It's the end of 2008

SO what have i done? Well i picked up a bunch of more books from the library. I have been reading chapters here and there from different books and writing some notes. But i also hurt my leg messing around...it feels like its getting better, kept me immobile for a moment. But I got my books, downloaded software and now just waiting on my money for the next quarter. Cause i think i will suspend work on the research project if there is no money for now.

I worked on my car, I had the rear struts replaced finally. And I found some problems that were causing my drive belt pulleys to squeal like crazy, every time i started the car. So I went to the autoparts store and bought a pulley, then i replaced it, put the belt on, and all was well for like 30 seconds. then the squealing started again. So thats when i figured out that there was some metal on metal rubbing going on. So i bough some lube grease and worked out the problem. So my car is working well now.

So for 2009 i hope to finally get a new laptop and pay down some bills, of course it means saving money somehow. We'll figure it out! I am out, gotta ready to bring in the new year! Happy 2009 to you!

My Reading list...almost final cut

So i finally have a submitted reading list..and it was approved by my advisor. Now all i have to do is wait for feedback from other committee members and of course..do all the reading. So the page might look messy on here but essentially i cut and pasted..and now i have tons of reading to do and even more concepts to comprehend.

General Geography

1. Abler, R., M. G. Marcus, et al. (1992). Geography's inner worlds : pervasive themes in contemporary American geography, New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press.
2. Bailey, T. C. and A. C. Gatrell (1995). Interactive spatial data analysis. Harlow Essex, England; New York, NY, Longman Scientific & Technical ; J. Wiley.
3. Clarke, K. C. (1995). Analytical and computer cartography. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall.
4. Cronon, W. (1991). Nature's metropolis : Chicago and the Great West. New York, W.W. Norton.
5. Cutter, S. L., R. Golledge, et al. (2002). "The big questions in geography." Professional Geographer 54(3): 305-317.
6. Elwood, S. (2005). "GIS: a short introduction." Progress in Human Geography 29(1): 114-116.
7. Gaile, G. L. and C. J. Willmott (1989). Geography in America. Columbus, Ohio, Merrill Pub. Co.
8. Hanson, S. (1997). Ten geographic ideas that changed the world. New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University Press.
9. Hanson, S. (2005). "The dictionary of human geography, 4th edition." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95(2): 471-473.
10. James, P. E. and G. J. Martin (1981). All possible worlds : a history of geographical ideas. New York, Wiley.
11. Johnston, R. J. (1997). Geography and geographers : Anglo-American human geography since 1945. London; New York, Arnold.
12. National Research Council . Rediscovering Geography, C. (1997). Rediscovering geography : new relevance for science and society. Washington, D.C., National Academy Press.
13. Pickles, J. (2004). A history of spaces : cartographic reason, mapping, and the geo-coded world. London ; New York, Routledge.
14. Maguire, D. J., M. Batty, et al. (2005). GIS, spatial analysis, and modeling. Redlands, Calif., ESRI Press.
15. McKendrick, J. H. (2001). "The dictionary of human geography." Scottish Geographical Journal 117(2): 161-163.
16. National Academies, P. (2006). Learning to think spatially. Washington, D.C., National Academies Press.
17. Unwin, P. T. H. (1992). The place of geography. Harlow, Essex, England, New York, Longman; Wiley.

