Geographic Information Sciences Commons^™

The Geography Of Global Urban Greenhouse Gas Emissions: An Exploratory Analysis, Jochen Albrecht, Peter Marcotullio, Amdrea Sarzynski, Niels Schulz, Jake Garcia

Publications and Research

The purpose of this paper is to describe global urban greenhouse gas emissions by region and sector, examine the distribution of emissions through the urban-to-rural gradient, and identify covariates of emission levels for our baseline year, 2000.We usemultiple existing spatial databases to identify urban extent, greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, N2O, CH4 and SF6) and covariates of emissions in a “top-down” analysis. The results indicate that urban activities are significant sources of total greenhouse gas emissions (36.8 and 48.6 % of total). The urban energy sector accounts for between 41.5 and 66.3 % of total energy emissions. Significant differences exist in …

Gis-Based Expert Systems Model For Predicting Habitat Suitability Of Blackside Dace, Benjamin L. Blandford, John Ripy, Ted H. Grossardt, Ryan Evans, Sara Hines

Kentucky Transportation Center Presentations

This study presents a GIS-based predictive habitat suitability model for the blackside dace, a federally-listed threatened species of the Upper Cumberland River basin in southeastern Kentucky. The model is a rules-based system which incorporates expert knowledge about habitat preferences for the species. The five habitat factors identified by experts and included in this model are stream gradient, canopy coverage, riparian vegetation type, riparian zone width, and stream order. Using GIS, the five habitat parameters were parameterized and combined across the entire stream network. Combinations were evaluated by blackside dace experts in terms of habitat suitability. The resulting model was tested …

Augmented Realities And Uneven Geographies: Exploring The Geolinguistic Contours Of The Web, Mark Graham, Matthew Zook

Geography Faculty Publications

This paper analyzes the digital dimensions of places as represented by online, geocoded references to the economic, social, and political experiences of the city. These digital layers are invisible to the naked eye, but form a central component of the augmentations and mediations of place enabled by hundreds of millions of mobile computing devices and other digital technologies. The analysis highlights how these augmentations of place differ across space and language and highlights both the differences and some of the causal factors behind them. This is performed through a global study of all online content indexed within Google Maps, and …

Geospatial Virtual Heritage: A Gesture-Based 3d Gis To Engage The Public With Ancient Maya Archaeology, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Jim Robertsson, Jennifer Von Schwerin, Giorgio Agugario, Fabio Remondino, Gabrio Girardi

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

This paper presents our research to develop a gesture-based 3D GIS system to engage the public in cultural heritage. It compares two types of interaction—device-based vs. natural interaction— and summarizes the beta-testing results of a 3D GIS tool for archaeology, called QueryArch3D, in which participants used device-based interaction (i.e. mouse and keyboard). It follows with a description of the gesture-based system—that we developed in response to these beta-tests. The system uses QueryArch3D and Microsoft’s Kinect to enable people use body movements (in lieu of keyboard or mouse) to navigate a virtual reality landscape, query 3D objects, and call up photos, …

Sagebrush Ecosystem Characterization, Monitoring, And Forecasting With Remote Sensing: Quantifying Future Climate And Wildlife Habitat Change, Collin G. Homer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) ecosystems constitute the largest single North American shrub ecosystem and provide vital ecological, hydrological, biological, agricultural, and recreational ecosystem services. Disturbances continue to alter this ecosystem, with climate change possibly representing the greatest future disturbance risk. Improved ways to characterize and monitor gradual change in this ecosystem are vital to its future management. A new remote sensing sagebrush characterization approach was developed in Wyoming which integrates three scales of remote sensing to derive four primary continuous field components (bare ground, herbaceousness, litter, and shrub), and four secondary components (sagebrush, big sagebrush, Wyoming sagebrush, and shrub …

Cartografía, Corredores Y Cooperación: La Búsqueda De Soluciones Transfronterizas En Las Fronteras Amazónicas, David S. Salisbury, Diego B. Leal, Andrea B. Chávaz Michaelsen, Bertha Balbín Ordaya, A. William Flores De Melo, Pedro Tipula Tipula, Maria Luiza Pinedo Ochoa

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

Implementation of conservation and development in the Amazon borderlands requires effective transboundary coordination. Updated, readily understandable, and transboundary cartography becomes increasingly essential in Southwestern Amazonia as residents and decision makers attempt to mitigate the socio-environmental challenges and impacts in the borderlands. The lack of updated borderland cartography complicates the planning of development, integration, and conservation projects at a variety of different scales. The Transboundary Geographic Group of Southwestern Amazonia (GTASO) has created a network to continuously exchange geographic information, resulting in a June 2013 workshop and the creation of five transboundary thematic maps of the Amazon regions of Ucayali and …

A Study Of Habitat Selection By Blanding's Turtles (Emydoidea Blandingii) In Dutchess County, New York, Shannon Rauch

