Geography Commons^™

Poverty Mapping Using Convolutional Neural Networks Trained On High And Medium Resolution Satellite Images, With An Application In Mexico, Boris Babenko, Jonathan Hersh, David Newhouse, Anusha Ramakrishnan, Tom Swartz

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Mapping the spatial distribution of poverty in developing countries remains an important and costly challenge. These “poverty maps” are key inputs for poverty targeting, public goods provision, political accountability, and impact evaluation, that are all the more important given the geographic dispersion of the remaining bottom billion severely poor individuals. In this paper we train Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) to estimate poverty directly from high and medium resolution satellite images. We use both Planet and Digital Globe imagery with spatial resolutions of 3-5 m2 and 50 cm2 respectively, covering all 2 million km2 of Mexico. Benchmark poverty estimates come from …

A Summer At Azavea Working With Nonprofit Organizations: The Summer Of Maps Fellowship, Sarah Gates

Sustainability and Social Justice

This report details my experience as a Summer of Maps Fellow at Azavea during June 2017 to August 2017. As a Summer of Maps Fellow I worked with nonprofit organizations, the Fair Tech Collective and the World Resources Institute, on two geospatial analysis projects. For the Fair Tech Collective I analyzed data on refinery flaring pollution, air toxin concentrations, and sensitive receptor populations to produce a series of maps and infographics detailing the impacts of petrochemical pollution in the San Francisco Bay Area. For the World Resources Institute I used data-driven methods to analyze conservation efforts in the Central African …

Greening The Gateway Cities: Summer Internship With The Clark University Human Environment Regional Observatory (Hero) And Massachusetts Department Of Conservation And Recreation (Dcr), Zhiwen Zhu

Sustainability and Social Justice

This report provides a detailed account of my internship experience with the Clark University Human-Environment Regional Observatory (HERO) and Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) in the summer of 2017. This internship concerns the urban tree health assessment in three ‘Greening the Gateway’ cities in Massachusetts. During the internship, I conducted tree survey field work, database management, mapping, tree survey data analysis and urban tree plantation benefits microclimate simulation. During the internship I worked with the professors and students at Clark University and University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the staff from Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), Worcester Tree …

Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (Nefi): Facing The Challenges And Pathways Of Global Change In The Twenty-First Century, Pavel Groisman, Herman Shugart, David Kicklighter, Geoffrey Henebry, Nadezhda Tchebakova, Shamil Maksyutov, Erwan Monier, Garik Gutman, Sergey Gulev, Jiaguo Qi, Alexander Prishchepov, Elena Kukavskaya, Boris Porfiriev, Alexander Shiklomanov, Tatiana Loboda, Nikolay Shiklomanov, Son Nghiem, Kathleen Bergen, Jana Albrechtová, Jiquan Chen, Maria Shahgedanova, Anatoly Shvidenko, Nina Speranskaya, Amber Soja, Kirsten De Beurs, Olga Bulygina, Jessica Mccarty, Qianlai Zhuang, Olga Zolina

GSCE Faculty Publications

During the past several decades, the Earth system has changed significantly, especially across Northern Eurasia. Changes in the socio-economic conditions of the larger countries in the region have also resulted in a variety of regional environmental changes that can have global consequences. The Northern Eurasia Future Initiative (NEFI) has been designed as an essential continuation of the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI), which was launched in 2004. NEESPI sought to elucidate all aspects of ongoing environmental change, to inform societies and, thus, to better prepare societies for future developments. A key principle of NEFI is that these developments …

No. 12: Compounding Vulnerability: A Model Of Urban Household Food Security, Cameron Mccordic

Hungry Cities Partnership

The efficiency of the infrastructure systems in cities will define the extent to which dystopic visions of urban futures become a reality. At the level of the individual household, vulnerability to hazards in cities is defined, in part, by the ability to access essential resources and services. This discussion paper proposes a model to help explain the relationship between access to urban infrastructure systems and household vulnerability to food insecurity. Food access in cities is primarily achieved through food purchases, where households convert assets into food at retail locations. When a household falls into food insecurity through trading household assets …

Spatial Analysis Of Ethnic And Racial Segregation In The Chicago Metropolitan Area, 2000–2014, Roy Yao

Department of Geography: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Racial segregation has long been a great concern in the United States. Scholars study and measure racial segregation over different time periods to trace the changing patterns of racial segregation. Chicago, as the nation’s third largest city, also ranked on top of the most segregated cities. Previous studies measured racial segregation in Chicago only numerically; few studies have used geospatial statistic methods to identify racial segregation patterns in the Chicago metropolitan area. This study uses “Hotspot Analysis” (Getis Ord Gi*) to identify Chicago’s most recent segregation patterns among four major ethnic and racial groups: White, African American, Hispanic and Asian. …

