Geography Commons^™

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 …

Implementation Of Photogrammetry To Improve Proactive Assessment Of Retaining Walls Along Transportation Corridors, Daniel J. Cerminaro

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Retaining walls are important assets in the transportation infrastructure and assessing their condition is important to prolong their performance and ultimately their design life. Retaining walls are often overlooked and only a few transportation asset management programs consider them in their inventory. Because these programs are few, the techniques used to assess their condition focus on a qualitative assessment as opposed to a quantitative approach. The work presented in this thesis focuses on using photogrammetry to quantitatively assess the condition of retaining walls. Multitemporal photogrammetry is used to develop 3D models of the retaining walls, from which offset displacements are …

Deep Learning Methods For Multiband Explosive Hazard Detection Using L-Band And X-Band Forward-Looking Ground-Penetrating Radar, John T. Becker

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Explosive hazards are one of the most deadly threats in modern conflicts. The U.S. Army is interested in a reliable way to detect these hazards at range. A promising way of accomplishing this task is using a forward-looking ground-penetrating radar (FLGPR) system. Recently, the Army has been testing a system that utilizes both L-band and X-band radar arrays on a vehicle mounted platform. Using data from this system, we sought to improve the performance of a constant false-alarm-rate (CFAR) prescreener through the use of three deep learning architechtures; deep belief networks (DBNs), stacked denoising autoencoders (SDAEs), and convolutional neural networks …

Local Mapping Lab Serves Many Interests, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Detecting The Influence Of Best Management Practices On Vegetation Near Ephemeral Streams With Landsat Data, Matthew Rigge, Alexander Smart, Bruce Wylie, Kendall De Van Kamp

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Various best management practices (BMPs) have been implemented on rangelands with the goals of controlling nonpoint sourcepollution, reducing the impact of livestock in ecologically important riparian areas, and improving grazing distribution.Providing off-stream water sources to livestock in pastures, cross-fencing, and rotational grazing are common rangeland BMPsthat have demonstrated success in drawing livestock grazing pressure away from streams. We evaluated the effects of rangelandBMP implementation with six commercial-scale pastures in the northern mixed-grass prairie. Four pastures received a BMPsuite consisting of off-stream water, cross-fencing, and deferred-rotation grazing, and two pastures did not receive BMPs. Wehypothesized that the BMPs increased the quantity …

Common Metrics For Web-Based Mapping Applications In Academic Libraries, Ningning Kong, Tao Zhang, Ilana Stonebraker

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Purpose – This study aims to establish common metrics for web-based mapping applications to facilitate user decision making and enhance information providers’ product design.

Design/methodology/approach – The metrics were developed from a combination of literature review and case studies. From the literature review, we identified three major areas of assessment for web-based mapping applications. We then studied six online applications to refine the metrics.

Findings – Our results suggest that web-based mapping applications can be evaluated from three major aspects: data content, GIS functionality, and usability. We have developed detailed measures for each factor through our evaluation of the six …

Normative Geographies And The 1940 Land Transfer Regulations In Palestine, Reecia Orzeck

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

In recent years, there have been several calls for geographers to engage more closely with the normative in their work. This paper supplements those calls by suggesting that geographers turn their attention to popular understandings of and discourses about justice. In the first part of the paper, I make a case for such scholarship and argue that it should be undergirded by two premises. The first premise is that understandings of justice depend not only on abstract ideas about the just, but on the geographical and historical frames – geographical imaginaries – through which we understand the world; the second …

Reversing The Flood Of Forced Displacement: Shedding Light On Important Determinants Of Return Migration, Prakash Adhikari Ph.D., Wendy L. Hansen Ph.D.

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Most current research on forced migration focuses on explaining patterns of displacement during armed conflicts and the role that social networks play in pulling people away from conflict torn areas. But what happens to displaced persons after a conflict ends? While many of these individuals are able to resettle in the place to which they fled during conflict, some individuals return to their places of origin while others remain in limbo. This research seeks to better understand behavior after flight. Using a rational choice framework, we theorize that people are strategic in their calculations of the costs and benefits of …

Comparison Of Ground-To-Air Visibility Analysis Methods, Erica Pfister-Altschul

Theses and Dissertations

When a disaster occurs, remotely sensed imagery is critical for emergency responders. Aircraft collect digital images of damaged areas to assist with damage assessment and response planning. Such airborne imagery can be transmitted directly from the plane to ground antennae and internet-connected dispersal, allowing for faster acquisition of data. However, air-to-ground transmission of images requires near-constant visibility between the aircraft transmitter and ground station antenna. This research uses GIS-based models to identify the ground station locations that can reliably receive data from aircraft, using a variety of visibility analysis methods and a comparison of their performance. A custom algorithm is …

