Human GeographiesPub Date : 2023-05-26DOI: 10.3390/geographies3020020
Cheila Avalon Cullen, Rafea Al Suhili
{"title":"Assessing Rainfall Variability in Jamaica Using CHIRPS: Techniques and Measures for Persistence, Long and Short-Term Trends","authors":"Cheila Avalon Cullen, Rafea Al Suhili","doi":"10.3390/geographies3020020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/geographies3020020","url":null,"abstract":"Jamaica, as a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), is highly vulnerable to weather extremes. As precipitation persistence is a critical factor in determining the susceptibility of an area to risks, this work assesses the spatial and temporal variations of rainfall persistence in Jamaica from 1981 to 2020, using satellite-based information. The Hurst exponent (H) and the serial correlation coefficient (SCC) are used to evaluate the long-term persistence of precipitation and the Persistence Threshold (PT) concept is introduced to provide a description of rainfall characteristics over short periods, specifically, the number of consecutive days with precipitation above or below a set threshold value. The PT method is a novel concept that expands upon the Consecutive Dry Days (CDD) and Consecutive Wet Days (CWD) methods that only consider a threshold of 1 mm. Results show notable temporal and spatial variations in persistence over the decades, with an overall increasing trend in high precipitation persistence and a decreasing trend in low precipitation persistence. Geographically, the northern mountainous area of Jamaica received the most persistent rainfall over the study period with an observed increase in extreme rainfall events. The excess rainfall of the 2001–2010 decade is remarkable in this study, coinciding with the global unprecedented climate extremes during this time. We conclude that the data used in this study is viable for understanding and modeling rainfall trends in SIDS like Jamaica, and the derived PT method is a useful tool for short-term rainfall trends, but it is just one step toward determining flood or drought risk. Further research will focus on developing drought and flood indices.","PeriodicalId":38507,"journal":{"name":"Human Geographies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85186863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Human GeographiesPub Date : 2023-05-16DOI: 10.3390/geographies3020019
Grayson R. Morgan, A. Fulham, T. G. Farmer
{"title":"Machine Learning in Urban Tree Canopy Mapping: A Columbia, SC Case Study for Urban Heat Island Analysis","authors":"Grayson R. Morgan, A. Fulham, T. G. Farmer","doi":"10.3390/geographies3020019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/geographies3020019","url":null,"abstract":"As the world’s urban population increases to the predicted 70% of the total population, urban infrastructure and built-up land will continue to grow as well. This growth will continue to have an impact on the urban heat island effect in all of the world’s cities. The urban tree canopy has been found to be one of the few factors that can lessen the effects of the urban heat island effect. This study seeks to accomplish two objectives: first, we examine the use of a commonly used machine learning classifier (e.g., Support Vector Machine) for identifying the urban tree canopy using no-cost high resolution NAIP imagery. Second, we seek to use Land Surface Temperature (LST) maps derived from no-cost Landsat thermal imagery to identify correlations between canopy loss and temperature hot spot increases over a 14-year period in Columbia, SC, USA. We found the SVM imagery classifier was highly accurate in classifying both the 2005 imagery (94.3% OA) and the 2019 imagery (94.25% OA) into canopy and other classes. We found the color infrared image available in the 2019 NAIP imagery better for identifying canopy than the true color images available in 2005 (97.8% vs. 90.2%). Visual analysis based on the canopy maps and LST maps showed temperatures rose near areas where tree canopy was lost, and urban development continued. Future studies will seek to improve classification methods by including other classes, other ancillary data sets (e.g., LiDAR), new classification methods (e.g., deep learning), and analytical methods for change detection analysis.","PeriodicalId":38507,"journal":{"name":"Human Geographies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83013676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Human GeographiesPub Date : 2023-05-11DOI: 10.3390/geographies3020018
R. B. Srygley, Jacob I. Dixon, P. D. Lorch
{"title":"Microclimate Refugia: Comparing Modeled to Empirical Near-Surface Temperatures on Rangeland","authors":"R. B. Srygley, Jacob I. Dixon, P. D. Lorch","doi":"10.3390/geographies3020018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/geographies3020018","url":null,"abstract":"Microhabitats can provide thermal niches that affect geographic range shifts of species as the climate changes and provide refuges for pest and beneficial insect populations in agricultural regions. The spatial distribution of microhabitats is influenced by topography that can influence local extinction and recolonization by animal populations. Scaling local temperature-dependent processes to a regional scale of population expansion, and contraction requires the validation of biophysical models of near surface temperatures. We measured temperature at 2.5 cm above and below ground at 25 sites in each of the two regions: southern and northern Utah, USA. Using NichMapR version 3.2.0, we modeled the