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Title: GEOGRAPHIC APPLICATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE-RICH MACHINE LEARNING APPROACHES IN SPATIOTEMPORAL DATA ANALYSIS
Creator: Hatami bahman beiglou, Pouyan
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: In the modern realm of pervasive, frequent, sizable and instant data capturing with advancements in instrumentation, data generation and data gathering techniques, we can benefit new prospects to comprehend and analyze the role of geography in everyday life. However, traditional geographic data analytics are now strictly challenged by the volume, velocity, variety and veracity of the data requiring analysis to extract value. As a result, geographic data science has garnered great interest in...
Show moreIn the modern realm of pervasive, frequent, sizable and instant data capturing with advancements in instrumentation, data generation and data gathering techniques, we can benefit new prospects to comprehend and analyze the role of geography in everyday life. However, traditional geographic data analytics are now strictly challenged by the volume, velocity, variety and veracity of the data requiring analysis to extract value. As a result, geographic data science has garnered great interest in the past two decades. Considering that much of data science’s success is formed outside of geography, there is an increased risk within such perspectives that location will remain simply as an additional column within a database, no more or less important than any other feature. Geographic data science combines this data with spatial and temporal components. The spatial and temporal dependence allow us to interpolate and extrapolate to fill gaps in the presence of inadequate data and infer reasonable approximations elsewhere by incorporating information from diverse data types and sources. However, within scientific communities there exist arguments regarding whether geographic data science is a scientific discipline of its own. Because data science is still in its early adoption phases in geography, geographic data science is required to develop its unique concepts, differentiating itself from other disciplines such as statistics or computer science. This becomes possible when geographers, within a community of practice, are enabled to learn and connect the current tools, methods, and domain knowledge to address the existing challenges of geographic data analysis. To take a step toward that purpose, in this dissertation, three knowledge-rich applications of data science in the analysis of geographic spatiotemporal big datasets are studied, and the opportunities and challenges facing this research along the way are explored. The first chapter of this dissertation is allocated to review the challenges and opportunities in the era of spatiotemporal big data, followed by tackling three different problems within geography, one within the subfield of human geography, and two within physical geography. Finally, in the last chapter, some final thoughts on the current state of geographic data science are discussed and the potential for future studies are considered.
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Title: CHARACTERIZING MULTI-SCALED IMPACTS OF HYDRO-DAMS ON ECOSYSTEMS AND SOCIETY UNDER CLIMATE CHANGES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Creator: Cho, Myung Sik
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Hydro-dams provide many benefits, but can also adversely affect ecosystems and society. Given that dams have influences at large scales, the impacts of dams are so complicated that it is difficult to make accurate estimates of results from dams. Three basins in Southeast Asia, the Mekong, Salween, and Irrawaddy Basins, have recently constructed hydro-dams, but their impacts on ecosystems and society remain poorly characterized due to insufficient monitoring systems, poor economic status, and...
Show moreHydro-dams provide many benefits, but can also adversely affect ecosystems and society. Given that dams have influences at large scales, the impacts of dams are so complicated that it is difficult to make accurate estimates of results from dams. Three basins in Southeast Asia, the Mekong, Salween, and Irrawaddy Basins, have recently constructed hydro-dams, but their impacts on ecosystems and society remain poorly characterized due to insufficient monitoring systems, poor economic status, and complicated international relationships of the region. The spatial impacts of dams can represent the dam-related events on ecosystems and society. Given the heterogeneity of the spatial impacts of dams, understanding the impacts of dams at multiple scales can make a better estimate for better policies for Southeast Asia. In this dissertation, I employed novel remote sensing approaches to quantify the spatial impacts of dams on ecosystems and society using a multi-scale perspective. The specific objectives were: (1) to quantify the site-based spatial impacts of dams on land systems, (2) to characterize the watershed-scale spatial impacts of dams on wetlands, and (3) to determine the distant impacts of dams on watersheds.The results in this dissertation quantified the spatial heterogeneity of dam impacts on ecosystems and society according to the spatial scales, locations, and distances. Specifically, analyses in this dissertation led to three major findings. First, the spatial impacts of dams in the on-site based scale were quantified, and the different spatiotemporal impacts of dams on land systems according to dam stages were found. Second, the spatial impacts of dams on wetlands in watershed-scale were characterized by distinguishing the influences from local human activities and climate variability on wetland inundations. This showed how dams affect wetlands differently according to the location (upstream / downstream) and distance (close / far) in watersheds. Third, the distance and areas of the spatial impacts of dams on watersheds were determined. This found the anisotropic spatial patterns of the distant effects of dams on upstream and downstream watersheds. Therefore, this dissertation highlights the benefits of geographical perspectives and spatial information in understanding the consequences of dams which are complicated interactions between humans and the environment.
