GIS Research at UWM

GIS is being used as a methodology application in a variety of research projects at UWM, several that are interdisciplinary in nature.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are pursuing a wide range of basic and applied research studies and projects using a myriad of GIS applications. Here are some examples of GIS research applications at UWM organized by department or center.

Affiliations

University Departments and Programs:

Anthropology:

Cheryl Ajirotutu, faculty
Jean Hudson, faculty
  • is applying GIS and GPS technologies to the mapping of archaeological sites locations along the north coast of Peru and to the study of habitat use by modern reedboat fishermen in the same region. She is also working with ArcGIS on the study of ethnoarchaeological materials from modern hunter-gatherer sites in Africa.
Brian Nicholls, staff
  • organized a symposium and presented on GIS applications in archaeology at the Society for American Archaeology national meeting in April 2003.
  • is involved in many GIS and remote sensing related projects including: sub bullet Management of the cultural resources along STH 57 in the Door Peninsula, Wisconsin
  • Inter and intra site analysis of cultural properties for the STH 57 project sub bullet Project management of project resources for the Historic Resource Management Services program, Department of Anthropology, UW-Milwaukee
  • Distribution analysis of Archaic mortuary sites in the Upper Midwest sub bullet Employing remote sensing to aid in the identification of prehistoric and historic sites along STH 57
  • Using remote sensing and infrared photos to identify site structure at Trimborn Farm, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Kira Kaufmann, a Ph.D. student
  • is applying remote sensing and GIS to develop non-intrusive techniques for the study of prehistoric mounds in Wisconsin.
  • presented on the use of GIS and remote sensing in studying Native America sacred landscapes at the Society for American Archaeology national meeting in April 2003.
  • organized a one-day regional workshop and conference on GIS applications in anthropology in spring of 2002.
Linda Naunapper, a Ph.D candidate
  • organized a symposium and presented on GIS applications in archaeology at the Society for American Archaeology national meeting in April 2003.
  • organized a one-day regional workshop and conference on GIS applications in anthropology in spring of 2002.
Rose Pennington, a PhD. student
  • is planning to apply GIS to compare late prehistoric settlement patterns between Lake Koshkonong and Horicon Marsh settings
Sam Snell, a Masters student
  • will be applying GIS to developing a predictive model along linear study corridors for aiding in conducting CRM(Cultural Resource Management) related projects.
Seth Schneider, a Masters student
  • is applying GIS to evaluate the spatial distribution of ceramic assemblages from Early Iron Age burial mounds in southwest Germany.
Vanesa Zietz, a recent MA graduate
  • presented on the use of wombling to identify social relationships archaeologically at the Society for American Archaeology national meeting in April 2003.
Biological Sciences:

Tim Ehlinger, faculty
  • currently utilizing GIS to expand the scale on which environmental conditions may be modeled from local to regional levels
Emily Latch, faculty
Civil Engineering:

Ed Beimborn, faculty (emeritus)
Alan Horowitz, faculty
Jin Li, faculty
  • Waukesha Trip Planner
Conservation and Environmental Sciences:
Criminal Justice:
  • COMPASS Project (Community Mapping, Planning and Analysis For Safety Strategies) The mission of Milwaukee COMPASS project is to help make public safety problem-solving more strategic, collaborative and data-driven. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research arm of the US Department of Justice, administers the COMPASS grant. For an overview of the federal program please visit http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/compass/welcome.html. Milwaukee's COMPASS project is funded by a two-year grant from the NIJ (1/1/2001 to 12/31/2002).
Economics:
  • Housing and real property value studies.
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science:

Eok Kim, Ph.D. student
Jun Zhang, faculty
  • web-based aerial navigation systems for unmanned aircraft using three-dimensional GIS.
Tian Zhao, faculty
  • specializes on programming languages and real-time JAVA applications
  • object-oriented software development
Geography:

