Geography Commons^™

Development And Disparity In Glasgow: The Desirability Of Urban Water Proximity, Brian Morgan

Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine the possibility that a spatial relationship exists between demographic trends considered to be indicative of gentrification, and ongoing regenerative activity taking place along an urban canal and the adjacent neighborhoods in a northern section of Glasgow, Scotland. Rates of demographic change between the 2001 and 2011 Scottish Census results for the study area were contrasted with the same variables citywide, using the census Output Area (OA) as the aggregate unit. Results were combined to produce an index of gentrification. Positive results towards gentrification were identified in many of the OAs for a significant number …

Impacts Of Sea-Level Rise On Urban Properties In Tampa Due To Climate Change, Weiwei Xie

Theses and Dissertations

The fast urbanization produces a large and growing population in coastal areas. However, the rise of sea level, one of the most significant impacts of global warming, makes coastal communities much more vulnerable to flooding than before. This Master’s thesis study investigates sea-level rise impacts on parcel-level property in the specific coastal city of Tampa, Florida, USA. An improved sea-level rise model based on satellite altimeter data is first used to predict future sea levels. Based on high-resolution LiDAR digital elevation data and property map, flooded properties are identified to evaluate property damage cost. This empirical analysis provides an in-depth …

A Gis-Based Model To Assess On-Site Sewage Facility (Ossf) Contamination Risk To Local Water Resources, Alvaro Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

In a collaborative effort between Texas Water Resources Institute (TWRI), Cameron County Public Health (CCPH), Texas A&M AgriLife Extension (TAMAE), and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), a GIS database that includes relevant OSSF information, such as location, system age, lot size, and other important parameters was created.

This OSSF database, along with publicly available GIS data, was used to create an integrative GIS-based risk assessment model where OSSF risk parameters were assigned a risk factor and combined into a spatial contamination risk for surrounding areas and their receiving waterbodies. Parameters were broken down into two categories: environmental …

Satellite Observations And Spatiotemporal Assessment Of Salt Marsh /Dieback Along Coastal South Carolina (1990-2019), Huixuan Li

Theses and Dissertations

Coastal wetland mapping is often difficult because of the heterogeneous vegetation compositions and associated tidal effects. Past studies in the Gulf/Atlantic coast states have reported acute marsh dieback events in which marsh rapidly browned and thinned, leaving stubble of dead stems or mudflad with damaged ecosystem services. Reported marsh dieback in South Carolina (SC), USA, however, have been limited. Previous studies have suggested a suite of possibly abiotic and biotic attributes responsible for salt marsh dieback. However, there are no consensus answers in current literature explaining what led to marsh dieback in past decades, especially from the spatiotemporal perspective. In …

Taking The Pulse Of Undergraduate Introductory Geographic Information Systems Courses, Christopher Krause

Theses and Dissertations

As colleges and universities expand their geographic information systems (GIS) course offerings, the pedagogies involved in teaching such courses ought to be critically evaluated. Existing research concerning the teaching of geospatial technologies has been characterized as “sparse, inconsistent, and overly anecdotal” (Baker et al., 2015, p. 118). Answering the call for “more systematic and replicable” (p. 118) GIS education research, this study adopted a suite of mixed methods used within other discipline-based education research (DBER) and deployed them in introductory GIS courses. These methods included classroom observation protocols, interview protocols, focus group protocols, and student questionnaires.

This research had three …

Transit Mobility And Premature Birth In New York City: A Population-Based Study, Ross B. Maddux

Theses and Dissertations

Transit mobility has been recognized as an essential element to economic attainment, environmental sustainability, and as a vital part of public health⁠. Social and economic disparities paired with elusive and inefficient public transit present real barriers for the ability of efficient planning and use of time⁠. Lengthier commutes and generally less efficient travel contribute to stress during a pregnancy and limit the ability to access work and prenatal care. In survey studies of women utilizing clinics as their prenatal care provider, nearly 25% listed transportation as a barrier to accessing care.

Prior research has not linked directly premature birth and …

Do Heat Vulnerable Neighborhoods In New York City Experience Disproportionate Power Outages?, Gabrielle Alper

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the implications of power outages on environmental justice communities in New York City by comparing heat vulnerability index rankings and power outage complaints during summer months. This study is distinct in the identification of hotspots, discussions of air conditioning equity and implications for climate resiliency planning.

