Geographic Information Sciences Commons^™

Prospects For An International Charter "Space And Major Disaster" Remote Sensing Response To Drought Disasters - An Anhui, China Case Study, Joseph Burkhead

Masters Theses

Remote sensing is often leveraged during the response phase of disaster management to improve the situational awareness of decision-makers. The International Charter "Space and Major Disaster" (Charter) provides remote sensing support to non-spacefaring nations facing disasters such as earthquakes, floods and tsunamis. However, the Charter has never activated for a major drought disaster. Since droughts affect over half of the nearly 3 billion people that suffer from natural disasters annually, this study seeks to determine whether satellite remote sensing can be effectively employed according to the intent, capabilities, and limitations of the Charter to benefit officials responding to a major …

A Perception Analysis Of Downtown Residents: The City Of Lansing, Mi. Food Desert In Context, Thomas J. Veldman

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the perceptions of residents inside and outside of a USDA-defined food desert in Lansing, MI related to fresh and frozen produce access. Through an online and paper survey, Lansing-area residents ranked their perceived level of access to fresh produce, their perception of their own health, and reported their general daily intake of fresh produce. Through several statistical analyses, this thesis was able to determine that residents residing within the study area in downtown Lansing had statistically significant variations in their perception of access to fresh and frozen produce, traveled longer to their preferred primary and secondary food …

Understanding Flight Delays At U.S. Airports In 2010, Using Chicago O'Hare International Airport As A Case Study, Paul Blackwood

Masters Theses

Flight delays are economic, social, and environmental albatross to U.S. businesses and consumers. In 2007 alone, domestic flight delays cost the U.S. aviation industry $40.7 billion (Joint Economic Committee of the House and Senate Report, 2008). These delays involved inconveniences for airlines and passengers, and untold misery for local and state officials. In that same year, delays forced U.S. airlines to consume an extra 740 million gallons of jet fuel (Joint Economic Committee of the House and Senate Report, 2008). The purpose of this study is to understand flight delays at U.S. airports and to determine how key causal factors …

Foreign Direct Investment In Italy 2000-2010: Spatial Patterns And Implications, Enzo Crescentini

Masters Theses

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has long been shown to be an important driver of economic growth as well as a source of knowledge transfer in host countries. Italy, now the tenth largest economy in the world, has a remarkable distribution of FDI characterized by a metropolitan industrial North and what is commonly referred to as an economically unfit or "backwards" South. Given these regional differences, Italy faces many interesting challenges in attracting FDI in the current global economic climate. The nation must attract capital to less-developed regions as well as to the extensive industrial clusters in the North that are …

Understanding Wildfire Hazard Vulnerability Of Residents In Teton County, Wyoming, Lucas Kanclerz

Masters Theses

The research examines significant differences in wildfire home protection activities between local and seasonal residents in Teton County, Wyoming. Significant differences of wildfire home protection activities results in hazard vulnerability to a whole community. An extensive literature review establishes the purpose and hypothesis of the research to understand if seasonal residents are creating wildfire hazard vulnerability to local residents. A survey-based methodology using nominal YES/NO questions and ordinal Likert-type scale questions were used to understand residents past wildfire experiences, perceptions on the effectiveness of home protection activities, and if residents actually do these activities. Statistical analysis revealed that seasonal residents …

Urban Transition Of Races In The Denver Metro Area, Scott Kilker

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The racial segregation of the primary racial groups, African-American, Asian, Latino and White, residing within the Denver metropolitan five-county area is analyzed using a Geographic Information System. The study uses census defined block groups to measure racial population within the study area as input to analysis methods that provide insight to the transition of racial groups within the Denver metropolitan area. Markov chain analysis is used to compute the probability that the ratio of a block group of a race will change. The Monte Carlo method is then applied using the probabilities to predict what the segregation in the Denver …

