Spatial Science Commons^™

Assessing Land Deformation And Sea Encroachment In The Nile Delta, Egypt, Esayas Gebremichael

Research and Creative Activities Poster Day

Persistent scatterer interferometric analyses were conducted on a stack of 84 Envisat ASAR scenes spanning 7 years (2004 to 2010) over the entire Nile Delta of Egypt and surroundings to monitor the ongoing spatial and temporal land deformation, identify the factors controlling the deformation, and model the interplay between sea level rise and land subsidence to identify areas and populations threatened by sea encroachment by the end of the 21st century. Findings include: (1) general patterns of subsidence in the northern delta, near-steady (none) subsidence in the southern delta, separated by a previously mapped flexure zone undergoing uplift; (2) high …

Modeling The In-State Geographic Market Changes Of South Dakota Public University Enrollments, 2006 To 2015, John Green

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The spatial nature of how high school students choose a college has become an integral part of the recruitment process at universities across the country. In South Dakota, the impact of distance on enrollment at state operated institutions influences the geographic footprint of each university. Between 2006 and 2015, the nature of those enrollment numbers and geographic footprints changed within the state, creating enrollment stagnation or decline at state run institutions. This research paper addresses the geographic nature of those enrollment declines, models the college enrollment decision of students in the state, and applies those findings towards potential enrollment projections. …

Geomorphic Consequences Of Hydroelectricity And Transportation Development Near Celilo Falls, Lower Mid-Columbia River, Washington, Noah I. Oliver

All Master's Theses

Along the Columbia River, hundreds of miles of transportation infrastructure and over sixty hydroelectric dams have been constructed. This altered a rich cultural landscape with evidence of 10,000 years of continuous occupation. Researchers have attempted to understand the impacts of anthropogenic factors on the Columbia River, focusing on the riverine environment. However, the effect of transportation and hydroelectricity developments to eolian landforms on the floodplains and adjoining slopes have not been studied. Focusing on 2,800 acres near Celilo Falls, this study 1) establishes a baseline condition of eolian landforms from 1805 to 1900; 2) conducts an air photo increment analysis …

Residential Solar In Washington State, Sam Pfeifer

All Master's Theses

Electricity generated through residential solar provides a low carbon source of electricity. However, diffusion of residential solar remains low across the United States. Growing this diffusion takes an understanding of localized uptake trends, which can focus policy and business efforts to help increase residential solar market penetration. This is the first research to investigate residential solar uptake in Washington State and to examine environmental education as a potential driver of residential solar uptake. Through a snapshot analysis which considers environmental, economic, education, and cultural variables the present research fills this gap. Triangulated results include mapping of variables, ordinary-least squares multiple …

Poverty Mapping Using Convolutional Neural Networks Trained On High And Medium Resolution Satellite Images, With An Application In Mexico, Boris Babenko, Jonathan Hersh, David Newhouse, Anusha Ramakrishnan, Tom Swartz

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Mapping the spatial distribution of poverty in developing countries remains an important and costly challenge. These “poverty maps” are key inputs for poverty targeting, public goods provision, political accountability, and impact evaluation, that are all the more important given the geographic dispersion of the remaining bottom billion severely poor individuals. In this paper we train Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to estimate poverty directly from high and medium resolution satellite images. We use both Planet and Digital Globe imagery with spatial resolutions of 3-5 m2 and 50 cm2 respectively, covering all 2 million km2 of Mexico. Benchmark poverty estimates come from …

Spatial Analysis Of Ethnic And Racial Segregation In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, 2000–2014, Roy Yao

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Racial segregation has long been a great concern in the United States. Scholars study and measure racial segregation over different time periods to trace the changing patterns of racial segregation. Chicago, as the nation’s third largest city, also ranked on top of the most segregated cities. Previous studies measured racial segregation in Chicago only numerically; few studies have used geospatial statistic methods to identify racial segregation patterns in the Chicago metropolitan area. This study uses “Hotspot Analysis” (Getis Ord Gi*) to identify Chicago’s most recent segregation patterns among four major ethnic and racial groups: White, African American, Hispanic and Asian. …

Moving Mountains : A Study Examining Long-Term Impacts Of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining On Mortality In The Appalachian Region Using Geographic Information Sciences Techniques., James Howard Kent Pugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last hundred years, the Appalachian region has been dominated by the coal industry. It has also been and currently is one of the unhealthiest regions in the United States. Recent scholarship has examined the relationship between coal mining and health and mortality rates in the Appalachian region. The first study incorporates air quality and pollution data to examine if coal mining counties have higher levels of pollution and if this pollution contributes to mortality disadvantage. In the second study, I construct a population-based coal-exposure measure to better evaluate the relationship between coal mining and health I find that …

Gis Analysis Of Dvāravatī Dharmacakras And The Rise Of Buddhism In Thailand, Areerut Patnukao

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores how GIS as well as spatial and statistical analyses could be used to advance the understanding of Dvāravatī settlement and Dharmacakras locations. The research employs archaeological and geographical parameters to measure and quantify the patterns of Dvāravatī settlements, Dharmacakra locations, their interrelationship, and their relationship with environmental setting. The different types of spatial analyses, parameter settings within each analysis, and approaches are used to examine and explore the differences and commonalities of these variables at three different geographic levels: national, regional, and river basin levels.

