Geography Commons^™

Constituting Agricultural And Food Policy In Malawi: The Role Of The State And International Donors In The Farm Input Subsidy Program (Fisp), Peter Rock Nkhoma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Numerous studies have been undertaken on the political economy of agricultural policies in developing countries. These studies have explained agricultural policies in terms of urban bias, economic reforms, and domestic politics. Recently, the emphasis has been on explanations that reference the existence of a rational-legal and patronage element within the African state. Such explanations tend to underplay the extent to which agricultural policies are devised in a context of power asymmetries between the state and international donors or financial institutions. In the Malawian context specifically, limited attention has been paid to the possibility that policies are a negotiated outcome of …

Poland’S Voivodeships And Poviats And The Geographies Of Knowledge: Addressing Uneven Human Resources, Stanley D. Brunn, Marcin Semczuk, Rafał Koszek, Karolina Gołuszka, Gabriela Bołoz

Geography Faculty Publications

In a postindustrial economic world, information economies are key components in local, regional and national development. These are service economies, built on the production, consumption and dissemination of information, including education, health care, outsourcing, tourism, sustainability and related human welfare services. We explore the geography/knowledge intersections in Poland’s voivodeships and poviats by using the volumes of information or hyperlinks about selected information economies. Google hyperlinks are electronic knowledge data that can be mapped to highlight the areas of most and least information about certain subject categories. While some mapping results are expected, such as Warsaw and Krakow, being prominent, in …

The Economics Of Adaptation To Climate Change In Coasts And Oceans: Literature Review, Policy Implications And Research Agenda, Charles S. Colgan

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

Sea level rise and other effects of climate change on oceans and coasts around the world are major reasons to halt the emissions of greenhouse gases to the maximum extent. But historical emissions and sea level rise have already begun so steps to adapt to a world where shorelines, coastal populations, and economies could be dramatically altered are now essential. This presents significant economic challenges in four areas. (1) Large expenditures for adaptation steps may be required but the extent of sea level rise and thus the expenditures are unknowable at this point. Traditional methods for comparing benefits and costs …

The Conflict In Syria: Should The United States Get More Involved?, Jacob Peoples

Posters-at-the-Capitol

The purpose of this research is to explore the relations between Syria, Russia, and the United States in the Syrian civil war. The relationship has been in turmoil because of the complexities of the situation. Syria has been a designated state sponsor of terrorism since December 29, 1979, five years before the next designated state of Iran. Syria is a very important and strategic country and now more than ever has a large risk of being completely overrun by the newest terrorist group ISIS. The turmoil is possibly stemming initially from the result of a failed 1957 Central Intelligence Agency …

Pilgrimage Project, David Sheffler, Mike Boyles, Christopher Baynard, Ron Lukens-Bull

DHI Digital Projects Showcase

The University of North Florida Pilgrimage Project combines interdisciplinary approaches with digital and STEM technologies and applies them to the study of pilgrimage with a special focus on the Camino de Santiago.

Characterization Of Landsat-7 To Landsat-8 Reflective Wavelength And Normalized Difference Vegetation Index Continuity, David P. Roy, V. Kovalskyy, Hankui Zhang, Eric F. Vermote, Lin Yan Dr., Sanath Sathyachandran Kumar, Alexey V. Egorov

GSCE Faculty Publications

At over 40 years, the Landsat satellites provide the longest temporal record of space-based land surface observations, and the successful 2013 launch of the Landsat-8 is continuing this legacy. Ideally, the Landsat data record should be consistent over the Landsat sensor series. The Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) has improved calibration, signal to noise characteristics, higher 12-bit radiometric resolution, and spectrally narrower wavebands than the previous Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM +). Reflective wavelength differences between the two Landsat sensors depend also on the surface reflectance and atmospheric state which are difficult to model comprehensively. The orbit and sensing geometries …

