Geography Commons^™

Use Of Distance Weighted Metrics To Investigate Landscape-Stream Temperature Relationships Across Different Temporal Scales, Eric Craig Watson

Dissertations and Theses

Stream ecosystems have experienced significant negative impacts from land use, resource exploitation, and urban development. Statistical models allow researchers to explore the relationships between these landscape variables and stream conditions. Weighting the relevant landscape variables based on hydrologically defined distances offers a potential method of increasing the predictive capacity of statistical models. Using observations from three grouped watersheds in the Portland Metro Area (n=66), I have explored the use of three different weighting schemes against the standard method of taking an areal average. These four different model groups were applied to four stream temperature metrics: mean seven-day moving average maximum …

Passive Visual Analytics Of Social Media Data For Detection Of Unusual Events, Kush Rustagi, Junghoon Chae

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Now that social media sites have gained substantial traction, huge amounts of un-analyzed valuable data are being generated. Posts containing images and text have spatiotemporal data attached as well, having immense value for increasing situational awareness of local events, providing insights for investigations and understanding the extent of incidents, their severity, and consequences, as well as their time-evolving nature. However, the large volume of unstructured social media data hinders exploration and examination. To analyze such social media data, the S.M.A.R.T system provides the analyst with an interactive visual spatiotemporal analysis and spatial decision support environment that assists in evacuation planning …

A Comparison Of Tropical Rainforest Phenology Retrieved From Geostationary (Seviri) And Polar-Orbiting (Modis) Sensors Across The Congo Basin, Dong Yan, Xiaoyang Zhang, Yunyue Yu, Wei Guo

GSCE Faculty Publications

The seasonal and interannual dynamics of tropical rainforests play a critical role in the global carbon cycle and climate change. This paper retrieved and compared land surface phenology from observations acquired by the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) onboard geostationary satellites and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on polar-orbiting satellites over the Congo Basin. To achieve this,we first retrieved canopy greenness cycles (CGCs) and their transition timing from two-band enhanced vegetation index (EVI2) derived from SEVIRI and MODIS data between 2006 and 2013.We then assessed the influences of SEVIRI and MODIS data quality on the reconstruction of …

The Monadnock Volume 58, August 2016, Clark University Geographical Society

The Monadnock (Clark Geographical Society)

Volume 58 of The Monadnock. The Monadnock was the alumni magazine of the Clark University Geographical Society (1927-1985) (2014-present).

An Extendable Visualization And User Interface Design For Time-Varying Multivariate Geoscience Data, Yanfu Zhou

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Geoscience data has unique and complex data structures, and its visualization has been challenging due to a lack of effective data models and visual representations to tackle the heterogeneity of geoscience data. In today’s big data era, the needs of visualizing geoscience data become urgent, especially driven by its potential value to human societies, such as environmental disaster prediction, urban growth simulation, and so on. In this thesis, I created a novel geoscience data visualization framework and applied interface automata theory to geoscience data visualization tasks. The framework can support heterogeneous geoscience data and facilitate data operations. The interface automata …

The Influence Of The Electric Supply Industry On Economic Growth In Less Developed Countries, Edward Richard Bee

Dissertations

This study measures the impact that electrical outages have on manufacturing production in 135 less developed countries using stochastic frontier analysis and data from World Bank’s Investment Climate surveys. Outages of electricity, for firms with and without backup power sources, are the most frequently cited constraint on manufacturing growth in these surveys.

Outages are shown to reduce output below the production frontier by almost five percent in Africa and by a lower percentage in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa. Production response to outages is quadratic in form. Outages also increase labor cost, reduce exports …

Tornado Density And Return Periods In The Southeastern United States: Communicating Risk And Vulnerability At The Regional And State Levels, Michelle Bradburn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tornado intensity and impacts vary drastically across space, thus spatial and statistical analyses were used to identify patterns of tornado severity in the Southeastern United States and to assess the vulnerability and estimated recurrence of tornadic activity. Records from the Storm Prediction Center's tornado database (1950-2014) were used to estimate kernel density to identify areas of high and low tornado frequency at both the regional- and state-scales. Return periods (2-year, 5-year, 10-year, 25-year, 50-year, and 100-year) were calculated at both scales as well using a composite score that included EF-scale magnitude, injury counts, and fatality counts. Results showed that the …

Lidar-Assisted Extraction Of Old Growth Baldcypress Stands Along The Black River Of North Carolina, Weston Pierce Murch

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The remnants of ancient baldcypress forests continue to grow across the Southeastern United States. These long lived trees are invaluable for biodiversity along riverine ecosystems, provide habitat to a myriad of animal species, and augment the proxy climate record for North America. While extensive logging of the areas along the Black River in North Carolina has mostly decimated ancient forests of many species including the baldcypress, conservation efforts from The Nature Conservancy and other partners are under way. In order to more efficiently find and study these enduring stands of baldcypress, some of which are estimated to be more than …

Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Point Patterns, Abdul-Nasah Soale

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, the basic tools of spatial statistics and time series analysis are applied to the case study of the earthquakes in a certain geographical region and time frame. Then some of the existing methods for joint analysis of time and space are described and applied. Finally, additional research questions about the spatial-temporal distribution of the earthquakes are posed and explored using statistical plots and models. The focus in the last section is in the relationship between number of events per year and maximum magnitude and its effect on how clustered the spatial distribution is and the relationship between …

Elevation Data And Mapping Updates, Doug Marcy

July 29, 2016: The Latest in Sea Level Rise Science

No abstract provided.

Street Level Predictive Modeling Of Nuisance Flooding In Norfolk, Va, Jon Derek Loftis, Harry V. Wang, David R. Forrest, William 'Skip' A. Stiles

July 29, 2016: The Latest in Sea Level Rise Science

No abstract provided.

Land Cover Data For The Mississippi-Alabama Barrier Islands, 2010-2011 Arcgis V10.3 Geodatabase, Gregory A. Carter, Carlton P. Anderson, Kelly L. Lucas, Nathan L. Hopper

Land Cover Data for the Mississippi-Alabama Barrier Islands, 2010-2011

Land cover on the Mississippi-Alabama barrier islands was surveyed in 2010-2011 as part of continuing research on island geomorphic and vegetation dynamics following the 2005 impact of Hurricane Katrina. Results of the survey include sub-meter GPS location, a listing of dominant vegetation species and field photographs recorded at 375 sampling locations distributed among Cat, West Ship, East Ship, Horn, Sand, Petit Bois and West Dauphin Islands. The survey was conducted in a period of intensive remote sensing data acquisition over the northern Gulf of Mexico by federal, state and commercial organizations in response to the 2010 Macondo Well (Deepwater Horizon) …

Assessment Of A Mycorrhizal Fungi Application To Treat Stormwater In An Urban Bioswale, Alaina Diane Melville

Dissertations and Theses

This study assessed the effect of an application of mycorrhizal fungi to stormwater filter media on urban bioswale soil and stormwater in an infiltration-based bioswale aged 20 years with established vegetation. The study tested the use of commercially available general purpose biotic soil blend PermaMatrix^® BSP Foundation as a treatment to enhance Earthlite^™ stormwater filter media amelioration of zinc, copper, and phosphorus in an ecologically engineered structure designed to collect and infiltrate urban stormwater runoff before it entered the nearby Willamette River.

These results show that the application of PermaMatrix^® BSP Foundation biotic soil amendment to Earthlite …

Introduction To Gis Using Open Source Software, 7th Ed, Frank Donnelly

Open Educational Resources

This tutorial was created to accompany the GIS Practicum, a day-long workshop offered by the Newman Library at Baruch College CUNY that introduces participants to geographic information systems (GIS) using the open source software QGIS. The practicum introduces GIS as a concept for envisioning information and as a tool for conducting geographic analyses and creating maps. Participants learn how to navigate a GIS interface, how to prepare layers and conduct a basic geographic analysis, and how to create thematic maps. This tutorial was written using QGIS version 2.14 "Essen", a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) desktop GIS software package.

The Effect Of Home Range Estimation Techniques On Habitat Use Analysis, Brendon Quinton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The term “home range” refers to the area in which an animal spends most of its time during everyday activities. This study examined the effects of four different home range estimation techniques on the proportions of habitats located therein. The study utilized a point dataset collected for twenty individual Florida Black Bears (Ursus americanus floridanus), occurring in five different areas throughout the state of Florida. Each dataset was used to create home ranges using the following techniques: (1) Minimum Convex Polygon, (2) Kernel Density Estimation, (3) Characteristic Hull Polygon, and (4) Time-Geographic Density Estimation, a new home range …

The Influences Of Drought And Land-Cover Conversion On Inter-Annual Variation Of Npp In The Three-North Shelterbelt Program Zone Of China Based On Modis Data, Dailiang Peng, Chaoyang Wu, Bing Zhang, Alfredo Huete, Xiaoyang Zhang, Rui Sun, Liping Lei, Wenjing Huang, Liangyun Liu, Xinjie Liu, Jun Li, Shezhou Luo, Bin Fang

GSCE Faculty Publications

Terrestrial ecosystems greatly contribute to carbon (C) emission reduction targets through photosynthetic C uptake.Net primary production (NPP) represents the amount of atmospheric C fixed by plants and accumulated as biomass. The Three-North Shelterbelt Program (TNSP) zone accounts for more than 40% of China’s landmass. This zone has been the scene of several large-scale ecological restoration efforts since the late 1990s, and has witnessed significant changes in climate and human activities.Assessing the relative roles of different causal factors on NPP variability in TNSP zone is very important for establishing reasonable local policies to realize the emission reduction targets for central government. …