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Title: HOUSEHOLD WATER ACCESS AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ISSUE : HOW RACE AND INCOME ARE ASSOCIATED WITH WATER ACCESS ACROSS SPACE
Creator: Medwid, Laura Jane
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Equitable access to clean and affordable household water services has received increasing academic attention in the past decades. This dissertation addresses the effects of water costs and quality through an environmental justice lens in three chapters. The first two chapters use a novel survey titled the Survey of Water Innovation and Socioeconomic Status of Households (SWISSH), which includes questions related to a range of water issues for respondents in nine regions across the United...
Show moreEquitable access to clean and affordable household water services has received increasing academic attention in the past decades. This dissertation addresses the effects of water costs and quality through an environmental justice lens in three chapters. The first two chapters use a novel survey titled the Survey of Water Innovation and Socioeconomic Status of Households (SWISSH), which includes questions related to a range of water issues for respondents in nine regions across the United States (US). Chapter one identifies demographic characteristics of those most impacted by rising water bills, the industries that could subsequently be affected by systematic changes in household budgets, and at what bill increase levels these trends are most pronounced. A randomized water price-increase scenario was presented to each respondent, who was asked about the effect these price changes would have on household purchases. Systematic differences among social and demographic changes were found, with major budget changes occurring with a water bill increase of just $12 monthly. Chapter two also uses SWISSH, in this instance to better understand household perceptions of whether water bills are too high according to social, demographic, geographic, and water billing characteristics. Results suggest low-income, minority, and otherwise underrepresented groups were more likely to perceive their water bills as too high. In terms of policy implications, model results indicate utilities can favorably affect perceptions of water bills via the frequency of water billing and provision of payment assistance programs. Chapter three uses spatial cluster analysis to understand neighborhood characteristics surrounding highly polluted ‘Superfund’ sites known to be contaminated with PFAS. Several indicators of vulnerability including poverty, ethnic and racial minorities, linguistic barriers, and single parent households were found to be elevated in communities within a six-mile distance from these PFAS-polluted sites.
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Title: The Analysis of Albedo on Bioenergy Crops : Assessment for Climate and Global Warming Impact
Creator: Lei, Cheyenne India
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: What if the production and expansion of bioenergy crops was realized? What bioenergy crops would be planted? Which crops would be sustainable? How would bioenergy affect landscape dynamics, surface reflectivity and global warming impact? These core questions are investigated in this dissertation by investigating the effects of agronomic practices, climate and crop-species on albedo in southwest Michigan. Albedo changes can be quantified in terms of global radiative forcing (RF), which can be...
