Geography Commons^™

No. 11: The State Of Household Food Security In Nairobi, Kenya, Samuel Owuor

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report presents the results of a city-wide household food security survey of 1,434 Nairobi households, conducted by the Hungry Cities Partnership and the University of Nairobi. Among the key findings was that 70% of households in Kenya’s capital experience food insecurity, with one-quarter severely food insecure. As the first city-wide survey of household food security in Nairobi, this report provides researchers and policy-makers with detailed data and information about the overall food security picture, as well as important insights into the operation of the city’s food system. In particular, the report demonstrates the vital importance of Nairobi’s food markets …

No. 08: The Urban Food System Of Windhoek, Namibia, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Lawrence Kazembe, Jonathan Crush, Jeremy Wagner

Hungry Cities Partnership

The surprisingly high rate of supermarket patronage in low-income areas of Windhoek, Namibia’s capital and largest city, is at odds with conventional wisdom that supermarkets in African cities are primarily patronized by middle and high-income residents and therefore target their neighbourhoods. What is happening in Namibia and other Southern African countries that make supermarkets so much more accessible to the urban poor? What are they buying at supermarkets and how frequently do they shop there? Further, what is the impact of supermarket expansion on informal food vendors? This report, which presents the findings of the South African Supermarkets in Growing …

Utilizing Collocated Crop Growth Model Simulations To Train Agronomic Satellite Retrieval Algorithms, Nathaniel Levitan, Barry Gross

Publications and Research

Due to its worldwide coverage and high revisit time, satellite-based remote sensing provides the ability to monitor in-season crop state variables and yields globally. In this study, we presented a novel approach to training agronomic satellite retrieval algorithms by utilizing collocated crop growth model simulations and solar-reflective satellite measurements. Specifically, we showed that bidirectional long short-term memory networks (BLSTMs) can be trained to predict the in-season state variables and yields of Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) maize crop growth model simulations from collocated Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 500-m satellite measurements over the United States Corn Belt at a regional …

Mapping Quality Of Life In Nebraska: Population Distribution By Race, Ethnicity, And Age, Sarah Taylor, Maria Rosario T. De Guzman, Grant Daily, Rodrigo Cantarero, Soo-Young Hong, Aileen S. Garcia, Jeong-Kyun Choi, Yan Xia

Mapping Quality of Life in Nebraska

KEY POINTS

This section details key points from the data on racial, ethnic, and age groups across Nebraska.

RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES IN NEBRASKA

• The proportions of Nebraska’s racial and ethnic minority populations tend to be smaller by 4% (i.e., Asian) to 8% (i.e., Black or African American, Hispanic/Latino) than those of the US, except for the Hawaiian and Pacific Islander and American Indian and Alaska Native populations (i.e., smaller only by 0.1% to 0.2%).

• Nebraska’s urban areas, which comprise 73.1% of the Nebraska population, have higher numbers of racial and ethnic minorities than suburban or rural areas. …

Water And African Liberation: The 1961 Kassanje Revolt, Aharon Degrassi

Faculty Publications, Geography

No abstract provided.

Risk Perception In Small Island Developing States: A Case Study In The Commonwealth Of Dominica, Hannah Eboh

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face high vulnerability to natural hazards. Understanding risk perception in SIDS is an essential step towards reducing vulnerability on these at-risk island states. A case study in the Eastern Caribbean's Commonwealth of Dominica, which has a notable volcanic risk, is used to explore risk perception. Specifically, focus groups were conducted in 18 villages throughout Dominica where participants produced hand-colored maps to show where they believed volcanic risk existed on the island and shared their reasoning behind their maps.

Surveys were administered to all focus group participants to collect necessary socio-demographic information. Subsequently, participant’s hand-drawn maps …

A Directory Of Cartographic Inventors: Clever People Who Were Awarded A Us Patent For A Map-Related Device Or Method, Mark Monmonier, Adrienne Lee Atterberry, Kalya Fermin, Gabreille E. Marlzolf, Madeleine Hamlin

Geography and the Environment - All Scholarship

As its title and subtitle imply, this book is a collection of short biographies of people awarded United States patents for inventions intended to improve map use or map making. We say “intended” because, as with most patented innovations, their clever ideas seldom made it to store shelves, magazine ads, or mail order catalogs—a fate shared with most improvements proposed in cartography’s scientific-technical journals.

