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Department of Geography

Alvin Simms

Department of Geography
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL
A1B 3X9

Office: SN 2019
Tel: (709) 864-2512
Fax: (709) 864-3119

E mail: asimms[at]mun.ca

I am a geographer with a specialty in GIS and Spatial Analysis. I spent 10 years as a research scientist with the Centre for Cold Ocean Resources Engineering (C-CORE) and have 15 years of experience studying environmental hazards associated with offshore oil exploration and devlopment in Eastern Canada and the Beaufort Sea.

Currently, my research focuses on spatial analysis and GIS based modeling applications related to regional planning and development, health services as well as social-economic and resource management issues.

Teaching Interests

GIS, Spatial Analysis, Geostatistics and Quantitative Methods.

Research Interests

  • Flow Covering Location-Allocation Modelling
  • Expert Systems for Regional Planning & Develoment
  • Intelligent Spatial Decision Support Systems
  • Modelling Spatial Interactions With Neural Networks
  • Fuzzy Modelling and Spatial Analysis
  • Geostatistics
  • Multivariate Data Mining and Analysis

 

Current Research

  • Rural-Urban Interaction in Newfoundland and Labrador: Understanding and Managing Functional Regions (PI for Functional Region Modeling and Analysis)
  • Residential Proximity and Hospital Level of Service - A Geospatial Epidemiological Study of Obstetrical Outcomes (Co-Investigator)
  • Methodological Issues Surrounding the Definition of Hospital Catchment Areas for Research Purposes (Co-Investigator)

  • DANL: The Online Dialect Atlas of Newfoundland and Labrador English (Collaborator)

International Polar Year Projects

  • PPS Arctic Canada (Present processes, Past changes, Spatiotemporal variability in the Arctic delimitation zone, Canada) (Co-Investigator)

  • CiCat - Climate Change Impacts on Canadian Arctic Tundra Ecosystems: Interdiciplinary and Multi-scale Assessments (Co-Investigator)

Selected Publications

  • Murray M., MacDonald D., Simms, A, Fowler K., Felt L., Edwards A. and Gates K.(2006). Community Resilience in Newfoundland : The Impact of the cod moratorium on health and social well-being. A report prepared for Health Canada, Ottawa. 175p.
  • PHB Group, Tract Consulting and Alvin Simms. (2005) The Battery Development Guideline Study. A Report Prepared for the City of St. John’s .
  • Mlewa, C. M., Green, J. M. and Simms, A. (2004) Movement and habitat use by the marbled lungfish Protopterus aethiopicus Heckel in Lake Baringo, Kenya, Hydrobiologia 00: 1-6.
  • Simms, A. (2003). GIS and Aquaculture: Soft Shell Clam Site Assessment. In David R. Green and Stephen D. King. Coastal and Marine Geo-Information Systems: Applying the Technology to the Environments. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Accord Station, MA. USA. 24p.
  • Power, C., A. Simms and R. White (2001). Hierarchical Fuzzy Pattern Matching for the Regional Comparison of Land Use Maps. International Journal of GIS, 15: 77-100.

  • Power, C., Ridler, H., Simms, A. (2001). Power, A. and Cook B. A Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Evaluation WebGIS for Social and Demographic Site Selection. GEOSTATS Saskatchewan Letters Government of Saskatchewan, Regina.

  • Simms, A. (2000). Reconstruction: Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) To Integrate Historical Maps Into Present Day Landscapes. Presented at Newfoundland and Labrador Military Heritage Conference, St. John’s, June 9 – 11th.
  • Spaner, D., D.B. McKenzie, Todd, A. Simms, M. Macpherson and E.F. Woodrow. (2000). Six years of adaptive and on-farm spring cereal research in Newfoundland. Canadian Journal of Plant Science, Vol. 80(1).

Selected Presentations & Invited Papers

  • A Simms (2009) Public Health and GIS. An invited presentation to The Eastern Health GIS Strategic Planning Meeting, St. John’s , NL, Feb. 23.

  • A Simms (2009) Functional Regions and the Regional Economic Capacity Index. An invited presentation to The Federal Regional Council, St. John’s , NL, Jan. 29, 2009.

  • Freshwater, D and A Simms (2008). The Interaction Between Unemployment Benefits and Journey to Work: Fish Plant Employment in Rural Newfoundland . A paper presented at the North American regional Science Council Annual Meeting, New York , Nov. 19th to 22nd.

  • A Simms (2008) The Functional Region: A Case for Economic Viability and Regionalization. An invited presentation to the NL Municipal Symposium, Gander , NL, May 8th to 10th.

  • A Simms (2005) Mapping Health and Socio-Economic Change in Newfoundland Fishing Communities. A paper presented at 2005 ESRI Health GIS Conference, Chicago, Illinois, Oct. 23-26.

  • A Simms (2005) GIS and Public Health. An invited paper presented to Health Canada Decade of Change Seminar, Ottawa, Feb. 26.

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