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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

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

Title: Michigan State University Distinguished Professor Emeritus John M. Hunter talks about his reearch done in Africa
Creator: Hunter, John M. (John Melton), 1928-
Date: 2003-05-19
Collection: G. Robert Vincent Voice Library Collection
Description: Peter Limb, Michigan State University Librarian and Africana Bibliographer introduces David Robinson, University Distinguished Professor of History and David Wiley, Director of the MSU African Studies Center who both interview John M. Hunter, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography. Hunter tells of his field research in the Gold Coast, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Nigeria in the mid-1950s, while serving as an MSU professor abroad. He also discusses the census mapping...
Show morePeter Limb, Michigan State University Librarian and Africana Bibliographer introduces David Robinson, University Distinguished Professor of History and David Wiley, Director of the MSU African Studies Center who both interview John M. Hunter, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Geography. Hunter tells of his field research in the Gold Coast, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Nigeria in the mid-1950s, while serving as an MSU professor abroad. He also discusses the census mapping model he developed and used in Ghana in 1960, which was funded by UNESCO and became a model used in many African countries. Other topics covered include medical geography, socio-economic geography, river blindness, schistosomiasis, elephantiasis, guinea worm disease and seasonal hunger.
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Title: Wildlife, man, and competition for land in Kenya : a geographical analysis
Creator: Capone, Donald L., 1933-
Date: 1971
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

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: Survival geography of tropical South America
Creator: McGuire, Martin E.
Date: 1964
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

Title: CHOLERA IN A TIME OF EL NIÑO AND VULNERABILITY IN PIURA, PERU : A CLIMATE AFFAIRS APPROACH
Creator: Ramirez, Ivan J.
Date: 2012
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The goal of my dissertation research is to reconstruct the temporal and spatial associations among El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), social vulnerability and cholera incidence in Piura, Peru from 1991 to 2001 in order to better understand El Niño's impact on the cholera epidemic in Peru during the 1990s. Piura is important to study because it was one of the first places to report cholera in Peru. It also had one of the highest incidence rates in the country, and historically, the region is...
Show moreThe goal of my dissertation research is to reconstruct the temporal and spatial associations among El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), social vulnerability and cholera incidence in Piura, Peru from 1991 to 2001 in order to better understand El Niño's impact on the cholera epidemic in Peru during the 1990s. Piura is important to study because it was one of the first places to report cholera in Peru. It also had one of the highest incidence rates in the country, and historically, the region is known for El Niño. My overarching research questions are: (1) What was the impact of ENSO on cholera incidence in Piura; and (2) How did social vulnerability influence this relationship? My research hypotheses are: (a) There was a temporal association between ENSO, climate and cholera cases in Piura in the 1990s. Furthermore, these associations were stronger after 1992 compared to the onset of the epidemic in 1991; and (b) The spatial variability of the ENSO-climate-cholera associations in Piura in 1997-98 will be explained by the spatial distribution of social vulnerability. Moreover, the level of social vulnerability within districts in Piura will either antagonize or buffer the effects of ENSO and climate on cholera incidence. I address my research questions and hypotheses using a climate affairs approach that is informed by disease ecology and vulnerability theories from the geographic subfields of medical and human-environment geography. Climate affairs is an integrating concept in the earth and social sciences used to understand the interrelationships among climate, environment and society worldwide. Using climate affairs, I developed a conceptual framework that: 1) examines cholera transmission within a broader conception of ENSO; 2) links ENSO-cholera associations to social vulnerability; and 3) considers ENSO-cholera interactions at multiple scales. The key findings of this research suggest that cholera's temporal association with ENSO was transient throughout the 1990s; the strongest association was found during the 1997-98 El Niño. I also found that cholera transmission occurred through the interactions of global and local sea surface temperatures with rainfall. Furthermore, I demonstrated that the spatial distribution of social vulnerability can in part explain the associations between global and local climate and cholera during the 1997-98 El Niño. However, these associations varied by time lag, district and variable. It also appears that districts on the west coast of the subregion of Piura were the most vulnerable. Lastly, important to the understanding of these findings is that interpretation of ENSO and its association with cholera will highly depend on the Niño definition and region chosen for analysis. This research contributes to future climate-informed initiatives that enhance societal capacities, while focusing on population health and the monitoring of populations during future climate events in Piura, Peru and the Latin American region.
