Geography Commons^™

Landscape And Impervious Surface Mapping In The Twin Cities Metropolitan Area Using Feature Recognition And Decision Tree Techniques, Philipp Nagel

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) and Impervious Surface Area (ISA) are important parameters for many environmental studies, and serve as an essential tool for decision makers and stakeholders in Urban & Regional planning. Newly available high spatial resolution aerial ortho-imagery and LiDAR data, in combination with specialized, object-oriented and decision-tree classification techniques, allow for accurate mapping of these features. In this study, a method was developed to first classify LULC using an object-based classifier, and then use the resulting map as input for a decision-tree model to classify ISA in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area in Minnesota. It was …

Birds And Beaches: The Affective Geographies And Sense Of Place Of Participants In The Coasst Citizen Science Program, Benjamin Kent Haywood

Theses and Dissertations

Participatory science research initiatives within the natural sciences like citizen science or crowd sourcing have enjoyed a recent explosion in popularity due to the efficient and expansive data collection processes they foster and the opportunities for general science outreach and education they provide. Now often the tool of choice among informal science outreach practitioners, Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR) programs are purported to expand knowledge and understanding of science and ecology, increase the relevancy of science for society, and cultivate more environmentally sustainable attitudes and behaviors. Despite such claims, the influence and impact of participatory science engagement is still …

Sacred Social Spaces: Finding Community And Negotiating Identity For American-Born Converts To Islam, Sarah A. Soliman

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This thesis examines the religious experiences of American-born converts to Islam. The social nature of religion has been long ignored in research on the lives of religious people. A review of research on Muslim identities reveals an emphasis on immigrants, women, and youth in the British context. However, there is little to no research on the unique constituency of converts to Islam and the importance of social aspects of faith for establishing a sustainable and transformative practice of Islam. This research closes this gap through a case study of the religious experiences of American-born converts to Islam.

Through in-depth interviews …

Buying A Colonial Dream: The Role Of Lifestyle Migrants In The Gentrification Of The Historic Center Of Granada, Nicaragua, Abigail Foulds

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation aims to expand our understanding of how lifestyle migrants from the Global North impact the urban space of a Global South city, particularly the built environment. In order to situate the questions posed in this dissertation, I focus on how lifestyle migrants from the Global North and their foreign capital transform the city of Granada, Nicaragua through processes of gentrification, and how the social and economic climate of the city and its residents are impacted. This research allows for empirically informed theoretical critiques to be made about the economic and social implications of the globalization of gentrification resulting …

Life On The Big Slab: Identity And Mobility In The United States Trucking Industry, Valerie J. Keathley

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Many changes have occurred in the United States trucking industry over the last thirty years. This study examines the effects of these changes by looking at three related themes: life on the road and life at home, body image and bodily health, and the experiences of women and sexual minorities in the industry. This research is based on a discourse analysis of interviews conducted with truck drivers and trucking industry leaders.

Most truck drivers say that they value the independent nature of their workplace. Yet the independence that is a part of the trucker mystique is challenged by increased surveillance …

Subsistence And Biodiversity Conservation In The Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, West Bengal, India, Priyanka Ghosh

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

My dissertation research investigates the impacts of biodiversity conservation on the local population living in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (SBR). More specifically, the research examines the impacts of conservation on local fishing communities living on the edge of the Sundarban Reserve Forest. In addition, it examines the causes and characteristics of conflicts between the biosphere reserve managers and the local fishing communities over the resource use of the biosphere reserve. The research project also explores the impacts of ecotourism on the local population that lives on the edge of the Sundarban Tiger Reserve (STR). STR is one of the important …

Biomechanical Effects Of Trees And Soil Thickness In The Cumberland Plateau, Michael Shouse

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Previous research in the Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas suggests that, on relatively thin soils overlying bedrock, individual trees locally thicken the regolith by root penetration into bedrock. However, that work was conducted mainly in areas of strongly dipping and contorted rock, where joints and bedding planes susceptible to root penetration are more common and accessible. This project extended this concept to the Cumberland Plateau, Kentucky, with flat, level-bedded sedimentary rocks. Spatial variability of soil thickness was quantified at three nested spatial scales, and statistical relationships with other potential influences of thickness were examined. In addition, soil depth beneath trees was compared …

