ALISON THIEME

Advisor:

Dr. Ron Eastman, Clark University

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Project Team: 

Alison Thieme, Clark University

Ariel Walcutt, Clark University

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Abstract:

The islands of Hispaniola and Ireland are both divided politically.  In order to examine if there was a relationship between vegetation and population changes across political divides on each island, we compared data from 2000 and 2013. Here we used Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (a proxy to measure vegetation health) and Nighttime Lights data (a proxy to measure human population) from 2000 – 2013 to create two time series.  We then performed Theil-Sen median trend analysis on each data set to see increasing and decreasing trends.  Next compared the two time series to eachother using canonical correlation and extended principal compoenent analysis.  Neither analysis revealed significant correlations between the two datasets on Hispaniola.  

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Acknowledgements: 

This project was completed with support from Clark University.