Four distinct approaches are incorporated in this study. Chi-Square analysis shows significant …

Mobile-Based Sidewalk Inventory App For Smart Communities, Health, And Safety, Madhav Erraguntla, Dursun Delen, Rupesh K. Agrawal, Karthic Madanagopal, Richard Mayer

Suburban Sustainability

As the United States and other nations strive to cope with the obesity epidemic (NCHS, 2015), progressive communities are developing sidewalk infrastructure to promote physical activity and health. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that community-based interventions like neighborhood walk, bike programs etc. have shown to be effective in promoting physical activity and health. Smart cities are embracing the development of community trails and promoting their use to increase physical activity among youth and adults. System implementation, data collection, and analysis were performed from January 2015 through July 2015. To promote these objectives, communities and cities need accurate information …

Frustrations, Fights, And Friendships: The Physical, Emotional, And Behavioural Effects Of High-Density Crowding On Mumbai’S Suburban Rail Passengers, Lily Hirsch, Kirrilly Thompson, Danielle Every

The Qualitative Report

Crammed together in tight folds of humanity, the suburban rail passengers of Mumbai, India, experience the most densely crowded trains in the world (Basu & Hunt, 2012). Whilst the immediate physical descriptors of crowdedness in Mumbai are well understood (Hirsch, 2016), there is little knowledge of the effect this has on the multitude of passengers. This is an important omission, as the effects of crowding on passengers impact their attitudes, travel behavior, and travel decisions. This paper therefore seeks to discern the physical, emotional, and behavioural effects of rail passenger crowding in Mumbai, India. To achieve this, a qualitative methodology, …

A Spatial Analysis Of Settlement, Accessibility, And Quality Of Life Of The Burmese Refugee Population In Bowling Green, Kentucky, Matthew Riggle

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Refugee populations face many challenges when relocating and settling into a new country. The Burmese refugee population in Bowling Green, Kentucky experiences unique challenges when trying to settle and be assimilated into a typical midsize city. This paper explores a variety of geographic and demographic characteristics of neighborhoods with high concentration of Burmese immigrants, seeking to characterize the neighborhoods by several quality of life metrics. These metrics include median household income, rental rates, educational attainment, and many others. The neighborhood characteristics are studied using recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau, specifically from the 2014 American Community Survey 5-year sample …

The Invisible People Of The Invisible Coast: The Resilience Of People Experiencing Homelessness To Disasters On The Alabama, Louisiana, And Mississippi Gulf Coasts, Nicole Elizabeth Callais

Master's Theses

While extensive research has been conducted on vulnerability and resilience with regard to hazards, very few studies have researched the resilience of homeless populations. The Gulf Coast region is densely populated and susceptible to natural and anthropogenic hazards. Climate change studies indicate that this region will experience an increase in severe and intense tropical cyclones[1], thereby increasing the risk of experiencing adverse impacts from future coastal hazards. While local government agencies in this region have policies in place to protect communities, these policies tend to exclude any action regarding the evacuation and safety of the homeless population.

In …

Gamblerization Of Post-Communist Society In Central Europe, Zdeněk Szczyrba, David Fiedor, Irena Smolová

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Countries of Central European region (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary) joined a new stage of their development after 1989. In these countries, there was a building process of capitalism which went in parallel with far-reaching structural economic and social changes; such as the privatization of economies, de-industrialization but also gamblerization of society. Clarifying this term, gamblerization, it could be described as the process of a continuous penetration of gaming facilities in the area accompanied by an increased availability and accessibility of gaming machines in the society. It is important to say that this process was particularly allowed owing to …

Quantifying Transit Access In New York City: Formulating An Accessibility Index For Analyzing Spatial And Social Patterns Of Public Transportation, Maxwell S. Siegel

Theses and Dissertations

This paper aims to analyze accessibility within New York City’s transportation system through creating unique accessibility indices. Indices are detailed and implemented using GIS, analyzing the distribution of transit need and access. Regression analyses are performed highlighting relationships between demographics and accessibility and recommendations for transit expansion are presented.

