Spatial Science Commons^™

Identifying Socio-Economic Areas Of Concern Towards Inclusion In Gis Hazard Management In Detroit, Michigan., Ernestina Osei

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

This study examined the spatial distribution of socio-economic vulnerability and accessibility to essential services in Detroit, Michigan, using a Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based approach. The research aimed to identify areas of greatest concern by integrating socio-economic indicators, including poverty, housing vacancy, income, unemployment, and crime, with spatial measures of access to critical infrastructure such as hospitals, fire stations, police stations, and grocery stores. Both feature-based and raster-based analyses were employed, including buffer and overlay analysis, service area evaluation, Euclidean distance modeling, and multi-criteria suitability analysis.

A mixed-methods framework was adopted to combine quantitative spatial analysis with contextual understanding of urban …

Beyond Discrete Indicators: Modeling Intersectional Flood Vulnerability, Sina Razzaghi Asl, Eric Tate, Christopher T. Emrich, Md Asif Rahman, Kaeleb Royster

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Social vulnerability to flooding is shaped by intersectional social marginalization, yet most quantitative assessments employ indicators of single populations. This study applies spatial machine learning to examine how the intersectional social vulnerability indicators of poverty-race, poverty-housing tenure, and race-housing tenure compare with traditional discrete indicators of single populations in predicting flood exposure in California. Using geographically weighted random forests and partial dependence plots, we model spatial heterogeneity and non-linear relationships between social vulnerability and exposure. We quantified flood exposure using a population-adjusted measure derived from building footprints and modeled 500-year fluvial and pluvial flood hazard. The results reveal distinct explanatory …

Assessing Flood Resilience In West Virginia Communities: Integrating Physical, Institutional, Socioeconomic, And Environmental Dimensions, Anahita Mahmoudi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Flooding is one of the most frequent and damaging natural hazards in the United States, with impacts expected to intensify under changing climate conditions. In regions such as West Virginia, complex terrain, development patterns along river corridors, and socioeconomic disparities contribute to elevated flood risk. Traditional approaches to flood risk assessment often focus on single dimensions of vulnerability or rely on binary floodplain maps, which do not fully capture the spatial variability and multidimensional nature of flood resilience.

This dissertation develops an integrated, community-scale framework for assessing flood resilience in West Virginia by combining physical, environmental, institutional, and socioeconomic dimensions …

A Sustainable & Universal Redesign Of Hickory Hill Park In Richmond, Virginia, Ren Hollis, Cynthia Lin, Kira Miller, Jackson Nivera, Patrick O’Shea, Corinne Tsou, Hayston Wines

Undergraduate Research Posters

Urban green spaces provide essential environmental, psychological, and physical benefits, yet access to these resources is often inequitable. Cities are increasingly vulnerable to climate change, highlighting the need for adaptive design. This study focuses on the redesign of Hickory Hill Park in Southside Richmond, selected through a combination of site suitability analysis and qualitative survey. The guiding research question is: How can a park in Richmond be designed to optimize environmental resilience, accessibility, and community benefits?

The selection of a research location and scope used a mixed-methods approach integrating spatial analysis, environmental assessment, and community engagement. A site suitability analysis …

Marooned: A Western Frontier Dismal Swamp Narrative, Professor Meya E. Hargett

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

Marooned: A Western Frontier Dismal Swamp Narrative centers the erased figure of Samuel Mars, a lost Black station master whose movements through the Great Dismal Swamp have been excluded from dominant Underground Railroad cartographies. Here, the term “Marooned” refers not to abandonment, but to the maroon geographies of Black and Indigenous resistance encoded in land, lineage, and fugitive infrastructure.