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Title: “FLOODING OIL” : INVESTIGATING POOR HEALTH IN VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES IN THE NIGER DELTA REGION OF NIGERIA
Creator: Barry, Fatoumata Binta
Date: 2018
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The Niger Delta region in Nigeria has been exploited for decades due to extensive oil and gas deposits that have led to devastating livelihood and health consequences. In addition to oil and gas industry impacts, floods are intensifying in Niger Delta communities that have annual flooding during the rainy season (April to October). In 2012, Nigeria experienced a severe flooding event that damaged infrastructure and livelihoods with virtually no studies completed about the health consequences....
Show moreThe Niger Delta region in Nigeria has been exploited for decades due to extensive oil and gas deposits that have led to devastating livelihood and health consequences. In addition to oil and gas industry impacts, floods are intensifying in Niger Delta communities that have annual flooding during the rainy season (April to October). In 2012, Nigeria experienced a severe flooding event that damaged infrastructure and livelihoods with virtually no studies completed about the health consequences. This dissertation research study aims to fill this scholarly gap by disentangling the emerging health concerns in Niger Delta oil communities with particular attention to women and children as they are sensitive indicators of population health. It utilizes a mixed-methods approach with the inclusion of Eco-Syndemics and African womanism theoretical perspectives. It was found that the Niger Delta has multiple pre-existing vulnerabilities that put the population at more risk during flooding events. Also, through an evaluation of airborne concentrations of chemicals released by gas flares and a retrospective, cross-sectional comparison, women and children in Uzere (oil community) have greater exposure levels to toxic chemicals released and more health concerns than similar women and children in Aviara (non-oil community), even though both communities are located in flood-prone areas in the Niger Delta. Overall, this dissertation research advances our understanding of the complexity of health hazards in communities close to oil and gas activities in the midst of more severe flooding. It also enriches scholarly and policy debates by providing an initial assessment of the link between climate variability and health in vulnerable communities.
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Title: Migrant livelihood and business in urban China : the case of Henancun and recycling in Beijing
Creator: Feng, Jia
Date: 2016
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Henancun, as one of the migrant enclaves in Beijing, emerged in the late 1980s with the development of the informal recycling business. Although rural-to-urban migrants and their recycling business play essential roles in providing the recycling service to the local residents and promoting the environmental protection, their existence is nearly invisible in the city. Focusing on the development history of Henancun, the structural and institutional barriers faced by both migrants and recycling...
Show moreHenancun, as one of the migrant enclaves in Beijing, emerged in the late 1980s with the development of the informal recycling business. Although rural-to-urban migrants and their recycling business play essential roles in providing the recycling service to the local residents and promoting the environmental protection, their existence is nearly invisible in the city. Focusing on the development history of Henancun, the structural and institutional barriers faced by both migrants and recycling businesses, and their coping strategies in Beijing, this dissertation research uses a combined qualitative and quantitative research method to examine the role of Henancun and the nature of the informal recycling business in recycling migrants’ livelihood, and to understand the structural and institutional barriers faced by migrants and recycling as well as their coping strategies in Beijing. Based on questionnaires, interviews, observations and government documentation examinations, this study reveals that Henancun is both a migrant and a business enclave that emerged to cope with the socially and politically marginalized circumstances migrants have been facing in the city. Besides, the space of Henancun, with full-fledged services to accommodate migrants’ livelihood and businesses, has gradually become a permanent “outside” space that exists in between the city and migrants’ hometowns. The informal nature of the recycling business also emerged as a strategy to cope with local regulations and uncoordinated governmental policies.
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Title: A Minimalistic Data Distribution System to Support Uncertainty-Aware GIS
Creator: Ronnei, Nicholas Oren
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Error and uncertainty are inherent in all digital elevation models (DEMs) – representations of the Earth’s terrain. It is absolutely essential to account for this uncertainty in any GIS operations that rely on this data because uncertainty propagates through any derived products. This can have very serious consequences such as the potential invalidation of model results. Geostatistical methods like conditional stochastic simulation have been developed to mitigate this problem, but they...