Using Residential Location To Assess The Environmental Value-Action Gap Of Students At James Madison University, Emma Rose Martin

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This study focuses on the environmental Value-Action Gap of students at James Madison University (JMU) in Harrisonburg, Virginia. This gap occurs when a person has pro-environmental beliefs but does not have congruent actions. Often, there are other factors apart from a person’s values that influence his/her willingness to participate in eco-friendly behavior (Howell 2013). For this study, the factor of influence being addressed is location. When students live on-campus at JMU they are surrounded by ‘green’ initiatives. Understanding the diffusion of environmental behavior from on-campus living to off-campus living is important because the majority of a JMU student’s residency is …

Summer Internship At African Community Education, Stephen A. Chiavaroli Iii

Sustainability and Social Justice

My internship at African Community Education (ACE) took place from May to December 2015, where I worked with GISDE alum, Joshua Plisinski. My summer was split as a volunteer at ACE and GIS Analyst in partnership with a Worcester nonprofit Cultural Exchange Through Soccer (CETS). My duties at ACE included tutoring, mentoring, and leading the students in homework assignments and various recreational activities. I also completed several GIS tasks and instructed a GIS tutorial for the high school students of ACE. The other time during my summer was spent conducting a spatial network analysis of Worcester soccer fields for CETS …

Spatiotemporal Meta-Analysis: Reviewing Health Psychology Phenomena Over Space And Time., Blair T. Johnson

CHIP Documents

This supplemental material is meant to support this article:

Johnson, B. T., Crowley, E., & Marrouch, N. Spatiotemporal meta-analysis: Reviewing health psychology phenomena over space and time. Health Psychology Review.

Specifically, it is a database of GDPs per capita for nations in the world between 1800 and 2015. It is archived here to support an online supplement to this article.

GDP per capita

Reaching The Water's Edge: Assessing Riverfront Accessibility In The Quad Cities Area, Lorraine Stamberger

Geography: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

In river towns across the United States, a slow transformation is taking place as aging and abandoned industrial infrastructure is being replaced by new riverfront uses. Consequently, the urban American riverfront has become a battleground, with municipalities, developers, and large corporations fighting over this contested land. Although riverfronts offer a wealth of benefits for the public such as therapeutic river views and abundant recreational opportunities, studies have shown that public interests and access are often overlooked in the waterfront development process. The purpose of this research is to understand the level of access people in the Quad Cities community have …

Analysis Of The Geosocial Landscape In The City Of Toronto, Courtney J. Jones

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Microblogging on geosocial platforms is a popular form of online communication where users post information about their daily lives and challenges. Since the launch of Twitter in 2006, information sharing through social media has become a largely unused data repository. Tweets often convey content about the users sentiment as it is happening. As such, Tweets can be viewed as a proxy of public mood. In this thesis, I performed a sentiment analysis of all public geo-located Tweets posted by a variety of Twitter users between September 2013 and October 2014. Each Tweet was processed through a custom algorithm to extract …

Building A Better Model: Variable Selection To Predict Poverty In Pakistan And Sri Lanka, Marium Afzal, Jonathan Hersh, David Newhouse

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Numerous studies have developed models to predict poverty, but surprisingly few have rigorously examined different approaches to developing prediction models. This paper applies out of sample validation techniques to household data from Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to compare the accuracy of regional poverty predictions from models derived using manual selection, stepwise regression, and Lasso-based procedures. It also examines how much incorporating publically available satellite data into the model improves its accuracy. The five main findings are that: 1) Lasso tends to outperform both discretionary and stepwise models in Pakistan, where the set of potential predictors is large. 2) Lasso and …

Procedural Modeling For Ancient Maya Cityscapes: Initial Methodological Challenges And Solutions, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Rachel Plessing

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Digital reconstruction of 3D cityscapes is expensive, time-consuming, and requires significant expertise. We need a 3D modeling approach that streamlines the integration of multiple data types in a time-efficient and low-cost manner. Procedural modeling—rapid proto-typing of 3D models from a set of rules— offers a potential solution to this problem because it allows scholars to create digital reconstructions that can be quickly updated and used to test and formulate alternative hypotheses that are derived from and linked to underlying archaeological data. While procedural modeling is being used to visualize ancient Roman, Etruscan, and Greek cities, in the Maya region the …

Social Space And Social Media: Analyzing Urban Space With Big Data, Ate Poorthuis

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation focuses on the key role that big data can play in minimizing the perceived disconnect between social theory and quantitative methods in the discipline of geography. It takes as its starting point the geographic concept of space, which is conceptualized very differently in social theory versus quantitative methodology. Contrary to this disparity, an examination of the disciplinary history reveals a number of historic precedents and potential pathways for a rapprochement, especially when combined with some of the new possibilities of big data. This dissertation also proposes solutions to two common barriers to the adoption of big data in …

