Geographic Information Sciences Commons^™

Evaluating Spatiotemporal Vegetation Index Variation To Detect Salt Marsh Dieback On The Georgia Coast, Emmanuella Bosompemaa Obeng

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Salt marshes, essential for coastal protection and carbon sequestration, are increasingly vulnerable to dieback events, threatening ecosystem resilience and vital services. Detecting these shifts early is essential for timely intervention. However, few studies have applied Early Warning Signals (EWS) to coastal marsh systems. Most EWS research has focused on lakes, forests, or climate tipping points, with limited application to salt marsh dieback in the southeastern U.S. Site-specific, long-term spatial analyses are also lacking, as prior work often examines short time frames or single disturbance events. This study investigates the spatiotemporal patterns of salt marsh dieback on the Georgia coast from …

Wildlife Distribution Mapping And Analysis In Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Using Site And Satellite Imagery Data, Pinho Joaquim Munhequeira Mr

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

One of Mozambique's most important conservation sites, Gorongosa National Park has seen critical ecological changes over the past several decades resulting from climate variability, habitat loss, and political instability. This research integrates Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing to examine the relationship between vegetation dynamics and wildlife population, and distribution. The main goals of this study are to evaluate the spatial distribution of particular wildlife species: buffalo (Syncerus caffer), elephant (Loxodonta africana), hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), and zebra (Equus quagga), and determine the impact of vegetation density and land cover on their …

Making Slums Legible, Visible And Calculable: Geospatial Technologies And The Governance Of Urban Land In Mumbai, Sanjana Krishnan

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation examines how geospatial technologies are used to make slums in Mumbai legible, calculable, and hypervisible, and how these practices reshape urban land governance. It situates mapping, remote sensing, and algorithmic systems within their political-economic contexts, showing how technologies intending to see the city often function as instruments of dispossession. The research has three interconnected empirical chapters. The first empirical chapter traces the history of slum mapping in Mumbai, from their absences in early development plans to their selective hypervisibility under the contemporary governance regimes. Using critical cartographic methods, it highlights how novel technologies such as remote sensing, biometric …

Impacts Of Southern Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus Frontalis Zimmerman) On Loblolly Pine (Pinus Taeda L.) Canopy And Water Use In The Homochitto National Forest, Mississippi, Usa, Sasha Goodnow, Yun Yang, Hui Liu, Ashley Schulz

Endeavors: Mississippi State Undergraduate Research Journal

Abiotic and biotic forest disturbances can have many impacts to forest ecosystem services, including to forest water use. Studies on impacts to forest evapotranspiration have been conducted on the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) in western North America, but not on the southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis), which is a native pest of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) and shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata), in the southeastern United States. Stressed pine trees produce pheromones that attract southern pine beetles and, with enough stressed trees, beetle populations can quickly grow to epidemic levels and attack healthy trees, which results in widespread tree mortality. …

The Role Of Remote Sensing And Gis Techniques In Analysis Of Southern California Wildfires In January 2025, Sara Fitzgibbon

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

California is no stranger to wildfires, with them becoming more frequent and larger in recent years. In early January 2025, Southern California had one of the worst outbreaks of wildfires in its history, with the Pacific Palisades and Eaton Fires being considered among the most destructive in state history. To help prevent this from happening in the future, remote sensing techniques are essential in combating these issues. In this report, geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing data utilized to explore fire behavior by various organizations were investigated. By using this data, this study aims to predict and monitor fire …

Global Spectral Clustering Of Temporally Stable Pixels For Epics Identification, Validation, And Hyperspectral Assignment For Satellite Calibration, Juliana Maria Fajardo Rueda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Satellite And Uas Synergy For Large-Scale Crop Canopy Cover Mapping With Deep Learning, Muhammad Ali Irshad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Coupling Remote Sensing And Modelling To Monitor The Spatial Distribution And Trends Of Surface Temperature And Ice Thickness On Sub-Arctic Lakes, Gifty Attiah

