Geographic Information Sciences Commons^™

Employing Natural History Collections In The Aid Of Conservation: Streamlining An Approach To Model Species Distributions En Masse For The Preservation Of Biodiversity, Alice Fornari

Master's Projects and Capstones

Using species distribution models (SDMs) in Natural History Collections (NHCs) can influence how humans implement conservation changes in flora and fauna communities and ecosystems. Through the use of legacy data (old NHCs and their associated locality/collection information), data correction (background data or pseudo absences added to presence-only data), and the SDM software, Maxent (and its associated geographic information systems or GIS projected models), it has been shown that it is feasible to create a low budget protocol/setup to project the past, present and future of species population changes. This has been done in the past few decades as more collections …

Open Source Foundations For Spatial Decision Support Systems, Jochen Albrecht

Publications and Research

Spatial Decision Support Systems (SDSS) were a hot topic in the 1990s, when researchers tried to imbue GIS with additional decision support features. Successful practical developments such as HAZUS or CommunityViz have since been built, based on commercial desktop software and without much heed for theory other than what underlies their process models. Others, like UrbanSim, have been completely overhauled twice but without much external scrutiny. Both the practical and the theoretical foundations of decision support systems have developed considerably over the past 20 years. This article presents an overview of these developments and then looks at what corresponding tools …

Using Deep Learning To Forecast Spatiotemporal Crime Patterns, Shuzhan Fan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The distributional patterns of crime occurrences are closely related to their spatial, temporal, and environmental contexts. It has been a hot topic for researchers and crime analysts to discover such complex relationships in order to forecast crime, both spatially and temporally. Many factors play a role in the occurrences of crimes. Conventional crime forecasting research has primarily relied on historical crime records and socioeconomic data, while ignoring the rich social media and other environmental context data. The large volume of data requires a more appropriate forecasting framework with the ability to take in massive multimodal data and possibly achieve better …

The Evacuation Of Phnom Penh During The Cambodian Genocide: Applying Spatial Video Geonarratives To The Study Of Genocide, James A. Tyner, Andrew Curtis, Sokvisal Kimsroy, Chhunly Chhay

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

On April 17, 1975 Khmer Rouge soldiers began the forcible evacuation of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city. The evacuation has been the subject of considerable debate surrounding the Cambodian genocide and remains a topic of prime importance toward the understanding of Khmer Rouge policy and practice. In this field note, we present a geographically-informed account of the evacuation in order to provide a more fine-grained analysis of Khmer Rouge practice. More specifically, employing spatial video geonarratives, we provide a systematic investigation of the evacuation, as retraced by six evacuees. In so doing we contribute also to the emergent use of …

Constructing A Data-Based Mortality Profile For Avian Tower Kills At Telecommunication Towers In Illinois, Rachel Dipietro

Theses and Dissertations

During spring and fall seasons, Neotropical migratory passerines travel nocturnally across the Western Hemisphere between their wintering and breeding grounds, often encountering man-made threats. One hazard that has gained considerable publicity in recent decades is the communication tower. While there have been many tower kill studies recorded, there has been no attempt at predicting the risk of towers based on their different attributes (e.g., height, type of light, landscape placement) spatially on a regional scale. The objective of this study was to create seasonal mortality profile maps in GIS for Illinois, based on tower attributes combined with key factors such …

Web-Based Archaeology And Collaborative Research, Fabrizio Galeazzi, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

While digital technologies have been part of archaeology for more than fifty years, archaeologists still look for more efficient methodologies to integrate digital practices of fieldwork recording with data management, analysis, and ultimately interpretation.This Special Issue of the Journal of Field Archaeology gathers international scholars affiliated with universities, organizations, and commercial enterprises working in the field of Digital Archaeology. Our goal is to offer a discussion to the international academic community and practitioners. While the approach is interdisciplinary, our primary audience remains readers interested in web technology and collaborative platforms in archaeology

Finding Ft. Smith And Ft. Star In Smithland, Ky, Austin Valentine, Austin Valentine Jr.

Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Through the utilization of Light Detection and Ranging data, one can compile 3-dimensional models that can be used to spot anomalies of historical interest. These anomalies, if recognizable by the trained eye, can then be used to geo-reference historic maps to gain a better understanding of historic sites as well as to reveal possible areas of interests or unknown features.