Show moreWhat if the production and expansion of bioenergy crops was realized? What bioenergy crops would be planted? Which crops would be sustainable? How would bioenergy affect landscape dynamics, surface reflectivity and global warming impact? These core questions are investigated in this dissertation by investigating the effects of agronomic practices, climate and crop-species on albedo in southwest Michigan. Albedo changes can be quantified in terms of global radiative forcing (RF), which can be positive or negative, correlating to carbon emissions or sequestrations in biofuel ecosystems respectively. With an overarching hypothesis which aims to understand how albedo is dependent on the landscape (i.e., crop-species type), climate variables (i.e., micrometeorological, temporal, and seasonal) and agricultural practices (i.e., fertilization, stover retention), which in turn affect its global warming impact and the ability to reflect more sunlight back into the atmosphere and sequester carbon. As a result, the Kellogg Biological Station was selected as the study site. This research analyzes changes in albedo over seven different biofuel crops at the Biofuel Cropping System Experiment (BCSE), situated at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC). This dissertation investigates the radiative forcing associated with each one of the bioenergy scenarios, in order to model the conversion of a landscape into a relatable carbon dioxide equivalent. This CO2 equivalent – called global warming impact (GWI) – allows for a climate impact comparison of potential global warming impact of CO2 emissions from biofuels relative to a reference gas to investigate potential climate warming/cool impacts. This research examined annual row crops of maize and energy sorghum, monoculture perennial grasses of switchgrass and miscanthus, and polyculture perennials of native grasses, early successional grassland and restored prairie bioenergy systems. Each chapter provides a deeper analysis into the spatiotemporal effects of surface reflectivity on biofuel ecosystems and provides an understanding of the total global warming impact of different croplands and their contribution to the energy budget and carbon production. Results of this research include: 1) a long-term network of towers which effectively measure albedo continuously over multiple biofuel ecosystems, and 2) regionalized instantaneous data from landscapes of candidate bioenergy crops to significantly advance knowledge and understanding in how surface reflectivity affects GWI. Major findings indicated that albedo observations are an invaluable tool in order to calculate and improve climate models, in order to understand how land use and land cover affects albedo and climate cooling. Perennial grasses provided a sustainable form of climate mitigation by reflecting more solar radiation back into the atmosphere, and can sustainability provide localized cooling while reducing the need for fertilizer input. Finally, an overall cooling effect from modeling the conversion of historical landscape forest and modern landscapes of maize over a three-year study period to candidate different bioenergy crops was found, which indicated a climate warming mitigation from long-term increased surface albedo reflectance.
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Title: SPATIOTEMPORAL MODELING OF DAMS AND CONSEQUENT IMPACTS ON THE MEKONG RIVER BASIN ECOSYSTEM
Creator: Lin, Zihan
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The hydro-dam can help increase adaptation to climate change and meet water, energy, and food needs as a widely adopted water infrastructure. However, it alters and fragments ecosystems, especially at places where hydro-dam constructions are gaining popularity for the sake of more socio-economic benefits. This dissertation examines and characterizes the process and outcomes of ecosystem changes owing to hydro-dams, using the Mekong River Basin as an example. The overarching research question...
Show moreThe hydro-dam can help increase adaptation to climate change and meet water, energy, and food needs as a widely adopted water infrastructure. However, it alters and fragments ecosystems, especially at places where hydro-dam constructions are gaining popularity for the sake of more socio-economic benefits. This dissertation examines and characterizes the process and outcomes of ecosystem changes owing to hydro-dams, using the Mekong River Basin as an example. The overarching research question is answered from four angles, including 1) finding new essential properties of dams, 2) determining dams’ impact scope on land change, 3) estimating cascade consequences of dams on significant water bodies, and 4) analyzing dams’ ripple effect on the atmosphere.The main body (Chapters 2-4) of this dissertation consists of three articles. In Chapter 2, I achieve the first two research goals by performing time-serial trajectory analyses on 67 working Mekong hydro-dams and the lands surrounding them using long-term geospatial imageries and statistical methods. In Chapter 3, I calculated and analyzed the open water surface area of the Tonle Sap Lake and the changes at a 16-day interval from 2001 to 2015 to assess how upstream hydro-dam proliferation has influenced the largest inland lake in the lower basin. In Chapter 4, the spatial variations of inundation areas in the Tonle Sap Lake floodplain and temporal changes of the greenhouse gas (such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide) emissions from the changing lands were modeled and quantified using geospatial datasets and a biogeochemical model to provide a solution to the fourth research question. In summary, this dissertation has successfully established a new remote sensing approach that enables hydro-dam characterization and set up a combined framework combining geospatial modeling and biogeochemical modeling. The three studies come to the conclusions that 1) hydro-dams’ impact scale on land change is spatially anisotropic at the local level, 2) hydro-dams’ cascade consequence on a large water body at a remote place is significant, and 3) hydro-dams’ ripple effect on floodplain via water and lands can cause more greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. This dissertation can enrich the current literature regarding human-nature interactions, focusing on hydro-dam’s role in the ecosystem. It also broadens the knowledge of hydro-dams’ impacts and attracts more relevant studies and environmental protection efforts. More importantly, this dissertation can assist future policy-making, especially for sustainable hydro-dam planning and transboundary water resource management.
