Geography Commons^™

Geologic Mapping Of The Sparta 7.5-Minute Quadrangle In Northern Mississippi Via Remote Sensing, Traditional Geologic Survey, And Applied Geospatial Information Systems Methods, Rayford Dean Parnell

Theses and Dissertations

Traditional geologic mapping involves substantial time and labor in the field as geologic contacts are manually examined and interpreted. The processes of mapping geologic contacts can be condensed into a quicker and less laborious process using advances in remote sensing and GIS (geospatial information systems), including increased resolution and computerized data management and interpretation. Application of these advances reduces the costs and time of geologic mapping. The Sparta 7.5-minute quadrangle provides a mostly unaltered view of regional Paleocene and Upper Cretaceous geology due to its rural locale, lack of development, and stream topography. Recently LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) survey …

Flood Hazard And Risk Analyses In The Republic Of Panama: A Case Study From The Juan Diaz River Watershed In Panama City, Virgilio De Jesus Quintero

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Flooding is the natural hazard with most occurrences in Panama. Its frequency and magnitude have increased over the years. This dissertation analyzes Panama’s flood activity in order to better understand flood hazards, the current evolution of Panamanian perceptions of flood risk, and the incorporation of indigenous knowledge used to mitigate flood hazards. The first chapter developed a baseline of past and current flood inventory in Panama, which required the use of flood historical data, thematic cartography, and Geographic Information Science (GIS). This chapter shows Panama has experienced floods in varying degrees. Through the spatial and temporal distribution of floods from …

Remote Sensing Application For Landslide Detection: Monitoring Along Eastern Lake Michigan (Miami Park, Mi), Guzalay Sataer

Dissertations

I assessed the nature and spatial and temporal patterns of deformation over the Miami Park bluffs on the eastern margin of Lake Michigan and investigated the factors controlling its observed deformation. Our approach involved the following steps: (1) extracting bluff deformation rates (velocities along the line of sight of the satellite) using a stack of Sentinel-1A radar imagery in ascending acquisition geometry acquired between 2017 and 2021 and applying the Intermittent Small Baseline Subset (ISBAS) InSAR time series analysis method; (2) generating high-resolution (5 cm) elevation models and orthophotos from temporal unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveys acquired in 2017, 2019, …

Efficient Hierarchical Space-Time Models For Large Areal Datasets With Application To Forest Inventory Mapping Using Remote Sensing Imagery, Md Kamrul Hasan Khan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this dissertation is development of a novel hierarchical framework, that can be used for predictive modeling of Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data over large regions. This dissertation has two significant contributions. Based on a study region in north-central Wisconsin, we analyze satellite imagery, along with a sample of national forest inventory field plots, to monitor and predict changes in forest conditions over time. The auxiliary data from the satellite imagery of this region are relatively dense in space and time, and can be used to learn how forest conditions changed over that decade. However, these records …

Geology, Soils And Climate Of Western Australia's Wine Regions, Peter J. Tille, Angela Stuart-Street, Peter S. Gardiner

Bulletins 4000 -

This bulletin details what is special and unique about the geology, soil and climate of the south-west of Western Australia (WA), an area that encompasses the state’s 9 wine regions.

We have arranged the information into 2 parts:

• In Part 1, we broadly describe the special geological, soil and climate features of the south-west of WA to provide context for the wine regions.

• In Part 2, we describe the geology, soil and climate of the regions and subregions of the Geographical Indications (GI) scheme (administered by Wine Australia) for WA.