By using a 3-dimensional model compiled by LiDAR data, I was able to geo-reference a December 13^th, 1861 map of the Civil War defenses for the town of Smithland, Kentucky. Through this process, I have been able to …

Economic Resilience And Concentration In Indiana Over 2002-2016, Santiago Ruiz, Michael Wilcox, Indraneel Kumar

Purdue GIS Day

It is well accepted that recessionary shocks affect long-term patterns of economic growth within regions. For this reason, it is important to understand how regional economies recover and in which extent a shock could be an economic burden in long term. A relevant variable to measure shock’s impact is employment, for two reasons. First, past recessions suggested that in most cases, the decline in employment tended to be deeper than in output. Second, layoffs of workers are key forms of adjustment to which employees seek to reduce costs. Given these, our research aims to understand shifts in employees during, after …

Gis Applications, Andriy Zhalnin, Indraneel Kumar, Benjamin St. Germain, Darrell Schulze, Rachel Moore, Mark Ehle

Purdue GIS Day

This roundtable discusses various GIS applications in different fields. Purdue's Center for Regional Development presents "harmonized space-time data and measures: a study of race, ethnicity and poverty". Prof. Darrell Schulze from Agronomy and Purdue Center for Environmental and Regulatory Information Systems showcase SoilExplorer, a soil map application for teaching and learning soil science. Mark Ehle, Tippcanoe County GIS administrator, introduces the county's GIS services and maps.

Gis To Address Questions In Forest Ecology And Management, Nicolas Picard

Purdue GIS Day

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are powerful tools to deal with spatialized issues. As such, they have become routine tools in forestry to delimit forest resources, support the design of forest inventories, map forest resources, and analyze, model and support decision making to sustainably manage forests. Two examples will be provided to show how forest management can benefit from progress in GIS technology. The first one deals with the optimization of forest roads to harvest trees in tropical rainforests. It required the development of heuristics to solve the multiple target access problem in a reasonable time. The second one deals with …

Uas, Joseph P. Hupy

Purdue GIS Day

This roundtable focuses on UAS as a geospatial data collection tool. Researchers with extensive background in GIS and remote sensing software, or interest in incorporating their UAS data more into GIS discuss about possible research opportunities and collaboration as well as how to incorporate UAS and GIS into curriculum.

Is Corruption Influenced By Human Development Index And Transparency? A Global Spatial Assessment Using Gis, Seyedali Ghahari, Shabnam Ghotbi, Samuel Labi, Nader Naderpajouh

Purdue GIS Day

The intricacy of the construction practices sometimes causes the vague atmosphere between clients, partners, and providers, is one of the Achilles heels of infrastructure projects; this grounds the industry as the most inefficient, corrupted business in the world. Governments, in recent years, have made a significant positive effort on public transparency. E-government is an effective tool to execute the very subject. Not only e-government helps transparency, but also it provides openness, accountability, the participation of citizens, etc. By giving citizens access to the functionality of public organizations and institutions, and providing open media for public debates, nations can obtain higher …

Spatial Humanities, Katherine M. Jarriel, Megha Anwer, Elizabeth Brite, Matthew Hannah, Amber N. Nickell

Purdue GIS Day

This roundtable introduces spatial humanities researches at Purdue. Projects include "Mapping Victorian women's habitation and violence encounter" by Dr. Megha Anwer; "Animating material agencies with GIS data: an example from the archealogy of the Soviet Union" by Dr. Elizabeth Brite; "Modeling community interaction in Bronze Age Greece" by Dr. Katherine Jarriel; "Mapping 'no place': Eastern and Central Europe's nineteenth and twentieth century phantom, indifferent, and alternative geographies by Amber Nickell.

How Much Do Purdue's Trees Weigh? Estimating Biomass In Urban Areas, Jacob Klaybor, Gillian Clark, Brady Hardiman

Purdue GIS Day

Vegetation plays an important role in urban areas by reducing the urban heat island effect, sequestering carbon emissions, and providing socioeconomic benefits to the surrounding areas. However, the roles and distributions of urban forests have historically been ignored or underestimated. This presentation uses the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, as a case study to quantify the aboveground vegetative biomass of campus trees. Tree biomass is calculated with data from the Purdue Arboretum and family-specific allometric relationships based on each tree's diameter at breast height to estimate the total carbon storage available within campus trees. Biomass estimates of …

Economic Resilience And Diversity In Indiana From 2002 To 2016, Santiago Ruiz, Michael Wilcox, Indraneel Kumar

Purdue GIS Day

It is well accepted that recessionary shocks affect long-term patterns of economic growth within regions. For this reason, it is important to understand how regional economies recover and in which extent a shock could be an economic burden in long term. A relevant variable to measure shock’s impact is employment, for two reasons. First, past recessions suggested that in most cases, the decline in employment tended to be deeper than in output. Second, layoffs of workers are key forms of adjustment to which employees seek to reduce costs. Given these, our research aims to understand shifts in employees during, after …

My Laptop Takes Forever, Now What!, Eric Adams

Purdue GIS Day

ITAP Research Computing's Data Workbench offers researchers access to an interactive computing environment for non-batch big data analysis and simulation. Researchers who outgrow their local computing resources can benefit from the extra computing power that Data Workbench offers without jumping directly into the High-Performance Computing clusters.

