This thesis provides analyses on the spatial and temporal distribution of residential burglaries in Christchurch for the five-year period 1998/1999 to 2002/2003. The specific aspects of residential burglary that are explored are the geography of burglary and clear-up rates, the characteristics of burglars, the distance they travel and the characteristics of the burgled properties. It was important to research these aspects of residential burglaries in Christchurch as there has previously been minimal research conducted into burglaries in Christchurch. The research that has been conducted is almost ten years old and did not comprehensively cover all aspects of burglaries. This thesis provides up to date analysis of the current burglary problem in Christchurch. The residential burglary data was provided by the Christchurch Branch of the New Zealand Police Department. This data included the addresses of both burglary victims and offenders and demographic characteristics of offenders. Information regarding the burglary event such as the items stolen and the time and date that the burglary occurred, was also supplied. This data allowed for analysis into many aspects of burglaries. In order to substantiate the conclusions formed there is comparison with the results of international and national studies into burglaries. The key findings of this research were that Christchurch residential burglary rates decreased and were positively related to deprivation. The greatest percent of burglaries occurred during traditional work times, during the traditional workweek. Conversely, the clear-up rates increased and were inversely related to deprivation. The majority of offenders were unemployed European males, aged between 15 and 19 years of age. Generally, offenders travelled short distances to burgle, and the distance was found to be negatively correlated with the level of deprivation of the area in which the victim lived. There were also some interesting findings regarding the characteristics of the burgled and non-burgled properties and how they differed depending on whether the property was in a deprived or non-deprived area.

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Based on wildfire data acquired from Mississippi forestry commission from 1991- 2005 approximately 4,000 wildfires occur in Mississippi each year, burning over 60,000 acres of forest and grassland. This study focuses on Mississippi’s wildfires from 1991- 2005 for the summer/fall period defined for this study as the May-November fire season. Statistical analysis indicates that there is significant correlation between vegetation indices derived from remotely sensed data and wildfire size at various time lag periods. Forest areas are correlated with vegetation indices at longer lag periods, nonorested areas are correlated at shorter lag periods. The inverse correlation between wildfire size and vegetation indices shows that vegetation greenness is an indicator of wildfire potential. This result can be implemented as management tool knowing that changes in vegetation vigor in certain areas of the state may increase wildfire potential in those areas and use of prescribed burnings may reduce the wildfire potential in those areas.

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The objective of this paper is to develop a well-defined and sound framework for the implementation of a multi-participant GIS program and to illustrate the developed framework by its application to the Departments of the Town of Blacksburg. A multi-participant approach to implementing GIS technology faces greater challenges than a single-participant GIS project, due to the unique culture, structure, policy, decision-making rule and expectations of participants from implementation of GIS technology. So a successful program depends upon aligning different characteristics of the program's structure to those of participants, individually and collectively. Maximizing the system's potentials necessitates a well-defined implementation framework that can help manage changes and integrate the technology in organizations. Therefore, the paper focuses on the implementation aspects of multi-participant GIS programs. The paper achieves its objective by exploring various issues involved in the implementation process of GIS technology and multi-participant GIS programs, develops a framework for implementing a multi-participant GIS program and applies the framework to the Departments of the Town of Blacksburg to achieve successful implementation. The illustration of the Town of Blacksburg identifies various constraints for multi-participant GIS program for which recommendations are provided to achieve successful implementation. / Master of Urban and Regional Planning

