Geography Commons^™

Women Workin’ It In Gis: A Mixed Methods Study Of Underrepresentation And The Gendered Experience Among Female Gis Practitioners, Livia M. Betancourt Mazur

Theses and Dissertations

Through novel empirical research, this thesis explores the experience of women working in the professional field of geographic information systems (GIS), adding to GIS literature, as well as to academic geography and wider science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) discourses, addressing gaps in these bodies of knowledge.

Transportation And Sanitation Drivers Of Land Use/Land Cover Change: Loss Of The Jamaica Bay Wetlands, Margaret Joy Cytryn

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an analysis (1830-2014) of the historical events of land use/land cover change in the Jamaica Bay estuary, identification of the agents of change, and a perspective on the potential drivers of transportation and sanitation in land use/land cover change.

Using Spatiotemporal Methods To Fill Gaps In Energy Usage Interval Data, Kristin K. Graves

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers analyzing spatiotemporal or panel data, which varies both in location and over time, often find that their data has holes or gaps. This thesis explores alternative methods for filling those gaps and also suggests a set of techniques for evaluating those gap-filling methods to determine which works best.

Estimating Stormwater Runoff For Community Gardens In New York City, Mara Gittleman

Theses and Dissertations

While much of the literature cites community gardens as providing urban ecosystem services, there is very little research quantifying these benefits. This thesis compares the stormwater runoff rates of urban vacant lots, community gardens, and residential developments in New York City and evaluates community gardens as green infrastructure.

Effects Of Physical Characteristics Of Urban Storm Sewersheds On Water Quality In Bloomington, Il, Alicia Terese O'Hare

Theses and Dissertations

Increasing urbanization has consequences for surface water quality. Stormwater is a large component of urban water degradation that is poorly understood. Precipitation is quickly transported via underground pipes, from the land to the stream without following water's natural flow path. Studies have correlated detention ponds with improved water quality and impervious surface cover with degraded water quality. However, other physical characteristics within a storm sewer shed including the presence of sump pumps, area and pipe miles may also affect the stormwater quality. We chose 18 storm sewer systems in Bloomington, IL. We measured pH, temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, chloride, nitrate, …

Mobile Home Resident Perspectives On Preparedness, Protective Action, And Evacuation For Tornado Hazards, Kevin D. Ash

Theses and Dissertations

More than 1,000 tornadoes strike the United States each year, and no population segment has been impacted to a greater degree than those who live in mobile homes. Despite being only about 7% of the total population, mobile home residents have comprised 40% to 50% of all tornado deaths over the past fifty years. Inhabitants of mobile homes must therefore act quickly to protect themselves when they are threatened by tornadoes. Warning messages instruct mobile home occupants to move to a sturdier building until the storm passes, but what are the residents’ perspectives on this recommended behavior? It is unknown …

Institutional Resilience Along The Mississippi Gulf Coast In The Context Of Pre- And Post-Hurricane Katrina, Khai Hoan Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations

Building resilience to disasters helps reduce loss of life and property, allowing communities to recover more quickly from shocks and disruptions. Governing institutions are tasked with tremendous responsibility in terms of mitigating risks and enhancing resilience of local communities through proactive planning and policies. It is important to examine how institutional policies have changed pre- and post-disaster to determine their contribution to community resilience. Metrics and indicators can be used to quantitatively assess, establish baseline, track, and monitor resilience at the community level. Few studies have attempted to measure institutional resilience using a set of indicators and metrics, and even …

A Tale Of Two Landscapes: Examining Alienation And Non-Visitation Among Local African American Fishers At Congaree National Park, Janae Davis

Theses and Dissertations

The Wilderness Act of 1964 limits acceptable activities in federally designated wilderness areas to those associated with leisure, scenic viewing, education and scientific inquiry. These stipulations, which privileged the interests of the early environmental movement’s elite white leaders and disregarded uses valued by racial/ethnic minorities and working class groups, continue to inform wilderness management in national parks. This legacy of exclusion is evidenced by national park visitation statistics showing overrepresentation1 of whites and underrepresentation of African Americans (Meeker, Woods, & Lucas, 1973; P. A. Taylor, Grandjean, & Gramann, 2011). The purpose of this study is to understand how wilderness management …

Institutional Adaptation And Drought Management In The Carolinas, Kirsten Lackstrom

Theses and Dissertations

Drought is one of the costliest hazards faced by the United States, having caused billions of dollars in damage and affected all regions of the country over the past two decades. There have been many efforts to strengthen society’s technical and managerial capacity to respond to drought, mitigate risks, and adopt proactive planning and management strategies. Advances entail the adoption of drought plans, improvements to data collection and monitoring systems, and development of networks to disseminate information and foster communications. Despite recent progress, response remains reactive and crisis-oriented. Management is often uncoordinated across the multiple sectors and fragmented jurisdictions affected …