Meta-Analysis Of Social-Personality Psychological Research, Blair T. Johnson, Alice H. Eagly

CHIP Documents

This publication provides a contemporary treatment of the subject of meta-analysis in relation to social-personality psychology. Meta-analysis literally refers to the statistical pooling of the results of independent studies on a given subject, although in practice it refers as well to other steps of research synthesis, including defining the question under investigation, gathering all available research reports, coding of information about the studies and their effects, and interpretation/dissemination of results. Discussed as well are the hallmarks of high-quality meta-analyses.

High School Graduation And Dropout Rates In The Pikes Peak Region Of Colorado: A Spatial Analysis Of School Proximity To Military Installations, Rachel Orlicky

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The purpose of this project was to examine graduation and dropout rates for high school students to determine if a correlation could be found with respect to the relative school distance from a military installation in the Pikes Peak region. Spatial analysis and Ordinary Least Squares analysis were used to build a linear regression model to predict student graduation and dropout rates. The results for the total student population for graduation rates and for dropout rates showed no statistically significant correlation with respect to the relative proximity to a military installation. Detailed analysis revealed that several minority and gender subgroups …

Spatial Structure And Decision-Making Aspects Of Pedestrian Route Selection Through An Urban Environment, Michael R. Hill

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The review of literature is hierarchically organized in terms of the pedestrians ever widening spatial skills: walking, crossing streets, and choosing routes. Route choice is conceptualized as a game played upon an urban street system viewed as a graph. Completing a walk requires the sequential selection of edges from those available in the graph. Each sequence of choices is called a strategy. This study is an investigation of the characteristics of strategies employed by pedestrians in their selection of routes from one place to another. Data were collected in Lincoln, Nebraska. Two hundred pedestrians were intercepted, tracked to their destinations, …

School District Performance In Erie County & Buffalo, New York: The Socio-Spatial Dimensions Of Educational Quality, Jeffrey Ewell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The educational quality of Erie County and Buffalo, New York, as represented by school district performance was examined and the relationship between school district performance and the social environment was analyzed. Socioeconomic status, social stability and race were all found to be strongly correlated to school district performance. Within Erie County, Buffalo has the poorest school performance levels while Snyder and Williamsville, two high status suburban districts, have the highest school performance levels. The overall spatial pattern of school district performance based on the PEP test results for 1974 reveal a strong correspondence between school district performance and the social …

A Quantitative Analysis Of The Spatial Distribution Of Substandard Housing In Bowling Green, Kentucky, Robert Harding

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of the study was to determine the degree and intensity of the factors affecting the spatial distribution of substandard housing in Bowling Green, Kentucky. A stepwise regression model revealed that straightline distance from the CBD, overcrowded units, average number of rooms per dwelling unit, renter occupancy and non-white occupancy accounted for only 37 percent of total explained variation. A filtering process based on blocks exceeding ten percent Black population was utilized to divide the universe. New analyses on Black and White sectors within the city did not increase the coefficient of determination. They did, however, reveal a great …

Ua12/8 Traffic & Parking Program, Wku Police, Wilbur Smith & Associates

WKU Administration Documents

Chapters 4 thru 7 of a parking and traffic planning report by Wilbur Smith & Associates, includes data on enrollment, available parking spaces, maps and recommendations for future parking lots.

• Chapter 4 - Future University Growth & Parking Considerations
• Chapter 5 - Recommended Traffic & Parking Program
• Chapter 6 - Economic Analysis of the Parking Program
• Chapter 7 - Administrative & Policy Considerations

Geographic Potential Surfaces, Michael Munson

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

The attempt is made to trace the development of the surface potential with particular reference to the social sciences, especially geography. The geographic potential is derived from Newton's law, F = GMm/d" and is mathematically expressed and explained. The formula for the ,r potential at a single point or area, j, is ;~1(P;•P)" / d;;"'• Minnesota population potential for 1960 and 1930, and 1960 Minnesota income potentials have been calculated and mopped. The Twin Cities possess the peak potential for all three variables. Of prime importance to the understanding of geographic potentials is a knowledge of the underlying assumptions and …

Changing Settlement Patterns In A Dry Land Wheat Farming Region: The Mansfield Washington Area, Helen Jayne

Graduate Student Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to trace the change in settlement patterns in an area located in the semiarid plateau region of Eastern Washington and to determine the cause of such a change. Little has been written about the settlement of this area. Therefore, an attempt has been made to learn what changes in settlement have been made and to explain them.