GIS, Remote Sensing & Natural Hazards

1. Bates, P. D. (2004). "Remote Sensing and Flood Inundation Modelling." Hydrological Processes 18(13): 5.
2. Biza, P., Gimun, V., Knap, R., Ammentorp, H. C., Ihly, T., and Smith, G (2001). The use of a GISbased software tool for benefit-cost analysis of flood mitigation measures in the Czech Republic. DHI Software Conference, June 2001.
3. Bowman, K. P. (2006). An introduction to programming with IDL : Interactive Data Language. Amsterdam ; Boston, Elsevier Academic Press.
4. Campbell, J. B. (2007). Introduction to remote sensing. New York, Guildford Press.
5. CEO, C. F. E. O. (2005). Obtaining and Importing SRTM Elevation Data, Yale University: 7.
6. Cho, J., S. Park, et al. (2008). "Evaluation of Agricultural Nonpoint Source (AGNPS) model for small watersheds in Korea applying irregular cell delineation." Agricultural Water Management 95(4): 400-408.
7. Church, R. L., M. P. Scaparra, et al. (2004). "Identifying critical infrastructure: The median and covering facility interdiction problems." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 94(3): 491-502.
8. Contini, S., F. Bellezza, et al. (2000). "The use of geographic information systems in major accident risk assessment and management." Journal of Hazardous Materials 78(1-3): 223-245.
9. Dass-Brailsford, P. (2008). "After the storm: Recognition, recovery, and reconstruction." Professional Psychology-Research and Practice 39(1): 24-30.
10. Dell'Acqua, F. and P. Gamba (2006). "Discriminating urban environments using multiscale texture and multiple SAR images." International Journal of Remote Sensing 27(18): 3797-3812.
11. Dell'Acqua, F., P. Gamba, et al. (2006). "HySenS data exploitation for urban land cover analysis." Annals of Geophysics 49(1): 311-318.
12. Deng, Y. X. (2007). "New trends in digital terrain analysis: landform definition, representation, and classification." Progress in Physical Geography 31(4): 405-419.
13. Duckham, M. and M. Worboys (2005). "An algebraic approach to automated geospatial information fusion." International Journal of Geographical Information Science 19(5): 537-557.
14. Dunbar, G. S. (1983). The History of geography : translations of some French and German essays. Malibu, CA, Undena Publications.
15. Ehrlich, D. (1992). Multi-temporal satellite image analysis for crop inventories in the Po River Valley (Italy): x, 170 leaves, bound.
16. Elaksher, A. F. (2008). "Fusion of hyperspectral images and lidar-based dems for coastal mapping." Optics and Lasers in Engineering 46(7): 493-498.
17. Gallant, J. C. and J. P. Wilson (1996). "TAPES-G: A grid-based terrain analysis program for the environmental sciences." Computers & Geosciences 22(7): 713-722.