Through this work we have found that the wine regions …

Glacier Segmentation From Remote Sensing Imagery Using Deep Learning, Bibek Aryal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Large-scale study of glaciers improves our understanding of global glacier change and is imperative for monitoring the ecological environment, preventing disasters, and studying the effects of global climate change. In recent years, remote sensing imagery has been preferred over riskier and resource-intensive field visits for tracking landscape level changes like glaciers. However, periodic manual labeling of glaciers over a large area is not feasible due to the considerable amount of time it requires while automatic segmentation of glaciers has its own set of challenges. Our work aims to study the challenges associated with segmentation of glaciers from remote sensing imagery …

The Human Natural Resource Endowment Of Limestone For Cement Manufacturing, Vanya Marie North

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the total per-capita allocation of limestone globally. Termed the Human Natural Resource Endowment (HNRE), it is calculated by subtracting the cumulative annual production from the ultimately recoverable reserve (URR) of limestone and dividing the difference by global population. HNRE represents a unique way of visualizing resource depletion by asking how much of a given resource can be allocated to each person on earth, and how long that allocation can last given multiple population and usage scenarios. The average American, born in 2021, will use approximately 23,930 kgs of cement in their lifetime, with similar demands globally. Demand …

Systematic Review Of A Ramsar Wetland And Unesco Biosphere Reserve In A Climate Change Hotspot (Ichkeul Lake, Tunisia), Sabrine Sahbani, Béchir Béjaoui, Sihem Benabdalla, Rachid Toujani, Afef Fathalli, Noureddine Zaaboub, Jalel Aouissi, Zeineb Kassouk, Nabil Hamdi, Nabiha Ben Mbarek, Hechmi Missaoui, Leila Basti, Reginald Blake, Hamidreza Norouzi

Publications and Research

Tunisia's Ichkeul Lake is among the most productive ecosystems in the Mediterranean, with a great regional value thanks to its diversity of habitats. It is an important overwintering area for waterfowl species. It is a RAMSAR wetland, a National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage, and a Biosphere Reserve. This review paper provides a broad overview of the climatic, hydraulic, biogeochemical features, bio-resources, and bio-productivity of the Lake. The interconnectivity between the different environmental components of the lake is presented, highlighting the main characteristics of this vital ecosystem. Its ecosystem consists of a permanent lake bordered by temporary marshes. It is …

Orbital Mapping Of Seasonal And Yearly Changes In Co2 And Water Ice On The Southern Polar Cap Of Mars, Victoria Michell Ann Karnes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research exhibits a new foundation for the rates of change in CO2 and water ice on the southern polar cap of Mars, where the annual precipitation cycles are known to fluctuate seasonally between the north and south pole, based on observations from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer (CRISM). The conventional belief is that both CO2 ice and water ice on the southern polar cap condenses and evaporates over the course of a Martian year (MY), condensing during the Martian spring and summer and evaporating during the Martian fall and winter. With this theory in mind, CO2 and water ice …

Delineating Field Variation Using Apparent Electrical Conductivity In An Ozark Highlands Agroforestry System, Shane Reid Ylagan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Little to no work has been conducted assessing field variability using repeated electromagnetic induction (EMI) apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) surveys in agroforestry (AF) systems within regions similar to the Ozark Highlands. The objectives of this thesis were to identify i) spatiotemporal ECa variability; ii) ECa-derived soil management zones (SMZs); iii) correlations among EMI-ECa and in-situ, sentential-site soil properties; iv) whether fewer, EMI-ECa surveys could be conducted to capture similar ECa variance as mid-monthly EMI-ECa surveys; v) correlations between ECa and forage yield, tree growth, and terrain attributes based on plant (forage and tree) species, and fertility treatments, and ECa-derived SMZs, …

Green On The Map - The Influence Of Conservation Easements On The Naturalness Of Landscapes In The United States, Nakisha Fouch

All Dissertations

Large protected areas have long been the cornerstone of conservation biology, however, in an era branded by the human dominance of ecosystems, regional landscape structure and function are often a consequence of accumulated land-use decisions that may or may not include a nod to conservation planning. With underrepresentation of habitats in publicly protected areas, attention has focused on the function of alternative land conservation mechanisms. Private conservation easements (CEs) have proliferated in the United States, yet assessing landscape-level function is confounded by holder and donor intent, national and regional policy, regional landscape contexts, varying extents, resolution, and temporal scale. Over …