Digital Earth: The Impact Of Geographic Technology Through The Ages, Mishka Vance Huq

Theses and Dissertations

Geographic technology encompasses a wide range of geographic knowledge, concepts, processes, and artifacts. Because of its interdisciplinarity and integration with other technologies, the paper examines the diffuse impacts of geographic technology within the evolving relationship between technological and societal developments over time.

Some (Im)Material Girls, Living In (Im)Material Worlds, With Seeds, Stars, And Shit, Matthew Weiderspon

Theses and Dissertations

This writing situates material and gestural vocabularies cultivated in my artwork in relation to my lived experience; primarily my rural upbringing in Colorado. Scattered floor dispersals, calling sounds, and bodily movements desire reconsiderations of hope in precarity through a disorientation of place, association, scale, and language.

Politics Of Belonging: Identity, Integration, And Spatial Practices Of Algerian Immigrants And Their Descendants In Paris, France, Elizabeth Nelson

Theses and Dissertations

Using a geographic framework, this dissertation explores how Algerian immigrants and their descendants perform identity and negotiate belonging in French society. Bringing together critical theorizations of race, identity, space, and place, this work investigates what it means to be a racialized minority in a postcolonial context and to learn and experience the boundaries of ‘Frenchness.’ It is based on the narratives of Algerian immigrants who have migrated to Paris, France, and their French-born children. The empirical evidence of the case studies highlights the myriad ways in which Algerian immigrants and their descendants encounter and structure their interactions with French society, …

Using Aeolian Depositional Lag Times To Relate Dune Vegetation And Topographic Change, Jacquelyn Brianna Ferguson

Theses and Dissertations

Sediment deposition impacts dune morphology and is a product of many environmental factors. Dune vegetation is related to post-storm dune recovery and morphology. Though it is widely agreed that vegetation impacts sediment deposition, this relationship has not yet been quantified in the field. This research was conducted at Isle of Palms, a meso-tidal barrier island in South Carolina, where we collected topographic and vegetation data over an incipient foredune. Vegetation data were classified by functional type (dune-builder or dune-stabilizer) or land cover (sand, wrack). We identified land cover changes resulting in greater surface roughness. To relate land cover change to …

Military Communities And Natural Hazards In The United States, Logan Lee

Theses and Dissertations

The vulnerability and resilience of communities to hazards is a concept that has gained traction in the research community in recent decades. Climate change, combined with increasing damages from natural hazards, has energized researchers and practitioners alike to identify the risks to people and places from future losses. Military communities support large military bases and are composed of service members, their families, and civilian populations alike. Due to the presence of military installations and military populations, the characteristics of the population and influences in military communities are unique. However, there is a gap in current research to assess whether the …

(Re)Imagining Eminent Domain: The Embodied Imaginaries Of The Atlantic Yards – Barclays Center Project, Gabriel Frey Schuster

Theses and Dissertations

Eminent domain is generally treated by legal geographers as a tool of the state. This thesis applies legal and feminist geographies to the case of the Atlantic Yards development in Brooklyn so as to reframe eminent domain as a spatio-legal intervention complicating traditional notions of scale and power.

The Dutch Atlantic And American Life: Beginnings Of America In Colonial New Netherland, Roy J. Geraci

Theses and Dissertations

The Dutch colony of New Netherland was one of the earliest attempts at a non-indigenous life on the east coast of North America. That colony, along with the United Provinces of the Netherlands and Dutch Atlantic as a whole, played crucial roles in the development of what would become the United States. This thesis project examines the significance New Netherland held in American history as well as explores topics which allow for new and inclusive narratives of that history to reach further exploration. Similarly to how individuals from various cultures, ethnicities, and backgrounds all come to exist amongst one another …

An Application Of The Sleuth Model: Future Urbanization Of Davidson County, Tennessee, Caitlyn J. Linehan

Theses and Dissertations

As the urban population is expected to grow in the coming decades, there is pressure on urban areas to expand to accommodate this growth. Often times, these expansions are not sustainable, they consume valuable lands and cause significant environmental, social, and economic burdens, a theory which is known as urban sprawl. Therefore it is often imperative to model areas more likely to urbanize in order for cities to plan for their expansion in the most sustainable way possible. Nashville, Tennessee located within Davidson County is an area that has been experiencing a significant period of urban growth. The objective of …

Snow-Albedo Feedback In Northern Alaska: How Vegetation Influences Snowmelt, Lucas C. Reckhaus

