abstract: As part of the effort to streamline management efforts in protected areas worldwide and assist accountability reporting, new techniques to help guide conservation goals and monitor progress are needed. Rapid assessment is recognized as a field-level data collection technique, but each rapid assessment index is limited to only the ecoregion for which it is designed. This dissertation contributes to the existing bodies of conservation monitoring and tourism management literature in four ways: (i.) Indicators are developed for rapid assessment in arid and semi-arid regions, and the processes by which new indicators should be developed is explained; (ii.) Interpolation of surveyed data is explored as a step in the analysis process of a dataset collected through rapid assessment; (iii.) Viewshed is used to explore differences in impacts at two study sites and its underutilization in this context of conservation management is explored; and (iv.) A crowdsourcing tool to distribute the effort of monitoring trail areas is developed and deployed, and the results are used to explore this data collection's usefulness as a management tool. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Geography 2013

The Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) provides a comprehensive framework of common terminology for organizing physical, chemical, biological, and geological information about marine ecosystems. Federally endorsed as a dynamic content standard, all federally funded data must be compliant by 2018; however, applying CMECS to deep sea datasets and underwater video have not been extensively examined. The presented research demonstrates the extent to which CMECS can be applied to deep sea benthic habitats, assesses the feasibility of applying CMECS to remotely operated vehicle (ROV) video data in near-real-time, and establishes best practices for mapping environmental aspects and observed deep sea habitats as viewed by the ROV’s forwardacing camera. All data were collected during 2014 in the Northern Gulf of Mexico by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) ROV Deep Discoverer and ship Okeanos Explorer.

This paper examines the relationship between the landscape at Bronze Age figurative rock art sites in the province of Södermanland in Sweden with the types of motifs and number of motifs present at the sites. For this purpose, six different properties in the landscape are studied with GIS: Height above sea level, cardinal direction of the slope, distance to the shoreline, cardinal direction to the nearest body of water, visibility of the rock art sites from major waterways and coastline, and type of rock at the site. While comparing the landscape properties of rock art sites grouped by the motifs present, the landscape properties height above sea level, and distance to the shoreline differed the most between motifs. Footprint- and human motifs diverge the most from general patterns. As for the comparison of landscape properties between figure-rich sites and those with only one figure in total, the biggest differences in landscape were the height above sea level and types of rock present at the sites. The conclusion drawn is that while certain landscape properties differ between motifs or figure-rich and single-figure sites, there are also certain properties and patterns that were consistently chosen for all rock art sites in Södermanland.

No description available.

No description available.

People describe and explore space with a strong emphasis on the visual senses, yet modelling the field of view has received little attention within the realm of Location Based Services (LBS), in part due to the lack of useful data. Advances in data capture, such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), provide new opportunities to build digital city models and expand the range of applications which use visibility analysis. This thesis capitalises on these advances with the development of a visibility model to support a number of innovative LBS functions in an urban region and particular focus is given to the visibility model‟s supporting role in the formation of referring expressions, the descriptive phrases used to identify objects in a scene, which are relevant when delivering spatial information to the user through a speech based interface. Speech interfaces are particularly useful to mobile users with restricted screen viewing opportunities, such as navigational support for motorists and a wider range of tasks including delivering information to urban pedestrians. As speech recognition accuracies improve so new interaction opportunities will allow users to relate to their surroundings and retrieve information on buildings in view through spoken descriptions. The papers presented in this thesis work towards this goal, by translating spatial information into a form which matches the user‟s perspective and can be delivered over a speech interface. The foundation is the development of a new visual exposure model for use in urban areas, able to calculate a number of metrics about Features of Interest (FOIs), including the façade area visible and the percentage on the skyline. The impact of urban vegetation as a semi-permeable visual barrier is also considered, and how visual exposure calculations may be adjusted to accommodate under canopy and through canopy views. The model may be used by pedestrian LBSs, or applied to vehicle navigation tasks to determine how much of a route ahead is in view for a car driver, identifying the sections with limited visibility or the best places for an overtaking manoeuvre. Delivering information via a speech interface requires FOI positions to be defined according to projective space relating to the user‟s viewpoint, rather than topological or metric space, and this is handled using a new egocentric model. Finally descriptions of the FOIs are considered, including a method to automatically collect façade colours by excluding foreground objects, and a model to determine the most appropriate description to direct the LBS user‟s attention to a FOI in view.