temperature at these same sites with local slopes and aspects for four years for the former and eight years for the latter region. Empirical and modeled air temperatures differed by 7.4 °C, on average, and soil temperatures differed less (4.4 °C, on average). Site-specific additions of hill shading at 25 m distance or soil parameters did not improve the agreement of the empirical and modeled temperatures. A hybrid model for air temperature that incorporated soil temperature at 0 cm depth when snow depth exceeded 3 cm resulted in an average improvement of 8% that was as great as 31%. Understanding biological processes at the regional scale and in projected future climates will continue to require biophysical modeling. To achieve the widest applications possible, biophysical models such as NichMapR need to be validated with empirical data from as wide a variety of altitudes, latitudes, soil types, and topographies wherein organisms currently inhabit and where their ranges might expand to in the future.","PeriodicalId":38507,"journal":{"name":"Human Geographies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72569630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Human GeographiesPub Date : 2023-05-08DOI: 10.3390/geographies3020017
Natalia Blana, Ioannis Kavadas, L. Tsoulos
{"title":"A Constraint-Based Generalization Model Incorporating a Quality Control Mechanism","authors":"Natalia Blana, Ioannis Kavadas, L. Tsoulos","doi":"10.3390/geographies3020017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/geographies3020017","url":null,"abstract":"Automation in map production has created the need for modeling the map composition process. Generalization is the most critical process in map composition, with considerable impact on the quality of features portrayed on the maps. Modeling of the generalization process has been an area of research for several years in the international cartographic community. Constraint-based generalization modeling prevailed, and it is evolving to an agent model or to other optimization models. The generalization model presented in this paper is based on constraint-based modeling. It introduces the standardization of the semantic and cartographic generalization process together with an evaluation mechanism for the assessment of the quality of the resulting cartographic data considering simultaneously the preservation of the shape of the portrayed linear and area features. For cartographers, quality management is a key factor in creating an evidence-based, reliable product. To achieve this objective, cartographers, drawing on international experience, should implement a quality policy and adopt a quality management system (QMS) as an integral part of the map production process, starting with the quality assessment of the input data and finishing with the evaluation of the final product.","PeriodicalId":38507,"journal":{"name":"Human Geographies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85852363","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Human GeographiesPub Date : 2023-04-25DOI: 10.3390/geographies3020016
Fuyu Xu, K. Beard
{"title":"A Novel Similarity Measure of Spatiotemporal Event Setting Sequences: Method Development and Case Study","authors":"Fuyu Xu, K. Beard","doi":"10.3390/geographies3020016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/geographies3020016","url":null,"abstract":"Examining the similarity of event environments or surroundings—more precisely, settings—provides additional insight in analyzing event sequences, as it provides information about the context and potential common factors that may have influenced them. This article proposes a new similarity measure for event setting sequences, which involve the space and time in which events occur. While similarity measures for spatiotemporal event sequences have been studied, the settings and setting sequences have not yet been studied. While modeling event setting sequences, we consider spatial and temporal scales to define the bounds of the setting and incorporate dynamic variables alongside static variables. Using a matrix-based representation and an extended Jaccard index, we developed new similarity measures that allow for the use of all variable data types. We successfully used these similarity measures coupled with other multivariate statistical analysis approaches in a case study involving setting sequences and pollution event sequences associated with the same monitoring stations, which validate the hypothesis that more similar spatial-temporal settings or setting sequences may generate more similar events or event sequences. In conclusion, the developed similarity measures have wide application beyond the case study to other disciplinary contexts and geographical settings. They offer researchers a powerful tool for understanding different factors and their dynamics corresponding to occurrences of spatiotemporal event sequences.","PeriodicalId":38507,"journal":{"name":"Human Geographies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81111526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Human GeographiesPub Date : 2023-04-14DOI: 10.3390/geographies3020014
E. Bielecka, M. Luc, C. E. Haque, Parnali Dhar-Chowdhury, S. Hossain, D. Walker