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The primary aim of this study is to provide a cogent description and explanation of change in rural settlement between circa 1 ,500BC and AD 1845 for an area centred on Mynydd Cam Ingli, Pembrokeshire. Using a range of data sources, it evaluates the capability and validity of applying new methods and techniques offered by geographical information systems (GIS) to realise this aim and explore its potential for extending the agenda of possible archaeological and historical enquiry. Recently published work demonstrates a growing awareness of the potential benefits of applying GIS to archaeological resource management and landscape archaeology, yet there is little evidence of its application to an integrated archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, historical and geographical enquiry. It is not the intention to use archaeological and historical data to demonstrate merely the merits of GIS, but to judge its success in 'doing' archaeological and historical research. Data sources are used irrespective of their suitability for input and analysis within the GIS. Each source is examined individually to gauge their reliability and also to reveal what they tell us about past settlement. The extent and nature of the archaeological record is assessed using air photography together with associated palaeoenvironmental evidence. Opportunity is taken to reflect on the potential value of photogrammetry and GIS to cultural resource management. Historical maps and documents, in the form of census returns, estate plans, rent rolls, court rolls provide a crucial human element to the study. Yet it is the tithe map of 1845 that is at the hub of much of the analysis. Mid-nineteenth century agricultural production, land use and tenure are analysed in relation to topographic and other geographical constraints. The tithe map also serves as an 'anchor' for a retrospective study of settlement development. Archaeological, palynological and documentary evidence point to the ebb and flow of mixed agriculture and settlement on Mynydd Cam Ingli during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Though there is palynological evidence of Dark Age activity, archaeological remains of settlement are not evident. Charters detail the parcelling out of land as burgages during the thirteenth century by Anglo-Norman lords and the establishment of an open field. Use of the upland for communal grazing was tightly controlled by the lordship, but rapid encroachment by squatters during the early nineteenth century reduced the area of commons dramatically. Remnants of open field survive on estate plans of the mideighteenth century and embedded within the tenurial pattern of the tithe map. It is suggested that agriCUltural productivity as indicated by the tithe rent-charge is not only constrained by environmental conditions but by the prolonged use of medieval farming practises that echo those of the former open field. The study suggests that the input of archaeological, historical and environmental data into a GIS increases the scale and range of possible enquiries and enables questions to be asked that would have been inconceivable using manual methods. However, success or failure of the application of GIS to this type of study depends on the willingness of the researcher not to forsake the traditional methods and techniques appropriate to the analysis of a diverse range of sources. Though methodologically eclectic, adopting a broad landscape approach in combination with the analytical power of GIS offers a formidable overarching methodology for studying the past. Although the study concludes by suggesting that the application of GIS is not itself unproblematic, it is argued that the work presented does illustrate its potential value.

With the impact of global climate change, the speedy, intelligent and accessible dissemination of coastal flood predictions from a number of modelling tools at a range of temporal and spatial scales becomes increasingly important for policy decision makers. This thesis provides a novel approach to integrate the coastal flood data into an ArcFLOOD data model to improve the analysis, assessment and mitigation of the potential flood risk in coastal zones. This novel methodology has improved the accessibility, dissemination and visualisation of coastal flood risk. The results were condensed into spatial information flows, data model schematic diagrams and XML schema for end-user extension, customisation and spatial analysis. More importantly, software developers with these applications can now develop rich internet applications with little knowledge of numerical flood modelling systems. Specifically, this work has developed a coastal flooding geodatabase based upon the amalgamation, reconditioning and analysis of numerical flood modelling. In this research, a distinct lack of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data modelling for coastal flooding prediction was identified in the literature. A schema was developed to provide the linkage between numerical flood modelling, flood risk assessment and information technology (IT) by extending the ESRI ArcGIS Marine Data Model (MDM) to include coastal flooding. The results of a linked hybrid hydrodynamic-morphological numerical flood model were used to define the time-series representation of a coastal flood in the schema. The results generated from GIS spatial analyses have improved the interpretation of numerical flood modelling output by effectively mapping the flood risk in the study site, with an improved definition according to the time-series duration of a flood. The improved results include flood water depth at a point and flood water increase which equates to the difference in significant wave height for each time step of coastal flooding. The flood risk mapping provided has indicated the potential risk to infrastructure and property and depicted the failure of flood defence structures. In the wider context, the results have been provided to allow knowledge transfer to a range of coastal flooding end-users.

With an escalating skiing tourism industry where tourists are getting bolder every year in theirsearch for untouched snow, avalanche prediction gets more and more important. Avalancheprediction is often designated manual labour and many years of establishing avalanchedatabases. With GIS and high resolution DEM data it is possible to identify areas withavalanche danger over large areas at low costs. Using parameters as: roughness, inclination,curvature and vegetation models like the ones tested in this study can predict potential releaseareas (PRA). The results that the models present needs to be validated. This can be done eitherby manual labour by avalanche experts or by comparing the results at a validated resolutionfrom another area with avalanche databases. The present study is testing two PRA identifyingmodels on different DEM resolutions trying to identify if higher resolutions yields better resultsthan lower or vice versa. The validation of the results was a challenge, because of the lack ofavalanche databases in Sweden. In this study a 5 m resolution DEM and a model set updeveloped for Davos in Switzerland, was used as a as a reference model. The results showsthat a DEM with a high resolution of 2x2m do not identify PRAs (potential release areas) asgood as the resampled resolutions of 5x5m or 25x25m.