Geography Commons^™

Two Poems: "Wind Scene" And "Touch / The Radicle Thus Endowed", Julie Joosten

The Goose

Two poems by Julie Joosten.

Three Poems From "The Elder Project," Vernon School District 22, Brian Antoine, Yetko Brooke Bearshirt-Robins, John (Wilke) Louis, Lindsy Oppenheimer, Vicky Raphael, Lenaya Sampson

The Goose

Poetry by Vernon School District secondary students and their elders, in collaboration with The Elder Project organized by Wendy Morton and Sandra Lynxleg.

Sonaranos Refractions, Kathleen Brown

The Goose

Poetry by Kathleen Brown.

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Esri Story Maps As Effective Teaching Tools, Caitlin Strachan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of Esri Story Maps as effective teaching tools. Story Maps are a relatively new web application within Esri’s web-based GIS platform, ArcGIS Online. They combine digitized, dynamic maps with other story elements (i.e., title, text, legend, popups, and other visuals) to help the creator effectively convey a message. The relative ease associated with using and creating a Story Map as well as the simple, non-technical interface makes them ideal for use as an educational technology. Survey data were collected at several professional development events in the spring of 2014 in …

Tradition Or Technology?: The Impact Of Paper Versus Digital Map Technology On Students’ Spatial Thinking Skill Acquisition, Larianne Collins

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates whether spatial learning outcomes differ with respect to different instructional media. Specifically, it examines traditional, paper aerial imagery as compared to digital imagery visualized with 3D globes. Two research questions provided the focus: 1) Does spatial thinking skill development differ between analog (paper) and digital map media; 2) Does spatial thinking skill development differ based on attitudes toward geography, past travel experience, or demographic variables such as gender, and are there interaction effects among them related to the different media?

Spatial thinking skill development was measured as students received instruction using either paper or digital maps. Spatial …

A Comprehensive Disaster Risk Index For The United States, Michael E. Senn

Theses and Dissertations

Risks to life, property, infrastructure and even environmental security emanate from a variety of hazard sources. Key to reducing this risk is the ability to measure it and present it decision-makers and stakeholders in a meaningful and understandable way. Currently, there exist no comprehensive hazard risk indices for the United States that have the ability to capture and convey a contemporary conceptualization of risk to hazards. Such an index, the World Risk Index, exists at the global level. The World Risk Index serves as an analog for further research on risk at various scales.

The purpose of this dissertation is …

Using Gis To Facilitate Data Driven Decision Making, Jason Glatz

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Presentations

This poster presents two methods for using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to assist in data driven facilities management, with a primary focus on space planning and use. One method focuses on using GIS to analyze new book additions to the collection and their relationship to existing storage capacity. By treating each shelving range like a street, and each book like an address, the added books can be plotted on the range. This allows for a convenient visual analysis of the spatial growth of new books. GIS is also used to represent the remaining storage capacity of each section within a …

Light Pollution Research Through Citizen Science, John Kanemoto

STAR Program Research Presentations

Light pollution (LP) can disrupt and/or degrade the health of all living things, as well as, their environments. The goal of my research at the NOAO was to check the accuracy of the citizen science LP reporting systems entitled: Globe at Night (GaN), Dark Sky Meter (DSM), and Loss of the Night (LoN). On the GaN webpage, the darkness of the night sky (DotNS) is reported by selecting a magnitude chart. Each magnitude chart has a different density/number of stars around a specific constellation. The greater number of stars implies a darker night sky. Within the DSM iPhone application, a …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Regulatory Stormwater Monitoring Protocols On Groundwater Quality In Urbanized Karst Regions, Daniel C. Nedvidek

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Non-point pollution from stormwater runoff is one of the greatest threats to water quality in the United States today, particularly in urban karst settings. In these settings, the use of karst features and injection wells for stormwater management results in virtually untreated water being directed into the karst aquifer. Currently, no policies exist specifically to provide water quality protections to karst environments. This study utilized a combination of karst stormwater quality data, along with survey data collected from MS4 Phase II communities, and an analysis of current federal, local, and state water quality regulations, to assess the need for karst-specific …

An Analysis Of The Potential Effects Of Urbanization On The Water Quality Of The Middle Fork Of Beargrass Creek, Louisville, Kentucky., Olivia Brooks

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined whether water quality diminished as a result of increasing pollution downstream along the Middle Fork of Beargrass Creek, Louisville, Kentucky in response to urbanization. Samples of key water quality indicators/pollutants were collected for 12 weeks (November - January) along the Middle Fork of Beargrass Creek at three different stream gauges. A spatial and statistical analysis was performed to verify any significant correlations between the water quality indicators and pollutants, and whether basin wide landcover/sewer outlet numbers led to an increase in these indicators downstream. Following ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis statistical testing it was established that turbidity significantly increased …

Bridging The Work Of Field Scientists And The Needs Of Data Re-Users, Antonia Rosati, Lynn Yarmey

The International Workshop on Ice Caves

The National Science Foundation requires Principal Investigators to make the data they collect and create publically available. To assist PIs with this requirement, NSF funded the Advanced Cooperative Arctic Data and Information Service (ACADIS). ACADIS houses data from the Division of Polar Programs (PLR), provides data management assistance to PIs, and advances search and data discovery tools. In short, ACADIS exists for NSF Arctic researchers by providing a safe home for data and encouraging data reuse. ACADIS is a group of specialist organizations comprised to create a repository of Arctic data that encompasses spatial, temporal, and attribute granularity of data …

