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Research projects presented by current GIS Certificate and BA Urban Studies | GIS & Spatial Planning Majors. (5 Minutes Each) Master of Science in Geospatial Technology students presenting Environmental GIS Course Group Projects (20 Minutes Each)
Impacts of Crime on Youth Experience State by Augustine Canales, 2018 GIS Certificate Candidate at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Every person has different experiences. Experiences are impacted by the area that people live, so want to see how the catchment area surrounding Lincoln High school impacts students. For my research, I will be looking at how crime, vacant land, schools, parks, and streetlights impact students travel throughout their neighborhoods. My analysis will consist of indexing crime parks/school areas and streetlight to see the areas that might be used the most and creating a crime/vacant land index to see areas that are avoided. This information will be overlaid with pilot data to see the different impacts on student travel.
Re-imaging Public Transit: Reconstructing Bus Service to Better Serve Pierce County, by Rafael Regan, 2018 GIS Certificate Candidate at the University of Washington-Tacoma. As the Puget Sound region continues to grow in population, Pierce County is seeing an influx of new residents who work both within the county as well as who commute up to points north in Seattle and South towards Olympia. Public transit has, and will continue, to play an integral role in how people move around the region. Focusing solely on Pierce County and specific parts which would benefit from newly introduced bus service provided by Pierce Transit, the analysis done aims to find efficient ways to feed commuters to transit centers and park and rides with direct service to points both north and south in King, Snohomish and Thurston counties. By analyzing targeted population groups within the county and current fixed route bus services, a better understanding can be had as to what communities are already supplemented with efficient commuter based service and what areas may be lacking. In using ArcMap to perform this analysis, a visual argument can be made for potential public transit expansion not based on politics, but on numbers and the people it aims to serve.
Urban planning and the relationship between design and use of urban park spaces in Pierce County, Washington, by Bhagirath Bhatt, 2018 GIS Certificate Candidate at the University of Washington-Tacoma. Open spaces, such as public parks, in urban environments provide many advantages to its communities. GIS is a powerful apparatus in conducting spatial analysis and planning processes for urban regions which offers opportunities for data analysis of open space use. This analysis seeks to identify challenges that designers face in creating urban parks for contemporary use. How well do designers predict use of spaces they have created? How confident can they be that a place designed for certain types of activity and occupation will serve its users’ needs well? The outcome would be the creation and blueprint of shared metadata amongst the jurisdictions which would aid in making better use of the resources and would ensure that the future recreational areas are planned from a knowledgeable viewpoint. Data will aid in planning future recreational spaces in Pierce County.
Adolescent Utilization of Public Space by Roger Hernandez, 2018 GIS Certificate Candidate at the University of Washington-Tacoma. Adolescents are often excluded and discouraged from using public spaces. Research by Owens (2002), has found that municipalities exclude adolescents from public spaces by design and by using public policies such as skateboarding, curfew and loitering ordinances that directly target teenagers. If teenagers have nowhere else to gather, where do they socialize? What alternatives do they consider? This research conducts geospatial predictive analysis around the Lincoln High School catchment area in Tacoma, Washington, to predict where teenagers turn to for gathering places. It concludes that adolescents prefer both traditional and unorthodox convenient spaces away from the supervision and scrutiny of adults (Kelly, 1974).
Mount Rainier & Puyallup River Earthquake Hazard, by Ryan Mitchel. If Mount Rainier were to erupt, lahars would pose the largest threat. Lahars are composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris, and water. The largest will the one formed by the Puyallup River. About 80,000 people are at risk, and that number will only increase thanks to the economic prosperity the region is currently seeing. Key infrastructure such as major highways, utilities, economically important businesses, hydroelectric dams, and major seaports are also in danger. This project looks at those that would be hardest hit, economically. Hopefully this model can be used to model other natural disasters.
Accessibility of Dog Parks in Kitsap County: an analysis of population density, current off-leash dog parks, and possible future sites by Katrina Harris 2018 GIS Certificate Candidate at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Kitsap County has experienced a significant population increase over the past 15 years, potentially creating areas of off-leash dog park inaccessibility. This analysis looks to locate areas of high population density and low accessibility to off-leash parks within Kitsap County. Within these areas of off-leash park inaccessibility, school grounds and dog prohibited parks will be analyzed for potential misuse. Current dog prohibited parks within these areas will be analyzed for expansion to include an off-leash dog park, thus eliminating the public safety issues created by improper use of school grounds and dog prohibited parks.
Data Modeling: ASARCO’s Toxic Footprint, by Kevin Bogue, Janelle Kueck, Matt Sayler and Nathaniel Wiseness, 2018 MS Candidates at the University of Washington, Tacoma. Decades after the shutdown and demolition of Tacoma’s ASARCO copper smelter, remediation efforts remain underway to remove surface soil contaminated with lead and arsenic (by-products of the copper smelting process). These heavy metals have been proven to be carcinogenic, and without intervention, will persist in the 1000 square miles of soil surrounding the stack for decades to come. Determining and predicting which sites are likely to have concerning concentrations is of great importance to the overall success of the remediation project. These determinations are arrived at through data modeling. Using historical soil sample data and previous model results, different data models have been applied and compared.
Inside and Out: Examining the Impact of the Tacoma Smelter Plume Cleanup on Social, Economic, and Environmental Health, by Corrine Armistead, Fikadu Balcha, Floyd Bull, and Austin Jennings, 2018 MS Candidates at the University of Washington, Tacoma. The Tacoma Smelter Plume cleanup effort has had wide-reaching impacts on Pierce County. Thousands of properties have been remediated, to the tune of nearly $130 million dollars. But, 25 years after cleanup began, how have these investments impacted the social and economic health of the region? In this project, we examine the trends in data for three defined regions with varying levels of cleanup investment. We also highlight areas which may still be at risk and offer cost estimates of site remediation. We compare socioeconomic metrics from each of the three cleanup areas using maps and an interactive data dashboard. These outputs can be used by decision-makers and local residents to explore the costs, benefits, and feasibility of expanding cleanup investment into areas that might otherwise remain contaminated. They also provide educational resources for residents to better understand the risk and extent of contamination in their community.