Spatial Inequality in Chile

Despite success in reducing poverty over the last twenty years, inequality in Chile has remained virtually unchanged, making Chile one of the least equal countries in the world. High levels of inequality have been shown to hamper further reductions in poverty as well as economic growth and local inequality has been shown to affect such outcomes as violence and health. The study of inequality at the local level is thus crucial for understanding the economic well-being of a country. Local measures of inequality have been difficult to obtain, but recent theoretical advances have enabled the combination of survey and census data to obtain estimators of inequality that are robust at disaggregated geographic levels. In this paper, we employ this methodology to produce consistent estimators of inequality for every county in Chile. We find a great deal of variation in inequality, with county-level Gini coefficients ranging from 0.41 to 0.63.

EXPLORING THE SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HUMAN-TIGER CONFILCTS IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA AND SUMATRA

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A SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF IMPERVIOUS SURFACES AT COLBY COLLEGE IN 1965 AND 2006

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SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF COLBY COLLEGE TRAILS: PERKINS ARBORETUM AND RUNNALS HILL

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A SPATIAL COMPARISON OF SHORT AND LONG TERM MIGRATION TRENDS IN CHINA

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Exploring The Spatial Relationships Between Human-Tiger Conflicts In Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra

Large-carnivores and humans are increasingly in conflict as humans encroach on their natural territory. As a result, many large-carnivore species have become endangered due to habitat destruction, prey reduction and retaliatory killings from conflicts. No global internet database, however, exists to document, monitor and evaluate these conflicts, particularly to take advantage of the growing spatial resources available. Using human-tiger conflicts in Malaysia and Sumatra as a case study, this project explores how such a database could be created. GIS was used to conduct multiple analyses on the data obtained about these conflicts. We conclude that a database would require data to be compiled according to a protocol based on these spatial scales: Point, Sub-State Polygon and Provincial.

Spatial Analysis of Colby College Trails: Perkins Arboretum and Runnals Hill

I created an updated map of trails at Colby College using global positioning system data that were then edited in ArcGIS. The map background, obtained from the Maine Office of GIS, was created from digital orthophotographs produced from aerial photos collected over southwest Maine in Spring 2003. Trail difficulty was determined by creating a slope layer and taking other factors into consideration such as ground surface and path width. The map will eventually be available online, enabling interactive selection of trails where users can access additional trail information.

A Spatial Analysis of Impervious Surfaces at Colby College in 1965 and 2006

Roads, parking lots, buildings, and other impervious surfaces do not allow rainwater to infiltrate the ground. As a result, they can lead to an increase in runoff to nearby ditches and streams, as well as a greater influx of pollutants such as motor oil that can often be found on paved surfaces. For this project, GIS was used to find the total area covered by impervious surfaces on the Colby campus, and to show how this area has grown in the past 40 years. It was found that new development on the campus has lead to a 56% increase in impervious surfaces at Colby since 1965.

A Spatial Comparison of Short and Long Term Migration Trends in China

China’s floating population, those individuals who have migrated between counties or provinces for a period of longer than 6 months, account for 79 million individuals. If intracounty migration is also included, the number jumps to 145 million individuals or over 11% of the total population. This study examines the geographical differences in short and long term migration using ArcGIS to manipulate the spatial GIS data. The study shows that both short and long term migration (in absolute numbers) occurs more frequently near cities and in coastal regions. However, by normalizing the data by population size, the study eliminates the problems of population size on the size of the migrants. Using this normalized data, the study finds that western and northern counties have a large number of migrants present relative to the size of the population. Determining where this floating population migrates helps explain regional inequalities in employment opportunities.