Geographic Information Sciences Commons^™

Digitally-Mediated Practices Of Geospatial Archaeological Data: Transformation, Integration, & Interpretation, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Kristin Landau

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Digitally-mediated practices of archaeological data require reflexive thinking about where archaeology stands as a discipline in regard to the ‘digital,’ and where we want to go. To move toward this goal, we advocate a historical approach that emphasizes contextual source-side criticism and data intimacy—scrutinizing maps and 3D data as we do artifacts by analyzing position, form, material and context of analog and digital sources. Applying this approach, we reflect on what we have learned from processes of digitally-mediated data. We ask: What can we learn as we convert analog data to digital data? And, how does digital data transformation impact …

The Effect Of Citi Bike Introduction On Injury Rates In New York City, Masakazu Hiruma

Theses and Dissertations

This paper tests the hypothesis that the introduction of Citi Bike influences bicycle injuries by observing the gradual expansion of the bike share system in NYC. Data is analyzed from 2012-2018 New York Police Department (NYPD) Motor Vehicle Collisions and Citi Bike Station Feeds (NYC Open Data).

The Importance Of Landscape Position Information And Elevation Uncertainty For Barrier Island Habitat Mapping And Modeling, Nicholas Matthew Enwright

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Barrier islands provide important ecosystem services, including storm protection and erosion control to the mainland, habitat for fish and wildlife, and tourism. As a result, natural resource managers are concerned with monitoring changes to these islands and modeling future states of these environments. Landscape position, such as elevation and distance from shore, influences habitat coverage on barrier islands by regulating exposure to abiotic factors, including waves, tides, and salt spray. Geographers commonly use aerial topographic lidar data for extracting landscape position information. However, researchers rarely consider lidar elevation uncertainty when using automated processes for extracting elevation-dependent habitats from lidar data. …

Food Deserts Debunked And Decentered: From Deficit To Relational Mapping For Food Justice In Worcester, Ma, Brenna Robeson

Sustainability and Social Justice

The mapping of food deserts has become a standardized component of food and health policy work concerned with expanding food access. These maps often follow a similar format of spatially identifying where grocery stores are absent in communities, thus suggesting a straightforward problem diagnosis and intervention blueprint. This paper questions the over-emphasis among many food and health policy practitioners on these technically engineered policy stories, specifically for their obstruction of histories of white supremacy and capitalism within the US food system and urban landscapes. A mixed-methods approach is applied to a case study of Worcester, MA which appropriates GIS to …

Automation Of State Climate Office Processes & Products: Developing Efficient Approaches For Data Dissemination, Michael Shoop

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

State Climate Offices (SCO’s) in the United States are critical conduits for improving weather and climate data in local communities. Two states do not have a state-recognized SCO: Tennessee and Massachusetts. Efforts are underway at East Tennessee State University to develop the Tennessee Climate Office (TCO). Currently, climate services and products are severely lacking across Tennessee. This thesis provides an improved methodology for an existing TCO product and outlines the development of a new product using Python scripting. Daily storm reports within the monthly climate report are automated and a Weather Forecasts Hazard Index (WFHI) web application is developed. Both …

Lidar-Based Sinkhole Detection And Mapping In Knox County, Tennessee, J Clint Shannon, David Moore, Yingkui Li, Cathy Olsen

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Sinkholes are one of the major causes of damage to roads, buildings, and other infrastructure throughout the US. Sinkholes near or on roads are especially costly and occasionally deadly. Knox County and much of East Tennessee are located within karst areas (comprised of porous and soluble limestone and dolomite), deeming it at risk for sinkholes. Currently, Knox County uses contour maps to manually identify sinkholes. Supported by a geographic information system (GIS), we developed a streamlined model to identify the locations and extents of potential sinkholes using 1.3-ft resolution LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data and applied it to the …

Understanding Cumulative Hazards In A Rustbelt City: Integrating Gis, Archaeology, And Spatial History, Daniel Trepal, Don Lafreniere

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

We combine the Historical Spatial Data Infrastructure (HSDI) concept developed within spatial history with elements of archaeological predictive modeling to demonstrate a novel GIS-based landscape model for identifying the persistence of historically-generated industrial hazards in postindustrial cities. This historical big data approach draws on over a century of both historical and modern spatial big data to project the presence of specific persistent historical hazards across a city. This research improves on previous attempts to understand the origins and persistence of historical pollution hazards, and our final model augments traditional archaeological approaches to site prospection and analysis. This study also demonstrates …

