Geography Commons^™

Dynamics Of Land Use, Environment, And Social Organization In The Sasanian Landscape Of Eastern Iraq—Western Iran, Mitra Panahipour

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding human-environment interactions has been one of the main challenges in archaeological studies over recent years. Past research on the Near Eastern territorial empires in general, and the Sasanian Empire in particular, primarily emphasized the dominant role of human on landscape transformation. In addition, politically centralized schemes such as agricultural intensification and expansion of water supply systems have been at the center of most of the discussions and remained the main hypothesis of the Sasanian land use practices.

This dissertation investigates population’s diverse responses to environmental variability during the Sasanian period (224-651 CE) across a landscape in eastern Iraq—western Iran. …

The War On Winter: How Americans Put Down Roots On The Northern Plains, 1854-1949, Daniel J. Fischer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation is a study of how the United States was able to expand onto the Northern Great Plains, consisting of the Dakotas, Nebraska, and the eastern parts of Wyoming and Montana, between 1854 and 1949 despite the threat to property, comfort, and survival posed by the region’s harsh winters, which brought intense cold, large snowdrifts, and blinding blizzards. This dissertation argues that five tools – government programs, rapidly changing technology, imagination, strong local communities, and toughness – allowed native-born Americans and European immigrants to survive and become increasingly secure in the region. But it also argues that severe gaps …

The Effects Of Geography And Proximity On Board Of Directors: An Exponential Random Graphs Approach, Panagiotis Giannakis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims at exploring how physical proximity, among other geographical elements, affects the synthesis of boards of directors, the decisions executives make, and, in general, organizations. Drawing on the rich literature in economic geography, these studies focus on re-evaluating the effects of geography on board of directors in the contemporary context characterized by significant technological advancements which is expected to minimize the effects of distance.

The first paper evaluates the geographic proximity effects on the likelihood of board interlock ties creation, while controlling for endogenous network processes. Additionally, all proposed network specifications are simulated in order to assess the …

Lidar-Based Sinkhole Detection And Mapping In Knox County, Tennessee, J Clint Shannon, David Moore, Yingkui Li, Cathy Olsen

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Sinkholes are one of the major causes of damage to roads, buildings, and other infrastructure throughout the US. Sinkholes near or on roads are especially costly and occasionally deadly. Knox County and much of East Tennessee are located within karst areas (comprised of porous and soluble limestone and dolomite), deeming it at risk for sinkholes. Currently, Knox County uses contour maps to manually identify sinkholes. Supported by a geographic information system (GIS), we developed a streamlined model to identify the locations and extents of potential sinkholes using 1.3-ft resolution LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data and applied it to the …

Understanding Cumulative Hazards In A Rustbelt City: Integrating Gis, Archaeology, And Spatial History, Daniel Trepal, Don Lafreniere

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

We combine the Historical Spatial Data Infrastructure (HSDI) concept developed within spatial history with elements of archaeological predictive modeling to demonstrate a novel GIS-based landscape model for identifying the persistence of historically-generated industrial hazards in postindustrial cities. This historical big data approach draws on over a century of both historical and modern spatial big data to project the presence of specific persistent historical hazards across a city. This research improves on previous attempts to understand the origins and persistence of historical pollution hazards, and our final model augments traditional archaeological approaches to site prospection and analysis. This study also demonstrates …

A Hybrid Gis/In Situ Analysis Of Aed Coverage On The Unm Central Campus, Ian T. Hill

Geography ETDs

Automated External Defibrillators (AED’s) are lifesaving devices that can greatly improve the survival rates of cardiac arrest when used quickly. There are publicly accessible AED’s on the UNM campus, and each device has an effective range based on how quickly a responder can retrieve the AED and return it to the site of the cardiac emergency. The ranges of the AED’s on UNM central campus are analyzed using GIS, interior building measurements, and various retrieval speeds. This helps evaluate the current placement of AED’s on campus and helps reveal where future coverage is needed. This focus on the combined navigation …

How Pennsylvanians Define Environmental Justice, Kayla Hofmann

Sociology Summer Fellows

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) defines an environmental justice area as any census tract that partially or wholly includes a 30 percent or greater minority population or 20 percent or more of a population living in poverty. However, little is known about how the average Pennsylvanian defines environmental justice, hindering our ability to determine whether the current definition is adequate. Using transcripts from nine listening sessions on the DEP’s tour of affected counties, I address 3 questions: (1) How do people define environmental justice? (2) What do people think are the most pressing issues in each county? And …

Age Of Concrete : Housing And The Shape Of Aspiration In The Capital Of Mozambique, David Morton

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Age of Concrete is a history of the making of houses and homes in the subúrbios of Maputo (Lourenço Marques), Mozambique, from the late 1940s to the present. Often dismissed as undifferentiated, ahistorical “slums,” these neighborhoods are in fact an open-air archive that reveals some of people’s highest aspirations. At first people built in reeds. Then they built in wood and zinc panels. And finally, even when it was illegal, they risked building in concrete block, making permanent homes in a place where their presence was often excruciatingly precarious.

