Search Content

Machine Learning and Vision Using Edge Devices for Multimodal Chatbots and Bio-meteorological Sensing

Description

Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) has become an intrinsic part of multiple fields. The ability to solve complex problems makes machine learning a panacea. In the last few years, there has been an explosion of data generation, which has greatly improvised machine learning models. But this comes with…

Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) has become an intrinsic part of multiple fields. The ability to solve complex problems makes machine learning a panacea. In the last few years, there has been an explosion of data generation, which has greatly improvised machine learning models. But this comes with a cost of high computation, which invariably increases power usage and cost of the hardware. In this thesis we explore applications of ML techniques, applied to two completely different fields - arts, media and theater and urban climate research using low-cost and low-powered edge devices. The multi-modal chatbot uses different machine learning techniques: natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision (CV) to understand inputs of the user and accordingly perform in the play and interact with the audience. This system is also equipped with other interactive hardware setups like movable LED systems, together they provide an experiential theatrical play tailored to each user. I will discuss how I used edge devices to achieve this AI system which has created a new genre in theatrical play. I will then discuss MaRTiny, which is an AI-based bio-meteorological system that calculates mean radiant temperature (MRT), which is an important parameter for urban climate research. It is also equipped with a vision system that performs different machine learning tasks like pedestrian and shade detection. The entire system costs around $200 which can potentially replace the existing setup worth $20,000. I will further discuss how I overcame the inaccuracies in MRT value caused by the system, using machine learning methods. These projects although belonging to two very different fields, are implemented using edge devices and use similar ML techniques. In this thesis I will detail out different techniques that are shared between these two projects and how they can be used in several other applications using edge devices.

ContributorsKulkarni, Karthik Kashinath (Author) / Jayasuriya, Suren (Thesis advisor) / Middel, Ariane (Thesis advisor) / Yu, Hongbin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2021

Urban Heat: A Sustainability Challenge Crossing Traditional Boundaries

Description

Cities globally are experiencing substantial warming due to ongoing urbanization and climate change. However, existing efforts to mitigate urban heat focus mainly on new technologies, exacerbate social injustices, and ignore the need for a sustainability lens that considers environmental, social, and economic perspectives. Heat in urban areas is amplified and…

Cities globally are experiencing substantial warming due to ongoing urbanization and climate change. However, existing efforts to mitigate urban heat focus mainly on new technologies, exacerbate social injustices, and ignore the need for a sustainability lens that considers environmental, social, and economic perspectives. Heat in urban areas is amplified and urgently needs to be considered as a critical sustainability issue that crosses disciplinary and sectoral (traditional) boundaries. The missing urgency is concerning because urban overheating is a multi-faceted threat to the well-being and performance of individuals as well as the energy efficiency and economy of cities. Urban heat consequences require transformation in ways of thinking by involving the best available knowledge engaging scientists, policymakers, and communities. To do so, effective heat mitigation planning requires a considerable amount of diverse knowledge sources, yet urban planners face multiple barriers to effective heat mitigation, including a lack of usable, policy-relevant science and governance structures. To address these issues, transdisciplinary approaches, such as co-production via partnerships and the creation of usable, policy-relevant science, are necessary to allow for sustainable and equitable heat mitigation that allow cities to work toward multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) using a systems approach. This dissertation presents three studies that contribute to a sustainability lens on urban heat, improve the holistic and multi-perspective understanding of heat mitigation strategies, provide contextual guidance for reflective pavement as a heat mitigation strategy, and evaluate a multilateral, sustainability-oriented, co-production partnership to foster heat resilience equitably in cities. Results show that science and city practice communicate differently about heat mitigation strategies while both avoid to communicate disservices and trade-offs. Additionally, performance evaluation of heat mitigation strategies for decision-making needs to consider multiple heat metrics, people, and background climate. Lastly, the partnership between science, city practice, and community needs to be evaluated to be accountable and provide a pathway of growth for all partners. The outcomes of this dissertation advance research and awareness of urban heat for science, practice, and community, and provide guidance to improve holistic and sustainable decision-making in cities and partnerships to address SDGs around urban heat.