The Possibilities Of Explicit Striga (Striga Asiatica) Risk Monitoring Using Phenometric, Edaphic, And Climatic Variables, Demonstrated For Malawi And Zambia, Emily Kimathi, Bester Tawona Mudereri, Elfatih M. Abdel-Rahman, Saliou Niassy, Henri E.Z. Tonnang, Tobias Landmann

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Food insecurity continues to affect more than two-thirds of the population in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly those depending on rain-fed agriculture. Striga, a parasitic weed, has caused yield losses of cereal crops, immensely affecting smallholder farmers in SSA. Although earlier studies have established that Striga is a constraint to crop production, there is little information on the spatial extent of spread and infestation severity of the weed in some SSA countries like Malawi and Zambia. This study aimed to use remotely sensed vegetation phenological (n = 11), climatic (n = 3), and soil (n = 4) variables to develop a …

Learning From Public Spaces In Historic Cities, Cody Josh Kucharski

Symposium of Student Scholars

Successful public spaces in cities are key for enhancing social cohesion and improving health and safety. Learning from historic cities involves the development of representational and analytical tools aimed at capturing their essence as places of human interaction. The research reports findings of the spatial analysis of twenty Adriatic and Ionian coastal cities, which addresses the question of how the network of public spaces calibrates different degrees of spatial enclosure necessary for creating successful social interactions. Cities in the littoral region include well-preserved historic centers that are renowned for the successful integration of urban squares into the urban fabric. For …

Estimation Of Economic Risk From Coastal Natural Hazards In Louisiana, Rubayet Bin Mostafiz

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Louisiana, U.S.A., is among the most vulnerable areas globally to coastal natural hazards, with risk vulnerability likely increasing. The risks associated with non-tropical-cyclone hazards in Louisiana’s coastal zone have been understudied. This research enhances present and future (i.e., 2050) Louisiana risk assessment using locally-weighted, model-based hazard frequency/intensity and population projections.

Results suggest that property risks associated with extreme cold temperature and tornado are and will remain costlier than those for hail and lightning. Property risks of extreme cold temperature and hail are projected to decrease with the expected warming temperatures, with those of all four of these hazards peaking in …

Using Gis-Based Land Use Strategies To Minimize The Impacts Of Urbanization On Agricultural Land And Forest Cover: Case Study Of The City Of Limbe, Cameroon, Lucy Ebude Deba Enomah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urbanization is one of the most dominant phenomena of the 21st century; it is propelled by natural growth and rural-to-urban migration. This latter is typically a product of rural residents moving to urban centres in search of economic opportunities. This phenomenon is accompanied by immense land use and cover changes – predominantly agricultural and forest lands to urban land uses such as buildings and infrastructure. The goal of this research was to contribute to efforts to minimize the impacts of urbanization on agricultural land and forest cover in Limbe, Cameroon, and to develop GIS-based strategies to allocate suitable land for …

Ammonium Adduct Chemical Ionization To Investigate Anthropogenic Oxygenated Gas-Phase Organic Compounds In Urban Air, Peeyush Khare, Jordan E. Krechmer, Jo E. Machesky, Tori Hass-Mitchell, Cong Cao, Junqi Wang, Francesca Majluf, Felipe Lopez-Hilfiker, Sonja Malek, Will Wang, Karl Seltzer, Havala O. T. Pye, Roisin Commane, Brian C. Mcdonald, Ricardo Toledo-Crow, John E. Mak, Drew R. Gentner

Advanced Science Research Center

Volatile chemical products (VCPs) and other non-combustion-related sources have become important for urban air quality, and bottom-up calculations report emissions of a variety of functionalized compounds that remain understudied and uncertain in emissions estimates. Using a new instrumental configuration, we present online measurements of oxygenated organic compounds in a US megacity over a 10 d wintertime sampling period, when biogenic sources and photochemistry were less active. Measurements were conducted at a rooftop observatory in upper Manhattan, New York City, USA using a Vocus chemical ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer, with ammonium (NH as the reagent ion operating at 1 Hz. The …

College Of Natural Sciences Newsletter, September & October 2022, College Of Natural Sciences

