Geography

A growing body of research in human geography, public health, and planning, all aided by GIS methodologies, has shown the links between food access and personal income, nutrition, and health outcomes. This study undertakes a preliminary 'food security' analysis for residents of Delaware County, Indiana based on proximity to food establishments, income, and vehicle ownership. Using county health department and census data, these food access variables were combined to create a 'food security index', a relative measure that rates the census tracts in Delaware County from lowest to highest food security. A proximity analysis of food establishments around all the schools in the county was also conducted, showing a disproportional clustering around schools of fast food and convenience stores compared to grocery stores. Overall, these analyses show that local disparities in food access manifest along somewhat predictable pattern on the basis of traditionally underserved communities, namely African-American and lower socioeconomic classes.

Geographic information systems (GIS) represent more than a tool for spatial data handling. Qualitative and mixed-methods approaches with GIS value the suite of spatial methods and technologies, while typically showing a marked sensitivity toward issues of subjectivity, knowledge production, exclusion, reflexivity, and power relations. Although recent research in the use of qualitative GIS demonstrates the ways in which spatial representations and analyses can be used as part of critical geographic inquiry, there remain significant opportunities to demonstrate and synthesize the particular affordances of these approaches. Alongside broader developments in public scholarship and the digital humanities, mixed-methods research with GIS is coming of age, as technological innovations are easing access to data and access to visualization and analytical tools for some. The implications of these developments at the level of knowledge construction within community-based, critical research have been underexplored, however. What are the specific affordances of mixed-methods research with GIS? How are mixed-methods knowledges made and worked through community engagement? Here, we trace how qualitative GIS methods uniquely enable multiple narratives to change the ways in which GIS is practiced. To illustrate this process, we present findings from the use of qualitative GIS to study urban gardening in a postindustrial, Midwestern city.

While the globalized restructuring of manufacturing economies has marked many cities in the Midwest as places in decline, urban residents continue to mold the changing landscape to meet their needs and desires. Gardening is one socio-spatial practice that has expanded within the spaces left behind by a shrinking population and vacated industrial, commercial and residential properties. But not enough researchers have grappled with the social and political aspects of gardening. Gardens in general, and vegetable gardens in particular, sit at the nexus of a range of human constructs: urban land use, aesthetics, property law, social and class structure, economy and food. More specifically, little has been written on the distinguished history of urban gardening in Muncie, especially within the context of the “Middletown Studies” sociological tradition. Qualitative GIS represents an emerging mixed methods approach to geographic inquiry and a promising venue for an embedded exploration of gardening. Engaging with several “channels” of data collection, including participant observation, I use such an approach to combine fieldwork, spatial analysis, ethnographic inquiry, and an archival survey into an examination of how urban gardening in Muncie relates to broader economic forces. I ask what roles does gardening play in the physical landscape and social sphere of the south side of Muncie.

This map summarizes opposition to the proposed "Mounds Lake" economic development project which would dam the White River in East Central Indiana. The map was presented at the 2015 Esri User Conference. For updates on the status of the project, visit facebook.com/moundslakereservoir.

GIS-Pro 2016: URISA’s 54th Annual Conference, November 3, 2016, Toronto
Recent national discussions on persistent racial inequalities and white privilege often make reference to racist real estate, planning, and zoning practices by municipal bodies. Little of this discussion, however, shows the spatial implications of this legally mandated exclusion at the local/municipal level that took place at least through the first half of the 20th Century. GIS professionals can help to verify and clarify the extent of this mandated racist exclusion in their own communities. These zones of exclusion in Muncie, Indiana ('Middletown USA') were mapped using official county records and contemporary GIS databases. An interactive web map highlighting these subdivisions was created, along with demographic and other data layers, and posted in a local social media forum. Additional social research, including interviews and historical inquiry, provided deeper understanding of the racist policies of home ownership. With this work, I hope to contribute to discussions of the geography of exclusionary housing policies in the Midwest. More specifically in Muncie, I hope to spur neighborhood organizations and other local civic groups to consider this history as the project of racial reconciliation continues. This mapping project can be recreated for any community through fairly straightforward records research and GIS tools.

With numerous local economies previously driven by manufacturing, Indiana was strongly affected by the economic downturn from 2007 until 2009. One suggestion to facilitate economic growth has been Richard Florida’s “creative class” theory, which asserts that talented and educated people choose to live in creative places. College graduates represent one part of Florida’s “creative class.” Current students at Ball State University were surveyed to understand the importance of place-related factors for where students wanted to live after they graduated. The survey responses indicated that students are most concerned with income potential, cost of living, and distance to family. Alumni residence data from Ball State and three other Indiana universities were also mapped and compared to county-level measures of income, housing, distance from home, and creativity index. This analysis supports the survey findings that economic factors and family connections are likely motivating factors in ...

This research establishes a methodology to quantify the characteristics of convective cloud systems that produce subdiurnal extreme precipitation. Subdiurnal extreme precipitation events are identified by examining hourly precipitation data from 48 rain gauges in the midwestern United States during the period 1956–2005. Time series of precipitation accumulations for 6-h periods are fitted to the generalized Pareto distribution to determine the 10-yr return levels for the stations. An extreme precipitation event is one in which precipitation exceeds the 10-yr return level over a 6-h period. Return levels in the Midwest vary between 54 and 93 mm for 6-h events. Most of the precipitation contributing to these events falls within 1–2 h. Characteristics of the precipitating systems responsible for the extremes are derived from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction stage II and stage IV multisensor precipitation data. The precipitating systems are treated as objects that are identified using an automated procedure. Characteristics considered include object size and the precipitation mean, variance, and maximum within each object. For example, object sizes vary between 96 and 34 480 km2, suggesting that a wide variety of convective precipitating systems can produce subdiurnal extreme precipitation.

