Human-Environment GIS Research Projects
We have ongoing projects in the following areas:
Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (TCMA): We seek to understand the dynamics of land change in the city their relationships with human and environmental systems. Answering these questions require data ranging from the parcel level to broader social and environmental organization of the landscape.
Ongoing projects
- Steven Manson: modeling population and health dynamics at small scales
- Adam Berland: using GIS to model the human-environment system
- Cellular models of land use
- Time series analysis of interactions among land use parcels (1990-2005)
- Long-term reconstruction of land use with multiple data sources (1880s-2005)
Past projects
- Debs Ghosh: using geographically weighted regression (GWR) to examine land use
- Debs Ghosh: examining West Nile virus
- Heather Sander: modeling human-environment dynamics
- Shipeng Sun: using agent-based modeling to explain development
- Joe Song: linking cellular automata to urban growth
- Joy Chen: using logistic regression to explain water complaints in St. Paul
- Eric Myott: looking at transportation linkages to sprawl as both a process and pattern
- Chad Riley: using fuzzy set theory to create composite maps of urbanization
Funding
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, New Investigator Program in Earth-Sun System Science. North American Land Change: Integrated Research and Education on Decision Making in Coupled Human-Environment Systems
- Minnesota Population Center Faculty Proposal Development Grant, University of Minnesota. Development and Application of a Twin Cities Geographic Dataset for Population Research
- Grant-In-Aid Of Research, Artistry and Scholarship, Office of the Dean of the Graduate School, University of Minnesota. Does Sprawl Beget Sprawl? Urbanization in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, 1990-2005
- McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, University of Minnesota. Nature, Causes, and Impacts of Changing Urban and Rural Landscapes
- Faculty Interactive Research Program, Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota. Assessing and Forecasting Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area
Multifunctional Agriculture: in collaboration with researchers in rural sociology and agronomy, we have started a multi-year project on the environmental and institutional ramifications and possibilities of sustainable agriculture in rural MN.
Ongoing projects
- Using geographically weighted regression (GWR) to examine land use
- Time series analysis of interactions among land uses over time
- Creating scenarios of future land use
Past projects
- Shipeng Sun: using agent-based modeling to explain agent social networks
Funding
- National Science Foundation. BE/CNH: Understanding the Importance of Weak-Tie Networks in Complex Human-Environment Systems: Ecosocial Feedback in Multifunctional Agriculture
- Intercollegiate Research Network, University of Minnesota. Testing a Novel Mechanism for Sustainable Development of Agriculture
Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region (SYPR): we have a large amount of data focused on land use and its determinants in this region of Mexico, ranging from household interviews to GIS layers on environmental systems and social institutions (1987-2005).
Ongoing projects
- Time series analysis of interactions among land uses over time
- Creating scenarios of future land use
- Examining relationships between agriculture and social and/or ecological well being
Pat projects
- Shipeng Sun: using agent-based modeling to explain development
- Debs Ghosh: GWR and urban modeling
- Heather Sander: urban ecosytems modeling
Funding
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, New Investigator Program in Earth-Sun System Science. North American Land Change: Integrated Research and Education on Decision Making in Coupled Human-Environment Systems
- Minnesota Population Center Faculty Proposal Development Grant, University of Minnesota. Development and Application of a Twin Cities Geographic Dataset for Population Research
- McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, University of Minnesota. Nature, Causes, and Impacts of Changing Urban and Rural Landscapes
- Minnesota Population Center Development Grant, University of Minnesota. Land Change in the Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region of Mexico: Linking Household Decision Making to Social and Ecological Systems
- National Science Foundation. BE/CNH: The Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity of Coupled Human-Environment Systems in the Southern Yucatan Peninsular Region
- Faculty Summer Research Fellowship Program, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota. Global Environmental Change: Local Dimensions of Human Vulnerability and Resilience in Mexico
Global Data. In collaboration with units including Minnesota Population Center, Institute on the Environment, and Libraries, we are conducting research that addressees the poor integration of the social science of population and natural science of the environment in the global change research. The first focus of this work is population and land use at the global scale and the second is spatiotemporally harmonizing census data in rapidly developing areas via NIH-funded projects on Latin America and Eurasia. Third is Terra Populus, an ambitious project to create population-environment data that are both locally accurate and global in coverage. A final focus is on issues of spatiotemporal data more geneally, such as developing harmonized school attendance boundaries.
Ongoing projects
- Steven Manson: geospatial harmonization, data needs
Funding
- National Science Foundation OCI: Terra Populus: A Global Population/Environment Data Network
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health. Integrated Samples of Eurasian Censuses
- National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health. Integrated Samples of Latin American Censuses
- National Science Foundation. School Attendance Boundary Information System (SABINS)
Human-Environment Education and Spatial Thinking : The HEGIS lab is combining spatial thinking and environmental education at the K-12 and post-secondary education levels.
Ongoing projects
Past projects
- Working with Eco Education, a long-established non-profit environmental education organization "committed to making environmental education relevant to urban learners and to helping them address their unique environmental concerns"
- Tom Swanson: web mapping with the Minnesota Interactive Internet Mapping (MIIM) system
- Len Kne: web mapping with the Minnesota Interactive Internet Mapping (MIIM) system
- Len Kne: web mapping and K-12 and post-secondary education
Funding
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration, New Investigator Program in Earth-Sun System Science. North American Land Change: Integrated Research and Education on Decision Making in Coupled Human-Environment Systems
- Office for Public Engagement, University of Minnesota. Strengthening Public Engagement Through a Web-Based Curriculum on Spatial Thinking in Environmental Education
- Information Technology Fees Committee, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota. Minnesota Interactive Mapping Project.
- Information Technology Fees Committee, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota. Spatializing the Undergraduate Curriculum
Methods, Models, and Complex Human-Envrionment Systems
Ongoing projects
- Chris Crawford: modeling snow pack and water with remote sensing
- Dudley Bonsal: using agent-based modeling to compare decision making approaches
- Jennifer Immich: using GIS modeling for archeology
- Steven Manson: modeling complex systems, agent-based models
Open projects
- Creating next generation agent-based models
- Creating next generation cellular automata models
- Advancing geographically weighted regression
- Multicriteria evaluation with genetic programming
Past projects
- Shipeng Sun: using agent-based modeling to compare decision making approaches
- Shipeng Sun: advanced programming in agent-based models
- Tom Swanson: integrating GIS with next generation agent-based models
- Paul Wickman: working with the REPAST agent based modeling system
Funding
- National Science Foundation. CNH: Global Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis in the Evaluation of Social-Ecological Resilience: Theoretical Debate Over Infrastructure Impacts on Livelihoods and Forest Change
Archeological Prediction: we have a number of students using GIS to examine anthropological and archeological issues, particularly predicting where to find sites. We have one data set for Colorado and the potential to develop more for MN.
Past projects
- Hugh Dittrich: location of house mounds in Colorado with a fuzzy MCE model
- Jason Menard: least cost measures applied to roman roads in the UK
- Brian Meuller: location of house mounds in Colorado with overlay model
- Jeremy Nienow: spatial interaction models of settlement locations in MN
