Geographic Information Sciences Commons^™

The Mayaarch3d Project: A 3d Webgis For Analyzing Ancient Architecture And Landscapes, Jennifer Von Schwerin, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Fabio Remondino, Giorgio Agugario, Gabrio Girardi

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

There is a need in the humanities for a 3D WebGIS with analytical tools that allow researchers to analyze 3D models linked to spatially referenced data. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allow for complex spatial analysis of 2.5D data. For example, they offer bird’s eye views of landscapes with extruded building footprints, but one cannot ‘get on the ground’ and interact with true 3D models from a pedestrian perspective. Meanwhile, 3D models and virtual environments visualize data in 3D space, but analytical tools are simple rotation or lighting effects. The MayaArch3D Project is developing a 3D WebGIS—called QueryArch3D—to allow these two …

Mobile 2d And 3d Spatial Query Techniques For The Geospatial Web, Junjun Yin

Doctoral

The increasing availability of abundant geographically referenced information in the Geospatial Web provides a variety of opportunities for developing value-added LBS applications. However, large data volumes of the Geospatial Web and small mobile device displays impose a data visualization problem, as the amount of searchable information overwhelms the display when too many query results are returned. Excessive returned results clutter the mobile display, making it harder for users to prioritize information and causes confusion and usability problems. Mobile Spatial Interaction (MSI) research into this “information overload” problem is ongoing where map personalization and other semantic based filtering mechanisms are essential …

Introduction To Gis Using Open Source Software, 4th Ed, Frank Donnelly

Open Educational Resources

This tutorial was created to accompany the GIS Practicum, a day-long workshop offered by the Newman Library at Baruch College CUNY that introduces participants to geographic information systems (GIS) using the open source software QGIS. The practicum introduces GIS as a concept for envisioning information and as a tool for conducting geographic analyses and creating maps. Participants learn how to navigate a GIS interface, how to prepare layers and conduct a basic geographic analysis, and how to create thematic maps. This tutorial was written using QGIS version 1.8 "Lisboa", a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) desktop GIS software package.

The Application Of Geographic Information Technology And Ground-Penetrating Radar In The Study Of The Evolution Of The Charles River Basin, Lars E. Anderas

Graduate Masters Theses

A two-part study was conducted on the evolution of the shoreline of the Charles River basin on a city-wide scale as well as in finer detail in Magazine Beach Park, along the Cambridge shore of the river. Both parts of the study utilized geographic information technology (GIT) to integrate and analyze data from modern and historical sources, including maps, digital elevation models (DEMs), and orthographic and oblique photography. The city-scale portion of the study produced estimates of the total area of new land made within the study area since Boston's founding in 1630, 14.3 km², of which 6.5 …

Utilizing Remote Sensing And Geospatial Techniques To Determine Detection Probabilities Of Large Mammals, Patricia A. Terletzky-Gese

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Whether a species is rare and requires protection or is overabundant and needs control, an accurate estimate of population size is essential for the development of conservation plans and management goals. Wildlife science has traditionally relied on human observers in airplanes, helicopter, or ground vehicles to count the number of individuals seen during wildlife surveys. However, these traditional surveys of wildlife require significant resources, are difficult to conduct quickly and safely over remote and/or extensive locations, are disruptive to the studied species, and are prone to significant error due to unobserved or missed animals and multiple counts of single animals. …

Reviewing Models Of Land Availability And Dynamics For Biofuel Crops In The United States And The European Union, Ruopu Li, Nicola Di Virgilio, Qingfeng Guan, Song Feng, Goetz M. Richter

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The biofuel-related land use in the USA and the EU has significantly expanded during the last decade; models have been used to estimate land availability and demand in these regions. This paper provides an overview of different land-use modeling practices applicable to first- and second-generation biofuels. We review the importance of different land categories for biofuels, modeling approaches (top-down/bottom-up) and their integration, data availability for calibration and validation, model scale, and uncertainty. Possible future changes of biofuel land use and research gaps and limitations are synthesized. Key issues are the lack of data for independent validation and the need for …

The Role Of Suburbia In The Attribution Of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Jochen Albrecht, Peter Marcotullio, Andrea Sarzynski, Niels Schulz

