NARA MCCRAY
Flood Risk and Susceptibility: Central African Republic
2020 Project: Humanitarian Geospatial Analysis Results and Methodology
Abstract: The Central African Republic rainy season is intense due to the equatorial country's tropical climate. These rains have historically caused destruction of shelters, obstructed transportation routes, and increased incidence of diseases like cholera and malaria. This country-wide analysis aims to provide humanitarian actors with an improved understanding of the exposure of vulnerable populations to flooding in Central African Republic. Flood susceptibility mapping is informed by multiple physical parameters that collectively contribute to the likelihood of floods. Using geographical location as a commonality between datasets, GIS platforms enable the combination of contributing flood factors into one single dataset representing susceptibility across the study area. An accuracy assessment was conducted by comparing the flood susceptibility model against 1) global flood risk datasets and against 2) actual flood inundation. The results of this validation reveal that our flood susceptibility model accurately delineate areas that are more prone to flood.
Methodology
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC FLOOD SUSCEPTIBILITY & RISK
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Project Article
PAIRING SATELLITE DATA WITH HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS TO LOCATE HIGH FLOOD RISK AREAS IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
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NASA Toa Baja Flood Risk Analysis
2020 Project: Utilizing Open-Source Earth Observations to Inform Toa Baja’s Municipality’s Flood Mitigation Efforts and Educate the Public
Abstract: Toa Baja, located just west of San Juan in Puerto Rico, is known as “the underwater city” due to its propensity to flood. The city contains the mouth of the island’s longest river, Río de la Plata, which drains into the Atlantic Ocean on the northern edge of the municipality. Proximity to these major water features and the flat, low terrain contribute to the flood-prone nature of the area. During tropical storm events, such as Hurricane Maria in 2017, Toa Baja experienced inundation of up to 20 feet. This NASA DEVELOP project collaborated with the Municipio Autónomo de Toa Baja, ResilientSEE, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Urban Risk Lab to supplement recent 2018 Federal Emergency Management Agency Hydraulic Engineering Centers-River Analysis System flood maps, which designated 63% of the area as a flood plain. The analysis provides a high-resolution interpretation of flood susceptibility using a variety of factors that collectively influence the likelihood of flooding. Sentinel-1 C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (C-SAR) data processed with Google Earth Engine scripting identified historical inundation and was used for validation purposes. Socioeconomic factors were combined with the inundation layer producing a final risk output. These outputs will improve public understanding of exposure to flood risk in Toa Baja and provide scientific evidence for flood mitigation advocacy.
Technical Report
NASA Develop (Draft)
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Project Summary
Urban Risk Lab
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Exploratory Analysis of Energy Access and Deforestation
Fall 2017 Research: Geospatial Analysis with R and Intermediate Quantitative Methods
Abstract: The relationship between energy access and deforestation in Ghana is examined through this exploratory multivariate analysis. Variables of electrification rate, wood use as cooking fuel, built-up area, population density, cropland area, and education are used to understand the relative influence of energy access on deforestation. This research uses RStudio, GeoDa and SPSS software to perform statistical processes: enter and stepwise multivariate linear regression, cluster analysis, and Bivariate Local Indicators of Spatial Association (BiLISA). The methods conducted at the sub-national scale improve upon on recent research that found wood use as cooking fuel to be a significant driver of deforestation that is being minimized by increasing access to electricity. This research conversely reveals that energy access is in fact influencing an increase in deforestation in Ghana.
Project Report
Intermediate Quantitative Methods
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Project Report
Geospatial Analysis with R
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Suitability Assessment of Hand Dug Well Placement in the Dangila Woreda, Ethiopia
Fall 2016 Final Project
Abstract: Hand dug wells (HDWs) in rural areas of Ethiopia are often short-lived due to their placement in low yield aquifers and contaminated areas. Typically, these critical water sources are placed based on proximity to homes for convenience, without consideration of other factors that may affect the longevity of the HDW. Geographic information systems, ArcMap and TerrSet, were used to assess the placement of 79 existing HDWs in a rural farming area in the Dangila woreda (Dangila is the name of the area, and woreda translates to, “district”) located in the Amhara region of Ethiopia (Figure 1). The factors determining the suitability of land for the placement of wells were slope, elevation and proximity to rivers. The results of this analysis show that 90% of the existing wells were placed in highly suitable areas.
Project Report
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Spatial Analysis for Crop Sale using Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey Data
Spring 2017 Final Project: Advanced Vector GIS
Abstract: In Ethiopia, rural farmers often sustain through subsistence agriculture; surplus yields are typically sold in the market for income. There are several factors which influence a given household's ability to produce surplus agricultural yields. This project will utilize extensive survey data to examine the spatial autocorrelation and hot spots of ability to sell crop and influencing variables: proportion of surveyed who participate in agricultural extension services, practice crop rotation, use fertilizer, and heads of household who have ever attended school. The influence of these variables is assessed using Bivariate Local Indicators of Spatial Autocorrelation (BiLISA) and Ordinary Lease Squared Regression (OLS). The results reveal that crop rotation is the variable that most significantly correlates with a household’s ability to sell crop.