Canopy Height Estimation By Characterizing Waveform Lidar Geometry Based On Shape-Distance Metric, Eric Ariel L. Salas, Geoffrey M. Henebry

GSCE Faculty Publications

There have been few approaches developed for the estimation of height using waveform LiDAR data. Unlike any existing methods, we illustrate how the new Moment Distance (MD) framework can characterize the canopy height based on the geometry and return power of the LiDAR waveform without having to go through curve modeling processes. Our approach offers the possibilities of using the raw waveform data to capture vital information from the variety of complex waveform shapes in LiDAR. We assess the relationship of the MD metrics to the key waveform landmarks—such as locations of peaks, power of returns, canopy heights, and height …

Urban–Rural Contrasts In Central-Eastern European Cities Using A Modis 4 Micron Time Series, Monika Tomaszewska, Geoffrey M. Henebry

GSCE Faculty Publications

A primary impact of urbanization on the local climate is evident in the phenomenon recognized as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. This urban thermal anomaly can increase the health risks of vulnerable populations to heat waves. The surface UHI results from emittance in the longer wavelengths of the thermal infrared; however, there are also urban anomalies that are detectable from radiance in the shorter wavelengths (3–5 micron) of the Middle Infrared (MIR). Radiance in the MIR can penetrate urban haze which frequently obscures urban areas by scattering visible and near infrared radiation. We analyzed seasonal and spatial variations in …

Site Layout Optimization Using Gis, Sulyn Gomez, Mohd Samrah, Jenan Almullaali

Purdue GIS Day

The aim of the research if to analyze the use of ArcGIS to optimize site layout and reduce the cost associated with the construction of a university campus by: - Optimizing the productivity of the equipment fleet after selecting the spatial position, type, and number of equipment with GIS. - Minimizing travel time (Noncontributory activity or waste) and maximizing labor productivity by selecting the spatial position and the number of warehouses. Although there are many temporary facilities in the construction site, the study is focused in managing warehouses and the lifting equipment (cranes). One important step for site layout optimization …

Utilizing Gis To Locate Endangered Gravel Hill Prairies Of The Wabash River Valley, Ryan W.R. Schroeder, Darrell Schulze

Purdue GIS Day

The Gravel Hill Prairies (GHP's) of the Wabash River Valley are an endangered ecosystem in the state of Indiana and provide optimal growing conditions for a number of state endangered plants. Currently only four remnants are known to exist near Lafayette, IN, found by a previous study conducted in 1980 by Post, Bacone, and Aldrich (Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, 1984, vol. 94: 457-464). These unique ecosystems have been found to occur almost exclusively on soils classified as Rodman Gravelly Loams and Strawn-Rodman complexes which occur predominantly along the outwash terraces of the Wabash River and its tributaries. …

A Massively Parallel Evolutionary Computation Approach For Redistricting Optimization And Analysis, Wendy K. Tam Cho, Yan Liu

Purdue GIS Day

No abstract provided.

Teaching With Arcgis Pro, Larry Theller

Purdue GIS Day

For Fall semester 2016 the ABE department moved the course ASM 540 Basic GIS from ArcGIS Desktop 10.2 to ArcGIS Pro 1.3. This software from ESRI has a completely new look and feel, (ribbon-based rather than cascading menus) and is a true 64 bit application, capable of multi-threading, and built on Python 3. After ArcGIS Desktop 10.5 is released, desktop ends and the future release will be ArcGIS Pro; so it makes sense to switch sooner rather than later. This talk will discuss some issues and some observations of that process.

Drone Panel Presentation: Unmanned Aerial Systems In Agriculture Research, Keith A. Cherkauer, Anthony Hearst, Yan Zhu

Purdue GIS Day

No abstract provided.

