Geography Commons^™

Mapping Urban Bare Land Automatically From Landsat Imagery With A Simple Index, Hui Li, Cuizhen Wang, Cheng Zhong, Aijun Su, Chengren Xiong, Jinge Wang, Junqi Liu

Faculty Publications

In recent years, hundreds of Earth observation satellites have been launched to collect massive amounts of remote sensing images. However, the considerable cost and time to process the significant amount of data have become the greatest obstacle between data and knowledge. In order to accelerate the transformation from remote sensing images to urban thematic maps, a strategy to map the bare land automatically from Landsat imagery was developed and assessed in this study. First, a normalized difference bare land index (NBLI) was presented to maximally differentiate bare land from other land types in Wuhan City, China. Then, an unsupervised classifier …

Introduction To Gis, Sarah Watson

Research Data and Scholarly Communications Committee Workshops

Do you have a research question that you would like to depict geographically? Have you ever wanted to include a map in your presentations or reports, but could not find one that suits your specific needs? This workshop will address these questions by introducing participants to Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a tool that facilitates the visualization of spatial data, geographic analysis, and the production of maps. Attendees will learn the basics of GIS terminology, explore different GIS software packages, and will walk through a hand-on tutorial focused on basic geographic analysis. No prior GIS knowledge required.

The presentation slides are …

Effects Of Anthropogenic Activity On The Green Swamp Preserve Ecosystem, Barbara Ann Nordheim-Shelt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Green Swamp Preserve is a large geographic area that has sustained many changes since Europeans settled in Florida. There has been little published research on the impacts of anthropogenic activity on this system. This thesis research seeks to document more recent changes in the Green Swamp and to evaluate the effects of various human activities on the system. The study period is from 1985 to 2015. For this time period changes in land use and landcover were examined using neural network classifications. Changes in vegetation health were evaluated by examining Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Green Vegetation Index …

Editorial, Jamal Jokar Arsanjani, Michael Leitner, Alexander Zipf

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Exploration Of Scaling Effects On Coarse Resolution Land Surface Phenology, Xiaoyang Zhang, Jianmin Wang, Feng Gao, Yan Liu, Crystal Schaaf, Mark Friedl, Yunyue Yu, Senthilnath Jayavelu, Joshua Gray, Lingling Liu, Dong Yan, Geoffrey M. Henebry

GSCE Faculty Publications

Numerous land surface phenology (LSP) datasets have been produced from various coarse resolution satellite data and different detection algorithms from regional to global scales. In contrast to field-observed phenological events that are defined by clearly evident organismal changes with biophysical meaning, current approaches to detecting transitions in LSP only determine the timing of variations in remotely sensed observations of surface greenness. Since activities to bridge LSP and field observations are challenging and limited, our understanding of the biophysical characteristics of LSP transitions is poor. Therefore, we set out to explore the scaling effects on LSP transitions at the nominal start …

No. 08: International Migration And Urban Food Security In South African Cities, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera

Hungry Cities Partnership

The drivers of food insecurity in rapidly growing urban areas of the Global South are receiving more research and policy attention, but the precise connections between urbanization, urban food security and migration are still largely unexplored. In particular, the levels and causes of food insecurity amongst new migrants to the city have received little consideration. This is in marked contrast to the literature on the food security experience of new immigrants from the South in European and North American cities. This paper aims to contribute to the literature on urban food security in the South by focusing on the case …

No. 07: Household Food Security And Access To Medical Care In Maputo, Mozambique, Cameron Mccordic

Hungry Cities Partnership

The relationship between household access to medical care and food security is a potentially circuitous and challenging relationship to model. This discussion paper uses multiple modelling techniques to determine the quality of the relationships between these variables using household survey data collected by the Hungry Cities Partnership in 2014 in Maputo, Mozambique. The results of the investigation are framed according to the Sustainable Livelihood Framework and indicate a predictive relationship between household food security status and consistent household medical care access among the sampled households. The results also identify potential conditional independence in the relationship between other demographic variables and …

No. 06: The Informal Sector’S Role In Food Security: A Missing Link In Policy Debates, Caroline Skinner, Gareth Haysom

Hungry Cities Partnership

This discussion paper aims to review what is currently known about the role played by the informal sector in general, and informal retailers in particular, in the accessibility of food in South Africa. The review seeks to identify policy-relevant research gaps. Drawing on Statistics South Africa data, we show that the informal sector is an important source of employment, dominated by informal trade with the sale of food a significant subsector within this trade. We then turn our attention to what is known about the informal sector’s role in food sourcing of poorer households. Surveys show that urban residents, and …

A Framework For Measuring The Spatial Equity In The Distribution Of Public Transportation Benefits, Seyyed Amir Hosein Mortazavi, Meisam Akbarzadeh

Journal of Public Transportation

This paper proposes that an equitable transit system requires that the geographical distribution of transit service benefits conform to the geographical distribution of the citizens with the greatest need for public transportation. This is the essence of vertical equity. This study calculated “connectivity power,” which reflects public transit service quality in each traffic analysis zone (TAZ) in a city to indicate the amount of benefit that TAZ is receiving from the transit system. The number of carless citizens in each TAZ was also calculated as an index of need to the public transit services in that area. Conformity of need …

The Causal Effect Of Bus Rapid Transit On Changes In Transit Ridership, Orion T. Stewart, Anne Vernez Moudon, Brian E. Saelens

Journal of Public Transportation

Numerous studies have reported ridership increases along routes when Bus rapid transit (BRT) replaces conventional bus service, but these increases could be due simply to broader temporal trends in transit ridership. To address this limitation, we compared changes in ridership among routes where BRT was implemented to routes where BRT was planned or already existed in King County, Washington. Ridership was measured at 2010, 2013, and 2014. Ridership increased by 35% along routes where BRT was implemented from 2010 to 2013 compared to routes that maintained conventional bus service. Ridership increased by 29% along routes where BRT was implemented from …

