In 2010, the World Health Organization declared 2011 to 2020 the Decade of Action for Road Safety... more In 2010, the World Health Organization declared 2011 to 2020 the Decade of Action for Road Safety in response to the enormous toll that roadway crashes take on individuals, communities, and national economies. More than 6.2 million vehicle crashes occurred in the United States in 2015, resulting in around 2.4 million injuries and more than 35,000 fatalities. Motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2015 had an economic cost of $836 billion, equal to nearly 5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. For this study, more than 122,000 crashes occurring in Salt Lake County, Utah, from 2012 to 2016 were analyzed to see how weather conditions affected the number and type of crashes observed. Approximately 12 percent of crashes occurred under "adverse weather conditions." Weather-related crashes were most likely in the winter season and were very highly correlated with monthly snowfall. Although the greatest number of crashes occurred during evening rush hours, adverse weather-related crashes made up a larger percentage of crashes from 5 to 7 a.m. Although excessive speed was much more likely to be a factor in crashes during adverse weather, such crashes, on average, were less severe. Roadway slope also played a significant role, with slight increases causing more crashes.
Walking increases physical activity and reduces obesity. Walking behavior is influenced by many d... more Walking increases physical activity and reduces obesity. Walking behavior is influenced by many different factors, including urban safety. This article studies origin and destination choices of walking behavior in Salt Lake City using GIS and statistical analyzes.We find that the origins, and destinations are influenced by different neighborhood environmental factors. Street connectivity and public parks increase the number of destinations, but have little impact on the number of origins. The number of origins increases in commercial areas with compact design. In terms of safety, we find that walking behavior is influenced by robbery events rather than traffic accidents. Furthermore, a geographical weighted regression model suggests that bus stops and population density have strong positive effects in high-density areas such as the downtown areas. Our study suggests that the current analytical framework on walkability is more suitable to explain the spatial distribution of walking trip destinations than the origins.
In recent years, government leaks have brought many alleged potential privacy violating intellige... more In recent years, government leaks have brought many alleged potential privacy violating intelligence collection programs to the public arena. Intelligence collection can affect the privacy rights of citizens from any country. While the concept of privacy is a complicated one, United States citizen privacy is protected by various policies and laws. This paper reviews these alleged intelligence collection programs, as well as specific laws set in place to protect privacy. Also presented are discussions on public opinion and whether or not digital intelligence collection are providing a safer environment for Americans. There has always been a delicate balance between security and privacy with respect to intelligence collection. Many governments are in a sensitive situation where they must do enough to protect the public, while not infringing on citizen privacies. As nations continue to globalize and security threats from domestic and foreign sources increase, it is important to gather foreign and domestic intelligence. Advancements in technology have given rise to the internet, cell phones, drones, and real-time satellite and aerial imagery feeds. The more people become dependent on technologies that enable spatial and temporal data access and collection, the more useful the exploitation of these technologies becomes to intelligence agencies. Many technologies today have location, time, and other metadata associated with them and this information can be exploited with hopes of stopping or decreasing illegal activities. It may be essential to use these sources of information to provide national security. For some, 'the question is not whether we will have a surveillance state in the years to come, but what sort of surveillance state we will have'. 1 The techniques used to collect intelligence are very powerful, and often undisclosed to the public. Though this paper focuses on US policies, the effects of intelligence collection are globally distributed. Technologies and motivations do not halt at the US borders. Because of this, overreach by governments, whether within or outside national boundaries, is a concern for all global citizens. It is, therefore, reasonable to question the motivations and methods of intelligence collection. This review investigates three main areas. First, it examines 10 alleged controversial intelligence programs in an attempt to understand modern techniques used to collect intelligence. Second, the US Constitution, laws, and court cases relevant to national security and privacy are discussed, as well as how these policies have evolved over time. This is followed by a discussion on US public opinion of security and privacy. Finally, a discussion on potential overreaching of digital intelligence collection programs is provided.
Efforts to increase student learning and incorporate technology in the classroom have led to the ... more Efforts to increase student learning and incorporate technology in the classroom have led to the development of many interactive internet activities for earth science instruction. These activities make use of the burgeoning earth science resources available online and through other outlets. Digital libraries for earth system sciences have become clearinghouses for many online resources (Ginger and Marlino 2002). We have developed two interdisciplinary web-based modules that make use of online resources and that were intended to increase ...