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Title: THE CLIMATOLOGY OF SPRINGTIME FREEZE EVENTS IN THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN USA
Creator: Wang, Ting
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The agricultural productions in the central and eastern United States are sensitive to springtime freeze events. As a result of global warming, increasing temperatures have led to earlier shifted springs, usually called false springs, which have resulted in disastrous damage on premature plants exposed to subsequent freeze events. This study analyzes the climatology of springtime freezes and their impacts on agriculture in the Midwestern United States for the period of 1981-2018. The study...
Show moreThe agricultural productions in the central and eastern United States are sensitive to springtime freeze events. As a result of global warming, increasing temperatures have led to earlier shifted springs, usually called false springs, which have resulted in disastrous damage on premature plants exposed to subsequent freeze events. This study analyzes the climatology of springtime freezes and their impacts on agriculture in the Midwestern United States for the period of 1981-2018. The study began by evaluating two potential datasets for the purpose of this analysis: the PRISM (Parameter- elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model, http://prism.oregonstate.edu) analysis and the ERA5 (the fifth major global reanalysis produced by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Hersbach et al., 2018) reanalysis. The PRISM data are found to be a better representation of the observed freezing events and therefore used for establishing freeze events climatology, while the ERA5 reanalysis is used to understand the weather conditions and climate background of the freeze events. Freezing days in March show a decreasing trend across our study region from 1981 to 2018. EOF analysis of freezing days in March shows a relatively larger variation in the Ohio Valley, and the first EOF time series shows substantial interannual variability. The positive phase of NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) is usually associated with less freezing risk in March across the study region. A crop yield simulation model is used to investigate the historical impacts of false springs and subsequent freeze events on fruit crop yields using apple as an example. Damage tends to occur at the early growing stages of apples when they are more vulnerable. Damage is generally occurring on earlier and warmer days, which could be due to the more frequent false spring occurrences. The Upper Midwest and the Northeast are regions that are less vulnerable to freeze damage.
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Title: EXPLORING NEIGHBORHOOD PATHWAYS TO HEALTH : AN INTEGRATED ANALYSIS ACROSS SCALES
Creator: Rzotkiewicz, Amanda T.
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This research is a synthesis and discussion of two papers that apply diverse geographic techniques to closely examine neighborhoods and health, introduced in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 is titled, “Systematic review of the use of Google Street View in health research: Sampling, exposure assessment, prevention or monitoring, and health policy compliance” and of 54 studies qualifying for the review, one (2%) utilized GSV for sampling, forty-four (82%) for exposure assessment, and six (11%) for policy...
Show moreThis research is a synthesis and discussion of two papers that apply diverse geographic techniques to closely examine neighborhoods and health, introduced in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 is titled, “Systematic review of the use of Google Street View in health research: Sampling, exposure assessment, prevention or monitoring, and health policy compliance” and of 54 studies qualifying for the review, one (2%) utilized GSV for sampling, forty-four (82%) for exposure assessment, and six (11%) for policy monitoring. Most studies reported considerable benefits of GSV, when compared to non-virtual methods, through the reduction of research time and costs, making it a promising tool for automated environmental assessment for health research. Chapter 3 explores a relatively novel pathway to health (the microbiome) and is titled, “Evaluating the relationship between neighborhood vegetation and the human microbiome: implications for green space-health research”. Neighborhood vegetation scores and impervious surface area were compared to the microbial genera and biodiversity of the mouth, ears, eyes, nose and rectum (a surrogate of the gut) human microbiomes of postmortem residents of Wayne County, Michigan (n = 98). Relationships between neighborhood greenness and microbial composition varied by neighborhood size and area of the body. Results suggest that each body area is a unique microbial niche that interacts with the environment in different ways, an important consideration for targeted modification of the microbial environment. Overall, this research illustrates how an integrated analysis of neighborhoods and health has the potential to improve both health research and public policy across a wide range of geographic contexts and scales.