Alpine And Other Abandoned Towns Along The Great Northern Railroad Near Stevens Pass, Washington, 1890-1930, Stacy Marie Stanley

All Master's Theses

Despite the wealth of research on the early transcontinental railroads of the West, including certain areas in Washington State, there is little known about the railroad towns, camps and logging communities that arose due to the construction of the Great Northern Railroad in the Stevens Pass area. This thesis summarizes some of the information on the history of the study area, as well as results of a field investigation of archaeological remnants of one railroad town, the town of Alpine. Alpine was a short-lived town established during construction of the railroad ca. 1892 or a little later in 1910, and …

Unintended Outcomes Of Farmers' Adaptation To Climate Variability: Deforestation And Conservation In Calakmul And Maya Biosphere Reserves, Claudia Rodriguez-Solorzano

Dartmouth Scholarship

Minimizing the impact of climate change on farmer livelihoods is crucial, but adaptation efforts may have unintended consequences for ecosystems, with potential impacts on farmers’ welfare. Unintended outcomes of climate adaptation strategies have been widely discussed, however, empirical exploration has been neglected. Grounded in scholarship on climate adaptation, environmental governance, social–ecological systems, and land-use change, this paper studies whether farmers’ climate adaptation contributes to deforestation or forest conservation. The paper draws on interviews with 353 farmers from 46 communities in Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Mexico and Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala. Farmers in the area of study have implemented adaptation …

Application Of An Imputation Method For Geospatial Inventory Of Forest Structural Attributes Across Multiple Spatial Scales In The Lake States, U.S.A., Ram K. Deo

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Credible spatial information characterizing the structure and site quality of forests is critical to sustainable forest management and planning, especially given the increasing demands and threats to forest products and services. Forest managers and planners are required to evaluate forest conditions over a broad range of scales, contingent on operational or reporting requirements. Traditionally, forest inventory estimates are generated via a design-based approach that involves generalizing sample plot measurements to characterize an unknown population across a larger area of interest. However, field plot measurements are costly and as a consequence spatial coverage is limited. Remote sensing technologies have shown remarkable …

Beyond Roots Alone: Novel Methodologies For Analyzing Complex Soil And Minirhizotron Imagery Using Image Processing And Gis Tools, Justina A. Silva

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Quantifying belowground dynamics is critical to our understanding of plant and ecosystem function and belowground carbon cycling, yet currently available tools for complex belowground image analyses are insufficient. We introduce novel techniques combining digital image processing tools and geographic information systems (GIS) analysis to permit semi-automated analysis of complex root and soil dynamics. We illustrate methodologies with imagery from microcosms, minirhizotrons, and a rhizotron, in upland and peatland soils. We provide guidelines for correct image capture, a method that automatically stitches together numerous minirhizotron images into one seamless image, and image analysis using image segmentation and classification in SPRING or …

Geog 140: Human Geography—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Katherine Nashleanas

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Large lecture classes, often of 100 students or more, present unique challenges to both teaching and learning. The common method of “delivery” by instructors is lecture, often augmented by a set of Power Point slides while the research literature shows that this more traditional way of teaching does not reach students in the way we hope and often assume. At the same time, most of the current students populating these classes are born of the Digital Age and have different expectations for learning, requiring new approaches in the classroom. Faculty are exhorted to incorporate more critical thinking in their classes …

A Dynamic, Distributed Hydrologic Model For The Blue Earth River Watershed, Minnesota With Implications Regarding Land Use And Water Quality, Michael L. Merlini

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The Blue Earth River (BER) watershed covers approximately one million acres of south-central Minnesota and northern Iowa. Modern farming practices have led to the loss of over 90 percent of the watershed's original wetlands. Corresponding changes in runoff and stream flow have led to dramatically reduced water quality in the BER's main stem following most precipitation events. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationships among precipitation, infiltration, base flow, and runoff in the Blue Earth River watershed basin.

