Disease prevalence varies with geographic location. This research pursues a medical geographic perspective and examines the spatial variations in disease patterns between Obuasi, a gold mining town and Asankrangwa, a non gold mining town in Ghana, West Africa. Political ecology/economy and the human ecology frameworks are used to explain the prevalence of diseases. Mining alters the environment and allows disease causing pathogens and vectors to survive more freely than in other similar environments. Certain diseases such as upper respiratory tract infections, ear infections, sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS and syphilis, certain skin diseases and rheumatism and joint pains may have a higher prevalence in Obuasi when compared to Asankrangwa due to the mining in Obuasi.

The Aubrey Clovis site is one of the oldest late-Pleistocene sites in North America, dated to ~11,550 B.P., and contains two camps with a range of lithic debitage, numerous hearths, and excellent faunal preservation. Couched in rules of classification, a series of artifact distributions are analyzed with qualitative and quantitative techniques, including maps produced in a geographic information system (GIS) and tests of artifact associations using correlation statistics. Theoretical and methodological protocols are promoted to improve spatial analysis in archaeology. The results support the short-term occupation interpretation and expose the differential patterning among bone, stone, and raw materials distributions. The spatial structure and diverse content of the site challenge models of Clovis-age people as strictly big game hunters.

The Nature Conservancy of Texas (TNC) is concerned with the amount of shoreline erosion taking place at its Mad Island Marsh Preserve (MIMP), located in Matagorda Bay, Texas. The MIMP is a 7,100 acre nature preserve that borders the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and is eroded by waves generated by barge traffic. TNC is concerned that erosion will shorten Mad Island Bayou which may increase the salinity of Mad Island Lake; with detrimental effects on lake and marsh habitats. This study uses GPS technology to map the current shoreline and GIS to determine ten year erosion rates (1995 - 2005). Results show that erosion is occurring at various rates along the shoreline as well as along the oxbow bend in Mad Island Bayou.