Rina Ghose, faculty
  • Research Interests:
    • Geographic Information Science
    • GIS and Society, Public Participation GIS, Qualitative Research Methods in GIS, Societal Implications of Digital Technology
    • Urban Geography sub bullet Gentrification, Growth Management, Smart Growth Movement, New Urbanism
    • India and South Asia, North America
  • Presented: "Complexities of Spatial Knowledge Production in Public Participation GIS" at the 2004 UCGIS summer meeting
James Handley, a PhD student
  • Research Interests:
    • Local food systems - GIS applications for assessing the robustness of local food systems and the accessibility of nutritious, local, and sustainably grown food within communities
    • Peace and Conflict - Issues of land tenure and resource accessibility relative to conflict and the development of ways to predict, avoid, and mitigate violent conflict
    • Wetland functionality - GIS applications for studying services wetlands provide, including habitat, flood water retention, recreation, and improving water quality
    • GIS as an educational tool - Development of materials, methods, and curriculum to support the process of teachers and students using GIS together to study their world
Jill Hapner Hewitt, a PhD. student
  • Research Interests:
    • Wetland Ecology
    • Restoration Ecology
    • Landscape Ecology
    • Conservation GIS
    • Environmental Remote Sensing
  • 2003 Student GIS Project Competition, Second Place Winner: "Development of Methods to Inventory And Assess Small Constructed Wetlands in Ozaukee County."
  • Dissertation topic: Factors influencing how small wetland restorations self-design and function as components of the Southeastern Wisconsin landscape (Ozaukee County Wetland Restorations)
Terrance G. Johnson, a PhD. student

Wen Lin, a PhD student
  • Research Interests:
    • Geographic Information Science
    • GIS and Society sub bullet Urban Geography
    • China
  • 2005 Student GIS Project Competition, Third Place Winner: "A Prototype Orthoviewer for the American Geographical Society Library: An ArcIMS Site."
  • Dissertation Topic: Social Construction of GIS in China
Liang Liang, a PhD student
  • Research Interests:
  • Using Remote Sensing as a tool to study phenology, which is related to global change sub bullet Using GIS as a tool to analyze field phenology data
Jun Luo, a 2006 PhD. graduate
  • 2004 Student GIS Project Competition, First Place Winner: "Modeling Urban Land Values in a GIS Environment."
  • 2003 Student GIS Project Competition, Third Place Winner: "Milwaukee Property Sale Information: An Internet GIS Site for the Local Real Estate Market."
Linda McCarthy, faculty
Rama Prasada Mohapatra, a PhD student
  • Research interests:
    • Remote Sensing
    • Geographical Information Science
    • Artificial Intelligence (Neural Networks & Cellular Automata)
    • Evaluation of urban growth pattern through physical and cultural drivers of growth sub bullet Modeling urban growth with artificial intelligence based tools
  • 2007 Student GIS Project Competition, First Place Co-Winner: "Landscape Ecology and Cellular Automation: Investigating Patch Transition in Exurbia."
  • 2006 Student GIS Project Competition, Third Place Winner (Co-author): "Evaluating Neighborhood Health Through Empirical Analysis and GIS."
Kyuwon Park, a PhD student
  • Research interests:
    • urban growth theory and model
    • GIS modeling
    • human geography
  • Dissertation topic: Air Mass Classification Comparison project and urban growth modeling
Greg Rybarczyk, a PhD student
  • Research interests:
    • Sustainable transportation modelling using GIS. Specifically I am interested in modelling the on-street and off-street environments and how they affect bicycle/pedestrian transport. GIS and optimization techniques using GIS may provide a comprehensive approach to bike/ped planning and analysis.
    • Remote sensing techniques to facilitate refined and timely urban data. Remote sensing may provide timely data to support intelligent transporation systems, and thus, efficient transportation modelling and planning.
  • 2005 Student GIS Project Competition, Second Place Winner: "A Combined Spatial and Spectral Methodology for Road Extraction Using High Resolution Imagery."
  • 2006 Student GIS Project Competition, Third Place Winner (Co-author): "Evaluating Neighborhood Health Through Empirical Analysis and GIS."
  • 2006 awarded Student Assistantship to the ESRI International Users Conference
Mark Schwartz, faculty
  • Research interests:
    • Plant-climate interactions during the onset of Spring in mid-latitudes, especially relating to phenology
    • Synoptic climatology of North America, especially applications of air mass analysis
    • Detecting climatic change
    • Assessing vegetation condition with remote sensing imagery
Richard Shaker, a 2007 Masters Graduate, GIS Certificate recipient, PhD student
  • Research interests:
    • Biogeography, Ecosystem Dynamics, GIS, Landscape Design, Landscape Ecology, New Urbanism, Urban Design
    • I have been involved in EPA Star grant research looking at landcover/landuse and their temporal effects on the Great Lake's watershed basins ecosystem dynamics
  • 2007 Student GIS Project Competition, First Place Co-Winner: "Landscape Ecology and Cellular Automation: Investigating Patch Transition in Exurbia."
  • 2007 WLIA "President's Choice Award": "Surface Geometry and GIS: Methodology for Predicting Sky-View Factor and Urban Heat Islands."
  • 2006 WLIA "Best in Category/Best Student Poster", First Place Winner (Co-author): "Using GIS to Identify Key Locations for Best Management Practices in Milwaukee."
  • 2006 Student GIS Project Competition, First Place Winner: "Surface Geometry and GIS: Methodology for Predicting Sky-View Factor and Urban Heat Islands."
  • 2006 Student GIS Project Competition, Second Place Winner (Co-author): "Using GIS to Identify Key Locations for Best Management Practices in Milwaukee."
  • Thesis Topic: landscape/urban design factors using landscape ecology techniques temporally for a specific watershed. Through my thesis work I will be able to link the changing landscape to an ecosystem integrity metric to see how different landscape/urban designs affect ecosystems differently through time.
Peter Strand, 2006 Masters graduate