An Iterative 3d Gis Analysis Of The Role Of Visibility In Ancient Maya Landscapes: A Case Study From Copan, Honduras, Heather Richards-Rissetto

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

For several decades, Geographic Information Systems (GISs) have held center stage in archaeological studies of ancient landscapes. Recently, three-dimensional (3D) technologies such as airborne LiDAR and aerial photogrammetry are allowing us to acquire inordinate amounts of georeferenced 3D data to locate, map, and visualize archaeological sites within their surrounding landscapes. GIS offers locational precision, data overlay, and complex spatial analysis. Three-dimensionality adds a ground-based perspective lacking in two-dimensional GIS maps to provide archaeologists a sense of mass and space more closely attuned with human perception. This article uses comparative and iterative approaches ‘tacking back and forth’ between GIS and 3D …

Homestead National Monument Of America, Bat Acoustic Monitoring, September 2016, Daniel S. Licht

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

Homestead National Monument of America is a 211-acre park located in an agrarian landscape in southeastern Nebraska. From September 16 to October 1, 2016, park staff deployed acoustic monitors at three sites in the park for purposes of monitoring night-time bat activity. The three sites averaged 179, 48, and 33 bat detections per night. Night-time bat activity was generally highest in the 1-2 hours following sunset.

Based on the acoustic surveys the big brown (Eptesicus fuscus), eastern red (Lasiurus borealis), northern long-eared (Myotis septentrionalis) and evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis) were present at the …

Frontiers In Spatial And Spatiotemporal Crime Analytics - An Editorial, Marco Helbich, Michael Leitner

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Land Use Influencing The Spatial Distribution Of Urban Crime: A Case Study Of Szczecin, Poland, Natalia Sypion-Dutkowska, Michael Leitner

Faculty Publications

This paper falls into a common field of scientific research and its practical applications at the interface of urban geography, environmental criminology, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The purpose of this study is to identify types of different land use which influence the spatial distribution of a set of crime types at the intra-urban scale. The originality of the adopted approach lies in its consideration of a large number of different land use types considered as hypothetically influencing the spatial distribution of nine types of common crimes, geocoded at the address-level: car crimes, theft of property-other, residential crimes, property damage, …

Geoarchaeological Modeling Of Late Paleoindian Site Location In The Northwestern Great Lakes Region, Robert J. Legg, Robert R. Regis, John M. Lambert, Matthew Liesch, Charles B. Travis

Journal Articles

Full-time occupation of recently deglaciated landscapes in the northwestern Great Lakes by late Paleoindian groups marks a key milestone in the colonization of the region, yet settlement-subsistence systems of these colonizing populations remains poorly understood. Here we apply geoarchaeological modeling and early Holocene environmental reconstruction to analyze environmental settings of known late Paleoindian sites in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Our results reveal significant settlement patterning associated with this early Holocene record, highlighting the spatial correlation between site locations and high ground adjacent to hilly terrain and inland lakes – prime locations for monitoring the movement of large game. The analysis highlights …

Marine Mammals In Asian Societies; Trends In Consumption, Bait, And Traditional Use, Lindsay Porter, Hong Yu Lai

Anthropogenics and Population Decline Collection

In Asia many marine mammal species are consumed as food or for other purposes. The prevalence of this exploitation appears to increase from west to east. An escalating use of marine mammals and the emergence of commercialization of a trade in marine mammals is supported by:

• Regular documentation of both open and covert trade;
• A shift in focus in some diminishing traditional hunts to other marine mammal species;
• A possible revival in some targeted hunts, which had previously ceased;
• The recent implication of some cultures, which have little history of marine mammal consumption previously, in targeted hunts; and
• The growing …

On Sylvia Bowerbank, Green Literary Scholar, Cheryl Lousley, Bob Henderson, Mary O'Connor, Susie O'Brien, Catriona Sandilands, Kevin Hutchings, Anne Milne, Richard Pickard

The Goose

To accompany the posthumous publication of Sylvia Bowerbank’s personal essay “Sitting in the Bush, Or Deliberate Idleness,” eight scholars introduce her ecocritical thought and practice to a new generation of ecocritics by reflecting on the ways Sylvia herself or her writing or teaching influenced them. Their tributes to this trailblazing ecocritic emphasize her passionate commitment to radical green change within the world, within the university, and within the self.

The Environmental Humanities In A Post-Truth World, Amanda M. Di Battista, Paul Huebener

The Goose

Editorial introduction to The Goose Volume 15, Issue 2 (2017).

Making Common Causes: Crises, Conflict, Creation, Conversations: Offerings From The Biennial Alecc Conference Queen’S University, Kingston 2016, Jenny Kerber, Astrida Neimanis, Pamela Banting, Tania Aguila-Way, Ron Benner, Mick Smith, Adeline Johns-Putra, Peter C. Van Wyck

The Goose

At ALECC’s biennial gathering at Queen’s University in June 2016, participants came together to explore the possibilities of “making common causes” from a host of angles, yet all were anchored in an acknowledgement of the diverse more-than-human relationships that make up our common worlds. The following collection of short essays, authored by some of the gathering’s keynote speakers, explores specific aspects of making common causes. In this special section of The Goose, we deliberately invoke the plural of conversation. We understand the effort to make common causes as a process, rather than a “one and done” act. It is multifaceted …

Sitting In The Bush, Or Deliberate Idleness, Sylvia Bowerbank

The Goose

In this essay, Sylvia Bowerbank describes wandering with her two dogs on her land on the edge of Beverly Swamp in Southern Ontario in an effort to cultivate Green habits and attitudes in her daily life.