ContributorsSchneider, Florian Arwed (Author) / Middel, Ariane (Thesis advisor) / Vanos, Jennifer K (Committee member) / Withycombe Keeler, Lauren (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2023

The Role of the Physical and Social Residential Environment in Shaping Heat Risks in an Arid City

Description

Extreme heat and its human impacts are significant public health challenges that disproportionately affect certain populations. Often, people with the least resources to cope with the heat also live in the hottest regions of cities. Previous heat vulnerability research has predominantly been conducted at a coarse geographic scale, yet translating…

Extreme heat and its human impacts are significant public health challenges that disproportionately affect certain populations. Often, people with the least resources to cope with the heat also live in the hottest regions of cities. Previous heat vulnerability research has predominantly been conducted at a coarse geographic scale, yet translating relationships measured at aggregated scales to the individual level can result in ecological fallacy. Prior work has also primarily studied the most severe health outcomes: hospitalization/emergency care and mortality. It is likely that magnitudes more people are experiencing negative health impacts from heat that do not necessarily result in medical care. Such less severe impacts are under-researched in the literature.This dissertation addresses these knowledge gaps by identifying how social characteristics and physical measurements of heat at the individual and household level act independently and in concert to influence human heat-related outcomes, especially less severe outcomes. In the first paper, meta-analysis was used to quantify the summary effects of vulnerability indicators on incidence of heat-related illness. More proximal vulnerability indicators (e.g., residential air conditioning use, indoor heat exposure, etc.) tended to have the strongest impact on odds of experiencing heat-related illness than more distal indicators. In the next paper, indoor air temperature observations were related to the social characteristics of the residents. The strongest predictor of indoor air temperature was the residents’ ideal thermally comfortable temperature, despite affordability. In the final paper, fine scale biometeorological observations of the outdoor thermal environment near residents’ homes were linked to their experience with heat-related illness. The outdoor thermal environment appeared to have a stronger, more consistent impact on heat-related illness among households in a lower income neighborhood compared to a higher income one. These findings affirm the value of employing residential heat mitigation solutions at the individual and household scale, indoors and outdoors. Across all chapters, the indoor thermal environment, and the ability to modify it, had a clear impact on residents’ comfort and health. Solutions that target the most proximal causal factors of heat-related illness will likely have the greatest impact on reducing the burden of heat on human health and well-being.

ContributorsWright, Mary K (Author) / Hondula, David M (Thesis advisor) / Larson, Kelli L (Committee member) / Middel, Ariane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2023

Impacts of Landscape Modifications on Urban Boundary Layer Dynamics in Current and Projected Climate

Description

The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is the lowest part of the troposphere and is directly influenced by surface forcing. Anthropogenic modification from natural to urban environments characterized by increased impervious surfaces, anthropogenic heat emission, and a three-dimensional building morphology, affects land-atmosphere interactions in the urban boundary layer (UBL). Ample research…

The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is the lowest part of the troposphere and is directly influenced by surface forcing. Anthropogenic modification from natural to urban environments characterized by increased impervious surfaces, anthropogenic heat emission, and a three-dimensional building morphology, affects land-atmosphere interactions in the urban boundary layer (UBL). Ample research has demonstrated the effect of landscape modifications on development and modulation of the near-surface urban heat island (UHI). However, despite potential implications for air quality, precipitation patterns and aviation operations, considerably less attention has been given to impacts on regional scale wind flow. This dissertation, composed of three peer reviewed manuscripts, fills a fundamental gap in urban climate research, by investigating individual and combined impacts of urbanization, heat adaptation strategies and projected climate change on UBL dynamics. Paper 1 uses medium-resolution Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) climate simulations to assess contemporary and future impacts across the Conterminous US (CONUS). Results indicate that projected urbanization and climate change are expected to increase summer daytime UBL height in the eastern CONUS. Heat adaptation strategies are expected to reduce summer daytime UBL depth by several hundred meters, increase both daytime and nighttime static stability and induce stronger subsidence, especially in the southwestern US. Paper 2 investigates urban modifications to contemporary wind circulation in the complex terrain of the Phoenix Metropolitan Area (PMA) using high-resolution WRF simulations. The built environment of PMA decreases wind flow in the evening and nighttime inertial sublayer and produces a UHI-induced circulation of limited vertical extent that modulates the background flow. During daytime, greater urban sensible heat flux dampens the urban roughness-induced drag effect by promoting a deeper, more mixed UBL. Paper 3 extends the investigation to future scenarios showing that, overall, climate change is expected to reduce wind speed across the PMA. Projected increased soil moisture is expected to intensify katabatic winds and weaken anabatic winds along steeper slopes. Urban development is expected to obstruct nighttime wind flow across areas of urban expansion and increase turbulence in the westernmost UBL. This dissertation advances the understanding of regional-scale UBL dynamics and highlights challenges and opportunities for future research.