Brian Thayer, a Masters student
  • 2007 Student GIS Project Competition, First Place Co-Winner: "Developing A Community Information System To Assist Neighborhood Revitalization Efforts."
Changshan Wu, faculty
  • Research interests:
    • Geographical Information Science
    • Remote Sensing
    • Spatial Analysis and Quantitative methods
    • Urban Geography
    • Transportation
Danlin Yu, a 2005 PhD. graduate
  • Research interests:
    • Urban geography and Regional development (regional focus: China, North America), globalization, global city-regions
    • Geographical Information Science (theory and application in human geography and urban studies) and spatial statistics and quantitative methods
    • Sustainability modeling, simulation and quantification
  • Dissertation Topic: Regional Development in the "Greater Beijing" Area: A GIS and Spatial Perspective
  • 2004 Student GIS Project Competition, Second Place Winner:"GIS and Spatial Modeling in Regional Development Studies: Case Study on the Greater Beijing Area."
Geosciences:

Douglas Cherkauer, faculty (emeritus)
  • Projects:
    • Calculating ground-water recharge rates using topographic, hydrologic and geologic GIS information
    • Providing values of ground-water recharge as input to the SEWRPC/USGS/WGNHS ground-water flow model for southeastern Wisconsin
    • Incorporating ground-water resource information into the comprehensive planning process for Richfield, Wisconsin
    • Using GIS data sources to link ground water and surface water flow in watershed modeling
Kyle Noll, a Masters student
  • Research interests:
    • Seismology and GIS
GIS Certificate Program

Adam Wirtz, GIS Certificate Student
  • 2006 Student GIS Project Competition, Second Place Winner (Co-author): "Using GIS to Identify Key Locations for Best Management Practices in Milwaukee."
Mathematical Sciences:

Dexuan Xie, faculty
  • Research interests: parallel computing for data mining and spatial modeling
  • Current Project: model and visualize complex molecular structures
School of Information Studies:

Wooseob Jeong, faculty
  • multimodal GIS modeling
Jin Zhang, faculty
  • visualization of abstract information, information retrieval and internet search engine optimization
  • Initiating the use of GIS in research and analysis of data
Urban Planning:
—The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Department of Urban Planning has been awarded the ESRI 2005 Special Achievement in GIS Award.