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Mapping Past and Future Cropland Growth in Nigeria using Land Change Modeler
Spring 2017 Final Project: GIS for International Development
Abstract: Road infrastructure promotes economic, migratory and landcover change by improving accessibility. Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa and is at the epicenter of development trends affecting Africa today (Wikipedia 2016). Large economic gains and rural feeder road initiatives in Nigeria since the 1970s have increased the country’s the road density (Akinyemi, 1986). Majority of landchange research in Nigeria often focuses on urban landcover gains, but evidence of significant cropland gains in preliminary imagery exploration prompted our interest in analyzing this landcover using roads as a driver variable. European Space Agency Land Cover Maps – v2.0.7 of 1992 and 2015 were used in Terrset Land Change Modeler (LCM) to produce imagery of cropland gains. Taraba state experienced a transformative period from 1990-2013, during which, roads and bridges were built coinciding with rapid population growth (Oruonye 2013). In determining transition potential from all landcover classes into cropland, explanatory power of driver variables is examined in LCM. In addition to distance to roads, other potential driver variables were also included in our analysis for comparison to assess the influence of roads on landcover transition to cropland. The resulting output from the transition potential algorithm suggests roads heavily influence transition from shrubland into cropland in Taraba State, Nigeria.
Project Report
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Impact Assessment of the Fort McMurray Fire
Fall 2016 Final Project: Introduction to Remote Sensing
Abstract: This research project was one of the first efforts to visualize and quantify the severity of the wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta Canada soon after it was extinguished. This fire was thought to have been stated by human activity around May 1st, 2016 and was declared under control by July 5th, 2016. This research sough to assess the degree of burn severity and what proportion of the effected area was severely burned. Imagery used for the normalized burn index was acquired from Landsat 8 OLI satellite on the dates October 1st, 2015 and October 3rd, 2016. The image resulting from the dNBR (differenced normalize burn ratio) was reclassified to visualize and calculate categories of burn severity. Results revealed a small proportion of high-severity burn (0.5%) mostly in the southern region, and majority of the area being low-severity burn (51.6%).
Project Report
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An Evaluation of Demand Reduction Efforts in the Commercialized Sexual Exploitation Industry in Worcester, MA
Fall 2016 Final Project: Monitoring and Evaluation
Abstract: The commercialized sexual exploitation industry in Worcester, Massachusetts is a salient and persistent issue, not only for the victims of sexual exploitation, but also for the safety and well-being of the community. This paper serves as the executive summary for a results-based evaluation of the Worcester Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation (WAASE) and its city-wide efforts to reduce demand within the exploitative commercialized sex industry. This evaluation employs a mixed-methods approach, and uses both quantitative data (arrest records) as well as qualitative data (student research, WAASE documents, and agency/individual meetings/interviews). These interviews and meetings took place with representatives from Worcester Police Department (WPD), sexual exploitation outreach workers, and current victims of sexual exploitation, in order to better inform an understanding of the current state of demand reduction effort implementations, and their impacts and effectiveness. The findings if this evaluation suggest new conclusions regarding the degree of effectiveness of different demand reduction efforts, and recommendations for the future orientations of demand reduction efforts. The primary objective of this evaluation is to inform and promote better communication between WAASE entities regarding one of organizations primary directives: reduce demand within the commercialized sexual exploitation industry in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Project Report
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QGIS Student Manual
Peace Corps Ethiopia QGIS Volunteer Training
Abstract: This manual was developed through a collaboration between Peace Corps Ethiopia volunteers and I for the purpose of providing GIS training to Peace Corps staff, volunteers and their counterparts, as part of an in-person QGIS training course. Most of the examples and included data reference Ethiopia because this manual was developed specifically for the training of Peace Corps Ethiopia volunteers.
This manual provides an introduction to QGIS, a free and open-source GIS software, for people with little or no previous mapping or GIS experience. It is by no means a comprehensive instruction manual, but it does teach the fundamentals of GIS and cartography, how to operate QGIS, basic analysis tools and some relevant applications. In the context of a Peace Corps Volunteer, this manual provides the information needed to create reference maps and do basic geographic analysis using QGIS software.
Project Report
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Sourcing Humanitarian Data Exchange and Automated Mapping of Healthsites in Select African Countries
Spring 2017: Computer Programming for GIS
Abstract: These scripts are designed to allow access to heathsites information hosted on the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) website. Through the use of these scripts, a user has a means to quickly access the most up-to-date information about healthsite location in 21 African nations, and Yemen, with minimal input. In addition to downloading user selected data, these scripts plot the data, and generate a fully formatted, multi-component, informative map. These automated maps include the following components: a map of healthsites symbolized by facility type, a raster of healthsite density, and a 14 km buffer around healthsites (representing generalized six hours walking distance). All maps are generated using identical symbology and geographic extents appropriate for each dataset, which would make them ideal in and quickly understandable with repetitive use.
Project Report
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