skip to main content


Title: Geocomputational infrastructure for population-environment data
Geocomputation is increasingly integrated with spatial data infrastructure to develop and deliver massive datasets and attendant analysis and visualization capacity to a wide range of users. IPUMS Terra is spatial data infrastructure that develops and uses geocomputational approaches to provide one of the largest collections of integrated population and environment data in the world. In this paper, we describe new efforts to fundamentally change the landscape of population-environment data by integrating, preserving, and disseminating vast amounts of aggregate census and agricultural census data. We are developing data manipulation tools and workflow management approaches to transform and standardize data as well as capture metadata. These developments in turn facilitate the processing, documenting, and intake of tens of thousands of data tables into IPUMS Terra, which then are shared with the scientific community and the broader public to advance understanding of the population and agricultural systems that are central to many complex human-environment systems.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1738369
NSF-PAR ID:
10183020
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Geocomputation 2019
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract

    Modeling human activity dynamics is important for many application domains. However, there are problems inherent in modeling population information, since the number of people inside a given area can change dynamically over time. Here, a cyberGIS-enabled spatiotemporal population model is developed by combining Twitter data with urban infrastructure registry data to estimate human activity dynamics. This model is an object-class oriented space–time composite model, in which real-world phenomena are modeled as spatiotemporal objects, and people can move from one object to another over time. In this research, all spatiotemporal objects are aggregated into 14 spatiotemporal object classes, and all objects in a given space at different times can be projected down to a spatial plane to generate a common spatiotemporal map. A temporal weight matrix is derived from Twitter activity curves for each spatiotemporal object class and represents population dynamics for each object class at different hours of a day. Finally, model performance is evaluated by using a comparison to registered census data. This spatiotemporal human activity dynamics model was developed in a cyberGIS computing environment, which enables computational and data intensive problem solving. The results of this research can be used to support spatial decision-making in various application areas such as disaster management where population dynamics plays an important role.

     
    more » « less
  2. The Kiribati 2019 Integrated Household Income and Expenditure Survey (Integrated HIES) embeds novel ecological and human health research into an ongoing social and economic survey infrastructure implemented by the Pacific Community in partnership with national governments. This study seeks to describe the health status of a large, nationally representative sample of a geographically and socially diverse I-Kiribati population through multiple clinical measurements and detailed socio-economic surveys, while also conducting supporting food systems research on ecological, social, and institutional drivers of change. The specific hypotheses within this research relate to access to seafood and the potential nutritional and health benefits of these foods. We conducted this research in 21 of the 23 inhabited islands of Kiribati, excluding the two inhabited islands—Kanton Islands in the Phoenix Islands group with a population of 41 persons (2020 census) and Banaba Island in the Gilbert Islands group with a population of 333 persons (2020 census)—and focusing exclusively on the remaining islands in the Gilbert and Line Islands groups. Within this sample, we focused our intensive human health and ecological research in 10 of the 21 selected islands to examine the relationship between ecological conditions, resource governance, food system dynamics, and dietary patterns. Ultimately, this research has created a baseline for future Integrated HIES assessments to simultaneously monitor change in ecological, social, economic, and human health conditions and how they co-vary over time. 
    more » « less
  3. Abstract

