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Microstegium vimineum or stiltgrass is a novel invader widely considered one of the most significant threats to oak-hickory woodlands in the eastern United States. Due to the insubstantial weight and buoyancy of seeds, Microstegium can disperse not only via overland dispersal routes but also via sheet flow, flooding, and stream channels, creating rapid progression of existing populations and greater likelihood of introduction to new areas. Using the knowledge of Microstegium habitat from previous research and field mapping of current populations, we identified and assessed environmental variables for use in habitat suitability modeling. We found canopy openness, distance from roads, and distance from streams to be the primary drivers of Microstegium presence. We then applied a GIS-based habitat suitability analysis across seven nature reserves in Kentuckiana as a potential tool for land management. Our pilot study developed a model which can potentially guide managers of natural areas to decide where best to focus mitigation and prevention of potential Microstegium invasion and population expansion when resources are limited. KEYWORDS: Stiltgrass, Mapping, Model averaging, HIGHLIGHTS * GIS suitability modeling of Microstegium habitat * Field mapping of current Microstegium populations * Results of statistical model averaging determined canopy openness, distance from roads, and distance from [...]

The movement of goods from origin to destination takes place over multiple modes of transportation. Correspondingly, intermodal terminals play an important role in facilitating transportation over the multimodal network. This paper studies multimodal transport networks and their impact on infrastructure investments. We propose a tractable theory of transportation across domestic transportation networks with multiple modes of transportation by embedding multimodal routes into a spatial equilibrium model with endogenous stochastic route choice. We calibrate the model to US domestic freight flows using high-resolution geographic information system information and detailed data on traffic along road, rail, and international ports. We estimate the strength of intermodal port congestion from ship dwell times and its multimodal impact on railcar dwell times. We then employ the model to evaluate the welfare effects of terminal investments across the United States. We identify important bottlenecks in the US transportation system, with the reduction of the transportation cost by 1 percent in the most important nodes generating welfare gains equivalent to $US200-300 million of additional GDP (in 2012 USD). JEL classification: F11, R12, R42 Key words: infrastructure investments, multimodal transport, spatial equilibrium https://doi.org/10.29338/wp2022-13, 1 Introduction The movement of goods takes place over multiple modes of transportation, including highways, railroads, oceans, and waterways. While trucks are mostly used to move US freight over shorter [...]

This paper presents an implementation of a Weighted Ordered Weighted Averaging (WOWA) algorithm within a GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA). Conventional OWA procedures do not account for varied relative importances of the decision evaluation criteria. This research focuses on the procedure for aggregating criteria-weights into OWA operators by implementing a special Weighted OWA (WOWA) operator that unifies conventional OWA with Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) techniques within a spatial decision context. The paper then demonstrates the application of WOWA within a vector-based spatial problem for identifying Disadvantaged Communities within San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles. Keywords: Spatial Decision-Making, Weighted OWA, GIS, Multicriteria Evaluation, 1. Introduction The majority of geospatial decision problems by nature involve multiple and conflicting spatial evaluation criteria. As a result, substantial efforts have been made to aggregate geographic information systems [...]

It is common for instructors to assign readings to students which cover topics that will be discussed again during class meetings, but it is also common for students to either delay doing so until just prior to exams, or not at all. Short reading quizzes, both in-class and online, are frequently used as a means to motivate students to complete reading assignments in a timely manner. At the instructor's discretion, online quizzes allow students multiple chances to attempt a particular quiz, perhaps with time limits on each attempt, and with the possibility of the questions being drawn from a larger question pool each time. In this study, online reading quizzes were examined across two consecutive semesters in an introductory geographic information systems course, with the students in the first semester allowed unlimited attempts to complete each quiz before a deadline, and a limit of five attempts per quiz for students taking the same course the following semester. Questions were drawn from a pool for each attempt, and students were shown their overall score after an attempt, but were given no indication which questions were answered correctly. Analysis of the frequency with which students attempted the quizzes, and comparisons between the scores achieved between the two semesters, suggest differences in reading frequencies in subsets of students. Keywords: Online quiz, reading quiz, science education, INTRODUCTION Many instructors assign reading to be completed outside of class, often as a means of preparing students for material which will be covered during subsequent class meetings. Likewise, most [...]