This study developed a calibrated numerical hydrologic model for BER watershed using the distributed flow model, Vflo™. The model …

The Research Journey: Travels Across The Idiomatic And Axiomatic Toward A Better Understanding Of Complexity, Katharine A. Mcgowan, Frances Westley, Evan D.G. Fraser, Philip A. Loring, Kathleen C. Weathers, Flor Avelino, Jan Sendzimir, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Michele Lee Moore

Geography

In this paper, seven researchers reflect on the journeys their research projects have taken when they engage with and synthesize complex problems. These journeys embody an adaptive approach to tackling problems characterized by their interconnectedness and emergence, and that transcend traditional units of analysis such as ecosystems. In this paper we argue that making such a process deliberate and explicit will help researchers better combine different research paradigms such as expert-driven and participant-directed work, thus resulting in both broad explanations and specific phenomenon; research tensions traditionally defined as oppositional must be approached as complimentary. This paper includes researchers’ personal journeys …

Convergent Surface Water Distributions In U.S. Cities, M. K. Steele, J. B. Heffernan, N. Bettez, J. Cavender-Bares, P. M. Groffman, J. M. Grove, S. Hall, S. E. Hobbie, K. Larson, J. L. Morse, C. Neill, K. C. Nelson, J. O'Neil-Dunne, L. Ogden, D. E. Pataki, C. Polsky, Rinku Roy Chowdhury

Geography

Earth's surface is rapidly urbanizing, resulting in dramatic changes in the abundance, distribution and character of surface water features in urban landscapes. However, the scope and consequences of surface water redistribution at broad spatial scales are not well understood. We hypothesized that urbanization would lead to convergent surface water abundance and distribution: in other words, cities will gain or lose water such that they become more similar to each other than are their surrounding natural landscapes. Using a database of more than 1 million water bodies and 1 million km of streams, we compared the surface water of 100 US …

Extractive Industries, Livelihoods And Natural Resource Competition: Mapping Overlapping Claims In Peru And Ghana, Nicholas Cuba, Anthony J. Bebbington, John Rogan, Marco Millones

Geography

Taking the cases of Perú and Ghana, this paper examines overlaps between the extraction of minerals, oil and gas on the one hand, and river basins, agricultural land use, and protected areas on the other hand. In particular the paper considers how far such overlaps can be revealed and analyzed on the basis of (relatively) accessible and affordable data, without having to use more expensive data generated by remote sensing or fieldwork. We use concessions as our indicator of the presence of extractive industry activity, focusing on both mineral and hydrocarbon concessions, and areas of exploration and of active resource …

A Full Greenhouse Gases Budget Of Africa: Synthesis, Uncertainties, And Vulnerabilities, R. Valentini, A. Arneth, A. Bombelli, S. Castaldi, R. Cazzolla Gatti, F. Chevallier, P. Ciais, E. Grieco, J. Hartmann, M. Henry, R. A. Houghton, M. Jung, W. L. Kutsch, Y. Malhi, E. Mayorga, L. Merbold, G. Murray-Tortarolo, D. Papale, P. Peylin, B. Poulter, P. A. Raymond, M. Santini, S. Sitch, G. Vaglio Laurin, G. R. Van Der Werf, Christopher A. Williams, R. J. Scholes

Geography

This paper, developed under the framework of the RECCAP initiative, aims at providing improved estimates of the carbon and GHG (CO2, CH4 and N2O) balance of continental Africa. The various components and processes of the African carbon and GHG budget are considered, existing data reviewed, and new data from different methodologies (inventories, ecosystem flux measurements, models, and atmospheric inversions) presented. Uncertainties are quantified and current gaps and weaknesses in knowledge and monitoring systems described in order to guide future requirements. The majority of results agree that Africa is a small sink of carbon on an annual scale, with an average …

Impacts Of Disturbance History On Forest Carbon Stocks And Fluxes: Merging Satellite Disturbance Mapping With Forest Inventory Data In A Carbon Cycle Model Framework, Christopher A. Williams, G. James Collatz, Jeffrey Masek, Chengquan Huang, Samuel N. Goward

Geography

Forest carbon stocks and fluxes are highly dynamic following stand-clearing disturbances from severe fire and harvest and this presents a significant challenge for continental carbon budget assessments. In this work we use forest inventory data to parameterize a carbon cycle model to represent post-disturbance carbon trajectories of carbon pools and fluxes for specific forest types growing in high and low site productivity class settings. We then apply these trajectories to landscapes and regions based on forest age distributions derived from either the FIA data or from Landsat time series stacks (1985-2006) for 54 representative scenes throughout most of the conterminous …