Geographic Information Sciences Commons^™

Prioritizing Parcels For Conservation Easements Using Least-Cost Path Analyses Of Land Ownership: Case Study Within Theorized Grizzly Bear Migration Corridors Of Western Montana, Joseph H. Offer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As the world’s human population has grown and converted large natural habitats to human dominated landscapes, the planet’s biodiversity has decreased. To combat the loss of biodiversity from human development, many conservation professionals champion the concept of conservation corridors between intact habitats. Conservation corridors, made up of protected land, serve as a connection for wildlife populations to intermix genetics and, subsequently, help reduce the risk of extinction. The ideal geographic location of corridors is generally determined through geographic information system modeling using biophysical conditions and theorized animal movement. However, the resulting corridors are often expansive and protecting entire corridors is …

State Park Selection As Determined By User Health, Connor Phelan

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The purpose of this study was to determine whether state park difficulty affected location of travel. This study was conducted at three state park locations within the United States. Surveys and on-site examinations were made at the following locations; Wilson State Park, Kansas, Petit Jean State Park, Arkansas, and Kiholo State Park, Hawaii. Park locations were chosen by varying levels of terrain difficulty, as well as a rating from the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum. Participants were asked to report data via iPads on exercise habits, mobility limiting impairments, and frequency of exercise so a ranking of the healthiest participants could be …

Use Of Gis Spatial Analysis, Remote Sensing, And Unmanned Aerial Systems In Determining The Susceptibility To Wildfires In Barber County, Kansas, Kara Sill

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Wildfires are becoming more frequent each year not only in the United States, but throughout the world. Barber County, Kansas experienced a devastating wildfire in March 2016, and continues to be at risk of wildfires during the fire season months. This study involved creating a functional GIS Database with layers corresponding to communication, transportation, and infrastructure throughout the county. This will allow responders and officials to have one unified reference space, which will facilitate communication and navigation. Within the ArcGIS environment, route maps can be created to show potential routes and quickest drive time to the scene of the emergency. …

Water For Fish And Farms: An Examination Of Instream Flow Programs In Montana Using Spatially-Explicit Water Rights Data, Anna Leigh Crockett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The state-level institutions governing water use in the western United States have increasingly come under pressure and scrutiny related to their inability to navigate water use conflicts in recent decades. Rapid population growth and shifting public values towards leaving water instream for recreational and environmental purposes pose challenges to Montana water supplies which are predominantly allocated for irrigated agriculture. Additionally, while water scarcity and unpredictable availability are not new dilemmas in Montana, the rate at which climate change is driving shifts in the distribution, timing, and availability of water supplies is unprecedented. Current water policies may not be nimble enough …

Tropical Cyclone Vulnerability Of Atlantic Coastal Counties In The United States, Zachary Alexander

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

1. Abstract

   Coastal populations along the Atlantic Coast of the United States face a persistent threat of tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones of any strength can cause significant damages and losses to both life and property. As coastal populations continue to rise in a changing climate, the power of knowing which communities are the most and least vulnerable to future tropical cyclone events can assist in mitigating some of the losses. This paper explores the factors that make a coastal community more or less vulnerable to tropical cyclones based on prior natural hazards research and creates a relative index that will tell …

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Deep Learning For Overhead Imagery: Algorithms And Applications, Anthony Manuel Ortiz Cepeda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Remote sensing using overhead imagery has critical impact to the way we understand our environment and offers crucial information for scene understanding, climate change research, disaster response, urban planning, forest management, and many other applications. At present, deep learning is increasingly used in remote sensing, but mostly borrowing algorithms developed for natural images in the computer vision community. Specific challenges arise while applying deep learning to remote sensing. These challenges include issues related to the high dimensionality and limited labeled data, security and robustness to adversarial attacks, and model generalization. In this Thesis we focus on tackling these key challenges. …

Geospatial Analysis Of Flooding In The Cypress Creek Watershed Due To Urban Sprawl, Michael Roland Boucher

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Harris County, Texas, experiences flooding almost every year, and the situation is getting worse. Uncontrolled development is leading to an increase in flooding events. This study investigated how rapid urbanization and sprawl led to a higher frequency and intensity of flooding in the Cypress Creek watershed in northern Harris County. According to urban ecology, the basis of the theoretical framework, the human actions on the environment are not just bystanders, but direct contributors as inputs. In this case, the outputs are the intensity of the flooding events caused by Hurricane Ike, the Memorial Day flood of 2016, and Hurricane Harvey. …