{"title":"Spatial Evaluation of Dengue Transmission and Vector Abundance in the City of Dhaka, Bangladesh","authors":"E. Bielecka, M. Luc, C. E. Haque, Parnali Dhar-Chowdhury, S. Hossain, D. Walker","doi":"10.3390/geographies3020014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/geographies3020014","url":null,"abstract":"In recent years, many urban areas in low and middle income countries have experienced major dengue epidemics, and the city of Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is one of them. Understanding models based on land cover and land use in urban areas in relation to vector abundance and possible disease transmission can be a major epidemiological tool in identifying disease incidence and prevalence. Demographic and human behavioral factors can also play a role in determining microenvironments for entomological distribution—which is a major risk factor for epidemicity. Data collected from a cross-sectional entomological survey in the city of Dhaka during the monsoon season of 2012 and two serological surveys—one pre-monsoon and another post-monsoon in 2012—were analyzed in this study. A total of 898 households and 1003 containers with water were inspected, and 1380 Ae. aegypti pupae and 4174 larvae were counted in these containers. All Stegomyia indices were found to be the highest in the central business and residential mixed zone. The odds ratios of risk factors for seroprevalence, including sex, age, self-reported febrile illness during the previous six months, and travel during the last six months, were calculated; age distribution was found to be a highly significant risk factor (p = value < 0.0001). The study offers clear patterns of dengue viral transmission, disease dynamics, and their association with critical spatial dimensions.","PeriodicalId":38507,"journal":{"name":"Human Geographies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75619353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Human GeographiesPub Date : 2023-03-30DOI: 10.3390/geographies3020013
Zixuan Tan, Jinnian Wang, Zhenyu Yu, Yiyun Luo
{"title":"Spatiotemporal Analysis of XCO2 and Its Relationship to Urban and Green Areas of China’s Major Southern Cities from Remote Sensing and WRF-Chem Modeling Data from 2010 to 2019","authors":"Zixuan Tan, Jinnian Wang, Zhenyu Yu, Yiyun Luo","doi":"10.3390/geographies3020013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/geographies3020013","url":null,"abstract":"Monitoring CO2 concentrations is believed to be an effective measure for assisting in the control of greenhouse gas emissions. Satellite measurements compensate for the sparse and uneven spatial distribution of ground observation stations, allowing for the collection of a wide range of CO2 concentration data. However, satellite monitoring’s spatial coverage remains limited. This study fills the knowledge gaps of column-averaged dry-air mole fraction of CO2 (XCO2) products retrieved from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) and Orbiting Carbon Observatory Satellite (OCO-2) based on the normalized output of atmospheric chemical models, WRF-Chem, in Southern China during 2010–2019. Hefei (HF)/Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON), Lulin (LLN)/World Data Centre for Greenhouse Gases (WDCGG) station observations were used to validate the results of void filling with an acceptable accuracy for spatiotemporal analysis (R = 0.96, R2 = 0.92, RMSE = 2.44 ppm). Compared to the IDW (inverse distance weighting) and Kriging (ordinary Kriging) interpolation methods, this method has a higher validation accuracy. In addition, spatiotemporal distributions of CO2, as well as the sensitivity of CO2 concentration to the urban built-up areas and urban green space areas in China’s major southern cities during 2010–2019, are discussed. The approximate annual average concentrations have gradually increased from 388.56 to 414.72 ppm, with an annual growth rate of 6.73%, and the seasonal cycle presents a maximum in spring and a minimum in summer or autumn from 2010 to 2019. CO2 concentrations have a strong positive correlation with the impervious area to city area ratio, while anomaly values of the impervious area to urban green area ratio occurred in individual cities. The experimental findings demonstrate the viability of the study hypothesis that combines remote sensing data with the WRF-Chem model to produce a local area dataset with high spatial resolution and an extracted urban unit from statistical data.","PeriodicalId":38507,"journal":{"name":"Human Geographies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87460503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Human GeographiesPub Date : 2023-03-23DOI: 10.3390/geographies3020012
Christina W. Lopez, M. Wade, J. P. Julian
{"title":"Nature–Human Relational Models in a Riverine Social–Ecological System: San Marcos River, TX, USA","authors":"Christina W. Lopez, M. Wade, J. P. Julian","doi":"10.3390/geographies3020012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/geographies3020012","url":null,"abstract":"A social–ecological system is a highly connected organization of biophysical and social actors that interact across multiple scales, share resources, and adapt to the actors’ changes. The ways in which humans and nature interact have traditionally been characterized and influenced by competing intrinsic and utilitarian values. However, recently, relational values and relational models have been used to unpack the myriad of values society assigns to nature and create general typologies of nature–human relationships. Here, we investigate the spectrum of environmental values that exist in the San Marcos River (SMR)—a social–ecological system (SES) in which a spring-fed river flows through an urban environment in central Texas (USA) including a university campus that attracts regional and international tourists. Recognizing