Lingqian (Ivy) Hu, faculty
  • the interrelationship between transportation and land use, and explored the spatial, social and environmental impacts of transportation planning.
  • real world transportation planning efforts to promote sustainable and prosperous communities, reduce Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMH) and relevant emissions, and enhance environmental justice and public health.
William Huxhold, faculty
  • Dakar Urban Indicators Project funded by HUD via UCGIS, link to final report
  • PUPs for PUPs” (Pre-Urban Planners Preparing for Urban Problems) funded by: New Directions Grant, Community Outreach Partnership Centers Program, US Department of Housing and Urban Development Link to UWM Report article.
  • COMPASS Project (Community Mapping, Planning and Analysis For Safety Strategies) The mission of Milwaukee COMPASS project is to help make public safety problem-solving more strategic, collaborative and data-driven. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research arm of the US Department of Justice, administers the COMPASS grant. For an overview of the federal program please visit http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/compass/welcome.html. Milwaukee's COMPASS project is funded by a two-year grant from the NIJ (1/1/2001 to 12/31/2002).
Ken Jenkins, a 2004 Masters graduate
  • 2004 Student GIS Project Competition, Third Place Winner: "A Remote Sensing & GIS Study of the Menomonee River Valley."
Mike Kumbera , a Masters student, a GIS Certificate student
  • 2007 Student GIS Project Competition, Second Place Winner: "Using GIS for Brownfield Remediation Management.
  • Article in the Winter 2006/2007 issue of ARCNEWS, " The City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Manages a Remedial Excavation with GIS Maintaining Accurate Data During Brownfield Site Redevelopment Excavation" Link to Online Article--- http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/winter0607articles/maintaining-accurate.html
Vikas Lachhwani, Coordinate Master student of Urban Planning and Civil Engineering
Brad Lenz, a Master Student
  • 2006 Student GIS Project Competition, Second Place Winner (Co-author): "Using GIS to Identify Key Locations for Best Management Practices in Milwaukee."
Andy Turner, a Master Student
  • 2006 Student GIS Project Competition, Second Place Winner (Co-author): "Using GIS to Identify Key Locations for Best Management Practices in Milwaukee."
Student Projects In Urban GIS
  • 794 Advanced Techniques in Urban Geographic Information Systems, Spring 2004
    • Milwaukee County Facilities, Kevin Bruhn
    • Lakes of the Fox / Wolf River Watershed, Kim Weckerly
    • Lost Pet Locator, Diana Hu
    • Town of Richfield's Recharge Viewer, Jacob Dye
    • Renewing Milwaukee's Menomonee River Valley, Ken Jenkins
    • Milwaukee County Bicycle Help and Information Page, Greg Rybarczyk
  • 793 Applied Projects in Urban GIS, Fall 2004
    • GIS Database Development for Milwaukee's Urban Ecology Center, Client: Mr. Tim Vargo, Urban Ecology Center
    • Safe Routes to School Bicycle Crash Mapping and Routing, Client: Mr. Dave Schlabowske, The Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin
    • Groundwork Milwaukee's Potential Green Space Opportunities for Neighborhoods, Client: Mr. Mark Weaver, National Park Service, River and Trails Program
    • City of Milwaukee Inventory of Developable, Contiguous Land Parcels, Client: Mr. Benjamin Timm and Mr. Ken Jenkins, City of Milwaukee, Department of City Development
Urban Studies:
—Neighborhood analysis

Research Groups

 
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