Volumetric Pipeline Environment Analysis: A Methodology For Creating 3d Data Suitable For Pipeline Environment Risk And Mitigation Products, Anthony Timpson

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Pipeline risk assessment GIS is constantly seeking to improve the tools and methodologies of data analysis to incorporate more world details. The need for complex 3D systems modeling is expanding as GIS takes a main stage in mapping the infrastructure and environment of medium scale, vertically complex, pipeline systems. Pipeline environments must be specially tailored to suit the data analysis capabilities of ERSI ArcGIS 10. Model based automation facilitates the conversion of data types and preparation of analysis results. The methodology presented is one avenue of possible development in generating a greater level of detail in intricate medium scale pipeline …

Maputopia: An Improvement Over Existing Census Mapping Applications, Daniel Trone

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The United States Census public data portal and other existing demographic mapping applications do a suboptimal job of serving two prime data user groups; the casual data user, and the GIS data user. The Census Bureau in particular has produced a user-unfriendly product with a steep learning curve. In response to the lack of an existing platform which could efficiently handle common user requests, the author has created MapUtopia.com. MapUtopia is an interactive census data mapping application which allows for quick user access to commonly requested demographic data, and allows for user download of that data in the commonly utilized …

Accuracy Of Boulder County’S Gis Parcel Mapping: An Examination Of Gis Cadastral Mapping Compared To Land Surveys, Kayce D. Wohlman

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

This research outlines land surveying in the State of Colorado and discusses the formation of parcel maps in the state. GIS continues to grow in various industries and government entities since it is able to best streamline copious amounts of geospatial information. Following suit, County Assessor Offices throughout the country have benefited from the use of a GIS to organize their data. The cost, implementation and maintenance of a GIS is a costly endeavor however it benefits both the County, State and the general public. County Assessor Office GIS systems have directly influenced the field of Land Surveying both positively …

Matter Under Unusual Conditions, Bernard Zygelman

NSTec UNLV Symposium

What is curiosity – driven research and why do we support it?

Vannevar Bush Science The Endless Frontier (1945)

“Science is the pacemaker of technological progress … New productsand new processes do not appear full-grown. They are founded on newprinciples and new conceptions, which in turn are painstakingly developedby research in the purest realms of science“

•Magnetic Resonance Imaging
•Positron Emission Tomography
•Laser applications
•GPS
•Nano Technology

Un Análisis Multi-Escalar Del Sistema Forestal Peruano, J. Boettner, G. Sager-Gellerman, E. Strickler, C. Courtenay, R. Gilb, W. Gordon, G. Leonard, J. Marconi, M. Mcgovern, M. Nagle, C. Paiz Tejada, Andrew Pericak, M. Price, D. Vassallo, R. Yowell, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Poster Presentations

Perú tiene 67 millones de hectáreas de bosque, que viene a ser más del 53% de la superficie total del país (OIMT, 2010). La extracción maderera es la propulsora principal de la economía dentro de la Amazonía Peruana, generando empleos para comunidades rurales y urbanas (Sears y Pinedo-Vásquez, 2011). Sin embargo, a menudo los empresarios madereros explotan a sus trabajadores a través de un sistema de préstamos (De la Rosa Tincopa, 2009). Alrededor de 1354 comunidades indígenas poseen títulos de propiedad en la región (OIMT, 2010), pero muchas comunidades no tienen los títulos para su territorio que muchas veces se …

Alternative Methods To Predict Actual Evapotranspiration Illustrate The Importance Of Accounting For Phenology: The Event Driven Phenology Model Part Ii, V. Kovalskyy, G. M. Henebry

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Evapotranspiration (ET) flux constitutes a major component of both the water and energy balances at the land surface. Among the many factors that control evapotranspiration, phenology poses a major source of uncertainty in attempts to predict ET. Contemporary approaches to ET modeling and monitoring frequently summarize the complexity of the seasonal development of vegetation cover into static phenological trajectories (or climatologies) that lack sensitivity to changing environmental conditions. The Event Driven Phenology Model (EDPM) offers an alternative, interactive approach to representing phenology. This study presents the results of an experiment designed to illustrate the differences in ET arising from various …

