Use of tobacco retail permitting to reduce youth access and exposure to tobacco in Santa Clara County, California

      In Santa Clara County, GIS methods were used to analyze the effectiveness tobacco permitting policies targeting youth smoking. The legislation was implemented in order to curb the access of middle-school and high-school students to tobacco retailers, especially in and around school and housing areas. The specific reasoning behind the restrictions was that "44% of middle school students and 51% of high school students reported that they were not refused purchase because of their age" (Coxe et al. 2014) in a survey conducted in 2011.

     So, how does this have anything to do with GIS so far? Well, the focused area was the unincorporated portion of the county (not cities) which are spread out and hard to enforce. GIS was used in order to see the relation between stores that closed down or did not renew their license and areas with high population densities of people under 18. In many areas, there is the problem of having different types of stores (grocery, gift shops, donut shops)  selling tobacco products and increasing ease of access to minors. These non-traditional tobacco stores incidentally were the worst offenders when it came to letting minors purchase cigarettes at a 20% youth success rate. They also saw effects of stores being too close to one another after the restrictions, which usually caused one to not renew its license due to competition.

               This table shows the compliance with regulations before and after the new tobacco retail permitting (TRP). The retail outlets not in compliance after regulation were stripped of their permits.


     The GIS mapping results showed that of the 36 retailers before the intervention, 11 discontinued selling tobacco products. Of the retailers that discontinued due to the restrictions on advertising and sale, one was within 500ft of another retailer. Three of the four located within 1000ft of a K-12 school discontinued selling tobacco as well. Ten of the eleven that discontinued were non-traditional outlets. This shows a relationship between tobacco sales and ease of access to minors, the "normal" tobacco retailers where not the ones to shut down and they were not located in areas with high minor density.

These findings could be a big step in curbing the problem that is youth smoking. This GIS approach can be used in other parts of the country to map out tobacco retail licenses in relation to schools and minor populations.


                                                   

Source: Coxe, N., Webber, W., Burkhart, J., Broderick, B., Yeager, K., Jones, L., & Fenstersheib, M. (2014). Use of tobacco retail permitting to reduce youth access and exposure to tobacco in Santa Clara County, California. Preventive medicine, 67, S46-S50.

Fostering a Better Foster Family: A Sociological Application of GIS to Map Child Welfare

The family is seen as a fundamental American institution, the site of important early childhood development and socialization.  Foster care, which is based in the children’s welfare system of the United States, faces the hard task of socializing children in a loving environment while maintaining the core values of the children’s birth families. In this sense, foster care must maintain the family structure while separating the child from the family. In this 2012 study by Rine et al., GIS is used to assess the environmental limitations and implications of foster care in rural areas. GIS, in this context, is understood as one of the most important and crucial tools to understanding one’s physical environment and the impact of one’s immediate physical surroundings on socialization and social interaction. This study demonstrates that GIS has the potential to help specific clients meet their needs in areas with limited resources. The ability to geographically illustrate resources like markets or schools, as well as the distance from the child’s home, helps the programs gain support and understanding from the volunteers, foster families, and communities. 

This article highlights the importance of incorporating spacial analysis within the child welfare system, as well as the American welfare system. While ‘welfare’ is held as a derogatory term in the current political climate, the system of welfare attempts to balance the systemic social injustices. Understanding the importance of one’s geographic location in daily life will help develop socioeconomic programs that help deconstruct the wealth and class gap in the United States. In the context of Southwestern University, the sociology and anthropology departments need to consider incorporating GIS and spacial analysis to fully explore and understand society. 

Rine, Christine M., Jocelyn Morales, Anastasiya B. Vanyukevych, Emily G. Durand, and Kurt A. Schroeder. 2012. "Using GIS Mapping to Assess Foster Care: A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words." Journal Of Family Social Work 15, no. 5: 375-388.