Using Unmanned Aerial Systems (Drones) With A Thermal Sensor To Map And Count Deer Population, Maxwell C. Ott

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The number of deer in an area is an important statistic for land managers to know, as overabundance has many negative effects. There are many methods that have been used to count deer in the past, such as using manned helicopters and airplanes, walking on foot, and conducting controlled hunts. UAS (unmanned aerial systems) is a growing field that provides many benefits over traditional methods of counting deer, such as lower cost and missions being less time consuming. Using a thermal sensor attached to a UAS makes it simple to spot any deer during a flight. Two main methods of …

Biophysical And Socioeconomic Impacts Of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration In Burkina Faso, Basnewende Brice Fulgence Zoungrana

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human actions such as overgrazing, the development of cities at the expense of forests, high intensity and poor agricultural management, and so forth, reduce the resources available for future generations. Because Earth has limited resources, it is important to judiciously use and manage natural resources. Human actions towards nature are the focus of my research in Africa. Increased demands for grazing, agriculture, and ecosystem services led some farmers in developing countries to use unsustainable practices, which may lead to low incomes and poor food nutrition for households. Farmer managed natural regeneration (FMNR) may be a solution to these issues. FMNR …

Innovative Approaches To 3d Gis Modeling For Volumetric And Geoprocessing Applications In Subsurface Infrastructures In A Virtual Immersive Environment, Pragya Srivastava

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As subsurface features remain largely ‘out of sight, out of mind’, this has led to challenges when dealing with underground space and infrastructures and especially so for those working in GIS. Since subsurface infrastructure plays a major role in supporting the needs of modern society, groups such as city planners and utility companies and decision makers are looking for an ‘holistic’ approach where the sustainable use of underground space is as important as above ground space. For such planning and management, it is crucial to examine subsurface data in a form that is amenable to 3D mapping and that can …

Comparing Fence Modeling And Mapping Approaches To Support Wildlife Management And Research In Southwest Montana, Simon Albert Buzzard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fences pose significant challenges to wildlife movement, but their effects are difficult to quantify because fence location and fence type data are lacking on a global scale. We developed a fence location and density model in southwest Montana, USA to provide data to researchers and managers, and test whether previous models could be applied to a new region and retain suitable levels of statistical accuracy. Our model used local expert opinion to inform how road, land cover, and ownership spatial layers interacted to predict fence locations. We validated the model against fence data collected on random 3.2 km road transects …

The Influence Of Landforms And Sampling Approaches On Riparian Buffer Area And Complexity, Houjun Ding

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

A riparian area is a zone of interaction between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Delineating accurate riparian management zones (RMZs), often utilized in Best Management Practices (BMPs) for wetlands and stream protection, is important. The Riparian Buffer Delineation Model (RBDM) has been used extensively for accurate RMZs delineation. Utilizing the validated RBDM generates additional questions about riparian area form and function, which will ideally lead to an improved understanding of the ecological process within these zones. This study aims to determine how geomorphic landforms and their associated landscape characteristics influence riparian areas in terms of shape and complexity, whether sampling methods …

'Amageddon': The Unholy Trinity Of Class Monopoly Rent In The Emerald City, Elijah Connor Hansen

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Intense redevelopment has steamrolled across Seattle’s South Lake Union and Belltown neighborhoods, home to the headquarters of the world’s largest ecommerce corporation, Amazon. After the corporation established a presence in what is now referred to as ‘Amazonia’ in 2007, the surrounding urban landscape underwent a colossal metamorphic overhaul as high-tech and biotech industries, along with bourgeois luxury high rises, replaced old warehouses and empty parking lots. These new industries have attracted tens of thousands of people to the city, resulting in an oversaturated housing supply and an ensuing housing affordability crisis as rents have continued to skyrocket year after year. …

Addressing The Skills Gap Of Geospatial Professionals In The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Shannon Marie Doyle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders of geospatial organizations are ill-prepared to manage rapid technological change critical to environmental and economic development due to an outdated list of technical competencies. However, there is a lack of consensus in the geospatial industry concerning the desired technical competencies of organizations and a gap in the literature regarding future trends when defining additional geospatial technical competencies. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative modified Delphi study was to determine how a nationwide panel of experts in the geospatial industry viewed the desirability and practicability of forward-looking technical competencies of geospatial professionals. The research questions for this study were grounded …