This collection is a spinoff of a project focused on inventions rather than inventors. The project’s principal product was Monmonier's book Patents and Cartographic Inventions: A New Perspective for Map History, published in 2017 by …

A Method For Determining Damage Within Historic Cemeteries: A First Step For Digital Heritage, Justin E. Malcolm

Honors Undergraduate Theses

While it is true that historic cemeteries are places that contain a wealth of knowledge about the history of a community they are sometimes not well maintained. The information within can be lost as grave-markers are damaged either by natural causes or human interaction. In larger cemeteries preserving these significant places can sometimes be difficult due to a number of different factors. Therefore focusing preservation efforts on specific locations where damage is more likely to occur is crucial to ensure that the monuments that are the most at risk are preserved. One possible way of accomplishing this is through the …

Quantifying Undisturbed (Native) Lands In Northwestern South Dakota: 2013, Pete Bauman, Benjamin Carlson, Tanner Butler, Brad Richardson

Quantifying Undisturbed (Native) Lands in Northwestern South Dakota: 2013

We employed simple GIS methods primarily utilizing the South Dakota Farm Service Agency’s Common Land Unit (CLU) data layers from 2013 and the 2012 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) county mosaic aerial imagery to evaluate 7,347,812 acres of land in northwestern South Dakota. The analysis area includes: Harding, Perkins, and Butte counties along with portions of Lawrence and Meade counties outside of the Black Hills Core Highlands and Plateau Ecoregions.

We utilized the FSA CLU data layer queried to show current and former cropland to identify and remove any areas with cropping history regardless …

Preparing For A Northwest Passage: A Workshop On The Role Of New England In Navigating The New Arctic, Katharine A. Duderstadt, Catherine M. Ashcraft, Jennifer F. Brewer, Elizabeth Burakowski, Jaed M. Coffin, Jack E. Dibb, Lawrence C. Hamilton, Nancy E. Kinner, Larry A. Mayer, Jennifer L. Miksis-Olds, Joseph Salisbury, Kerri D. Seger, Ruth K. Varner, Cameron P. Wake

All Materials

Preparing for a Northwest Passage: A Workshop on the Role of New England in Navigating the New Arctic (March 25 - 27, 2018 -- The University of New Hampshire) paired two of NSF's 10 Big Ideas: Navigating the New Arctic and Growing Convergence Research at NSF. During this event, participants assessed economic, environmental, and social impacts of Arctic change on New England and established convergence research initiatives to prepare for, adapt to, and respond to these effects. Shipping routes through an ice-free Northwest Passage in combination with modifications to ocean circulation and regional climate patterns linked to Arctic ice melt …

Temporal Changes In Submarine Groundwater Discharge In A Georgia Salt Marsh, Tanner C. Avery, Jacque L. Kelly

Earth, Environment & Sustainability: Faculty Presentations (1988-2022)

No abstract provided.

From Bison To Cattle: The Ecology Of The Southern Plains 1500-1750, Jenni Tifft-Ochoa

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Bison made their home on the Southern Plains for millennia. However, their migratory patterns began to shift in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. My research investigated what caused this drastic shift and how it had far reaching effects on the ecology of the Southern Plains. Using archives from two prominent Catholic priests, I began to piece together why the bison left the Southern Plains. Rather than focus on the Europeans as the main players, I instead focused on the Indigenous peoples, the animals, and the land as the centralized actors in this project. I discovered that the introduction …

Using Virtual Reality And Photogrammetry To Enrich 3d Object Identity, Cole Juckette, Heather Richards-Rissetto, Hector Eluid Guerra Aldana, Norman Martinez

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The creation of digital 3D models for cultural heritage is commonplace. With the advent of efficient and cost effective technologies archaeologists are making a plethora of digital assets. This paper evaluates the identity of 3D digital assets and explores how to enhance or expand that identity by integrating photogrammetric models into VR. We propose that when a digital object acquires spatial context from its virtual surroundings, it gains an identity in relation to that virtual space, the same way that embedding the object with metadata gives it a specific identity through its relationship to other information. We explore this concept …