18. Gitas, I. Z., A. Polychronaki, et al. (2008). "Contribution of remote sensing to disaster management activities: A case study of the large fires in the Peloponnese, Greece (vol 29, pg 1847, 2008)." International Journal of Remote Sensing 29(16): 4885-4885.
19. Herold, M., J. Scepan, et al. (2002). "The use of remote sensing and landscape metrics to describe structures and changes in urban land uses." Environment and Planning A 34(8): 1443-1458.
20. Horritt, M. S. and P. D. Bates (2001). "Predicting floodplain inundation: raster-based modelling versus the finite-element approach." Hydrological Processes 15(5): 825-842.
21. Inglada, J. and A. Giros (2004). On the real capabilities of remote sensing for disaster management-feedback from real cases. Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2004. IGARSS '04. Proceedings. 2004 IEEE International.
22. Kasturi, R. and United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (1995). Algorithms for detection of objects in image sequences captured from an airborne imaging system. University Park, PA Washington, DC
23. Kennedy, K. and United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (1996). Remote sensing of landuse changes and implications for landuse policy
24. NAG 2-969--final, administrator's close-out report. Washington, DC
25. Kraus, K., W. Karel, et al. (2006). "Local accuracy measures for digital terrain models." Photogrammetric Record 21(116): 342-354.
26. Kraus, K. and N. Pfeifer (1998). "Determination of terrain models in wooded areas with airborne laser scanner data." Isprs Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 53(4): 193-203.
27. Laben, C. (2002). "Integration of remote sensing data and geographic information system technology for emergency managers and their applications at the Pacific Disaster Center." Optical Engineering 41(9): 2129-2136.
28. Lillesand, T. M. and R. W. Kiefer (1994). Remote sensing and image interpretation. New York, Wiley & Sons.
29. Longley, P. (1999). Geographical Information Systems, Principles, Techniques, Applications and Management, 2 Volume Set, 2nd Edition. New York, Wiley.
30. Longley, P. (2005). Geographical information systems and science. Chichester, Wiley.
31. Maune, D. F. and American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. (2001). Digital elevation model technologies and applications : the DEM users manual. Bethesda, Md., American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.
32. National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Planning for Catastrophe: a Blueprint for Improving Geospatial Data Tools and Infrastructure. (2007). Successful response starts with a map : improving geospatial support for disaster management. Washington, D.C., National Academies Press.
33. Navalgund, R. R., V. Jayaraman, et al. (2007). "Remote sensing applications: An overview." Current Science 93(12): 1747-1766.
34. Neteler, M. and H. Mitasova (2008). Open source GIS : a GRASS GIS approach. New York, NY, Springer.
35. Richardson, T. M. and R. N. Renner (2007). Geographic Information Systems Supporting Disaster Response and Recovery, SSRN.
36. Rodrâiguez, H., E. L. Quarantelli, et al. (2007). Handbook of disaster research. New York, Springer.
37. Roy, D. P., J. Ju, et al. (2008). "Multi-temporal MODIS-Landsat data fusion for relative radiometric normalization, gap filling, and prediction of Landsat data." Remote Sensing of Environment 112(6): 3112-3130.
38. Scally, R. (2006). GIS for environmental management. Redlands, Calif., ESRI Press : Independent Publishers Group (IPG) distributor.
39. Streutker, D. R. and N. F. Glenn (2006). "LiDAR measurement of sagebrush steppe vegetation heights." Remote Sensing of Environment 102(1-2): 135-145.
40. Tralli, D. M., R. G. Blom, et al. (2005). "Satellite remote sensing of earthquake, volcano, flood, landslide and coastal inundation hazards." Isprs Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 59(4): 185-198.
41. Uitto, J. I. (1998). "The geography of disaster vulnerability in megacities - A theoretical framework." Applied Geography 18(1): 7-16.
42. Wilson, J. P. and J. C. Gallant (1996). "EROS: A grid-based program for estimating spatially-distributed erosion indices." Computers & Geosciences 22(7): 707-712.
43. Wilson, J. P. and J. C. Gallant (2000). Terrain analysis : principles and applications. New York, Wiley.
44. Wilson, J. P., C. S. Lam, et al. (2007). "Comparison of the performance of flow-routing algorithms used in GIS-based hydrologic analysis." Hydrological Processes 21(8): 1026-1044.
45. Wohl, E. E. (2000). Inland flood hazards : human, riparian and aquatic communities. Cambridge, U.K. ; New York, Cambridge University Press.
46. Wolf, P. R. (1983). Elements of photogrammetry, with air photo interpretation and remote sensing. New York, McGraw-Hill.

