Washington, DC - The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded more than $10.2 million in 2017 through its Geography and Spatial Sciences (GSS) program to fund 64 new projects that will advance knowledge about geographic patterns and processes, as well as the complex dynamics of interactions among human, physical and biotic systems on Earth.
"Geography plays an important role in how people interact with each other, their cultures and their environments," said Fay Lomax Cook, NSF assistant director for the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE), which houses the GSS program. "NSF has a long history of supporting fundamental research that advances the knowledge, concepts, theories and methods in geography and spatial science. GSS projects have advanced fundamental understanding and addressed critical questions of societal significance in many ways."
The GSS program promotes research about the nature, causes and consequences of human activity, natural environmental processes, and human-environmental interactions across a range of scales. The program also promotes education and training opportunities for geographers and spatial scientists and their involvement in interdisciplinary research.
"Awards made by the Geography and Spatial Sciences Program address a wide range of topics with real-world impacts," said GSS Program Director Antoinette WinklerPrins. "Our awards reflect this diversity with projects about land-use, technology and social networks, labor migration patterns, road safety, spatial dynamics of homicides, adjustments to changing societal and environmental conditions, and more. The awards also assist in the professional development of researchers who will conduct exciting, significant research for decades to come."
Several awards are co-funded by other programs in NSF, and one was funded in partnership with the Research Councils, United Kingdom.
Listed below are the projects, principal investigators and organizations receiving awards.
2017 Geography and Spatial Sciences program awards
Research awards
SBE-RCUK: The Effects of Mobile Phones on Gendered Social Networks, Decision Making, and Vulnerability, Timothy Baird, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Relationships Between Removal of Infrastructure Subsidies and Coastal Development: The Impact of the U.S. Coastal Barrier Resources Act, Todd BenDor, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Quantifying the Invasive Grass-Fire Cycle and Implications for Carbon Storage in the Continental U.S., Bethany Bradley, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Coastal Erosion Vulnerabilities, Monsoon Dynamics, and Human Adaptive Response, Thomas Crawford, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Soil Erosion, Floodplain Sedimentation, and Agricultural Sustainability Over Centennial Time Scales, J. Michael Daniels, University of Denver
Understanding the Role of Moisture Transport in Rainfall Variability and Agricultural Decision Making, Jeremy Diem, Georgia State University
Land-Surface Processes, Dust Sources, and Particulate Fluxes of the 1930s Dust Bowl Drought in the U.S. Great Plains, Steven Forman, Baylor University
Assessing the Influence of Zero-Deforestation Supply-Chain Commitments on the Conservation of Ecosystems, Rachael Garrett, Boston University
Evaluation of the Processes Shaping Geographic Patterns of Language Diversity with Process-Based Simulation Models, Michael Gavin, Colorado State University
Developing a Network of n-Alkane Hydrogen Isotope Records to Identify Drivers and Impacts of Holocene Droughts, Sally Horn, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, Geospatial Intelligence, and Civil Rights, Joshua Inwood, Pennsylvania State University-University Park
A Paleoclimatic Examination of Tropical Cyclone-Related Precipitation Variability and Atmospheric-Oceanic Controls Inferred from Longleaf Pine in the Coastal Carolinas, Paul Knapp, University of North Carolina-Greensboro
Refueling Infrastructure Preferences and the Adoption of Alternative-Fuel Vehicles, Michael Kuby, Arizona State University
Relationships Between Urban Population Densities and the Carbon Efficiency of Public Transit and Private Vehicles, Bumsoo Lee, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
Intellectual Migration Dynamics Between China and the U.S., Wei Li, Arizona State University
Co-Production of Environmental Conservation and Social Equity: Is Conditionality in Payments for Ecosystem Services a Necessity or an Impediment? Zhao Ma, Purdue University
An Ethnography of Pathways to Interdisciplinary Knowledge Integration at Two Environmental Science Sites in Brazil, Katie Meehan, University of Oregon-Eugene
Fire, Vegetation Change, and Human Settlement, Scott Mensing, University of Nevada-Reno
RAPID: Impacts of an Extreme Flood on River Channel Formation and Riparian Forests, Robert Pavlowsky, Missouri State University
Labor Migration and Effects of Remittances and Commodity Enclosures on Industrial Agriculture and Forest Landscapes, Nancy Peluso, University of California-Berkeley
Neighborhoods in Space-Time Contexts, Sergio Rey, Arizona State University
RUI: Assessing the Environmental and Human Drivers and Cultural Dimensions of Changes in Oak Forests of the Eastern U.S., David Robertson, SUNY College-Geneseo
Linking Basin-Scale, Stand-Level, and Individual Tree Water Stress Indicators for Groundwater-Dependent Riparian Forests in Multiple-Use River Basins, John Stella, SUNY-College of Environmental Science and Forestry
Fleeting Decisions and Risks in Pedestrian Road-Crossing Behavior: Building Insight with Next-Generation Data, Models, and Platforms, Paul Torrens, New York University
Demographic Inversion in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, Kyle Walker, Texas Christian University
Faculty Early-Career Development (CAREER) Awards
CAREER: The Science of Science Education: Resource Access, Conservation, and Cherokee Land-Based Education in Oklahoma, Clinton Carroll, University of Colorado-Boulder
CAREER: Linking Upstream Land-Use Dynamics and Downstream Sedimentation, William Ouimet, University of Connecticut
CAREER: Geographic and Temporal Homicide Dynamics 1870-2003, Robert Vargas, University of Notre Dame
Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement (DDRI) Awards