Abstract Mortuary rituals express and cope with disorder brought about by a member's death in the community. The autonomous connection of the deceased with the community is disrupted through mortuary rituals. In many cultures the subsequent contacts with the realm of the dead are maintained in formalized practices, sometimes including or referring to objects or patterns that can be traced in the archaeological record. In this study it is asked, if the Bronze Age and Iron Age burial cairns (1200 BC - AD 1000) in the SW archipelago of Finland might be interpreted as monuments establishing a link between the landscape and the religious context of symbolic meanings, thus making it meaningful to examine the spatial references of grave sites. The field studies include excavations, surveys, boulder analyses, and weathering studies. The number of cairns in the area is 444. Examination of samples of boulders suggested that the stones were usually collected from the adjacent terrain. The Schmidt hammer technique was applied to measure the weathering differences between basal and lateral surfaces, and possible secondary interference. The chronology of the archipelago cairns is based on previous studies related to general chronological characteristics and datings of archipelago graves. Using discriminant analysis, the size of the cairn, the convexity of the surface at the grave site, and the topography of the terrain were identified as the variables most related to the differences between Group P, having a Bronze Age character (147 cairns), from Group R of Iron Age character (218 cairns). Two models representing the shorelines of 500 BC and AD 1000 were reconstructed using a digital elevation model (DEM). Monte Carlo-testing was applied when the visible areas around grave sites were compared to reference sets in four subareas. The grave sites in Group P were often directed towards the land, whereas the grave sites in Group R were typically directed towards the sea. The difference might be related to differences in subsistence strategies. The cairns represented a conservative burial custom that belonged to local communities in maritime and northern areas, as opposed to the southern agricultural environments. / Tiivistelmä Vainajan omaehtoinen yhteys elävien yhteisöön katkeaa vasta yhteisöllisen kuolemanrituaalin lopullisesti päätyttyä. Monissa kulttuureissa kuolemanrituaalin jälkeiset yhteydet vainajaan kiteytyvät muodollisiksi käytännöiksi, jotka voivat tulla arkeologisesti näkyviin aineellisissa jäännöksissä tai luonnonmaiseman paikkojen, tilojen ja elementtien suhteissa. Työssä tarkastellaan, ovatko Turunmaan saariston pronssikauden ja rautakauden hautarauniot (1200 e.Kr. - 1000 j.Kr.) tulkittavissa monumenteiksi, jotka yhdistivät maiseman symbolisten merkitysten uskomukselliseen kontekstiin. Kenttätutkimuksiin kuuluu kaivauksia, inventointi, lohkaretutkimuksia ja rapautumismittauksia. Hautoja on 444. Lohkaretutkimukset osoittivat kivien tulleen kerätyiksi hautapaikkojen läheisyydestä. Tapaustutkielmissa kiveyksen basaali- ja lateraalipintojen välistä rapautumiseroa ja sekundaarisia vaurioita tutkittiin kimmovasaramittauksin. Hautaraunioiden kronologia perustuu aikaisempiin tutkimuksiin kronologisista tunnusmerkeistä sekä saariston ajoitettuihin hautoihin. Erotteluanalyysissa kiveyksen laajuus, hautapaikan maanpinnan kuperuus ja hautapaikan suhde ympäröiviin huippuihin osoittautuivat muuttujiksi, jotka selvimmin jakavat aineiston pronssikauden tyypin P-ryhmään (147 hautaa) ja rautakauden tyypin R-ryhmään (218 hautaa). Numeerisesta korkeusmallista laskettiin kaksi maastomallia, jotka vastaavat rannansiirtymisen kehitysvaihetta 500 e.Kr. (P-ryhmä) ja 1000 j.Kr. (R-ryhmä). Hautapaikoilta näkyvissä olleita alueita verrattiin satunnaisesti valittuihin verrokkipaikkoihin Monte Carlo -testauksen avulla. Merkittävin ero oli, että P-ryhmän hautapaikat olivat tyypillisesti suuntautuneet merta ja R-ryhmän hautapaikat maata kohti. Ero liittynee toimeentuloon latautuneisiin odotuksiin ja epävarmuuksiin. Hautarauniot merkitsevät konservatiivista hautaustapaa, joka kuului enemmän mereisten ja pohjoisten paikallisyhteisöjen kuin agraarisen ja eteläisen asutuksen piiriin.