ContributorsBrandi, Aldo (Author) / Georgescu, Matei (Thesis advisor) / Broadbent, Ashley (Committee member) / Moustaoui, Mohamed (Committee member) / Sailor, David (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2023

Guía para planificar acciones contra el calor para los vecindarios de la zona metropolitana de Phoenix: crear soluciones al calor urbano en el Valle del Sol

Description

En la zona metropolitana de Phoenix, el calor urbano está afectando la salud, la seguridad y la economía y se espera que estos impactos empeoren con el tiempo. Se prevé que el número de días por encima de 110˚F aumentará más del doble para el 2060. En mayo de 2017,…

En la zona metropolitana de Phoenix, el calor urbano está afectando la salud, la seguridad y la economía y se espera que estos impactos empeoren con el tiempo. Se prevé que el número de días por encima de 110˚F aumentará más del doble para el 2060. En mayo de 2017, The Nature Conservancy, el Departamento de Salud Pública del condado de Maricopa, Central Arizona Conservation Alliance, la Red de Investigación en Sostenibilidad sobre la Resiliencia Urbana a Eventos Extremos, el Centro de Investigación del Clima Urbano de Arizona State University y el Center for Whole Communities lanzaron un proceso participativo de planificación de acciones contra el calor para identificar tanto estrategias de mitigación como de adaptación a fin de reducir directamente el calor y mejorar la capacidad de los residentes para lidiar con el calor. Las organizaciones comunitarias con relaciones existentes en tres vecindarios seleccionados para la planificación de acciones contra el calor se unieron más tarde al equipo del proyecto: Phoenix Revitalization Corporation, RAILMesa y Puente Movement. Más allá de construir un plan de acción comunitario contra el calor y completar proyectos de demostración, este proceso participativo fue diseñado para desarrollar conciencia, iniciativa y cohesión social en las comunidades subrepresentadas. Asimismo el proceso de planificación de acciones contra el calor fue diseñado para servir como modelo para esfuerzos futuros de resiliencia al calor y crear una visión local, contextual y culturalmente apropiada de un futuro más seguro y saludable. El método iterativo de planificación y participación utilizado por el equipo del proyecto fortaleció las relaciones dentro y entre los vecindarios, las organizaciones comunitarias, los responsables de la toma de decisiones y el equipo núcleo, y combinó la sabiduría de la narración de historias y la evidencia científica para comprender mejor los desafíos actuales y futuros que enfrentan los residentes durante eventos de calor extremo. Como resultado de tres talleres en cada comunidad, los residentes presentaron ideas que quieren ver implementadas para aumentar su comodidad y seguridad térmica durante los días de calor extremo.

Como se muestra a continuación, las ideas de los residentes se interceptaron en torno a conceptos similares, pero las soluciones específicas variaron entre los vecindarios. Por ejemplo, a todos los vecindarios les gustaría agregar sombra a sus corredores peatonales, pero variaron las preferencias para la ubicación de las mejoras para dar sombra. Algunos vecindarios priorizaron las rutas de transporte público, otros priorizaron las rutas utilizadas por los niños en su camino a la escuela y otros quieren paradas de descanso con sombra en lugares clave. Surgieron cuatro temas estratégicos generales en los tres vecindarios: promover y educar; mejorar la comodidad/capacidad de afrontamiento; mejorar la seguridad; fortalecer la capacidad. Estos temas señalan que existen serios desafíos de seguridad contra el calor en la vida diaria de los residentes y que la comunidad, los negocios y los sectores responsables de la toma de decisión deben abordar esos desafíos.

