Geography Commons^™

Towards An Improved Typology Approach To Segmenting Cultural Tourists, Ganghua Chen, Songshan (Sam) Huang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This study aims to improve the cultural tourist typology methodology that uses cultural centrality and depth of cultural experience in its framework. Using a sample of Chinese tourists in Macau (n = 595) collected via questionnaire surveys, the study confirmed the determination effect of cultural centrality on depth of cultural experience. Subsequently, the study demonstrated an improved approach that eliminates such a determination effect in typology identification. Compared to McKercher's () approach, the improved typology presents a balanced segmentation of cultural tourists and distinguishes the segments more clearly in their sociodemographic characteristics. The improved typology generated more meaningful practical implications.

Ground Deformation Studies And Evacuation Behavior During Eruptions At Guatemalan Volcanoes, Hans Lechner

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Volcanic eruptions can be an especially problematic hazard when considering the uncertainty in eruption timing and magnitude coupled with challenges associated with delivering warnings to remote areas and facilitating effective evacuations. The hazards presented by Guatemala’s active volcanoes demand enhanced monitoring capabilities and instrumentation infrastructure. Strengthening the link between the physical and social sciences should lead to more accurate, reliable, and timely hazard information to the people living in proximity to the volcano and facilitate rational decisions and actions that reduce their level of risk. While there is no one single technique that can provide unambiguous diagnostics about the timing, …

Landscape And Climate Drivers Of Harmful Algal Blooms In Iowa, Aaron Padilla

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Insuring the safety of our water for consumption and recreation is a crucial but extremely difficult and resource intensive activity of environmental protection agencies. One of the ways our water is at risk is through the increased frequency, and intensity of harmful algal blooms (HABs). When CyanoHABs occur, they can produce a toxic byproduct, most notably microcystin in freshwater, which can be harmful to humans and animals. Previous research has indicated these blooms are driven by increased eutrophication of water bodies, the excess loading of nutrients. In Iowa, the main driver of CyanoHABs in most watersheds is agricultural runoff, which …

President Trump Tweets Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un On Nuclear Weapons: A Comparison With Climate Change, David E. Allen, Michael Mcaleer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

A set of 125 tweets about North Korea's Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un by President Trump from 2013 to 2018 are analysed by means of the data mining technique, sentiment analysis. The intention is to explore the contents and sentiments of the messages contained, the degree to which they differ, and their implications about President Trump's understanding and approach to international diplomacy. The results suggest a predominantly positive emotion in relation to tweets about North Korea, despite the use of questionable nicknames such as "Little Rocket Man". A comparison is made between the tweets on North Korea and climate change, madefrom …

Leveraging Overhead Imagery For Localization, Mapping, And Understanding, Scott Workman

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Ground-level and overhead images provide complementary viewpoints of the world. This thesis proposes methods which leverage dense overhead imagery, in addition to sparsely distributed ground-level imagery, to advance traditional computer vision problems, such as ground-level image localization and fine-grained urban mapping. Our work focuses on three primary research areas: learning a joint feature representation between ground-level and overhead imagery to enable direct comparison for the task of image geolocalization, incorporating unlabeled overhead images by inferring labels from nearby ground-level images to improve image-driven mapping, and fusing ground-level imagery with overhead imagery to enhance understanding. The ultimate contribution of this thesis …

Measuring Agricultural Drought And Uncertainty In Future Drought Projections, Junyu Lu

Theses and Dissertations

Drought is a devastating, recurring, and widespread natural hazard that affects natural habitats, ecosystems, and economic and social sectors. Within the agricultural sector, droughts can reduce soil-water availability, affect water and soil quality, contribute to crop failures and pasture losses, and severely reduce crop yield. Effective drought quantification and early warning are critical for drought risk adaptation. Moreover, future drought risks could be exacerbated due to climate change. Modeling how climate change might influence future drought risks is of great importance in natural resources and water resources planning management. This dissertation has three parts. 1) The first part compares and …

Why Is No One Getting A Weave Of An Afro: Examining Culture, Economy, And Domestic Human Hair Consumption By African American Women, Brittani Young

Theses and Dissertations

The market for human hair, in the form of wigs and hair weaves, has grown exponentially, with African American women comprising a significant portion of consumers in the United States. Similar to other markets, the structure and patterns of hair consumption by African American women is the result of a variety of historical and geographical factors. In this thesis I investigate the role of African American women in the global human hair trade, and consider the implications of contemporary discourses around ‘good’ and ‘black’ hair in order to better understand trade in human hair. In particular, I use a combination …

Community-Based Initiatives For Neighborhood And Community Rehabilitation: A Case Study Of The Mission District, San Francisco, California, Francesca Monique Gallardo

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Through the case study of San Francisco, CA’s Mission District, this research project addresses how community-based affordable housing development is operationalized to rehabilitate communities and neighborhoods experiencing effects of gentrification, mass displacement, and cultural dilution. My goals were to identify how the processes of building a sense of community, trust, and cohesion- rehabilitating and critical to affordable housing development efforts in the Mission District? And, how are nonprofit community development organizations engaging with these processes in collaboration with citizen and community partners? The final objective is to provide evidence-based strategies to assist other at-risk minority communities and neighborhoods in the …