Change Detection, Disaster Recovery & Post Katrina New Orleans

1. Colten, C. E. (2006). "Vulnerability and place: Flat land and uneven risk in New Orleans." American Anthropologist 108(4): 731-734.
2. Colten, C. E., R. W. Kates, et al. (2008). "Three years after Katrina - Lessons for community resilience." Environment 50(5): 36-47.
3. Elwood, S. (2004). "Partnerships and participation: Reconfiguring urban governance in different state contexts." Urban Geography 25(8): 755-770.
4. Elwood, S. (2005). "Community-based organizations: The intersection of social capital and local context in contemporary urban society." Journal of Regional Science 45(1): 269-271.
5. Elwood, S. (2008). "Grassroots groups as stakeholders in spatial data infrastructures: challenges and opportunities for local data development and sharing." International Journal of Geographical Information Science 22(1): 71-90.
6. Elwood, S. and H. Leitner (2003). "GIS and spatial knowledge production for neighborhood revitalization: Negotiating state priorities and neighborhood visions." Journal of Urban Affairs 25(2): 139-157.
7. Gamba, P., F. Dell'Acqua, et al. (2006). "Change detection of multitemporal SAR data in urban areas combining feature-based and pixel-based techniques." Ieee Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 44(10): 2820-2827.
8. Gamba, P., F. Dell'Acqua, et al. (2006). "Improving urban road extraction in high-resolution images exploiting directional filtering, perceptual grouping, and simple topological concepts." Ieee Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 3(3): 387-391.
9. Gamba, P., F. Dell'Acqua, et al. (2007). "Rapid damage detection in the Bam area using multitemporal SAR and exploiting ancillary data." Ieee Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 45(6): 1582-1589.
10. Jones, J. L., J. M. Fulford, et al. (2002). Near-real-time simulation and internet-based delivery of forecast-flood inundation maps using two-dimensional hydraulic modeling : a pilot study of the Snoqualmie River, Washington. Tacoma, Wash.
11. Kates, R. W., C. E. Colten, et al. (2006). "Reconstruction of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina: A research perspective." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103(40): 14653-14660.
12. Logan, J. R. (2006). The Impact of Katrina: Race and Class in Storm-Damaged Neighborhoods. Providence, RI:, Brown University.
13. Long, A. P. (2005). "New orleans: The making of an urban landscape, 2nd edition." Public Historian 27(2): 151-152.
14. Lunetta, R. S. and C. Elvidge (1998). Remote sensing change detection : environmental monitoring methods and applications. Chelsea, Mich., Ann Arbor Press.
15. Morin, P. (2005). "Remote Sensing and Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts." EOS, TRANSACTIONS AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION VOL. 86(NO. 40): 2.
16. Morrow, B. H. (1999). "Identifying and mapping community vulnerability." Disasters 23(1): 1-18.
17. Mustafa, D. (1998). "Structural causes of vulnerability to flood hazard in Pakistan." Economic Geography 74(3): 289-305.
18. Myint, S. W., M. Yuan, et al. (2008). "Categorizing natural disaster damage assessment using satellite-based geospatial techniques." Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 8(4): 707-719.
19. Myint, S. W., M. Yuan, et al. (2008). "Comparison of remote sensing image processing techniques to identify tornado damage areas from landsat TM data." Sensors 8(2): 1128-1156.
20. Neudecker, K. (1999). Animations with the ArcView 3D Analyst Extension. ESRI European Users Conference.
21. Parker, D. J. (2000). Floods. London ; New York, Routledge.
22. Paylor, E. D., D. L. Evans, et al. (2005). "Theme issue: Remote sensing natural hazards and geospatial information for characterization." Isprs Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 59(4): 181-184.
23. Quarantelli, E. L. (1998). What is a disaster? : perspectives on the question. London New York, Routledge.
24. Rossi, G., N. Harmancioéglu, et al. (1994). Coping with floods. Dordrecht ; Boston, Kluwer Academic.
25. Sawicki, D. S. and W. J. Craig (1996). "The democratization of data - Bridging the gap for community groups." Journal of the American Planning Association 62(4): 512-523.
26. Webster, T. L., D. L. Forbes, et al. (2006). "Flood-risk mapping for storm-surge events and sea-level rise using lidar for southeast New Brunswick." Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing 32(2): 194-211.
27. Yang, X. R., Bengt (2002). Predicting Flood Inundation and Risk Using GIS and Hydrodynamic Model: A Case Study at Eskilstuna, Sweden. XXIIth Inca Congress - Convergence Of Imagery, Information & Maps, Ahmedabad
28. Zerger, A. and D. I. Smith (2003). "Impediments to using GIS for real-time disaster decision support." Computers, Environment and Urban Systems 27(2): 123-141.

Still working? Still up?

I have about 73 references in my reading list for now. I am still waiting for some books to get here from inter library loan. These holidays should be pretty interesting work wise. Anyway...i am done for the night. Headed home to get some rest. I set up my computer to back up all my research files finally. I think a daily backup is ok. So my research is being backed up to one drive, but my entire documents folder is being backed up to different external drive. Tomorrow i will set up the back up so that i can save it to my storage space online. God forbid someone should come in here and just walk off with all my external drives or a brush fire come thru here and burn down this trailer. Anyway...why am i still up? 1:20 is not too bad.

trying to pick up the pace...

