An important component of Planning Information Systems for municipal planning agencies is a comprehensive land use inventory that provides information on the location, distribution, and intensity of land uses throughout a community. This data is a necessary prerequisite for the informed creation of planning documents such as General Plans, Specific Plans, Housing Inventories, and Climate Action Plans. Beyond location, distribution and intensity of land uses, planners may also wish to incorporate additional information at the parcel level, such as the number of housing or commercial units, building condition, and/or access and connectivity to adjacent streets. Because some of this information is best observed in the field, agencies require methods of collecting this data that will ensure data precision, accuracy, and consistency, while minimizing data collection and processing time. Electronic data collection tools that are compatible with Geographic Information Systems provide a potential solution that can facilitate these desired data collection parameters. This research illustrates the development of an electronic data collection tool that planning agencies may utilize within various planning efforts, and compares the efficiency of the tool to traditional ‘pen-and-paper’ data collection methods in terms of time savings. It is recommended that planning agencies widely adopt and implement electronic tools for land use data collection, for the demonstrated benefits related to data consistency and reduced data collection time in the field.

Native to the world’s third-largest tropical rainforest, the indigenous people of West Papua, known as Papuan, have experienced substantial changes to their ecosystem over the last several decades, primarily to their water resources. As surface water has been a primary asset for drinking water consumption and their livelihoods for generations, the increase in pollution from expanding oil palm plantations impacts many lives. Receiving limited attention, disentangling this water injustice from power relations as a byproduct of the state-backed development, corporate-driven expansions, and consumer demand become pivotal to advocating for the indigenous community and their livelihoods. Therefore, this study explores integrating physical evidence of agricultural runoff from oil palm plantations and indigenous perceptions using hydro-social territories in a remote area in West Papua, Indonesia. Due to the lack of long-term investigations of the impact of water contamination in West Papua, a hydrological model will be used to assess the nature of the oil palm impact within the watershed. As deterioration in water quality is expected due to landscape changes, the indigenous perception of hydrological changes is crucial to determine how significant the impact is on local livelihoods. Semi-structured interviews will be used to study the perception of indigenous communities on water resources and threats of oil palm to their livelihood. The synthesis of those results will later be concluded using the hydro-social approach, involving a multi-scale analysis that includes Indonesian state and corporate actors through literature reviews from various sources (e.g., official documentation, corporate reports, and journals). This research will develop strategies to protect indigenous communities not yet impacted by large-scale changes in the watershed resulting from palm oil plantations.

This study aimed at evaluating the agreement of spaceborne Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) ICESat-2 canopy height with Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) derived canopy height to inform about the performance of ICESat-2 canopy height metrics and understand its uncertainties and utilities. The agreement was assessed for different forest types, physiographic regions, a range of percent canopy cover, and diverse disturbance histories. Results of this study suggest that best agreements are found using strong beam data collected at night for canopy height retrieval using ICESat-2. The ICESat-2 showed great potential for estimating canopy heights, particularly in evergreen forests with high canopy cover. Statistical models were developed using fixed-effects and mixed-effects modeling approaches to predict ALS canopy height metrics using ICESat-2 parameters and other attributes. Overall, ICESat-2 showed good agreement with ALS canopy height and showed its predictive ability to characterize canopy height. The outcome of this study will help the scientific community understand the capabilities and limitations of ICESat-2 canopy heights; the study also provides a new approach to obtain wall-to-wall ALS standard canopy height maps at landscape level.

The 21st century experienced several health crises, especially in the form of infectious disease outbreaks such as the SARS outbreak in 2003, the H1N1 in 2009, and Ebola outbreaks in 2013. However, none has produced a worldwide socio-economic and health impact compared to the recent pandemic, known as COVID-19. As of October 4, 2022, more than 614 million cases with 6 million deaths have been reported worldwide. The United States is currently in the leading position with more than 98 million cases and 1 million deaths. The pandemic, however, did not impact the entire region similarly, and the infections and intensity varied with geographical and socio-economic characteristics. In this project, I used a multi-method approach to analyze the relationship between health disparities and COVID-19-related health outcomes in the USA and examine the influence of health disparities reporting on newspaper coverage of COVID-19. This assessment was performed in three ways. First, I have explored the relationship between Mississippi’s county-level COVID-19-related cases and deaths with the Center for Disease Control and Preventions’s Social Vulnerability Index (CDC SVI). Second, I have investigated the spatial pattern of COVID-19 in the USA and its associations with Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) by utilizing the County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHRR) dataset.Finally, I analyzed how news media reporting of key health determinants (i.e., age, race, income and gender) is framed, including the role of different stakeholders in the context of COVID-19. Findings revealed a statistical relationship between CDC’s Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and Mississippi’s county-level COVID-19 cases and deaths. I also found that COVID-19 infections showed considerable spatial heterogeneity as the distribution of COVID-19 cases and deaths varies across the US counties and among the three largest waves. The multiple regression results also exhibited a temporal association between social determinants of health (SDH) indicators and COVID-19-related health outcomes across the USA. Finally, I found that the NYT coverage of COVID-19 dealt more with human interest, responsibility, and conflict than economic and morality frames. The findings revealed the vital role social determinants of health play during a health crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