Virunga: Guns, Gorillas, And The Construction Of Transnational Natures, Adriana Disilvestro

Honors Theses

The recent western media attention surrounding Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has brought up significant scholarly questions about the discursive portrayal of “ideal” Natures. In this thesis, I undertake a discursive analysis of western media materials about Virunga National Park in order to understand how ideas of Nature are transnationally constructed. In order to do this, undertake an analysis of the western oriented discursive material associated with three socio-political processes within the park: green militarization, gorilla trekking, and the ecotourist industry. Ultimately, I conclude that the discursive material portrays a highly spectacularized and commodified “ideal” nature, …

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 …

การวิเคราะห์ผลกระทบทางด้านเศรษฐกิจและสังคมจากการเปลี่ยนแปลงการใช้ที่ดินบริเวณชายฝั่งอ่าวบ้านดอน จังหวัดสุราษฎร์ธานี, รัฐพงษ์ ชูติกัณฑ์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

การวิจัยนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อศึกษาการเปลี่ยนแปลงการใช้ที่ดินของพื้นที่ชายฝั่งอ่าวบ้านดอนและเพื่อวิเคราะห์ผลกระทบด้านเศรษฐกิจและสังคมที่เกิดขึ้นจากการเปลี่ยนแปลงของพื้นที่ดังกล่าว การดำเนินการวิจัยประกอบด้วย 4 ขั้นตอนคือ 1) การศึกษาการเปลี่ยนแปลงการใช้ที่ดินของพื้นที่ชายฝั่งอ่าวบ้านดอนในระหว่าง พ.ศ. 2537 – 2560 จากการแปลภาพถ่ายดาวเทียม 2) การศึกษาผลกระทบด้านเศรษฐกิจและสังคมในพื้นที่ศึกษา ใช้วิธีการสัมภาษณ์เชิงลึก (Deep Interview) และการสังเกตการณ์ (Observation) จากประชาชนในพื้นที่ เช่น ผู้นำชุมชน เกษตรกรผู้เพาะเลี้ยงสัตว์น้ำชายฝั่ง 3) การวิเคราะห์ผลกระทบทางเศรษฐกิจและสังคมจากการเปลี่ยนแปลงการใช้ที่ดิน รวมถึงปัจจัยที่ก่อให้เกิดการเปลี่ยนแปลง ผลการวิจัยพบว่า 1) ในระหว่าง พ.ศ. 2537–2560 การใช้ที่ดินของพื้นที่ชายฝั่งอ่าวบ้านดอนมีการเปลี่ยนแปลงจากพื้นที่ภาคเกษตรกรรม (เกษตรกรรมและพื้นที่เพาะเลี้ยงสัตว์น้ำ) ไปเป็นชุมชน (เช่น ที่อยู่อาศัย ถนน) และพื้นที่โล่งมากที่สุด ผลกระทบด้านเศรษฐกิจที่เกิดขึ้น ได้แก่ 1. รายได้ลดลง 2.หนี้สินเพิ่มขึ้น 3.การสูญเสียที่ดิน 4.การเปลี่ยนแปลงอาชีพ โดยปัจจัยที่ก่อให้เกิดผลกระทบทางเศรษฐกิจ ได้แก่ เงินทุน มลพิษทางน้ำ ภัยธรรมชาติ โครงการพัฒนาในพื้นที่ การพัฒนาของเทคโนโลยี ราคาผลผลิตสัตว์น้ำ ระบบนายทุน เป็นต้น ผลกระทบทางสังคมที่เกิดขึ้น ได้แก่ 1.ความสัมพันธ์ของคนชุมชนลดลง 2.ความขัดแย้งในชุมชน 3.การเลือนหายไปของภูมิปัญญาท้องถิ่น โดยปัจจัยที่ก่อให้เกิดผลกระทบทางสังคม ได้แก่ เปลี่ยนแปลงทางด้านอาชีพ การเปลี่ยนสู่สังคมเมือง ระบบนายทุน การแย่งชิงทรัพยากรในพื้นที่

Subsidiary Development Of New Technologies: Managing Technological Changes In Multinational And Geographic Space, Anupama Phene, Stephen Tallman

Management Faculty Publications

This study explores the co-evolution of the subsidiaries of the multinational firm with their global organizations and geographic locations. We examine when and how subsidiaries make sense of and respond to technological changes in these environments to expand their scope and develop new technologies. Using the concept of local search, we propose that technological changes in a subsidiary’s parent firm and host country, in areas specific to the subsidiary’s expertise and at the broad industry level, have differential effects on subsidiary development of new technologies. We further propose that subsidiary innovative capability acts as a moderator, enabling subsidiaries to respond …