Guided by Diasporic Maroon Memory Theory, Lineage as Method, and the Maroon Geographies Framework, this research reconstructs Mars’s trajectory through oral testimony, spatial patterning, and ancestral land memory. Rather than casting the Dismal Swamp merely as a site of refuge, this …

Spatial Conversations: Opportunities To Share Geographic Knowledge, L. Jesse Rouse, Barbara L. Maclennan, Susan J. Bergeron, H. Franklin Lafone

Anthropology and Geography

For more than twenty years geographers have taken advantage of “new media” to share information, make connections, and expand the “spatial conversation.” As blogs opened the door for informal self-publishing and communicating about narrow, focused topic areas, geographers began to use emerging media platforms to present ideas to a broader audience, more quickly and interactively, as new data and technologies became available. Audio podcasts and videos broadened the platforms for dissemination and provide a greater level of immersion through digital media. Between the open publishing and subscription opportunities, and interaction provided through comments and social media engagement, a dialectic was …

China’S Influence Over The Mining Industry In Africa, Safa M. Altamimi, Reda Amer

Undergraduate Research Symposium

How much influence does China have over the international supply of minerals from Africa? The purpose of this research is to study China’s involvement in Africa’s mining industry and analyze its impact on US economic interests. China has traded and invested in many mining sites across Africa; However, I will be focusing on DRC, Zambia, and Zimbabwe for my research. Using ArcGIS pro tools, I will create and analyze a map that contains information about mineral deposits and facilities.

Global, Continental, And Local Scale Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction Methods For Interpreting The History Of Miocene North America And The Great Plains, Willow Hue Nguy

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

The Miocene of North America is characterized by dynamic changes in herbivore communities, habitat composition, and global climate. Long-term cooling and drying trends influenced large changes in floral and faunal communities. The Great Plains, North America shifted from closed-canopy biomes to open-canopy biomes with C3-grasses to biomes with C4-grasses. This shift affected the herbivore communities as browsing-adapted ungulates were replaced by grazing-adapted ungulates. Much focus has centered on the Great Plains, so it is not well understood how the changes in biomes compare to other regions of North America. The models used for vegetation density indicate open-canopy biomes since at …

Mobility Disrupted: Geospatial Analysis Of Accessibility On The Mbta’S Orange And Red Lines Using Generalized Linear Poisson Regression, Maura Forde

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

This research analyzes the spatiotemporal relationship between explanatory variables and the frequency of downed elevator/escalator alerts at train stations on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s (MBTA) Orange and Red lines. The data is from 2023. The null hypothesis is that there is no spatiotemporal pattern to the frequency/distribution of alerts. Generalized Linear Poisson Regression is used to model relationships across four time periods – the entire 2023 calendar year, Spring (January-April), Summer (May-August), and Fall (September-December). Results indicate that the null hypothesis can be rejected for all variables in Summer and Fall models but cannot be rejected for all variables …

Box Elder County Tourism Adventure Passport: Pilot Program Geospatial Analysis, Evaluation, And Next Steps., Janessa Knotts

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The Box Elder County Tourism Office created the Tourism Adventure Passport Program and launched a pilot program in July 2025. GIS was used to engage and encourage visitors and locals to visit some or all sites listed and submit information, including GPS points, to participate in the program. To promote tourism in Box Elder County, the program highlights well known sites like the Golden Spike National Historic Park, along with other, less-known sites. The pilot program data was used to create a geospatial analysis and an analysis of the number of visits each site received and number of visitors were …

Shape: Spatial Health And Population Estimator, Emma M. Von Hoene, Aanya Gupta, Hamdi Kavak, Amira Roess, Taylor Anderson

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Modeling Social Isolation: A Data-Driven Index Function Design And Implementation, Jeremis N. Morales Morales, Carmen Caiseda, Phyllis Muniu, Joshua Atsu, Folashade B. Agusto

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

[Project Insight] Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Domestic Violence In Puerto Rico, Phyllis Muniu

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Analyzing Urban Space-Use Of White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus), Szandra A. Péter, Zehidul Hussain, Solena Kronstedt, Amira Roess, Jennifer Mullinax, Travis Gallo, Taylor Anderson

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Near Real-Time Monitoring Reveals Extensive Recent Forest Disturbance In Ghana’S Protected Areas, Luofan Dong, Xiaojing Tang, Foster Mensah, Bashara Ahmed Abubakari, Kelsee H. Bratley, Pontus Olofsson, Curtis E. Woodcock