Theses and Dissertations

This paper investigates how the snow-albedo feedback mechanism of the arctic is changing in response to rising climate temperatures. Specifically, the interplay of vegetation and snowmelt, and how these two variables can be correlated. This has the potential to refine climate modelling of the spring transition season. Research was conducted at the ecoregion scale in northern Alaska from 2000 to 2020. Each ecoregion is defined by distinct topographic and ecological conditions, allowing for meaningful contrast between the patterns of spring albedo transition across surface conditions and vegetation types. The five most northerly ecoregions of Alaska are chosen as they encompass …

Immigrant Belonging In Belgium: Laws, Localities, And Living Together, Samuel P. Nielson

Theses and Dissertations

Nationalism is rising in Europe and the world. Much of it responds to massive migration, with nationalistic Europeans vocalizing their belief that immigrants do not “belong” in their countries. Many states respond to this influx of people and rising antiimmigrant sentiment by creating laws demanding immigrant “integration.” Yet a clear understanding of what defines “integration” remains elusive. So too does an understanding of how laws aimed at immigrant integration influence relationships between immigrants and local citizens, institutions, and spaces. This research addresses both of these points in Belgium, a politically and culturally fractured country that serves as a microcosm of …

Spatio-Temporal Modeling Of Earthquake Recovery, Sahar Derakhshan

Theses and Dissertations

The recovery process after a major disaster or disruption, is impacted by the inequality of risk prior to and post event. In the past decades there has been few efforts to model the recovery process and the focus is mainly on staged models (i.e. emergency, restoration, and reconstruction). The overarching research question asks how a non-stage-like model could apply to the recovery process. This study poses three broad questions: 1) what are the indicators suitable for monitoring the recovery process; 2) what are the driving factors of differential recovery trends; and 3) what are the predicted development trajectories for communities …

Mapping Ecological Futures: Toward A Cartography Of Climate Justice, Timothy C. Lau

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of climate justice importantly reveals the uneven impacts of climate change. However, existing attempts at mapping climate justice are dominated by nation-state-based approaches, which fail to capture the sociospatial complexity of climate injustice. To address that gap, this thesis explores climate justice through the lens of critical cartography.

Remote Sensing And Social Sensing For Improved Flood Awareness And Exposure Analysis In The Big Data Era, Xiao Huang

Theses and Dissertations

Floods are among the most devastating hazards on Earth, posing great threats to a large amount of population in the world. As the severity and frequency of flood events have noticeably increased, there is a growing need to improve the flood awareness and exposure analysis to assist flood mitigation. Fortunately, the Era of Big Data has fostered many innovative spatial data sources as well as spatial data analytics. This dissertation advances the existing flood monitoring studies by obtaining enhanced flood awareness via the development of a data fusion enable and deep learning supported flood monitoring framework that systematically integrates remotely …

Mult-Spectral Imaging Of Vegetation With A Diffractive Plenoptic Camera, Tristan R. Naranjo

Theses and Dissertations

Snapshot multi-spectral sensors allow for object detection based on its spectrum for remote sensing applications in air or space. By making these types of sensors more compact and lightweight, it allows drones to dwell longer on targets or the reduction of transport costs for satellites. To address this need, I designed and built a diffractive plenoptic camera (DPC) which utilized a Fresnel zone plate and a light field camera in order to detect vegetation via a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). This thesis derives design equations by relating DPC system parameters to its expected performance and evaluates its multi-spectral performance. …

Flooding And Industrial Swine Farming In North Carolina: Implications Of Natech Hazards On The Assessment Of Environmental Justice, Jacob Ramthun

Theses and Dissertations

“Natech” events, in which natural hazards trigger anthropogenic hazards, are becoming increasingly common. Methodologies for measuring the impact of natech events on environmental justice assessments are lacking, particularly in rural scenarios. This study used additive, multiplicative, and z-score threshold methods of combining the density of industrial swine farms in eastern North Carolina and the presence of flood risk to determine whether or not natech risk exhibits emergent socioeconomic indicators and whether areas of high natech constitute environmental injustice. The multiplicative and z-score threshold methods generated variables representing natech risk to compare to socioeconomic indicators, as well as statistically significant hotspots. …

A Gis-Based Risk Assessment For Fire Departments: Case Study Of Richland County, Sc, Tracy Whelen

Theses and Dissertations

Risk assessments enable fire departments to be better prepared for future incidents and to engage in more effective prevention activities. A combination of physical, demographic, and behavioral risk factors combined form a community’s level of risk. This research shows how spatial and nonspatial statistical methods can be used within a GIS framework to create such a risk assessment, with the Columbia-Richland Fire Department in Richland County, SC being used as a case study. Hot spot analysis and thematic mapping of incident rates were used to assess the first research question – what is the spatial variability of structure fires, carbon …

