

An Analysis Of The Conservation Importance Of Amazon Borderlands Using Geographic Information Systems, Ben Weinstein, David S. Salisbury, Kimberly Britt Klinker

Geography and the Environment Poster Presentations

At 6,000,000 km2, the Amazon basin is a critical hotspot of global biodiversity. The Amazon lowland is often incorrectly portrayed as a single homogenous unit, a vast and unpopulated region (Eva & Huber 2005). In actuality, nine countries comprise the Amazon, creating a mosaic of ecological, cultural and political boundaries (Manne 2003, Maffi 2005). Our aim is to test whether these Amazonian borderlands have greater conservation significance than the Amazonian interior. The political geography has profound effects on conservation as each country designates and maintains area differently (Eva & Huber 2005). Depending on management type, protected areas shelter ecosystems from …

A Test Of The Area Of Refuge Hypothesis In Indo-Pacific Marine Biogeography, Jonnell C. Sanciangco

Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the marine biogeographic patterns of species richness of the Indo-Pacific. One of these hypotheses suggests that available habitat area is the main predictor of species richness. This is the basis for the area of refuge hypothesis that attempts to explain the global maxima of species richness found in the Coral Triangle, the area encompassing mostly the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia. This species-area effect also has habitat heterogeneity as a potential component. The purpose of this study is to test the effects of habitat availability predictors, such as shallow water area and coastline length …

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 …

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 Hidden Markov Model For Earthquake Declustering, Zhengxiao Wu

Research Collection School of Economics

The hidden Markov model (HMM) and related algorithms provide a powerful framework for statistical inference on partially observed stochastic processes. HMMs have been successfully implemented in many disciplines, though not as widely applied as they should be in earthquake modeling. In this article, a simple HMM earthquake occurrence model is proposed. Its performance in declustering is compared with the epidemic-type aftershock sequence model, using a data set of the central and western regions of Japan. The earthquake clusters and the single earthquakes separated using our model show some interesting geophysical differences. In particular, the log-linear Gutenberg-Richter frequency-magnitude law (G-R law) …

Smart Density: A More Accurate Method Of Measuring Rural Residential Density For Health-Related Research, Peter M. Owens, Linda Titus-Ernstoff, Lucinda Gibson, Michael L. Beach, Sandy Beauregard, Madeline A. Dalton

Dartmouth Scholarship

Studies involving the built environment have typically relied on US Census data to measure residential density. However, census geographic units are often unsuited to health-related research, especially in rural areas where development is clustered and discontinuous. We evaluated the accuracy of both standard census methods and alternative GIS-based methods to measure rural density.

Research Poster: Gis And Remote Sensing Core Lab For Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research In Climate Change, Haroon Stephen, William J. Smith, Craig Palmer, Thomas C. Piechota

2010 Annual Nevada NSF EPSCoR Climate Change Conference

Research poster

The Changing Contexts And Transboundary Dynamics Of Reconciling Conservation And Development In The Amazon Borderlands, David S. Salisbury, Jorge Vela Alvarado, Cloe R. Franko

Geography and the Environment Poster Presentations

The 12,000 kilometers of international boundaries within the Amazon’s lowland rainforest biome form the axis of a borderland region shared by the nine states of Amazonia (Figure 1). These Amazon borderlands contain high concentrations of conservation units and indigenous territories to preserve the transboundary region’s rich ecological and cultural diversity (Figures 2 & 3). However, this biocultural diversity is increasingly threatened by advancing development frontiers and a growing global demand for Amazonian resources.

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.

The Use Of High Frequency Gps Data To Classify Main Behavioural Categories In A Przewalski’S Horse In The Mongolian Gobi, Petra Kaczensky, Klaus Huber

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

Behavioral observations of free ranging animals can provide important insight into many aspects of their biology but are not without problems. The recent development of GPS technology allows to remotely collect high precision location data at fixed intervals. We tested whether it is possible to classify the behavior of a Przewalski’s horse in the Mongolian Gobi into Resting, Grazing and Moving based on GPS locations collected at 15 minute intervals by comparing GPS data with direct observations. Although behavioral categories lasting for 15 minutes could by fairly reliably separated based on the distances covered between successive fixes, almost half the …

United States Land Cover Land Use Change, Albedo And Radiative Forcing: Past And Potential Climate Implications, Christopher A. Barnes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Land Cover Land Use (LCLU) change affects Earth surface properties including albedo that impose a radiative forcing on the climate. Recent spatially explicit satellite derived contemporary LCLU, albedo, and projected LCLU data are used to study the impact of LCLU change from 1973 to 2000, and from 2000 to 2050, on albedo and surface radiative forcing for the conterminous United States. Four research hypotheses concerned with past and potential future climate implications of LCLU change are addressed. The research described in this dissertation makes an important contribution to advancing understanding of the role of LCLU change on the climate system, …

Tracking Bare Sand Mobilization Arising From Landscape Manipulations In The Grasslands Destabilization Experiment (Gdex) In The Nebraska Sandhills Using Imaging Spectroscopy, Benjamin Helder

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Grassland Destabilization Experiment (GDEX) is a landscape scale manipulative experiment initiated in 2004 in the Nebraska Sandhills to evaluate changes in surface properties following the abrupt loss of stabilizing vegetation. The GDEX features five treatments allocated among ten plots of 120 m in diameter (1.13 ha). The Aggressive Bare Sand protocol included chemical defoliation and subsequent shallow disking and raking in 2004 to devegetate the plot with periodic physical disturbance to maintain bare sand. The Long Term Disturbance (Press) protocol includes an initial chemical defoliation in May 2005 and seasonal spring reapplications, but no physical disturbance. Short Term Disturbance …