Drone Panel Presentation: Using Drones In Archaeological Research: Kasakh Valley Archaeological Survey (Kvas), Armenia, Ian Lindsay

Purdue GIS Day

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Management On The Movement And Home Range Size Of Indiana's Eastern Hellbender Salamanders, Emily B. Mccallen, Bart T. Kraus, Nick G. Burgmeier, Rod N. Williams

Purdue GIS Day

Eastern hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis alleganiensis) are a large, fully aquatic salamander species distributed throughout watersheds in the eastern United States. In Indiana, hellbenders were once found in tributaries of the Ohio River and the Wabash River but are now restricted to a single river in the southern portion of the state. Monitoring within the Blue River over twenty years has revealed a steady decrease in the total abundance of hellbenders and a shift towards older individuals in the age structure of the population. Concerned over the apparent lack of recruitment, the Indiana department of natural resources performed a series of …

Predicting U. S. Presidential Elections: From 1900 Until Today, Richard L. Hogan

Purdue GIS Day

This presentation is scheduled for the weekend before the presidential election of 2016. By then, we might all need a break from pollsters and predictions, although we still might be looking for some assurance that this will not be the end of Western Civilization as we knew it. Toward that end, a little historical perspective on presidential elections since 1900, complete with cool maps, of course, indicating partisanship by state, will illustrate several important hypotheses that the data suggest we might incorporate in our efforts to predict the future by explaining the past. Neither candidate has approved this message.

Drone Panel Presentation: Application Of Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas), Brian Kozak

Purdue GIS Day

No abstract provided.

Gis In Archaeology: The Pedestrian Survey Of Dana Island In Turkey, Noah Kaye, Gunder Varinlioglu, Nicholas K. Rauh

Purdue GIS Day

An international team of archaeologists conducted a surface survey of the remains on Dana Island, ancient Pithussae, near Silifke in south Coastal Turkey. The island sits 2 km offshore and is uninhabited. Architectural remains of stone quarries, large cisterns, houses and churches extend approximately 1.6 km along its western coast. At the crest of the mountain that rises above the shore stands the remains of an Iron Age fortress incorporated into later Byzantine structures. Relying on a base map constructed of the Google earth view of the island, digitized topographical maps, and an aerial photograph from 1990, the pedestrian team …

How Gis Will Support Next Gen 9-1-1, Jim I. Sparks

Purdue GIS Day

While most practitioners have a general awareness that GIS will play a more prominent role in Next Generation 9-1-1, few have much definitive information about what that means for Indiana GIS. This presentation will provide background information and an introduction to the requirements that NG 9-1-1 will place on our location data. Time will be left for some discussion centered on the challenges that are ahead of us.

Spatial Analysis Of Landfills In Respect To Flood Events And Sea-Level Rise, Benjamin S. Taylor, Songlin Fei

Purdue GIS Day

Recently in the news, media coverage of flood events has garnered much attention due to tropical storms like Hurricane Matthew and the costly damages that resulted. Under climate change, events like sea-level rise (SLR) and flooding threaten infrastructure, which make it necessary for proper planning before, during, and after installation to mitigate risk. Studies in Austria and the UK have revealed that many landfills are located in flood zones as well as coastal areas effected by coastal erosion. In the U.S. however, there have not been publications on landfill locations related to flood events and SLR. The interest of gaining …

Introduction To The New Indiana Geospatial Coordinate System (Ingcs), Matthew Badger

Purdue GIS Day

The Indiana Geospatial Coordinate System (InGCS) was approved and adopted by INDOT in 2015 and will soon be the primary coordinate reference system used on INDOT survey and design projects. Other agencies and organizations in the geospatial arena are encouraged to make use of this system of low distortion projections as well. Many of the more widely used geospatial software vendors have since included the InGCS in their platforms to support their customers’ needs. Please refer to the InGCS webpage at www.in.gov/indot/InGCS.htm for additional information.