Planning And Protest In Memphis: The Limits And Possibilities Of Participatory Discourse, Andrea Craft

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Recent discussions of participatory urban planning have focused largely on municipal-led initiatives for collaborative resident engagement as an increasingly visible trend of neoliberal urban governance. Critical observers have noted the alliance between local government and business interests, and their capacities to manage, co-opt, and depoliticize diverse community-based efforts, and to marginalize dissent, through public-private partnerships, often facilitated by private consultants. Actual practices of participation demonstrate a variety of alternative meanings. This case study of a community-based planning initiative for public housing redevelopment in Memphis, TN challenges and complicates these narratives. The Memphis Housing Authority invited a local community organization to …

Natural Phenomena As Potential Influence On Social And Political Behavior: The Earth’S Magnetic Field, Jackie R. East

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

Researchers use natural phenomena in a number of disciplines to help explain human behavioral outcomes. Research regarding the potential effects of magnetic fields on animal and human behavior indicates that fields could influence outcomes of interest to social scientists. Tests so far have been limited in scope. This work is a preliminary evaluation of whether the earth’s magnetic field influences human behavior it examines the baseline relationship exhibited between geomagnetic readings and a host of social and political outcomes. The emphasis on breadth of topical coverage in these statistical trials, rather than on depth of development for any one model, …

Understanding The Long-Term Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of The Taimyr Reindeer Herd During The Summer Concentration Period, Matthew D. Cooney

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study was part of a larger research effort devoted to investigation of spatiotemporal patterns and dynamics of the Taimyr Reindeer Herd (TRH) migration under changing climate and environmental conditions. The research aimed to systematize and analyze available historical (archival) data on wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus L.) migration and ecosystems change in the Taimyr Peninsula, Russia. The summer concentration patterns of the TRH as observed from 1969-2009 were investigated through the utilization of existing and innovative spatioanalytic methods and advanced GIS technologies not previously used to examine R. tarandus migration in the Russian Arctic. The project applied and tested the …

Enhancing Geographic Learning And Literacy Through Filmmaking, Christina E. Dando, Jacob J. Chadwick

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

In this media-saturated society, students need to think more critically about the media they encounter and that they are producing. Through filmmaking, students can link geographic theory and the real world, bridging the distance from readings/lectures/ discussions to the geography on the ground, making the abstract concrete. But constructing films also enhances students’ understanding of the communications they consume and the communications they construct (films, television, podcasts, YouTube, etc.). In this article, a student and instructor discuss the making of short films or videos in geography classes and how it can enhance both geographic education and media literacy.

On Dittmer's Popular Culture, Geopolitics, And Identity As A Classroom Resource, Reecia Orzeck, James Craine, Christina E. Dando, Katrinka Somdahl-Sands

Geography and Geology Faculty Publications

In this intervention, four geographers, all of whom have used Jason Dittmer's book, Popular Culture, Geopolitics, and Identity, in their classes, assess its status as a teaching resource. All have had considerable success using Dittmer's book, alongside other resources, to cultivate critical thinking and critical knowledge production in a wide range of classes.

Sustainability Policy’S Inherent Dilemmas – Exemplified Via Critical Examination Of The Las Vegas Metropolitan Sustainability Campaign, Kathryn A. Zimmerman

All Master's Theses

In response to a dual problem of critical water scarcity and rapid population growth, leaders of metropolitan Las Vegas implemented a region-wide, internationally marketed sustainability campaign. Preliminary studies found that, while sustainability policy attains its rhetorical goals, solutions initiated not only perpetuate but also purposefully expand the original dual problem to justify continuous water resource acquisitions. To examine this sustainability conundrum constructed by leadership—problem-perpetuation rather than problem-resolution—a critical examination in resource management asked two basic questions: what is being sustained and by what means? Via this inquiry, specific processes by which leaders perpetuate problems can be identified; and, so-informed, new …

Food Deserts And Migrant Farmworkers: Assessing Food Access In Oregon's Willamette Valley, Katie Grauel, Kimberlee J. Chambers

