Geography Commons^™

The Belknap Campus And Metro Louisville Urban Heat Island Effect: Air And Ground Surface Temperature Analysis, Kenyetta Johnson

Undergraduate Arts and Research Showcase

Numerous studies show that urban morphologies and land covers generate excess heat emissions and retain heat relative to surrounding rural areas, known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect. Urban fabrics paved by concretes and asphalts absorbs solar radiation during solar peak then radiates heat after sundown. This study investigates temperature distribution data related to the UHI effect on the Belknap campus at the University of Louisville, which represents a small aerial sample of the Louisville metropolitan UHI effect. The objective of this study is to measure the reflectivity of ground surfaces and air temperatures on the Belknap campus during …

Understanding The Resiliency Of The Kalamazoo Mall, Emily Szymanski

Masters Theses

The Kalamazoo Mall is the first pedestrian mall in the United States. Since then the Mall has gone through many changes. The Mall was first created to be a completely pedestrian-friendly space closed off to cars and to help revitalize the downtown after suburban mall competition. However, the Mall did not keep people downtown as expected, resulting in the reintroduction of automobile traffic in two of the four blocks of the Mall. In spite of these changes Although there have been several changes, the Mall still exists today while many pedestrian Malls have closed. This thesis seeks to understand the …

Spatial Patterns In Socio-Economic Factors And Rapid Repeat Pregnancies In Kalamazoo County, Mi, Dennis Donkor

Masters Theses

Rapid repeat pregnancy (RRP) refers to a pregnancy that occurs less than 24 months after a live birth. In the United States, several studies have focused on factors that influence women to rapidly repeat pregnancies at the national and state level. As a result, this study explores spatial patterns in RRP in Kalamazoo County at the block group local level using birth records of moms in the county from 2008 to 2014. The study further investigates individual and neighborhood factors influencing RRP. Results from the hotspot (Getis Ord G*) revealed that block groups in eastside Kalamazoo township are significant hotspots …

Creating A Distribution Model Of Invasive Rusty Crayfish (Faxonius Rusticus) In Michigan Streams Using Publically Accessible Data, Robert C. Homan

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to create a predictive model of habitat suitability for the invasive rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus) throughout the state of Michigan. F. rusticus often outcompete and extirpate native crayfish species, so understanding their habitats of success is instrumental in monitoring vulnerable ecosystems. Michigan State University and the Michigan DNR conducted extensive field surveys across 461 streams sites from 2014-2016. This project compares this field data set to data from publicly available national datasets with the purpose of revealing the ecosystems most vulnerable to the introduction of F. rusticus. The pattern of F. rusticus …

Testing A New Photovoice Model: A Meta-Analysis On Participatory Action Research Methodologies In Geographical Research, Nolan Bergstrom

Masters Theses

Photovoice was developed in the early 1990s for use in public health studies evolving from participatory action research (PAR) and photographic methods. It attempts to mitigate the power dynamics between researcher and researched by allowing participants to be the primary knowledge producers. The Photovoice methodology has left open methodological avenues to implement Photovoice as a research tool in many fields. This research aimed to modify the Photovoice methodology to include mobile technology, social media to create a new model of Photovoice.

This research was conducted in K.I. Sawyer, MI, a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan over a …

Agritourism Development In Southwest Michigan: Motivations Of Agritourists And Operators, Esther Akoto Amoako

Masters Theses

National agricultural statistics show that the number of agritourism farms and the proportion of agritourism related revenues in the United States has steadily increased during the last ten years, especially among small family farms. The recent growth in agritourism is both demand - and supply-driven. However, there are limited studies that explore agritourism motivations from both the visitors' and operators’ perspectives. This study examines what the agritourists' and operators’ motivations are and the challenges facing the industry to provide information for those currently involved and those wanting to include agritourism in their operations. Online and in-person surveys and unstructured interviews …

Social And Demographic Drivers Impacting Family Planning And Family Size In Buraydah City, Saudi Arabia, Sami Abdulkarim Alwulayi

Masters Theses

The goal of this research is to identify factors impacting changes in family size for medium-size cities in Saudi Arabia. Since the initial comprehensive development plans were adopted in the 1970s, Saudi society has changed rapidly in many different ways, and demographic change is one of the most noticeable. This mixed methods research is based on an online survey conducted in the summer of 2019 of 560 married couples and their families living within the 29 neighborhoods of Buraydah City, Saudi Arabia. Specifically, this research examines socioeconomic and demographic conditions related to family planning, as well as collecting perspectives on …