In this presentation, we will discuss the details of Data Workbench, file storage options including the Data Depot and how to transfer large files reliably with the Globus research data management service.

Sustainable Environment: Nexus Project, Zachary S. Brecheisen, Darrell Schulze, Timothy Filley, Jino Ramson, W. Daniel Leon-Salas, Natalie Chin, Fariborz Daneshvar, Andre De Lima Moraes

Purdue GIS Day

Arequipa region is locaed in Southwestern Peru. The Arequipa Nexus Institute for food, energy, water and the environment aims to address the key challenges to a sustainable furture for the people in the region. This roundtable discusses about the sustainable water management, geosaptial analysis and environment sharing, long range sensor network solution for soil health monitoring and data management and sharing in this Nexus project.

Scaling Effect Of Fused Aster-Modis Land Surface Temperature In An Urban Environment, Hua Liu, Qihao Weng

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

There is limited research in land surface temperatures (LST) simulation using image fusion techniques, especially studies addressing the downscaling effect of LST image fusion. LST simulation and associated downscaling effect can potentially benefit the thermal studies requiring both high spatial and temporal resolutions. This study simulated LSTs based on observed Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST imagery with Spatial and Temporal Adaptive Reflectance Fusion Model, and investigated the downscaling effect of LST image fusion at 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, 250, 500, and 1000 m spatial resolutions. The study …

Centroid-Amenities: An Interactive Visual Analytical Tool For Exploring And Analyzing Amenities In Singapore, Xue Qian Jazreel Siew, Sean Jia Ming Koh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Planning for civic amenities in a fast-changing urban setting such as Singapore is never an easy task. And as urban planners look toward more data-driven approaches toward urban planning, so grows the demand for more flexible geospatial analytics tools to facilitate a more iterative and granular approach toward urban planning. Such specific tools however, are not always readily available as plugins for traditional desktop GIS software, as numerous customizations must be made to model specific temporal planning scenarios for quick analysis, which could prove both costly and time-consuming. Hence, to address this need, open-source tools such as R Shiny could …

A Comparative Analysis Of Non-Invasive Exploration Techniques Lidar Vs. Aerial Photography – Kincaid Mounds Archaeological Site, Austin Valentine, Austin Valentine Jr.

Student Scholarship & Creative Works

KINCAID MOUNDS - A Comparative Analysis of Non-invasive Exploration Techniques is a journal of my efforts to conduct non-invasive site investigations at the Kincaid Mounds Archaeological site in Southern Illinois. Through the utilization of tools such as; drones, photography, satellite imaging, light distance and ranging, and powerful analysis software, I will demonstrate a number of useful techniques which one can utilize to conduct independent site investigations without disturbing a sites landscape or structural integrity. Thus, illustrating differences between those techniques and pointing out their strengths and weaknesses in their various applications.

During this journey, I will also venture into the …

An Investigation Of Habitat Suitability Factors And Their Interactions For Predicting Gopher Tortoise Habitat, Abigail V. Lavallin

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis evaluates the interaction between four habitat factors vital to the gopher tortoise in Florida. Federally and state listed as threatened throughout its entire range, the gopher tortoise is vital to protect, not only for itself individually but its burrows provide an essential habitat to over 300 species making it a key stone species within its environment. Historic habitat modeling methods are reviewed for the gopher tortoise to highlight the gap on this topic. This research expanded on the methods utilized by Baskaran et al. (2006) evaluating the soil, landcover, percentage of canopy cover and the depth to water …

Collaborative Wcu Gis For Education, Research, And Outreach, Gary Coutu

Sustainability Research & Creative Activities Grants Reports

As WCU integrates sustainability into curriculum, public engagement, and campus-based research, GIS tools/data are critical for management, research, collaboration, and communication. A shared, WCU campus GIS has been published and the Center for GIS and Spatial Analysis continues to collaborate with the Office of Sustainability and faculty on the dissemination and use of our WCU GIS platform.