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Food insecurity, often correlated with “food deserts,” affects migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFW) at greater rates than other populations. Our research evaluates the food desert experiences of MSFW communities in Oregon's Willamette Valley. Through GIS mapping, interviews with MSFW, and food retailer inventories, our research helps elucidate the degree to which the geographical distribution of food retailers and the products they carry affects MSFW. Access to food retailers was assessed for distances of 0.25, 1.5, 5, and 10 miles. Mapping locations of registered MSFW labor camps (n = 62) and food retailers (n = 215) in the Willamette Valley revealed …

The Risks Of The Rose City: Assessing The Social Vulnerability Of Communities To Multiple Environmental Hazards In The Portland Metropolitan Area, Daniel R. Logan

Geography Masters Research Papers

In the past three decades, research in the geography of hazards and disasters has expanded beyond the response to hazard events and incorporated the concepts of preparedness, recovery, and mitigation. These issues require a complete understanding of the vulnerability of places to hazards, not only in regards to hazard characteristics but in regards to social and economic conditions as well. This paper offers a case study in hazard exposure and social vulnerability analysis which incorporates the methodology of two previous studies on the same topics. A geographic information system was used to determine vulnerable areas and populations exposed to five …

Industrial Decline In An Industrial Sanctuary Portland’S Central Eastside Industrial District, 1981-2014, Allison Jones

Geography Masters Research Papers

This study examines the evolution of the industrial landscape of Portland, Oregon’s Central Eastside Industrial District (CEID) from the initial declaration in 1981 as an ‘industrial sanctuary’ to the present day. The study recreates the historical landscape of 1981, mapping historical land use data from archived Sanborn maps in GIS. This was then compared to the current landscape of 2014, wherein data gathered from field visits, and online, public land use databases was mapped using GIS.

This paper addresses the recent transformation, looking at patterns within the physical and functional realm; and observing how these changes have influenced the character …

The Cully Park Inter-Tribal Gathering Garden: Place-Making Through Indigenous Eco-Cultural Reclamation, Randall Morris

Geography Masters Research Papers

Portland's history and geography are patterned, like any city, by spatial imaginings both utopian and dystopian. This examination of the raw landscape of the city’s nascent garden space in Cully Park is an attempt to research a third manifestation of space, one that might be called heterotopia. This research into the Inter-Tribal Gathering Garden is a search for a more complete accounting of place, one which also acknowledges the variety of non-human agencies (a list which would include streets, planning documents, various plants, historical accounts, and even the consistent boundaries of the space itself) found in all heterogeneous …

The Cost Of Hauling Timber: A Comparison Of Raster- And Vector- Based Travel-Time Estimates In Gis, Sara M. Loreno

Geography Masters Research Papers

The cost of transporting forest products from harvest site to processing facility is a critical indicator of timber project feasibility. In order to accurately assess these timber haul costs, least-cost travel-time estimates among the site and the facility can be estimated using vector- or raster-based GIS methods. This study explores the applicability of both the raster- and vector-techniques within a variety of landscapes, including forested areas where comprehensive transportation data is limited. A comparison between the travel-time estimates derived from both methods was performed on three study sites using real-world data. The comparison also tested the effect of resolution on …

Property Tax Rates As An Indicator Of Neighborhood Change: An Examination Of An Unanticipated Effect Of Measure 50 In The City Of Portland, Sonia N. Singh

Geography Masters Research Papers

Gentrification and stagnation are two prominent themes in neighborhood development today. The city or Portland, Oregon is experiencing both of these neighborhood stages in different neighborhoods. In Oregon a property tax measure passed in 1997, Measure 50, caused property tax rates to vary by location according to changes in real market values over time. Recent analysis has revealed that property tax rates in Portland follow the spatial patterns of gentrification and stagnation in Portland, and therefore could be contributing neighborhood change. Differential property tax rates have shown to influence mobility and homeownership, two factors of neighborhood change. In order to …

Rivers Of Steel: The Economic Development Of Seattle During The Rail Age, 1870-1920, Neil T. Loehlein

Geography Masters Research Papers

The Pacific Northwest experienced massive urban development and growth in population from 1870 to 1920. The railroad was a key factor contributing to the influx of people and expansion of the built environment. The rival port towns around the Washington Territory’s Puget Sound all strove to become the dominant center of trade. As the pattern of railroads expanded, this new mode of transportation would have a significant effect on which ports would prosper and which would languish. This paper will show that the rail network that developed between 1873 and 1893 would come to favor Seattle at a critical point …