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Title: GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN SKULL MORPHOLOGY OF THE BONE CRACKING HYENAS, CROCUTA CROCUTA AND HYAENA HYAENA
Creator: Cavalieri, Cybil Nicole
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: My dissertation focuses on identifying geographic patterns in the size and shape of spotted hyena and striped hyena skulls and determining if bioclimatic and social variables explain observed patterns. Within the subsequent chapters of this dissertation I investigate geographic variation in spotted hyena and striped hyena skulls using geometric morphometrics and spatial statistics.In chapter one, I examined the relationship between bioclimatic factors, social factors, and spotted hyena skull...
Show moreMy dissertation focuses on identifying geographic patterns in the size and shape of spotted hyena and striped hyena skulls and determining if bioclimatic and social variables explain observed patterns. Within the subsequent chapters of this dissertation I investigate geographic variation in spotted hyena and striped hyena skulls using geometric morphometrics and spatial statistics.In chapter one, I examined the relationship between bioclimatic factors, social factors, and spotted hyena skull size to better understand the forces that might underlie geographic patterns of size. Spotted hyenas exhibit slight female-biased sexual size dimorphism. Skull size co-varies with temperature, precipitation, and landcover but more strongly co-varies with population density. The highest densities are associated with the smallest skull size, possibly reflecting a relationship between high population density and access to resources. These findings support the idea that the underlying driver of geographical and ecological rules is access to resources, providing further empirical evidence for the energetic equivalence rule.In chapter two, I investigated the influence of climatic variables and food resources on observed geographic patterns in striped hyenas. Striped hyenas exhibit slight male-biased sexual size dimorphism. There is a strong geographic pattern of size variation in striped hyena skulls with larger individuals found at higher latitudes, as predicted by Bergmann’s rule. I found evidence that seasonal climatic variables are better predictors of hyena skull size than annual climatic variables. We did not find evidence to support our prediction that striped hyenas would be larger in areas with higher net primary productivity or increased access to human-provided foods. These findings support the notion that geographic variation in body size is primarily driven by seasonal climatic variables, which is consistent with the seasonality hypothesis.In chapter three, I investigated whether striped hyena skull shape is sexually dimorphic and whether the geographic pattern of skull shape variation supports the historic delineation of subspecies proposed by Pocock (1934). I found no evidence for sexual shape dimorphism in the skull of striped hyenas. While we found considerable morphological overlap between historic subspecies, some parts of morphological shape space were occupied by a single subspecies, suggesting that striped hyenas vary in morphology across geography, but that historic subspecies are not effectively capturing this variation.
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Title: KNOWLEDGE SPILLOVERS AND SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT COMPLIANCE
Creator: Redican, Kyle James
Date: 2022
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: In the wake of the 2014 Flint Water Crisis, researchers, regulators, and utility professionals have given increased attention to understanding drivers of (CWS) Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) compliance by community water systems (CWSs). Most of this research has only explored system traits while ignoring the vital role of human capital, especially the operator. The status of CWS operators can vary widely between different systems. More critically, scholars have not investigated how effective...