Ammonium Concentrations Above A Louisiana Sugarcane Field, Wesley Robert Skeeter

Theses and Dissertations

High concentrations of ammonium (NH4+) aerosols can lead to acidification of soils, forest decline, and eutrophication of water ways (Aneja et al. 2003). NH4+ along with its precursor ammonia (NH3) forms a complicated gas aerosol system that is poorly understood and requires further research. Rotating annular denuder systems actively sampled NH4+ from the northern corner of a sugarcane field at 2.89 m and 5.18 m above the northern corner of a sugarcane field in St. Gabriel, Louisiana over 31 days and 31 nights between May 25th and July 27th of 2011. These data were used to calculate the average NH4+ …

Tree-Sway Frequency And The Turbulent Co-Spectral Gap In A Dense Canopy Environment, Katherine L. Ertell

Theses and Dissertations

Today, knowledge of canopy turbulence comes solely from field observations. However, measurements or field observations that are taken at a specific location within the canopy cannot accurately capture the interaction of the wind and the canopy it crosses. Without this complete picture of the atmosphere, the temporal fluctuations that exist in turbulent flows cannot be understood. From an atmospheric perspective, the complex structure of forests significantly influences turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layers (ABL) by consistently imposing both mechanical and thermal forces. This study explores the temporal and spatial characteristics of tree-sway motions and their aerodynamic interactions with coherent turbulence …

Economic Losses And Extreme Tornado Events, Rachel Reeves

Theses and Dissertations

Research on tornado impacts has previously focused mainly on analyzing the deaths and injuries associated with tornadoes. While economic loss from multiple hazards is a well-researched field, little has been done to assess the economic losses sustained during tornado events. Additionally, the literature regarding the Enhanced Fujita scale’s comparability to the Fujita scale is limited. This research aims to add to the literature by statistically analyzing the two tornado scales, determining the movement of tornadoes over time using a cluster analysis, comparing the location of extreme tornadoes to those which produce extreme loss, and looking at the statistical relationship between …

The Meaning Of Place Recovery On The Mississippi Gulf Coast, Ronald L. Schumann, Iii

Theses and Dissertations

Recovery is a post-disaster period of adjustment when individuals, households, neighborhoods, and communities work to overcome the effects of a disaster and regain functionality. Recovery is a multi-scalar process whose outcomes are manifested in the physical landscape; however, assessments of the meaning, progress, and outcomes of recovery are specific to individuals who view the landscape from an embodied perspective within the local social hierarchy. Common recovery measurement techniques used by emergency managers, planners, local leaders, and hazards scholars approximate recovery with reconstruction of physical infrastructure or repopulation of residences. These longitudinal quantitative proxies may claim to represent the status of …

Situating Belonging Through Multi-Sited Identities: Community Building Among Middle Eastern Christians In Upstate South Carolina, Amelia Ayoob

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a Human Geography perspective on immigrant identity and integration. Using the case of a diverse, multigenerational Middle Eastern Christian population in the Upstate region of South Carolina, I explore how Middle Eastern immigrants and their descendants have negotiated belonging and identity in the United States by simultaneously building new social networks in the Upstate and maintaining ties to the Middle East. The focus on a single case allowed for an in-depth exploration of how geographic and historical contexts have shaped the present-day dynamics of the community (broadly defined) constructed around two Catholic churches, one Latin and one …

Understanding Geo-Social Network Patterns: Computation, Visualization, And Usability, Caglar Koylu

Theses and Dissertations

Geo-social networks are formed by flows of physical entities (e.g., humans, vehicles, sensors, animals), and communication (e.g., information, ideas, innovation) that connect places to places and individuals to individuals. Several major problems remain to be addressed for understanding the complex patterns in geo-social networks. This dissertation makes the following contributions to the theory and methodologies that aim at understanding complex geo-social data by integrating methods of computation, visualization and usability evaluation. Chapter 2 introduces a novel network-based smoothing approach that addresses the size-difference and small area problem in calculating and mapping locational (graph) measures in spatial interaction networks. The new …

Pattern Extraction From Spatial Data - Statistical And Modeling Approches, Hu Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Exploratory and statistical spatial data analyses are commonly used in a wide range of research fields, such as epidemiology, disease surveillance and crime analysis. Spatial epidemiology, for example, needs to detect significant spatial clusters of disease incidents to help epidemiologists identify environmental factors and spreading patterns associated with certain diseases. Existing spatial analysis approaches mostly focus on the analysis of spatial lattice data, i.e., observations organized by locations such as county or census tract. With the wide spread of location-aware technologies such as GPS and smart phones, spatial interaction data have become increasingly available, e.g., human daily mobility, traveling and …