Smart Growth And New Urbanism: The Implementation Of Development Plans Eight Years After Hurricane Katrina On The Mississippi Gulf Coast, Heather Nicholson

Honors Theses

After Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Coast, Master Concept Plans (MCPs) that emphasized smart growth and new urbanism were created to reduce sprawl on the coast. This study seeks to find the reality of these plans by examining what has actually been implemented from the MCPs eight years after Hurricane Katrina. This study was conducted in the Mississippi coastal cities of Long Beach and D’Iberville. The MCPs were georeferenced, digitized, and overlaid on top of current land use parcel data using a Geographic Information System (GIS). Parcels were selected and categorized based on each proposed plan and compared to current …

An Interpretive Plan Guide For Wilderness Park In Lincoln, Nebraska, Rachel J. Ward

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

Wilderness Park, located in Lancaster County, Nebraska, is a public park of unique ecological and historical value to the city of Lincoln and to the surrounding region. The natural and historical features of the park present an opportunity to communicate environmental and historical topics that are relevant on local, national, and global levels, as well as inspire a lively sense of pride in the community. The problem is that many topics relevant to Wilderness Park are not currently being interpreted at the park, and that there are relatively few interpretive resources available to park visitors.

The purpose of this project …

Use Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Uav) For Urban Tree Inventories, Brian Ritter

All Theses

In contrast to standard aerial imagery, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) utilize recent technological advances to provide an affordable alternative for imagery acquisition. Increased value can be realized through clarity and detail providing higher resolution (2-5 cm) over traditional products. Many natural resource disciplines such as urban forestry will benefit from UAS. Tree inventories for risk assessment, biodiversity, planning, and design can be efficiently achieved with the UAS. Recent advances in photogrammetric processing have proved automated methods for three dimensional rendering of aerial imagery. Point clouds can be generated from images providing additional benefits. Association of spatial locational information within the …

Integrated (Remote Sensing, Gis, And Modeling) Hydrological Investigation And Landslide Susceptibility Studies In The Arabian Shield, Talal Ghazi Alharbi

Dissertations

An integrated approach (remote sensing, geographical information systems [GIS], and modeling) was applied to conduct a number of hydrologic and environmental investigations in the Arabian Peninsula (AP) aimed at: (1) identifying the spatial and temporal climate change–related variations in precipitation over the AP using readily available, remotely acquired global precipitation data sets; (2) investigating the nature of the factors controlling the observed climatic variations; (3) estimating the partitioning of precipitation over the Red Sea Hills watersheds into runoff , recharge, and initial losses using calibrated continuous rainfall runoff models (Soil Water Assessment Tool [SWAT]); (4) identifying landslide (largely caused by …

Michigan's Clay Bluffs: The Description And Comparison Of An Erosion-Dependent Natural Community, Nathaniel G. Fuller

Masters Theses

The clay bluffs of Michigan are a natural community found along the shores of the Great Lakes. Groundwater is found to be critical to sustaining the alkaline wetlands on the face of the bluff as well as the source of most erosion events. The clay bluffs are unusual in their vegetation, disturbance regime and geographical context. This thesis focuses primarily on describing seeping clay bluffs and exploring the comparison to other natural communities. The purpose of this is twofold, to better understand the ways in which natural communities are described as distinct from one another, and to assess the distinctness …

Selling Tradition: Impression Management And Draft Animal Agriculture Of A Mississippi Farmstead, Matthew Corbin Lance

Master's Theses

This thesis is a case study of a family of farmers in Mississippi’s Piney Woods who use horse-drawn equipment to grow crops. This practice is notable in the context of a larger agricultural system that prioritizes mechanization (particularly the use of tractors). The production style and their use of local direct selling via farmers markets allowed them to thrive economically because they were able to tap into a niche market of consumers desiring an alternative to the modern, conventional agricultural system.

Other literature on Alternative Food Networks (AFN) discusses the issues of alterity and appropriation—that is, whether AFN ventures are …

Overcoming Roadblocks In Introducing Virtual World Technology To High Schools, Casey Dylan Bailey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The EAST (Environmental And Spatial Technology) Initiative is a non-profit educational organization that provides students in over two hundred schools in eight states with access to advanced computing technologies for the purpose of enabling students to develop technical skills early and to produce solutions to local community problems. Although many high-end technologies are available through EAST, they are desktop solutions that individual students use and there are none that enable students within a school or between schools to collaborate.

This thesis is a saga that documents the identification and removal of many roadblocks to introducing a 3D multi-user virtual simulation …

Time-Space Analysis Of Terrorist Planning Cycles, Michael Stephen Gerald Eastham

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Terrorism is among the largest threats to national and international security in today's global community. Acts of terrorism have resulted economic and societal impacts throughout the world. Improvements in technology have increased the capacity of terrorists to maximize the impact of their actions. The increasing influence and prevalence of terrorist activity has demanded research focused on the prevention of terrorist acts. A known method of terrorism prevention is uncovering a plot during its planning and preparation phase. Terrorist planning can be evaluated based on how actors move through space and time prior to the execution of their attack. General patterns …

Ambient Geographic Information And Risk Mapping, Todd Barr

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Research on social media as an information source for emergency managers and epidemiologists is expanding at a rapid pace. When combined with the spatial predictive analysis methodology known as Risk Terrain Mapping and the capability of the local health agencies to response, the predictions of outbreaks and their affects can be modeled. This study attempts to create a spatial Risk Terrain Model outbreaks of influenza, and influenza like illnesses within the continental United States. The Risk Terrain Model will be built upon accepted epidemiological models form the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as Google’s Flu index and …