Browsing by Author "Dawson, Emma Mae Pamela"
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Item Collection documentation: creating a relational database for the National Museum of Belize(Texas Tech University, 2001-05) Dawson, Emma Mae PamelaBelize is the only English speaking country in Central America. It is also the only nation in the region that does not have a national/central museum or a system of regional museums. However, since the 1950's serious measures have been set in place to reverse this situation. These include the creation of a Ministry of Culture as well as the Department of Archaeology (with a Museum unit), a National Arts Council and a National Archive. Today, as Belize enters the 21st Century, there is a renewed focus on the preservation of the country's cultural heritage and national identity. It is the hope of the Government and those in the Cultural Heritage field that the creation of a national museum or a system of small regional museums will act as an instrument that bridges the cultural gap between Belizeans of all ethnicities. The mission of the museum(s) will be the preservation and interpretation of the country's diverse cultural and natural heritage and the main divisions include Art, Ethnology, Natural History, History and Archaeology. In order to support the various programs of these departments, a few years ago an ambitious national collection retrieval program was initiated. The result of which can be seen in the recently completed Curatorial/Storage Building. However, while hundreds of objects were collected this figure represents only a fraction of what will be needed for the creation of a system of nationally connected museums. For instance, the Department of Archaeology estimates that it has excavated and collected over one million archaeological artifacts. In addition, the majority of Belizean artifacts are currently stored in intemational institutions due to our lack of a national museum and/or other research facilities. With figures like these there is an urgent need for the creation of a computerized database program that focuses on an effective way to manage and track the country's material heritage located both in Belize and abroad. With a relatively young museum movement, Belize finds itself fortunate in that it can create a system that will serve its needs. As such, museum administrators will not have to rely on an old outdated system, because they will be in a position to implement an electronic data management system created and designed to suit their unique needs.Item Predicting Species Richness Patterns in the Chihuahuan Desert: A GIS Analysis of Spatial and Ecological Data(Texas Tech University, 2005-08) Dawson, Emma Mae Pamela; Baker, Robert J.ABSTRACT The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest North American Desert measuring more than 200,000 square miles. Its location crossing the US-Mexico border makes the desert and its resources of international importance. To achieve an efficient level of conservation, natural resource planning and management must be an integral part of the region's long-term development. With the aid of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), other digitized systems and traditional research methods, this project assesses the biodiversity (species richness) aspect of land use planning and sustainable development within the Mexican portion of the Chihuahuan Desert region. The research uses data generated by the Texas Gap Analysis Program (TX GAP) and other sources including the United States Geological Survey, The Nature Conservancy, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Mexico's National Commission for the Conservation and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO) and the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica Geografia e Informatica (INEGI) to develop spatial models that predict species richness patterns in the desert region. Known spatial distribution of species (locality records), soil, climate, precipitation (rainfall), vegetation, and land use data was overlaid to see if habitat modeling based on environmental factors could be used to model and predict distribution of terrestrial vertebrate species. The geographical unit of measure used for Presence/Absence data was the Environmental Protection Agency's Ecological Mapping and Assessment Program (EMAP) hexagons each of which area approximately 635 km. Correlations between species distribution and the environmental variables were examined via Correspondence Analysis (CA). The resulting species distribution maps provide an overview of the estimated current distribution of over two hundred desert mammals. The results of this study also indicate that desert mammalian distributions are the functions of individualistic responses to environmental variables. The location of a proposed Chihuahuan Desert Biodiversity Reserve was then created based on maximum species diversity, rarity and complimentarity in each of the hexagons. The goal is to aid decision makers in the conservation and management of the desert's biological resources. The ResNet software used in this study was shown to be a feasible method in developing conservation sites based on species distributions. Gap analysis provides a proactive, conservation evaluation method for assessing the biodiversity in a given geographic area such as the Chihuahuan Desert. This dissertation produced critical data needed to assist decision makers and other stakeholders in conservation planning and management, and in the creation of biodiversity reserve networks in the Chihuahuan Desert.