Combining A Dispersal Model With Network Theory To Assess Habitat Connectivity, Todd R. Lookingbill, Robert H. Gardner, Joseph R. Ferrari, Cherry E. Keller

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Assessing the potential for threatened species to persist and spread within fragmented landscapes requires the identification of core areas that can sustain resident populations and dispersal corridors that can link these core areas with isolated patches of remnant habitat. We developed a set of GIS tools, simulation methods, and network analysis procedures to assess potential landscape connectivity for the Delmarva fox squirrel (DFS; Sciurus niger cinereus), an endangered species inhabiting forested areas on the Delmarva Peninsula, USA. Information on the DFS’s life history and dispersal characteristics, together with data on the composition and configuration of land cover on the peninsula, …

Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities In Northeast Ohio, Mark Salling, Joseph Ahern

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Racial/Ethnic Health Disparities in Northeast Ohio, Planning & Action, The Center for Community Solutions, Vol. 63, No. 4 (July), 2010, pp. 12-15.

Putting Artists On The Map: A Five Part Study Of Greater Cleveland Artists' Location Decisions - Part 1: Summary Report, Mark Salling, Gregory Soltis, Charles Post, Sharon Bliss, Ellen Cyran

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

A series of reports detailing the residential and work space location preferences of Cuyahoga county's artists.

Census 2010 And Human Services And Community Development, Mark Salling, Jenita Mcgowan

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Census 2010 and Human Services and Community Development, Planning & Action, The Center for Community Solutions, Vol. 63, No. 2 (March), 2010, pp 1-4.

Assessing The Vertical Accuracy Of Arkansas Five-Meter Digital Elevation Model For Different Physiographic Regions, Robert C. Weih Jr.

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) represent the elevation of the earth’s surface. Scientists and decision makers have used DEMs to address questions relating to the earth’s landscape. This study assessed the vertical accuracy of Arkansas 5-meter raster DEM dataset produced in 2006 photogrammetrically, for three physiographic regions that represented a variation of elevations. The vertical accuracy of the DEM datasets was assessed by comparing their elevations to elevations collected using a surveying carrier phase Global Position System (GPS). To make comparisons between physiographic regions, paired t-tests using absolute elevation value difference and elevation difference along with the Absolute Mean Range Value …

Social Disorganization And The Spatial Distribution Of Homicides In El Paso, Nicholas Andrew Emerick

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Recent research on social disorganization theory shows general support for economic and stability measures of disorganization, but spatial dispersions and the disaggregation of homicides of crime have not been fully examined. 1985-1995 homicide data from the El Paso Police Department's detective logs and US Census data are combined to explore social disorganization in El Paso, the impact of ports of entry, and how motive interacts with social disorganization. Findings for total homicides in El Paso support existing social disorganization research. Motive specific homicides displayed distinct relationships to the disorganization measures. The concentrations of homicides near ports of entry can be …

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 …

Urban Development Under Extreme Hydrologic And Weather Conditions For El Paso-Juárez: Recommendations Resulting From Hydrologic Modeling, Gis, And Remote Sensing Analyses, Alberto Barud-Zubillaga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

During the 2006 El Paso-Juárez flood there were many concerns regarding the capability of the existing stormwater system to handle 50- and 100-year flood events in El Paso, Texas and Juárez, Mexico area. Moreover in 2008, a considerable wet year from the normal 223 mm of annual precipitation for El Paso demonstrated that the area could very well received large amounts of precipitation at localized areas in short periods of time, representing a great flood threat to residents living in areas prone to flood. Some climate change projections for the area are exactly what had occurred over the last two …

The Study Of Radio Frequency Interference (Rfi) For Radio Astronomy In Some Remote Locations In Peninsular Malaysia., Syed Bahari Ramadzan Syed Adnan

Student Works (2010-2019)

Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) is the main parameter to find the best site for radio astronomy research development. The increasing levels of RFI will pose a big problem for researchers in the radio astronomy field. The radio astronomers are encouraged to choose sites as free as possible from interference. In this research we aimed to survey the RFI at frequency 1 MHz-2000MHz to look the overview of the RFI profile and at frequency 1419 MHz-1421 MHz to monitor the RFI profile at Hydrogen line frequency (1420.4 MHz). We chose Peninsular Malaysia as the research area for RFI observation. We have …

Results Of New Petrologic And Remote Sensing Studies In The Big Bend Region, Stevan Christian Benker

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The initial section of this manuscript involves the South Rim Formation, a series of 32.2-32 Ma comenditic quartz trachytic-rhyolitic volcanics and associated intrusives, erupted and was emplaced in Big Bend National Park, Texas. Magmatic parameters have only been interpreted for one of the two diverse petrogenetic suites comprising this formation. Here, new mineralogic data for the South Rim Formation rocks are presented. Magmatic parameters interpreted from these data assist in deciphering lithospheric characteristics during the mid-Tertiary.

Results indicate low temperatures (< 750 °C), reduced conditions (generally below the FMQ buffer), and low pressures (≤ 100 MPa) associated with South Rim Formation magmatism with slight conditional differences between the two suites. Newly discovered fayalite microphenocrysts allowed determination of oxygen fugacity values (between -0.14 and -0.25 ΔFMQ over temperature ranges of 680-700 °C), via mineral equilibria based QUILF95 calculations, for Emory Peak Suite.

Petrologic information is correlated with structural evidence from Trans-Pecos Texas and adjacent regions to evaluate debated timing of tectonic …