Geographic Methods

Among the most important new methods of the last two decades is geographical analysis. Departmental research addresses a wide range of quantitative, qualitative and representational approaches, relying heavily on spatial analytics and information technologies, including GIS and environmental remote sensing. Many of our research projects also incorporate qualitative methods, community-based research, and policy analysis.

Faculty

David Bartelt, Sanjoy Chakravorty, Melissa Gilbert, Michele Masucci, Jeremy Mennis, Jerry Stahler

Research Projects

bITS: Building Information Technology Skills in North Philadelphia (Michele Masucci)
Building Information Technology Skills (bITS) among North Philadelphia Youth is a project funded by the National Science Foundation, ITEST Program. It involves the participation of approximately ninety high school students per year over a three-year long program. The research objective of bITS is to assess the viability of a collaborative model for developing a community geographic information system that draws on the perspectives and experiences of program participants. For more information, go HERE.

Dasymetric Mapping (Jeremy Mennis)
The process of dasymetric mapping is the transformation of data from a set of arbitrary source zones to a dasymetric map via the overlay of the source zones with an ancillary data set.  Dasymetric mapping is applicable to a wide variety of tasks where the user seeks to refine spatially aggregated data, for example in estimating local population characteristics in areas where only coarser, regional resolution census data are available. For more information, go HERE.

Neighborhood Efects on Treatment Continuity (Jerry Stahler)
Local geography and the community context of where a patient resides may have an effect on client behaviors that relate to substance abuse treatment outcomes, such as relapse and attrition. The present study uses GIS and spatial analysis to examine the interacting influences of individual, program and neighborhood factors on treatment compliance and continuity for patients who have a substance use dependency as well as a co-occurring mental health disorder.

Recent Publications

Chakravorty, S. 2005. Fragments of Inequality: Social, Spatial, and Evolutionary Analyses of Income Distribution. New York: Routledge.

Chakravorty, S., Koo, S.J., and Lall, S., 2005. Do Localization Economies Matter in Cluster Formation? Questioning the Conventional Wisdom with Data from Indian Metropolises. Environment and Planning A, 37:331-53.

Gilbert, M. and Masucci, M., 2006. Geographic Contributions to E-Collaboration Research. International Journal of E-Collaboration Research, 2:1.i-v.

Gilbert, M. and Masucci, M., 2005. Research Directions for Information and Communication Technology and Society in Geography. Geoforum 36:(2) 277-279.

Gilbert, M. and Masucci, M., 2006.   The implications of Including Women's Daily Lives in a Feminist GIScience. Transactions in GIS, 10(5): 751-761.

Masucci, M., Homko, C., Santamore, W., Berger, P., McConnell, T., Shirk, G., Menapace, F., and Bove, A., 2006.  Cardiovascular Disease Prevention for Underserved Patients Using the Internet:  Bridging the Digital Divide .  Telemedicine and e-Health   12(1):58-65.

Mennis, J., 2006. Mapping the results of geographically weighted regression. The Cartographic Journal , 43(2): 171-179.

Mennis, J. and Hultgren, T., 2006. Intelligent dasymetric mapping and its application to areal interpolation. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 33(3): 179-194.

Mennis, J., Viger, R., and Tomlin, C.D., 2005. Cubic map algebra functions for spatio-temporal analysis. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 32(1): 17-32.

Rengert, G., Ratcliffe, J., and Chakravorty, S., 2005. Policing Illegal Drug Markets: Geographic Approaches to Crime Reduction. Monsey, New York: Criminal Justice Press.

Stahler, G., Mazzella, S., Mennis, J., Chakravorty, S., Rengert, G., and Spiga, R., 2007. The effect of individual, program, and neighborhood variables on continuity of treatment among dually diagnosed individuals. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 87: 54-62.