A Hybrid Gis/In Situ Analysis Of Aed Coverage On The Unm Central Campus, Ian T. Hill

Geography ETDs

Automated External Defibrillators (AED’s) are lifesaving devices that can greatly improve the survival rates of cardiac arrest when used quickly. There are publicly accessible AED’s on the UNM campus, and each device has an effective range based on how quickly a responder can retrieve the AED and return it to the site of the cardiac emergency. The ranges of the AED’s on UNM central campus are analyzed using GIS, interior building measurements, and various retrieval speeds. This helps evaluate the current placement of AED’s on campus and helps reveal where future coverage is needed. This focus on the combined navigation …

Searching Activity Trajectories With Semantics, Li-Hua Yin, Huiwen Liu

PhD Student’s Publications Collection

With the widespread use of smart phones and mobile Internet, social network users have generated massive geo-tagged tweets, photos and videos to form lots of informative trajectories which reveal not only their spatio-temporal dynamics, but also their activities in the physical world. Existing spatial trajectory query studies mainly focus on analyzing the spatio-temporal properties of the users’ trajectories, while leaving the understanding of their activities largely untouched. In this paper, we incorporate the semantics of the activity information embedded in trajectories into query modelling and processing, with the aim of providing end users more informative and meaningful results. To this …

Measuring And Understanding Food Accessibility In The Tampa Bay Area, Bailey I. Glover

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the Tampa Bay region, increasing population and changing demographics have begun to alter the characteristics of established neighborhoods. An increase in suburban growth has triggered a shift in the location and profitability of food establishments in socially disadvantaged neighborhoods. Supermarket closures have garnered attention from public health officials who are concerned with the overall availability of fresh food throughout Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. Unfortunately, there has been little research surrounding the quality of food sold at establishments in both the Tampa Bay region and abroad. Instead, many geographic studies have chosen to group both fresh and prepared food establishments …

Habitat Suitability Index Model Of The Florida Sandhill Crane (Grus Canadensis Pratensis) In West-Central Florida, Courtney E. Buck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Florida Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis pratensis) is a state threatened endemic subspecies of the Sandhill Crane (Nesbitt & Tacha, 1997). With a population that was estimated at a maximum of 5,000 individuals in 2003 (Nesbitt & Hatchitt, 2008), it is imperative to identify potentially viable habitats, as Florida is rapidly developing. This research develops a Habitat Suitability Index model to determine unsuitable to optimally suitable habitat locations throughout west-central Florida. To do so, six suitability variables based on the crane’s life history were evaluated: Potential nesting area, immediate nesting area, wetland coverage, foraging area, brooding area, and road proximity. …

Public, Private And Tribal Lands In Humboldt And Trinity Counties, Nate A. Douglass

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This map titled “Public, Private and Tribal Lands in Humboldt and Trinity Counties” was a commissioned project by Dr. Yvonne Everett in the Environmental Science and Management Department at Humboldt State University. The purpose of the map was to depict the overlap in land ownership and native, pre-European territories. The most challenging part of the project was finding a way to successfully represent multiple land ownership layers while also distinctly calling out former aboriginal territories, all in one map. For this, bold dotted lines with soft concentric halos seemed to do the trick. These aboriginal territories were manually digitized from …

Yosemite & Zion National Park, Sean Flemming

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This map displays exciting color gradients representing the variation of the elevation in both Yosemite and Zion National Parks. It was created utilizing United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map 3DEP 1/3rd arc-second Digital Elevation Models and Adobe Photoshop.

Hobet Mine Mountaintop Removal, Brian Murphy

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The Hobet Coal Mine is located in West Virginia, and was an active mining site for 41 years. At the time, it was one of the largest surface coal mines in the United States. The impacts of this particular mine are especially pronounced because of the sheer scale of alteration to the landscape caused by removing the peaks of mountains to retrieve the coal. The once verdant and biodiverse mountains have been obliterated, and when the coal is removed, the remaining earth is filled into nearby valleys, creating a flat plateau. This terrain has been destroyed, poisoned, and exploited by …

Northern Appalachian Land Cover, Joshua Shindelbower

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This map was created using a combination of GIS, photo editing, and graphic design software after an inspiring road trip through the area. It shows the wide diversity of land cover across the region, and a key weak point in the Appalachian Mountains, known as “The Gaps of the Allegheny,” which allowed European immigrants to move toward fertile land deposited by millions of years of erosion. The reader can see that there is very little unused space in the region. Nearly every non-urban inch of land has been occupied for agricultural purposes, down to the thinnest sliver valleys. This map …

