GIS-Related Dissertations: Latest Batch

Here's the latest installment of GIS-related dissertations that have caught my eye. Previous lists include 11/05, 01/06, 01/06, 04/06, 07/06, 10/06. (Of course, this is not a comprehensive list...only those I find interesting.)

Now, I will continue to link to the ProQuest Digital Dissertations public database, which provides free abstracts and 24 page previews for many dissertations and theses. However, due to Proquest's migration to the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses (PQDT) database, the public database will provide only brief citations beginning on July 21, 2007. I will link to full-text versions if Google can point them out to me.

• Airfare, competition, and spatial structure: New evidence in the United States airline deregulation, by Gong, Gang, Ph.D., Boston University, 2006, 170 pages.
• "The dynamics of airline deregulation has caused dramatic changes in airfare and competition structure... The spatial distribution of airfare has not been even. Pricing dynamics have resulted in geographic patterns of lower airfare for cities in the west and southwestern United States while higher airfare was found in the South, New England, and Midwest."
• I find this research extremely interesting and I bet a lot of folks would find this intriguing as well. Perhaps if I can pull the data together, this would make an excellent workshop next Fall 2007 semester. See here for Spring 2007 workshops.
  
• Communal ontology for navigation support in urban region: Getting directions from familiar landmarks, by Hong, Ilyoung, PhD, State University of New York at Buffalo, 2007.
• "This dissertation proposes a communal ontology as a type of regional knowledge with a formal structure that can be incorporated with geographical information systems. As part of an effort toward the realization of community wayfinding, this research explores several methodologies. To figure out what the shared geographical places are, the preference and degree of familiarity of different places are measured using the behavioral geographer's methodology. For investigating similar geographical interests within a community, social network analysis is conducted with the help of a person-place matrix and centrality measures are calculated."
• A co-evolutionary cellular automata for the integration of spatial and temporal scales in forest management planning, by Mathey, Anne-Helene, PhD, The University of British Columbia, 2006.
• "This thesis presents a case for more holistic numerical planning tools which can handle spatial objectives and inter-temporal trade-offs. A novel algorithm based on cellular automata (CA) is designed to address forest planning objectives that are both spatial and temporal and subject to global constraints."
• A geographic information system prototype for archived data from intelligent transportation systems: A multidimensional analysis, by Cusack, Maggie, PhD, State University of New York at Albany, 2006.
• "This work suggests a GIS prototype that will exploit existing industry data collection technologies, and apply sound Information Science (IS) principles to a growing transportation industry database problem. The prototype demonstrates a rational approach to applying those principals to the ITS data archiving and retrieval problem, with emphasis on the possibilities for data analysis."
• Archaeological predictive model of southwestern Kansas, by Campbell, Joshua Stewart, M.A., The University of Kansas, 2006, 131 pages.
• "Knowledge on the archaeological condition of southwestern Kansas is anomalously low, therefore a high-resolution archaeological predictive model has been constructed for the High Plains region of southwestern Kansas. Using quantitative data about the environment as independent variables, the model was constructed using a combination of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and statistical software."
• Association between ozone and emergency department visits: Application of geostatistics and geographic information systems (GIS), by Choi, Mona, Ph.D., University of Maryland, Baltimore, 2006, 123 pages.
• "Using traditional statistics and geostatistics in combination with GIS, the association between ozone concentration and emergency department (ED) admissions for cardiovascular and respiratory conditions were examined at the ZIP code level... Findings suggest that respiratory and cardiovascular ED visits increased even at lower ozone concentration than the EPA's air quality standards."
• A Web-based spatial decision support system for utilizing organic wastes as renewable energy resources in New York State, by Ma, Jianguo, Ph.D., Cornell University, 2006, 129 pages.
• "As the 3rd largest dairy state in the nation and the host for many food waste generators, New York State produces a large amount of organic waste. Recently there has been a renewed interest in farm-based co-digestion, which has created strong needs for research in this field... [A] Web-based spatial decision support system (SDSS) is developed by integrating geographic information systems (GIS), the Internet, and modeling. ArcGIS, Manifold, VB.Net, JavaScript and HTML are used during the design process. This system consists of three modules: (1) Dynamic Mapping and Querying; (2) Food Waste Estimator; and (3) Co-digestion Economic Analysis."
• Bahamian cave and karst geodatabase, and GIS analysis of San Salvador Island, Bahamas, by Walker, Adam Dennis, M.S., Mississippi State University, 2006, 94 pages.
• Full-Text
• "A geodatabase and a data management program have been created to store and manipulate cave and karst feature data from the Bahamas. A geographic information system was used to recognize any spatial patterns in the cave and karst data from San Salvador Island."
• Comprehensive conservation modeling: A spatially explicit individual-based approach using grizzly bears as a case study, by Backus, Vickie Marie, Ph.D., The University of Utah, 2006, 239 pages.
• "This dissertation illustrates how a mechanistic bottom-up approach to constructing a spatially explicit individual-based model (IBM) provides the proper theoretical and operational frameworks for constructing population viability analysis (PVA) models that avoid many of the substantive and theoretical criticism of the conventional demographic models used in PVA. Using Java™, such a model is developed for the grizzly bear population of the Cabinet-Yaak Ecosystem."
• Creation of a system for assessing and communicating the risks associated with terrestrial chemical spills, by Bryant, Derek L., Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, 2006, 85 pages.
  
• Full-Text
• "Adequately preparing for and responding to potential terrestrial (land-based) chemical spills are critical to the protection of human health and ecology. In this research, an environmental risk management system is developed to support analysis and facilitate decision-making for terrestrial chemical spill planning and response... The system leverages geographic information systems (GIS) technology to assess and delineate the immediate threat to human and environmental receptors from terrestrial chemical spills. It characterizes a spilled chemical's ability to immediately impact human health, groundwater, surface water, and soil resources, and incorporates these four receptors into an overall measure of terrestrial chemical risk."