Geography Commons^™

Using Gis To Detect Land Use Changes In The Salinas River Valley From 2001 And 2011, Brian Strukan

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The use of a Geographic Information System (GIS) to explore, analyze, and interpret our environment is a relatively new technology with exciting new advances emerging each day. GIS can be used along with satellite imagery to detect changes on Earth’s surface (Delavar, 2015). With the human population growing rapidly, it has become very important to monitor when, where, and how we are changing the planet. Using the theory of land economics, coupled with land classification maps from 2001 and 2011, I will explain how cities are changing in the Salinas River Valley, a prime agricultural zone in central California. Are …

Analysis Of Professors’ Perceptions Towards Institutional Redevelopment Of Brownfield Sites In Alabama, Berkley Nathaniel King Jr.

Dissertations

This study was conducted to analyze professors’ perceptions on the institutional redevelopment of brownfield sites into usable greenspaces. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (2011) refers to brownfields as sites, (either facility/land) under public law § 107-118 (H.R. 2869), which are contaminated with a substance that is classified as a hazard or a pollutant. Usable greenspaces, however, are open spaces or any open piece of land that is undeveloped, has no buildings or other built structures, and is accessible to the public (EPA, 2015).

Open green spaces provide recreational areas for residents and help to enhance the beauty and environmental quality …

Spatiality Of The Stages Of Genocide: The Armenian Case, Shelley J. Burleson, Alberto Giordano

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article describes the construction of a historical GIS (HGIS) of the Armenian genocide and its application to study how the genocide unfolded spatially and temporally using stage models proposed by Gregory Stanton. The Kazarian manuscript provided a daily record of events related to the genocide during 1914-1923 and served as a primary source. Models outlining and describing the stages of genocide provide a structured and vetted approach to studying the spatial and temporal aspects of the genocidal process, especially genocide by attrition. This article links HGIS to a qualitative, historical source and describes the uncertainties that arise when mapping …

Topic Modeling And The Historical Geography Of Scotland, Michael Gavin, Eric Gidal

Studies in Scottish Literature

Presents selected findings from a larger project using topic modeling for clusters of keywords from a defined corpus of 18th and 19th century Scottish topographical sources (including the Old and New Statistical Surveys), linked to GIS mapping, to explore such topics as Scottish industry, transport, antiquities, print culture, and religion, with 10 maps included in the article text.

Gogeomatics And Its New London Ontario Group, Chunhua Liao, Hongyu Zhang, Peter Crawford

GIS Day

GoGeomatics Canada is an online career network for the Canadian geomatics community. Founded in 2005, the website provides job postings, events listings, magazine articles and newsletter services for geomatics professionals. Informal and free monthly networking events at pubs across Canada are happening in more than ten regions including Ottawa, Toronto, Niagara, Calgary, Vancouver, and Edmonton. In October 2016, a new GoGeomatics London chapter was founded by a group of graduate students from the Department of Geography at Western University to bring social and career development events to the local geospatial community. The first event was held on Oct. 25 at …

Use Of Drones And Gis To Identify Geoglyphs In The Sihuas Valley, Peru, Felipe Gonzalez-Macqueen

GIS Day

Geoglyphs are anthropogenic features built onto the landscape by either removing a layer from the ground to expose the soil underneath or adding layers on top to create a relief. The most well-known examples of this are in the Nazca Valley, Peru where features can measure up to 400m long and have a variety of shapes. However not all geoglyphs are as big and complex as these, as is the case of the Sihuas Valley, Peru where geoglyphs are smaller and less elaborate in comparison. To identify and map these geoglyphs and other features, we used a combination of satellite …

Examining The Community Food Environments For Elementary School-Aged Children In The City Of London And Middlesex County, Ontario, Catherine Dubreck

GIS Day

Childhood obesity is a growing public health issue of global importance. In Canada, one in four children and youth are overweight or obese. Research suggests diet plays a crucial role in childhood obesity, and that prevalence rates of overweight or obesity among children in a neighborhood may relate to area socioeconomic characteristics and other environmental factors. The community nutrition environment (e.g., the type, location, and accessibility of food outlets) and the consumer nutrition environment (e.g., the price, promotion, placement, and availability of healthy options and nutrition information) can influence dietary habits, including the specific meal a child orders from a …

A Gis Analysis Of Waulsortian-Like Mounds In The Mississippian Of Kentucky And Tennessee, Philip Roberson

Scholars Week

Following a mass extinction nearly 365 million years ago, bryozoans and crinoids replaced corals and stromatoporoids as the dominant framework organisms in reefs and, during the very earliest part of the Carboniferous period, they built reef-like structures that are known from Europe, North America and Africa. They are characterized by large size, a matrix of carbonate mud, and their major framework organisms.

Waulsortian-like mounds occur in geographically isolated patches in outcrop and in the subsurface of central Tennessee and Kentucky where they are associated with hydrocarbon production. These mounds have the same characteristic organisms as the European mounds and do …

Adoption Statistics Analysis Using Geographic Information Systems, Ashtan H. Williams

Scholars Week

This project highlights the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for non-locational data by displaying adoption statistics. All topics displayed according to a political boundary (state or country) to include percentage of population awaiting adoption, time from termination of parental rights to finalization of adoption. A GIS-based analysis conducted for this project compares the cost of adoption from within the United States international. There is a focus on types of adoptions like special needs and race specific to provide an overall understanding of adoption in hopes to raise awareness.

Locally Optimized Mapping Of Slum Conditions In A Sub-Saharan Context: A Case Study Of Bamenda, Cameroon, Julius Anchang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite being an indicator of modernization and macro-economic growth, urbanization in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa is tightly interwoven with poverty and deprivation. This has manifested physically as slums, which represent the worst residential urban areas, marked by lack of access to good quality housing and basic services. To effectively combat the slum phenomenon, local slum conditions must be captured in quantitative and spatial terms. However, there are significant hurdles to this. Slum detection and mapping requires readily available and reliable data, as well as a proper conceptualization of measurement and scale. Using Bamenda, Cameroon, as a test case, this …

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 …