Automated Synthetic Scene Generation, Ryan N. Givens

Theses and Dissertations

First principles, physics-based models help organizations developing new remote sensing instruments anticipate sensor performance by enabling the ability to create synthetic imagery for proposed sensor before a sensor is built. One of the largest challenges in modeling realistic synthetic imagery, however, is generating the spectrally attributed, three-dimensional scenes on which the models are based in a timely and affordable fashion. Additionally, manual and semi-automated approaches to synthetic scene construction which rely on spectral libraries may not adequately capture the spectral variability of real-world sites especially when the libraries consist of measurements made in other locations or in a lab. This …

Tradition Or Technology?: The Impact Of Paper Versus Digital Map Technology On Students’ Spatial Thinking Skill Acquisition, Larianne Collins

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates whether spatial learning outcomes differ with respect to different instructional media. Specifically, it examines traditional, paper aerial imagery as compared to digital imagery visualized with 3D globes. Two research questions provided the focus: 1) Does spatial thinking skill development differ between analog (paper) and digital map media; 2) Does spatial thinking skill development differ based on attitudes toward geography, past travel experience, or demographic variables such as gender, and are there interaction effects among them related to the different media?

Spatial thinking skill development was measured as students received instruction using either paper or digital maps. Spatial …

A Comprehensive Disaster Risk Index For The United States, Michael E. Senn

Theses and Dissertations

Risks to life, property, infrastructure and even environmental security emanate from a variety of hazard sources. Key to reducing this risk is the ability to measure it and present it decision-makers and stakeholders in a meaningful and understandable way. Currently, there exist no comprehensive hazard risk indices for the United States that have the ability to capture and convey a contemporary conceptualization of risk to hazards. Such an index, the World Risk Index, exists at the global level. The World Risk Index serves as an analog for further research on risk at various scales.

The purpose of this dissertation is …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Esri Story Maps As Effective Teaching Tools, Caitlin Strachan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of Esri Story Maps as effective teaching tools. Story Maps are a relatively new web application within Esri’s web-based GIS platform, ArcGIS Online. They combine digitized, dynamic maps with other story elements (i.e., title, text, legend, popups, and other visuals) to help the creator effectively convey a message. The relative ease associated with using and creating a Story Map as well as the simple, non-technical interface makes them ideal for use as an educational technology. Survey data were collected at several professional development events in the spring of 2014 in …

Assessing Students' Attitudes Towards Geography In A Problem-Based Learning Environment, Andrew Jasper Quain

Theses and Dissertations

Problem-based learning is an instructional strategy that is a growing trend in geographic education at all levels. The benefits of problem-based learning and how it improves students' content knowledge are well established in the literature. However, a gap in the literature exists in regards to the impact problem-based learning has on students' attitudes towards geography. This study focused on determining if high school students' attitudes towards geography improved after enrollment in a course taught with problem-based learning instruction. The study assessed other factors, such as preference for group work and problem-solving efficacy, which are associated with problem-based learning instruction. The …

Polarimetric Calibration And Characterization Of The Telops Field Portable Polarimetric-Hyperspectral Imager, Joel G. Holder

Theses and Dissertations

The Telops polarimetric-hyperspectral imager combines polarimetric and hyperspectral technologies to enable enhanced scene characterization. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency funded research at AFIT to leverage this capability to provide more accurate scene information to radiation transport models that will allow for more effective location of radiation sources within a region of interest. To support the objectives of the DTRA effort, there is a requirement for highly accurate radiometric, polarimetric, and spectral data on a pixel-by-pixel basis. The complex nature of the Telops instrument combined with working in the thermal IR waveband makes achieving this accuracy a challenge. This thesis develops …

Birds And Beaches: The Affective Geographies And Sense Of Place Of Participants In The Coasst Citizen Science Program, Benjamin Kent Haywood

Theses and Dissertations

Participatory science research initiatives within the natural sciences like citizen science or crowd sourcing have enjoyed a recent explosion in popularity due to the efficient and expansive data collection processes they foster and the opportunities for general science outreach and education they provide. Now often the tool of choice among informal science outreach practitioners, Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) programs are purported to expand knowledge and understanding of science and ecology, increase the relevancy of science for society, and cultivate more environmentally sustainable attitudes and behaviors. Despite such claims, the influence and impact of participatory science engagement is still …