Strategic Culture In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Divergent Paths Of Uganda And Tanzania, Kevin Frank

Dissertations

Strategic culture is a concept accepted by scholars and practitioners, but with problematic applicability to states newly independent or emerging from conflict. The elements that comprise strategic culture in the developed world are not always present in emerging states. This research addresses the pertinency of strategic culture in Uganda and Tanzania, and then tests the operationalization of the concept using the case of participation in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The African Union and the international community expected Uganda and Tanzania to contribute troops to AMISON in 2007. In the event, Uganda did and Tanzania chose another path. …

How To Best Apply Neural Networks In Geosciences: Towards Optimal "Averaging" In Dropout Training, Afshin Gholamy, Justin Parra, Vladik Kreinovich, Olac Fuentes, Elizabeth Y. Anthony

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

The main objectives of geosciences is to find the current state of the Earth -- i.e., solve the corresponding inverse problems -- and to use this knowledge for predicting the future events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In both inverse and prediction problems, often, machine learning techniques are very efficient, and at present, the most efficient machine learning technique is deep neural training. To speed up this training, the current learning algorithms use dropout techniques: they train several sub-networks on different portions of data, and then "average" the results. A natural idea is to use arithmetic mean for this …

The Monadnock Volume 59, December 2017, Clark University Geographical Society

The Monadnock (Clark Geographical Society)

Volume 59 of The Monadnock. The Monadnock was the alumni magazine of the Clark University Geographical Society (1927-1985) (2014-present).

A Longitudinal Study Of Prenatal Care And Prenatal Outcomes Of Women In Foster Care Across Michigan Counties, Lauryn Jianrattanasawat

Masters Theses

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, at any given time, there are approximately 13,000 youth in foster care throughout Michigan. This study used secondary data of linked child welfare case records and State of Michigan Medicaid claims from January 1, 2009 to September 30, 2012 to research the effects of individual, foster care and spatial characteristics experienced by 307 women that became pregnant and delivered while still enrolled in foster care in Michigan on their prenatal care and prenatal outcomes. While, the majority of the analyses resulted in insignificant relationships, significant differences between foster care characteristics …

Seeing Prehistory Through New Lenses: Using Geophysical And Statistical Analysis To Identify Fresh Perspectives Of A 15th Century Mandan Occupation, Amber Marie Mitchum

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Great Plains prehistoric research has evolved over the course of a century, with many sites like Huff Village (32MO11) in North Dakota recently coming back to the forefront of discussion through new technological applications. Through a majority of its studies and excavations, Huff Village appeared to endure as the final stage in the Middle Missouri tradition. Long thought to reflect only systematically placed long-rectangular structure types of its Middle Missouri predecessors, recent magnetic gradiometry and topographic mapping data revealed circular structure types that deviated from long-held traditions, highlighting new associations with Coalescent groups. A compact system for food capacity was …

Multiple Methods Of Public Engagement: Disaggregating Socio-Spatial Data For Environmental Planning In Western Washington, Usa, Rebecca J. Mclain, David Banis, Alexa Todd, Lee Cerveny

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Highlights

• The effectiveness of participatory GIS approaches at engaging different publics was explored.

• Online surveys engaged urbanites; community workshops engaged rural residents.

• Urban and rural residents went to similar places but engaged in different activities.

• Use of multiple data collection methods will broaden public engagement.

• Mapping behavior studies are needed to improve understandings of PPGIS data quality.

Hattiesburg’S Unforeseen Legacies: Industrial Remnants And Their Influence On Historic Districts, Courtney E. Grinnell

Honors Theses

Contaminated property is a significant limiting factor to urban development, specifically in the old economic centers of cities. This study is a spatial analysis of contaminated property in the Downtown district of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Historic archives are used to create a land-use history of various sites that are presented as case studies in the thesis. These sites provide a unique historical perspective of Hattiesburg’s industrial development while also illustrating the general trends of brownfields in the city. Using a combination of archival information and publicly available spatial data, a series of maps are created that display the source of financial …

Young People’S Perceptions Of Nature And Interactions With National Parks, Addy Falgoust

Honors Theses

This thesis examines young people’s perceptions of nature and the outdoors, in order to better understand their interactions and experiences with national parks. Younger generations currently are not engaging with the national parks as much as older generations. This study seeks to understand the reasons behind this change and explore potential solutions to this challenge, as younger generations will be responsible for the conservation and preservation of national parks in the near future. This research was modeled on a previous study based on students at the University of Northern Colorado. Research methodologies included both a survey and focus groups to …