that scholars have struggled to identify a nuanced understanding of environmental values and how these values shape nature–human relationships in SES, we use the SMR case study to capture the nature–human relational models that exist among social and user groups of the blue space. Analyzing different groups of visitors and stakeholders of the SMR (n = 3145), this study serves as a pilot to apply relational models using a variety of metrics to build a framework for understanding models of nature–human relationships, beyond ecosystem services and dualistic valuations. In our sample, most respondents were classified under the stewardship model (59%). The utilization model (34%) was the second most common, followed by wardship (6%). We found that patterns of place identity emerged to support the development of relational models beyond utilization. Despite the differences among perceptions, values, and some variation in relational models, one commonality was the innate, ubiquitous preference to protect natural habitat, water quality, and the river’s aquifer water source. Our study contributes to the growing literature around relational values and is a pathway to integrate ecosystem services, environmental values, and human–environment interactions into a more holistic approach to environmental valuation.","PeriodicalId":38507,"journal":{"name":"Human Geographies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85153788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Human GeographiesPub Date : 2023-02-27DOI: 10.3390/geographies3010011
Vladyslav Zakharovskyi, K. Németh
{"title":"Recognition of Potential Geosites Utilizing a Hydrological Model within Qualitative–Quantitative Assessment of Geodiversity in the Manawatu River Catchment, New Zealand","authors":"Vladyslav Zakharovskyi, K. Németh","doi":"10.3390/geographies3010011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/geographies3010011","url":null,"abstract":"Hydrology is one of the most influential elements of geodiversity, where geology and geomorphology stand as the main values of abiotic nature. Hydrological erosion created by river systems destructing rock formations (eluvial process) from streams’ sources and then transporting and redepositing (alluvial process) the rock debris into the main river channels, make it an ongoing transformation element of the abiotic environment along channel networks. Hence, this manuscript demonstrates the influence of hydrological elements on geosite recognition, specifically for qualitative–quantitative assessment of geodiversity, which is based on a combination of geological and geomorphological values. In this concept, a stream system will be treated as an additional element. The basement area of the Manawatu Region has been utilized as the territory for the research of hydrological assessment. The region is in the southern part of the North Island of New Zealand and has relatively low geological and geomorphological values and diversity. The Strahler order parameter will be demonstrated as a hydrological element for geodiversity assessment. This parameter has been chosen as one of the most common and acceptable within geographical information system (GIS) environments. The result of this assessment compares the influences of Strahler order on qualitative–quantitative assessment of geodiversity and provides its drawbacks. Additionally, the places with high values will be considered for more accurate field observation to be nominated as potential geosites with an opportunity for geoeducational and geotouristic significance.","PeriodicalId":38507,"journal":{"name":"Human Geographies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77909679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Human GeographiesPub Date : 2023-02-17DOI: 10.3390/geographies3010010
Ikramul Hasan, Weibo Liu, Chao Xu
{"title":"Monitoring and Analyzing the Seasonal Wetland Inundation Dynamics in the Everglades from 2002 to 2021 Using Google Earth Engine","authors":"Ikramul Hasan, Weibo Liu, Chao Xu","doi":"10.3390/geographies3010010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/geographies3010010","url":null,"abstract":"Inundation dynamics coupled with seasonal information is critical to study the wetland environment. Analyses based on remotely sensed data are the most effective means to monitor and investigate wetland inundation dynamics. For the first time, this study deployed an automated thresholding method to quantify and compare the annual inundation characteristics in dry and wet seasons in the Everglades, using Landsat imagery in Google Earth Engine (GEE). This research presents the long-term time series maps from 2002 to 2021, with a comprehensive spatiotemporal depiction of inundation. In this paper, we bridged the research gap of space-time analysis for multi-season inundation dynamics, which is urgently needed for the Everglades wetland. Within a GIS-based framework, we integrated statistical models, such as Mann–Kendall and Sen’s Slope tests, to track the evolutionary trend of seasonal inundation dynamics. The spatiotemporal analyses highlight the significant differences in wet and dry seasons through time and space. The stationary or permanent inundation is more likely to be distributed along the coastal regions (Gulf of Mexico and Florida Bay) of the Everglades, presenting a warning regarding their vulnerability to sea level rise.","PeriodicalId":38507,"journal":{"name":"Human Geographies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85228843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}