College of Natural Sciences Newsletters and Reports

Volume 3, Issue 6

Page 1 Dean's Message
Page 2 Awards & Recognition
Page 3 Midwest Regional ACS Meeting
Page 4 North Central ASM Meeting
Page 5 Geography Department Travel
Page 6-7 Media Coverage of CNS
Page 7 REMAST Program at SDState receives national spotlight
Page 8 Celebrating the lives of those who touched the College
Page 9 Innovative Learning Spaces
Page 10 Open PRAIRIE Data
Page 11 2022 CNS Scholarship Brunch
Page 12-14 Fall 2022 Outreach Events

Hydrological Drought Forecasting Using A Deep Transformer Model, Amobichukwu C. Amanambu, Joann Mossa, Yin-Hsuen Chen

University Administration Publications

Hydrological drought forecasting is essential for effective water resource management planning. Innovations in computer science and artificial intelligence (AI) have been incorporated into Earth science research domains to improve predictive performance for water resource planning and disaster management. Forecasting of future hydrological drought can assist with mitigation strategies for various stakeholders. This study uses the transformer deep learning model to forecast hydrological drought, with a benchmark comparison with the long short-term memory (LSTM) model. These models were applied to the Apalachicola River, Florida, with two gauging stations located at Chattahoochee and Blountstown. Daily stage-height data from the period 1928–2022 were …

Meteor Radar Vertical Wind Observation Biases And Mathematical Debiasing Strategies Including The 3dvar+Div Algorithm, Alan Z. Liu, Zishun Qiao, Gunter Stober, Alexander Kozlovsky, Ales Kuchar, Christoph Jacobi, Chris Meek, Diego Janches, Guiping Liu, Masaki Tsutsumi, Njål Gulbrandsen, Satonori Nozawa, Mark Lester, Evgenia Belova, Johan Kero, Nicholas Mitchell

Publications

Meteor radars have become widely used instruments to study atmospheric dynamics, particularly in the 70 to 110 km altitude region. These systems have been proven to provide reliable and continuous measurements of horizontal winds in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Recently, there have been many attempts to utilize specular and/or transverse scatter meteor measurements to estimate vertical winds and vertical wind variability. In this study we investigate potential biases in vertical wind estimation that are intrinsic to the meteor radar observation geometry and scattering mechanism, and we introduce a mathematical debiasing process to mitigate them. This process makes use of …

Towards More Equitable And Climate Resilient Communities With Jola Ajibade, Jola Ajibade

PDXPLORES Podcast

In this episode of PDXPLORES, Professor Jola Ajibade discusses research examining how cascading social and environmental hazards might impact communities in the Portland metro region and what policymakers and community members can do to mitigate the risks and promote a more just, livable, and sustainable urban future.

Click on the "Download" button to access the audio transcript.

Analyzing The Production And Use Of Fossil Fuels: A Case For Data Mining And Gis, Alejandro Conde

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

As technology progresses and data grows both larger and more complex, techniques are being developed to keep up with the exponential growth of information. The term “data mining” is a blanket term used to describe an approach to find anomalies and correlations in a large dataset. This approach involves leveraging data mining software to manipulate and prepare data, apply statistics to quantify trends and characteristics in the data from a high level, and potentially apply advanced techniques like machine learning to identify patterns that wouldn’t be apparent otherwise. In this case study, data mining aided a GIS in displaying substantial …

Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook

Sustain Magazine

As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic quickly spread from country to country and continent to continent in 2020, governments and scientists needed a way to track COVID-19 through populations in order to position public health interventions in the most impactful locations. Having a decision-based risk framework may help to guide policy creation that could minimize or prevent possible outbreaks and surges of infection within communities. The University of Louisville in partnership with Louisville’s Department of Public Health and Wellness tested this strategy in 2021 and 2022. This Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook describes the decisions and actions of that academic and public …

Acid Mine Drainage In The Shamokin Creek Watershed: A Spatial Analysis Of Economic And Environmental Consequences Of Coal Mining, Ben Shimer

Student Project Reports

No abstract provided.

