Women’s suffrage is a movement that has been fought by women and allies across the globe for as long as democracy has existed. Depending on the region of the world, the fruition of this movement came at different points in history, but for Europe-- and many countries traditionally considered in the “western” world--progress kickstarted at the turn of the 20th century. Switzerland is an exception to this. Despite being the first European country to declare universal suffrage for men in 1848, women’s suffrage in the country wasn’t granted until 1970 on a national level, and up to twenty years later on a cantonal level (Switzerland’s regional designation). This study looks at the case of women’s suffrage in Switzerland on that cantonal level. Analyzing the unique pattern of progression through the country and comparing the earliest adopting cantons in 1959 to the latest in 1990, factors were identified that played a role in the movement of female enfranchisement throughout the cantons. The contributing elements analyzed were the population, average income and religion of each canton as well as geographic barriers between cantons that may have influenced the flow of ideas from one region to another. Demographic information was collected and compiled from the Swiss statistical bureau and, along with Landsat imagery, the data was analyzed using GIS and remote sensing techniques to pinpoint a spatial correlation between the identified elements and Swiss cantonal suffrage dates.
Measles cases are on the rise in the United States with 2,838 reported and confirmed cases since 2010. Three main factors contribute to the reemergence of measles in the United States, compounding on one another to facilitate large outbreaks across the country. Increased globalization, religious exemptions, and the rise of the anti-vaccination movement create an environment where people who are not vaccinated against the measles travel easily to locations with measles outbreaks. Herd immunity against measles requires a population vaccination threshold between 92 percent and 94 percent. The resurgence of cases throughout the United States suggests this threshold is not being met in specific communities. Researchers at John Hopkins University in May 2019 released a county-level risk assessment for the measles for all counties in the United States. The study only considers the total population and volume of international travel in each county and does not take into consideration the demographics and immunization nuances of each region. This project analyzes the top first, second, fourth, and fifth-ranked counties identified as the most at-risk for measles outbreaks as well as two counties experiencing outbreaks that did not rank as at-risk. Using clustering and statistical analysis techniques, urban growth, population changes, and demographic changes in each of the six counties from 2014 to 2019 are analyzed to identify trends. Comparing these changes to exposure sites of the current measles outbreaks in each respective county highlight similarities and aid in answering the question of where to improve immunization rates and spread a pro-vaccination message.
This presentation explores the use of GIS methods to map and visualize a city’s historic landscape. Using Lahore, Pakistan, as a pilot case, the study aims to understand the challenges involved in conceptualising how a city’s dynamic past is represented in a digital environment. With the help of myriad data sources selected in relation to certain points of interest, the study demonstrates how GIS is applied to record and in the process represent what used to be, what was lost and what came to be over time. While archival maps, photographs, gazetteers, historical and literary accounts, memoirs etc., constitute examples of key data sources, integral to the present inquiry is the documentation of place-names and the extent to which they can be linked to other data sources. I draw attention to the constraints and choices faced in defining the study area, in representing historical landscapes in a geodatabase and in collecting and creating meaningful data. In the process, I examine how additional (online) data sources provide viable alternatives to help interpret how historic footprints change over time. GIS provides an interactive platform to collect and examine diverse sources of historical information and the case of Lahore presents an interesting opportunity to demonstrate its use within spatial humanities. Implicit in the present scope of work is an attempt to gain insight into how rationales are formed in deciding what and how to present data and implications of choosing one type of spatial representation over another.
Bicycling is a healthy and effective way to commute to work, offering an alternative to driving, walking, or public transit. Despite the benefits, there are plenty of roadblocks which keep people from fully embracing this mode of transportation. This could be due to time constraints, safety risks, or simply a lack of useable infrastructure. It can be intimidating to ride, especially on busy streets in a major city. With nearly 1.6 million people, the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is one of the largest cities in the United States. Many people here have chosen to embrace cycling as a preferred means of commuting. With the proper facilities in place, how many more people would choose to take advantage of a fun and beneficial ride to work? The city has made progress over the last 10 to 20 years in creating safe corridors for people to ride, all while keeping vehicular and pedestrian traffic in mind. Philadelphia, however, lags behind many other major cities in the implementation of safe biking practices. This presentation intends to explore the current inventory of cycling facilities within the city and analyze their effectiveness. The goal is to identify areas which can be highlighted for existing good design, areas where biking infrastructure exists but needs to be altered to meet a higher standard, and areas where facilities are missing entirely but should be added. Opportunities for improvement exist which can lead to an increase in community engagement in cycling and more people choosing to bike to work.
Small farmers are striving to meet the growing demand for local, healthy, pastured meat and are seeking ways make their operations more sustainable, productive and profitable through a variety of management strategies, including Management-intensive Grazing (MiG). One of their unique challenges is the ability to measure, monitor and respond to ever-changing pasture conditions throughout the growing season. The goal of this research was to determine if UAS-derived data could help close the gap between the expensive and time-consuming constraints of traditional pasture data collection and the meaningful information farmers need to run an optimal and efficient MiG system. The approach was to utilize UAS with both multispectral and RGB cameras, flown multiple times throughout the grazing season on the author’s farm, and look for data correlation with traditional pasture measurements to determine if the remotely-sensed data could serve as a time and cost-effective proxy for traditional ground-based measurements in a MiG system. The months-long study of UAS-derived data showed promise for small farmers who seek to employ this technology on their operations. The correlation between traditional, ground-based measurements and remotely-sensed data provides useful information. However, the high cost of entry for multispectral technology proves to be a limiting factor for implementation with the majority of small farmers for the foreseeable future. Alternatively, RGB technology is becoming increasingly affordable and provides significant value for pasture-based operations seeking continuous feedback on how their land is responding to their management practices.
The pueblitos of the early 18th century were single-family dwellings built by the Athabascans Indians (progenitors of the Navaho) in isolated locations within the Dinetah (northwestern New Mexico) as defensive structures against tribes competing for scarce resources. An unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a high definition camera provides a low-cost platform for producing highly accurate mapping of the sites for archaeologists and site conservationists. The flights over the site were conducted with a DJI Inspire 2 with the Geocue Loki unit, a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Post-Process Kinematic (PPK) direct geopositioning hardware & software solution which geotags each image acquired through the X4S camera. This setup enabled flights over the pueblito ruins known as the Citadel to produce high quality two-dimensional views of the site area. The planimetric mapping illustrates the technique that the Indians used to build structures atop a single large boulder with the remnants of the storage facility at the base of the boulder. Though the three-dimensional views of the facility showed the melted cheese effect on the building, a common effect of using a UAV-based platform, techniques are provided that will eliminate that effect in future flights. UAV-based photogrammetry can replace the manual efforts at producing archaeological planimetric site drawings and can provide more accurate measurement and extraction of feature data. As well, the relationship between features can be more accurately displayed in the maps produced from the data acquired by the UAV.