Unlike many histories of the built environment in African cities, Age …

Enhancing Ontario’S Rural Infrastructure Preparedness: Inter-Community Service Sharing In A Changing Climate — Rural Community Practitioners Workbook, Bryce Gunson, Brenda Murphy

Social and Environmental Justice Faculty Publications

This practitioner workbook draws together the insights from a three-year (2016-19) Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) funded research study. The purpose of the research project was to 1) assess the potential of inter-community service cooperation (ICSC) as a possible tool to address the impacts of climate change (CC) in small (500-7500 pop.) Ontario rural communities south of the Sudbury region and 2) understand the extent to which such collaboration and the impacts of CC are, or could be, embedded within the community’s infrastructure (asset) management processes (AMP). While the conclusions of this workbook are generalized to …

Enhancing Ontario’S Rural Infrastructure Preparedness: Inter-Community Service Sharing In A Changing Climate — Policy Brief, Brenda Murphy, Bryce Gunson

Social and Environmental Justice Faculty Publications

This policy brief draws together the insights from a three-year (2016-19) Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) funded research study. The purpose of the research project was to 1) assess the potential of inter-community service cooperation (ICSC) as a possible tool to address the impacts of climate change (CC) in small (500-7500 pop.) Ontario rural communities south of the Sudbury region and 2) understand the extent to which such collaboration and the impacts of CC are, or could be, embedded within the community’s infrastructure (asset) management processes (AMP). While the conclusions of policy brief are generalized to …

Rafi & Patra, Rafi, Patra, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Rafi and his family have been stuck on the border between Greece and Macedonia for almost four months. They made their way from Afghanistan, received certificates in Greece to help them on their journey, but were then stopped at the border of Macedonia. The Macedonians said that they were no longer allowing Afghans into their country. Now all they can do is wait and hope. In Afghanistan,Rafi was a military man. As a young man, he was a part of the Revolution army, but later was made a soldier for the Government Security of Kabul. During that time, he was …

A Tourism Impact Index For Water-Based Natural Attractions Field-Tested In Subarctic And Maritime Climates, Jason Fox

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Tourism in cold and cool-climate regions is largely characterized by recreational and sightseeing activities at water-based natural attractions such as beaches, coastal cliffs, and waterfalls. While the economic benefits of the tourism industry can contribute to a sustainable future for these regions, the environmental implications of a hastilydeveloped industry cannot be ignored given that cold-climate and cool-climate landscapes are at risk of rapid environmental change from a warming climate and other environmental concerns. This study consisted of the development of the Tourism Impact Index for Water-Based Natural Sites, the first of its kind, and its application and refinement in the …

Development Of A Karst Tourism Management Index To Assess Tourism-Driven Degradation Of Protected Karst Sites, Keith R. Semler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The intent of this research was to create and evaluate a karst tourism management index (KTMI). This index is intended to be a new management tool designed to quantify environmental disturbances caused specifically by tourism activities in karst regions, particularly show caves and springs. In an effort to assess the effectiveness of the index as a management tool in karst terrains, after development, the index was applied to six case study sites. A review of the management policies at each study site was conducted with the use of standard policy critique methods and semistructured interviews with managers at the study …

Enhancing Ontario’S Rural Infrastructure Preparedness: Inter-Community Service Sharing In A Changing Climate — Final Report: Swot Analysis And Key Insights, Brenda Murphy, Bryce Gunson

Social and Environmental Justice Faculty Publications

This final report draws together the insights from the three-year Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (2016-2019) study. The quote above succinctly draws together the vision behind this project: Enhanced, efficient service cooperation that contributes to a sustainable and prepared infrastructure system, while protecting the environmental capital upon which rural economies frequently depend. The purpose of the research project was to 1) assess the potential of inter-community service cooperation (ICSC) as a possible tool to address the impacts of climate change (CC) in small (500-7500 pop.) Ontario rural communities south of the Sudbury region and 2) understand the …