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Disability Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace, Anthony Bebbington/Catherine Jampel, Clark University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cartographic Design for Public Communication of Environmental Information, Cynthia Brewer/Carolyn Fish, Pennsylvania State University-University Park
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Late Pleistocene Glaciation in Southeastern Alaska: Assessing the Sensitivity of a Marine-Terminating Ice Sheet to Changing Environmental Conditions, Jason Briner/Alia Lesnek, SUNY-Buffalo
Doctoral Dissertation Research: The American Alley: A History of Social Hierarchies in U.S. Urban Landscapes, William Cronon/Rebecca Summer, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Effects of Prescribed Fire on Forest Dynamics and Resource Use, Lisa Curran/Tony Marks-Block, Stanford University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Tax Credits, Historic Preservation, and the Redevelopment of Modernist Architecture in the United States, Mark Davidson/Renee Tapp, Clark University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Differentiated Citizenship and the Governance of Land and Everyday Life in the Making of a Global City, Nancy Ettlinger/Debangana Bose, Ohio State University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Extra-Territorial Sovereignty, Nationalism, and the Politics of Development, Jennifer Fluri/Rupak Shrestha, University of Colorado-Boulder
Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Impact of Lateral Channel Confinement on River Morphology, Mark Fonstad/Aaron Zettler-Mann, University of Oregon-Eugene
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assessing the Effects of Tourism Development on Small-Scale Fisheries, Steven Gaines/Karly Miller, University of California-Santa Barbara
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Integrating Image Spectroscopy and Microbial Biogeochemistry to Analyze Woody Shrub Encroachment, Rachel Gallery/Martha Gebhardt, University of Arizona
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Geographies of Urban Trauma: Examining a Social Service Paradigm Shift in Two U.S. Cities, Melissa Gilbert/Sarah Stinard-Kiel, Temple University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Development of a Framework for Quantifying Hydrologic Surface Connectivity of a Coastal River-Floodplain System, Inci Guneralp/Cesar Castillo, Texas A&M University-College Station
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Holocene Precipitation Variability and Its Relationship to Prehistoric Agriculture and Fires, Sally Horn/Matthew Kerr, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Temporal Variations in Pacific Ocean Dust Fluxes, Sara Hotchkiss/Soo Hyun Kim, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Geoprivacy Attitudes and Personal Location-Masking Strategies of Internet Users, Piotr Jankowski/Dara Seidl, San Diego State University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Environmental Subject Formation at the Intersection of Hydraulic Fracturing and Agricultural Production, Hilda Kurtz/Gretchen Sneegas, University of Georgia
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Segregation and Its Effects on Social Disparities in Exposure to Air Pollution, Mei-Po Kwan/Yoo-Min Park, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Coffee Farming, Drought, and the Effects of Eco-Certification on Farmer Resilience, Eric Lambin/Elinor Benami Stanford University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Reconstructing Hurricane Activity in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: A Multi-Proxy Approach Using Biomarkers and Stable Isotopes, Kam-biu Liu/Marianne Dietz, Louisiana State University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ethnicity, Difference and the Feasibility of Spatial Exclusion Policies in Resolving Land Conflicts, Kendra McSweeney/Nora Sylvander, Ohio State University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Reconstructing How Ecosystems Develop in High Northern Latitudes Using Genetic Markers and Temperature Signals in Lake Sediments, Gifford Miller/Sarah Crump, University of Colorado-Boulder
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Understanding How Community-Led Efforts of Maintaining Peace Can be Effective in Areas of Long-Term Armed Conflict, Adam Moore/Vener Macaspac, University of California-Los Angeles
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assembling Community Economies, James Murphy/Kaner Turker, Clark University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Assessing the Impacts of Global Amenity Migration on Land Use, Livelihoods, and Communal Identities, Lise Nelson/Kelsey Brain, Pennsylvania State University-University Park
Doctoral Dissertation Research: New Methods for Spatial Analysis of Electoral Districts, Sergio Rey/Levi Wolf, Arizona State University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Fire-Driven Alternative States and Spatial Variability in Forest Resilience at a Dry Forest Ecotone, Alan Taylor/Lucas Harris, Pennsylvania State University-University Park
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Mapping and Modeling Clandestine Activities Affecting Urban Expansion, B.L. Turner II/Beth Tellman, Arizona State University
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Displacement and Consent in Voluntary Urban Resettlement of Internally Displaced People, Gabriela Valdivia/Angus Lyall, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Research Community-Development Awards
Conferences: Training and Retaining Leaders in STEM Geospatial Sciences, M. Kate Beard-Tisdale, University of Maine
Research Data Centers: Dallas-Fort Worth, Kurt Beron, University of Texas-Dallas
Socio-Hydrological Dynamics Workshop, Marion Dumas, Santa Fe Institute
Core Support for the Geographical Sciences Committee at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, Elizabeth Eide, National Academy of Sciences
Resilience and Bio-Geomorphic Systems: The 48th Annual Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium, Jason Julian, Texas State University-San Marcos
Travel Support for Early-Career Scholars Attending the 28th International Cartographic Conference, Washington, D.C., July 2017, Michael Leitner, Louisiana State University
REU Site: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Disaster Resilience Spatial Thinking, Brian Tomaszewski, Rochester Institute of Technology