Speaker Bio: Matthew G. Badger, P.S. Matt has been a licensed Professional Surveyor in Indiana …

Analyzing The Native-Exotic Richness Relationship Using Native Beta Diversity, Gabriela C. Nunez-Mir, Songlin Fei

Purdue GIS Day

Invasion paradox, a change of direction in native-exotic richness relationships (NERRs) from negative at small scales to positive at large scales, has been shown to exist in many environments. A major explanation for these patterns is environmental heterogeneity, and to a lesser extent, species pool size. It is likely that a combination of these factors is producing these patterns and determines if and how they appear in certain environments. Beta diversity, which describes the heterogeneity of species composition among assemblages and as the scalar between local richness and regional richness (species pool size), could serve as a proxy for these …

Geospatial Tools And Data Provided By Itap/Research Computing, Larry L. Biehl

Purdue GIS Day

The presentation will provide the audience information about the geospatial applications that are available on campus including Esri ArcGIS, ERDAS Imagine, Exelis ENVI, Trimble eCognition and others. The information will include where to go to download the software installers and how to set up the licensing for them. The discussion will also go over the new software installer file download process.

Mapping Religion And Chinese Society, Jonathan E.E. Pettit

Purdue GIS Day

Over the past two decades, the Chinese government has enacted a series of regulations that have made the collection of geospatial data illegal, and have tried to use existing technologies (e.g., cell phone towers, online mapping programs) to avert attempts to map sensitive areas in China. This talks examines the recent work of Purdue graduate students at the Center on Religion and Chinese Society, who have developed a web-based GIS program that provides researchers worldwide a way to make and use accurate data on religious and demographic data in China.

Gis Resources At Purdue, Randy Herban

Purdue GIS Day

No abstract provided.

The Potential Of Forest Biomass Inversion Based On Vegetation Indices Using Multi-Angle Chris/Proba Data, Qiang Wang, Yong Pang, Zengyuan Li, Guoqing Sun, Erxue Chen, Wenge Ni-Meister

Publications and Research

Multi-angle remote sensing can either be regarded as an added source of uncertainty for variable retrieval, or as a source of additional information, which enhances variable retrieval compared to traditional single-angle observation. However, the magnitude of these angular and band effects for forest structure parameters is difficult to quantify. We used the Discrete Anisotropic Radiative Transfer (DART) model and the Zelig model to simulate the forest canopy Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Factor (BRDF) in order to build a look-up table, and eight vegetation indices were used to assess the relationship between BRDF and forest biomass in order to find the sensitive …

How Mature Capitalism Turns Pollution Into Diamonds: Malagnogenesis And The Reverse-Engineering Of Harm Into Risk, Kevin P. Martyn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, there has been a great deal of debate about the pervasiveness and persistence of neoliberal thinking. In the context of the post-2008 ‘great recession’ the resilience of neoliberalism is particularly confounding. To begin to unravel the ways in which neoliberalism is situated relative to risk, this study identifies an increasingly important neoliberal knowledge practice: malagnogenesis. Malagnogenesis is proposed herein as the production of ignorance that normalizes harm for and amongst marginalized populations. To shed light on the phenomena of malagnogenesis, this study investigated the history of leaded gasoline in the U.S. To that end, I …

Open Access Geospatial Data, Hannah Hamalainen

Open Access Events

The landscape of open-access geospatial data is vastly growing with an abundance of open source software, websites, and datasets available to the public. How do we find and access these resources? Find out from the Geospatial Services Center.

Geopolitical Implications Of The Sino-Japanese East China Sea Dispute For The U.S., Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This presentation updates the article "Geopolitical Implications of the Sino-East China Sea Dispute for the U.S." published in Geopolitics, History, and International Relations which is already available in epubs.

1912 - Report Of The Conservation Commission Of The State Of California

Miscellaneous Documents and Reports

The report prepared by the Conservation Commission of the State of California investigated and gathered data and information concerning forestry, water, the use of water, water power, electricity, electrical or other power, mines and mining, mineral and other lands, dredging, reclamation and irrigation, providing such information for the purpose of revising, systematizing and reforming the state laws pertaining to these subjects.