Ball Court Map, Adam Wall

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This is a composite map of Structure 30 (STR 30), an ancient Mesoamerican ballcourt in Belize, excavated and documented as an archaeological site by Humboldt State University students and alumni. Each demarcated square or rectangle corresponds to a separate excavation map; field notes were consolidated and digitized individually, then pieced together based on alignment and overlaid atop an outline of the entire structure. Satellite imagery of the site was used as a reference to ensure accuracy. By this method, the previously isolated pockets of data, inherent to individual field notes, instead become parts of a greater whole, allowing a fuller …

Dos Hambres To Gran Cacao Archaeological Mapping, Michael Mcdermott

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This map displays the spatial relationships and distribution of residential features throughout a portion of the Maya hinterlands near the site of Dos Hombres in Northwest Belize. Combining high resolution LiDAR data with detailed archaeology field data has allowed for accurate mapping of the features in this Mayan landscape. A unique aspect of this particular site is the presence of a causeway or “sacbe” which was used by the ancient Mayan people to distribute resources and move throughout their environment. The background terrain was created by manipulating the LiDAR data to generate a unique visualization that displays the human modified …

The Southern California Coast, Gilbert Trejo

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The purpose of this map was to create a landscape view of my home region of Southern California that adequately displayed the complexity of it’s natural and man-made terrain. One of the challenges I faced was the amount of labeling in the greater Los Angeles (LA) area. I decided to not include any city borders because moving around LA feels more like moving across various neighborhoods and regions than crossing from one city to another. Slanting the text provided more space without making it too difficult to read. The orientation creates a more interesting layout than the usual north-up orientation, …

Salmon Of The Klamath, Melissa Collin

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The Klamath is a diverse bioregion widely known for its abundant population of salmon. It extends through the states of Oregon and California, and has a drainage basin of over 15,000 square miles that flows into the Klamath River. The three most prevalent species of salmon in the region (Coho, Steelhead, and Chinook) have all experienced sharp declines in populations since the mid-20th century. This is due to human activity such as commercial fishing, logging, dams, and urban development that has altered the salmon’s historic migration. This map aims to visualize the various waterways and water bodies that flow throughout …

Conflicts On The Klamath, Massimo Lambert-Mullen, Hop Norris

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Conflicts on the Klamath is a collaboration between Massimo Lambert-Mullen, a Humboldt State University Geography alumnus, and Hop Norris, a local artist, activist, and water protector based out of Crescent City, California. The inspiration behind this infographic is the complex and rich contemporary history of the Klamath river, including the establishment of reservations and the construction of dams, roads, and monuments that disrupt the flow of salmon and disrespect sacred sites. It is a politically motivated piece that means to convey the cultural and ecological importance of salmon and criticize government and settler actions to disenfranchise local Yurok, Hoopa, and …

Historic Landmarks And Points Of Interest In Mendocino Ca, Jeremy Mcfarland

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The Earth’s ocean ties all people together in more ways than one. For centuries, people have been drawn to the ocean for its vast openness and array of resources. Maritime heritage is the protection and preservation of humankind’s past and century old stories of cultures’ use of the ocean. By understanding individual connections to the ocean, more may be inspired to care for it. This map was developed to visualize the unique transition between land and sea, and capture the historic connection of this seascape town.

Book Review, Stanton Morse

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Overall, Making Spatial Decisions Using ArcGIS Pro: a Workbook is an excellent text for college-level students who have had a formalized introduction to ArcGIS Pro. The authors expertly provide an expansive list of methods and applicable knowledge yet to be had from previous versions. Surely, the text is not perfect, but what it lacks can be remedied by knowledgeable instruction. Kathryn Keranen and Robert Kolvoord succeed in offering a new lens to view the bright future of ArcGIS Pro to those of us still reluctant to entirely switch.