Identifying Well Pads In The Haynesville Shale Region, Louisiana And Texas, With Digital Imagery, Darinda Dans, Daniel Unger, Kenneth W. Farrish, I-Kuai Hung

Faculty Publications

The Haynesville Shale is an underlying rock formation in northwest Louisiana and northeast Texas that contains vast quantities of natural gas. With new technology has come the ability to extract more natural gas from one of the largest gas deposits in the United States. With increased production, increased change in the local ecosystem will occur. It is necessary to examine oil and gas exploration effects on the local ecosystem due to changes in land cover, such as habitat loss and increased soil erosion. Remotely sensed imagery were utilized to ascertain the use of various digital image processing techniques to determine …

The East Texas Caddo: Modeling Tempo And Place, Robert Z. Selden Jr., Timothy K. Perttula

CRHR: Archaeology

Analysis of the Caddo sample (n=889 dates) from the East Texas radiocarbon database is used to establish the tempo and place of Caddo era (ca. A.D. 800-1680) archaeological sites, site clusters, and communities across the region. The temporal and spatial distribution of radiocarbon ages from settlements, mound centers, and cemeteries across the region have utility in exploring the development and geographical continuity of the Caddo peoples; establishing the specific times when areas were abandoned or population sizes diminished; and defining times and areas illustrating an intensification in mound center construction and large cemeteries became a focus of community social practices.

A Global Positioning System On The Lunar Sphere Utilizing Cubesats, Armani Giann Batista

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this thesis was to research the viability and feasibility of a new Lunar GPS that would utilize the CubeSat platform, newly emerging technology, and the consideration of satellites without the large, currently employed, chemically atomic clocks.

A Novel Tool For Assessing And Summarizing The Built Environment, Gretchen L. Kroeger, Lynne C. Messer, Sharon E. Edwards, Marie Lynn Miranda

Community Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: A growing corpus of research focuses on assessing the quality of the local built environment and also examining the relationship between the built environment and health outcomes and indicators in communities. However, there is a lack of research presenting a highly resolved, systematic, and comprehensive spatial approach to assessing the built environment over a large geographic extent. In this paper, we contribute to the built environment literature by describing a tool used to assess the residential built environment at the tax parcel-level, as well as a methodology for summarizing the data into meaningful indices for linkages with health data. …

Aladdin's Magic Lamp: Developing Methods For Calibration And Geolocation Accuracy Assessment Of The Dmsp Ols, Benjamin Taylor Tuttle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nighttime satellite imagery from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS) has a unique capability to observe nocturnal light emissions from sources including cities, wild fires, and gas flares. Data from the DMSP OLS is used in a wide range of studies including mapping urban areas, estimating informal economies, and estimating urban populations. Given the extensive and increasing list of applications a repeatable method for assessing geolocation accuracy, performing inter-calibration, and defining the minimum detectable brightness would be beneficial. An array of portable lights was designed and taken to multiple field sites known to have no other …

Agbufferbuilder: A Filter Strip Design Tool For Gis, Surendran Neelakantan, Tom Mueller, Michael G. Dosskey, Todd Kellerman, Eduardo Abel Rienzi

Plant and Soil Sciences Research Tools

AgBufferBuilder is a GIS-based computer program for designing vegetative filter strips around agricultural fields that utilizes terrain analysis to account for spatially non-uniform runoff (Figure 1). The core model is derived from the process-based Vegetative Filter Strip Modeling System (VFSMOD-W). A detailed description of the core model and its development is provided in Dosskey et al. (2011). The GIS program runs with ArcGIS (ESRI, Redlands, CA).