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Lake surface temperature (LST), lake ice thickness (LIT), and lake ice phenology (LIP) play significant roles in the diverse regional processes of freshwater in cold regions. They offer direct indications of regional weather and climate conditions, and their interactions with the atmosphere impact climate processes. Furthermore, lake ice is valuable to northern communities, such as those in the Northwest Territories (NWT). Ice roads, including the longest ice road in the NWT, spanning over 80 lakes, are constructed during winter to haul goods to and from industrial establishments (e.g., mines) and for travel within and between communities. A significant challenge to …

Performance Of Acoustic Telemetry And Space Use Of Pallid Sturgeon In The Lower Platte River, Nebraska, Christopher F. Pullano

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Pallid Sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus) are centenarian, potamodromous, rheophiles that historically occupied the Missouri River and Mississippi River basins. Listed on the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 1990, population declines are attributed to habitat fragmentation and degradation, as well as overharvest, and hybridization. A knowledge gap exists regarding the extent to which tributaries facilitate key life stages for Pallid Sturgeon. This study evaluated the capacity of acoustic telemetry to monitor the movements of Pallid Sturgeon in a shallow, braided tributary to the Missouri River. The specific objectives were to (1) evaluate the environmental variables influencing the performance of acoustic …

Impact Of Weather Systems On Uav Parameters Using Computational Fluid Dynamics, Saif Aljuhaishi, Yaseen K. Al-Timimi, Basim I. Wahab

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Since drones cannot fly in any kind of weather, they are not safe for time-sensitive activities. The study examines how the passage of weather systems in Iraq leads to the ban on drone flights, and how these weather conditions impact the aerodynamic forces of the drone. Hourly climate data for the study area were obtained from ECMWF ERA5 and CAMS in NetCDF format for four climate stations (Erbil, Baghdad, Rutbah, and Basrah). A ScanEagle drone was chosen for this study. The Python programming language was used to perform mathematical operations to calculate the ban on drone flights. ArcGIS 10.8 was …

Conducting Structure-From-Motion (Sfm) Modeling Of Freshwater Environments Using Unpiloted Aerial Systems (Uas): Challenges And Lessons Learned, Benjamin T. Fraser, Christine L. Bunyon, Russell G. Congalton

Faculty Publications

The pairing of Unpiloted Aerial Systems (UAS) and Structure from Motion (SfM) has provided new capabilities for modeling freshwater environments. Applications of UAS-SfM range from water quality monitoring to the mapping of aquatic vegetation. The models produced provide users with the ability to analyze features at ultra-high-resolutions and across scales not easily achieved through in situ sampling. Despite the demonstrated benefits of UAS-SfM in freshwater and other natural resource disciplines, there remain fundamental technical challenges in the modeling of environments with homogenous surfaces (e.g., water). In this research, the effectiveness of several image collection and processing approaches for the modelling …

Challenges Of Using More Precise Temporal And Spatial Resolution Of Remote Sensing Data For Surface Water Quality Monitoring, Ivan Rykin

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Monitoring river suspended sediment concentration (SSC) is critical for environmental challenges such as understanding the fate of thawed permafrost sediment and its impact on global carbon cycling. However, traditional SSC monitoring using Landsat imagery is limited by spatial and temporal constraints, particularly for narrow rivers in cloudy and/or snowy regions.

This study investigates the use of higher spatial (3 m) and temporal (daily) resolution satellite imagery from the PlanetScope constellation to estimate SSC in remote rivers such as those in the Arctic. I compare the performance of PlanetScope’s spectral resolution (4 and 8 bands) with Landsat 7. Merging data from …

A Study Of The Impact And Mitigation Strategies For Community-Defined Historic Places At Immediate (Within Three Decades) Risk Of Sea Level Rise, Isaac Quaye