The purpose of this study was to assess research articles published on ICT4Ag in sub-Saharan Africa, with a view to determining the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the agricultural sector in the region. The agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most important sectors that have greatly benefited from the application of ICTs. Research on the application of ICTs is rapidly expanding and therefore requires synthesis to gauge the extent of publication, the subject focus of the research on ICTs for agriculture (hereafter simply referred to as ICT4Ag), and the trend of publication and countries contributing to research on ICT4Ag in sub-Saharan African countries. Relevant data were obtained from the Web of Science (WoS) citation databases using a search query, which combined a variety of agricultural terms and several key, words that constitute ICTs. It was found that ICTs are largely applied for communication and dissemination of agricultural information to and among stakeholders, including farmers and extension workers. Areas of application involve land use, crops [production], animal husbandry, conservation, [soil and crop] management, and climate change. In terms of the broad disciplinary context, the application of ICTs in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa occurs mostly in agronomy, environmental sciences, and dairy and animal science. Although only a few specific names of ICTs were found in the literature on agriculture, ICT-led activities and applications such as remote sensing, GIS, computer programs, software, Landsat, and information systems, among others, provided insight into not only the areas but also the nature of ICT application in agriculture in the region. The internet, radio, computers and mobile phones were among the few types of ICTs that featured in the ICT4Ag literature and are, therefore, deemed to be the commonly used in agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Concerning the foreign countries that have collaborated with sub-Saharan Africa in ICT4Ag research, the USA, France and England featured the most, thereby signalling the continuation of colonial legacies in the region. Furthermore, the pattern of collaboration may signal the nature of knowledge and innovation diffusion for ICT4Ag in sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, results reveal a diversity of areas of ICT application in agriculture in the region. The study makes recommendations for further research in other geographical regions for comparison purposes; a study to explore other bibliographic databases such as Scopus; and a study to assess the impact of the ICTs on agricultural performance of the affected countries. Key words: Sub-Saharan Africa, Information technologies, Innovations, ICTs, ICT4Ag, Agriculture, Farming, Bibliometrics, INTRODUCTION Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have emerged as indispensable tools and drivers of change in the 21st century and beyond. However, despite their relatively long history, ICTs do not [...]

The four-step travel demand model (FSTDM) is based on coarse rural traffic analysis zones (TAZs) which tends to exaggerate the intrazonal trips resulting in biased and unbalanced trip distribution over the roadway network with high estimation errors. These limitations have necessitated developing a geographic information systems (GIS)-based high-fidelity travel demand model framework (HFTDMF) capable of achieving network-wide traffic volume estimation with improved model accuracy. This requires using an all functional class roadway network and enhancing the census-based coarse TAZ structure with finer-grained spatial resolution TAZs by integrating the travel demand modeling software platform, remotely-sensed images, parcel-based digital property maps, the AZTool aggregation algorithm, and areal interpolation technique. Preliminary results from the Greater Fredericton Area (GFA) showed that increasing the GFA spatial resolution from the coarsest TAZ structure at census tract (CT) level (27 CT TAZs) to the finest TAZ structure at 4252 'fine' TAZs resulted in an improvement to modeling accuracy of [R.sup.2], by 0.4092 (from 0.2490 to 0.6582) and an improvement in traffic assignment coverage by 46 percentage points (from 29% to 75%). Key words: four-step model, traffic analysis zones, high-fidelity travel demand model framework, travel demand modeling, geographic information systems, areal interpolation technique, remotely-sensed images, automatic zone design. Le modele de demande en transport en quatre etapes est base sur les zones d'analyse de la circulation (ZAC) rurales approximatives qui tendent a exagerer les deplacements intrazones, ce qui entraine une repartition biaisee et desequilibree des deplacements sur le reseau routier, causant des erreurs d'estimation elevees. Ces limites ont necessite l'elaboration d'un cadre de modele de demande en transport haute-fidelite fonde sur les systemes d'information geographique (SIG), capable d'obtenir une estimation du debit de circulation a l'echelle du reseau avec une precision amelioree du modele. Pour ce faire, il faut utiliser un reseau routier entierement fonctionnel et ameliorer la structure ZAC approximative basee sur le recensement avec des ZAC a resolution spatiale plus fine en integrant la plateforme logicielle de modelisation de la demande en transport, des images par teledetection, les cartes numeriques par parcelles de terrain, l'algorithme d'agregation AZTool et la technique d'interpolation spatiale. Les resultats preliminaires de la region du Grand Fredericton ont montre que l'augmentation de la resolution spatiale de la region du Grand Fredericton, de la structure ZAC la plus approximative au niveau des secteurs de recensement (SR) (27 SR ZAC) a la plus fine structure ZAC a 4252 << fines >>, a permis d'ameliorer la precision de la modelisation de [R.sup.2], de 0,4092 (de 0,2490 a 0,6582) et d'ameliorer le champ d'affectation du trafic de 46 points de pourcentage (de 29 a 75 %). [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles : modele en quatre etapes, zones d'analyse de la circulation, cadre de modele de demande en transport a haute-fidelite, modelisation de la demande en transport, systemes d'information geographique, technique d'interpolation spatiale, images par teledetection, conception automatique de zone., Introduction Network-wide traffic estimates with accurate replication of ground truth counts are of great importance to transportation planners, traffic engineers, and policy-makers as they base their transportation decisions such as [...]