An Approach To The Virtual Flora Of Mongolia – From A Data Repository To An Expert System, Http://Greif.Uni-Greifswald.De/Floragreif/, Jörg Hartleib, Martin Schnittler, Sabrina Rilke, Anne Zemmrich, Bernd Bobertz, Ulrike Najmi, Reinhard Zölitz, Susanne Starke

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

FloraGREIF is an internet accessible information system providing taxonomic, phytogeographic and ecological information on Mongolia’s flora in terms of descriptions, high-resolution plant images and an interactive WebGIS application. Organised along an updated checklist of the approx. 3000 Mongolian vascular plants that serves as a taxonomic backbone, information is split into the taxon level, referring to plant species, and the record level, referring to record or a collected plant specimen. At the latter level, images of living plants, scans of herbarium sheets, habitat photos and further notes can be found. Both data levels are linked by the name of the respective …

Kinect And 3d Gis In Archaeology, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Fabio Remondino, Jim Robersson, Jennifer Von Schwerin, Giorgio Agugiaro, Gabrio Girardi

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This paper explores the potential of using Microsoft's Kinect to create a low-cost and portable system to virtually navigate, through a prototype 3D GIS, the digitally reconstructed ancient Maya city and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Copan in Honduras. The 3D GIS, named QueryArch3D, was developed as part of the MayaArch3D project (http://mayaarch3d.unm.edu), which explores the possibilities of integrating databases and 3D digital tools for research and teaching on ancient architectures and landscapes. The developed system, based on the Flexible Action and Articulated Skeleton Toolkit (FAAST), controls in a remote and touchless mode the movements in the 3D environment in …

Richard Edes Harrison And The Cartographic Perspective Of Modern Internationalism, Timothy Barney

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Air-age globalism was a discursive phenomenon throughout the development of World War II that accounted for the rapid “shrinking” of the world through air technologies and the internationalization of American interests. Cartography became air-age globalism’s primary popular expression, and journalistic cartographers such as Richard Edes Harrison at Fortune magazine introduced new mapping projections and perspectives in response to these global changes. This essay argues that Harrison’s mapping innovations mediate a geopolitical shift in America toward a modern, image-based internationalism. Through recastings of “vision” and “strategy,” Harrison’s work offers an opportunity to assess the rhetorical tensions between idealism and realism in …

Water Quality Trading Markets For The Kentucky River Basin: A Point Source Profile, Ronald Childress Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This study assessed the feasibility and suitability of a Water Quality Trading (WQT) program within the Kentucky River Basin (KRB). The study’s focal point was based on five success factors of a WQT program: environmental suitability, geospatial orientation, participant availability, regulatory incentive, and economic incentive. The study utilized these five success factors, geographical characteristics, and Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMR) to assess the feasibility of a WQT program.

The assessment divided the KRB into five eight digit Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUC), North, Middle, and South Fork, Middle Basin, and Lower Basin, to determine regional impacts caused by the nutrient PSs. Individual …

Myths And Measures: The Cultural Performance Of Portland’S Strip Club Identity, Wayne Coffey

Geography Masters Research Papers

Identities of place develop through a multitude of perceptions. Place myths guide much of this perception. Portland, Oregon’s identity has evolved in particular around a much quoted but unchallenged statistic regarding the volume of nude dancing venues. This paper focuses on the literature specific to both nude dance venues and place identity; Portland’s legal history that contributed to this phenomenon; and some of the cultural and spatial variables pertinent to this issue. Two initiatives, aimed at restructuring the state constitution specifically to deal with nude dance venues and other adult entertainment, are analyzed.