Detection of a Bioluminescent Milky Sea From Space

A milky sea is a phenomenon where the surface of the sea produces an intense uniform glow that extends to the horizon in all directions. These phenomena have been reported by mariners since the 17th century. However, due to the nature of both this phenomena and the scarcity of scientific observations, an explanation remains elusive. There was only one chance encounter between this phenomenon and a research vessel, which, in its report, expostulated that the glow could be caused by luminous bacteria (Vibrio harveyi) living with colonies of the microalga Phaeocystis. The little that is known about milky seas is based off of archived ship logs and is subject to human interpretation. Based on 235 documented cases since 1915, the "typical" milky sea (only seen at night) glows over an extensive area, is independent of wind speed, can last from several hours to several days, and may be associated with oceanographic fronts. More than 70% of reported milky seas were in the northwest Indian Ocean, most commonly during the summer southwest monsoon, with another smaller cluster (17%) in the waters near Java, Indonesia. The difficulty of collecting observations over the world's oceans makes the task of learning about the milky seas phenomenon well suited to remote sensing by satellites. The first detection of a milky sea event by satellite sensors was in the northwest Indian Ocean on January 25, 1995. Unprocessed nighttime visible imagery indicated the presence of a large, bright feature near the SS Lima, which was observed to persist over the next two nights. Digital enhancement and filtering of the imagery separates the coherent feature from the background noise. The satellite reveals the structure of this massive event, spanning an area of at least 15,400 km^2 on Jan. 25, and expanding to >17,700 km^2 the next day. The persistence of the feature over several days allowed for the examination of its spatial evolution in relation to local sea surface currents. The Navy Layered Ocean Model revealed there was a cold-core eddy centered on the northern part of the feature, partially explaining its observed counterclockwise rotation. A rare opportunity to match satellite low-light sensor observations to surface reports has resulted in the first satellite measurements of bioluminescence from a milky sea. Satellite remote sensing represents the only viable means of targeting this elusive class of marine bioluminescence.
Miller, S., Haddock, S., Elvidge, C., & Lee, T. (2005). Detection of a Bioluminescent Milky Sea From Space. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102(40), 14181-14184. Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org/content/102/40/14181.full
http://www.pnas.org/content/102/40/14181.full

 

A Geometric Solar Radiation Model with Applications in Agriculture and Forestry

Understanding incoming solar radiation is crucial for the agriculture and forestry industry. This is true with all almost all physical and biological processes because it plays a role in energy production and water absorption. This GIS analysis created insolation models calculating for atmospheric conditions, elevation, surface orientation, and influences of surrounding topography. They also generated daily minimum and maximum soil temperature based on regression analyses. They then compared these numbers with the insolation models they created. This allowed the authors to get a complete look at the impact of insolation on natural and biological processes. Water balance was another important variable they took care to measure.

Through analysis of collected data the authors found that soil temperature variation is connected with topographic position. They developed an insolation modified soil temperature model, which uses a geometric insolation sub model. This improves the accuracy of soil temperature measurement. Solar Analyst was used to create the insolation models. They found that insolation proved to be a critical factor for understanding fine-scale patterns across the landscape. The analysis also suggests that applications that involve energy or water balance could benefit an insolation sub model. However, they tempered this finding by saying that more analysis was needed to fine tune the process.

Fu, P., & Rich, P. M. (2002). A geometric solar radiation model with applications in agriculture and forestry. Computers and electronics in agriculture, 37(1), 25-35.

Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters

In Neumeyer and Plumper's "The Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters," the mortality rate of women is examined via death statistics of natural disasters. The sample their study used included 141 countries over the time period of 1981-2002. The data they used was collected via EM-DAT, a global data set of natural disasters that is available to the public. According to their findings, natural disasters kill more women than men and the women that die in these disasters are younger than the men killed. Socioeconomic status and the strength of the disaster are also deciding factors in this. Mortality rate has more to do social norms/gender roles and behaviors rather than biological differences. Here is an example: a man with two children who has been swept away by a tidal surge and can only hold onto one child. What child does he let go of? The daughter, because the son is the only one that can carry on the family line. Female children don't just get the short end of this stick here, either: they are not favored in famine conditions (i.e. a female child will not receive food or not receive as much food as her brother, father, or other male relatives). The destruction of a natural disaster is not limited to the actual event; women and girls face sexual abuse or rape in refugee camps that they may stay in after such a disaster. In these same camps, they also lack access to proper health and hygiene conditions.

Eric Neumeyer and Thomas Plumper:  "The Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters: The Impact of Catastrophic Events on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy, 1981-2002"

Neighbourhoods and health: a GIS approach to measuring community resource accessibility

Recent studies suggest an association between the contextual attributes of neighborhoods and the health status of residents. However, there has been a scarcity of studies that have directly measured the material characteristics of neighborhoods theorized to have an impact on health and health inequalities. This paper describes the development of an innovative methodology to measure geographical access to a range of community resources that have been empirically linked to health. GIS were applied to develop precise measures of community resource accessibility for small areas at a national scale.
Locational access to shopping, education, recreation, and health facilities was established for all 38 350 census meshblocks across New Zealand. Using GIS, distance measures were calculated from the population weighted centroid of each meshblock to 16 specific types of facilities theorized as potentially health related. From these data, indices of community resource accessibility for all New Zealand neighborhoods were constructed.

Recent advances in GIS and computing capacity have made it feasible to directly measure access to health related community resources at the neighborhood level. The construction of access indices for specific community resources will enable health researchers to examine with greater precision, variations in the material characteristics of neighborhoods and the pathways through which neighborhoods impact on specific health outcomes.

