Geography Commons^™

Determining The Differences In Hurricane Perception And Evacuation Behavior In The Elderly Of South Carolina, Gregg C. Bowser

Theses and Dissertations

The United States is becoming a "grayer" nation. U.S. Administration of Aging projections indicate that by 2030 nearly 20 percent of the national population will be aged 65 or older, with a significant portion of this growth occurring along the hurricane-prone Atlantic and Gulf coasts. This demographic shift creates new challenges for emergency management. Previous research shows that the elderly do not perceive risks and warnings the same way as other groups, and as a result may react differently to risk. Disproportionately high fatality rates for the elderly in recent disasters indicate that these differences are a key determinant of …

Youth Citizenship, Civic Education, And Spaces Of Belonging In Tallinn, Estonia, Catherine Michelle Cottrell

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the ways that young people in Tallinn, Estonia conceptualize citizenships, identities, and belongings in national and post-national communities. Focus groups were conducted with 29 students from ethnic Estonian and Russophone backgrounds in their final year of secondary school; in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 civic education teachers from the students' schools. Theories of citizenship and nationalism, as well as civic education research, were used to explore the ways in which young people conceptualize the terms of belonging and negotiate cultural difference as they move within and through their everyday spaces, particularly in the school. The study demonstrated …

Hyperspectral Image Classification Using A Spectral-Spatial Sparse Coding Model, Ender Oguslu, Guoqing Zhou, Jiang Li, Lorenzo Bruzzone (Ed.)

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

We present a sparse coding based spectral-spatial classification model for hyperspectral image (HSI) datasets. The proposed method consists of an efficient sparse coding method in which the l₁/l_q regularized multi-class logistic regression technique was utilized to achieve a compact representation of hyperspectral image pixels for land cover classification. We applied the proposed algorithm to a HSI dataset collected at the Kennedy Space Center and compared our algorithm to a recently proposed method, Gaussian process maximum likelihood (GP-ML) classifier. Experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve significantly better performances than the GP-ML classifier when training data …

A Historical Geography Of Sand Island 1870–1944, Lucas P. Johnson

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis examines the settlement of Sand Island, one of two permanent colonies included within Lake Superior’s Apostle Islands archipelago. Following the introduction and literature review, a summary of Sand Island’s geology, climate and biological features is presented, serving to construct a baseline upon which to build a discussion of the island’s communal life. This foundation gives context to the seventy-four year struggle faced by the predominantly Norwegian immigrants adapting to that environment. It also serves to assist future scholars in studying wilderness recovery after what today is nearly an eighty year absence of the farmer’s plow. Chapter Four includes …

Preserving Place: A Grounded Theory Of Citizen Participation In Community-Based Planning, Pamela Jo Hatley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For this research project I used grounded theory methodology and qualitative research methods to examine how and why citizens participated in local community-based planning and land development entitlement processes, and learn about their experiences participating in those processes. I conceptualized the citizens' main concern as preserving the character of the place they consider their community. This research demonstrates that citizens participate in community-based planning and land development entitlement processes out of a concern for preserving the character of their communities. They define the character of their communities in terms of their geographic boundaries, history, traditions, people, lifestyle, and qualitative features …

Ecological Diversity In Hillsborough County, Florida: Correlations Between Landscape Metrics And Socio-Demographic Variables, David Godfrey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Landscape metrics, a means of quantifying landscape attributes, are frequently used in landscape ecology to describe the spatial characteristics of a landscape, but they have been less often used in anthropology. Using geographic information system (GIS) software, this study tests a method that investigates statistical correlations between groundcover landscape metrics and socio-demographic variables in Hillsborough County, Florida. Statistically significant correlations were found, illustrating the potential utility of this exploratory method. Wealthier areas with fewer ethnic minorities tend to be more fragmented and diverse in terms of groundcover; these areas also tend to have a lower percentage of impervious surfaces. The …