Predictive Geohazard Mapping Using Lidar And Satellite Imagery In Missouri And Oklahoma, Usa, Olufeyisayo B. Ososami

Doctoral Dissertations

”Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and satellite imagery have become the most utilized remote sensing technologies for compiling inventories of surficial geologic conditions. Point cloud data obtained from multi-spectral remote sensing methods provide a detailed characterization of the surface features, in particular, the detailed surface manifestations of underlying geologic structures. When combined, point clouds eliminate bias from visual inconsistencies and/or statistical values. This research explores the competence of point clouds derived from LiDAR and Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) as a predictive tool in evaluating various geohazards. It combines these data sets with other remote sensing techniques to evaluate the sensitivity …

Spatial Multi-Objective Land Use Optimization Toward Livability Based On Boundary-Based Genetic Algorithm: A Case Study In Singapore, Kai Cao, Muyang Liu, Shu Wang, Mengqi Liu, Wenting Zhang, Qiang Meng, Bo Huang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this research, the concept of livability has been quantitatively and comprehensively reviewed and interpreted to contribute to spatial multi-objective land use optimization modelling. In addition, a multi-objective land use optimization model was constructed using goal programming and a weighted-sum approach, followed by a boundary-based genetic algorithm adapted to help address the spatial multi-objective land use optimization problem. Furthermore, the model is successfully and effectively applied to the case study in the Central Region of Queenstown Planning Area of Singapore towards livability. In the case study, the experiments based on equal weights and experiments based on different weights combination have …

Socio-Ecological Interactions In The National Forests And Grasslands Of Central Oregon: A Summary Of Human Ecology Mapping Results, David Banis, Rebecca Mclain, Alicia Milligan, Krystle N. Harrell, Lee Cerveny

Occasional Papers in Geography

Occasional Papers in Geography Publication No. 8

In 2015, Portland State University, the US Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest Research Station, Deschutes National Forest (DNF), Ochoco National Forest (ONF), US Forest Service Region 6, and Discover Your Forest embarked on a collaborative project to understand spatial patterns of public use on the national forests and grasslands of Central Oregon and the ecosystem benefits attached to those places. At the time the project began, the DNF and ONF anticipated that they would be revising their forest/grassland plans in the near future. This human ecology mapping project generated socio-spatial data layers describing the …

Visualization And Analysis Of Environmental Data, Sean Macdonald

Publications and Research

The virtual exploration of place has been employed in a variety of learning environments across many disciplines, creatively expanding upon the experience of place. This chapter explores the value of mapping environmental data as a tool that can enhance students’ virtual exploration of place as they investigate local environmental policies and problems within their own urban surroundings. This visualization project engages students in making meaningful connections between the theoretical study of local and global environmental problems and the “observation” and investigation of these data using mapped data. The virtual learning environment is viewed as one that is interactive, exploring how …

Identifying The Suitable Areas For Establishment Of Agricultural Machinery Repair Center Using Gis In Rudsar, Maedeh Shoaei, Razieh Pourdarbani, Mir Sadegh Fazel Dolat-Abad

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

With the increase in mechanization, the need for the agricultural machinery repair centers is increasing. However, there are only a limited number of tractor repair centers in Rudsar. The existence of repair centers will increase the life of the equipment; on the other hand, the presence of machinery repairmen will lead to quick determination of the precision location of the failure and timely repair. The purpose of this study was to determine suitable locations for the establishment of machinery repair and helping to meet the needs of farmers in the Rudsar district. Therefore, spatial information was collected from various relevant …

Locating Of Suitable Agriculture Implements On The Flat And Sloping Lands Of The Villages Of Mahabad With Gis Software, Javad Tarighi, Anwar Jannah

Emirates Journal for Engineering Research

The purpose of this study is to find suitable agricultural equipment in flat and steep areas of Mahabad villages by GIS software. This research is a kind of applied research. The research design is descriptive (non-experimental). The statistical population of the present study consists of 50 experts in the field of agricultural machinery working in the field of agriculture and agricultural machinery. The tool used to collect data was paired comparisons and spatial information extracted from files which are relevant to data of spatial layers file type. The data analysis method includes hierarchical analysis in expert choice software and the …