Los elementos del plan de acción contra el calor están diseñados para incorporarse a otros esfuerzos para aliviar el calor, crear ciudades resilientes al clima y brindar salud y seguridad pública. Los socios de implementación del plan de acción contra el calor provienen de la región de la zona metropolitana de Phoenix, y se brindan recomendaciones para apoyar la transformación a una ciudad más fresca.

Para ampliar la escala de este enfoque, los miembros del equipo del proyecto recomiendan a) compromiso continuo e inversiones en estos vecindarios para implementar el cambio señalado como vital por los residentes, b) repetir el proceso de planificación de acción contra el calor con líderes comunitarios en otros vecindarios, y c) trabajar con las ciudades, los planificadores urbanos y otras partes interesadas para institucionalizar este proceso, apoyando las políticas y el uso de las métricas propuestas para crear comunidades más frescas.

ContributorsMesserschmidt, Maggie (Contributor) / Guardaro, Melissa (Contributor) / White, Jessica R. (Contributor) / Berisha, Vjollca (Contributor) / Hondula, David M. (Contributor) / Feagan, Mathieu (Contributor) / Grimm, Nancy (Contributor) / Beule, Stacie (Contributor) / Perea, Masavi (Contributor) / Ramirez, Maricruz (Contributor) / Olivas, Eva (Contributor) / Bueno, Jessica (Contributor) / Crummey, David (Contributor) / Winkle, Ryan (Contributor) / Rothballer, Kristin (Contributor) / Mocine-McQueen, Julian (Contributor) / Maurer, Maria (Artist) / Coseo, Paul (Artist) / Crank, Peter J (Designer) / Broadbent, Ashley (Designer) / McCauley, Lisa (Designer) / Nature's Cooling Systems Project (Contributor) / Nature Conservancy (U.S.) (Contributor) / Phoenix Revitalization Corporation (Contributor) / Puente Movement (Contributor) / Maricopa County (Ariz.). Department of Public Health (Contributor) / Central Arizona Conservation Alliance (Contributor) / Arizona State University. Urban Climate Research Center (Contributor) / Arizona State University. Urban Resilience to Extremes Sustainability Research Network (Contributor) / Center for Whole Communities (Contributor) / RAILmesa (Contributor) / Vitalyst Health Foundation (Funder)

Created2022

A Computational Model of Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change

Description

Adaptive capacity to climate change is the ability of a system to mitigate or take advantage of climate change effects. Research on adaptive capacity to climate change suffers fragmentation. This is partly because there is no clear consensus around precise definitions of adaptive capacity. The aim of this thesis is…

Adaptive capacity to climate change is the ability of a system to mitigate or take advantage of climate change effects. Research on adaptive capacity to climate change suffers fragmentation. This is partly because there is no clear consensus around precise definitions of adaptive capacity. The aim of this thesis is to place definitions of adaptive capacity into a formal framework. I formalize adaptive capacity as a computational model written in the Idris 2 programming language. The model uses types to constrain how the elements of the model fit together. To achieve this, I analyze nine existing definitions of adaptive capacity. The focus of the analysis was on important factors that affect definitions and shared elements of the definitions. The model is able to describe an adaptive capacity study and guide a user toward concepts lacking clarity in the study. This shows that the model is useful as a tool to think about adaptive capacity. In the future, one could refine the model by forming an ontology for adaptive capacity. One could also review the literature more systematically. Finally, one might consider turning to qualitative research methods for reviewing the literature.

ContributorsManuel, Jason (Author) / Bazzi, Rida (Thesis director) / Pavlic, Theodore (Committee member) / Middel, Ariane (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor)

Created2022-05

Outdoor Misting System's Water Usage and Effectiveness

Description

With the increase in the severity of drought conditions in the Southwest region of the U.S. paired with rising temperatures, it is becoming increasingly important to look at the systems used to keep people cool in hot-arid cities like Tempe, Arizona. Outdoor misting systems are often deployed by businesses. These…

