Geography Commons^™

The Ohio Gis Network: Stage 2 1996 Investment Fund Grant First Year Progress Report To The Ohio Board Of Regents (Ohio Gis Network), Mark Salling

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Ohio Geographic Information Systems Network (Ohio GIS-Net) is an innovative consortium of Ohio’s urban and rural universities. The consortium is building a center of excellence where state-of-the-art geographic information systems (GIS) technology is applied to a research agenda that is critical to Ohio's economic development and central to research issues in policy sciences, civil engineering, public administration, economics and the environmental, urban and regional sciences. This cutting edge technology is an essential component of the basic research infrastructure of universities. It is also a critical resource in state and local economic development efforts, building and maintaining public infrastructure, and …

Integrating Gis And Remote Sensing With Ecosystem Research, Suzanne Wiley, Robert C. Weih Jr.

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

In the Phase II Ecosystem Management Research Program in the Ouachita and Ozark National Forests, an interdisciplinary group of scientists are evaluating the effects and trade-offs of partial cutting methods in a replicated stand level study. Information from approximately 2,000 plots is being collected by more than fifty researchers during this five-year project with plans to continue data collection long term. To evaluate the effects of different management strategies and their interactions with forest resources, data must be brought into a common format and made available to all researchers. To this end, a data support system was developed which utilizes …

Socio-Economic Factors And The Journey To Work: A Case Study Of At&T Gis Employees, Thomas A. Hammers

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Individuals who must commute to work are often concerned with the spatial separation of their home and job site. In many of these cases the socio-economic characteristics of these individual's lives play an important part in deciding how long this commute is, in terms of both time and distance. The following study seeks to identify the relationships between several selected socio-economic characteristics and the journey to work distances for employees at AT&T GIS. The factors being examined in this study are age, education level, number of dependents, income, length of service to the company, occupation type and gender. Significant differences …

Regional Variation In Temperature Humidity Index For Poultry Housing, Richard S. Gates, Hanzhong Zhang, Donald G. Colliver, Douglas G. Overhults

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

A building thermal model was used to compute hourly values of temperature humidity index (THI) for a broiler house with and without an evaporative misting system. Hourly summer time weather data for 238 U.S.A. locations covering 30 years were used to develop extreme occurrences of THI. Results were incorporated into a Geographical Information System (GIS) database to create isolines of THI and percentage of hours exceeding a heat stress threshold. Regional variations in misting as a suitable cooling technique are presented in terms of hours reduction in annual heat stress. The technique may be used for assisting in management decisions …

Maps As A Visual Language: A Chinese Perspective, Zhaoyuan Li

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

One primary goal of cartographic research is to improve cartographic communication. Psychophysical and cognitive research has assisted our understanding of the map use process. The present study is from a perspective of maps as a visual language. This study hypothesizes that (1) the map symbol system constitutes a visual ideographic language and (2) cartographic communication may be improved by applying the methods of teaching visual ideographic languages as a second language. Chinese script originated in primitive drawings of concrete things--pictographs--and ideographs. These became stylized and combined, and were expanded greatly in number. Although the characters came to include phonetic symbols, …

A Test Of The Multiquadric Method Of Interpolation Using Drumlin Data From The Lunenburg, Nova Scotia And Peterborough, Ontario, Fields, Catherine Treena Conrad

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The multiquadric method of interpolation has been used to generate surfaces from irregularly distributed points of geophysical data, and has proven to be a successful means of mapping such data. There are four stages involved in the implementation of the method (Saunderson, 1994): (1) solution of a system of simultaneous, linear equations; (2) interpolation of new z values, for a number of locations within the x,y area of an initial sample space of points; (3) plots of all the z values at their respective locations, using colour graphics instead of contouring; and (4) plots of the partial derivatives of z …

Classification System For The Natural Vegetation Of Arkansas, Thomas L. Foti, Martin Blaney, Xiaojun Li, Kimberly G. Smith