Climate and human mobility are essentially interconnected and interdependent. Our mobility throug... more Climate and human mobility are essentially interconnected and interdependent. Our mobility through ground transportation system powered by fossil fuel is one of the primary forces behind the two major global crises of today's society, namely energy scarcity and climate change. On the other hand, long term change in climate and frequency of climate extreme events, such as hurricanes, floods, snow and ice storms can have both short term mobility challenges and cause long term human migrations as an adaptation phenomenon. ...
Current approaches to community detection in social networks often ignore the spatial location of... more Current approaches to community detection in social networks often ignore the spatial location of the nodes. In this paper, we look to extract spatially-near communities in a social network. We introduce a new metric to measure the quality of a community partition in a geolocated social networks called "spatially-near modularity" a value that increases based on aspects of the network structure but decreases based on the distance between nodes in the communities. We then look to find an optimal partition with respect to this measure-which should be an "ideal" community with respect to both social ties and geographic location. Though an NP-hard problem, we introduce two heuristic algorithms that attempt to maximize this measure and outperform nongeographic community finding by an order of magnitude. Applications to counter-terrorism are also discussed.
This research proposes a methodology for extracting and analyzing geographical perspectives of te... more This research proposes a methodology for extracting and analyzing geographical perspectives of terrorists and insurgents from online textual media. The information age has afforded organizations platforms that can be used to control their own media messages. Given that power, terrorist groups are able to create customized messages and define themselves in their own eyes on an international scale, often generating widespread sympathies and increased popularity. Within their online messaging, important information is provided that can potentially unveil geopolitical strategies. A mixed-method approach comprised of computer-aided content analysis, manual content analysis, and cartographic visualization is applied to ISIS's Dabiq magazine as a case study to demonstrate the utility of this methodology. This research highlights the importance of considering the territoriality of terror groups and movements in geohistorical and present-day contexts.
A r re ep po or rt t o on n t th he e d de ev ve el lo op pm me en nt t a an nd d e ex xt te en n... more A r re ep po or rt t o on n t th he e d de ev ve el lo op pm me en nt t a an nd d e ex xt te en ns si io on n o of f t th he e G Ge eo or rg ge e M Ma as so on n U Un ni iv ve er rs si it ty y G Ge eo oc cr ro ow wd ds so ou ur rc ci in ng g T Te es st tb be ed d
In 2010, the World Health Organization declared 2011 to 2020 the Decade of Action for Road Safety... more In 2010, the World Health Organization declared 2011 to 2020 the Decade of Action for Road Safety in response to the enormous toll that roadway crashes take on individuals, communities, and national economies. More than 6.2 million vehicle crashes occurred in the United States in 2015, resulting in around 2.4 million injuries and more than 35,000 fatalities. Motor vehicle crashes in the United States in 2015 had an economic cost of $836 billion, equal to nearly 5 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. For this study, more than 122,000 crashes occurring in Salt Lake County, Utah, from 2012 to 2016 were analyzed to see how weather conditions affected the number and type of crashes observed. Approximately 12 percent of crashes occurred under "adverse weather conditions." Weather-related crashes were most likely in the winter season and were very highly correlated with monthly snowfall. Although the greatest number of crashes occurred during evening rush hours, adverse weather-related crashes made up a larger percentage of crashes from 5 to 7 a.m. Although excessive speed was much more likely to be a factor in crashes during adverse weather, such crashes, on average, were less severe. Roadway slope also played a significant role, with slight increases causing more crashes.
Walking increases physical activity and reduces obesity. Walking behavior is influenced by many d... more Walking increases physical activity and reduces obesity. Walking behavior is influenced by many different factors, including urban safety. This article studies origin and destination choices of walking behavior in Salt Lake City using GIS and statistical analyzes.We find that the origins, and destinations are influenced by different neighborhood environmental factors. Street connectivity and public parks increase the number of destinations, but have little impact on the number of origins. The number of origins increases in commercial areas with compact design. In terms of safety, we find that walking behavior is influenced by robbery events rather than traffic accidents. Furthermore, a geographical weighted regression model suggests that bus stops and population density have strong positive effects in high-density areas such as the downtown areas. Our study suggests that the current analytical framework on walkability is more suitable to explain the spatial distribution of walking trip destinations than the origins.
