Geography Commons^™

Analysis Of Migration Models Of Biogeography-Based Optimization Using Markov Theory, Haiping Ma, Daniel J. Simon

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) is a new evolutionary algorithm inspired by biogeography, which involves the study of the migration of biological species between habitats. Previous work has shown that various migration models of BBO result in significant changes in performance. Sinusoidal migration models have been shown to provide the best performance so far. Motivated by biogeography theory and previous results, in this paper a generalized sinusoidal migration model curve is proposed. A previously derived BBO Markov model is used to analyze the effect of migration models on optimization performance, and new theoretical results which are confirmed with simulation results are obtained. …

A Comparison Of The Transition Of Denver Neighborhood Crime From 2000 To 2010, David Muenkel

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The purpose of this project was to study crime in the City of Denver, Colorado and show how crime moves between neighborhoods over time. The study involved looking at crimes aggregated at the neighborhood level to determine how crime transitioned within the City of Denver from 2000 to 2010. The crime data was also compared with calls for service to determine how police activity and citizen reporting related to crime in the City of Denver. The results indicated that the City of Denver, while increasing in population from 554,636 in 2000 to 600,156 in 2010 had a reduction in the …

From Lakes To Plants: Spatial Assessment Of Vegetation Dynamics Along 52 Disappearing Lakes In The Boreal Forests Of Alaska From 1984-2009 In The Yukon Flats Wildlife Refuge, Steve Ewest

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

A spatial assessment of vegetation change along the areas of shrinking lakes was conducted in 2011. The analysis utilized Landsat TM/ETM imagery bands 3 and 4 to calculate NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) from 1984 to 2009 and applied cell and zonal statistics to measure the change as well as create an animation of the change. Also, three 30 meter bands and the zonal averages for the maximum values were assessed. The band in the 60-90 buffer bands has the greatest ratio amount of the maximum vegetation values when compared to the 0-30 meter and the 30-60 meter buffered bands. …

Crime And Social Strain In Fairfax County, Va: Using Geographical Information Science To Test For Social Strain In The Aftermath Of The Great Recession, Jason D. Reyes

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Robert Merton, through the Social Strain Theory, suggests that crime exists because of society’s demands do not meet individuals needs. The following study is a qualitative study that first explains what the Social Strain Theory is, then tests to see if this theory has any validity to one of the most affluent counties in the United States. This study compares Fairfax County’s socioeconomic variables with the their crime data during the Great Recession to uncover any trends or patterns for which Robert Merton would say are due to high amounts of Social Strain. The overall results of the study suggest …

Development And Mapping Techniques For The Comprehensive Community Wildfire Protection Plan (Cwpp) For Jefferson County, Colorado, Scot Fitzgerald

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) development process highlighted in this document was developed for multiple CWPP for Jefferson County, Colorado. Documents were created for three Fire Protection Districts, and a larger scale plan was developed to cover all of Jefferson County. The county-wide plan was developed combining existing fire protection district CWPP information, infrastructure data from the Jefferson County GIS department, and fuels and vegetation from LANDFIRE in order to create maps with which wildfire hazards and fuel mitigation recommendations could be identified. The final CWPP is a tool for communities and other local stakeholders to implement wildfire hazard …

Coca And Conservation: Cultivation, Eradication, And Trafficking In The Amazon Borderlands, David S. Salisbury, C. Fagan

Geography and the Environment Faculty Publications

The cultivation and traffic of coca, Erythrolxylum coca, and coca derivatives remain understudied threats to the conservation of the Amazon rainforest. Currently the crop is transforming land use and livelihoods in the ecologically and culturally rich borderlands of Amazonian Peru. The isolated nature of this region characterized by indigenous populations (both settled and uncontacted), conservation units, resource concessions, and a lack of state presence provides fertile ground for the boom and bust cycle of coca production and facilitates the international transport of the product to neighboring Brazil. This paper explores the social and environmental impacts of coca production, eradication, and …

Amenity Migration, Exurbia, And Emerging Rural Landscapes: Global Natural Amenity As Place And As Process, Kirsten Valentine Cadieux, Patrick T. Hurley

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Digital Mapping As A Student And Staff Communication Tool, Ryan Gyurkovitz

Horticulture and Crop Science

A study in the use of Geographic Information Systems in the development of digital maps for use by students and staff in Plant Identification Courses.

Postcolonial Transformation Of The Australian Indigenous Population, John Taylor

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

The 1967 constitutional referendum paved the way for the application of a single national methodology for the construction of a self-identified Indigenous popu- lation via census, survey, and administrative data collection and these sources have provided for statistically meaningful official estimates of Indigenous popu- lation growth and spatial redistribution as well as for some understanding of the dynamics underpinning change. The primary purpose of this paper is to outline the course of this change and to reflect on matters arising that are of concern and interest to public debate on population growth and its implications. To do this meaningfully it …

Glacier Change, Concentration, And Elevation Effects In The Karakoram Himalaya, Upper Indus Basin, Kenneth Hewitt

Geography and Environmental Studies Faculty Publications

In recent decades the consequences of climate change for Himalayan glaciers has become of great concern. Glaciers in much of High Asia appear to be declining, some at globally extreme rates (Ageta 2001;Oerlemanns 2001). It had been widely reported that the Indus basin is threatened with severe losses. However, emerging evidence suggests that such reports were, at best, exaggerated (Raina 2009;Armstrong 2010).

