Sanchayeeta Adhikari, CSU Northridge

A comparison of water indices and binary thresholding techniques for wetland surface delineation for Crex Meadow Wildlife Area

Water indices have been successfully utilized to delineate wetland surfaces that are mostly open water pixels. However, we find inconsistent results in using water indices to extract wetland pixels that have higher proportions of vegetation. This study explores the applicability of satellite derived indexes for extracting wetland pixels that have varying (0%, 25%, 50%, and 80%) proportions of vegetation. We used Landsat data to generate Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI), Modified NDWI (MNDWI), Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI), Water Ratio Index (WRI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for Crex Meadow Wildlife Area situated in Grantsburg, Wisconsin. Additionally, we used three different binary thresholding techniques, i.e., zero thresholding, Otsu thresholding and manual thresholding to separate wetland from other land covers. For accuracy assessment, the results of the five indices will be compared with National Land Cover Database (NLCD).

Jessica Barnes, Northern Arizona University

Virtually gone: Digitizing and exporting California’s advantage in music production spaces and labor

Musicians and firms have long found advantages by clustering in Los Angeles, a city with numerous iconic recording studios and a highly skilled music workforce. With recent developments in computer technology some of LA’s music economy is becoming digitized and sold as software to be used for music production in other places. Numerous plug-ins have been developed to create digital models of spaces for music production and virtualization of engineers’ and musicians’ labor. The technique of digitizing uses code to capitalize on technical and symbolic capacity by allowing a potentially limitless number of engineers and musicians access to previously elite spaces, technologies, and knowledges. These shifts may provide additional income streams for iconic studio spaces, engineers, and musicians that can leverage their name recognition and sound, but may also continue to erode the primacy of Los Angeles as a key site of music production and labor.

Kris Bezdecny, CSU Los Angeles

California’s Water Crisis: A Case Study in Urban Eco-Austerity

The 2009-2017 California drought, recently “ended” due to record rainfalls, became so extreme that, though the State of California guarantees rights to water in its state constitution, a state of emergency was declared in April 2015 that limited water consumption by urban spaces. This obfuscated the largest water consumers in the state: agricultural interests, primarily through irrigation. This presentation looks at the recent water crisis through the lens of urban political ecology, evaluating existing datasets on water consumption and availability along with discourse analysis of the messaging before, during, and immediately after the crisis. Rather than being an urban problem or an environmental problem, the water crisis was a crisis of ecological austerity in response to neoliberal policies promoting particular corporate water usage strategies, further entrenching unevenly developed spaces and contesting rights to the city, and rights to basic, necessary resources to support human life.

Soheil Boroushaki, CSU Northridge

Implementing Ordered Weighted Averaging in ArcGIS

Geospatial multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problems typically involve a set of spatially feasible alternatives that are evaluated by multiple and conflicting evaluation criteria that vary in importance to the decision-maker(s). Central to GIS multicriteria analysis is the integration of geographical data and judgments to provide an overall assessment of the decision alternatives. This is accomplished by a multicriteria decision rule. This presentation focuses on the implementation of the Ordered Weighted Averaging (OWA) decision rule in ArcGIS using ArcPy. OWA is a family of multicriteria evaluation operators that generalizes the Boolyean overlays and the weighted linear combination procedures. Due to the non-linearity of OWA procedures, it was not possible to implement OWA within ArcGIS using its routine capabilities. This paper will present the implementation of OWA within ArcGIS using ArcPy.

Monika Calef, Soka University of America

How human fires differ from lightning fires in Interior Alaska

The boreal forest contains significant amounts of carbon in its biomass and soils and is currently responding to a rapidly changing climate which seems to be leading to warmer temperatures, drier conditions, and larger and more frequent wildfires in western North America. However, the fire regime is also affected by direct human activities through suppression, ignition, and land use changes. In order to achieve a refined understanding of how human fires differ from lightning fires, we analyzed both in regard to human proximity, fire seasonality, fire duration, fire management, and changes through time using ArcGIS and quantitative analysis methods. We found that human fire ignitions differ from lightning fires in several ways: they occur significantly closer to settlements and highways and in high suppression zones, they burn for a shorter duration which is inversely related to population, and they occur at any time during the year.