All Theses

The rising sea level casts formidable threats on community-based historic places within coastal communities. These community-defined historic places derive their meaning from local values and are more recognized within the local community. Unlike recognized iconic historic places, these resources are confronted with inadequate resources to address the impacts of punctuated climate events. This study investigates the imminent threats posed by sea level rise (SLR) to community-defined historic places within the next three decades (2025) and explores mitigation strategies proposed by stakeholders. The study used a GIS-based (enhanced bathtub model) to model the impact of coastal inundation on three historic places …

Geospatial Analysis Of Environmental, Tick, And Host Interactions With Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever In The Southwestern United States, Al Ekram Elahee Hridoy

Geography ETDs

This study examines the spatiotemporal distribution and determinants of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) incidence in Arizona from 2006 to 2021. Utilizing climate variables, land cover types, and socio-economic indicators, we employed Negative Binomial Regression, Spatial autocorrelation, and Random Forest-based classification to identify key predictors and patterns of RMSF spread. Results indicate positive correlations between RMSF incidence and precipitation and shrub cover, while veterinary access, forest cover, and relative humidity show negative associations. Spatial analysis revealed significant case clustering, with limited veterinary access associated with higher RMSF incidence. A Random Forest-based predictive model was developed to identify potential tick-host interactions, …

Broad-Area-Search Of New Construction Using Time Series Analysis Of Landsat And Sentinel-2 Data, Xiaojing Tang, Madison G. Barrett, Kangjoon Cho, Kelsee H. Bratley, Katelyn Tarrio, Yingtong Zhang, Hanfeng Gu, Peter Rasmussen, Marc Bosch, Curtis E. Woodcock

Faculty Scholarship

New construction activities can alter surface albedo and structure, which then affect surface temperature and roughness, and hence have a significant impact on urban climate. Construction activity is also an important indicator of human development and movement and is of high interest to the intelligence community. A new approach for Broad-Area-Search of New Construction activities (BASC) by combining time series analysis and rule-based filters using Landsat data was developed and tested in five selected cities (Boston, Shanghai, Sa ̃o Paulo, Dubai, and Ho Chi Minh City). The algorithm transforms Landsat images into fractions of a set of four endmembers using …

Managing The Environmental And Socio-Economic Impacts Of Rohingya Refugees In Bangladesh, Mousume Azad

Master's Projects and Capstones

In August 2017, nearly 1 million Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh to save their lives from the genocide inflicted by the military of Myanmar. At present, over 1.3 million Rohingyas are staying at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in 34 overcrowded refugee camps. This research examined the environmental impacts especially the change in vegetation cover and land surface temperature as well as the socioeconomic alteration of the host country after the refugee influx. The research found a 5488 ha or 9.58% decrease in forest area, accompanied by an 8.25% increase in refugee settlement areas, an increase in average land surface temperature within …

Accessibility Or Environmental Conservation? Evaluating The Relationship Between Environmental Protection And Hiking Trail Accessibility Via Photogrammetry, Lidar & Remote Sensing, Zhanchao Yang

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Binghamton University Nature Preserve spans 190 acres of land, with a notable 20-acre wetland serving a multifaceted purpose. It is dedicated to preserving the ecological integrity of this landscape, fostering biodiversity, and facilitating research and environmental education. Improving the accessibility of nature preserves can maximize its advantages, particularly in fostering environmental consciousness and responsible management. However, it may also lead to a simultaneous rise in the potential for soil erosion, unethical utilization, and disruptions to the habitat. This research focuses on Binghamton University's nature preserve as a case study to explore the intricate balance between two vital objectives: ensuring equal …

Pre-Columbian Soil Management, Settlement, And Land Use In Amazonia: Insights Using Micro-Regional Predictive Modelling In Gurupá, Brazil., Lauren Zacks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The results of a micro-regional predictive model of terra preta sites in the municipality of Gurupá are presented here. A Maximum Entropy approach was selected and modified to fit a presence-background model, rather than a presence-absence model typical of binary classifications. 13 known terra preta sites were used as input samples for the relative suitability model, with explanatory variables in the respective categories of topography, hydrology, soil type and vegetation index. A 30m spatial resolution DEM served as the basis for the former two categories, while additional TauDEM analysis was performed for the hydrology category. A Sentinel-2A mosaicked quarterly composite …