Several inquiries have concluded that the behavior of Karakoram glaciers differs from those in the rest of the Himalaya and from the more intensively studied European and North American glaciers (Mayewski and Jeschke 1979; Kick 1989; Shroder et …

The Role Of Landscape In The Distribution Of Deer-Vehicle Collisions In Two Counties In South-Central Mississippi, Jacob Jeremiah Mckee

Master's Theses

The number of deer killed by vehicle collisions each year in the United States exceeds the number of deer killed annually through hunting. Deer-vehicle collisions (DVCs) have a vast negative impact on the economy, traffic safety, and general wellbeing of otherwise healthy deer populations. To mitigate DVCs, it is imperative to gain a better understanding of the factors that play a role in their spatial distribution. Much of the existing research has been inconclusive, pointing to a variety of factors that cause DVCs that are specific to study site and region. Very little DVC research has been undertaken in the …

The Use Of Remote Sensing For Mapping Possible Vectors Of West Nile Virus In Mississippi, Brian Matthew Moore

Master's Theses

There is renewed interest in disease surveillance due to the persistence of numerous vector-borne diseases. Though the life-history processes of disease vectors are known to dictate their distribution patterns, it has been hypothesized that vectors, such as local mosquito abundance, could be predicted from factors such as climate and land use/land cover. Remote sensing has been used as a supplement to traditional methods of mosquito surveillance and to map the spatial distribution of mosquito habitats. This, in turn, affords optimism for improved vector/disease management to identify the best use of remote sensing data and geo-statistical techniques to predict and map …

Geopolitics Of The Kaliningrad Exclave And Enclave: Russian And Eu Perspectives, Alexander Diener, Joshua Hagen

Geography Faculty Research

Two U.S. political geographers examine a range of geopolitical issues associated with the shifting sovereignty of Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast (a part of the former German province of East Prussia) during the 20th century, as well as the region's evolving geopolitical status as a consequence of the European Union's enlargement to embrace Poland and Lithuania. They argue that Kaliningrad today can be considered a "double" borderland, situated simultaneously on the European Union's border with Russia as well as physically separated from Russia, its home country, by the surrounding land boundaries of EU states. Although technically neither an exclave nor an enclave, …

Application Of Geographical Information System (Gis) For Mapping Road Traffic Injuries Using Existing Source Of Data In Karachi, Pakistan--A Pilot Study, Junsid Razzak, Uzma R. Khan, Sabeena Jalal

Department of Emergency Medicine

OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility of using Geographical Information System for mapping of road traffic injuries with an existing data source in a developing country.

METHODS: The study was a retrospectives case series of road traffic injury cases registered with the medico-legal office located in the three major trauma centers in Karachi for the period of January 1, 2004 till December 31st, 2004. Spatial data analysis was performed using ARCVIEW 3.1.

RESULTS: Out of 3650 of all road traffic injury, only 3% had locations detailed and accurate enough allowing mapping on a GIS map in the first attempt. Even after …

Automatic High-Fidelity 3d Road Network Modeling, Jie Wang

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Many computer applications such as racing games and driving simulations frequently make use of 3D high-fidelity road network models for a variety of purposes. However, there are very few existing methods for automatic generation of 3D realistic road networks, especially for those in the real world. On the other hand, vast road network GIS data have been collected in the past and used by a wide range of applications, such as navigation and evaluation. A method that can automatically produce 3D high-fidelity road network models from 2D real road GIS data will significantly reduce both the labor and time needed …

Pdx Streetverve: Examining Portland Neighborhoods, Kale Brewer, Teresa Hanna, Brian Slaughter, Krystle Alconcel, Zoe Richerson, Kevin Mcgowan, Ryan Bueler, Yolanda Sanchez, Andy Landolt, Scott Flodin, Jonathan Albano, Brandon Christensen, Jesse Crofutt

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

The goals for this project entailed collecting both quantitative and qualitative data about selected neighborhoods in Portland. The quantitative data included photo documentation of all buildings and lots (e.g. parking lots or vacant lots) within the study areas. Other empirical data collected included the address(es) of the buildings, the number of stories and/or mailboxes, land use categories such as commercial or residential (including exclusive as well as mixed use categories), the name and type of business, and the spatial coordinates of the building (latitude/longitude). This data was collected in order to provide an objective "picture" of the neighborhood at a …

Pengantar Redaksi, Fransisca Sse Seda

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

The Microsoft Geospatial Library, Michael Kallay

2011 Symposium on Data-Driven Approaches to Droughts

In SQL Server 2008, Microsoft introduced support for geospatial data, with a rich set of spatial queries and constructions, in both Cartesian and geodetic coordinates. Most of this functionality is also available as an independent (free download) .NET library. This talk will focus on this library, touching on the differences in functionality between its TSQL and C# interfaces.

Geopolitics: A Guide To The Issues, Bert Chapman

Libraries Research Publications

Provides overview of how geography influences international relations and international politics including climate change, energy security, international economics, and international security.  Introduces key figures in geopolitics development as a discipline such as Alfred Thayer Mahan and Halford Mackinder, covers the geopolitical interests of individuals countries, describes disciplinary divisions within geopolitics, details international geopolitical crisis areas and provides maps of some of these areas, emphasizes geopolitics information resources, and stresses the critical importance of geography in studying international politics and security.

Farm Fragmentation: Mapping The Status And Trends Of Agricultural Lands In Colorado, Gabrielle Friedman

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

Statistical spatial analysis was used in this research to assess the factors contributing to the downsizing of farms as well as overall farm size choice in Colorado. The areas of research focus will be the spatial effects and the economic landscape. This work will challenge the common belief that large, corporate farms are swallowing up small farms in a consolidation effort. Further, the analysis will quantify and visualize the status of agricultural lands in Colorado. The research will help to inform the theoretical understanding of agricultural decision processes within the context of economic and spatial factors.