Featured Research

DIScuSSion paper Available "tourism to Places with a Difficult Past: Heritage Tourism, Dissonant Heritage Tourism, Thanatourism, Dark Tourism, Holocaust Tourism" (Rudi Hartmann)

This discussion paper by Dr. Rudi Hartmann reviews recent research trends and concepts in the study of tourism to places with a difficult past. In particular, it discusses four new concepts and/or research traditions which have characterized the debate over the visitation of places/tourism to sites with a ‘shadowed’ past: heritage tourism, dissonant heritage tourism, thanatourism, dark tourism, holocaust tourism. DOWNLOAD HERE.

Health Effects of Living at Altitude (Deborah Thomas, Benjamin Honigman, and Robert Roach)

This research represents a cross-campus collaboration between GES and the Altitude Research Center at the UCD Anschutz Medical Campus, which is one of the world's leading centers examining the health effects of hypoxia. In the traditional sense, altitude as a hazard does not arise from a natural event or failures in human-created systems. Instead, altitude as an environmental condition is pervasive and relatively static. So, how does it present an environmental health hazard? In reality, people’s use of the environment when living or traveling to moderate and high altitudes exposes them to lower oxygen concentrations, which in turn impacts health. Most studies on hypoxia have focused on the physiological effects of extreme hypoxia, but the effects of living in and traveling to moderate altitudes on various disease outcomes are of increasing interest.  As an illustration, Colorado exhibits some extremely interesting health trends in the national context. For instance, when looking at life expectancy, 15 of the top 50 U.S. counties are in Colorado according to a recent Harvard study. While Colorado has a lower mortality rate than the U.S. for stroke, heart disease and many types of cancer, respiratory diseases, multiple sclerosis, and suicides all exhibit significantly higher rates than other parts of the country. This research frames altitude as an environmental hazard and focuses on moderate altitude, human use of these environments and effects on various health outcomes, including longevity, birth weight, and RSV.

Teaching the Geography of China (Rudi Hartmann)

This project has significance for geographic education and programs that aim at a better understanding of current trends and issues in the People's Republic of China. It involves participation in education seminars and meetings hosted by the School of Geography, Beijing Normal University during a guest stay in Beijing May/June 2007. Stay tuned for futher updates as this exciting project unfolds!

Building Web-based Spatial Information Systems around Open Specifications and Open Source Software
(Rafael Moreno, Geoff Anderson)

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are rapidly moving to web-based applications that offer specific geo-processing functionality and transparently exchanging data. Interoperability is at the core of this new web services model, which is enabled by compliance with Open Specifications (OS). Open Source Software (OSS) provide a no-cost software alternative to proprietary software operating systems, web servers, and Relational Database Management Systems. We tested the potential of the combined use of OS and OSS to create web-based spatial information solutions to support land use planning in Mexico with web-based geo-processing capabilities currently not present in commercial web-GIS products. We demonstrate how the process is straightforward and can be accessible to a broad audience of geographic information scientists and developers.

Participatory Youth Mapping (Darcy Varney, Laura Makar, Amanda Weaver, and Deborah Thomas)

During summer, 2005, the research team worked with a group of middle school students to map hazards in their community. The goals of the project were to: 1) train youth who live in northwest Denver to research ways in which the multiple environmental risks and harms they face affect their health, mobility, and participation in their community and 2) identify institutional and policy barriers to detecting and solving the environmental health issues with which they are concerned. On November 16, 2005 (GIS Day), these students visited the UC Denver downtown campus to present their work to one of the GIS classes taught in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, when they demonstrated their GIS capabilities.

Ghost Town Climatology (Fred Chambers)

This study investigates whether declining populations affect local temperature patterns, creating a reverse urban heat island effect. This reversal has been demonstrated to exist in former Colorado mining towns whose populations have dramatically decreased in the last century. The research is currently being expanded into the "Rust Belt" regions of U.S., focusing on how declining factory emissions (due to shutdowns) have altered the urban heat island effect.

Atmosphere, Weather, and Baseball: How much farther does the baseball fly at Denver's Coors Field? (Fred Chambers, Brian Page, and Clyde Zaidins--physics)
It is generally accepted that a baseball should fly approximately ten percent further at a mile-high altitude than sea-level. An analysis of four years of flyball distance data for Coors Field refutes this notion. Instead, it was found that the baseballs only fly an average of 6.5 percent farther than the average at other National League ballparks. Why the discrepancy? It appears as though a persistent summer wind pattern within the Platte River Valley is responsible. Diurnal upslope and downslope winds appear to be channeled by the river valley resulting in a preponderance of days with the wind flowing in towards home plate, thereby diminishing the supposed mile-high advantage. However, when the winds do blow out of the park...awesome flyball distances can (and are) seen!