Geographic Information Sciences Commons^™

On The Paleontology Of Belize, Alson Ovando

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Paleontology can be considered an underrepresented and emerging area of science in Belize. A primary aim of this thesis is to provide a background of paleontology in Belize and present the first comprehensive study of Quaternary vertebrate fossils known from the country. Quaternary fossil sites across Belize include caves, rivers, and sinkholes. In addition to reviewing and assessing material from known sites, this thesis presents new information and discoveries that were made while investigating Belize’s Quaternary fossil record. This thesis also includes a geospatial model depicting ecoregions in Belize during the last glacial maximum. Overall, the results presented here demonstrate …

Machine-Learning Landslide Susceptibility And Runout Modeling In The Nolichucky River Gorge After Hurricane Helene, Grace Braver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Extreme rainfall from Hurricane Helene (September 2024) triggered widespread landslides across the southern Appalachian region, highlighting the need for rapid landslide susceptibility assessments that capture both landslide initiation and downstream runout. Traditional susceptibility models often focus solely on initiation zones, limiting their ability to identify which slopes will generate destructive landslides or where material will travel. This study addresses that gap by (1) integrating Geographic Information System (GIS)-based machine learning susceptibility modeling using ArcGIS Pro: Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) and Random Forest-Based and Boosted Classification and Regression (FBBC) and (2) the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Grfin (Growth, Flow, and Inundation) runout …

Archaeological Predictive Meta-Modeling In Pre-Columbian Mexico, Peter Stamm

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological Predictive Modeling stands firmly as an important tool for Archaeologists to predict undiscovered sites from civilizations all across the globe. While powerful, this methodology is not without its own set of qualms. Striking a balance between pure a data-driven approach while also observing leading expert theories can be a complicated task. Going further, deciding on the specific domain of features to emphasize or overlook can be a challenge within itself, as one misstep can drastically change the output of model, sometimes for the worst. In addition, creating models that can expose their reasoning process can be rather difficult to …

Hybrid Geographies And Nature In The City: A Tale Of Two Greenspaces In Louisville, Ky., Rebecca Dixon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many conservation initiatives position nature and the urban as opposing constructions, which means the possibilities where cities can work with nature are often overlooked. This study uses the lens of relational geographies to examine nature in the city by comparing two greenspaces in the Beargrass Creek watershed in Louisville, Kentucky: Waterfront Botanical Gardens and the Louisville Nature Center. The two organizations are compared by using a combination of content analysis, discourse analysis, and GIS flood analysis methods to determine how their geographical location and history affect the ways in which the dynamic between nature and culture is reproduced. Results show …

Remotely-Sensed Urbanization And Local Perceptions Of Change From 1985-2024 In Southern Indiana., Marlea Ferber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is focused on the land cover change of non-built land cover being transformed into built land cover in two counties in Southern Indiana using mixed methods. Remote sensing was used to identify and quantify land cover change, and interviews were used to understand local perceptions of the physical land cover changes. The study area is situated along the rural-urban continuum with Louisville, Kentucky across the Ohio River. It is important to quantify the amount of land change conversion to built settlement as patterns and rate of urbanization help us to better manage transitions along the rural-urban continuum, but …

Pilgrimage, Trade And Empire: A Gis Investigation Of Pre-Hispanic Roads In The Ocoña And Chorunga Valleys Of Peru, Geri Evilla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines Inca imperial expansion into the Ocoña and Chorunga Valleys, through an investigation of precolonial roads and trails. It focuses on the Middle to Late Horizons (700 BCE-1534 CE), with specific attention to the last 100 years, when the region was occupied by the Inca state and experienced a rapid increase in population and architectural development. Data collected in excavations, and pedestrian, and drone surveys were used in geographic information systems, to map pre-Hispanic road systems. A combination of Least Cost Path and viewshed analyses were used to investigate land use patterns and tie this region into the …

Toward Sustainable Human Well-Being: A Multidimensional Assessment In Colorado, Uma Umut Baysal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Evaluating progress in human well-being is essential for guiding effective policy and promoting sustainable development. Traditional approaches often emphasize economic and social dimensions while overlooking ecological indicators critical to long-term sustainability. This research addresses that gap by proposing a layered, scalable local framework for county-level analysis and bottom-up decision-making, integrating multiple objective indicators to assess and compare well-being outcomes across regions.