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

We present a hierarchical classification system for existing natural vegetation of Arkansas based on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) system. It incorporates aspects of systems in use by the Nature Conservancy, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, Society of American Foresters, and United States Forest Service, as well as data on potential vegetation from maps by E.E. Dale and A.W. Kuchler. A total of 18 physiognomic cover types are recognized for natural terrestrial cover, 6 for palustrine cover, and 4 each for lacustrine cover and riverine cover. Over 200 community types are recognized, …

A Test Of The Multiquadric Technique Of Interpolation With An Application To Fluid Speeds In A River (Ontario), James Patrick Dozois

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Hardy's (1971) technique of interpolation was tested using fluid speed data from Big Otter Creek, a gravel bed stream, in South-Western Ontario. Fourteen cross-sections were selected from a 500 m-long reach of the river. Each cross-section was divided into 10 verticals. Fluid speed was sampled as different positions in these verticals starting at 0.025 m off the channel bed using an electromagnetic current metre. Bed roughness at each cross-section was determined by collecting samples of the bed material and by measuring the long, intermediate and short axes of particles at the 10 verticals. To test the multiquadric technique of interpolation, …

Modelling Avian Distributions Of The Navarrese Region In Northern Spain With A Geographic Information System, Samuel Soret-Garcia

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

GIS (Geographic information Systems) technology was used for identifying relations between environmental characteristics and the breeding distributions of nine avian species of the Navarrese region in northern Spain. Data overlays of multiple GIS layers derived the explanatory variables for modelling the breeding distributions from logistic regressions. A spatial autocorrelation analysis was conducted to characterize the distribution patterns and to incorporate spatial factors (neighborhood effects) into their analysis.

All nine patterns analyzed exhibited a high level of spatial autocorrelation. Accordingly, the basic hypothesis of spatial randomness was rejected in favor of spatial clustering for the sample data. The breeding distributions strongly …

Voronoi Diagrams As A Visualization Technique For Spatial Autocorrelation In Point Data Sets, Martin A. Cassel

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis explores a new way of visualizing spatial autocorrelation in a GIS environment. It explores some relationships between spatial autocorrelation models, spatial interaction models and weighted Voronoi diagrams. Since the weighted Voronoi diagram is equivalent to a form of spatial interaction models, any GIS with the ability to generate a gravity model can be utilized to perform this new technique of exploratory spatial data analysis. This thesis demonstrates how the cross product form of‘ spatial autocorrelation models like the Geary and the Moran statistics is equivalent to the form of a multiplicatively weighted distance utilized in the definition of …

Theoretical And Empirical Examinations Of Spatial Scale And Aggregation Effects On The Principal Axis Factoring Technique When The Observations Are Areal Units, Len Michael Hunt

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Previous assessments of factor analytic invariance to scale and aggregation effects have led to discrepant results. To determine the true effects, this study comprehensively examines the influence of scale and aggregation on factorial ecologies. This investigation is completed for three data sets, four scales, and thirty aggregations at each scale. Of these three data sets, two are artificial. These two data sets differ only by levels of spatial autocorrelations as one data set contains independent areal unit observations while the other set includes modest positive spatial autocorrelations. The third data set consists of variables from the 1986 Saskatoon enumeration areas. …

Multiple Hazard Research In Kananaskis Country, Alberta: A Geographical Information System Approach, Alastair J. Small

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This research is concerned with the application of Geographical Information System techniques to multiple hazard research in Kananaskis Country Recreation Area, southern Alberta. The study is focused on Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, a high mountain environment in the front range Rockies. Increasing human activity in the area is putting more and more people at risk from natural hazards, thus the need for more efficient land use planning is evident. This research attempts to map and predict avalanche, forest fire, rockslide/rockfall, and flood hazard occurrence, and estimate the degree of risk associated with each. Data relating to the physical characteristics and …

An Overview Of Geographic Information Systems, Rodney Jones

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

Gis Address-Matching And Transportation Analysis, James D. Orrell

Dissertations and Theses

Geographic Information System (GIS) address-matching combined with other GIS processing offers new analytical opportunities in the area of transportation planning and analysis. Address-matching, an automated method for generating geographically-referenced (geocoded) point locations on a map from common tabular databases, can facilitate transportation analysis by providing a planning tool based on individual rather than aggregated spatial distributions more common to transportation issues.