With the increase in the severity of drought conditions in the Southwest region of the U.S. paired with rising temperatures, it is becoming increasingly important to look at the systems used to keep people cool in hot-arid cities like Tempe, Arizona. Outdoor misting systems are often deployed by businesses. These systems rely on the evaporative cooling effect of water. This study examines the relationship between misting droplet size, water usage, and thermal comfort using low-pressure misting systems, tested within hot and dry conditions representative of the arid U.S. southwest. A model misting system using three nozzle orifice sizes was set up in a controlled heat chamber environment (starting baseline conditions of 40°C air temperature and 15 % relative humidity). Droplet size was measured using water-reactive paper, while water use was determined based on weight-change measurements. These measurements were paired with temperature and humidity measurements observed in several locations around the chamber to allow for a spatial analysis. Thermal comfort is determined based on psychrometric changes (temperature and absolute humidity) within the room. On average, air temperatures decreased between 2 to 4°C depending on nozzle size and sensor location. The 0.4 mm nozzle had a decent spread across the heat chamber and balanced water usage and effectiveness well. Limitations within the study showed ventilation is important for an effective system, corroborating other studies findings and suggesting that adding air circulation could improve evaporation and comfort and thus effectiveness. Finally, visual cues, such as wetted surfaces, can signal businesses to change nozzle sizes and/or make additional modifications to the system area.

ContributorsJohnson, Trevor (Author) / Vanos, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Middel, Ariane (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor)

Created2023-05

Towards Affordable Personal Weather Stations: Impact of Geometry and Flow Characteristics on Heat Transfer Coefficient from Heated Cylindrical Sensors

Description

The measurement of the radiation and convection that the human body experiences are important for ensuring safety in extreme heat conditions. The radiation from the surroundings on the human body is most often measured using globe or cylindrical radiometers. The large errors stemming from differences in internal and exterior temperatures…

The measurement of the radiation and convection that the human body experiences are important for ensuring safety in extreme heat conditions. The radiation from the surroundings on the human body is most often measured using globe or cylindrical radiometers. The large errors stemming from differences in internal and exterior temperatures and indirect estimation of convection can be resolved by simultaneously using three cylindrical radiometers (1 cm diameter, 9 cm height) with varying surface properties and internal heating. With three surface balances, the three unknowns (heat transfer coefficient, shortwave, and longwave radiation) can be solved for directly. As compared to integral radiation measurement technique, however, the bottom mounting using a wooden-dowel of the three-cylinder radiometers resulted in underestimated the total absorbed radiation. This first part of this thesis focuses on reducing the size of the three-cylinder radiometers and an alternative mounting that resolves the prior issues. In particular, the heat transfer coefficient in laminar wind tunnel with wind speed of 0.25 to 5 m/s is measured for six polished, heated cylinders with diameter of 1 cm and height of 1.5 to 9 cm mounted using a wooden dowel. For cylinders with height of 6 cm and above, the heat transfer coefficients are independent of the height and agree with the Hilpert correlation for infinitely long cylinder. Subsequently, a side-mounting for heated 6 cm tall cylinder with top and bottom metallic caps is developed and tested within the wind tunnel. The heat transfer coefficient is shown to be independent of the flow-side mounting and in agreement with the Hilpert correlation. The second part of this thesis explores feasibility of employing the three-cylinder concept to measuring all air-flow parameters relevant to human convection including mean wind speed, turbulence intensity and length scale. Heated cylinders with same surface properties but varying diameters are fabricated. Uniformity of their exterior temperature, which is fundamental to the three-cylinder anemometer concept, is tested during operation using infrared camera. To provide a lab-based method to measure convection from the cylinders in turbulent flow, several designs of turbulence-generating fractal grids are laser-cut and introduced into the wind tunnel.

ContributorsGupta, Mahima (Author) / Rykaczewski, Konrad (Thesis advisor) / Pathikonda, Gokul (Thesis advisor) / Middel, Ariane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2024

Improving Urban Cooling in the Semi-arid Phoenix Metropolis: Land System Science, Landscape Ecology and Urban Climatology Approaches

Description

The global increase in urbanization has raised questions about urban sustainability to which multiple research communities have entered. Those communities addressing interest in the urban heat island (UHI) effect and extreme temperatures include land system science, urban/landscape ecology, and urban climatology. General investigations of UHI have focused primarily on land…