This Is Just A Phase : The Impact Of Population Structure On Haplotype Phasing And Linkage Disequilibrium Measures At Functional Genetic Sites., Roxanne Kaaren Leiter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The block-like structure of the human genome has been the subject of many scientific papers and is of practical significance in large-scale genome-wide association studies. How stringent haplotype block boundaries are within and between populations has been the subject of ongoing debate within human population genetics. This thesis will contribute to the description of universal and population-specific haplotype blocks at functional sites, namely across the IL-10 gene family (including IL-10, IL-19, IL-20 and IL-24), which is involved in a number of immune system processes, and MAPKAP-K2, an adjacent and functionally significant kinase gene. Beyond the description of blocks across these …

Moving Mountains : A Study Examining Long-Term Impacts Of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining On Mortality In The Appalachian Region Using Geographic Information Sciences Techniques., James Howard Kent Pugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last hundred years, the Appalachian region has been dominated by the coal industry. It has also been and currently is one of the unhealthiest regions in the United States. Recent scholarship has examined the relationship between coal mining and health and mortality rates in the Appalachian region. The first study incorporates air quality and pollution data to examine if coal mining counties have higher levels of pollution and if this pollution contributes to mortality disadvantage. In the second study, I construct a population-based coal-exposure measure to better evaluate the relationship between coal mining and health I find that …

Foundations Of Translational Ecology, Carolyn Af Enquist, Stephen T. Jackson, Gregg M. Garfin, Frank W. Davis, Leah R. Gerber, Jeremy A. Littell, Jennifer L. Tank, Adam J. Terando, Tamara U. Wall, Benjamin Halpern, J. Kevin Hiers, Toni Kyn Morelli, Elizabeth Mcnie, Nathan L. Stephenson, Matthew A. Williamson, Connie A. Woodhouse, Laurie Yung, Mark W. Brunson, Kimberly R. Hall, Lauren M. Hallett, Dawn M. Lawson, Max A. Mortiz, Koren Nydick, Amber Pairis, Andrea J. Ray, Claudia Regan, Hugh D. Safford, Mark W. Schwartz, M. Rebecca Shaw

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Ecologists who specialize in translational ecology (TE) seek to link ecological knowledge to decision making by integrating ecological science with the full complement of social dimensions that underlie today's complex environmental issues. TE is motivated by a search for outcomes that directly serve the needs of natural resource managers and decision makers. This objective distinguishes it from both basic and applied ecological research and, as a practice, it deliberately extends research beyond theory or opportunistic applications. TE is uniquely positioned to address complex issues through interdisciplinary team approaches and integrated scientist–practitioner partnerships. The creativity and context-specific knowledge of resource managers, …

Developing A Translational Ecology Workforce, Mark W. Schwarts, J. Kevin Hiers, Frank W. Davis, Gregg M. Garfin, Stephen T. Jackson, Adam J. Terando, Connie A. Woodhouse, Toni Lyn Morelli, Matthew A. Williamson, Mark W. Brunson

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

We define a translational ecologist as a professional ecologist with diverse disciplinary expertise and skill sets, as well as a suitable personal disposition, who engages across social, professional, and disciplinary boundaries to partner with decision makers to achieve practical environmental solutions. Becoming a translational ecologist requires specific attention to obtaining critical non-scientific disciplinary breadth and skills that are not typically gained through graduate-level education. Here, we outline a need for individuals with broad training in interdisciplinary skills, use our personal experiences as a basis for assessing the types of interdisciplinary skills that would benefit potential translational ecologists, and present steps …

Uncertain Skies: Forecasting Typhoons In Hong Kong Ca. 1874-1906, Fiona Williamson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores the conceptualisation of «uncertainty» in late nineteenth- century meteorological thought. By investigating the story of meteorological forecasting in nineteenth and early twentieth century Hong Kong, it considers the changing ways in which forecasting was judged historically. In the early nineteenth century forecasting the weather was considered impossible. By the end of the century, it was confidently expected that the much improved understanding of weather patterns would lead to the ability to better predict them. During the intervening period «uncertainty» competed with «certainty» and «prediction» was mistaken for «predictability». The shift in perception was driven by various factors, …

Semi-Automated Surface Water Detection With Synthetic Aperture Radar Data: A Wetland Case Study, Amir Behnamian, Sarah Banks, Lori White, Brian Brisco, Koreen Millard, Jon Pasher, Zhaohua Chen, Jason Duffe, Laura Bourgeau-Chavez, Michael Battaglia

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

In this study, a new method is proposed for semi-automated surface water detection using synthetic aperture radar data via a combination of radiometric thresholding and image segmentation based on the simple linear iterative clustering superpixel algorithm. Consistent intensity thresholds are selected by assessing the statistical distribution of backscatter values applied to the mean of each superpixel. Higher-order texture measures, such as variance, are used to improve accuracy by removing false positives via an additional thresholding process used to identify the boundaries of water bodies. Results applied to quad-polarized RADARSAT-2 data show that the threshold value for the variance texture measure …