This thesis presents a case study in which GIS address-matching was I applied to a transportation problem at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon. The transportation problem at OHSU is common to major employment centers in urban …

The Impact Of Teaching Cartographic Lexicon And Of Geographic Experience On Map Use, James Cuame Saku

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Although maps are often thought to be easily understood, for many people they are not. Research into how best to make the map more useful to the user has taken different forms including applied psychology. While some researchers focus on the map maker, others are concentrating on the map user. In this study, attention is focused on the map user. Specifically, the study tries to look at how “years of geographic instruction” and teaching of “geographic lexicons” can enhance the performance of map use activities. Since maps are more associated with geographers, it is believed that they are in a …

Identifying Directional Properties Of Spatial Point Patterns An Investigation Of Two Methods, Rolf Puchtinger

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Analyses of spatial point patterns tend to focus on deviations from randomness by either clustering or regularity. One assumption of these analyses implies that the point generating process is equal in all directions. However, the association of the location of points with a process biased in one or more directions is widely neglected due to a lack of appropriate statistical procedures. This is surprising, since patterns generated by directional processes are important in Geography. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the blunt-triangle method and the third moment method for their potential of identifying directionality in spatial point patterns. …

Geographic Information Systems: Research Issues, Kenneth Dueker

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

GIS research has evolved by trial and error. We need to think more systematically about GIS research. New technology and societal needs are important determinants of issues that govern GIS research strategies. URISA has a stake in fostering GIS research, particularly research that is appliications driven.

Postfire Vegetation Change Detection Using Landsat Mss And Tm Data, Mark Edward Jakubauskas

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Three dates of Landsat digital data were classified and then analyzed using a geographic information system (GIS). The intent of this study was to determine if differences in burn severity relate to later vegetative cover within a northern pines forest. The May 5, 1980, Mack Lake Fire in the Huron National Forest, Michigan, was selected as the study site for this research. This wildfire burned over 9000 hectares of jack pine, red pine, and mixed deciduous forest within a six-hour period. Landsat MSS data from June 1973 and TM data from October 1982 were classified using an unsupervised approach to …

Holocene Fluctuations Of The Coe Glacier, Mount Hood, Oregon, Karl Douglas Lillquist

Dissertations and Theses

Numerous moraines front the Coe Glacier on the north side of Mount Hood, Oregon. These moraines were identified and dated using a multiple methodology approach in order to establish a chronology for the advances and stillstands of the Coe Glacier. This chronology was compared to chronologies established for other glaciers on Mount Hood, North Sister, Mount Rainier and Mount Baker as well as glaciers in Scandinavia. The chronology was also compared to a long term temperature record from Longmire, Washington.

The maximum identified extent of the pre-Little Ice Age Coe Glacier was indicated by moraines located at an elevation of …

Abandoned Shipwrecks On Missouri River Channel Maps Of 1879 And 1954 -Washington To Howard Section, Mile 68.0 To 36.0, U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers

Regular and Plat Maps

Abandoned Shipwrecks on Missouri River Channel Maps of 1879 and 1954 -Washington to Howard Section, Mile 68.0 to 36.0

Abandoned Shipwrecks On Missouri River Channel Maps Of 1879 And 1954 -Howard To Mouth Section Mile 36 To Mouth, U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers

Regular and Plat Maps

Abandoned Shipwrecks on Missouri River Channel Maps of 1879 and 1954 -Howard to Mouth Section Mile 36 to Mouth

Modeling Cadastral Spatial Relationships Using An Object-Oriented Information Structure, Daniel Kjerne

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis identifies a problem in the current practice for storage of locational data of entities in the cadastral layer of a land information system (LIS), and presents as a solution an information model that uses an object-oriented paradigm.