Show moreIn the wake of the 2014 Flint Water Crisis, researchers, regulators, and utility professionals have given increased attention to understanding drivers of (CWS) Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) compliance by community water systems (CWSs). Most of this research has only explored system traits while ignoring the vital role of human capital, especially the operator. The status of CWS operators can vary widely between different systems. More critically, scholars have not investigated how effective external linkages between CWS operators have impacted SDWA compliance. Drawing from the theories of Organizational Learning’s inter-organizational learning, Innovation Systems’ knowledge transfers, and Agglomeration Economics’ knowledge spillovers, I hypothesized that increased interactions between CWS operators, facilitated in part by geographic proximity, would lead to more information sharing, increased CWS performance, and fewer SDWA violations. Remarkably little is known about the drivers of inter-operator interactions or whether such interactions improve SDWA compliance, and this research helped fill the data gap through a large-sample survey of CWS operators in Michigan to capture the frequency of interactions along with a range of operator and system characteristics which may explain why some operators participate in more inter-operator interactions than others. With this novel dataset, along with publicly available system and community data, this research first investigated what endogenous operator characteristics were associated with more reported inter-operator interactions. Through multiple methods on reported operator interactions, the Utility and Contract operators and operators with memberships in professional organizations appear more likely to report more interactions than Non-Affiliated operators and all operators who were not members of professional organizations. Second, based on Tobler’s first law of geography, there should be some spatial autocorrelation in the number of reported interactions, and this was tested using variogram modeling. Observed spatial autocorrelation indicated location-based differences in the number of reported interactions. Third, we used multiple methods to explore the primary research question to identify endogenous and spatial drivers of reported inter-operator interactions. Multiple models found that rural districts had a higher probability of fewer SDWA violations with increased interactions, while the urban districts had the inverse relationship. Fourth, the research incorporated CWS-specific and operator-specific variables, as the operator-specific data were not independent of the CWS observations (since some operators run multiple CWSs). I used a Generalized Linear Mixed-Model to estimate these relationships accounted for the multiple levels and found that more interactions increased the probability of SDWA compliance for certain types of operators. The broader implications of this research encourage stakeholders to pursue more inter-operator interactions as a low-cost mechanism to increase SDWA compliance. Seven avenues to increase interactions are outlined, ranging from open operator contact lists to operator focus groups to identify common problems and solutions to creating a state-level operator mentorship program to support new operators.
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Title: An assessment of the geographic knowledge and understandings of fifth grade students in Michigan
Creator: Bettis, Norman Clyde, 1938-
Date: 1974
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Lansing, Michigan and Shizuoka, Japan : a comparison of a realfunctional organization in two different environments
Creator: Masai, Yasuo, 1929-2012
Date: 1960
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Science in the digital age : overcoming uncertainty and the adoption of Volunteered Geographic Information for science
Creator: Langley, Shaun Arthur
Date: 2014
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: With the advent of Web 2.0, the public is becoming increasingly interested in spatial data exploration. The potential for Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) to be adopted for Science through collaborations between researchers and non-scientists is of special interest to me. In particular, mobile devices and wireless communication permit the public to be more involved in research to a greater degree. Furthermore, the accuracy of these devices is rapidly improving, allowing me to address...
Show moreWith the advent of Web 2.0, the public is becoming increasingly interested in spatial data exploration. The potential for Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) to be adopted for Science through collaborations between researchers and non-scientists is of special interest to me. In particular, mobile devices and wireless communication permit the public to be more involved in research to a greater degree. Furthermore, the accuracy of these devices is rapidly improving, allowing me to address questions of uncertainty and error in data collections. Cooperation between researchers and the public integrates themes common to VGI and PGIS (Participatory Geographic Information) to bring about a new paradigm in GIScience. This dissertation discusses VGI in the context of a new paradigm, eScience, and the broader framework of Neogeography. I discuss current issues with data quality and uncertainty regarding VGI and detail one approach to quality credibility of the data. Finally, the dissertation outlines the framework for utilizing VGI in the context of case study in disease ecology for the purpose of surveillance of tsetse flies, the primary vector of African Trypanosomiasis. My system allows for two-way communication between researchers and the public for data collection, analysis, and the ultimate dissemination of results. Enhancing the role of the public to participate in these types of projects can improve both the efficacy of disease surveillance as well as stimulating greater interest in science.
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Title: Survival geography of tropical South America
Creator: McGuire, Martin E.
Date: 1964
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Wildlife, man, and competition for land in Kenya : a geographical analysis
Creator: Capone, Donald L., 1933-
Date: 1971
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: Understanding the Spatial Concentration of Fatal and Non-Fatal Shootings Through Social Disorganization and Collective Efficacy Theory
Creator: Magee, Lauren A.
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Firearm violence continues to plague American cities across the United States. For example, the overall homicide rate was 5.3 per 100,000 in 2016 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2016). More simply stated, over five people become victims of lethal violence per 100,000 people across the country. Research demonstrates that firearm violence is higher in areas of social disadvantage and clusters in neighborhoods with high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage (Cohen & Tita, 1999; Rosenfeld, Bray,...