Cartographies Of Debt: Auto Title Loans And Spatial Inequality, Michihiro C. Sugata

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Despite being a decade removed from the 2008 Financial Crisis, an alarming number of Americans are turning to alternative finance service providers (AFSP) for “short term” loans. These loans typically carry triple digit interest rates and can contribute to exacerbating the financial precarity of the borrowers. This article investigates the relationship between the spatial distribution of the AFSP industry and considers the impacts of this saturated presence on the individuals who live in these neighborhoods. Using the Phoenix metropolitan area as a site of exploration, I examine where the industry has pooled and look at the descriptive characteristics of those …

A Geographic Account Of Economic, Health, And Educational Disparities In Hartford’S Sheff Region, Casey D. Cobb

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

In the current study, I use geographic techniques to examine the distribution of key housing, economic, health, and educational indicators in metropolitan Hartford. I focus in particular on factors that bear upon the lives of children in this area, also known as the Sheff region—a reference to the long-standing Sheff v. O’Neill school desegregation lawsuit. The results reveal substantial disparities in the geographic distribution of important resources and outcomes across the racially and economically stratified region. Despite earnest school desegregation efforts, the opportunities, access, and resources available to children in municipalities across the metro Hartford region remain starkly different. Children …

Mapping Maya Hinterlands: Lidar Derived Visualization To Identify Small Scale Features In Northwestern Belize, Jeremy Mcfarland, Marisol Cortes-Rincon Ph.D.

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

This paper will discuss the processes and methods of relief visualization of LiDAR-derived digital elevation models (DEM’s) and classification of secondary data to identify archaeological remains on the ancient Maya landscape in northwestern Belize. The basis of the research explores various Geographic Information System (GIS) and cartographic techniques to visualize topographical relief. Graphic terrain maps assist archaeologists with predictive settlement patterns. The Relief Visualization Toolbox (RVT 1.3) aids to visualize raster DEM datasets in the predictive identification and interpretation of small-scale archaeological features. This dataset and methodology can be utilized to answer questions of population estimates, mobility costs, and effectiveness …

Agent-Based Models In Supporting Pedestrian Transportation Planning And Design, Nicholas A. Perdue

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Agent-based models offer a new approach to understanding human-urban interactions in transportation systems, allowing individual entities within a system to be characterized with cognitive and behavioral properties. This paper discussed the role of agent-based representations of pedestrian transportation systems, detailing the underlying assumptions and techniques behind different types of pedestrian models and illustrating the differences between aggregate and individual agent representations. It then turns attention to the case study and the development of a cognitive pedestrian model as a way to illustrate the spectrum of potential spatial behaviors that are enabled by material changes to the transportation network. The paper …

A Geospatial Recipe For Identifying Social Values And Fragmentation Issues Of The Friends Of The Dunes Land Trust, Buddhika Madurapperuma, Jess Barger, Melissa Collin, Christine Emerson, Sean Fleming, Brian Murphy

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The beach and coastal sand dunes comprise a dynamic and fragile ecosystem that provides a bounty of ecological services. These lands provide protection from coastal erosion and sea level rise, and are home to a rich biodiversity of plant and animal species in addition to their recreational value. The Humboldt Coastal Nature Center and the surrounding coastal dunes (HCNC) are man-aged as a land trust by Friends of the Dunes (FOD). FOD prioritize the restoration of dune habitats and encourages public involvement through community supported education and stewardship programs, guided nature tours, and naturalist training programs. The faculty, students, and …

Introduction, Marisol Cortes-Rincon, Nicholas Perdue

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

The purpose of this special issue is to highlight the myriad of applications of geographic information systems within the social sciences. As access to geospatial technologies continues to increase, we are seeing new forms of research that highlight how different approaches to spatial analysis can answer complex questions on topics ranging from contemporary urban policy to ancient civilizations.

Full Journal

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) engages with a variety of important policy issues through linking social science data with spatial analysis and by demonstrating the importance of applied GIS in both the public and private sector. GIS, though commonly used in the realms of city planning and natural resource analysis, have a far broader range of applications ranging from analysis of ancient community interactions to modern social media data.

Any Port In A Storm: Vessel Activity And The Risk Of Iuu-Caught Fish Passing Through The World’S Most Important Fishing Ports, Gilles Hosch, Bradley Soule, Max Schofield, Trevor Thomas, Charles Kilgour, Tim Huntington

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

This study assesses the risk of fish from illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) sources passing through the world’s most important fishing ports and explores the drivers of this risk.

Like previous studies it has attempted to rank ports and States based on landings and vessel visits reported by governments by using Automatic Identification System (AIS) positional data transmitted by fishing and fish carrier vessels to identify the locations of ports and rank them based on the frequency of visits by foreign-flagged and domestic-flagged vessels. It advances our thinking in that (i) the analysis includes an estimation of the hold capacity …