While it is true that historic cemeteries are places that contain a wealth of knowledge about the history of a community they are sometimes not well maintained. The information within can be lost as grave-markers are damaged either by natural causes or human interaction. In larger cemeteries preserving these significant places can sometimes be difficult due to a number of different factors. Therefore focusing preservation efforts on specific locations where damage is more likely to occur is crucial to ensure that the monuments that are the most at risk are preserved. One possible way of accomplishing this is through the utilization of a geographic information system (GIS) to determine the shortest distance path an individual may take to reach a specific grave-marker. This can be accomplished by conducting a near analysis between an origin point and every grave-marker. These paths would also show each grave-marker that an individual passes indicating the potential for purposeful or accidental interaction. With this information efforts such as photogrammetry can be applied effectively for digital heritage preservation. Such methods would permit individuals to manipulate three-dimensional representations of grave-markers in order to preserve a large portion of the information it contains.

<p>Arson has economic, structural and psychological repercussions. As a crime with such wide- ranging consequences, it has received little academic attention. Our goal in this research is to highlight how arson can be understood from two perspectives: the anthropogenic environment and the physical environment. Study one employs a generalized linear mixed regression model to explore the relationship between street network permeability and the incidence of deliberately- set fire events in the City of Toronto. This research aims to highlight the important influence that navigation of the built environment has on crime, specifically arson, in addition to the social characteristics of place that support criminal behaviour. We hypothesize that neighbourhoods with more permeable (less complex) street networks are more likely to be affected by deliberately-set fire events in the case of Toronto. Also using a multivariate regression model, study two aims to highlight the role of heat aggression on the incidence of fire-setting behaviour in the same study region. We consider fire events occurring between the months of May through September, and particularly those occurring during extended heat-wave conditions. We hypothesize that prolonged episodes of high temperatures will have a positive relationship with arson events. This research highlights that two conceivably different forms of geography (anthropogenic and physical) can impact that same phenomena: criminal fire-setting behaviour.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Diarrhoea due to the consumption of unsafe drinking water is a major cause of death worldwide, despite many small and large-scale water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) intervention programs and policy processes. Many Sub-Saharan African communities have relied on WASH interventions by governmental and non-governmental organizations to reduce the burden of diarrhoeal diseases, however they often fail to be sustainable.</p> <p>Safe drinking water is achieved by protecting/treating water at all points along the drinking water supply chain (DWSC), from the source to the point-of-use. Gathering data on the sanitary environment and microbiological quality of water along the DWSC can support the design of water quality interventions. In addition, an examination of the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of local people on WASH topics could support the design of more socioculturally relevant interventions. The purpose of this research was to develop and pilot a simple yet economical and robust method to inform more socioculturally relevant water quality interventions in rural Sub-Saharan Africa, and to test whether variation in the risks existed at the neighbourhood-scale within three neighbourhoods of a single community in rural Kenya.</p> <p>The results of this study demonstrated that practices, which affect water quality in the DWSC, varied at the neighbourhood-scale. For example, source water quality was poor in the three study neighbourhoods, however the hazards and contaminating practices that posed a risk to water quality varied (i.e., bathing, toileting, laundry). Household water quality was also poor and at risk in all three neighbourhoods, however the practices that represented a risk to household water quality varied (e.g. storage conditions, sanitation practices). Female water collectors were knowledgeable on the causes of diarrhoea, however their preferred approaches toward WASH intervention approaches varied by neighbourhood. The collection and analysis of neighbourhood-scale social and environmental WASH data is therefore recommended for the prioritization and design of appropriate interventions to improve water quality.</p> / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

The history of transportation planning in New York City has created disparities between those who have sufficient access to the public transportation network, and those who face structural barriers to traveling from their home to education, employment, and healthcare opportunities. This thesis analyzes the legacy of discriminatory policy surrounding the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and city and state governments that have failed to support vital infrastructure improvement projects and service changes to provide multi-modal welfare to New York’s working poor. By exploring issues of transit equity as they pertain to the New York City subway system, this thesis raises the question: which communities lack adequate access to public transit opportunity and what are the policies and historical developments that have created these inequities? Through examination of grassroots community-based movements towards social justice and transportation equity, this thesis will review the proposals, campaigns, and demands that citizen-driven organizations have fought for in New York City. These movements, I argue, are the most effective method to achieve greater transportation justice and intergenerational equity.