Show moreFirearm violence continues to plague American cities across the United States. For example, the overall homicide rate was 5.3 per 100,000 in 2016 (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2016). More simply stated, over five people become victims of lethal violence per 100,000 people across the country. Research demonstrates that firearm violence is higher in areas of social disadvantage and clusters in neighborhoods with high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage (Cohen & Tita, 1999; Rosenfeld, Bray, Egley, 1999). Neighborhood and crime researchers have historically focused on the macro level of analysis when studying crime within and across neighborhoods, but more recent research displays that crime spatially clusters at the micro level (Braga et al., 2010, Weisburd et al., 2004). It is still unclear if specific measures of neighborhood characteristics, such as collective efficacy influences crime at the street segment level (Braga and Clark, 2014). Similarly, much firearm research is based on homicide incidents and omits more common non-fatal shootings. This study addresses these limitations by including both the macro (i.e., census tract) and micro (i.e., street segment) levels of analyses and includes both fatal and non-fatal shootings. Using the theoretical framework of social disorganization theory and collective efficacy theory, this research seeks to examine how fatal and non-fatal shootings cluster across neighborhoods, examine the patterns of disorder and disadvantage across neighborhoods and street segments, and improve the construct of collective efficacy through a unique measurement system. The study examines over 1500 fatal and non-fatal shootings in Indianapolis, Indiana, over a three-year time period. Independent measures of neighborhood disadvantage are drawn from the US Census Bureau, as well as a unique dataset from the City of Indianapolis. The data measures for disorder and collective efficacy allow for analyses at the neighborhood and street segment level. Descriptive statistics explain where fatal and non-fatal shootings cluster across the city and generalized hierarchical linear modeling was conducted to explain how disorder, social disadvantage and collective efficacy correlate with firearm violence. Results suggest fatal and non-fatal shootings cluster at both the neighborhood and street segment level and including non-fatal shootings into the study of gun violence gives a more robust picture of where firearm violence is occurring within the community. Additionally, community level measures vary at the street segment level when accounting for neighborhood levels of poverty. These findings have both methodological and policy implications that contribute to the study of communities and crime and firearm violence.
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Title: Small-multiples and animation : measuring user performance with wildfire visualization
Creator: Socia, Kristie Marie
Date: 2011
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Recent investigations in cognitive psychology and cartography have examined the communicative efficiency of animation and static small-multiple visualizations on knowledge construction and apprehension. In theory, animation may be the most congruent method to represent a dynamic geographic process. However, some have suggested that cartographic animations are too complex and transient, making them difficult to comprehend. Others have demonstrated that static small-multiples facilitate...
Show moreRecent investigations in cognitive psychology and cartography have examined the communicative efficiency of animation and static small-multiple visualizations on knowledge construction and apprehension. In theory, animation may be the most congruent method to represent a dynamic geographic process. However, some have suggested that cartographic animations are too complex and transient, making them difficult to comprehend. Others have demonstrated that static small-multiples facilitate comprehension, inference and learning and afford map-readers interactive capabilities that are unavailable in most conventional animations. This thesis empirically investigates the influences of map-design and temporal resolution on apprehension and inference affordance, in the context of wildfire visualization. A human-subjects experiment was conducted to measure participants task accuracy, response time, and confidence between animated and small-multiple maps. The results reveal the importance of both map design and temporal resolution; small-multiples and fine temporal resolution maps elicit more accurate and more confident responses from readers. While participants performed better with the small-multiple maps, they prefer to view animated maps. The results of this research suggest that map type is an important factor that influences response time, while temporal resolution is significant for accuracy and confidence yet inversely related to participants overall map preference.
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Title: MEASURING AND MODELING THE EFFECTS OF SEA LEVEL RISE ON NEAR-COASTAL RIVERINE REGIONS : A GEOSPATIAL COMPARISON OF THE SHATT AL-ARAB RIVER IN SOUTHERN IRAQ WITH THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA IN SOUTHERN LOUISIANA, USA.
Creator: Kadhim, Ameen Awad
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: There is a growing debate among scientists on how sea level rise (SLR) will impact coastal environments, particularly in countries where economic activities are sustained along these coasts. An important factor in this debate is how best to characterize coastal environmental impacts over time. This study investigates the measurement and modeling of SLR and effects on near-coastal riverine regions. The study uses a variety of data sources, including satellite imagery from 1975 to 2017, digital...