Mineralogical Transformations And Soil Development In Shale Across A Latitudinal Climosequence, Ashlee L.D. Dere, Timothy S. White, Richard H. April, Susan L. Brantley

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

To investigate factors controlling soil formation, we established a climosequence as part of the Susquehanna-Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory (SSHCZO) in central Pennsylvania, USA. Sites were located on organic matter-poor, iron-rich Silurian-aged shale in Wales, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Puerto Rico, although this last site is underlain by a younger shale. Across the climosequence, mean annual temperature (MAT) increases from 7 to 24°C and mean annual precipitation (MAP) ranges from 100 to 250 cm. Variations in soil characteristics along the climosequence, including depth, morphology, particle-size distribution, geochemistry, and bulk and clay mineralogy, were characterized to investigate the role of …

The Influence Of Floodplain Restoration On Flow And Sediment Dynamics In An Urban River, Sangaralingam Ahilan, Mingfu Guan, Andrew Sleigh, Nigel G. Wright, Heejun Chang

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

A study of floodplain sedimentation on a recently restored floodplain is presented. This study uses a two-dimensional hydro-morphodynamic model for predicting flow and suspended-sediment dynamics in the downstream of Johnson Creek, the East Lents reach, where the bank of the river has been reconfigured to reconnect to a restored floodplain on a 0.26 km² (26-ha) site. The simulation scenarios include 10-, 50-, 100- and 500-year event-based deposition modelling of flood events and long-term modelling using the 64 historical flood events between 1941 and 2014. Simulation results showed that the restored floodplain significantly attenuates the upstream flood peak by up …

Identification Of Woodland Vernal Pools With Seasonal Change Palsar Data For Habitat Conservation, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, Yu Man Lee, Michael Battaglia, Sarah L. Endres, Zachary Laubach, Kirk Scarbrough

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Woodland vernal pools are important, small, cryptic, ephemeral wetland ecosystems that are vulnerable to a changing climate and anthropogenic influences. To conserve woodland vernal pools for the state of Michigan USA, vernal pool detection and mapping methods were sought that would be efficient, cost-effective, repeatable and accurate. Satellite-based L-band radar data from the high (10 m) resolution Japanese ALOS PALSAR sensor were evaluated for suitability in vernal pool detection beneath forest canopies. In a two phase study, potential vernal pool (PVP) detection was first assessed with unsupervised PALSAR (LHH) two season change detection (spring when flooded—summer when dry) and validated …

Wildfire Risk As A Socioecological Pathology, A. Paige Fischer, Thomas A. Spies, Toddi A. Steelman, Cassandra Moseley, Bart R. Johnson, John D. Bailey, Alan A. Ager, Patrick Bourgeron, Susan Charnley, Brandon M. Collins, Jeffrey D. Kline, Jessica E. Leahy, Jeremy S. Littell, James D. A. Millington, Max Nielsen-Pincus, Christine S. Olsen, Travis B. Paveglio, Christopher I. Roos, Michelle M. Steen-Adams, Forrest R. Stevens, Jelena Vukomanovic, Eric M. White, David Bowman

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Wildfire risk in temperate forests has become a nearly intractable problem that can be characterized as a socioecological “pathology”: that is, a set of complex and problematic interactions among social and ecological systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Assessments of wildfire risk could benefit from recognizing and accounting for these interactions in terms of socioecological systems, also known as coupled natural and human systems (CNHS). We characterize the primary social and ecological dimensions of the wildfire risk pathology, paying particular attention to the governance system around wildfire risk, and suggest strategies to mitigate the pathology through innovative planning approaches, …

Applications Of Satellite Geodesy In Environmental And Climate Change, Qian Yang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Satellite geodesy plays an important role in earth observation. This dissertation presents three applications of satellite geodesy in environmental and climate change. Three satellite geodesy techniques are used: high-precision Global Positioning System (GPS), the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). In the first study, I use coastal uplift observed by GPS to study the annual changes in mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet. The data show both spatial and temporal variations of coastal ice mass loss and suggest that a combination of warm atmospheric and oceanic condition drove these variations. In the second …

Factors Driving The Concentration Of Ephemeral Flow, Gretchen Anne Guyer

Dissertations and Theses

In spite of decades of related research, stream channel initiation is still not well understood. Current theories of channel initiation are grounded in research conducted by Montgomery and Dietrich, largely in the transport limited, temperate, humid climate of the Pacific Northwest, USA. This field data driven work concluded that the drainage area required for channel initiation is directly correlated to the slope of the contributing area. However, there are a host of related variables that have yet to be examined in the field. This study revisits the slope-area relationship focusing on ephemeral overland flow in headwaters of both the Pacific …

Quantifying Transit Access In New York City: Formulating An Accessibility Index For Analyzing Spatial And Social Patterns Of Public Transportation, Maxwell S. Siegel

Theses and Dissertations

This paper aims to analyze accessibility within New York City’s transportation system through creating unique accessibility indices. Indices are detailed and implemented using GIS, analyzing the distribution of transit need and access. Regression analyses are performed highlighting relationships between demographics and accessibility and recommendations for transit expansion are presented.