In recent years, government leaks have brought many alleged potential privacy violating intellige... more In recent years, government leaks have brought many alleged potential privacy violating intelligence collection programs to the public arena. Intelligence collection can affect the privacy rights of citizens from any country. While the concept of privacy is a complicated one, United States citizen privacy is protected by various policies and laws. This paper reviews these alleged intelligence collection programs, as well as specific laws set in place to protect privacy. Also presented are discussions on public opinion and whether or not digital intelligence collection are providing a safer environment for Americans. There has always been a delicate balance between security and privacy with respect to intelligence collection. Many governments are in a sensitive situation where they must do enough to protect the public, while not infringing on citizen privacies. As nations continue to globalize and security threats from domestic and foreign sources increase, it is important to gather foreign and domestic intelligence. Advancements in technology have given rise to the internet, cell phones, drones, and real-time satellite and aerial imagery feeds. The more people become dependent on technologies that enable spatial and temporal data access and collection, the more useful the exploitation of these technologies becomes to intelligence agencies. Many technologies today have location, time, and other metadata associated with them and this information can be exploited with hopes of stopping or decreasing illegal activities. It may be essential to use these sources of information to provide national security. For some, 'the question is not whether we will have a surveillance state in the years to come, but what sort of surveillance state we will have'. 1 The techniques used to collect intelligence are very powerful, and often undisclosed to the public. Though this paper focuses on US policies, the effects of intelligence collection are globally distributed. Technologies and motivations do not halt at the US borders. Because of this, overreach by governments, whether within or outside national boundaries, is a concern for all global citizens. It is, therefore, reasonable to question the motivations and methods of intelligence collection. This review investigates three main areas. First, it examines 10 alleged controversial intelligence programs in an attempt to understand modern techniques used to collect intelligence. Second, the US Constitution, laws, and court cases relevant to national security and privacy are discussed, as well as how these policies have evolved over time. This is followed by a discussion on US public opinion of security and privacy. Finally, a discussion on potential overreaching of digital intelligence collection programs is provided.
Efforts to increase student learning and incorporate technology in the classroom have led to the ... more Efforts to increase student learning and incorporate technology in the classroom have led to the development of many interactive internet activities for earth science instruction. These activities make use of the burgeoning earth science resources available online and through other outlets. Digital libraries for earth system sciences have become clearinghouses for many online resources (Ginger and Marlino 2002). We have developed two interdisciplinary web-based modules that make use of online resources and that were intended to increase ...
Climate and human mobility are essentially interconnected and interdependent. Our mobility throug... more Climate and human mobility are essentially interconnected and interdependent. Our mobility through ground transportation system powered by fossil fuel is one of the primary forces behind the two major global crises of today's society, namely energy scarcity and climate change. On the other hand, long term change in climate and frequency of climate extreme events, such as hurricanes, floods, snow and ice storms can have both short term mobility challenges and cause long term human migrations as an adaptation phenomenon. ...
Current approaches to community detection in social networks often ignore the spatial location of... more Current approaches to community detection in social networks often ignore the spatial location of the nodes. In this paper, we look to extract spatially-near communities in a social network. We introduce a new metric to measure the quality of a community partition in a geolocated social networks called "spatially-near modularity" a value that increases based on aspects of the network structure but decreases based on the distance between nodes in the communities. We then look to find an optimal partition with respect to this measure-which should be an "ideal" community with respect to both social ties and geographic location. Though an NP-hard problem, we introduce two heuristic algorithms that attempt to maximize this measure and outperform nongeographic community finding by an order of magnitude. Applications to counter-terrorism are also discussed.
This research proposes a methodology for extracting and analyzing geographical perspectives of te... more This research proposes a methodology for extracting and analyzing geographical perspectives of terrorists and insurgents from online textual media. The information age has afforded organizations platforms that can be used to control their own media messages. Given that power, terrorist groups are able to create customized messages and define themselves in their own eyes on an international scale, often generating widespread sympathies and increased popularity. Within their online messaging, important information is provided that can potentially unveil geopolitical strategies. A mixed-method approach comprised of computer-aided content analysis, manual content analysis, and cartographic visualization is applied to ISIS's Dabiq magazine as a case study to demonstrate the utility of this methodology. This research highlights the importance of considering the territoriality of terror groups and movements in geohistorical and present-day contexts.
A r re ep po or rt t o on n t th he e d de ev ve el lo op pm me en nt t a an nd d e ex xt te en n... more A r re ep po or rt t o on n t th he e d de ev ve el lo op pm me en nt t a an nd d e ex xt te en ns si io on n o of f t th he e G Ge eo or rg ge e M Ma as so on n U Un ni iv ve er rs si it ty y G Ge eo oc cr ro ow wd ds so ou ur rc ci in ng g T Te es st tb be ed d
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Papers by Richard Medina