Source: Pearce, J., Witten, K., & Bartie, P. (2006). Neighbourhoods and health: a GIS approach to measuring community resource accessibility. Journal of epidemiology and community health, 60(5), 389-395.

GeoDesign

GeoDesign is a fairly new word that has been going around the Geographic Information System (GIS) community for the past couple years. GIS and design merging is the main concept of GeoDesign, and the word first came to ear in 2008 at a meeting at the University of California at Santa Barbara. GeoDesign enthusiasts have a very accepted definition of the issues that GeoDesign aims to answer/focus on; "to what extent are the fundamental spacial concepts that lie behind GIS relevant in design?" or "to what extent can the fundamental spacial concepts of design be addressed by GIS?"

 GeoDesign attempts to bring GIS into the process of designing human built environments. Other definitions focus more on defining GeoDesign as attempting to have an active role in shaping our surroundings to our desired uses. The link between the entity being designed and its geographic context provides "the tangible basis for doing both science-based and evidence-based design." By integrating geographic information science with design, GeoDesign brings geospatial computing capacity into the process of design. With this somewhat new process, a methodology has come about that can be used for spatial planning and decision making. Programs in curricula are being pushed by GeoDesign enthusiasts, and will have a goal of teaching the fundamental interrelationships between the earth's physical and human systems.


Lee, M. (2012). Teaching GeoDesign: A Campus-Wide Initiative. Sustainability on the UT Campus: A Symposium, 1-4. Retrieved February 8, 2015.

The Utilization of Elevation Data After Hurricane Katrina

After the 2002 Louisiana Oil Spill, high-resolution elevation data were gathered using light detection and ranging (Lidar) sensing which showed the elevation of different surfaces within the city of New Orleans. This information proved to be critical in the days following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 for measuring the levels of inundation and floodwater damage in New Orleans. 

Topographic map of New Orleans after the oil spill in 2002. This data became crucial for measuring floodwater volume and the extent of inundation caused by Hurricane Katrina. 

After the hurricane, there was a demand for a map that showed the damage caused by the floodwaters within the city. Because aerial imagery of the damage was not immediately available days after the hurricane, a topography-based system was chosen for measuring the volume of floodwater in the city. It was assumed that Lake Pontchartrain and the floodwaters had leveled off in the city, so a lake-level gage was used to estimate the elevation of floodwater.

Topographic map of water depth north and east of the Mississippi River in New Orleans on September 2, 2005.

Comparing the high-resolution elevation data gathered in 2002 to the data gathered in 2005 using Lidar showed the extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and the level of inundation in the city. Though it was based on estimates, this information became vital in formulating a plan to clean up the city and repair the damage it had suffered. This kind of information is also important for future use in that it can help document the effects of urban flooding and provide a better framework for how to repair and contain the damage flooding can cause.

Gesch, D. (2005). Topography-based analysis of Hurricane Katrina inundation of New Orleans. Science and Storms: the USGS Response to the Hurricanes of 2005, 53-56.  

Teaching GeoDesign: A Campus-Wide Initiative

GeoDesign, a GIS component that dates back to 1452, have become the latest news of GIS in the 20^th century. Through studying GeoDesign, GIS has brought the idea of Ecology and Technology together in a way that we can discover any “hidden patterns beneath [the] surface” of nature. Before GeoDesign, abstraction of the world has been present. Before this helpful tool that connects design with geography, we could not understand the multi-surfaces of the world so easily. Now with Geodesign present, we can comprehend the geographical aspects of the world with less difficulty.  

How GeoDesign works is it brings ‘geospatial computing capacity into the process of design,” meaning it enables the creative thoughts of designers in order to translate geographic analysis into built forms using geospatial data. Geodesign can be used to project something that could happen in the near future by connecting different layers of the relevant problem together and may project possible ways to change it. Geodesign has the power to bring institutions together through shared visions, technology, and a shared goal.

Lee, M.C. (2012), Teaching GeoDesign: A Campus-Wide Initiative, Sustainability on the UT Campus: A Symposium.

Putting water in its place: a perspective on GIS in hydrology and water management

             This article represents how GIS is related with the hydra-logical process that allows for better managements and understanding. as well as introducing the term hydroGIS showing how closely related they are. The ability to see the valleys and flow using depth vectors and layers showed us what processes were happening over millions of years. We know what happens with a small stream over time but a river is on a scale all its own, never revealed until the use of GIS. Allowing us to see the water shed and tributaries on its full and grand scale and truly showing how interconnected and independent how rivers are. It highlighted the new theory that rivers create rather than occupy space, how there forces create and mold the world we see. Not only how the water gets from point a to point b but what other process happen in accordance with that. -- Lucas Evans

Source: Clark, M. J. (1998). Putting water in its place. Hydrological Processes, 1(12), 823-834.