Vol. 54, No.2 , Fall/Winter 2016 - "Applied Geography"
GRAPHICAL VISUALIZATION OF TRAFFIC CONDITION OF MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST AREA
(pp. 3 - 19)
Lei Bu
Feng Wang
Institute for Multimodal Transportation
Jackson State University
Jackson, Mississippi
Yaw A. Twumasi
Department of Urban and Regional Planning
Jackson State University
Jackson, Mississippi
Abstract
This study aims to analyze and visualize the traffic performance condition of the highway network in the Mississippi Gulf Coast area using the traffic flow models to identify the congested links in a Geographic Information System (GIS). The traffic performance condition of the highway network was estimated based on each link’s average daily traffic, design hourly volume, link capacity, and volume-to-capacity ratio (v/c), which were calculated using the traffic flow models in Highway Capacity Manual 2010. County polygons with geographical information were obtained from the Mississippi Automated Resource Information System (MARIS), and ArcMap GIS was used to symbolically present as geographic information the volume to capacity ratio of each link of the study area. The risk traffic area was also presented considering flood inundation in hurricane. The statistical analysis results indicated that among the total of 4,274 links in the study area, 4,231 links have v/c ratio values under 1.0 and 16 links have v/c ratio values above 1.0, and the links with high v/c ratios may indicate the highly congested locations.
(pp. 20 41)
Sanjoy Roy
International Union for Conservation of Nature
Bangladesh, India
Riffat Mahmood
Department of Geography and Environment
Jagannath University
Bangladesh, India
Abstract
With a total population of 278000, Sandwip has long been facing severe land erosion and accretion problems because of its geographical setting in the coastal area of Bangladesh. This research aimed to assess the erosion and accretion status along with the shoreline movement of this island based on multi temporal Landsat imagery and hydrological data from 1974 to 2014. The results revealed that water discharge and water level data are positively correlated with erosion and negatively correlated with accretion data. The results also indicate that the island has lost around 90 km2 of its stable and gained around 17 km2 of new land. The erosion activity is mostly happening in the northwestern, western, and southern banks whereas accretion has been occurring at a slower rate in the northern and eastern banks of the island. Because of this dynamic erosion accretion activity the shoreline of the island has been moving towards the northeast side. This 40 years’ data analysis solemnly affirms that maximum shoreline movement towards the land was 4004 meter in the southern bank with annual rate of approximately 100 m per year. At the same time interval, maximum seaward movement of the shoreline was observed in the northeastern portion (NSM >2247 m) at a maximum net rate of around 56 m per year(EPR = 55.85 m per year). Because of this idiosyncratic characteristic Sandwip’s total land area was reduced to 73 km2 during 1974 and 2014.
ORIGIN OF THREE NORTH ORIENTED MONTGOMERY COUNTY WATER GAPS
(pp. 42 - 61)
Eric Clausen
Department of Geoscience
Minot State University
Minot, North Dakota
Abstract
Some of Pennsylvania’s most puzzling water gaps are those through which water flows in a direction opposite the regional drainage. Three such water gaps are found in Montgomery County where small streams make abrupt turns to flow in north directions through narrow valleys carved across erosion-resistant ridges before reaching south oriented drainage routes. No evidence suggests antecedence, superposition, or overflow played any role in their development. Instead each water gap was initiated as a south oriented gap by immense southwest oriented flows that first moved across a low gradient topographic surface, equivalent in elevation to the tops of today’s highest ridges while deep south and southeast oriented valleys eroded headward into the region across southwest flow in an identifiable sequence (from southwest to northeast) and caused flow reversals. Complex capture and reversal events during this erosion process developed drainage routes leading through the three north-oriented Montgomery County water gaps.
COMMUNITIES OF ORIGIN FOR AMERICAN WAR DEAD RESULTING FROM THE IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN WARS
(pp. 62 - 87)
Thomas Allison
Silver Spring Township
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
George Pomeroy
Geography-Earth Science Department
Shippensburg University
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania
Abstract
Attention to military geographies has emerged over the last two decades, often exploring aspects of military and combat landscapes. Some limited research and popular accounts have examined where military recruits are drawn from, in the socio-demographic sense. Despite this, little consideration is paid to the types of communities that war casualties originate from. This study systematically investigates whether there is a disproportionate impact of mortality among United States troops in Afghanistan (2001to 2013) and Iraq (2003 to 2010) in terms of what areas of the country and what types of communities these casualties came from. For each conflict, data from the U.S. Department of Defense Casualty Analysis System are used to identify individual casualties by name and “home of record city.” At state levels, deaths are considered at a rate per million using an age cohort population. At smaller geographic levels, data are aggregated by community-type and size class, also proportionally scaled by age cohort population. Then patterns are examined using a combination of mapping and descriptive statistics, including location quotients. Results show a greater number of deaths among soldiers from nonmetropolitan counties for both wars. In addition, mortality is disproportionately higher for military personnel from West and Midwest regions and lower in the South and Northeast. When comparing the results of where the war dead came from—disproportionately a larger share from the West and Midwest—against where military recruits come from—disproportionately a larger share from the South—we find a geographic discrepancy between expected and actual deaths.