Over the past three decades environmental history has become
a recognized subfield, with a cannon of classics, many dozens of distinguished monographs, a steady flow of published articles, and more than one thousand active practitioners on several continents, including a growing cohort in Latin America. If one looks beyond history’s disciplinary bounds, one
finds other traditions that equally fit perfectly into the array of environmental history. Perhaps the broadest and deepest current is represented by Carl Sauer’s Berkeley School of cultural-historical geography. Much of the work of Sauer, his students, and his associates, can be considered environmental
history. Moreover, much of it is based on Latin American materials. In this paper, we trace the development of an alternative current within environmental history – one that began with Carl Sauer’s doctoral dissertation in 1915, became well established by the 1950s and continues today through
the work of various geographers.
Key words Carl Sauer, Berkeley School, cultural-historical approach

Natural and cultural landscapes represent a source of inspiration for writers and poets who transform them into verbal expressions in accordance with their own views, imagination, cosmology and feelings. Many literary works contain allusions to the geographical space and turn into study objects for cultural geographers who aim to register and interpret the geographicity found in the text, i.e. the relationship between human beings and Earth as a mode of their existence and destiny. The poet Patativa do Assaré (1909-2002) can be taken as a regional example. He inspired himself through the landscapes of the Cariri, principally the Serra de Santana in Assaré, in order to depict the reality of Northeastern Brazil and transmit an image of the life in the rural areas and the dry backlands (sertão). The aim of this research is to analize the geographical elements in Patativa’s work in order to point out the possible relations between geography and poetry and contribute to a broader discussion on the landscape diversity of the Cariri region, its meanings, symbolism and value for the people.
Key words: Geography and literature, humanistic geography, geographic landscape, Patativa do Assaré, Cariri (Ceará).

The Dutch cartographer and mathematician
Gerardus Mercator is renowned for his maps, atlas editions
and his famous map projection of 1569 that, originally as a
maritime navigation aid, turned into a model for many world
maps. Radical geographers condemned the Mercator
projection due to its area deformations and distortions
that, at the same time, created an ideologized image of the
world in favour of the dominant economies. Mercator,
however, must be understood within the context of the
Renaissance society in the Netherlands and its social,
religious, political, and economic impacts and influences.
This way, it can be made clear that the Mercator projection,
like any other projection, is only one “vision” of the world
among many others. In a concrete and metaphorical way,
geographers as “mappers” of the world can learn their
lesson from Mercator to remain alert not only towards other
people’s projections, but also towards their own.
Key words: Gerardus Mercator, map projections,
geographical representations.

Although Geography is a predominantly visual discipline that
claims the map as one of its most powerful tools, spatial
representations are threatened to lose their meaning in our
image-laden society. For this reason, Cartography must be
appraised as a communication language by excellence in order
to express ideas and emotions about the world that is directly
or indirectly experienced. It is suggested a complementary
approach to scientific Cartography, laying emphasis on
functional mapping and everyone’s spatial creativity and
imagination, which will be illustrated by several concrete
examples.
Keywords
Cartographic language – Functional mapping – Social
Cartography.

Researchers dealing with environmental perception have to be conscious about the different approaches, methodological proceedings and the interdisciplinary nature of their topic. Since the studies about perception cope with the subjectiveness of vision and all the other senses including their values, attitudes and preferences created by individuals and groups, it is necessary to develop specific strategies to make visible these thoughts, opinions and sentiments towards perceived realities and imagined world visions. Maps as simbolized representations of reality can be a starting point for research. In this coherence, Cartography must be understood in its broadest sense, beyond the normative model of scientific Cartography with its rules of precision and geometry, comprehending the map not as a product, but as a means of communication and a process (mapping) that turns environmental experience shareable. Two different strategies are presented and illustrated by some practical examples in order to approach the maps to environmental perception: the confection, discussion and interpretation of mental maps in different scales and the use of official maps as biographies in order to sharpen perception and stimulate memory. These mappings point out human imagination and can contribute to a broader methodological discussion in the field of environmental perception.
Key-words: Environmental perception, representations, maps, mappings, mental maps, humanistic approach.

The carnaúba palm (Copernicia cerifera) is an example of a commodity that is geographically delimited and can only be exploited economically in the semi-arid climate of Northeastern Brazil. It had been known in pre-Columbian times as a tree-of-life due to its multifunctional scope of use. The European interest in the exploitation of the carnaúba palm arose about two hundred years ago when British and French chemists confirmed the extraordinary quality of the carnaúba wax, initially as raw material for candles and then in the late nineteenth century as principal component for floor polishes. Based on the recent discussions on commodity chains and their geographical dimensions, the aim of this paper is to sketch out the different meanings of the carnaúba palm during the last five hundred years, from accounts of indigenous use and small scale production to the multi-functional and market-oriented utilization of the present. Key words: carnaúba palm, Northeastern Brazil, commodity geographies

Art, geographical knowledge and image reading: Vermeer’s “Geographer”
Abstract: The painting The Geographer by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer is an image that is frequently selected as a cover for geography books. Drawn in the second half of the 17th
century, the picture must not only be considered as a portrait of how to think and do geography at that time; it can also be seen as a piece of art with a heavy symbolic load to stimulate a
methodological debate on geographic readings of images. The present text aims to reflect about the languages of this painting, considering its sociocultural, economic and political
contexts and its relation to the different processes of constructing geographic knowledge.
Key words: Vermeer; The Geographer; image reading; 17th-century Holland; visual methodologies.