Geographic Information Science for Development and Environment (GISDE)

Final M.A. Research Projects Topics

2012 Graduates and their Topics

Amintas Brandao, Jr.: Modeling deforestation and carbon stock changes in the State Forests of Faro, Trombetas, and Paru (Advisor: Ronald Eastman)

Devin Dworkin: Conservation GIS in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest: Summer 2011 Internship with Iracambi (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

David Eitelberg: GIS and Natural Resource Management: Summer Internship with the US Bureau of Land Management's National Landscape Conservation System (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Megan Ewert: GIS Applications at the Iracambi Atlantic Rainforest Research and Conservation Center (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

QiQi Jiang: GIS and Urban Land Use Planning: Summer Internship with Cinderella Tech Development Co., in Nanjing, China (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Guanying Li: Flood Risk Assessment for the Middle and Lower sections of the Gan River Basin, China (Advisor: Hamil Pearsall)

Fei Meng: Spatial Disparities in Fresh Produce Accessibility in Massachusetts, USA (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

William Merry: GIS in Washington, D.C.: Summer Internship with the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Anders Olson: Temporal Changes in Forest Fragmentation of the Southern Yucatan: Sub Regional Analysis of Forest Pattern and Structure (Advisor: John Rogan)

Joshua Plisinski: Conservation GIS in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest: Summer 2011 Internship with Iracambi (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Mike Towle: Plant Community Mapping for Malheur National Wildlife Refuge  (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Hong Xia: Exploring the Relationship between Low Birth Weight and Associated Factors in Central Massachusetts Using Geographically Weighted Logistic Regression (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Chia-Rung Yang: Exploring the Relationship between Low Birth Weight and Associated Factors in Central Massachusetts Using Geographically Weighted Logistic Regression (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Sainan Zhang: GIS and Water Resource Management: Internship with Water Environment Institute, Shenzhen, China (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Yao Zhou: Global increases in NDVI in hyper-arid and arid areas and it’s relation to water vapor, aerosols and precipitation (Advisor: Ronald Eastman)

2011 Graduates and their Topics

Ananya Baruah: GIS and Brownfield Redevelopment in the  City of Worcester (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Stacy Bogan: Using GIS to address Atlantic Rainforest Fragmentation in Southeastern Brazil: Summer 2010 Internship with Iracambi (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Alexander Carnes: Using GIS to address Atlantic Rainforest Fragmentation in Southeastern Brazil: Summer 2010 Internship with Iracambi (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Rumika Chaudhry: Developing Web-Based "Interval, Category, and Transition Application (ICTA)" to Analyze and Interpret Land Changes in the Long Term Ecological Research Network (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Vijay Chellappan: 2010 Summer Internship with Clark labs on LiDAR Data Processing tools Development Analysis (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Nicholas Cuba: Modeling Dry Season Deciduousness in Mexican Yucatan Forest Using Modis EVI Data (Advisor: John Rogan)

S.M. Rafael Harun: Distribution of Industrial Farms in the US and Its Relationship With Socio-Economic, Health and Environmental Characteristics of Counties (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Trevor B. Heburn: GIS in Franklin Massachusetts: Internship Report (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Zhengqi Lu: Transportation Model Development: New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Ryan Norton: Internship with the Town of Sudbury, Massachusetts Information Systems Department (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Daniel Rees: The Relationship between Fine Green Vegetation and Socioeconomic Factors in the Plum Island Ecosystems (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Jonathan Sheets: Using GIS to address Atlantic Rainforest Fragmentation in Southeastern Brazil: Summer 2010 Internship with Iracambi (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Chau Tran Van: Suitability for Reforestation in the Buffer Zone of Hoan Lien National Park, Vietnam: A GIS Analysis (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Nicholas Wilson: Habitat Mapping of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Princeton, Oregon (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Wuxuan Xiang: Comparison of Flow Matrix and Markov Matrix to Describe and to Extrapolate Land change (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Hao Xin: The Qiantang River Interactive Map: A Case for Web GIS Application for Public Participation in River Protection in China (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Yao Yao: Using GIS to address Atlantic Rainforest Fragmentation in Southeastern Brazil: Summer 2010 Internship with Iracambi (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Hangxing Yin: An Optimal Network Location-Allocation Model for Water Transfer Management (Advisor: Sam Ratick)

Yue Zhang: Understanding Food Access in Main South Community, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA (Advisor: Hamil Pearsall)

Yujia Zhang: Characterizing Land Changes Over Several Points in Time (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

2010 Graduates and their Topics

William Adjei: Testing the Sensitivity of Land Change Results to Category Aggregation in Southwestern Ghana (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Gurina Bajaj: The City of Worcester: Urban EcoMap (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Katherine Doiron: Avian Species Distribution Model Accuracy Assessment Using  Global Biodiversity Information Facility Data for North America (Advisor: Ronald Eastman)

Nicholas Gebauer: Protecting Pennsylvania’s South Mountain Conservation Landscape: Summer 2009 Internship Report (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Michael Lindgren: The Influence of Climate on Spatiotemporal Dynamics of an Extensive Mountain Pine Bottle Outbreak in the Western U.S (Advisor: Dominik Kulakowski)

