College of Design GIS LAB-Research Projects

The Urban Forest: A Contributor to Physical Activity Levels in the Built Environment?

Fewer than 40% of Americans get the recommended amount of physical activity in their daily lives. This has prompted increased interest in the built environment's effect on physical activity levels of the population. However, little research has been done relating vegetation patterns to outdoor recreation preferences. This study will track three population groups who regularly walk or run and will monitor their activity using GPS technology to determine their preference for routes along vegetated areas. Findings from this study will inform elected officials, planners and recreation designers about the role of the urban forest in promoting physical activity and healthier residents. Funding provided from The National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council 2005 Challenge Cost-Share Grant Program.

Research Team: Assistant Professor Christopher J. Seeger, Susan Erickson, and Gary Hightshoe from Landscape Architecture; Greg Welk, PhD from Human Health and Performance. Graduate Students Zoran Todorovic and Khalil Ahmad.

Duration: July 1 2005 - January 31, 2007.

GIS Site Suitability Modeling to Identify Potential Corn Stover Collection Sites in Northern Iowa

Iowa's energy budget can benefit from use of renewable fuels, such as corn stover, a crop residue. To explore the feasibility of using corn stover as a fuel in municipal power plants, Iowa State University joined with the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to create the Value Chain Partnerships for a Sustainable Agriculture. GIS technology was used to create site suitability models to identify potential corn stover collection sites along the Iowa Northern Railway, between Cedar Rapids and Manly. Primary data variables for the 14-county study area included four environmental elements, three physical elements, and three agricultural elements. Spatial analysis included both descriptive and predictive models (suitability, capability, feasibility) and cost surfaces for social costs, environmental costs, and construction costs. Candidate sites resulting from the spatial analysis were evaluated in more detail based on their potential costs and impacts. Results of the modeling indicated that GIS technology is a useful tool in selecting potential sites, but must be followed with more detailed economic and site investigations.

Research Team: Professor Paul Anderson from Departments of Landscape Architecture and Agronomy, Dr. Mônica A. Haddad from Community and Regional Planning Department, Patrick Brown from ISU GIS Facility, and Lan Wei (MCRP, graduate research assistant).

Duration: May 15th to July 15th 2005

Mount Pleasant Downtown Visualization (PLaCe Project)

One of the components of the this project is downtown visualization. It will utilize the Site Builder 3D and Scenario Constructor modules of CommunityViz360, and PolicySim module of the CommunityViz 1.3. A visualization of the downtown area showing the commercial buildings will be created using different softwares such as Photoshop, SketchUp, Model Builder and Site Builder of CommunityViz program. Models of the buildings located at the downtown area will be created and digital pictures will be pasted to give realism to the buildings. Shareable file and movie will be created and given to the community. Projection of socio-economic future of the community will be done using PolicySim . It is expected that the community will be able to continue the project using the software, i.e. making socio-economic projections and making alternations to the downtown design.

Research Team: Dr. Tim Borich from IDRO, Nora Ladjahasan from IDRO, Neha Mehrotha from Community & Regional Planning, Mary Kay Wilcox from Community & Regional Planning, Christopher Seeger from Landscape Architecture, Susan Erickson from Landscape Architecture, Peter Butler from Landscape Architecture, Debra Satterfield from Arts & Design, Dan Otto from Department of Economics, and Daphne Ying (research assistant)

Duration: Summer, 2005 to Summer, 2008.

Is the State of Iowa Ready for the Growing Elderly Population?

Alarming growth in the elderly population in the next 10 years is an issue everywhere including the state of Iowa. This project will make projections on the population growth of this age group using different techniques. Likewise, a spatial representation using GIS will be created to determine which county/city or part of the state will experience the highest growth. In order to determine if the state of Iowa is ready for this trend, an inventory of what the state of Iowa can offer will be made. Community capital such as social, physical, environmental/ecological, and human will be included in the analysis. Special attention will be given to availability of medical/housing facilities available to this group.

Research Team: Nora Ladjahasan from IDRO, Francis Owusu from Communtiiy & Regional Planning, Neha Mehrotha from Community & Regional Planning, and Daphne Ying (research assistant)

Duration: Summer, 2005 to Summer, 2007.

Spatial Analysis for Local Public Finance Decision Support

The fact that Iowa's rural areas have lost population over the past decades is a well documented problem. It is also well known that migration into a community may depend on amenities like school quality, public parks, roads or subsidies to recruit firms. Therefore, local public finance decisions can affect the in-migration and outmigration processes. Our long-run research goal is to support local public finance decisions related to rural community development. In particular, in this research project we will apply spatial statistics to examine the relationship between student performance and funding for education in the state of Iowa and some of its neighboring states. Spatial statistics accounts for specific location of spatial units of analysis, which in our case are the school districts and counties. The findings will provide an understanding of the distribution of funding for education and effectiveness of school system in Iowa and in some of its neighboring states. This pilot study will serve as a foundation for future work towards the general problem of public finance allocation.

Research Team: Dr. Mônica A. Haddad from the Department of Community and Regional Planning at ISU and Dr. Petrutza C. Caragea from the Department of Statistics at ISU, Isha kaphle and Lan Wei (research assistants)

Duration: from January 3rd to May 13th 2005

Building a Citizen-Accessible Information System for Managing Iowa's Local Government Networks and Interlocal (28e) Agreements

This project will build a citizen-accessible eGovernment information management system that will strengthen existing and future collaboration between local government units in the area of critical infrastructure protection and service sharing. This information system will allow citizens, local elected officials and local public managers to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of government services to citizens by learning about interlocal (28e) agreements used in Iowa's communities. The extent and type of collaboration among these communities will be represented by GIS maps. These maps will be developed at the GIS Lab at the College of Design.

Research Team: Dr. Kurt Thurmaier and Dr. Yu-Che Chen from the Public Policy and Administration Program at ISU, Dr. Monica Haddad from the Department of Community and Regional planning at ISU, and Luciane C. Rostagno (research assistant)

Duration: from January 24 to May 24 2005.