Using Residential Location To Assess The Environmental Value-Action Gap Of Students At James Madison University, Emma Rose Martin

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This study focuses on the environmental Value-Action Gap of students at James Madison University (JMU) in Harrisonburg, Virginia. This gap occurs when a person has pro-environmental beliefs but does not have congruent actions. Often, there are other factors apart from a person’s values that influence his/her willingness to participate in eco-friendly behavior (Howell 2013). For this study, the factor of influence being addressed is location. When students live on-campus at JMU they are surrounded by ‘green’ initiatives. Understanding the diffusion of environmental behavior from on-campus living to off-campus living is important because the majority of a JMU student’s residency is …

Aquifer Vulnerability Modeling In New Jersey Through The Use Of Modified Drastic Methodology, Clement Uduk, Tanja Hopmans

Student Research Symposium

Due to the global average increase in temperature over the last 50 years, sea levels have been rising and making coastal aquifers more susceptible to saltwater intrusion. The average rate of sea level rise has increased from 2 mm/year to 3.5 mm/year during the twentieth century. The state of New Jersey is not only densely populated but the development along coastlines makes inundation a potential serious threat. New Jersey is diverse in aquifer types, in addition to the types of water bodies surrounding New Jersey, and makes for an interesting case study for groundwater vulnerability. The EPA has a universal …

Evaluation Of Alternative Strategies To Prevent Leopard Predation On Livestock Around Yala National Park, Sri Lanka, Sanjiv Fernando

Sustainability and Social Justice

In recent years, many livestock herders living near Yala National Park, Sri Lanka have reported livestock losses due to predation by leopards (Panthera pardus kotiya). Despite herders’ attempts to safeguard their cattle, livestock depredation remains an issue, sometimes causing herders to kill leopards in retaliation. In an effort to mitigate the human-leopard conflict, protective cattle enclosures made from steel pipes and mesh wire were introduced to prevent leopard attacks on cattle. This study aims to assess the severity of leopard predation on livestock, understand the methods used in retaliatory killings, examine the effectiveness of existing livestock protection methods, …

Dating Late Quaternary Alluvial Fills In The Platte River Valley Using Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating, Jacob C. Bruihler

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Alluvial fills underlying the Platte River Valley in Nebraska record the geologic history of the Platte River in the late Quaternary. This study investigated the alluvium underlying the valley near the cities of North Platte and Kearney, Nebraska. Data obtained from sediment cores drilled in the alluvial deposits was used to investigate the changes in Platte River dynamics on a glacial – interglacial timescale. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating was used to determine burial ages of recovered sediments and to quantify the thicknesses of the late Pleistocene and Holocene alluvial fills at each study area. Our geochronology depicts considerable differences …

Renewable Energy Matters: Small Hydel Power And Sustainability In India, Madhu N. Rao

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Geospatial Analysis Of Droughts, Rice And Wheat Production, And Agrarian Vulnerability: A District-Level Study Of The Self-Calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index In India, Aaron Michael Shew

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Droughts have affected more people than any other natural disaster in the last century, causing billions in economic damages and millions of deaths. As the Sea Surface Temperatures (SST) have heated in the Indian Ocean, drought patterns across South Asia have changed; the Indian monsoon has become more volatile and less predictable. In this study, monthly self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (sc-PDSI) data for the time period between 1950 and 2009 were interpolated to India’s districts; then the data were analyzed for changes in frequency and severity. The data were further evaluated using Anselin’s Local Moran’s I Statistic to elicit …

Mapping Temperate Vegetation Climate Adaptation Variability Using Normalized Land Surface Phenology, Liang Liang, Mark D. Schwartz, Xiaoyang Zhang

Geography Faculty Publications

Climate influences geographic differences of vegetation phenology through both contemporary and historical variability. The latter effect is embodied in vegetation heterogeneity underlain by spatially varied genotype and species compositions tied to climatic adaptation. Such long-term climatic effects are difficult to map and therefore often neglected in evaluating spatially explicit phenological responses to climate change. In this study we demonstrate a way to indirectly infer the portion of land surface phenology variation that is potentially contributed by underlying genotypic differences across space. The method undertaken normalized remotely sensed vegetation start-of-season (or greenup onset) with a cloned plants-based phenological model. As the …