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Title: MODELING THE JOINT IMPACTS OF SOCIAL NETWORK AND BUILT ENVIRONMENT ON ADOLESCENTS’ PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Creator: Liu, Wei
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This research stems from the worldwide public health problem of childhood obesity and insufficient physical activity (PA) among adolescents. Studies have shown that both social networks and the built environment could affect PA, but how do they jointly exert influence? Understanding the scale and mechanism of this joint impact could shed light on developing an effective intervention to promote PA. The goal of this dissertation is to try to disentangle the joint influence of social networks...
Show moreThis research stems from the worldwide public health problem of childhood obesity and insufficient physical activity (PA) among adolescents. Studies have shown that both social networks and the built environment could affect PA, but how do they jointly exert influence? Understanding the scale and mechanism of this joint impact could shed light on developing an effective intervention to promote PA. The goal of this dissertation is to try to disentangle the joint influence of social networks and the built environment on changes in PA through social network analysis and test a novel intervention based on the findings from the social network models. This study uses two waves of Add Health data from two sample schools. Chapter Two investigates how school-based friendship networks could influence Physical Education (PE) class enrollment. Chapter Three examines the influence of home location, neighborhood characteristics, as well as the demographic characteristics and change in PA of peers who were nominated as friends in the Add Health social survey on high school student’s friend selection and PA dynamics between two academic years. Chapter Four presents a spatial agent-based model that was derived from the social network model and integrates a location-based mobile game similar to Pokémon Go as a PA-promoting intervention to test different intervention scenarios. Through this research, I demonstrate that friends’ PE enrollment status has a weak influence on the change of individual’s PE enrollment in two consecutive years. Another observation is that student’s total PA change can affect their PA behaviors. Contrarily, the built environment of the neighborhood did not prove to exert significant influence. Due to social influence, students participating in an intervention program may cause a change in PA of non-participants, i.e., we can observe a spillover effect of the intervention program. This dissertation enriches the field of health geography by integrating social network analysis and spatial thinking to jointly investigate the influence of environmental and social spaces and to facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the complex system of childhood obesity. It also extends existing models and provides a spatial agent-based model as an intervention exploration tool that can be calibrated for research and education by other scholars.
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Title: INVESTIGATING UGANDA’S HIGH HIV INCIDENCE AMONG YOUNG WOMEN IN AN ERA OF WIDESPREAD GAINS IN HIV PREVENTION AND TREATMENT
Creator: Namanya, Judith
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This dissertation examines the factors driving risky sexual behavior associated with reported high numbers of new HIV infections among young women in Uganda, using Mbarara District as a case study. Using the modified Social Ecological Model for Young Women’s Vulnerability to HIV Infection, the study investigates the contextual and broader structural factors, their interactions within and across multiple levels, and how they influence the sexual behaviors of individual young women in ways that...
Show moreThis dissertation examines the factors driving risky sexual behavior associated with reported high numbers of new HIV infections among young women in Uganda, using Mbarara District as a case study. Using the modified Social Ecological Model for Young Women’s Vulnerability to HIV Infection, the study investigates the contextual and broader structural factors, their interactions within and across multiple levels, and how they influence the sexual behaviors of individual young women in ways that increase their vulnerability to contracting HIV. The objectives of the study are: 1) Evaluate individual-level factors associated with sexual risk-taking behavior, specifically having unprotected sex, among young women ages 15-35 years; 2) Describe contextual and broader structural factors that make young women vulnerable to HIV-related risky sexual behaviors, and assess how these contextual factors interact with individual-level factors in ways that perpetuate high levels of HIV infection; and 3) Re-examine the connection between poverty and other economic factors to risky sexual behavior and vulnerability in the context of high HIV transmission among young women. The study used mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, combining household surveys, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and in-depth interviews. Household survey results show that risky sexual behavior i.e., having sex without a condom, is still high (over 48%) among the unmarried young women ages 15-35 years. Engagement in unprotected sex increased by age, with young adults reporting more unprotected sex encounters than adolescent girls. Those with primary or some secondary education were at an increased risk of having unprotected sex. Surprisingly, women with tertiary education were at higher risk of engaging in unprotected sex than those who had completed secondary education. Negative binomial regression