This dissertation examined risk factors for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) — specifically whether neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation exacerbates individual socioeconomic disadvantage (deprivation amplification) to increase the likelihood of developing HDP. To select the optimal areal unit at which to investigate HDP, geographic proxies for neighborhoods were explored. A thematic review qualitatively examined nontraditional neighborhood boundaries identified through internet sources. Data from 2008–2012 Miami-Dade County, Florida birth records (n=121,421) and the U.S. Census Bureau were used for the remaining analyses. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) analysis empirically compared the proportion of HDP prevalence explained by six areal units: census block groups, census tracts, ZIP code tabulation areas (ZCTAs), and three types of natural neighborhood — census units clustered based on an eight-item Neighborhood Deprivation Index. Multilevel logistic regression examined relationships between HDP, neighborhood deprivation, and individual-level factors. Odds ratios (OR) and adjusted odds ratios (aOR) were calculated. The thematic review found 22 potential alternatives to census boundaries developed through techniques such as crowd-sourcing and qualitative research. In the sensitivity analysis, census tracts aggregated at the scale of ZCTAs performed twice as well as any other model (GWR2 = 0.27) and were used as the Aim 3 unit of analysis. In the multilevel logistic regression, HDP was associated with moderate (aOR=1.13; CI: 1.05, 1.21) and high neighborhood deprivation (aOR=1.16; CI: 1.07, 1.26). Compared with mothers with private insurance, uninsured women (aOR=1.69; CI: 1.56, 1.84) and Medicaid recipients (aOR=1.12; CI: 1.05, 1.18) had higher HDP odds. Non-Hispanic Black women’s HDP odds were 1.58 times those of non-Hispanic White women. Cross-level interactions — between neighborhood deprivation and educational attainment and neighborhood deprivation and insurance status — did not reach statistical significance. Private sector neighborhood boundaries hold promise for developing new public health tools. Because they are relatively easy to generate from census data, natural neighborhoods may balance tradition and innovation. While no evidence of deprivation amplification was found, results suggested that individual-level and neighborhood deprivation are HDP risk factors. Interventions that target expectant mothers in deprived neighborhoods — particularly non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic women who lack health insurance — may help reduce HDP prevalence and disparities.

Public bureaucracy finds itself in a strange place at the intersection of political science and public administration. Political science finds that, within representative democracy, discretion granted to bureaucrats threatens the nature of democracy by subverting politicians who represent the will of the people – bureaucracy vs democracy. At the same time, public administration holds that, in the interest of promoting democracy, bureaucracy should be objective in its implementation of policy in a way that eliminates the influence of politics from decision-making – politics vs bureaucracy. Those positions are seemingly contradictory in nature. From one perspective, bureaucracy is undemocratic because it is outside of politics, yet an overreach of politics into the bureaucracy yields undemocratic outcomes. Bureaucracy can facilitate democracy outside of politics. This study looks to empirically test whether local bureaucrats, who should be willing to act in-line with influential co-partisans, might still promote democratic outcomes for their constituents with their discretionary decision-making. Florida provides an empirical backdrop for testing bureaucracy’s impact on democracy with a natural experimental scenario created with the passing of new early voting limitations in 2011. Florida’s Republican (R) lawmakers passed House Bill 1355 (HB 1355), which was signed into law by Governor Scott (R), that dramatically limited the early voting days allowed for federal elections. HB 1355 changed the early voting (EV) period from fourteen (14) days to eight (8) days and eliminated the last Sunday before Election Day as well. The move was widely seen as a political calculation aimed at stifling the participation of Democrats in the 2012 General Election. In seeming lockstep, local Supervisors of Elections (SOEs) from both parties utilized their statutory discretion over the location of early voting sites to alter the distribution of sites before the 2012 General Election. I find that Republican SOEs did not distribute early voting locations in a way that negatively impacted early voting participation rates (EVPR) for their local precincts. Furthermore, I find that, all else equal, their decisions did not statistically impact EVPR differently than the EVPR in communities managed by Democrats. Republican SOEs did not add new costs to voters in their communities. I provide new evidence that demonstrates that bureaucrats can indeed limit the impact of undue politics from their influential co-partisans to promote more democratic outcomes.