Show moreError and uncertainty are inherent in all digital elevation models (DEMs) – representations of the Earth’s terrain. It is absolutely essential to account for this uncertainty in any GIS operations that rely on this data because uncertainty propagates through any derived products. This can have very serious consequences such as the potential invalidation of model results. Geostatistical methods like conditional stochastic simulation have been developed to mitigate this problem, but they require expert knowledge to apply them to a project. Despite the fact that uncertainty propagation has been discussed in geographic literature for nearly three decades, there has been very little progress in making such analysis accessible to those who are not geostatistics experts — the majority of GIS users. This research uses open source software to build a system that makes the results of complex error models accessible to researchers worldwide without the need for expert knowledge. Then, I use this system to acquire data and perform a basic analysis, demonstrating how the average researcher might incorporate uncertainty propagation in own their work. In doing so, I hope to elucidate the ways in which conditional stochastic simulation changes the traditional spatial data model and set an example for others to follow.
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Title: Pollen-based landscape reconstruction of an Upper Mississippian agricultural site at Hovey Lake, Indiana, USA
Creator: Clark, Caitlin Anneliese
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The study of fossil pollen grains preserved in lake sediments tracks vegetation changes of the past. Typically, changes are interpreted as responses of former plant communities to paleoclimatic changes, thus ignoring possible impacts from prehistoric Native American land use. In Midwestern USA, there are few pollen records conducted at fine temporal resolution (multidecadal) near archaeological sites that detect anthropogenic signals, and none so far for small Native American agricultural...
Show moreThe study of fossil pollen grains preserved in lake sediments tracks vegetation changes of the past. Typically, changes are interpreted as responses of former plant communities to paleoclimatic changes, thus ignoring possible impacts from prehistoric Native American land use. In Midwestern USA, there are few pollen records conducted at fine temporal resolution (multidecadal) near archaeological sites that detect anthropogenic signals, and none so far for small Native American agricultural sites. This thesis describes and interprets the pollen analysis of Hovey Lake, Indiana, which is adjacent to the Hovey Lake Village Site (12PO10), a small Caborn-Welborn (Upper Mississippian) settlement. The pollen record of this lake indicates a primarily stable forest dominated by Quercus, Carya, Acer, and other hardwoods in the area's uplands, and Taxodium, Fraxinus, Populus, and Salix in the lowlands over the past 1,300 years. However, small but significant changes in key taxa indicate possible impacts of Native American land use and prevailing climate. From 1,260 to 860 cal yrs BP, there was a slight increase of Ambrosia and other herbaceous plants, indicating possible, limited forest disturbance by people in addition to the effects of the warmer/drier climate of the Medieval Warm Anomaly. Between 860 and 650 cal yrs BP, there may have been limited farming in the region, as evidenced by the presence of Zea mays in the pollen record. There is a strong signal in the pollen record for the growing of Z. mays in the area from 650 to 340 cal yrs BP. The village was abandoned at 300 cal yrs BP and this is clearly seen in the pollen record. From 340 to 250 cal yrs BP, reforestation occurred in the uplands and Salix expanded in the lowlands, which were probably facilitated by the cool/moist climate of the Little Ice Age. Finally, the forests again were cleared and Ambrosia colonized open, disturbed areas starting at ~250 cal yrs BP, but this time by early Euro-Americans.
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Title: Freshwater Resources : an Evaluation of Michigan Residents' Perception of Wetland Ecosystem Services
Creator: Walkowiak, Toni Anne
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Freshwater is an essential natural resource, and the Great Lakes’ ecosystem is a natural resource for millions of people. Any ecosystems’ health and integrity are dependent upon both water quality and quantity. Pollution, among other anthropogenic activities, continues to threaten these vital water supplies. The unrelenting drainage of wetlands has also exacerbated the problem. Current scientific research has established the crucial role that wetlands play in the overall welfare of the entire...
Show moreFreshwater is an essential natural resource, and the Great Lakes’ ecosystem is a natural resource for millions of people. Any ecosystems’ health and integrity are dependent upon both water quality and quantity. Pollution, among other anthropogenic activities, continues to threaten these vital water supplies. The unrelenting drainage of wetlands has also exacerbated the problem. Current scientific research has established the crucial role that wetlands play in the overall welfare of the entire Great Lakes region. Environmental concerns regarding wetland abatement have prompted the creation of several national and international protocols to protect wetlands. Even though laws are mandating such safeguards, wetland degradation remains part of a global problem. Thus, this research serves two purposes: (1), to gather information about Michigan residents’ overall knowledge of wetlands ecosystems; (2), to establish whether residents can accurately distinguish between wetland functions and values. Two activities: semi-structured focus group interviews and online digital card sorts were conducted within Chippewa, Huron, and Macomb Counties of Michigan, to evaluate individuals’ environmental perceptions of wetland ecosystems. In the end, these activities revealed that residents do have some knowledge of wetland ecosystems, but the accuracy of participants in differentiating between functions and values was less than optimal, averaging only around 60% accuracy. In closing, this research provides empirical evidence to support, and recommend additional wetland research within the state to address misunderstandings, and educate residents about wetland ecosystems in the Great Lakes region.