analyses show that women with no employment and those with part-time employment were at an increased risk for unprotected sex compared to those with low paying but stable employment. These findings on education and HIV risk call for a careful reexamination of the link between higher education and HIV vulnerability to inform policy. Education policies and interventions need to focus on curricula that incorporate entrepreneurial skills at different educational levels from primary to college. Keeping girls in school under the protective eye of parents, guardians and teachers is key in reducing exposure to unprotected sex among young girls. Findings from the qualitative analysis revealed that sociocultural and structural factors, including social norms (premarital sex as taboo, early marriage pressures, subornation of girls and women), youth unfriendly HIV services (e.g., long waiting times, rude and unprofessional clinic staff), high unemployment rates, sexual harassment, exploitation by male employers, and discrimination were key factors perceived to drive risky sexual behavior in relation to HIV contraction among young women. The findings show that while many young women, especially those with children, engaged in risky transactional sexual behavior to meet basic needs, many younger women, including college-level ones, did so to meet materialistic wants and to fit-in with peers. Widespread availability of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) caused complacency among young people. HIV was no longer perceived as life threatening due to ARVs, which prevent progression into full-blown AIDS, morbidity and death. In fact, some young women were more scared of getting pregnant than contracting HIV. We suggest that efforts to reduce new HIV infections among young women and young men should target individual risk perception, and balance HIV treatment and prevention messages. Findings reveal a complex mix of dynamic and interacting factors operating at different levels that create context specific sexual behavioral risk socioscapes that sustain or accentuate the high rates of new HIV infections among the young women. Using a Social Ecological Model for Young Women’s Vulnerability to HIV as a guiding framework, we contend that efforts for addressing the high HIV infections among young women, including sexual behavioral change interventions, economic empowerment programs, should not only aim at individual women but also target factors operating at the sociocultural and structural levels.
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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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Two models for the inferential analysis of central place patterns
Creator: Tiedemann, Clifford Earl
Date: 1966
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations

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

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: 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: GOVERNANCE OF PEOPLE-CENTERED FOREST-AGRISCAPES RESTORATION IN MALAWI : INSTITUTIONAL AND MODELING APPROACHES
Creator: Djenontin, Ida Nadia Sedjro
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: This doctoral dissertation embodies an interdisciplinary inquiry of human-environment interactions approached from a geospatial perspective. It investigates some socio-institutional dimensions of ecosystem restoration, focusing on the Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) paradigm. FLR is a people-centered ecosystem restoration approach that advances a holistic landscape approach to restoring degraded natural resources. FLR’s implicit landscape approach to environmental management requires...
Show moreThis doctoral dissertation embodies an interdisciplinary inquiry of human-environment interactions approached from a geospatial perspective. It investigates some socio-institutional dimensions of ecosystem restoration, focusing on the Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR) paradigm. FLR is a people-centered ecosystem restoration approach that advances a holistic landscape approach to restoring degraded natural resources. FLR’s implicit landscape approach to environmental management requires sectoral interactions and policy integration in implementing restoration interventions in interlocking agricultural and forested landscapes – forest-agriscapes. As such, FLR seeks to address, holistically, the interlinked challenges of land degradation, deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate change, livelihood insecurity, and unsustainable supply of multiple socio-ecological benefits. The research analyses specifically how to achieve integrated and sustainable governance of landscape-scale restoration of lands, trees, and forests by deepening understanding of the related institutional, socio-economic, cultural, and behavioral dimensions. It employs an analytical approach that blends qualitative analysis, econometric modeling, and spatial agent-based modeling (ABM) to explore forest-agriscapes restoration as a complex socio-ecological system (SES). Using Malawi as a country case study in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the research first investigates what potential context-appropriate governance system—including governance model, institutional arrangements, and regulatory framework—would adequately promote effective integrated implementation of landscape restoration. The research adopts a polycentric governance perspective based on the Ecology of Games Theory (EGT). Using the EGT, it explores the structural and functional dimensions of an appropriate integrated governance system by examining four specific governance parameters: collaboration arrangements, social learning mechanisms, coordination processes, and institutional