Remote Sensing And Social Sensing For Improved Flood Awareness And Exposure Analysis In The Big Data Era, Xiao Huang

Theses and Dissertations

Floods are among the most devastating hazards on Earth, posing great threats to a large amount of population in the world. As the severity and frequency of flood events have noticeably increased, there is a growing need to improve the flood awareness and exposure analysis to assist flood mitigation. Fortunately, the Era of Big Data has fostered many innovative spatial data sources as well as spatial data analytics. This dissertation advances the existing flood monitoring studies by obtaining enhanced flood awareness via the development of a data fusion enable and deep learning supported flood monitoring framework that systematically integrates remotely …

How Rare Was The August 2016 South-Central Louisiana Heavy Rainfall Event?, Vincent M. Brown, Barry D. Keim, William D. Kappel, Douglas M. Hultstrand, Ashton G. Peyrefitte, Alan W. Black, Kristi M. Steinhilber, Geoffrey A. Muhlestein

Faculty Publications

This study examines the spatiotemporal characteristics of the historic 10-14 August 2016 south-central Louisiana precipitation event. The storm was the result of a moisture-rich, tropical low pressure system, also known as a tropical easterly wave, that slowly tracked westward along the Gulf Coast from Florida to Texas. Once over south-central Louisiana, the storm was able to take advantage of anomalously high precipitable water, broad low-level instability, and continuous moisture inflow from the Gulf of Mexico to produce historic rainfall. Totals exceeded 254mm (10 in.) for much of southern Louisiana, while locations adjacent to Baton Rouge and Lafayette received upward of …

Dead Wolf To Red Wolf: Virginia Reintroduction Habitat Suitability, Hector Gomez

Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Projects

Red wolves (Canis Rufus) are the most endangered species of wolves. All red wolves currently in the wild are in the Albemarle Peninsula in North Carolina. Red wolf population in the Albemarle decreased from a peak of around 113-149 wolves in 2014 to 15-17 wolves in 2021. Most red wolf mortalities for this wild population occurred from anthropogenic causes such as accidental shooting, poaching, and vehicle strikes. The purpose of this study is to assess the suitability of the Delmarva Peninsula as a potential reintroduction site for another red wolf population. To do so I analyzed the land cover, deer …

American Influences At The National Eisteddfod, Mark Rhodes

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

No abstract provided.

Race And Urban Development Of Arsenal Hill, Sc, Samira Nematollahi

Senior Theses

This thesis is a study on the Columbia neighborhood Arsenal Hill. It is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Columbia, but most of the neighborhood’s history is largely erased. In this paper, I studied the progression of change in Arsenal Hill with the goal of assessing who wielded power and to what extent race played a role in the neighborhood’s development. I find that race was the fundamental mover of change and that all other decisions and factors revolved around it. The initial decline of the neighborhood stemmed from its racial heterogeneity which then progressed into developers seeing Arsenal Hill …

If Watersheds Spoke: A Condition Analysis Of The Rio Tomebamba Watershed In Southern Ecuador Using Gis Analysis, Lenka G. Doskocil

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Understanding processes and ecological threats occurring at the watershed level scale composes a critical piece of water resource conservation and management. This proves doubly true in areas such as the Ecuadorian highlands where water resources depend heavily on the hydrologic regulation capacities of páramo soils. This study examined watershed condition of the Rio Tomebamba watershed and existing habitat for Metallura baroni and Chibchanomys orcesi, two highly endemic species, within its boundaries. Watershed condition was determined based on a simple index that considered nine indicators of watershed health—converted land, impacted riparian zones, impermeable surfaces, water quality, fluvial habitat condition, riparian vegetation …

Warmer Conditions Favor Conifer Tree Establishment At The Muddy River Lahar In Mt. St. Helens, Washington, Ignacio D. Falcon-Dvorsky

Dissertations and Theses

Climate variability impacts on Pacific Northwest forests are of great concern, especially on evergreen coniferous ecosystems which dominate a large portion of the landscape. Understanding the effect of climate variability and its potential impacts on forest regeneration is crucial, as this is a foundational process with long-lasting consequences on structure and composition of future ecosystems. The objective of this study was to uncover the possible influences of natural climate variability on conifer tree establishments on the Muddy Rivers Lahar following the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, WA. We hypothesized that tree establishment increased gradually over time, tree establishments was …