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingii) is a New York State-listed threatened species with several disjunct populations located throughout the state. Blanding's turtles require a variety of habitat types including ponds, wetlands, vernal pools, and the surrounding uplands. Preserving these habitat complexes is necessary to ensure the persistence of Blanding's turtle populations, but this is becoming increasingly challenging in some locations due to significant development pressure. Key components of habitat protection are identifying preferred habitat types and gaining a better understanding of the variables that influence habitat selection. Previous landscape-level studies of turtles have found that land cover type, wetland type, …

Compression Of Gps Trajectory Data : Benchmarking Framework And New Approach, Jonathan Muckell

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

GPS-equipped mobile devices such as smart phones and in-car navigation units are collecting enormous amounts of spatial and temporal information that traces a moving object's path. The exponential increase in the amount of such trajectory data has caused three major problems. First, transmission of large amounts of data is expensive and time-consuming. Second, queries on large amounts of trajectory data require computationally expensive operations to extract useful patterns and information. Third, GPS trajectories often contain large amounts of redundant data that waste storage and cause increased disk I/O time. These issues can be addressed by algorithms that reduce the size …

Using Geospatial Technologies To Characterize Relationships Between Travel Behavior, Food Availability, And Health, Warren J. Christian

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Epidemic obesity in the U.S. has prompted exploration of causal factors related to the built environment. Recent research has noted statistical associations between the spatial accessibility of retail food sources, such as supermarkets, convenience stores, and restaurants, and individual characteristics such as weight, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity. These studies typically use residential proximity or neighborhood density to food sources as the measure of accessibility. Assessing food environments in this manner, however, is very limiting. Since most people travel outside of their neighborhood on a daily basis, the retail food sources available to individuals residing in the same area could vary …

Re-Placing Sprawl: Mapping Place In An American Suburb, Ryan M. Cooper

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

In the post-World War II era land development in the United States has largely been focused on the expansion away from urban centers and out into the surrounding suburbs. While the development of suburbs began with utopian ideals of spiritual wholeness, their actual manifestation on the American landscape has been subject to harsh critiques about their long-term economic and environmental feasibility, fostering of social alienation, and general placelessness. In this thesis I address the criticism of suburbs as placeless, asking ―What are the particular practices of place-making in North American suburbs?‖ Examining interviews, cognitive map surveys, participant observation, archival materials, …

Urban Growth Patterns And Effectiveness Of The Metropolitan Urban Service Areas In Woodbury, Minnesota, Danielle Thomas

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a specific urban sprawl containment strategy called the Metropolitan Urban Service Areas (MUSA). MUSA was developed for Minneapolis/St. Paul in order to ensure organized and practical development in areas that already had pre-built roads and sewer system infrastructures. Currently, MUSA is not an urban boundary; its specific goal is to, "synchronize urban growth with the provision of infrastructure needed to accommodate growth" (Council, August 2006). To evaluate the rigidity of the MUSA boundaries, the sample years of 1990, 2000, 2010 and the projected 2020 boundaries were subjected to spatial analysis utilizing three different software …

From Mounds To Maps To Models: Visualizing Ancient Architecture Across Landscapes, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Since the onset of settlement pattern studies in the 1950s, landscape mapping projects have become an archaeological mainstay. Remote sensing technologies such as lidar, photogrammetry, and SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) steadily reveal new archaeological sites. For landscape archaeology, the detection and mapping of small architectural complexes and households offers important data to contextualize larger (often already known) sites and perform regional analyses. However, because the majority of sites remain unexcavated, analysis is limited, and yet Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and 3D Visualization are expanding the possible uses for older and newly-acquired data on unexcavated mounds. This paper describes a GIS …

Mapa De Desafios Cartográficos 2013, Gtaso, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Maps

Mapa de Desafios Cartográficos 2013

Map of Cartographic Challenges 2013

Mapa De Territorios Indígenas Y Áreas Naturales Protegidas En Las Fronteras Amazónicas Entre Ucayali Y Madre De Dios (Perú), Acre (Brasil) Y Pando (Bolivia), Gtaso, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Maps

Mapa de Territorios Indígenas y Áreas Naturales Protegidas en las Fronteras Amazónicas entre Ucayali y Madre de Dios (Perú), Acre (Brasil) y Pando (Bolivia)

Map of Indigenous Territories and Protected Areas in the Amazon Borders between Ucayali and Madre de Dios (Peru), Acre (Brazil), and Pando (Bolivia)

Mapa De Amenazas En Las Cuencas De Las Fronteras Amazónicas Entre Ucayali Y Madre De Dios (Perú), Pando (Bolivia) Y Acre (Brasil), Gtaso, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Maps

Mapa de Amenazas en las Cuencas de las Fronteras Amazónicas entre Ucayali y Madre de Dios (Perú), Pando (Bolivia) y Acre (Brasil)

Map of Threatened Borders of the Amazon Basin between Ucayali and Madre de Dios (Peru), Pando (Bolivia) and Acre (Brazil)

Mapa Del Corredor Socioambiental De Las Fronteras Amazónicas Entre Ucayali, Madre De Dios (Perú), Acre (Brasil) Y Pando (Bolivia), Gtaso, David S. Salisbury

Geography and the Environment Maps

Mapa del Corredor Socioambiental de las Fronteras Amazónicas entre Ucayali, Madre de Dios (Perú), Acre (Brasil) y Pando (Bolivia).