Faculty Scholarship

The Protected Areas (PAs) in Ghana play a critical role in preserving the abundant biodiversity of the West Africa Green Belt. But recent changes in policies and regulations have facilitated logging and mining activities, which have accelerated forest disturbances. While there is a consensus that PAs are undergoing destructive change, the extent, rate, and locations of forest disturbances are undocumented. In this study, we applied the fusion near real-time (FNRT) algorithm that utilizes Landsat, Sentinel-1, and Sentinel-2 data and sampling to monitor forests in the PAs of Ghana. The results reveal that 704.74 (±177.24) km2 of forest in the PAs …

Predicting Cardiovascular Mortality In Hampton Roads Using Social Determinants Of Health, Mohan D. Pant, Aditya Chakraborty, Prachi P. Chavan, George Mcleod, Brett J. Sierra, Glenn A. Yap, Brian C. Martin, Ebbie Kalan, Gregory T. Scott

Cardiovascular Research Symposium

Background: In Virginia’s Hampton Roads (HR) region, minority populations experience notably higher mortality rates than white populations. Despite abundant research on the association between social determinants of health (SDOH) and cardiovascular mortality rates at the state and national levels, there is a lack of research examining this association in the HR region.

Objective: The main objective of this study is to train and validate a geospatial-temporal predictive model to examine the association between SDOH and cardiovascular mortality, in the HR region.

Methods: Utilizing a longitudinal dataset (2010–2021) from the Virginia Department of Health and the U.S. Census Bureau, we trained …

Analyzing Food Access: An Investigation Of Food Insecurity Amongst Latinos In Rural Nebraska, Natalia Santos

Theses & Dissertations

Background: Food insecurity is a public health issue in the United States, with disproportionately higher rates among Latino/Hispanic households. Rural communities face unique geographical, socioeconomic, and systemic barriers that often exacerbate food access disparities. Despite the growing Latino population in rural areas, particularly in Midwestern states like Nebraska, there remains a critical gap in comprehensive research that integrates both objective and subjective understandings of their food environments. Understanding these multifaceted influences is crucial for developing effective, culturally sensitive interventions.

Problem Statement: This dissertation aims to answer the central question: How does food access and food insecurity manifest amongst Latinos in …

Remotely-Sensed Urbanization And Local Perceptions Of Change From 1985-2024 In Southern Indiana., Marlea Ferber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is focused on the land cover change of non-built land cover being transformed into built land cover in two counties in Southern Indiana using mixed methods. Remote sensing was used to identify and quantify land cover change, and interviews were used to understand local perceptions of the physical land cover changes. The study area is situated along the rural-urban continuum with Louisville, Kentucky across the Ohio River. It is important to quantify the amount of land change conversion to built settlement as patterns and rate of urbanization help us to better manage transitions along the rural-urban continuum, but …

The Dynamics Of Urbanization And Changes In Ekistics Elements: A Case Study Of Surakarta City, Sarah Astita

Cities and Urban Development Journal

Urbanization has become a driving force behind significant spatial, environmental, and socio-economic transformations in urban areas, including Surakarta, the most densely populated city in Central Java. The rapid increase in population and urban expansion has led to drastic changes in land use and the structure of human settlements. This study aims to analyze the impact of urbanization on the ekistic elements of Surakarta (nature, humans, society, space/shells, and networks) and how these changes manifest spatially over time. A descriptive qualitative approach is employed using literature analysis and the interpretation of Landsat satellite imagery from 2011 and 2022. The findings show …

Advancing Interactive Web Cartography Through Designing And Developing An Open-Source, Data-Driven Framework For Accessible Geovisualization Of Geospatial (Big) Data, Sarigai Sarigai

Geography ETDs

The growth of geospatial big data has intensified the demand for open-source, accessible tools for interactive spatial exploration. This dissertation introduces a modular web mapping framework and details its design, extension, and evaluation to advance geovisualization through user-centered, transferable design. The first study presents the original framework, named dciWebMapper, establishing foundational cartographic and information visualization principles, with a focus on modularity and extensibility. The second study extends dciWebMapper with advanced capabilities—such as diverse map types, bivariate visualizations, temporal filtering, spatial querying, and hotspot analysis—and demonstrates its broad transferability across domains. The third study offers a structured usability evaluation of …