Flint, Michigan Drinking Water Crisis, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

Briefly covers the Flint, Michigan drinking water crisis including providing some background, a timeline of events, and key takeaways from the perspective of public policy.

This article was originally prepared for distribution to students in Aiken's AECN 357 environmental and natural resources law course.

Odu Researchers Attempt To Forecast Flood Impacts In Real Dollars, News @ Odu

News Items

No abstract provided.

Spatio-Temporal Changes In Vegetation In The Last Two Decades (2001–2020) In The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region, Yuan Zou, Wei Chen, Siliang Li, Tiejun Wang, Le Yu, Min Xu, Ramesh P. Singh, Cong-Qiang Liu

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

In terrestrial ecosystems, vegetation is sensitive to climate change and human activities. Its spatial-temporal changes also affect the ecological and social environment. In this paper, we considered the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region to study the spatio-temporal vegetation patterns. The detailed analysis of a moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data were carried out through the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Our results show a slow and tortuous upward trend in the average leaf area index (LAI) in the study region for the periods 2001–2020. Specifically, Beijing had the highest LAI value, with an average of 1.64 over twenty years, followed by Hebei (1.30) and …

Characterization Of Smoke Particles Toward Improved Remote Sensing Retrievals And Chemical Transport Modeling, Chenchong Zhang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Wildfires increase in extent, intensity, and frequency across the globe over the recent decades. The uncontrolled fires trigger cascading effects on local ecosystems and the fire emissions pose a higher risk to air quality and climate. Wildfire emissions contain a variety of trace gases and particulate matters. The particle-phase emissions, especially those light-absorbing species including black carbon (BC) and brown carbon (BrC), significantly affect the regional and global climate by modulating the radiative transfer phenomena in the atmosphere. A great discrepancy still exists between model- and observation-based estimates of aerosol-radiation interactions (ARI). The discrepancy is partially attributed to the mischaracterizations …

A Decade Review Of Disease Surveillance Research Trends In The International Journal Of Health Geographics (2009 To 2018), Rose Jimenez, Paradorn Wongchanapai

Publications and Research

The field of health geographics is rapidly growing in its methods and epistemologies. This is a review of the open-source journal International Journal of Health Geographics, and the trends in disease surveillance over ten years (2009-2018). Drawing from research review methodologies, we wrote a Python script to quantify research trends within the field of geographic disease surveillance, finding many articles focusing on population health, techniques of GIS, qualitative techniques, and geospatial technology for health monitoring. This was foundational in conducting an in-depth qualitative lexical analysis of article content and epistemologies. Overall, we concluded that over the time period, the …

Genetic Freedom Of The Seas In The Age Of Extractivism: Marine Genetic Resources In Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, Irus Braverman

Contributions to Books

Published as Chapter 4 in Laws of the Sea: Interdisciplinary Currents, Irus Braverman, ed.

Areas beyond national jurisdiction are the largest environment on earth and marine genetic resources are its new, and perhaps final, frontier. It is no wonder, then, that the scope and protection of marine genetic resources in this oceanic space have been hotly contested and that a new doctrine for ocean governance has been coined in this context: mare geneticum. This chapter examines different definitions of marine genetic resources debated in the ongoing treaty negotiations over areas beyond national jurisdiction (the BBNJ), the conflicting interests involved, and …

Amphibious Legal Geographies: Toward Land–Sea Regimes, Irus Braverman

Contributions to Books

Published as ine introduction to Laws of the Sea: Interdisciplinary Currents, Irus Braverman, ed.

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the juridical thinking that has enshrined the land/sea divide into contemporary governmental infrastructures, disciplinary traditions, and regulatory apparatuses, and charts the disastrous implications that such a legal fixation on the land/sea binary has wrought on human and other-than-human lifeworlds. As the collection proceeds, a second broad theme emerges, building on the first: when one rethinks the abstraction of law as played out on the ground, the …