Presentations

Criminology and GIS

In the paper I selected, the authors explored the phenomenon of similar offences occurring in temporal and spatial proximity. These type of crime patterns are called near-repeat crimes. Near-repeat street robberies in Malmö, Sweden, were the selected for their analysis, and socio-economic data and criminogenic places used as independent variables. The same statistical test that we used in Lab 3 to investigate clustering both in space and time, the Knox test, was used in their analysis.

Both criminogenic and socioeconomic variables were found to be statistically significant for the regression model used. Fast-food restaurants,train stations, grocery stores, parks and ATMs had the highest probability of near-repeat crimes in happening in their proximity. Also, places with high population density and social deprivation were found to correlate with the occurrence of near-repeat crimes. The outcome of this study could be used to inform the local police force and try to decrease near-repeat crime rates by increasing police presence here.

 

Reference:

Rasmusson, M. & Helbich, M. (2020). The Relationship between Near-Repeat Street Robbery and the Environment: Evidence from Malmö, Sweden. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf., 9(4),188.

Health Geography and GIS

Perceived access to health infrastructure in Leistershire, UK, was explored by  Brudson, Comber & Radburn (2011). The results of a postal attitude survey that was conducted in Leistershire in 2008 collected information on perceived access to general practitioners and hospitals connected to the postcode of the respondents. This data was used to perform a geographically weighted regression to assess dependence of the perceived access on physical distance, health/ill-health and car ownership of the respondents. They found long term illness, general health and car ownership were significant predictors of perceived accessibility to both GP surgeries and hospitals.

In-class presentations on different health geography papers using GIS analysis included the following interesting topics:

  • Epidemiology of infectious diseases such as SARS
  • Impact of environmental variables and climate change on the occurrence of diseases such as Lyme disease and Malaria
  • Access and travel time to health infrastructure
  • Influence of socio-economic status on health
  • Mapping of disease occurrence such as cancer or Malaria

I found the paper that Yulin presented particularly interesting, in which the distribution of childhood asthma in St. Louis, Missouri, was linked to socio-economic environmental variables. The topic of environmental injustice is certainly a grave issue in the US, where the health-care system is relatively inaccessible for less fortunate people. For me as an European the insecurity that must be connected to health in the States is unimaginable.

 

Reference:

Brunsdon C., Comber A.J., & Radburn R. (2011). A spatial analysis of variations inhealth access: linking geography, socio-economic status and access perceptions. International Journal of Health Geographics, 1, 44. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/1476-072X-10-44

Landscape Ecology and GIS

The paper I presented in class aimed to detect the variation of ecotones in an alpine, arctic biome using high resolution panchromatic satellite imagery. The study sites were two 8x8km QuickBird satellite tiles, which pictured two mountainous areas in the Yukon. In recent years, ecologists studying the arctic have increasingly found that climate warming is changing the composition of the biome and shifting the treeline northward as well as to higher elevations.

Different spatial analyses were used to determine the dispersion of trees in the landscape and the ecotone abruptness. By applying an unsupervised ISODATA classification in Idrisi, the study area was classified into different vegetation types. Both the influence of the slope angle and azimuth on the appearance of ecotones was evaluated and the authors found that there was less dense bushy undergrowth on northern slopes. Lower seedling suppression on northern slopes was thus suggested to increase the likelihood of treeline advances here.

Another paper that I found particularly interesting was the assessment of appropriate habitats for lynx in the UK by Amanda. If the habitat needs of species is well understood, the spatial modelling of possible reintroduction areas seems to me like a great approach. Reintroduction of keystone species is timely, costly and often met with skepticism and habitat modelling could help improve the success rate of reintroduction measures.

 

Reference:

Dearborn, K. D., & Danby, R. K. (2020). Spatial Analysis of Forest–Tundra Ecotones Reveals the Influence of Topography and Vegetation on Alpine Treeline Patterns in the Subarctic. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 110(1), 18–35. doi:10.1080/24694452.2019.1616530