Map of the Amazonian boundaries between Ucayali, Madre de Dios (Peru), Acre (Brazil) and Pando (Bolivia).

Applying The Principles Of Spatial Modelling To The Management Of Biodiversity In The Fragmented Landscapes Of South-Western Australia, Shaun Molloy

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Biodiversity conservation throughout the world is challenged by the impacts of a changing climate on fragmented landscapes. To mitigate these threats, conservation managers require models which can demonstrate the consequences of both negative impacts and management actions. This need can be addressed through spatial modelling applications. Unfortunately, throughout much of the world, spatial modelling is forgone, being seen as requiring skills and resources beyond the means of many conservation planners and managers. This thesis seeks to address this dilemma by delivering criteria for a successful modelling application and by providing case studies which demonstrate how appropriate modelling can be undertaken …

Identifying Ditch Geometry And Top Of The Bank Location Using Airborne Lidar Point Cloud, Naime Celik

Open Access Theses

The geometry of agricultural drainage ditches is very important in crop production as it impacts drainage of cropland and affects vegetation and soil erosion along the banks of the ditches. Thus, implementation of water conservation and management practices in engineered and natural ditches necessitates determination of ditch geometry along the reach of the ditch. This study explores the use of airborne commercial Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology to identify the top of the ditch banks. The method was developed to obtain the normalized cross sectional shape of the ditch using one-dimensional spline fits to ground classified points from the …

Gis Prototype Modeling Of Landslide Susceptibility And Risk Perception - Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo), Peru: An Exploratory Approach, Alicia Felice Tyson

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Tourism is an increasingly important and developing sector of the Peruvian economy and the country is fast-tracking development to accommodate an influx of tourists, reportedly over 1.8 million/year. Situated in the southwest region of Peru, Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo) continues to develop infrastructure to keep pace with this burgeoning tourism industry. Regional geology and hydrology are importation factors influencing the ability to accommodate tourism in Aguas Calientes. Located at the confluence of three rivers, the town is also situated in a watershed with high return intervals for flooding and mass wasting triggered by the sudden, intense rainfall characterizing the …

Community Loss: A New Social Indicator, Jochen Albrecht, Mimi Abramovitz

Publications and Research

The Community Loss Index ðCLIÞ, a new social indicator, focuses on the understudied role of place as a source of stress and an aggregator of individual experiences. Building on the relationship between loss and stress, the index attempts to capture collective loss, defined as the chronic exposure by neighborhood residents to multiple resource losses at the same time. Using maps, the article analyzes the spatial distribution of six types of loss in New York City and the characteristics of people who live in high- and low-loss neighborhoods. Regionalization reveals a neighborhood-based concentration of loss, patterns of loss that are both …

Ecological Diversity In Hillsborough County, Florida: Correlations Between Landscape Metrics And Socio-Demographic Variables, David Godfrey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Landscape metrics, a means of quantifying landscape attributes, are frequently used in landscape ecology to describe the spatial characteristics of a landscape, but they have been less often used in anthropology. Using geographic information system (GIS) software, this study tests a method that investigates statistical correlations between groundcover landscape metrics and socio-demographic variables in Hillsborough County, Florida. Statistically significant correlations were found, illustrating the potential utility of this exploratory method. Wealthier areas with fewer ethnic minorities tend to be more fragmented and diverse in terms of groundcover; these areas also tend to have a lower percentage of impervious surfaces. The …

Eco-Epidemiology Of Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus, Patrick Vander Kelen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Eastern Equine Encephalitis virus (EEEV) is an alphavirus with high pathogenicity in both humans and horses. Florida continues to have the highest occurrence of human cases in the USA, with four fatalities recorded in 2010. Unlike other states, Florida supports year-round EEEV transmission. This research uses Geographic Information Science (GIS) to examine spatial patterns of documented sentinel seroconversions and horse cases in order to understand the relationships between habitat and transmission intensity of EEEV in Florida. Sentinel sites were categorized as enzootic, periodically enzootic, and negative based on the amount of chicken seroconversions to EEEV. Sentinel sites were analyzed …

Evaluating Habitat Vulnerability And Sustainability Of Urban Seagrass Resources To Sea Level Rise, Cynthia A. Meyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The seagrass resource provides essential ecosystem functions for many marine species. This research evaluated the vulnerability and sustainability of the seagrass resource in an urbanized area to the effects of sea level rise. The assessment required analysis of information regarding the biogeography of the seagrass resource, and developing a method to model the spatial extent of the suitable habitat for seagrass, and applying the model to predict the implications of simulated sea level rise scenarios on the seagrass resource.

Examining the biogeography of the seagrass resource required the development of a seagrass monitoring and assessment field survey and a comprehensive …