Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2002.

Currently, geodetic control data are generally available only at the federal level. The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) publishes only the results of those surveys that their agency performs, as well as other surveys that meet certain criteria.Currently, geodetic control data are generally available only au: the federal level. The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) publishes only the results of those surveys that their agency performs, as well as other surveys that meet certain criteria. The advantages of a state office which would disseminate NGS control data as well as all other survey data within the state are discussed. Since NGS now distributes its data on floppy diskettes, the design of a microcomputer database to access this information is investigated. This thesis focuses on such a database system operated mainly by the end-user of control data. An integrated software system, in which. related computational programs are linked to the database, is also considered. The dBase III package, as one software alternative, is examined. Applicability to geographic information systems is also explored. Data formats, file sizes, and administrative concerns are dealt with, and future research and development in these and related areas are proposed. / Master of Science

<p> This thesis presents a general tsunami hazard assessment for the City of Long Beach, California. Although relatively rare, tsunamis from a variety of potential sources threaten Long Beach. An anisotropic, least cost path Geographic Information Systems methodology was utilized to model approximate population exposure numbers within a number of evacuation scenarios. The variables used in the model were evacuation speed and warning time. Potential vertical evacuation sites were deduced and included within the model to compare population exposure numbers with and without the use of a vertical evacuation strategy. </p><p> The results in accordance with the literature reviewed suggest that the implementation of a vertical evacuation strategy, in addition to increased community education and preparedness, could dramatically mitigate risk and reduce the population of Long Beach's vulnerability to tsunamis, and that different areas may benefit from varying risk mitigation strategies. The implementation of vertical evacuation sites in the model decreased the population exposed by an average of 79 percent (with a mode of 99 percent). </p>

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No description available.

<p> The explosion of web-based GIS technologies and the opening up of mapping technologies to common citizens in the past decade have resulted in a whole range of VGI communities like OpenStreetMap, Ushahidi and Wikimapia, that are used to assist emergency management operations on a large scale. However, most crowd sourced systems currently being used for disaster recovery have multiple obstacles like accessibility, ease of use, dependency on social media and requirement of special skill sets on the part of the public participants that serve as limitations to the fulfillment of the democratization potential of VGI.</p><p> Hence an improved Android mobile application was developed which is much more accessible, usable, reliable without any dependency on social media like Facebook to collect and transmit data, thus not only ensuring participation equality but also universal accessibility to quality and timely geographic information during emergency situations.</p>

<p> Women entrepreneurs are on the rise and their numbers have grown at one and a half times the rate of small enterprises generally over the last 15 years. In spite of this, women are underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Women face additional barriers when forging careers within these fields and obtaining startup capital. This study examines female business ownership within the fields of hi-tech and biotech, and the factors that support startups by women throughout the state of California. As both of these industry sectors are known to cluster geographically around sources of venture capital, university research and development (R&amp;D) investment, and skilled labor, the study explored how these factors influence women entrepreneurs through two methods of analysis, specifically, a quantitative GIS analysis using exploratory geo-statistical tools, and a qualitative analysis using semi-structured interviews of twenty women business leaders. Results from the study demonstrated that factors that encourage hub formation are prone to cluster geographically, that women receive less venture capital than their male counterparts, biotech as a sector is more open than hi-tech to women&rsquo;s participation, high numbers of women starting businesses alongside their alma mater, and a high participation of women in business accelerators and incubators.</p>

<p> The objectives of this study were to test the degree to which anthropogenic factors impact surface water geochemistry by evaluating the connections between the built environment and selected chemical parameters in the storm water runoff system for Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. An approach that combines geospatial modeling and geochemical data collected on samples from natural and concrete lined coulee drainage channels in the parish was utilized to examine (1) the distribution and interactions of different water sources (e.g. surface runoff, alternating drainage flow pathways, groundwater, etc.); and (2) the effect of impervious and agriculture land cover on water chemistry in the engineered drainage network. </p><p> Chemical compositions were analyzed for trace and major cations using an Inductively Coupled Plasma &ndash; Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). Anion concentrations were analyzed using an Ion Chromatograph (IC). Other variables, such as dissolved oxygen, temperature, conductivity, salinity, pH, and turbidity, were measured in situ using a YSITM sonde meter. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software was used to model drainage boundaries at each site. Impervious cover and agricultural surface layers were created from the 2010 National Land Cover database and clipped to each microwatershed drainage area such that zonal statistics could be used to calculate total area and percentages of these land coverage types in each microwatershed. </p><p> Potential groundwater interactions were evidenced to occur near the Francois Coulee Lafayette. When urban and non-urban samples were analyzed together, impervious surface cover was significantly correlated to specific conductivity (&micro;S/cm) and the dissolved ionic species: Ca and SO4 in the microwatershed drainage areas. The exact amount of remedial acreage needed to return runoff waters to a normal baseline was calculated for targeted microwatershed drainage areas using a statistically derived coefficient estimate that suggested a 5.9 (&micro;S/cm) increase in specific conductivity concentrations for every 1% increase in impervious surface cover.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xvii, 198 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Christopher Jekeli, Dept. of Geodetic Science and Surveying. Includes bibliographical references (p. 192-198).

Several groups produce estimates of the Earth's time-varying gravitational field with data provided by the NASA/DLR Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission. These unprecedented highly accurate global data sets track the time-variable transport of mass across and underneath the surface of the Earth and give insight into secular, seasonal, and sub seasonal variations in the global water supply. Knowledge gained from these products can inform and be incorporated into ocean and hydrological models and advise environmental policy planning. Therefore, a complete understanding of the accuracy and variations between these different fields is necessary, and the most accurate possible solutions desired. While the various gravity fields are similar, differences in processing strategies and tuning parameters result in solutions with regionally specific variations and error patterns. This study analyzed the spatial, temporal, and spectral variations between four different gravity field products. The knowledge gained in this analysis was used to develop an ensemble solution that harnesses the best characteristics of each individual field to create an optimal model. Multiple methods were used to combine and analyze the individual and ensemble solutions. First a simple mean model was created; then the different solutions were weighted based on the formal error estimates as well as the monthly deviation from the arithmetic mean ensemble. These ensemble models as well as the four individual data center solutions were analyzed for bias, long term trend, and regional variations between the solutions, evaluated statistically to assess the noise and scatter within the solutions, and compared to independent hydrological models. Therefore, the form and cause of the deviations between the models, as well as the impact of these variations, is characterized. The three ensemble solutions constructed in this analysis were all effective at reducing noise in the models and better correlate to hydrological processes than any individual solution. However, the scale of these improvements is constrained by the relative variation between the individual solutions as the deviation of these individual data products from the hydrological model output is much larger than the variations between the individual and ensemble solutions. / text