Understanding Land Uses And Their Manifestations Across The Rural-Urban Continua Of Rangpu, Bangladesh And Louisville, Kentucky., Md Jakirul Islam Jony Prothan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rapid urban growth accelerates various features characteristic of rural-urban environments as they change from urban cores to rural areas. This study examines land use change along a rural-urban continuum for two different cities: Louisville, USA, and Rangpur, Bangladesh. Different key land use patterns are compared within and across these different city contexts from 2000 to 2020. Land use change and comparing its spatiotemporal factors are useful metrics to better understand the patterns of development, socio-demographic change, and the uniqueness of cities. Spatial and temporal patterns of sociodemographic and biophysical components of land use provide important information for identifying transition zones …

Fire Potential In Arkansas Through The Lens Of The Keetch-Byram Drought Index, Charles Steward

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Vegetation fires are a complicated phenomenon to predict both the occurrence and intensity. In the United States, fire behavior has been widely studied in high-risk regions such as in the American West, but fires also occur regularly in states that receive greater levels of precipitation, such as Arkansas. Fires are an expensive and dangerous environmental problem. As climate trends caused by global warming continue to progress, quantifying the extent to which climate factors influence their occurrence in Arkansas would be useful for land management, public safety, public health, agriculture, urban development, and to advance the science of fire-climate dynamics in …

Characteristic Of Dual Polarization Sentinel-1 For Estimation Of Seawater Intrusion On Kalianda Coast, South Lampung: A Preliminary Study, Choirunnisa Salsabila, Mochamad Firman Ghazali, Ananda Dermawan, Lauditta Zahra, Ni Made Mega Melliana, Mila Aulia

Jurnal Geografi Lingkungan Tropik (Journal of Geography of Tropical Environments)

Seawater intrusion can increase soil salinity, which occurs due to flooding, evaporation, and land cover changes in coastal areas. This research aims to map and observe the characteristics of seawater intrusion in Way Urang, Kalianda, South Lampung, using Dual-polarization of Sentinel-1 SAR imagery with VV, VH, VV+VH, and (VV+VH)/2 polarization. There were 28 samples used in this research which were divided into two types, GCP (ground control point) and ICP (independent check point). GCP samples are used to create a seawater intrusion estimation model using the regression method, while ICP samples are used to test the validation model using the …

Inventory Of Western United States Glaciers- 2020, Shrinidhi Ambinakudige, Bernard Abubakari

CAS Publications

The dataset employed for delineating glacier boundaries in the Western United States comprises a compilation of original Sentinel-2 images obtained from the European Space Agency's Copernicus website. These images were instrumental in generating the glacier inventory. Additionally, the dataset includes a Python and R script specifically crafted for processing and classifying Sentinel images. The outcome of this process is represented in an ESRI shapefile, which contains an inventory of glaciers extracted from Sentinel images.

Quantifying Structural Vegetation Change On Arctic Tundra: A Multi-Decadal Study Integrating Remotely Sensed Imagery And Traditional Field Measurements, Anna M. Moser

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Arctic regions have experienced an amplified rate of climate warming in recent decades, contributing to well-documented increases in tundra vegetation productivity. Satellite remote sensing has historically played a crucial role in detecting and quantifying trends at regional and biome scales; however, coarse resolution imagery has proven insufficient for capturing fine-scale variability in vegetation response. Considering the spatial heterogeneity of tundra vegetation, high resolution, plot-scale remote sensing observations are necessary. This study couples traditional field measurements with high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery and plane-based aerial photos to quantify changes in vegetation on the North Slope of Alaska over a 28-year …

Investigating Flash Flood Occurrence Using Negative Binomial Models In Maryland, United States Of America, Zainab O. Akinsemoyin