externalities. Second, the research draws on an econometric perspective and an environmental behavior perspective rooted in social psychology to examine the local patterns and socio-cultural determinants and the decision-making processes of local individual and collective resources restoration efforts. Through a mixed qualitative and quantitative methods approach, it addresses why and how local smallholder farmers and resource users engage in restoration activities, including the driving and constraining factors for their restoration efforts. Finally, the research uses ABM, a bottom-up computational modeling approach to SES, to explore the aggregate landscape-level dynamic patterns and environmental impacts of local restoration decisions and consequent activities, with different simulations of management and policy scenarios. The research offers diverse knowledge contributions and practical insights for effective forest-agriscape restoration. It advances knowledge on framing ingredients of a contextualized polycentric governance system to successfully operationalize an integrated landscape approach to resources management and restoration in Malawi and contributes to testing the EGT as a novel theory of polycentric governance. Moreover, the research illuminates the nature, level, diversification features, and areal extent of local restoration, and uncovers associated main drivers and challenges. It also offers more social understanding of individual and collective restoration behaviors, notably insights on local farmers’ and resources users’ decision-making processes for land, tree, and forest restoration. This improves knowledge on empirically capturing such behavioral components and integrating them into computational modeling. Further, the research uncovers a forward-looking 10-year trend and spatially explicit patterns of potential restoration extent, intensification, participation level, and resulting landscape regreening. The dynamics of the potential aggregate environmental impacts of local, bottom-up restoration efforts suggest empowering them, shedding light on likely propitious management and policy options to operationalize. This contributes insights for spatially targeted and evidence-based restoration implementation in Malawi, exemplifying how to enhance the use of ABMs to support restoration management and policy. Overall, the research shows the promise of using mixed integrative research approaches to better inform effective FLR interventions and the practical insights for Malawi are also relevant for other similar SSA contexts. Broadly, the dissertation illustrates effective socio-ecological governance as one way to approach the persistent challenge centered on a complex co-existence issue: how to balance competing goals of attaining sustainable natural resource-based livelihoods, food security, and poverty reduction while protecting biodiversity and ecological integrity within a changing climate context.
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Title: PERSONAL SERVICE AND LEISURE TRAVEL IN THE CITY OF DETROIT AND ITS SUBURBS : EXPLORING INDIVIDUAL- AND NEIGHBORHOOD-LEVEL VARIABILITY
Creator: Li, Xiaomeng
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The ability to travel is essential for people to participate in society, acquire resources and services, and engage in daily life. Trips for personal service and leisure constitute a significant share of total travel, more than one-third of all trips, but the distinct patterns of these journeys have often been overlooked in the existing literature. Also, daily travel in high-poverty, declining urban neighborhoods experiencing disinvestment is less studied and is not well understood. Focusing...
Show moreThe ability to travel is essential for people to participate in society, acquire resources and services, and engage in daily life. Trips for personal service and leisure constitute a significant share of total travel, more than one-third of all trips, but the distinct patterns of these journeys have often been overlooked in the existing literature. Also, daily travel in high-poverty, declining urban neighborhoods experiencing disinvestment is less studied and is not well understood. Focusing on the city of Detroit and its suburbs, this dissertation examines daily travel patterns – the one-way trip distance (length of journey to the destination), weekly trip frequency and total distance traveled, and mode of travel – for personal services and leisure activities, and how they vary by individual sociodemographic characteristics and different neighborhood environments. The results show that personal service and leisure travel have distinct patterns in terms of trip distance and mode selection. Also, the effects of the neighborhood environment and individual sociodemographic characteristics on travel vary significantly by the purpose of the journey (personal service versus leisure). In particular, the effect of aging varies by neighborhood context and trip purpose. Seniors in declining urban neighborhoods have significantly fewer leisure trips, indicating challenges they face in leisure activity participation. Moreover, the typical association of high-density built environments and shorter trip distances do not hold in the declining urban Detroit neighborhoods. In fact, residents in such neighborhoods experience unique burdens in travel and have to travel longer distances to reach amenities despite living in a high-density built environment, due to the extreme disinvestment within the city of Detroit. Lastly, focusing on an essential type of personal services – pharmacies, it is shown that residents in declining urban neighborhoods actually bypass local independent stores within the neighborhood and travel longer distance to shop at more distant national chain pharmacies.