Background The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has repeatedly called for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine equity. The objective our study was to measure equity in the early distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare facilities across the US. Specifically, we tested whether the likelihood of a healthcare facility administering COVID-19 vaccines in May 2021 differed by county-level racial composition and degree of urbanicity. Methods and findings The outcome was whether an eligible vaccination facility actually administered COVID-19 vaccines as of May 2021, and was defined by spatially matching locations of eligible and actual COVID-19 vaccine administration locations. The outcome was regressed against county-level measures for racial/ethnic composition, urbanicity, income, social vulnerability index, COVID-19 mortality, 2020 election results, and availability of nontraditional vaccination locations using generalized estimating equations. Across the US, 61.4% of eligible healthcare facilities and 76.0% of eligible pharmacies provided COVID-19 vaccinations as of May 2021. Facilities in counties with >42.2% non-Hispanic Black population (i.e., > 95th county percentile of Black race composition) were less likely to serve as COVID-19 vaccine administration locations compared to facilities in counties with 95th county percentile of Black race composition) had 32% (95% CI 14% to 47%, p = 0.001) lower odds of serving as COVID administration facility compared to facilities in counties with below US average Black population. This association between Black composition and odds of a facility serving as vaccine administration facility was not observed in rural or suburban counties. In rural counties, facilities in counties with above US average Hispanic population had 26% (95% CI 11% to 38%, p = 0.002) lower odds of serving as vaccine administration facility compared to facilities in counties with below US average Hispanic population. This association between Hispanic ethnicity and odds of a facility serving as vaccine administration facility was not observed in metropolitan or suburban counties. Our analyses did not include nontraditional vaccination sites and are based on data as of May 2021, thus they represent the early distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Our results based on this cross-sectional analysis may not be generalizable to later phases of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution process. Conclusions Healthcare facilities in counties with higher Black composition, in rural areas, and in hardest-hit communities were less likely to serve as COVID-19 vaccine administration locations in May 2021. The lower uptake of COVID-19 vaccinations among minority populations and rural areas has been attributed to vaccine hesitancy; however, decreased access to vaccination sites may be an additional overlooked barrier., Author(s): Inmaculada Hernandez 1,*, Sean Dickson 2, Shangbin Tang 1, Nico Gabriel 1, Lucas A. Berenbrok 3, Jingchuan Guo 4 Introduction The equitable and timely distribution of Coronavirus Disease 2019 [...]

Locally-generated agricultural land management models may be more effective in achieving sustainable agricultural production and environmental management because they operate within the eco-cultural context of the farmers, therefore easily useable. The present study uses locally generated indigenous knowledge to model the suitability for cultivation of maize, rice and beans and compares the results obtained with those of a modern scientific land suitability model in Amuru district, northern Uganda. Geo-referenced indigenous knowledge-based land suitability data was collected from farmers' fields using a Global Positioning System handset, questionnaires and focus group discussions were also used to develop an indigenous knowledge-based agricultural land resource database. The Analytical Hierarchical Process method was applied to sort the data to determine the relative importance of the various indigenous land evaluation parameters. For the modern scientific land suitability evaluation data set, a land resource database with climate and soil physical and chemical parameters was developed to model the scientific land suitability evaluation. The two data sets were analyzed using Automated Land Evaluation System software based on the principles of the FAO framework for land evaluation. Two spatial land suitability models were generated for the two data sets. The two spatial models were matched using ArcGIS software applications to obtain land suitability comparisons. Results produced more than 70% agreement between the indigenous and the modern scientific evaluations. The evaluation for maize and rice produced 75% agreement. Both scientific and indigenous land evaluations for maize and rice showed that the two crops almost have similar land use requirements. On the other hand, land suitability comparisons for beans produced 71% level of agreement. It is concluded that locally generated land evaluation systems based on farmers' indigenous knowledge are comparable to modern scientific ones, and may be relied upon where technical land evaluations are not readily available or useable by rural indigenous farmers. Key words: indigenous knowledge, modelling, geographic information system, land suitability evaluation, INTRODUCTION Land suitability, the fitness of a given type of land for specified kind of land use [1] has been conducted using various evaluation methods like the Land Capability Classification [...]