Enhancing Ontario’S Rural Infrastructure Preparedness: Inter-Community Service Sharing In A Changing Climate — Interim Report 2: Provincial Survey Results, Brenda Murphy, Bryce Gunson

Social and Environmental Justice Faculty Publications

Rural communities draw from their history of doing more with less, strong social networks and an intimate relationship with the natural environment to achieve economic innovation, positive social capacity development and environmental sustainability. These spaces also experience challenges including preparing for the impacts of climate change (CC). Ontario has already felt some of these effects leading to millions of dollars of damage to the province’s infrastructure. Exacerbated by an aging infrastructure built by now outdated assumptions, the vulnerability to CC will likely increase and the built-in coping range may not be adequate to handle future climate extremes.

The purpose of …

Taller Del Grupo Geográfico Transfronterizo De La Amazonía Sud-Occidental (Gtaso) Para Mitigar Desafios Ambientales En La Amazonía Peruana Y Brasileña, Claire Powell, David S. Salisbury, Balbín Ordaya, Bertha O., Pedro Tipula Tipula

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Contexto:

El territorio fronterizo compartido por las regiones Ucayali (Perú), Madre de Dios (Perú) y Acre (Brasil) es un espacio geográfico de alta sensibilidad física, social, económica y ambiental dada sus características de localización geográfica: clima tropical, escasa accesibilidad, abundantes recursos naturales, alta diversidad biocultural y aislamiento en relación a los respectivos gobiernos centrales. Este territorio fronterizo incluye zonas, tales como la frontera Acre-Ucayali y Acre-Madre de Dios, ocupadas mayoritariamente por diversas poblaciones indígenas. Estas regiones han visto en los últimos años un incremento en actividades de extracción de recursos y proyectos de infraestructura. Dichas actividades incluyen explotación de madera, …

Governance In A Globalised World, Richard Woodward

Books/Book Chapters

Discussions surrounding the sources of power and authority that govern the social world have taken place since ancient times. Finally, in the latter half of the twentieth century, it appeared that this debate had been decisively resolved in favour of the view that governance was the preserve of governments. This was a consequence of the ascendance in the social sciences of methodologies that presupposed human activities to correspond to the territorial boundaries of sovereign states. The privileging of sovereign territoriality did not reflect a poverty of scholarly thinking but was a by-product of their social world. (Taylor, 1996). By the …

Searching Activity Trajectories With Semantics, Li-Hua Yin, Huiwen Liu

PhD Student’s Publications Collection

With the widespread use of smart phones and mobile Internet, social network users have generated massive geo-tagged tweets, photos and videos to form lots of informative trajectories which reveal not only their spatio-temporal dynamics, but also their activities in the physical world. Existing spatial trajectory query studies mainly focus on analyzing the spatio-temporal properties of the users’ trajectories, while leaving the understanding of their activities largely untouched. In this paper, we incorporate the semantics of the activity information embedded in trajectories into query modelling and processing, with the aim of providing end users more informative and meaningful results. To this …

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 …

Urban Greenway Vegetative Communities And Environmental Drivers In The Southeastern United States, Erika Y. Chin

Theses and Dissertations

Greenways serve as parks or non-motorized transportation routes for urban residents, but as greenspaces they also have the potential to enhance habitat quality and availability. This dissertation examined two aspects of urban greenways: the motivations for establishing greenways and the structure of vegetative communities found within them. Analysis of greenways plans revealed that the provision of natural resources and societal benefits are not promoted equally. In general, social and recreational functions are prioritized in greenway designs, while environmental benefits and services are expected to be inherently and equally possessed by all greenspaces and greenways. Consequently, specific conservation actions (e.g. habitat …

Thousands Forced To Migrate As Sea Swallows Coastal Belt, Jahanzeb Tahir

MSJ Capstone Projects

Pakistan is one those tropical countries that faces a major climate change challenge. People are generally less concerned about the issue but a great effort is required to face this growing threat. Extreme weather events can already be seen. In 2015 more than 2000 people died because of heat wave which heat in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province.