A User's Manual For: A Clear Sky Solar Radiation Generator For The Personal Computer, Keith R. Mountain, Richard Lycan

Occasional Papers in Geography

Occasional Papers in Geography Publication No. 3

This program is primarily designed as an interactive instructional aid for students concerned with select aspects of shortwave radiation climatology. On the basis of user supplied temporal and geographic information the algorithm will produce instantaneous values of diffuse, direct, global, reflected, net shortwave and extraterrestrial radiation. Daily totals are also generated by numerical approximation of the area under the curve as described by each of these quantities. In addition, an optional routine to compute the instantaneous values of solar elevations and azimuths is included to further define the nature of astronomical relationships for …

A Model For Assessing The Visual Resources Of River Basins As An Aid To Making Landuse Planning Decisions, Thomas J. Nieman, Diane S. Meshako, David Walters, Molly M. Davis, Cindy C. Elliot

KWRRI Research Reports

The visual quality of a river basin and its associated properties can be identified, evaluated and integrated into the landscape planning process. The model developed provides a quantitative methodology for determining visual quality on the basis of available Geographic Information System factors. These factors are utilized to develop the preference attributes, COLOR, FORM, TEXTURE and LINE, which are associated with the assessment of visual quality. The preference attributes are then combined through a decision making process into a continuum of DISTINCTIVE, GOOD, AVERAGE and MINIMAL visual quality and is expressed digitally in map format. By providing visual quality information in …

Modeling Location For Cadastral Maps Using An Object-Oriented Computer Language, Daniel Kjerne

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

The challenge to designers of multipurpose computer-aided land information systems is to capture enough of the "deep structure" of the problem domain to enable a system to answer user questions and requests in a satisfactory way. Criteria defining "satisfactory" in each case must include considerations of accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and cost. These considerations, when applied to the location in space of parcel boundaries and property corners, present unusual difficulties. This is in large measure due to the fact that important elements of the field measurement process, and the determination of location based on what are essentially logical {legal) abstractions, are …

Report On Feasibility Of A Geographic Information System For The Central City Citizen Planning Committees, Kenneth Dueker, George Mason

Center for Urban Studies Publications and Reports

In September 1984 PSU was contracted to demonstrate the utility of an interactive graphic database system. A project was done using LANDTRAK* to determine which records from the tax roll were inside the Central City Planning Area. This information provides a starting point for o parcel based information system for the Central City Planning Project. This report consists of a design for a geographic information system for the Central City Planning Area that may serve as a prototype for a broader geographic information system for the City.

An Investigation Of Land Prices And Related Factors In Wellington County From 1961–71, Janet Eluned Morris

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Factors affecting land prices in the open countryside of Wellington County from 1961–71 are investigated in this study. Land use was the major determinant of price and the significance of location, size and time varied according to land use. Soil had no effect on land prices. These factors were poor predictors of price which suggested that formation of land prices was a complicated process. The fragmentation of rural land into residential parcels from 1966–1969, combined with favourable economic conditions caused dramatic price increases for residential land and smaller increases in farm land and farm prices. The amount of rural land …

Handbook Of Remote Sensing Imagery Of Connecticut, Daniel L. Civco, William C. Kennard, Michael Wm. Lefor

Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Educational Ability On Cognitive Mapping Ability: A Study Of School Children In Halifax, Nova Scotia, Gilbert Ronald Oikle

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this thesis is to find how a child’s cognitive abilities affect his cognitive map. Most of the earlier studies concentrated on socio-economic factors as the main factors affecting cognitive mapping, either ignoring cognitive ability or giving it minor consideration. This study surveyed a group of children ages 12 to 15 years in a Junior High School in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The study revealed that cognitive ability significantly affected the forms of the cognitive maps of the students, but was not a significant factor in influencing the elements placed on the cognitive maps. Children of high achievement and …

Stochastic Models In Circuit Network Growth, John D. Radke

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

To describe the spatial pattern of objects or events, and to explain that pattern by way of the causal mechanisms which have generated it, has been one of the traditional aims of geographical research (Harvey, 1967). One method that can be employed for such descriptions and explanations is network analysis.

A network is a meshed fabric of intersecting lines (Kansky, 1963). A more appropriate definition for geographers would be, a set of geographic elements interconnected into a system by a number of relationships (Kansky, 1963). Network analysis is an examination of a complete network, its elements and their relationships. Networks …