Show moreThere is a growing debate among scientists on how sea level rise (SLR) will impact coastal environments, particularly in countries where economic activities are sustained along these coasts. An important factor in this debate is how best to characterize coastal environmental impacts over time. This study investigates the measurement and modeling of SLR and effects on near-coastal riverine regions. The study uses a variety of data sources, including satellite imagery from 1975 to 2017, digital elevation data and previous studies. This research is focusing on two of these important regions: southern Iraq along the Shatt Al-Arab River (SAR) and the southern United States in Louisiana along the Mississippi River Delta (MRD). These sites are important for both their extensive low-lying land and for their significant coastal economic activities. The dissertation consists of six chapters. Chapter one introduces the topic. Chapter two compares and contrasts bothregions and evaluates escalating SLR risk. Chapter three develops a coupled human and natural system (CHANS) perspective for SARR to reveal multiple sources of environmental degradation in this region. Alfa century ago SARR was an important and productive region in Iraq that produced fruits like dates, crops, vegetables, and fish. By 1975 the environment of this region began to deteriorate, and since then, it is well-documented that SARR has suffered under human and natural problems. In this chapter, I use the CHANS perspective to identify the problems, and which ones (human or natural systems) are especially responsible for environmental degradation in SARR. I use several measures of ecological, economic, and social systems to outline the problems identified through the CHANS framework. SARR has experienced extreme weather changes from 1975 to 2017 resulting in lower precipitation (-17mm) and humidity (-5.6%), higher temperatures (1.6 C), and sea level rise, which are affecting the salinity of groundwater and Shatt Al Arab river water. At the same time, human systems in SARR experienced many problems including eight years of war between Iraq and Iran, the first Gulf War, UN Security Council imposed sanctions against Iraq, and the second Gulf War. I modeled and analyzed the regions land cover between 1975 and 2017 to understand how the environment has been affected, and found that climate change is responsible for what happened in this region based on other factors. Chapter four constructs and applies an error propagation model to elevation data in the Mississippi River Delta region (MRDR). This modeling both reduces and accounts for the effects of digital elevation model (DEM) error on a bathtub inundation model used to predict the SLR risk in the region. Digital elevation data is essential to estimate coastal vulnerability to flooding due to sea level rise. Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 1 Arc-Second Global is considered the best free global digital elevation data available. However, inundation estimates from SRTM are subject to uncertainty due to inaccuracies in the elevation data. Small systematic errors in low, flat areas can generate large errors in inundation models, and SRTM is subject to positive bias in the presence of vegetation canopy, such as along channels and within marshes. In this study, I conduct an error assessment and develop statistical error modeling for SRTM to improve the quality of elevation data in these at-risk regions. Chapter five applies MRDR-based model from chapter four to enhance the SRTM 1 Arc-Second Global DEM data in SARR. As such, it is the first study to account for data uncertainty in the evaluation of SLR risk in this sensitive region. This study transfers an error propagation model from MRDR to the Shatt al-Arab river region to understand the impact of DEM error on an inundation model in this sensitive region. The error propagation model involves three stages. First, a multiple regression model, parameterized from MRDR, is used to generate an expected DEM error surface for SARR. This surface is subtracted from the SRTM DEM for SARR to adjust it. Second, residuals from this model are simulated for SARR: these are mean-zero and spatially autocorrelated with a Gaussian covariance model matching that observed in MRDR by convolution filtering of random noise. More than 50 realizations of error were simulated to make sure a stable result was realized. These realizations were subtracted from the adjusted SRTM to produce DEM realizations capturing potential variation. Third, the DEM realizations are each used in bathtub modeling to estimate flooding area in the region with 1 m of sea level rise. The distribution of flooding estimates shows the impact of DEM error on uncertainty in inundation likelihood, and on the magnitude of total flooding. Using the adjusted DEM realizations 47 ± 2 percent of the region is predicted to flood, while using the raw SRTM DEM only 28% of the region is predicted to flood.
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Title: Two models for the inferential analysis of central place patterns
Creator: Tiedemann, Clifford Earl
Date: 1966
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

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