Karachi, the Arabian coastal region has area of approximately 3,640 km2. The impact of global warming can be measured in the coastal region as sea levels have risen by approximately 10 centimetres in the last century. The sea levels are expected …

Geographic And Climatic Attributions Of Autumn Land Surface Phenology Spatial Patterns In The Temperate Deciduous Broadleaf Forest Of China, Weiguang Lang, Xiaoqiu Chen, Liang Liang, Shilong Ren, Siwei Qian

Geography Faculty Publications

Autumn vegetation phenology plays a critical role in identifying the end of the growing season and its response to climate change. Using the six vegetation indices retrieved from moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer data, we extracted an end date of the growing season (EOS) in the temperate deciduous broadleaf forest (TDBF) area of China. Then, we validated EOS with the ground-observed leaf fall date (LF) of dominant tree species at 27 sites and selected the best vegetation index. Moreover, we analyzed the spatial pattern of EOS based on the best vegetation index and its dependency on geo-location indicators and seasonal temperature/precipitation. …

Measuring And Understanding Food Accessibility In The Tampa Bay Area, Bailey I. Glover

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the Tampa Bay region, increasing population and changing demographics have begun to alter the characteristics of established neighborhoods. An increase in suburban growth has triggered a shift in the location and profitability of food establishments in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods. Supermarket closures have garnered attention from public health officials who are concerned with the overall availability of fresh food throughout Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. Unfortunately, there has been little research surrounding the quality of food sold at establishments in both the Tampa Bay region and abroad. Instead, many geographic studies have chosen to group both fresh and prepared food establishments …

Biodiversity Of Large Bivalve Mollusks (Mollusca: Unionidae, Corbiсulidae)Of The Reservoirs Of Uzbekistan, Z.I. Izatullayev, Kh.T Boymurodov

Scientific Journal of Samarkand University

The fauna and ecological complexes of large bivalve mollusks of three reservoirs from Central and southern Uzbekistan: Kattakurgan, Chimkurgan and Tallimarzhan were studied.According to the number of species - 10 and ecological complexes of mollusks is the richest, the first two reservoirs, the poor species (6) were Tallimarzhan.The reasons for their distribution in reservoirs are established. These bodies of water are analyzed by morphology, origin, biological type and saprobity.

Coral Reef Change Detection In Remote Pacific Islands Using Support Vector Machine Classifiers, Justin J. Gapper, Hesham El-Askary, Erik Linstead, Thomas Piechota

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Despite the abundance of research on coral reef change detection, few studies have been conducted to assess the spatial generalization principles of a live coral cover classifier trained using remote sensing data from multiple locations. The aim of this study is to develop a machine learning classifier for coral dominated benthic cover-type class (CDBCTC) based on ground truth observations and Landsat images, evaluate the performance of this classifier when tested against new data, then deploy the classifier to perform CDBCTC change analysis of multiple locations. The proposed framework includes image calibration, support vector machine (SVM) training and tuning, statistical assessment …

Habitat Suitability Index Model Of The Florida Sandhill Crane (Grus Canadensis Pratensis) In West-Central Florida, Courtney E. Buck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Florida Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis pratensis) is a state threatened endemic subspecies of the Sandhill Crane (Nesbitt & Tacha, 1997). With a population that was estimated at a maximum of 5,000 individuals in 2003 (Nesbitt & Hatchitt, 2008), it is imperative to identify potentially viable habitats, as Florida is rapidly developing. This research develops a Habitat Suitability Index model to determine unsuitable to optimally suitable habitat locations throughout west-central Florida. To do so, six suitability variables based on the crane’s life history were evaluated: Potential nesting area, immediate nesting area, wetland coverage, foraging area, brooding area, and road proximity. …

Assessing The Rock Island Community Garden Program, Christian Elliott, Hunter Ridley, Robert Burke, Alexander Disabato, Abby Huffman, Dr. Christopher Strunk

Celebration of Learning

As part of Sustainable Working Landscapes Initiative with Augustana College’s Upper Mississippi Center, students in Urban Design and Environmental Justice (Geography 325) conducted research on Rock Island’s community garden program this fall. The City of Rock Island currently has 21 vacant-lot community gardens and plans to expand the program to 24 gardens in 2019. The purpose of this project was to develop an initial assessment of the community garden program and provide general information about the benefits of urban gardens. Students worked with Dr. Strunk to conduct a survey with current garden program participants and tested soil from 14 gardens …

Rethinking Map Literacy And An Analysis Of Quantitative Map Literacy, Ming Xie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Maps are increasingly being used in traditional and virtual media, and civic discourse on political, social, and environmental issues, among others, is more and more becoming influenced by them. The often-used expression of a “picture tells a 1000 words” has never been so apt in our progressively more visual world. Despite this increased role and importance of maps, map literacy, as a field of research, remains rather underdeveloped. This is especially so for thematic maps, the very type of map that is finding increasing currency in discourse. As part of this under-developed nature of map literacy, the quantitative skills used …