Publications and Research

The original goal of the research presented here was to quantify by world region, the contribution of urbanized areas to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (EDGAR, 2011). Regressions on population density and growth rate, GDP, and heating/cooling degree days, as well as a row of other non-significant variables, show that the contribution of urban extents is between 38% and 49% of total emissions (Marcotullio et al., 2012). In spite of using very liberal definitions of urban extents (GRUMP, 2011) this is at the low end of academic estimates (Satterthwaite, 2008; WEO, 2008; Dhakal, 2010). It is no surprise that the …

Identifying Potential Wilderness Areas On The Fremont-Winema National Forest With Arcgis Modelbuilder, Zach Adams

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The Fremont-Winema National Forest administers over two million acres in south central Oregon. Part of managing this landscape includes overseeing existing wilderness areas and identifying new potential wilderness areas. In the past this process has been cumbersome, with little thought given to standardizing the effort across the administrative area. This project was an effort to develop a geospatial model that incorporates U.S. Forest Service spatial datasets ultimately standardizing the potential wilderness identification process during site specific NEPA analysis.

Gis Analysis Of Placer Gold Mining Potential In The Yuba River Watershed, California, J. D. Chandler

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Can a Geographic Information System (GIS) be used to analyze and locate precise geographic locations along rivers and creeks that have high potential for placer gold extraction in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California?

Spacing Units In The Greater Wattenberg Area, Tera Dillon

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Horizontal wells are the most commonly drilled wells in the Wattenberg Field, located in Weld County, Colorado. Petroleum engineers have become interested in determining how many horizontal wells can economically be drilled per section in this vertically, well-developed field. Using the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s spacing unit regulations as a guide, a GIS workflow was developed to create the deliverables required for further analysis. Spacing units were created by applying a buffer to horizontal well surveys, and using this buffer to select intersecting quarter-quarter sections. The selected quarter-quarter sections were simplified using the dissolve tool and then spatially …

Guidance In Feature Extraction To Resolve Uncertainty, Boris Kovalerchuk, Michael Kovalerchuk, Simon Streltsov, Matthew Best

Computer Science Faculty Scholarship

Automated Feature Extraction (AFE) plays a critical role in image understanding. Often the imagery analysts extract features better than AFE algorithms do, because analysts use additional information. The extraction and processing of this information can be more complex than the original AFE task, and that leads to the “complexity trap”. This can happen when the shadow from the buildings guides the extraction of buildings and roads. This work proposes an AFE algorithm to extract roads and trails by using the GMTI/GPS tracking information and older inaccurate maps of roads and trails as AFE guides.

The Development Of An Electronic Data Collection Tool And Comparison Of The Electronic And Manual Methods Of Land Use Inventory, Wesley M. Catanzaro

Master's Theses

An important component of Planning Information Systems for municipal planning agencies is a comprehensive land use inventory that provides information on the location, distribution, and intensity of land uses throughout a community. This data is a necessary prerequisite for the informed creation of planning documents such as General Plans, Specific Plans, Housing Inventories, and Climate Action Plans. Beyond location, distribution and intensity of land uses, planners may also wish to incorporate additional information at the parcel level, such as the number of housing or commercial units, building condition, and/or access and connectivity to adjacent streets. Because some of this information …

Data Storage Alternatives For A Gridded Crop Disease Risk Forecasting System, Paul J. Roehsner

Masters Theses

Three separate storage technologies able to serve gridded data were selected for comparison of performance in terms of providing speed and expandability to a crop disease forecasting system. The three storage technologies chosen were PostgreSQL (a relational database management system), MongoDB (NoSQL system), and netCDF files. Speed tests were performed for each by running two different crop disease risk forecasting models requiring data of different spatiotemporal resolutions. Multiple trials were done using different storage hardware. Systems were then qualitatively compared for expandability by noting the process involved in adding successive crop disease forecasting models.

It was found that due to …

Change And Continuity: Euro-American And Native American Settlement Patterns In The St. Joseph River Valley, Allison M. Kohley

Masters Theses

In recent years there has been a particular interest in the fur trade and colonialism through identification and investigation of Fort St. Joseph. This fort was an 18th century French trading post in the St. Joseph River valley located in southwestern Michigan and northwestern Indiana. This study expands our current understanding of the change and continuity of the Euro- American and Native American settlement patterns in the valley during the periods immediately prior to, during, and after the abandonment of Fort St. Joseph through the use of geographic information systems (GIS) and statistical analyses.