Using Digital Scholarship And Citizen Science To Reduce Lead Poisoning Risk In Indiana, Matthew L. Sisk 6317313

Bucknell University Digital Scholarship Conference

Lead exposure remains a prevalent public health issue in many communities. In some cases, the exposure risk comes from contaminated water, but in others it is from the legacy of lead-based paint or contaminated soils. Here, we report on recent work using digital scholarship techniques along side a citizen science model to increase awareness and reduce environmental hazards in the affected city of South Bend, Indiana. Over the past two years, we have worked closely with local community organizations, civic entities and concerned individuals to develop a home test kit that puts the tools to determine risk in the hands …

Kisumu County Hospital Patient Demographic Analysis: Looking Toward Universal Health Coverage, Lauren Scheffey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Universal health coverage is priority sought after by developed and developing nations alike, and Kenya sits on the list of countries seeking to achieve this goal in the coming years. The definition of “coverage” can vary by country, but three criteria are commonly found in the discussion of UHC globally: access, affordability, and quality. Affordability is determined by the state’s healthcare financing system; quality refers to the services provided by health facilities; and access, at least in part, concerns the geographic placement of health services providers in relation to the population they intend to serve. This geographic element is the …

Comprehending Climate Change In The Himalayas: An Exercise In Digital Storytelling, Emily Carlson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study was completed as an attempt to visualize, contextualize, and humanize the effects of climate change in the Himalayan orogen through the lens of digital storytelling. The ArcGIS software application, Story Maps, was used to create a highly visual “storytelling” webpage. It combines spatial and empirical data from across the whole Himalayan range with stories and case studies collected in eight villages of Lower Mustang, Nepal. This project is thus a union of climatologic and ethnographic research. As climate change continues to charge ahead in an incredibly vulnerable part of the world, the people of the region face the …

Velocity Model For Co2 Sequestration In The Southeastern United States Atlantic Continental Margin, John Ollmann

Theses and Dissertations

The sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) is emerging as a major player in offsetting anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. With 40% of the United States’ anthropogenic CO2 emissions originating in the southeast, characterizing potential CO2 sequestration sites is vital to reducing the United States’ emissions. The overall goal of this research project, funded by the Department of Energy, is to estimate the CO2 storage potential for the Southeastern United States Atlantic Continental Margin. Previous studies find storage potential in the Atlantic continental margin. Up to 16 Gt and 175 Gt of storage potential are estimated for the Upper Cretaceous and Lower …

Unearthing The X-Streams: Visualizing Water Contamination, Akangsha Bandalkul, Angad Srivastava, Kishan Bharadwaj Shridhar, Jason Guan Jie Ong, Yanrong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The datasets released for VAST 2018 Mini Challenge 2 pertain to sensor readings capturing chemical concentrations and physical properties from water bodies in the Boonsong Lekagul wildlife preserve. This challenge is in continuation to the VAST 2017 Challenge, where the company Kasios was identified as the culprit in dumping the chemical - Methylosmoline. In the absence of actual chemical measurements in the soil, challenge participants need to visualize chemical contamination based on the proximal water bodies to identify trends of interest. A horizon plot developed helps to narrow down the complete list of 106 chemicals provided to only 7, …

Assessing Ppgis Usability And Its Relationship To Spatial Data Production: A Case Study, Timothy Michael Hitchins

Dissertations and Theses

Modern Geoweb-enabled PPGIS methodologies incorporate interactive map applications as the main driver for public engagement and data collection. However, little research explores exactly how the public interact with these applications to produce spatial data, a fact that contributes to criticisms of final data quality. Usability evaluation offers a solution for developing better PPGIS data production systems by identifying problems in the application interface for which the public engage. Drawing on a case study example of a PPGIS application developed to collect socio-spatial data from members of a random public, this paper addresses usability in a three-stage approach. First, controlled experimentation …

Opencrimemapping.Org: An Online Tool For Visualizing Crime, Michael Crowder, Lauren Darr, Gerardo Garza, Brent Allen

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper we present a method for creating geographic visualizations of criminal incidents using open data and open-source software. The motivation for this method is to provide law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and interested citizens an affordable and relatively easy way to start analyzing geospatial data. The National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is a national standard for LEA incident reporting going into effect for all 18,000 U.S. LEAs in 2021. This project uses the Dallas Police Department's publicly available, NIBRS-style, incident data to develop a geovisual analysis tool called opencrimemapping.org.

Rural Sense: Value, Heritage, And Sensory Landscapes: Developing A Design-Oriented Approach To Mapping For Healthier Landscapes, Judith Van Der Elst, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Lily Díaz-Kommonen

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Landscape design needs a novel value system centred on human experience of the landscape rather than simply on economic value. Design-oriented research allows us to shift the focus from mechanistic paradigms towards new sensemaking approaches that value both the sensual and the cognitive in human experience. To move in this direction, we investigate cultural and natural aspects of sensory experience in rural landscapes, arguing that: (1) rural (non-urban) regions offer diverse sensory experiences for optimising human health; and (2) spatial interconnectedness between rural and urban areas means that healthy rural regions are critical for urban development. Our key argument is …