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Title: Sustainable urban development under a coupled Human-Land-Atmospheric modeling framework : the case study of Urumqi, China
Creator: Li, Xue
Date: 2017
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Sustainability is the contemporary philosophy for urban development which requires holistic consideration of the environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Global climate change is an important factor that affects sustainable urban development. On the one hand, climate change is posing various risks for the urban system and its supporting natural environment. On the other hand, different urban development plans have the potential to mitigate or amplify the adverse climate impacts....
Show moreSustainability is the contemporary philosophy for urban development which requires holistic consideration of the environmental, economic, and social dimensions. Global climate change is an important factor that affects sustainable urban development. On the one hand, climate change is posing various risks for the urban system and its supporting natural environment. On the other hand, different urban development plans have the potential to mitigate or amplify the adverse climate impacts. However, climate concerns often have a low impact on urban planning practice, due to the complexity of the system interactions. Therefore, a generic computational modeling framework is needed to address the causes and consequences of urban development plans, sustainability, and associated regional climate.The goal of this study is to build a coupled Human-Land-Atmospheric (HLA) modeling framework that supports urban sustainability assessment. The specific aims include (1) developing mid-term urban change scenarios and simulating their trajectories, (2) testing the sensitivity of regional climate to urban change trajectories, (3) assessing the impact of land cover data uncertainty on regional climate simulation, and (4) evaluating development strategies for sustainability from the climatic perspective. The city of Urumqi, China is selected as the case area for this study. Rapid economic and population growth are envisioned for the future of Urumqi, but its oasis environment is particularly vulnerable to future climate change and local disruptions.The coupled HLA modeling framework was constructed by combining statistical models for population, GDP, and urban area predictions, the Dyna-CLUE model which simulate land use change spatially, and the RAMS model which dynamically down-scales general circulation according to local land surface characteristics. Three urban development scenarios were developed based on different urban land demand models, yielding urban area increase of 20%, 70%, and 120%, respectively, from 2010 to 2030. Their spatial configurations were simulated using Dyna-CLUE. Local afforestation plans were later incorporated into the urban change scenarios. The land use prediction maps were then passed into RAMS to simulate their climatic consequences. The regional climate simulations were forced by the NASA-GISS-E2H General Circulation Model for the IPCC RCP 4.5 scenario in several hot years around 2030. The results were compared first among urban change scenarios and then with the RAMS simulations for the recent climate. The regional climate simulation results revealed interesting spatial patterns that associated to urban change scenarios, but the overall simulation quality was less than desirable. Finally, Urumqi's water supply/demand, agroclimatic resources, and agrometeorological risks were discussed based on literature, local statistics and simulated urban and climate change in an exploratory fashion.In conclusion, this study presented a coupled HLA modeling framework and an effort of evaluating sustainability-related topics using such framework. Although several research limitations prevent the specific results from supporting real-world decision-making, it made a constructive step towards a more comprehensive and scientifically founded sustainability assessment, especially for alternative urban development decisions. This framework can be expanded in the future to include more sustainability-related subsystems.
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Title: Complex Land Use And Cover Trajectories In The Northern Chocó Bioregion Of Colombia
Creator: Santos, Carolina
Date: 2015
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The Chocó bioregion in Northwestern Colombia is a lowland rain forest and hotspot of biodiversity. Significant land use and cover change (LUCC) is occurring throughout the region driven by global markets, illicit drug production, and civil unrest. The dominant land cover conversion is from primary forest to African Palm plantations, mediated and modified by complex combinations of social and biophysical drivers. This research combined a remote sensing based methodology to monitor LUCC in the...