The first goal of this dissertation is to measure human well-being in Colorado counties by developing a Human Well-Being Index (HWBI). This index combines a newly developed Built Environment Index (BEI) comprising five sub-indices: accessibility, housing affordability, transportation, …

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.

Mapping Amis Mill In Rogersville, Tennessee In The 1780s Using Geophysical Methods And Remote Sensing, Amy Collins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geophysics and remote sensing were used at the Amis Mill and Homesite to determine the location of structures during the 1780s. Areas of interest were surveyed using shallow geophysical and remote sensing techniques including the orchard, horse pasture, original kitchen on the east side of the house, the west side of the house, plowed field, store site, and cemetery. After analyzing the results of the geophysical surveys and remote sensing, 22 sites were chosen to test inside and outside potential features. A large rectangular feature, possibly a tavern with a cellar, was discovered. Four other features were identified, three of …

A Comparison Of Maxent Models For Aedes Aegypti Species Distribution In South America Utilizing Different Bioclimatic And Environmental Variables, Matthew Beer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Aedes aegypti is the principal vector for dengue transmission across large areas of the world. Understanding where this critically important vector lives is paramount to preventing the continued expansion of dengue globally. Using 1981-2010 bioclimatic (bioclim) variables, as well as additional environmental variables and elevation data, multiple MaxEnt models were constructed for Ae. aegypti within the South American continent to identify ecologically important variables and areas of persistent high suitability. All models had acceptable AUC scores (> 0.70), indicating accurate model fitting. Annual mean precipitation and temperature were found to be important model variables; however, when added, humidity became the …

Dengue And Climate Change: Assessing Potential Future Areas Of Concern For Transmission In The United States, Matthew Beer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Global climate change severely impacts human life, particularly health, as rising temperatures and extreme weather affect physical and mental well-being. Climate change can also alter the risk factors and epidemiology of infectious diseases, notably vector-borne diseases (VBDs), including those transmitted by mosquitoes. The Aedes mosquito, responsible for dengue, poses a significant threat due to its prevalence vector. Dengue prevention lacks effective methods beyond vector control, and the current vaccine has limitations, emphasizing the need for intensified research and prevention strategies to mitigate the expanding dengue burden worldwide. The goal of these studies was to establish a novel risk index …

A Geospatial And Machine Learning Framework For Forecasting Ground Level Ozone Pollution, William J. Keenan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The major detrimental health effects of ground-level ozone (GLO) pollution make it imperative that both policy makers and ordinary citizens have access to high accuracy, high-resolution forecasts of their local area. Recently, advancements in computing power have made it possible to apply artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to a variety of big data modelling problems, including GLO forecasting and estimation. Of these AI methods, deep neural networks (DNN) have demonstrated the highest accuracy due to their ability extract non-linear relationships from high dimensional, noisy data inputs.

This research effort uses novel data sources, namely NOAA’s High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) meteorology …

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 …

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 …

Quantifying Current Soil Brine Contamination Within The Smackover Oil Field In Arkansas Using Multispectral Digital Imagery, Victoria Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A remote sensing study was performed to quantify current soil brine contamination across the historic Smackover Oil Field in south-central Arkansas, United States. The oil field was established in 1922 and was not subject to the future waste regulations created by the Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission. Brine is a waste product of oil manufacturing which contains water with high salt levels. The storage and transport of brine in the oil field created landscape scarring across the study area.