Eco-Epidemiology Of Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus, Patrick Vander Kelen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus (EEEV) is an alphavirus with high pathogenicity in both humans and horses. Florida continues to have the highest occurrence of human cases in the USA, with four fatalities recorded in 2010. Unlike other states, Florida supports year-round EEEV transmission. This research uses Geographic Information Science (GIS) to examine spatial patterns of documented sentinel seroconversions and horse cases in order to understand the relationships between habitat and transmission intensity of EEEV in Florida. Sentinel sites were categorized as enzootic, periodically enzootic, and negative based on the amount of chicken seroconversions to EEEV. Sentinel sites were analyzed …

Connecting Pixels To People: Management Agents And Social-Ecological Determinants Of Changes To Street Tree Distributions, Shawn Landry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Street trees are an important component of the urban forest that can provide direct and indirect benefits to social and ecological sustainability in cities. Temporal and spatial interactions between human and non-human management agents determine the distribution and health of street tree populations in urban areas. This dissertation seeks to enhance our understanding of the spatial patterns and processes affecting street trees by investigating the agents and social-ecological determinants of changes to street tree distributions in urban residential neighborhoods. The research was guided by three primary questions: (1) Are recent changes to the spatial distribution of street trees influenced by …

Sense Of Place In An Unincorporated Community:, Samuel Scott Sanderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Residents of communities that are at the edge of the rural-urban divide are likely to have many senses of place reflective of the changes occurring around them. As the place where they have resided in and identify with becomes transformed by changes in land use and social composition, these residents may be forced to either adapt or leave. Often overlooked, these individuals may feel as if the place where they have long resided is no longer their home. As the familiar routes, stores, and neighborhoods give way to new highways, big name stores, and exclusive subdivisions, their understanding of …

World Heritage Status, Governance And Perception In The Pitons Management Area, St.Lucia, Vernice Camilla Hippolyte

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are currently 962 geographic sites in the world that have been classified as World Heritage. World Heritage is a unique concept, privy to and defined by UNESCO-- the United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural organization, one of the specialized agencies and autonomous organizations established within the UN-United Nations system. World Heritage is governed by an international treaty called the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972 (The `Convention'). The inscription of a World Heritage Site or designation of World Heritage Status is highly coveted and considered in UNESCO parlance to …

New Orleans: A Disaster Waiting To Happen?, Rodney J. Giblett

Research outputs 2013

New Orleans is one of a number of infamous swamp cities—cities built in swamps, near them or on land “reclaimed” from them, such as London, Paris, Venice, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Petersburg, and Perth. New Orleans seemed to be winning the battle against the swamps until Hurricane Katrina of 2005, or at least participating in an uneasy truce between its unviable location and the forces of the weather to the point that the former was forgotten until the latter intruded as a stark reminder of its history and geography. Around the name “Katrina” a whole series of events and images congregate, …

Evaluating Habitat Vulnerability And Sustainability Of Urban Seagrass Resources To Sea Level Rise, Cynthia A. Meyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The seagrass resource provides essential ecosystem functions for many marine species. This research evaluated the vulnerability and sustainability of the seagrass resource in an urbanized area to the effects of sea level rise. The assessment required analysis of information regarding the biogeography of the seagrass resource, and developing a method to model the spatial extent of the suitable habitat for seagrass, and applying the model to predict the implications of simulated sea level rise scenarios on the seagrass resource.

Examining the biogeography of the seagrass resource required the development of a seagrass monitoring and assessment field survey and a comprehensive …

Automated Sinkhole Extraction And Morphological Analysis In Northeast Iowa Using High-Resolution Lidar Data, Jonathon Launspach

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Accurate and detailed mapping of sinkholes is necessary to ensure sinkhole monitoring and management. Historically, sinkholes were found and digitized manually by a visual examination of aerial photos or through field surveying. This paper develops a new, multicriteria LiDAR-based sinkhole extraction method and automated processes to detect sinkholes and their boundaries. This technique of extraction is unique as it identifies sinkhole boundaries automatically using remotely sensed data, compared to traditional methods of manually tracing the perimeter. A sinkhole detection module was developed within a GIS environment to determine location and boundaries of the sinkholes. Several small study areas were selected …