Mapping Kenyan Grassland Heights Across Large Spatial Scales With Combined Optical And Radar Satellite Imagery, Olivia S. B. Spagnuolo, Julie C. Jarvey, Michael Battaglia, Zachary Laubach, Mary Ellen Miller, Kay E. Holekamp, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

Grassland monitoring can be challenging because it is time-consuming and expensive to measure grass condition at large spatial scales. Remote sensing offers a time- and cost-effective method for mapping and monitoring grassland condition at both large spatial extents and fine temporal resolutions. Combinations of remotely sensed optical and radar imagery are particularly promising because together they can measure differences in moisture, structure, and reflectance among land cover types. We combined multi-date radar (PALSAR-2 and Sentinel-1) and optical (Sentinel-2) imagery with field data and visual interpretation of aerial imagery to classify land cover in the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya using …

Unveiling Shadows: How To Optimize Shadow Detection In Hsi Through Combination Of Lidar And Histogram Thresholding, Maritza Salinas

Research in the Capitol

From “multi-” to “hyper-” spectral, remote sensing capacities have improved tremendously in how we measure Earth’s unique signatures. Unfortunately, shadow detection and correction remain an issue in most images, especially those with high spatial resolution. Shadows result when direct sun light is obstructed and the spectral reflectance values for pixels in those regions decrease. Many successful approaches exist to correct this blue skew to shorter wavelengths, but it can be daunting to truly assess which approach to employ since each require different levels of priori knowledge. This research attempts to generate and cross-validate shadow masks using popular GIS software.The goal …

Changing Geographies Of Flood Mitigation Policies: A Case Study Of Central, Louisiana, Ria Mukerji

LSU Master's Theses

In 2016, the Baton Rouge region experienced what would come to be record-setting precipitation levels. The 1,000 year rainfall event dumped almost triple the amount of water on Louisiana than was seen during Hurricane Katrina (some areas received over 10 inches of rain in a matter of hours), with rain persisting from August 12^th until the 17^th. Previously a part of Baton Rouge, Central is a relatively new development that expanded into the 100 year floodplain in 2005. This thesis will present the changing geographies of flood mitigation policies since a major flood in 1983 to the …

Changes In Atmospheric, Meteorological, And Ocean Parameters Associated With The 12 January 2020 Taal Volcanic Eruption, Feng Jing, Akshansa Chauhan, Ramesh P. Singh, Prasanjit Dash

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The Taal volcano erupted on 12 January 2020, the first time since 1977. About 35 mild earthquakes (magnitude greater than 4.0) were observed on 12 January 2020 induced from the eruption. In the present paper, we analyzed optical properties of volcanic aerosols, volcanic gas emission, ocean parameters using multi-satellite sensors, namely, MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder), OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument), TROPOMI (TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument) and ground observations, namely, Argo, and AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) data. Our detailed analysis shows pronounced changes in all the parameters, which mainly occurred in the western and south-western regions because the …

A Visual Typology Of Abandonment In Rural America: From End-Of-Life To Treading Water, Recycling, Renaissance, And Revival, Jason P. Holcomb, Paul Frederic, Stanley D. Brunn

Geography Faculty Publications

The contemporary American rural landscape reflects a mix of ongoing economic changes in agricultural land use, population change, and built environments. The mix depends on past and recent change which represent landscapes of memory and silence to those experiencing economic and demographic renaissance. We develop a typology of five stages that reflect the contemporary rural scene and conduct field transects in Northwest Iowa and Central Maine. Features of the dynamics in rural America are evident in photographs of residences, land use changes, and commercial structure. The study calls for additional studies on rural settlement populations, economies, and society in different …

From Brooklyn To “Brooklyn” The Cultural Transformations Of Leisure, Pleasure, And Taste, Emily Holloway

Publications and Research

To tell the story of Brooklyn’s complex history in hospitality and cuisine is to tell a story about the tensions of high and low culture, of the mobility of capital and residents, and of the tremendous influence yielded by macroeconomic change. A sleepy bedroom community for the eighteenth and much of the early nineteenth centuries, Brooklyn’s waterfront (both historically and today) is deeply tied to its nineteenth and twentieth-century industrial heritage. The ad hoc economies that supported factory and dock workers, included boardinghouses, saloons, brothels, food carts, and amusement parks and drew a stark contrast to those of factory and …