Thi Thu Thuy Nguyen: Sensitivity of Land Cover Analysis to Category Aggression (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Adepero Oladeinde: GIS and Epidemiology: 2009 Summer Internship with Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Madhura Phaterpekar: Quality Analysis of a GIS Application (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Prajna Regmi: A Study of the Independence of the Indian Ocean Dipole from El Nino: Oscillation using Extended Empirical Orthogonal Teleconnection (Advisor: J.R. Eastman)

2009 Graduates and their Topics

Scott Broo: Managing Water Resources in Eastern Massachusetts: A Sensitivity Analysis of Demand Sector Water Use Factor (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Joel Masselink: Central African Regional Program for the Environment: USAID Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo Summer 2008 Internship (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Yang Yang Wang: The Design of Vulnerability Index for the National Children Study Using GIS (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

2008 Graduates and their Topics

Shaimaa Ahmed: Summer internship at Earth Systems Research Institute (ESRI) Redlands-California (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Claire Brill: Using GIS to Contrast Perceived Versions Preferred Priorities for Brownfield Redevelopment in Worcester, MA (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Nan Deng: GIS for Local Planning--- Summer Internship at the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Oh Seok Kim: Comparison of Two Land Change Modules: The Case Study of Bolivia (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Marlon Ortega: GIS Summer Internship at Iracambi (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Ann Raj: GIS and Disaster Management. Internship with Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Eric Solatka: GIS and Public Health. Internship in Massachusetts Department of Public Health Bureau of Environmental Health Assessment (Advisor: Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger)

Alicia Simonti: The 2005 Caribbean Mass Coral Bleaching Event: A Sea Surface Temperature Empirical Orthogonal (Advisor: Ronald Eastman)

Rima Wahab Twibell: Setting the Scene for Wildlife Burn Severity Mapping Using Biophysical, Environmental, and Prior-Disturbance Controls (Advisor: John Rogan)

2007 Graduates and their Topics

Safaa Zakaria Aldwaik: The Corridor: Using GIS to Propose Satisfactory Transportation Paths Between the West Bank and Gaza Strip (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Dong-Ha Hwang: Using Hyperspectral Remote Sensing to Map the Distribution of Tree Species in Michigan, USA (Advisor: John Rogan)

Xiaoxiao Li: Methods to Estimate the Land Transition Matrix from Two Erroneous Maps (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Kobla Mensah: Exploring the Effects of Using Sub-Pixel Fractional Images on the Accuracy of Hard Classification Landover Outputs (Advisor: Ronald Eastman)

Neeti Neeti: Modeling Trends in Phenological Curve Shape Parameters (Advisor: Ronald Eastman)

John Nsibirwa: What are Sources of Uncertainty in the 1951 map of the Great Worcester area? (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

John Pearson: Impact of Spatial Extent on the Analysis of Land Change (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Smitha Peethamboram: Three Dimensional Matrix for Comparing Three Maps that have Mixed Pixels: Application to Model Validation of Multiple Resolutions (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Bryon Dale Phelps: Classification of Urban/Residential Areas from an Ecological Prospective in Support of Biodiversity Assessment (Advisor: John Rogan)

Lisa Silva: A Stratified Random Sampling Strategy to Measure the Land Cover Map Accuracy in Minas Gerais, Brazil (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Nicolas Teougam: Assessing the Systematic Transitions of Land Use at Different Spatial Resolutions in the Plum Island Ecosystems, Massachusetts (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Victor Hugo Gutierrez Velez: Influence of Spatial Compounds of Uncertainty on the Prediction of Carbon Disturbed by Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

2006 Graduates and their Topics

Alexander Brown: A Hybrid Time and Frequency Domain Decomposition of NDVI and SST Time Series (1983-2003) (Advisor: Ronald Eastman)

Yongming Cai: Stimulation of Dam Break Scenario Using GIS Technique (Advisor: Eugenio Marcano)

Sean Patrick Griffin: Mapping the Florida Dry Prairie Using Decision Tree Classification with Spectral and Environmental Variables (Advisor: John Rogan)

George Kariuk: Measurement of Map Comparison at Multiple Temporal and Spatial Scales (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Bang Viet Le: Tsunami Risk Assessment to the Vietnamese Coastal Regions (Advisor: Ronald Eastman)

Manuela Sabina Therese Rayner: A Sampling Strategy for Evaluating Land Cover Change in the Atlantic Rainforest, Brazil (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Diana Sucharski: Improvements for the use of the Relative Operating Characteristic (ROC) to compare Maps (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Brendan Warran Tierney: Evaluation of Cellular Telecommunications and E9-1-1 Deployment Issues in Massachusetts (Advisor: Eugenio Marcano)

2005 Graduates and their Topics

Nicole Alleyne: Mapping Flood Risk in the Soliette River Watershed in the Hispaniola (Advisor: John Rogan)

Carlos Armas: Childhood Asthma in Relation to Traffic Flow & Socioeconomic Determinants in Worcester, MA (Advisor: Eugenio Marcano)

Christopher Ayres: Land Cover Change and Landscape Fragmentation on the Border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti (Advisor: Eugenio Marcano)

Wuni Dasori: Incorporating Empirical Models and Validation Techniques in the Analysis of Vulnerability to Climate Variability in Ghana (Advisor: Ronald Eastman)

Joseph Duncan: Framework for Measuring the Influence of Leakage on the Effectiveness of Land Conservation in India (Advisor: Robert Gilmore Pontius, Jr.)

Boriana Pangelova: Land Cover and Land Use Change Detection and Analysis in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, between 1986 and 2000 (Advisor: John Rogan)

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