The global increase in urbanization has raised questions about urban sustainability to which multiple research communities have entered. Those communities addressing interest in the urban heat island (UHI) effect and extreme temperatures include land system science, urban/landscape ecology, and urban climatology. General investigations of UHI have focused primarily on land surface and canopy layer air temperatures. The surface temperature is of prime importance to UHI studies because of its central rule in the surface energy balance, direct effects on air temperature, and outdoor thermal comfort. Focusing on the diurnal surface temperature variations in Phoenix, Arizona, especially on the cool (green space) island effect and the surface heat island effect, the dissertation develops three research papers that improve the integration among the abovementioned sub-fields. Specifically, these papers involve: (1) the quantification and modeling of the diurnal cooling benefits of green space; (2) the optimization of green space locations to reduce the surface heat island effect in daytime and nighttime; and, (3) an evaluation of the effects of vertical urban forms on land surface temperature using Google Street View. These works demonstrate that the pattern of new green spaces in central Phoenix could be optimized such that 96% of the maximum daytime and nighttime cooling benefits would be achieved, and that Google Street View data offers an alternative to other data, providing the vertical dimensions of land-cover for addressing surface temperature impacts, increasing the model accuracy over the use of horizontal land-cover data alone. Taken together, the dissertation points the way towards the integration of research directions to better understand the consequences of detailed land conditions on temperatures in urban areas, providing insights for urban designs to alleviate these extremes.

ContributorsZhang, Yujia (Author) / Turner, Billie (Thesis advisor) / Murray, Alan T. (Committee member) / Myint, Soe W (Committee member) / Middel, Ariane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2018

Spatio-temporal statistical modeling: climate impacts due to bioenergy crop expansion

Description

Large-scale cultivation of perennial bioenergy crops (e.g., miscanthus and switch-

grass) offers unique opportunities to mitigate climate change through avoided fossil fuel use and associated greenhouse gas reduction. Although conversion of existing agriculturally intensive lands (e.g., maize and soy) to perennial bioenergy cropping systems has been shown to reduce near-surface temperatures,…

Large-scale cultivation of perennial bioenergy crops (e.g., miscanthus and switch-

grass) offers unique opportunities to mitigate climate change through avoided fossil fuel use and associated greenhouse gas reduction. Although conversion of existing agriculturally intensive lands (e.g., maize and soy) to perennial bioenergy cropping systems has been shown to reduce near-surface temperatures, unintended consequences on natural water resources via depletion of soil moisture may offset these benefits. In the effort of the cross-fertilization across the disciplines of physics-based modeling and spatio-temporal statistics, three topics are investigated in this dissertation aiming to provide a novel quantification and robust justifications of the hydroclimate impacts associated with bioenergy crop expansion. Topic 1 quantifies the hydroclimatic impacts associated with perennial bioenergy crop expansion over the contiguous United States using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) dynamically coupled to a land surface model (LSM). A suite of continuous (2000–09) medium-range resolution (20-km grid spacing) ensemble-based simulations is conducted. Hovmöller and Taylor diagrams are utilized to evaluate simulated temperature and precipitation. In addition, Mann-Kendall modified trend tests and Sieve-bootstrap trend tests are performed to evaluate the statistical significance of trends in soil moisture differences. Finally, this research reveals potential hot spots of suitable deployment and regions to avoid. Topic 2 presents spatio-temporal Bayesian models which quantify the robustness of control simulation bias, as well as biofuel impacts, using three spatio-temporal correlation structures. A hierarchical model with spatially varying intercepts and slopes display satisfactory performance in capturing spatio-temporal associations. Simulated temperature impacts due to perennial bioenergy crop expansion are robust to physics parameterization schemes. Topic 3 further focuses on the accuracy and efficiency of spatial-temporal statistical modeling for large datasets. An ensemble of spatio-temporal eigenvector filtering algorithms (hereafter: STEF) is proposed to account for the spatio-temporal autocorrelation structure of the data while taking into account spatial confounding. Monte Carlo experiments are conducted. This method is then used to quantify the robustness of simulated hydroclimatic impacts associated with bioenergy crops to alternative physics parameterizations. Results are evaluated against those obtained from three alternative Bayesian spatio-temporal specifications.

ContributorsWang, Meng, Ph.D (Author) / Kamarianakis, Yiannis (Thesis advisor) / Georgescu, Matei (Thesis advisor) / Fotheringham, A. Stewart (Committee member) / Moustaoui, Mohamed (Committee member) / Reiser, Mark R. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)

Created2018