Hopeless Heartland: Space And Labor In Virginia, Katrina Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

In the US, labor market conditions vary by demographics and space. Though space has been shown to be highly related to labor force outcomes, lower-level analyses are under-utilized as statistical workforce analyses tend to rely on national or state-level data. This study addresses variability in labor markets by taking a spatial approach, using cluster analysis and logistic regression to explore variations in labor market variables across census tracts in Virginia. Cluster analysis reveals several hot and cold spots of key labor market indicators: rates of marriage, poverty, educational attainment, and income. In many cases, poor social conditions, such as low …

Spatiotemporal Analysis Of Lake Water Quality Indicators On Small Lakes, Lake Bloomington And Evergreen Lake In Central Illinois, Using Satellite Remote Sensing, Gare Ambrose-Igho

Theses and Dissertations

This research explores the use of Sentinel-2 satellite to determine the spatiotemporal patterns of lake water quality indicators (e.g. chlorophyll a) in Lake Bloomington and Evergreen Lake. Lake water quality issues related to algal blooms is a serious problem in basins with abundant agricultural lands causing harmful effects to freshwater ecosystems such as pollution of beaches, taste and odor problems in drinking water, depletion of oxygen levels causing fish kills and the issue of water exceeding safe drinking water standards. Developing monitoring techniques using various water quality indicators of algal blooms is crucial. In this project, remote sensing and field …

Innovative Approaches Using Multispectral Imagery To Detect Nearshore Bars And Elucidate Beach-Dune System Dynamics, Mayra A. Román-Rivera

Theses and Dissertations

Nearshore bars naturally protect the coast against erosion by dissipating wave energy. They are significant reservoirs of sand, and thus, they may impact the response of beaches to different wave conditions. Nearshore bar position and morphologic variability also influences long- and short-term beach and dune stability. This study reveals how nearshore bars influence beach-dune dynamics using very high-resolution (VHR) imagery. A new low- cost identification approach for bar identification was applied by integrating VHR imagery. Future nearshore bar research will benefit from integrating the larger spatial scale provided by satellite sensors. A rule-based OBIA approach was successful in identifying and …

The Effect Of Citi Bike Introduction On Injury Rates In New York City, Masakazu Hiruma

Theses and Dissertations

This paper tests the hypothesis that the introduction of Citi Bike influences bicycle injuries by observing the gradual expansion of the bike share system in NYC. Data is analyzed from 2012-2018 New York Police Department (NYPD) Motor Vehicle Collisions and Citi Bike Station Feeds (NYC Open Data).

Don't Rock The Boat: An Analysis Of Boat Mitigation Prior To Hurricane Landfall, Jessica M. Brugh

Theses and Dissertations

Tropical cyclones are one of the most destructive and costly natural hazards in the United States. Boat owners and marinas are uniquely impacted by these devastating events. Boats pose a substantial monetary loss to owners unable to evacuate or mitigate damage prior to hurricane landfall, and the time it takes to secure them may impact a household’s ability to evacuate in a timely manner. The purpose of this study is to examine the physical and social variables that influence an owner’s decision, as well as how this decision affects the household’s ability to evacuate and the timing of that evacuation. …

Leveraging Geotagged Social Media To Monitor Spatial Behavior During Population Movements Triggered By Hurricanes, Yago Martín González

Theses and Dissertations

In a world of increased mobility and interconnectedness, the study of spatial behavior becomes more relevant than ever. However, multiple researchers have highlighted that the understanding of these dynamic processes has reached a bottleneck derived from the rigidity of traditional spatial behavior inquiry methods and the unavailability of trustworthy and relevant information. These difficulties are even more prominent during emergencies and disasters as these events often create scenarios where spatial behavior does not follow regular and logical patterns and where conventional mobility datasets are often skewed or not existent. Thus, many scholars working within the spatial behavior sub-discipline are pursuing …

Evaluating The Efficacy Of Sand Fences On Dunes Impacted By Hurricanes, Michelle Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Erosion is present in over 90% of the world’s coastlines and poses a threat to infrastructure and natural systems. While the coastal zone is a morphologically dynamic environment, a range of engineering practices have evolved to stabilize it. Because the natural dune system serves as the first line of defense against storm activity and rising sea levels, it is often incorporated into restorative engineering practices. One popular and economical option is the utilization of sand fences. This option is readily available to homeowners and managers, with simple installation requirements. Typically measured for their ability to induce short-term dune growth, scant …