Chilala Davis, Waverly Ray & Natalie Robertson; San Diego Mesa College

Classroom Tutors in the Physical Geography Classroom

Classroom tutoring is one initiative of San Diego Mesa College’s Title V grant from the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program at the U.S. Department of Education. This form of supplemental instruction is designed to improve student outcomes in courses with typically low rates of retention and success. Within the context of California’s equity and student success initiatives, classroom tutors offer students from historically underrepresented groups with strategies to support their retention and success. For three semesters, classroom tutors have been available in selected introduction to physical geography courses at Mesa College. Data indicates that students who utilize the classroom tutor program have higher retention and success rates when compared to students who do not attend classroom tutor sessions. Due to smaller sample sizes, it is unclear whether this correlation is due to classroom tutoring or other factors related to student retention and success. .

Mike DeVivo, Grand Rapids Community College

A Terrorist State in the 19th Century: An Antecedent American Landscape

During the year preceding the 2016 election, many “Black Lives Matter” protesters faced physical and verbal abuse delivered by Trump supporters. In the ten-week period after polls closed in November, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported more than 1000 hate crimes had been committed; though hate groups have escalated across the US, the Deep South shows for them a strong presence. Indeed, a number of factors are associated with the relatively recent emergence of violent racism, but one matter too often ignored should be considered: the legacy of the Antebellum South and the Civil War. It is argued here that the Confederate States of America emerged as a terrorist state, marked by the sanction of brutality on 40% of its people. This paper explores this 19th century terror landscape, which may offer insight into the xenophobia, which in some areas, is becoming increasingly acceptable today.

Jose Diaz-Garayua, CSU Stanislaus

Public Performances and Meaning-Making: The Student Strike and Occupation of the University of Puerto Rico

An enduring period of social-economic and political unrest has mobilized a wide array of social justice movements in Puerto Rico throughout the twentieth-century to resist reforms consistent with neoliberal policy-making (Harvey, 2007). This paper analyzes the students’ movement and its 62-day occupation of the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras (UPR-RP) in 2010. Although similar events are taking place today, we limit our analysis to the occupation of 2010. The students’ movement incentives our exploration about autogestión as well as spatial practices as an exercise to resist and deliver a counter-message to neoliberal policies. We argue that the students’ movement was able to hold together a mosaic of people and interests towards a common objective due to a non-hierarchical model of organization linked by voluntary agreement (Kropotkin, 1995: xv). In other words, the students reinvigorate the possible idea of a self-managed university free from the neoliberal corporatization.

Luke Drake, CSU Northridge

Where does your food come from and where does it go? The network geography of Los Angeles farmers’ markets

This project contributes to theory on local food systems by examining the spatial relationships between farms and farmers' markets in Los Angeles. Research questions included: Are there spatial patterns to the farms that supply farmers’ markets? Which farms go to which markets? A sample of 34 farmers’ markets in the Los Angeles metro area was used as a case study. Fieldwork was used to identify the names and addresses of 282 farms that vended at these markets in summer 2016. A many-to-many geodatabase was created to link each farm to the market(s) it served. Analysis compared the supply networks of markets located in 10 types of neighborhoods as classified in ESRI Tapestry Segmentation. Markets located in working class neighborhoods had fewer vendors than markets in upscale neighborhoods, but all markets tended to draw farms from across southern and central California and the central valley.

Matt Ebiner, El Camino College

Bhutan’s Pursuit of Gross National Happiness

Bhutan is a Himalayan kingdom that focuses on Gross National Happiness, emphasizing cultural preservation, environmental conservation, sustainable development, and good governance. This presentation examines the current status of Bhutan’s pursuit of Gross National Happiness.

Alison McNally, CSU Stanislau

Testing the Waters: Engaging Students through a Community Based Water Quality Project

Issues of water quality and quantity are ubiquitous throughout the Central Valley of California, especially the San Joaquin Valley. Students in our lower division Water and Power course often do not realize the struggles communities face in an effort to deliver clean water and to ensure a sustainable supply for the future. Funded by a Service Learning grant, I incorporated a hands-on experiential learning activity whereby students collected water samples from their own homes and some schools, which we then had analyzed for contaminants. Students prepared reports detailing the source of water and discussed the impacts of the various contaminants revealed in the analysis. The activity was instrumental in connecting lecture discussions to real world issues, and provided a valuable example of the strong link between the community and water resource issues.