Comparison Of Ground-To-Air Visibility Analysis Methods, Erica Pfister-Altschul

Theses and Dissertations

When a disaster occurs, remotely sensed imagery is critical for emergency responders. Aircraft collect digital images of damaged areas to assist with damage assessment and response planning. Such airborne imagery can be transmitted directly from the plane to ground antennae and internet-connected dispersal, allowing for faster acquisition of data. However, air-to-ground transmission of images requires near-constant visibility between the aircraft transmitter and ground station antenna. This research uses GIS-based models to identify the ground station locations that can reliably receive data from aircraft, using a variety of visibility analysis methods and a comparison of their performance. A custom algorithm is …

Geomorphic Variation Of A Transitional River: Blue Ridge To Piedmont, South Carolina, Tanner Arrington

Theses and Dissertations

Field data was collected systematically to characterize the geomorphic variations in a river transition from the southern Blue Ridge to the Piedmont physiographic regions in South Carolina. Ten study reaches were surveyed for cross-sections and longitudinal profiles. Surface grid samples of bed material collected. Downstream hydraulic geometry and downstream fining of bed material were analyzed using traditional power functions and exponential decay relationships. Reach-scale channel bed morphology (bedforms) was analyzed under the assumption that the transition in bedforms is related to changes in hydraulic geometry and sediment characteristics. Well-developed downstream trends of hydraulic geometry variables (width, depth and velocity) and …

Contested Identities And Language Education: Inculcating Nationalist Ideologies In The Basque Region, William Joseph Hogan

Theses and Dissertations

Nationalist sentiment has a long history in the Basque regions of northern Spain. Culturally separate from the dominant Castilian society, separatists have for many years advocated for an independent Basque state. Following democratic reforms under the Constitution of 1978, regional cultures and languages were explicitly recognized and protected in Spain. This allowed for the current set of language laws in the Autonomous Community of Pa├â┬¡s Vasco in which Castilian Spanish and the Basque language of Euskara are held in equal status and recognition. Furthermore, Euskara has been recognized as a defining characteristic of Basque identity. The regional government has instituted …

Spatial And Temporal Characterization Of A Cold Seep-Hydrate System (Woolsey Mound, Deep-Water Gulf Of Mexico), Antonello Simonetti

Theses and Dissertations

Cold seeps are areas where methane is transferred from the lithosphere into the hydrosphere, accounting for the major source of hydrocarbons in seawaters. Formation of gas hydrate in cold seeps modulates the global discharge of methane to the environment. However, cold seeps are dynamic settings where hydrates dissociate on short and long time-scales triggering substantial methane fluxes to the oceans. These methane vents sustain unique ecosystems at the ocean floors and contribute to ocean acidification. Also, the methane can potentially reach the sea surface and be exchanged with the atmosphere contributing to global warming. Understanding how cold seep-hydrate systems (CSHSs) …

Uncovering The Structures In Ecological Networks: Multiple Techniques For Multiple Purposes, Peng Gao

Theses and Dissertations

Ecosystem structure and function are the product of biological and ecological elements and their connections and interactions. Understanding structure and process in ecosystems is critical to ecological studies. Ecological networks, based on simple concepts in which biological and ecological elements are depicted as nodes with relationships between them described as links, have been recognized as a valuable means of clarifying the relationship between structures and process in ecosystems. Ecological network analysis has benefited from the advancement of techniques in social science, computer science, and mathematics, but attention must be paid to whether the designs of these techniques follow ecological principles …

I Can Be Silent And Be Saying A Lot: Teachers' Racial Literacy In A Southern Elementary School, Kimberly J. Howard

Theses and Dissertations

In order to better understand how teachers make sense of race in schools today, this ethnographic study explores the following research question: How do teachers in this school make sense of race, and how does the spatiality of the school inform this process? The study was conducted over a 14-month period in a southern elementary school and is presented as a poetic, narrative, and thematic analysis of the connections between the geographic location of this particular school and the teachers' practices, pedagogies, and conversations about race both inside their classrooms and in other school spaces. This study demonstrates how teachers' …

Complexity And Salience: Evaluating The Inter-Scene Variability Of Animated Choropleth Maps, Michael Dubois

Theses and Dissertations

Animated choropleth maps allow for the compilation of potentially massive time-series datasets which can portray space-time change in a congruent manner. They are also becoming increasingly common for data visualization. When users view and interact with these maps, however, there is the likelihood that the human cognitive-perceptual system may be overwhelmed by a large number of simultaneous changes in each scene: this so-called `change blindness' is a common malady when viewing successive scenes, unless scene-to-scene graphical changes are salient enough to attract the fixation of the user. Even then, there may be a limit to the number of simultaneous changes …