Show moreThe Chocó bioregion in Northwestern Colombia is a lowland rain forest and hotspot of biodiversity. Significant land use and cover change (LUCC) is occurring throughout the region driven by global markets, illicit drug production, and civil unrest. The dominant land cover conversion is from primary forest to African Palm plantations, mediated and modified by complex combinations of social and biophysical drivers. This research combined a remote sensing based methodology to monitor LUCC in the region with an analytical approach for evaluating the possible trajectories of LUCC in a complex biological, socio-economical, and political environment. Synoptic LUCC models were developed using textural classification derived from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images for the period 1995 to 2010. LUCC models along with empirical social and spatial biophysical drivers were used to project historical land use trajectories. DINAMICA EGO a complex systems based spatial analytical framework was adopted as the platform to model land use change. The RADAR backscatter was able to capture areas were forest has been converted to African Oil Palm Plantations. However, an in depth characterization of the LUC dynamics was problematic given the spectral and spatial limitations of the sensor combined with the lack of ground data. The results of the LUC model suggest that under the current socio-political conditions African oil palm plantations will continue to expand toward forested areas into the territories traditionally inhabited by Afro-Colombians and Indigenous populations. Insecure land tenure appears as a main driver of the transformation in close association with the conditions created by the armed conflict, and the drug traffic. The rate of the transformation appears to slow down in the period after 2007. However, according to the model by 2020 most of the area inhabited by ethnic groups will be transform to AOP. This study contributes towards the understanding of land use change in the context of social conflict. Although, it is recognized that conflicts impact the land–use and land-cover, few studies have address the linkages between particular circumstances and events in the conflict and the consequences for the land. As resource conflicts spread around the globe a better understanding of how it impacts the land and the people is paramount.
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Title: Examining the behavioral interactions between urban residents and their food environment : A case study of Lansing, Michigan
Creator: Reed, Meghan
Date: 2011
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Access to nutritious food is essential to human survival and the consumption of fresh produce is an important part of a healthy diet. Previous research has found that residents of urban neighborhoods who lack access to fresh produce have greater difficulty maintaining a healthy diet. This thesis considers the interaction between residents of Greater Lansing, Michigan and their food environment. An in-person survey of 185 Greater Lansing residents was conducted during the summer of 2010 at...
Show moreAccess to nutritious food is essential to human survival and the consumption of fresh produce is an important part of a healthy diet. Previous research has found that residents of urban neighborhoods who lack access to fresh produce have greater difficulty maintaining a healthy diet. This thesis considers the interaction between residents of Greater Lansing, Michigan and their food environment. An in-person survey of 185 Greater Lansing residents was conducted during the summer of 2010 at twelve retail stores that sold fresh produce items. Participants were asked questions about their access to transportation, shopping habits, diet, and primary location of residence. Statistical analyses were conducted to examine the relationships between the collected data and calculated models of spatial accessibility. Findings suggest that (1) the perception of Greater Lansing residents is that food shopping is not done in close proximity to the primary residence; (2) there is not a straightforward association between calculated access to and the consumption of fresh produce; (3) supermarkets are the dominant food source for residents; and (4) individuals who receive nutritional assistance are significantly more likely to shop at neighborhood stores and consume a less healthy diet. Understanding how Greater Lansing residents interact with their food environment is essential in finding solutions to the growing obesity and overweight epidemic.
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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: 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: Toward the detection of landscape features : clustering 3D points using spatial and thematic characteristics
Creator: Romero, Boleslo Edward
Date: 2010
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: ABSTRACTTOWARD THE DETECTION OF LANDSCAPE FEATURES:CLUSTERING 3D POINTS USING SPATIAL AND THEMATIC CHARACTERISTICSByBoleslo Edward RomeroThe study of Geography generally concerns phenomena at or near the surface of the earth. High resolutions of 3D quantitative and qualitative data can represent such phenomena as objects or fields. The data can be grouped to reveal representations of contiguous regions of spatial and thematic homogeneity. My thesis is concerned with finding groups of 3D...
Show moreABSTRACTTOWARD THE DETECTION OF LANDSCAPE FEATURES:CLUSTERING 3D POINTS USING SPATIAL AND THEMATIC CHARACTERISTICSByBoleslo Edward RomeroThe study of Geography generally concerns phenomena at or near the surface of the earth. High resolutions of 3D quantitative and qualitative data can represent such phenomena as objects or fields. The data can be grouped to reveal representations of contiguous regions of spatial and thematic homogeneity. My thesis is concerned with finding groups of 3D points with similar locations, spatial relationships, and thematic values of spectral reflectance. To accomplish this successfully, I synthesized elements of two geographic theories: point aggregation from cartographic generalization and hierarchical geographic ontology. My experimental design used synthetic 3D point data with spectral values. I employed the multi-dimensional Mean Shift clustering technique from the discipline of Computer Vision, and adapted a 3D range image segmentation accuracy assessment technique. I also contributed new techniques for segmentation quality assessment including two area under the curve indices and the development of new segmentation surface plots. Experimental evaluations included comparisons of the Mean Shift results with K-means clustering results, spatial resolution results, noise evaluation results, and the results of an alternative color configuration. I modified the variable sets to address uneven lighting conditions and employed the experimental methods to grouping real-world terrestrial LiDAR scan data. Though my new spatial relationship variable needs improvement, the methods yielded groups of points representing features in the LiDAR data and provided evidence of the potential for grouping richly attributed 3D points that represent geographic features.