Ryan Miller, CSU Chico

Correlation or Causation: An analysis of crime rates in Rural California following AB 109 and Proposition 47.

Over the last six years, California has implemented two significant measures intended to reduce state prison populations: Assembly Bill 109, and Proposition 47. While public opinion regarding these initiatives has largely fallen along party lines, this analysis attempts to introduce some objectivity to the debate by comparing crime rates in California counties to national crime rates across the implementation period for both initiatives. Using an index approach that controls for broader nationwide trends, we find that the rate of both violent and property crimes in most California counties has increased relative to national averages, with especially alarming increases apparent in many rural counties. Could AB 109 and Prop 47 be the cause, or are other factors at play?

Cindy Nance, Mt. San Jacinto College

For Sale "The Last Free Place in America"

Slab City is an off-the-grid commune made popular by “Into the Wild” (2007) and Leonard Knight’s Salvation Mountain (d. 2014, El Cajon). For more than 40 years, it has been home to anyone who needs a free place to stay. People from various walks of life, beliefs and world views have coexisted amongst the bunkers, olympic pool (skate park) and building foundations. Situated on an abandoned World War II marine base near Niland, on the Salton Sea’s east shore, the land is for sale to fund a public trust for teachers. Without a hierarchy, order or rules – other than “live and let live” – there is a community center, health and animal services, library, hostel, church and special events. Hitting the mainstream through publications, social media, and landmark preservation efforts, “The Last Free Place in America” has become an international destination with a bit of disneyfication for the masses.

Matthew Nordstrom, San Bernardino Valley College

Enticing Student Interest in Geography Through Maps from the Past

Geography is not a popular major. For this reason, the lion’s share of lower division students take geography as a requirement and do not see anything beyond that. However, for instructors like myself, geography is a passion that I like to instill in my students. In order to enrich their geography experience, I decided to introduce historical maps comprised from various cultures and civilizations throughout the world. The sheer artwork and detail that went into these historical maps have caught the eye of many students and helped them see the rich artistic tradition behind map making. The richness of these maps help students develop spatial and analytical thinking. Overall, I believe using historic maps adds a dynamic approach to geography education by enticing the student to gain an appreciation for geography through the cartographers of the past.

Nicholas Perdue, Humboldt State University

Place-based Cartography: Mapping the Balmy Alley Murals

Murals are a vital part of the urban fabric of the Mission District of San Francisco, vibrant and striking reminders of the history, culture, and people of the neighborhood. As the Mission undergoes the process of rapid gentrification, the murals have become markers of resistance and hope, and a way to articulate and memorialize a place-based narrative in an increasingly translocal spaces. This project uses a variety of new digital mapping technologies to produce visual and narrative tours of Balmy Alley in the Mission, the home to the highest concentration of murals in the city. Doing so not only revels the distribution and cumulative effect of the collection of murals, but highlights alternative narratives to processes of neighborhood change.

Zia Salim, CSU Fullerton

The Emerging Role of Nonprofits: A Case Study of Affordable Rental Housing in Orange County, California

Within California's major metro areas, renters constitute nearly one-half of all households. The most serious and continual challenge for a majority of this market segment is meeting their high monthly rent payments - Census Bureau surveys reveal that 56 percent of California’s urban renters pay more than 30 percent of their monthly incomes for housing, a figure 10 points above the national average. This study examines the role of nonprofits in providing affordable rental housing in Orange County, California. We find that a small number of nonprofit developers and managers engage in providing affordable rental housing. By comparing a number of nonprofit rental housing providers, we explore the ways in which nonprofits act to assist rent-burdened households and the factors that hinder and/or help them. We conclude that an understanding of the role of nonprofits acting in this sector contributes to broader discussions of rent burden and affordable housing supply.

Rosemary Sherriff, Humboldt State University

Spruce response to climate change in Southwest Alaska

A critical concern for boreal ecosystems centers on broad-scale responses to warming; i.e., declining growth and mortality, or enhanced growth and greater productivity. However, few studies have synthesized forest responses along biogeographic gradients to address this issue. This paper develops a broader understanding of how a dominant conifer has responded to recent climate changes near the western forest margin of Alaska. Findings from south-west Alaska indicate that recent warming has led to markedly different growth and establishment responses according to ecosystem type and ecoregion near the forest-tundra margin. Altitudinal treeline sites showed consistently positive growth and expansion of trees with warmer temperatures in recent decades, whereas low-elevation forests had reduced growth and greater beetle mortality. Strong positive correlations between growth and summer-fall precipitation since the mid-1980s suggests that precipitation will become an increasingly important factor with further warming.