Racial And Ethnic Proportions Of Early In-Person Voters In Cuyahoga County, General Election 2008, And Implications For 2012, Norman Robbins, Mark Salling

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

Demographic And Socioeconomic Conditions And A Patron Borrowing Analysis Of Cleveland Public Library Branch And Main Libraries, Mark Salling

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

We provide here an analysis of the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the Cleveland Public Library’s (CPL) service area and that of the neighborhoods in which the library’s patrons live. We also describe the borrowing patterns for the branch and downtown, Main Library, locations. The census-based demographic and socioeconomic data used for the analysis include income, number of children, race, Hispanic ethnicity, language spoken at home, ability to speak English, public-versus-private school attendance by grade level, housing tenure (owner/renter), educational attainment, employment status, and place of employment (Cleveland versus other). Data from the 2010 census and the Census Bureau’s 2005-2009 …

Social Interaction At The Maya Site Of Copan, Honduras: A Least Cost Approach To Configurational Analysis, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

In this article, I employ least cost paths using GIS to measure the relationship between site configuration and social connectivity at the ancient Maya site of Copan, Honduras. I investigate two questions. First, did people of different social classes experience varying degrees of social connectivity? Second, did people living in different parts of the city experience difference degrees of social connectivity? Ultimately, the goal is modify traditional configurational analysis using least cost analysis (LCA) to identify how social hierarchy was embedded in landscapes and how ancient people may have strategically manipulated landscapes to structure social interaction and community organization.

Potential Wolverine Habitat Vs. Winter Recreation. Conflict In Colorado!, Paul Quigley

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The Global list of endangered species of flora and fauna is growing, with the most highly specialized species often at ‘critically endangered’ status. Managing these populations effectively involves numerous and varied organizations, conflicting motivations, arbitrary anthropogenic boundaries and often most importantly, data compilation and management. We are seeing many more reintroductions of locally extirpated species back into habitats of historical prevalence – and as extreme a method of conservation as this is, there is still a need for more extreme methods. High profile and highly specialized endangered species are often managed in a ‘crisis’ mode, where complex behaviors and interactions …

Applying Gis Metrics To Determine Degree Of Glacial Modification In Mountainous Landscapes, Carl Delbert Swanson Ii

All Master's Theses

The ability to quantitatively assess the degree of glaciation in mountainous areas can be a powerful tool in unraveling the evolution of landscapes, and provide key insights in regions where field research is difficult. Here we determine, test, and apply metrics that assess the relative degree of past glacial modification in mountainous landscapes. Results show that slope results can be used to quantitatively assess the degree to which an area is modified by glaciation. In particular, analysis of basins using slope frequency distribution curves and slope vs. elevation plots capture steeper slopes, flatter valley bottoms, cirques, and arêtes of glaciated …

Transboundary Political Ecology In The Peru-Brazil Borderlands: Mapping Workshops, Geographic Information, And Socio-Environmental Impacts, David S. Salisbury, A. William Flores De Melo, Pedro Tipula Tipula

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Development, resource, and settlement frontiers inspired by national policies and global demand continue to expand into the international boundary lands of Amazonia. National policies promote development and conservation projects on lands already inhabited and managed. Regional governments are increasingly frustrated by the inadequate and outdated geographic information available to solve overlapping claims and improve planning in sensitive border regions. The resulting combination of inappropriate policies, contested resources, and poor geographic information in the borderlands create impacts not only for national, regional, and local landscapes and livelihoods but also foreign relations due to transboundary effects. This article uses a transboundary political …

Análisis De Los Impactos Socio-Ambientales De Las Carreteras En La Amazonía: Carretera De Puerto Esperanza A Iñapari En Perú, George Appling, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Poster Presentations

La Cuenca del Purús está situada en las regiones de Ucayali y Madre de Dios en el sudeste del Perú. Además del Rio Alto Purús, la cuenca abarca un parque nacional, una reserva comunal, reservas territoriales para pueblos indígenas aislados, territorios indígenas y un pueblo pequeño (Figura 1). En el año 2004, el Gobierno Peruano creó el Parque Nacional Alto Purús, el más grande en el Perú, para preservar una de las secciones mejor conservadas del bosque tropical en el bioma Amazónico. Como se demuestra en la Figura 1, la Reserva Comunal Purús colindante, sirve como zona de amortiguamiento entre …