    Changing landscape heterogeneity can influence connectivity and alter genetic variation in local populations, but there can be a lag between ecological change and evolutionary responses. Temporal lag effects might be acute in agroecosystems, where land cover has changed substantially in the last two centuries. Here, we evaluate how patterns of an insect pest’s genetic differentiation are related to past and present agricultural land cover change over a 150‐year period. We quantified change in the amount of potato,Solanum tuberosumL., land cover since 1850 using county‐level agricultural census reports, obtained allele frequency data from 7,408 single‐nucleotide polymorphism loci, and compared effects of historic and contemporary landscape connectivity on genetic differentiation of Colorado potato beetle,Leptinotarsa decemlineataSay, in two agricultural landscapes in the United States. We found that potato land cover peaked in Wisconsin in the early 1900s, followed by rapid decline and spatial concentration, whereas it increased in amount and extent in the Columbia Basin of Oregon and Washington beginning in the 1960s. In both landscapes, we found small effect sizes of landscape resistance on genetic differentiation, but a 20× to 1,000× larger effect of contemporary relative to historic landscape resistances. Demographic analyses suggest population size trajectories were largely consistent among regions and therefore are not likely to have differentially impacted the observed patterns of population structure in each region. Weak landscape genetic associations might instead be related to the coarse resolution of our historical land cover data. Despite rapid changes in agricultural landscapes over the last two centuries, genetic differentiation amongL. decemlineatapopulations appears to reflect ongoing landscape change. The historical landscape genetic framework employed in this study is broadly applicable to other agricultural pests and might reveal general responses of pests to agricultural land‐use change.

     
    more » « less
  4. Hurricane-induced storm surge and flooding often lead to the closures of evacuation routes, which can be disruptive for the victims trying to leave the impacted region. This problem becomes even more challenging when we consider the impact of sea level rise that happens due to global warming and other climate-related factors. As such, hurricane-induced storm surge elevations would increase nonlinearly when sea level rise lifts, flooding access to highways and bridge entrances, thereby reducing accessibility for affected census block groups to evacuate to hurricane shelters during hurricane landfall. This happened with the Category 5 Hurricane Michael which swept the east coast of Northwest Florida with long-lasting damage and impact on local communities and infrastructure. In this paper, we propose an integrated methodology that utilizes both sea level rise (SLR) scenario-informed storm surge simulations and floating catchment area models built in Geographical Information Systems (GIS). First, we set up sea level rise scenarios of 0, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 m with a focus on Hurricane Michael’s impact that led to the development of storm surge models. Second, these storm surge simulation outputs are fed into ArcGIS and floating catchment area-based scenarios are created to study the accessibility of shelters. Findings indicate that rural areas lost accessibility faster than urban areas due to a variety of factors including shelter distributions, and roadway closures as spatial accessibility to shelters for offshore populations was rapidly diminishing. We also observed that as inundation level increases, urban census block groups that are closer to the shelters get extremely high accessibility scores through FCA calculations compared to the other block groups. Results of this study could guide and help revise existing strategies for designing emergency response plans and update resilience action policies.

     
    more » « less
  5. Hurricane-induced storm surge and flooding often lead to the closures of evacuation routes, which can be disruptive for the victims trying to leave the impacted region. This problem becomes even more challenging when we consider the impact of sea level rise that happens due to global warming and other climate-related factors. As such, hurricane-induced storm surge elevations would increase nonlinearly when sea level rise lifts, flooding access to highways and bridge entrances, thereby reducing accessibility for affected census block groups to evacuate to hurricane shelters during hurricane landfall. This happened with the Category 5 Hurricane Michael which swept the east coast of Northwest Florida with long-lasting damage and impact on local communities and infrastructure. In this paper, we propose an integrated methodology that utilizes both sea level rise (SLR) scenario-informed storm surge simulations and floating catchment area models built in Geographical Information Systems (GIS). First, we set up sea level rise scenarios of 0, 0.5, 1, and 1.5 m with a focus on Hurricane Michael’s impact that led to the development of storm surge models. Second, these storm surge simulation outputs are fed into ArcGIS and floating catchment area-based scenarios are created to study the accessibility of shelters. Findings indicate that rural areas lost accessibility faster than urban areas due to a variety of factors including shelter distributions, and roadway closures as spatial accessibility to shelters for offshore populations was rapidly diminishing. We also observed that as inundation level increases, urban census block groups that are closer to the shelters get extremely high accessibility scores through FCA calculations compared to the other block groups. Results of this study could guide and help revise existing strategies for designing emergency response plans and update resilience action policies 
    more » « less