Landsat 9 multispectral digital imagery was utilized to create supervised classification maps based on earthen pits and creek scarring across the …

Geophysical, Archaeological, And Geospatial Investigations At Presidio Los Adaes, 18th Century Capital Of Spanish Texas, Robert Linam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Presidio Los Adaes (16NA16), located in present day northwest Louisiana, served as the capital of Spanish Texas for much of the 18th century. Maps and historical documents provide architectural plans for the fort and other buildings on the site but differ in the size and location of several buildings. In 2009, a geophysical survey of the site with ground penetrating radar, magnetometry, electrical resistance, and electromagnetic induction showed good preservation of architectural foundations. Visual assessment of the maps and geophysical data, information from archaeological excavations, and spatial statistics suggests that the fort was originally built as specified by the architect, …

Extracting Topography From Historic Topographic Maps Using Gis-Based Deep Learning, Briar Pierce

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historical topographic maps are valuable resources for studying past landscapes, but they are unsuitable for geospatial analysis. Cartographic map elements must be extracted and digitized for use in GIS. This can be accomplished by sophisticated image processing and pattern recognition techniques, and more recently, artificial intelligence. While these methods are generally effective, they require high levels of technical expertise. This study presents a straightforward method to digitally extract historical topographic map elements from within popular GIS software, using new and rapidly evolving toolsets. A convolutional neural network deep learning model was used to extract elevation contour lines from a 1940 …

Species Data And Vector Modeling: Evaluating Datasets For Improved Models Of Ixodes Ricinus Tick Distribution In Europe Under A Changing Climate, Steven Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To increase capacity for monitoring and surveillance of tick-borne diseases, publicly available tick distribution and climate change datasets are required to create accurate predictive distribution models. It is difficult, however, to assess model accuracy and utility when using incomplete datasets.  The more recent development of comprehensive tick databases for Europe and availability of climate change scenarios from multiple IPCC Assessment Reports allows for improved modeling efforts. Multiple tick datasets were combined and three climate change projections were compared by predicting current and future distributions of Ixodes ricinus ticks in Europe using the MaxEnt species distribution model. Overall, much of Europe …

A Decade Of Car-Cyclist Collisions In Louisville: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis., Elizabeth Ferguson Greenwell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis has considered factors of the built environment to discover if cay-cyclist collisions display any patterns that could be used to improve cycling safety. This thesis contains an introduction, a literature review, an overview of the study area and data, a description of the methods, results, and discussion and conclusion section. This thesis is significant because it has been the first study to consider cyclist volume as an explanatory variable of the spatiality of car-cyclist dependence for Louisville, Kentucky. Through descriptive and spatial statistics, trends in car-cyclists were identified. Collisions occur more frequently in the summer, during commute hours, …

Exploring Youth Relationships With Nature Using Qualitative Gis, Corey J. Martz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Understanding youth relationships with nature—what nature is, where nature is located, and why nature is meaningful—is important for a range of contemporary issues, from promoting health and well-being to advancing a sustainable future. Relationships with nature are profoundly influenced by the lived experiences of youth, as they form social connections, have fun, learn, and go about their lives across an array of places—residences, schools, trip destinations, and places in between. One key to exploring youth relationships with nature, therefore, is engaging youth to document their experiences of nature in relation to specific places and developing methods that support them to …

Geovisualization And Open-Source Web Mapping Of Big Origin-Destination Data, A Test Case, Joseph Hiebert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Migration plays a key role in determining the health and success of cities, counties, and countries. It also plays a key role in determining the health and wellbeing of the individuals and families that undergo a migration event. This has led many scholars to map and study global migration patterns to understand how and why people move. While migration data are powerful, the origin-destination (O-D), tabular format of the data can be hard to interpret. To make O-D data more powerful, geographers can lean on computer cartography and new geovisualization techniques to help decision makers make sense of large, complex …

Using Structure Location Data To Map The Wildland-Urban Interface In Montana, Usa, Alexander R. Ketchpaw

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increasing wildfire activity and rapid population growth in the wildfire-urban interface (WUI) make more Americans exposed to wildfire risk. WUI mapping plays a significant role in wildfire management. This study used the Microsoft building footprint (MBF) and the Montana address/structure framework datasets to map the WUI in Montana. A systematic comparison of the following three types of WUI was performed: the WUI maps derived from the Montana address/structure framework dataset (WUI-P), the WUI maps derived from derived from the MBF dataset (WUI-S), and the Radeloff WUI map derived from census data (WUI-Z). The results show that WUI-S and WUI-P …