So things are moving at a slow crawl, but most things start off that way. Only problem is..this is not really the beginning, its the middle somewhere. But i guess it's still the beginning of this part. Anyway, I have been working out more regularly and trying to enhance my physical fitness and mental fitness at the same pace. So the last couple of days i have been in the gym, i played some bball, game after game until i can't really go anymore. i know my legs are gonna give out, but it feels good. Apparently i have a problem with my arches, but i am not flat footed. I play in the evenings so i can wind down, go home, shower, and be ready for a good nights sleep, but i think i must get pretty energized, cause my body says sleep, but i can't fall asleep. So i stay up late being unproductive. Monday I was pretty productive after my morning meeting, and Tuesday i woke up early, but didnt really get started until late. I have been working on my reading list. I have so many references, so many articles, and books to sort through. At the same time i have close to 70 saved pdfs on my computer. So i have been sorting thru the hard copies, and making sure all the references are saved in end notes. I still have a few to go thru, then i have to figure out what i have read and what i havent read yet. Oh and of course i have to organize them all into the different subjest areas they represent. I really should be able to do this all by tomorrow night. Maybe i should stay up all night and get it done. I bought a monster burrito for brunch, then had piece for dinner, then had piece after the gym. So i am good for a while. I am trying to decide whether i should stay here in my office...its after 11pm. or head home. I am going to put in a solid 2 hours and then i guess i can call it a night.

I know this is probably not entertaining like plenty of other blogs...but if you are behind on bills then this may help http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=665847

Meetings & Readings

Seems like all i do is go to meetings about research, and read readings dealing with my research. each meeting changes the readings but not always the other way around. Guess i will just keep adding them to my list on endnotes.

Eco Feature Extraction Phase 1

So most PhD students would probably agree that sitting down and actually writing is possibly one of the most elusive processes in the whole PhD effort. But we are encouraged nevertheless to write something, every night! I have been told this time and time again; it has come as a recommendation or suggestion from countless advisors, mentors, fellow grad students, etc. But we don't listen, I tried to tell myself, that if i am typing emails or chatting or sending text messages, then that's writing something...but looking at my progress thus far, that kind of "writing" doesn't seem to be helping. That's really why i opened up this little space so i can write about what i am supposed to be doing and when i read it again to myself, realize that i am either doing it or not doing it.

So today i read another scientific journal article, and i have plenty to choose from. I worked on one of the projects that we'll call LiDAR Feature Extraction (LiFE). Basically, from home, I typed all all the notes i have been writing in my research notebook about all the steps i need to complete thus far in the project. So the goal is to come up with some Lidar imagery and use it to create some high precision digital elevation models (DEMs). Then we'll take the DEMs and conflate them to some Digital Ortho Quarter Quads (DOQQs) and see if they align precisely.

Sounds easy enough...since they say you are what you eat...i have been eating "Nerds" to see if i can become one. But in the meantime, in the next few days i have to familiarize myselfwith how to use a few different software packages such as GRAS, TAPES-G, SNAKES, The ArcGIS tools, IDL & ENVI for terrain structure analysis. Yes, I am thinking spatially, but not looking at maps just yet. I keep mixing up my readings for two projects so i need to come up with a better filing system then just putting everything in a "research" folder. Ok let me get back to reading about remote sensing technology.

New Beginning...

Not really...but i have alot of work to do! I have been going at this PhD way too long. So today i am writing an outline for my PhD dissertation work. I need to prepare for my qualifying exam by the next two months. I need to put together a reading list to submit to my Advisor and then i actually have to complete the reading. I tend to be easily distracted but i am confident i will get it done. In the meantime and in between time i am working on another research project that i need to keep up with. And if that wasn't enough, I have a third project in the works which i am collaborating with some other graduate students on to create a working group which meets in march. Well, I seem to have quite a bit on my plate, so I better stop blogging and get to work.