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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: 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: USING THE “KITE” FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING LANDSCAPE CHANGE AND IMPROVING EAST AFRICAN AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE
Creator: Wanyama, Dan
Date: 2021
Collection: Electronic Theses & Dissertations
Description: The Mount Elgon Ecosystem (MEE), an important hydrological and socio-economic area in East Africa, has exhibited significant landscape changes, driven by both natural factors and human activities, therefore leading to more frequent natural disasters (frequent and extended droughts, floods, and landslides). Yet, few studies have focused on the MEE socio-ecological system; no comprehensive knowledge exists of how humans and nature interact, at multiple scales, to drive ecosystem-wide landscape...
Show moreThe Mount Elgon Ecosystem (MEE), an important hydrological and socio-economic area in East Africa, has exhibited significant landscape changes, driven by both natural factors and human activities, therefore leading to more frequent natural disasters (frequent and extended droughts, floods, and landslides). Yet, few studies have focused on the MEE socio-ecological system; no comprehensive knowledge exists of how humans and nature interact, at multiple scales, to drive ecosystem-wide landscape changes. This dissertation focuses on three interrelated questions: (1.) What is the nature and magnitude of change in MEE greenness for the period 2001-2018, and how is this change related to long-term trends and variability in MEE precipitation? (2.) How is ecological and environmental (eco-environmental) vulnerability distributed across the MEE, and what are the major factors driving these patterns? and (3.) How will the MEE landscape change in the future, and what opportunities exist for streamlining livelihood improvement and environmental conservation efforts?Study 1 characterized comprehensively, over multiple time scales, recent patterns and trends in MEE vegetation greening and browning. The MEE was found to exhibit significant variability in vegetation dynamics and precipitation regimes. There was persistent greening and browning at different time scales and this change was attributed to both natural factors (including changing precipitation) and anthropogenic factors (especially the vegetation-to-cropland conversion). The study also concluded that MEE precipitation had increased substantially in the post-2000 era, which influenced greening and browning patterns observed in the 2006-2010 period. The integration of Mann–Kendall, Sen’s slope and bfast (breaks for additive season and trend) proved useful in comprehensively characterizing recent changes in vegetation greenness within the MEE. Study 2 examined eco-environmental vulnerability for the MEE using freely available remote sensing (RS), topographic, and socio-economic data. The study found that the majority of the MEE (comprising savannas, grasslands, and most of the agricultural land in Ugandan MEE) was moderately vulnerable based on the analysis methods and variables used. The eco-environmental vulnerability index (EEVI) showed a marked increase in vulnerability with decrease in elevation. Eco-environmental vulnerability was strongly associated with multi-year variables based on precipitation, temperature, and population density. Moreover, precipitation distribution was changing especially in the wet season, thus adding another layer of risk for agriculture and ultimately for local community livelihoods.Study 3 simulated possible future land use changes in the MEE based on existing RS LULC products and a well-known land use change model. The study projected that agriculture will possibly expand from approximately 58% in 2001 to more than 64% in 2033 if current and future LULC transformation follows rates in 2001-2017. These new croplands will occur mostly around edges of the protected forest and zones of transition between mixed vegetation and existing croplands. Due to the unpredictable LULC transitions in the MEE, simulating forest-to-cropland conversion was less accurate compared to mixed-to-cropland conversion. This research provides a more complete explanation of the underlying complex human-environment interactions shaping the MEE landscape. This is the first study to comprehensively assess landscape dynamics at multiple scales (10-day, 16-day, monthly, seasonal, and household). It is also the first to define and assess at the annual scale, eco-environmental vulnerability as influenced by climate, topographic and socio-economic variables. In addition, by simulating future LULC change, this research provides the opportunity to quantify and anticipate possible LULC changes in the MEE. This research relies on publicly available RS and geospatial datasets and therefore analyses conducted here can easily be translated to other similar regions.
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Title: A map of the Garden of Eden, before God destroy'd it with the flood
Date: 1738
Collection: Maps
Description: Map showing the Garden of Eden located inside a bend of a river formed by the confluences of the Hiddekel [Tigris], Perath [Euphrates], Pison [Pishon], and Gihon rivers, with the Tree of Life and Fountain of Life at its center.

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

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