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Title: IDENTIFYING THE BEST LOCAL-SCALE PREDICTION MAPS FOR DYNAMIC LANDSCAPE PATTERNS OF AQUATIC HABITATS OF ANOPHELINE LARVAE IN WESTERN LOWLAND KENYA
Creator: Smith, Nicole Jean
Date: 2016
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The possibility of anopheline larval control and the need to understand the contribution of larval habitat distribution to the intensity of the malaria transmission cycle have generated inquiry into the relationships of anopheline larval habitats with environmental variables, including those variables that can be remotely-sensed across the landscape. These habitats are spatially predictable but their occurrence is unstable throughout time such that a map of their locations has a short...
Show moreThe possibility of anopheline larval control and the need to understand the contribution of larval habitat distribution to the intensity of the malaria transmission cycle have generated inquiry into the relationships of anopheline larval habitats with environmental variables, including those variables that can be remotely-sensed across the landscape. These habitats are spatially predictable but their occurrence is unstable throughout time such that a map of their locations has a short lifespan of high accuracy. In this study, I create a dynamic environmental model of aquatic habitats of anopheline larvae for Asembo, a community in western Kenya, using topography, land-use/land-cover, and rainfall variables that have shown previous success in landscape models of Anopheles spp. habitats. I compare the success of the model’s prediction maps when confronted with new data in another year at the same site to the accuracy of nearly-contemporaneous maps of the habitats as well as kriging-interpolated maps that exploit the habitat spatial clustering to increase the predictive power of the map. The dynamic environmental model shows the best predictive power of the three map types tested. The dominant input variable, the topographic position index, is further investigated, showing that the relationship is strongest at the 1710m scale and the predictions are moderately robust to elevation measurement errors. Though the prior knowledge of habitat locations does not accurately predict their future locations for long, I identify significant spatiotemporal autocorrelation in the distribution of the aquatic habitats that could be used in future prediction mapping to fine-tune generalized environmental models to site-specific patterns when some habitats have already been identified.
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Title: Climatology of springtime freeze events in the Great Lakes Region and their impact on sour cherry yields in historical and projected future time frames
Creator: Rill, Lydia
Date: 2016
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: Production of sour cherries has a significant impact on the economy of the Great Lakes Region, valued at more than $74 million. In contrast to cereal crops where water is the most limiting factor, perennials in temperate regions are limited by freeze injury, especially in the spring following initial phenological development, which was highlighted in 2002 and 2012 when yields decreased considerably. This study analyzed the spatial and temporal variability of springtime freeze events in the...
Show moreProduction of sour cherries has a significant impact on the economy of the Great Lakes Region, valued at more than $74 million. In contrast to cereal crops where water is the most limiting factor, perennials in temperate regions are limited by freeze injury, especially in the spring following initial phenological development, which was highlighted in 2002 and 2012 when yields decreased considerably. This study analyzed the spatial and temporal variability of springtime freeze events in the Great Lakes Region and their impact on sour cherry production, as well as explored the use of gridded climatic datasets. Additionally, this study examined the historical trends in sour cherry yield and potential future changes by the mid-century. The Great Lakes played a major role in the spatial variability of springtime freezes, as locations inland experienced colder temperatures than near the coast. Simulated damaging freeze events over the past 50 years were most common during the later phenological stages of the crop, while the most severe damage occurred in the earlier stages. Gridded datasets were less suitable for this application than individual station observations. Over time, phenological development has tended to begin earlier, and this trend was projected to continue into the mid-century at three stations located in northwest, west central, and southwest Lower Michigan. An ensemble of climate projections indicated a large uncertainty envelope surrounding changes in simulated sour cherry yield. The projected changes varied by emissions scenario, downscaling method, and climate model.
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