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Globally, as extreme weather patterns intensify, flash floods have emerged as one of the most destructive and immediate environmental threats. In Maryland, flash floods are particularly concerning due to its diverse topography and increasing urban development, which exacerbates runoff and overwhelms drainage systems. The state has experienced significant flash flood events, highlighting the need for effective models to manage risks and inform mitigation strategies. While regression models such as the Negative Binomial (NB) and Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) are commonly used for count data analysis, their application to flash flood modeling in the USA, including regions like Maryland, remains limited …

Road Extraction On Remote Sensing Imagery: Historical Mapping Of The Brazilian Amazon, Jonas Paiva Botelho Jr

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This work proposes an artificial intelligence model based on U-Net architecture to map road networks in the Brazilian Amazon. Over the years, the Amazon region has been heavily exploited, leading to increased deforestation rates, contributing to CO2 emissions, amplifying global warming, and causing a disturbance in local fauna and flora. The expansion into the forest by illegal miners, loggers, and land grabbers can be tracked down by the construction of roads, which we can refer to as the arteries of deforestation. Previous works on the matter proposed algorithms that use high-resolution imagery to map roads precisely. However, this work approach …

Lidar Remote Sensing And The Monitoring Of Brazilian Amazon Forest Structure: Tackling Issues And Finding New Possibilities, Pedro Valle De Carvalho E Oliveira

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Amazon is the largest tropical forest in the world and around 60% of it is in Brazil. The amount of carbon stored in the region uncertain, the impacts of land use and climate changes are unknown, and what drives the dynamic of the forest structure is still under a heated debate. Optical remote sensing has been used for a long time to assist the monitoring of the Brazilian Amazon. However, optical remote sensing only allows a comprehensive study from the top of the forest canopy. In contrast, lidar remote sensing of forests can produce robust information regarding the canopy …

A Tale Of Two Working Landscapes, Sage C. Sutcliffe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Sc-Fuse: A Feature Fusion Approach For Unpaved Road Detection From Remotely Sensed Images, Aniruddh Saxena

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Road network extraction from remote sensing imagery is crucial for numerous applications, ranging from autonomous navigation to urban and rural planning. A particularly challenging aspect is the detection of unpaved roads, often underrepresented in research and data. These roads display variability in texture, width, shape, and surroundings, making their detection quite complex. This thesis addresses these challenges by creating a specialized dataset and introducing the SC-Fuse model.

Our custom dataset comprises high resolution remote sensing imagery which primarily targets unpaved roads of the American Midwest. To capture the diverse seasonal variation and their impact, the dataset includes images from different …

Urban Flood And Its Correlation With Built-Up Area In Semarang, Indonesia, Risty Khoirunisa, Bambang Darmo Yuwono

Smart City

The expansion of urban areas is closely related to environmental problems such as changes in land use, flooding, and land subsidence. Semarang is a city with reasonably rapid development and a high land change experiencing floods and land subsidence. This paper will discuss land transformation caused by urban growth and its implications. It uses a combination of geospatial techniques and cloud computing Google Earth Engine (GEE) to carry out mapping over a large area without being constrained by computer capabilities. This study found that the built-up area in 2010 occupied 36.27% of the city, and it went up to 59.79% …

Reducing Uncertainty In Sea-Level Rise Prediction: A Spatial-Variability-Aware Approach, Subhankar Ghosh, Shuai An, Arun Sharma, Jayant Gupta, Shashi Shekhar, Aneesh Subramanian

I-GUIDE Forum

Given multi-model ensemble climate projections, the goal is to accurately and reliably predict future sea-level rise while lowering the uncertainty. This problem is important because sea-level rise affects millions of people in coastal communities and beyond due to climate change's impacts on polar ice sheets and the ocean. This problem is challenging due to spatial variability and unknowns such as possible tipping points (e.g., collapse of Greenland or West Antarctic ice-shelf), climate feedback loops (e.g., clouds, permafrost thawing), future policy decisions, and human actions. Most existing climate modeling approaches use the same set of weights globally, during either regression or …