Gis-Based Flood Analysis For Adequate Flood Mitigation In An Unplanned Urban Area; The Case Of Pikine Dagoudane In Dakar County, Senegal, Sokhna Helene Diop

Masters Theses

Since 1989, Pikine Dagoudane, in the suburbs of Dakar City has faced several flooding events, resulting in economic loss, environmental degradation and severe disturbance of the social life of the residents. The mitigation programs implemented have not appeared to provide any relief since 2000. Review of the existing literature on the crisis has revealed that the general scale of the studies, and the insufficient attention to some of the major factors could be accounted for such little efficiency. This thesis applies a different approach, based on a small area and focusing mainly on topographic characteristics, to provide a better understanding …

Mapping Human-Environment Connections On The Olympic Peninsula: An Atlas Of Landscape Values, Rebecca J. Mclain, Lee Cerveny, Diane Besser, David Banis, Alexa Todd, Stephanie Rohdy, Corinna Kimball-Brown

Occasional Papers in Geography

Occasional Papers in Geography Publication No. 7

The advent of computerized mapping has land managers’ ability to map the biophysical services provided by forested ecosystems. However, mapping the cultural services of those systems is more challenging. Human ecology mapping (HEM), which provides spatially-explicit depictions of the complex connections between humans and their environment, is an approach that can be used to improve understandings of the cultural services associated with landscapes. This atlas provides an overview of what HEM is and draws on experiences with a pilot project on the Olympic Peninsula in western Washington to illustrate what HEM data looks …

Blm Riparian Area Management Technical Reference: Using Uas Remotes Sensing Imagery To Assess Proper Functioning Condition Of Riparian-Wetland Areas, Heather Fonda

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was loaned older military Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and is pioneering their employment for land management applications. Riparian areas make up a small percentage of BLM lands but are some of the most environmentally and economically valuable. Assessments of these riparian areas are required by law. Assessments from UAS imagery could become an important monitoring tool that is cheaper, safer and allows access to previously unreachable areas. This capstone project tests the UAS imagery for conducting riparian proper functioning condition (PFC) and quantitative assessments; and includes a technical reference with an interpretation key and …

A New View On Ski Maps, Greg Schonberger

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Traditional ski area trail maps have remained mostly unchanged for many decades. Since the earliest maps were produced, they have shown picturesque panoramic views of the ski mountain nestled in with its the surrounding peaks. Trees individually painted on the slopes, pristine and snow-covered, the runs marked as a winter wonderland. These maps are each an individual work of art, painstakingly created by skilled artists but they are not quality maps. This project will present a new view on the ski area map, creating a more traditional topographic map depicting ski runs, elevation contours, and shaded topography. The project will …

Using Remotely Sensed Data To Detect Tamarisk Along Colorado’S San Miguel River, William E. Johnson

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Tamarisk, an invasive tree native to Eurasia, has become widespread in river corridors across the southwestern United States. Accused of excessive water consumption and degradation of native habitats, it has been the target of extensive eradication and restoration efforts. Identifying its ever-changing distribution and extent benefits natural resource managers tasked with planning and prioritizing invasive plant management activities.

The use of GIS tools and remotely sensed data offers the potential to speed and improve our ability to locate tamarisk distributions. This project searches for tamarisk by classifying land cover vegetation (including tamarisk) based on spectral reflectance values from three-band natural …

Mobile Gis: An Economical Approach To View And Edit Gis Data, Daniel Faulk

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Faulk’s capstone project provides specific instructions for the implementation of the My Maps Editor app that allows the city of Taylorsville, Utah employees and residents the ability to view, create, upload, edit, and share their own geographic data on an iPad or iPhone. The project consists of identifying the city’s GIS (Geographic Information System) needs, researching existing GIS capabilities, selecting and installing an app, and providing instructions for system maintenance. The selected app offers many benefits including practical application, functional capabilities, financial feasibility, time saved, and aid in emergency preparedness.