Ray Sumner & John Menary, Long Beach City College

Hidden Voices, Lost Lives: A Counter-Narrative in the Cultural Landscape of Long Beach, California

Must city and county government focus on high-density housing development while excluding social memory, quality of life and community? Should constructed heritage reflect only the chosen image of wealthy socially-prominent citizens? A recent Geography Field Methods class revealed striking dissonance of identity in the relationship of modern city to its past. The beautiful adobe homestead Rancho los Cerritos is a National Historic Landmark. A place of cultural significance to historical growth of Long Beach, it portrays exquisitely the elegant life of former Anglo owners. But the gritty reality of a working Rancho is genuinely evoked nearby, in a contested enclave where predominantly-Hispanic equestrian families maintain traditions and skills of those “humble retainers who worked as vaqueros in the service of the rancho”. This complement to the adobe constitutes an affective cultural landscape, another resource for community engagement and education, deserving equal preservation, at the interface of urbanization and heritage.

Benjamin Timms, Cal Poly - SLO

Cultural Ecosystem Services Valuation of Central California Oak Landscapes: A New Research Agenda

In 2016 a public uproar over the clear-cutting of old growth oak forests in Paso Robles by a winery erupted, highlighting the public value of central California oak landscapes and the competing economic value of the wine industry. This upcoming research project addresses such tensions through examining how different groups value cultural ecological services (CES) of oak landscapes. In order to evaluate how such groups perceive and value oak landscapes, a Q-methodology will be used to identify perspectives on CES that ranks values associated with those perspectives. Valuation of CES can improve policy and management decisions about environmental conservation, such as the proposed oak ordinances currently being debated in San Luis Obispo county. Undergraduate students in the Anthropology & Geography major will carry out in-depth interviews with these different populations, analyze the data, contribute and co-publish peer-reviewed journal articles, and present findings at regional and national conferences.

Ming-Hsiang Tsou, CSU San Diego

Combining Big Data, Social Media (Twitter) and Web GIS for Disaster Response and Evacuation Planning: Geo-targeted Event Observation (Geo) Viewer

Our research team developed a geo-targeted event observation (Geo) Viewer for monitoring real-time social media messages in target areas (http://humandynamics.sdsu.edu/GeoViewer.html). The web-based GeoViewer collects and displays geo-tagged tweets by using the public Twitter Streaming application programming interfaces (APIs) and ESRI ArcGIS online base maps. Different from traditional web GIS, the user interface design of Geo-Viewer provides the interactive display of social media content (pictures, videos, text messages) and maps together. GeoViewer is built for assisting emergency responses and disaster management tasks by tracking disaster event impacts, recovery activities, and residents’ needs in the target region. One unique feature of GeoViewer is to provide labeling and text-tagging functions for individual users (with login requirement). This function can help users to identify important messages related to disaster management tasks, such as warnings or medical help.

Robert Voeks, CSU Fullerton

THE CULTURAL CONSTRUCTION OF TROPICAL FOREST-DWELLERS

Our perception of tropical forest-dwellers has morphed over the ages from semi-human monsters to the wise stewards of pristine paradise. I explore how the cultural construction of these archetypes developed, from the armchair theorizing of the ancients to the romanticized depictions of Hollywood productions. Amerigo Vespucci’s descriptions of “numerous people” below the Equator disproved the long-standing opinions of the Greeks, whose “monsters” were replaced by the cannibalistic and dim-witted depictions of colonial settlers and physicians. The writings of Alexander von Humboldt cast native people in a more humane light, although these were underpinned by determinist ideas regarding the exuberance of tropical nature and the “retardation” of civilization. By the 1960s, scientists had replaced environmental determinist explanations with equally-constructed images of indigenous ecological harmony. Although research has failed to support most of these early assumptions, films like “The Medicine Man” and “Avatar” continue to sing the praises of the noble savage.