Fire Emissions In The Tropical Indonesia: Improved Estimation And Driving Forces Investigation, Xiaoman Lu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Indonesia has experienced frequent fires since the 1970s due to large-scale peatland conversion and extensive drainage for agricultural development. Fire emissions released from these fires have led to Indonesia being the world’s 3rd largest emitter of greenhouse gases in certain years. Given that fire emissions severely affect climate, weather, and the human environment, numerous approaches have been developed to estimate fire emissions. However, existing emission estimates differ largely by a factor of four in this tropical country because of frequent cloud interferences and low-temperature smoldering fires. Therefore, this dissertation aims to improve the quantification of Indonesian fire emissions through enhanced …

A Spatial Analysis Of Supply-Demand Of Public Transportation In Jefferson County, Kentucky., Nastaran Abdoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public transportation is important as it serves individuals, especially the transit-dependent population, by providing a basic mobility service to these people and all others who rely on public transportation. This research utilized estimating public transportation demand and supply to analyze the spatial patterns of public transportation in Jefferson County, Kentucky. The study focuses on the transit-dependent population, and it considers indicators of age, poverty status, vehicle ownership, and foreign-born population with less than five years residency in the United States. This study conducted a public transit supply-demand analysis to identify areas with imbalanced supply and demand in Jefferson County at …

A Study Of Geographic Information System-Based Watershed Processing For Hydrologic Analysis Of Ungauged Watersheds, Philip Adanbe Adalikwu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increasing application of geographic information system (GIS) technology in watershed modeling makes is necessary to further evaluate its impacts on runoff characteristics as a basis for improved hydrologic analysis in ungauged watersheds. Experts in the field of water resources and hydrology have recommended the practice of subdivision when modeling a watershed, and the use of observed data from hydrologically similar watershed to calibrate and validate an ungauged watershed’s model. However, previous studies have failed to adequately address the issues of watershed heterogeneity, spatial and temporal variability in physical parameters, GIS data resolution issues, including artifacts in automated extraction of …

Using New And Long-Term Multi-Scale Remotely Sensed Data To Detect Recurrent Fires And Quantify Their Relationship To Land Cover/Use In Indonesian Peatlands, Yenni Vetrita

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Indonesia has committed to reducing its greenhouse gases emissions by 29% (potentially up to 41% with international assistance) by 2030. Achieving those targets requires many efforts but, in particular, controlling the fire problem in Indonesia’s peatlands is paramount, since it is unlikely to diminish on its own in the coming decades. This study was conducted in Sumatra and Kalimantan peatlands in Indonesia. Four MODIS-derived products (MCD45A1 collection 5.1, MCD64A1 (collection 5.1 and 6), FireCCI51) were initially assessed to explore long-term fire frequency and land use/cover change relationships. The results indicated the product(s) could only detect half of the fires accurately. …

Use And Improvement Of Remote Sensing And Geospatial Technologies In Support Of Crop Area And Yield Estimations In The West African Sahel, Kaboro Samasse

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In arid and semi-arid West Africa, agricultural production and regional food security depend largely on small-scale subsistence farming and rainfed crops, both of which are vulnerable to climate variability and drought. Efforts made to improve crop monitoring and our ability to estimate crop production (areas planted and yield estimations by crop type) in the major agricultural zones of the region are critical paths for minimizing climate risks and to support food security planning. The main objective of this dissertation research was to contribute to these efforts using remote sensing technologies. In this regard, the first analysis documented the low reliability …

Sea Level Rise Impacts On The City Of Cape Coral, Southwest Florida From 2020 To 2050, Jawata Afnan Saba

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sea level rise, a consequence of global climate change, has been affecting the U.S. coasts with flooding and exacerbated storm surges. Florida is highly vulnerable because it has low-lying topography and coastlines on both the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The City of Cape Coral, Southwest Florida, is known as a ‘waterfront wonderland’ with 400 miles of canals that provide waterfront property to the residents. Most of the canals are navigable, and many have access to the Gulf of Mexico. The city is vulnerable to sea level rise because of its canals, site between the Matlacha Pass and …