La Dialéctica, David Harvey

Publications and Research

Raymond Williams eligió el recurso de pensar ‘mundos posibles’ ficticios para abordar la complejidad de temas relativos al lugar, el espacio y el ambiente. ¿Sin embargo, será que este era un recurso necesario, o más bien una estrategia aleatoria suya para profundizar en el estudio de la teoría de la cultura? Empezaré en este capítulo por demostrar que la estrategia empleada por Williams no es necesaria en absoluto. Espero poder demostrar que la investigación materialista histórica, inducida por un entendimiento dialéctico, puede integrar los temas de lugar, espacio y ambiente (naturaleza) en la teoría social y en la teoría literaria. …

Geografía Abolicionista Y El Problema De La Inocencia, Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Publications and Research

Resumen:

En el presente artículo se analizan las geografías carcelarias en los Estados Unidos, desde el despliegue del capitalismo racial. La geógrafa afroamericana parte de la tesis de que las prisiones contemporáneas son extractivas, es decir, extraen personas y, cuando, en el mejor de los casos, no hacen parte de los altos índices de las muertes prematuras, las expulsan al mundo sin el derecho a ser ellas, dinámica que estimula la circulación rápida de flujos de dinero. Frente a esta topografía anuladora de la vida, la también activista afroamericana reflexiona sobre su experiencia en contra del complejo militar carcelario, el …

Arriving Somewhere, Not Here: Exploring And Mapping The Relationship Between Border Enforcement And Migration By Boat In The Central Mediterranean Sea, 2006 To 2015, Kira Williams

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The European Union (EU) implemented a maritime interdiction network using search and rescue which interdicted at least 462,813 “illegal migrants” in the Central Mediterranean Sea between 2006 and 2015. This involved 15 discrete, militarised and semi-secret maritime interdiction operations (MIOs) at a minimum cost of 126.9 million 2014 Euros. In this dissertation, I will explore and map these operations and their geographies between 2006 and 2015.

First, and based on the given existence of the European Patrols Network, I examine how this network came into being in the first place. This serves to show that the EU purposely created regular …

Fpga-Based On-Board Geometric Calibration For Linear Ccd Array Sensors, Guoqing Zhou, Linjun Jiang, Jingjin Huang, Rongting Zhang, Dequan Liu, Xiang Zhou, Oktay Baysal

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

With increasing demands in real-time or near real-time remotely sensed imagery applications in such as military deployments, quick response to terrorist attacks and disaster rescue, the on-board geometric calibration problem has attracted the attention of many scientists in recent years. This paper presents an on-board geometric calibration method for linear CCD sensor arrays using FPGA chips. The proposed method mainly consists of four modules—Input Data, Coefficient Calculation, Adjustment Computation and Comparison—in which the parallel computations for building the observation equations and least squares adjustment, are implemented using FPGA chips, for which a decomposed matrix inversion method is presented. A Xilinx …

A Cartographic Workflow Manual For Endangered Species Conservation, Martin P. Viereckl

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In response to global consumer demand for rare and exotic wildlife products, poaching of endangered species has become pervasive around the world (Eliason 1999). Despite the enactment of CITES, and other international efforts to protect vulnerable species from overexploitation, the global market for illegal wildlife products is estimated as high as $20-billion a year industry (Wyler 2008). Within important wildlife habitat sites, law enforcement struggle to curb rampant poaching that threatens the ultimate survival of many endangered species (Jachmann 2008; Rowcliffe 2004). Law-enforcement agencies responsible for protecting wildlife from poachers often lack geospatial tools that could greatly improve the effectiveness …

Assessing Historical Planform Channel Change In An Altered Watershed With Quantification Of Error And Uncertainty Present In A Gis/Aerial Photography-Based Analysis; Case Study: Minnesota River, Minnesota, Usa., Devon Libby

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Little is known about the historic planform channel change of the Minnesota River of south-central Minnesota, USA. This is despite research that demonstrates anthropogenic activities have altered the Minnesota River Basin's hydrology, land use, and climate. In addition, the threat of invasive carp infestation requires an understanding of Minnesota River planform change to assess mitigation strategies. This thesis focuses on the lower Minnesota River (LMR) by measuring planform channel change (lateral channel migration, width, and sinuosity) from 1937 to 2013. Analysis is conducted by utilizing remote/GIS analysis of historic aerial photographs. A secondary focus addresses and quantifies the inherent/introduced error/uncertainly …

Representing Wilderness In The Shaping Of America's National Parks: Aesthetics, Boundaries, And Cultures In The Works Of James Fenimore Cooper, John Muir, And Their Artistic Contemporaries, Alana Jajko

Master’s Theses

This project studies the works of James Fenimore Cooper, John Muir, and their artistic contemporaries in relation to the shaping of America’s national parks and what it means for the parks and their attending wilderness to be symbolic of the nation. It seeks to reveal the national parks as artistic representations of a constructed wilderness, while also emphasizing the physical experience of the natural world as a means of supplementing our subjective views. Through the lenses of aesthetics, boundaries, and cultures, I narrow my study to focus on three distinct perspectives by which we can understand the national parks and …