For the better part of the 20th century, Swedish hillforts were seen strictly as an iron age phenomenon, and it was not until the mid-1980’s that we had reliable evidence that hillforts were already constructed during the Bronze Age. At the same time, archaeologists were moving away from the old militaristic studies to make way for studies based on the symbolical aspects of these monumental structures. Unfortunately, as we reached the end of the millennium, the general archaeological interest for hillforts dramatically dropped, causing hillfort research to miss out on the digital revolution as the new GIS technology cemented itself as a powerful tool in archaeological research. Today, nine hillforts have received a Bronze Age dating, why it is now possible to preform high quality research on the material without having to include structures from other time periods. However, the lack of GIS-based hillfort research leads us to seek inspiration from British hillfort research where the incorporation of GIS-methodology has proven successful in analyzing the relationship between hillforts and their landscapes. The purpose of this paper is therefore to continue investigating the symbolical aspects of the Swedish Bronze Age hillforts by investigating how GIS can help us locate and understand visual relationship between hillfort morphology and the surrounding landscape.       The analysis is based on a viewshed-method developed by Jessica Murray in her attempts to analyze if hillforts were constructed to visually relate to certain features of the landscape or the local topography. The resulting viewshed rasters are interpreted from a phenomenological theoretical standpoint since phenomenological aspects give us the possibility to bridge the gap between digital and analogue sensory analysis. The results show that viewshed-based analyses can be successfully complimented by phenomenological theory and that the method has successfully replicated previously observed landscape relationships while also exposing previously unknown visual relationships.

I denna magisteruppsats kommer strategiska lägen och boplatsers relation till gravar att studeras. Arbetet riktas in på Arnäs och Själevad socken i Örnsköldsvik kommun som ligger in Västernorrlands län. Mer specifikt så är det järnåldersboplatser i Skommarskatan, Gene, Vågnäs and Sörvåge som inkluderas i uppsatsen. Terrängmodellerings kartor, viewsheds, landhöjnings kartor och historiska kartor, litteratur samt fältinventering används för att komma fram till vilket sätt boplatser blev strategiskt belagda och vilken rumslig relation det finns mellan boplatser och gravar. Det visar sig att gravar verkar vara anlagda nära boplatser, men resultatet tyder på att man inte nödvändigtvis ser gravarna från boplatserna på boplatslokalerna. Resultaten visar att viewsheds inte alltid stämmer med det man ser i fält.Resultatet antyder på att terräng, relation till vatten, närhet till färskvatten, kommunikation möjligheter, handelsmöjligheter, resurstillgångar, huskonstruktion och på vilket sätt människorna livnärde sig på har en inverkan på vilket sätt boplatser anlades. Tidigare så har mycket fokus varit lagt på hur RAÄ 22:1 i Gene var strategiskt lagd inom arkeologisk forskning, men i den här uppsatsen har fokus legat på andra typer av boplatser och andra delar av landskapet med hänsyn till fler lokaler. Denna studie har demonstrerat att tidigare studier av järnåldersboplatser i Arnäs och Själevad socken har varit begränsad i sin syn att belysas boplatsers relation till landskapet. Tidigare forskning var fokuset på en lokal och det har visat sig vara en brist när man jämför med landskaps studiemetoder använda i denna studie. Nu har agrara, jägare-samlare och säljägare boplatser studerats och vidgat perspektivet på boplatser strategiska lägen inom studieområdet.

Skärvstenshögarna i Uppland har konstaterats vara en komplex fornlämningstyp och det har visat sig vara problematiskt att förklara dem som homogena i form och funktion över tid. En kategorisering av dem har skapats som har konstaterat att olika former av dem finns. Syftet med denna uppsats är sedermera att utgå från befintlig kategorisering och undersöka om fler kategorier och typer går att isolera ur tillgänglig empiri. Därefter för att beskriva deras form, läge, kronologi och förändring. Teoretiska ramverk som används för att begreppsliggöra skärvstensbrukets mer än tusenåriga användande är de om tradition, minne och ritual. Teorier som kan manifestera bruket som en kulturell process och dimension i tid och rum. Metoder som används för att identifiera fler kategorier och typer är dels multipel korrespondensanalys av 100 skärvstensförekomster för att generera mönster. Dels densitetsanalys av 100 C14-dateringar av detsamma för att utarbeta aspekter av tid i empirin. Slutligen används visibilitetsanalys för att generera belägg för kategoriernas olika lägen samt en kvalitativ genomgång av empirin för att skapa modeller av nya typer inom befintliga kategorier. / The burnt mounds of Uppland have been shown to be remains of a complex type and it has been proven problematic to explain them as homogeneous in form and function over time. A categorization of them has been created which has established that different forms exist. From that categorization the purpose of this essay is subsequently to investigate whether additional categories and types can be isolated from available empirical evidence. Also to include a description of their form, location, chronology, and change. Theoretical frameworks used to conceptualize the more than a thousand-year use of burnt stones are those of tradition, memory, and ritual. Theories that can manifest the practice as a cultural process and a dimension of time and space. Methods used to identify additional categories and types includes a multiple correspondence analysis of 100 burnt mounds to generate patterns. A density analysis of 100 C14 samples of the same deposits to work out aspects of time in the empirics. Finally, visibility analysis is used to ascertain the different positions of the categories as well as a qualitative review of the empirical evidence to create models of new types within existing categories.