Homesteading The Plains: Toward A New History., Andrew Husa, Richard Edwards,, Jacob K. Friefeld, Rebecca S. Wingo

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Through hard work and thorough research, Richard Edwards, Jacob Friefeld, and Rebecca Wingo seek to dispel any false notions and set the record straight on what was one of the most influential events in the history of the United States in their book, Homesteading the Plains. Th roughout the work, the authors are able to correct false historical accounts that cast a poor light on the Homestead Act while they provide a wealth of statistical evidence to move toward a new history, as the book’s subtitle suggests. Th e Homestead Act provided opportunity for many ancestors of current Great Plains …

Modeling Pre-Settlement Wetlands In Northern Minnesota, Johnathon T. Salfer

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Modern land use has dramatically altered the native landscape across much of Minnesota and the United States. “Manifest Destiny” has ingrained the idea in American society that wetlands and related lands of “low value” need to be tamed and made profitable. In many places, wetlands have been drained and removed so that agriculture can take over. In recent years, people have begun to see the unintended consequences of this method, and importance is now being given to natural wetlands through various government projects and programs. Using National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) data, Drainage Index (DI) values calculated from Soil Survey Geographic …

Cemetery Management In A Gis Framework: A Case Study Of Woodland Hills Memorial Park, Maureen Schmidt

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

his paper aims to examine the potential uses and applications of geospatial technologies for cemetery management. The Woodland Hills Memorial Park in Mankato, Minnesota, was used as a case study. The hard copy, handwritten records of the Woodland Hills Memorial Park were converted to digital formats, and then combined with GPS gathered data using GIS. The traditional method of storing and keeping these records is time consuming, as the curator must hand write all the information into the physical books. The maps of the park are also hand-drawn, which makes their examination and upkeep tedious. By creating digital copies of …

Regional Climate Model Evaluation System Powered By Apache Open Climate Workbench V1.3.0: An Enabling Tool For Facilitating Regional Climate Studies, Huikyo Lee, Alexander Goodman, Lewis Mcgibbney, Duane E. Waliser, Jinwon Kim, Paul C. Loikith, Peter B. Gibson, Elias C. Massoud

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Regional Climate Model Evaluation System (RCMES) is an enabling tool of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to support the United States National Climate Assessment. As a comprehensive system for evaluating climate models on regional and continental scales using observational datasets from a variety of sources, RCMES is designed to yield information on the performance of climate models and guide their improvement. Here, we present a user-oriented document describing the latest version of RCMES, its development process, and future plans for improvements. The main objective of RCMES is to facilitate the climate model evaluation process at regional scales. RCMES …

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. …

Satellite Remote Sensing Of Woody And Herbaceous Leaf Area For Improved Understanding Of Forage Resources And Fire In Africa, Milkah Njoki Kahiu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) tree-grass systems commonly referred to as savannas dominating drylands, play a critical role in social, cultural, economic and environmental systems. These coupled natural-human systems support millions of people through pastoralism, are important global biodiversity hotspots and play a critical role in global biogeochemical cycles. Despite the importance of SSA savannas, they have been marginalized for years as most governments neglect dryland resources in favor of agricultural research and development assistance. Hence, lack of spatially and temporally accurate information on the status and trends in savanna resources has led to poor planning and management. This scenario calls …

The Impact Of Data Sovereignty On American Indian Self-Determination: A Framework Proof Of Concept Using Data Science, Joseph Carver Robertson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Data Sovereignty Initiative is a collection of ideas that was designed to create SMART solutions for tribal communities. This concept was to develop a horizontal governance framework to create a strategic act of sovereignty using data science. The core concept of this idea was to present data sovereignty as a way for tribal communities to take ownership of data in order to affect policy and strategic decisions that are data driven in nature. The case studies in this manuscript were developed around statistical theories of spatial statistics, exploratory data analysis, and machine learning. And although these case studies are …