Kevin Burkman
Geographic Information Sciences Analyst
Academic Research
Some of my most rewarding work in GIS, and urban and regional planning, was completed while I was a student at Rutgers University. Some of my projects were part of a course; others were much larger studio or independent study projects. Both undergraduate and graduate projects are included here.
Geospatial Analysis of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Delaware Valley Chapter
Undergraduate Independent Study Project
Fall Semester, 2007
Project Advisor: Professor David Tulloch
I conducted numerous analysis and subsequent production of maps which determined the spatial distribution/correlation of hike locations, hike leaders and hike participants, providing an overview of hiking sties that are utilized or underutilized.
To view the final report, click here.
The Delaware Valley chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club, the focus of this project, has approximately 5,000 members and is centered in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The chapter hosts scores of hiking events per year, which are organized by volunteer leaders. The locations of the hikes are scattered throughout the Delaware Valley region and beyond.
To date, the chapter has never analyzed how its hikes, leaders and participants are distributed and related to each other. Additionally, the chapter has never produced a map that highlights all of the various hiking sites located within its boundaries.
The North Princeton Developmental Center
The North Princeton Development Center was located in Montgomery Township, about a mile from where I live. Originally known as the New Jersey State Village for Epileptics (NJSVE), this facility was established in 1898 its purpose was to provide an appropriate setting for the care and treatment of epileptics.
Undergraduate Research Paper
Historic Preservation
Spring Semester, 2007
Project Advisor: Professor David Listokin
In 1995, the state of New Jersey officially shutdown the NPDC, declared it surplus property, and began considering options for its reuse, including a possible transfer to Montgomery Township. This was followed by nine years of on-again, off again negotiations between the state and the township, regarding the final disposition of the property.
My research paper summarizes the attempts and challenges to preserve and redevelop the NPDC site.
Click on this icon to read the
NPDC report
A Study of the Battlefield at Gettysburg and its Historic Land Preservation
An example of such a site is Gettysburg National Military Park, which interprets the Battle of Gettysburg. Fought on July 1-3, 1863, the battle is one of the largest and most important battles ever waged in Unites States history. Considered by many to be the pivotal engagement of the American Civil War, the battle involved over 170,000 combatants from the Union and Confederacy, and occurred over an area of some 25 square miles in south-central Pennsylvania.
Undergraduate Independent Study Projects
Geomatics
Spring Semester, 2008
Project Advisor: Professor David Tulloch
Many historic and cultural landmarks and landscapes in the U.S. are being threatened by suburbanization. In particular, many Civil War battlefield sites, which are in close proximity to Interstate Highway and US Highway corridors, and areas of fast growing suburban sprawl, are in particular jeopardy. Most of these sites, if not preserved in the next 10-15 years, will be lost forever.
This project attempts to quantify the battle sites at Gettysburg that have not been preserved in the national park, and our ability to interpret the historic events that occurred on these sites. Additionally, the project also focuses on battlefield preservation in the national park, in terms of historical and preservation aspects, over the past 144 years, including environmental and civic planning and landscape architecture.
The full A Study of the Battlefield at Gettysburg and its Historic Land Preservation is available by clicking on this report icon.
Mobility On-Demand (MOD), South Brunswick, NJ
Mobility on demand (MOD) is an innovative transportation concept where all consumers can access mobility, goods, and services on demand by dispatching or using shared mobility, delivery services, and public transportation solutions through an integrated and connected multi-modal network.
As part of our Urban Design class, we were tasked with modeling a potential MOD system for South Brunswick, NJ, an area noted for suburban sprawl and vehicular traffic congestion. The model included an analysis for street connectivity, asset locations, population density and transit shed locationing.
The results of my analysis, created in GIS mapping, are seen below.
Stranded Real Esate Asset Analysis, South Brunswick, NJ
Once a large part New Jersey’s economy, retail suburban centers, particularly strip malls, are increasingly underutilized, and can be a drain on local economies. Local, antiquated land laws make redevelopment of these stranded real estate assets a challenge.
Describe your image
Our project team, consisting of James Sinclair, Angela Burnett Penn and myself, analyzed a failing strip mall in South Brunswick, NJ. I was the point person for GIS analysis on the project, and my work included included land value and susceptibility to change analysis, as well as ground-truthing and photographing the target site.
Live. Work. Love. Newark
One of America’s oldest cities, Newark, New Jersey has a long history filled with change. Its industrial roots are responsible for its apex in the early nineteenth century. However, due to a national trend of urban disinvestment following World War II, many of its industries have disappeared and its population has declined. The Newark downtown, once a vibrant, bustling commercial and residential center, has suffered greatly.
As part of our Urban Redevelopment class a group of about ten students set out to create a program, Live. Work. Love. Newark, to redevelop the 100 block of Market Street in downtown Newark and in particular, the adaptive reuse of two downtown historic buildings that are located across from each other: 111 Market Street and 116 Market Street.
In addition to creating GIS maps which focused on our target neighborhood, I also created a section of the final report dedicated to the history of the city.
To view the final Live. Work. Love. Newark. report, click here.
Infinity Place
Our Urban Design Studio entailed a redevelopment of New Brunswick's Albany Street corridor, near the train station. Teaming up with classmates Angela Burnett Penn and Jenna Choe, we programmed a vision for a new transit center, called Infinity Place.
My focus on the project was on the the proposed transit center. Utilizing the digital illustration program Sketch-Up, I designed and produced renderings of the train station and elevated pedestrian street crossing.
Central New Brunswick Redevelopment
New Brunswick's Bayard Street West neighborhood was the focus of my Graphic Design semester project. Located in the heart of the downtown area (and very close to the city's George Street Arts District), I targeted the neighborhood for proposed redevelopment.
After ground-truthing and photographing the neighborhood, I used ArcGIS and AutoCAD mapping programs, as well as Sketch Up and InDesign graphics programs, to create a series of maps and 3-D renderings. These illustrations demonstrate my ideas for redeveloping the neighborhood, including a multi-use high-rise, and a community center and park/garden.
Geospatial Analysis for the
National Center of
Frontier Communities:
Food Pantry Expansion in the
Four County Region of
Southwest New Mexico
A lack of population density presents the southwest corner of New Mexico with challenges in dispensing human services, including food distribution, particularly for those individuals who are in low income brackets, or do not have ready access to transportation. Some 400,000 New Mexicans each week seek food assistance, including children and senior citizens. Emergency food programs meet some of the needs of these at risk individuals. However, the wide spatial distribution of the food pantries makes it challenging to reach all of those in need.
This project was the result of a collaborative effort between fellow graduate students Matthew Knight and Andrew Griffith and myself, and faculty of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, as part of its Spring 2015 “American Frontier Studio”, and the National Center for Frontier Communities, in Silver City, New Mexico.
Using geographic information systems (GIS) technology (I was the projects GIS coordinator), the studio focused not only on the spatial distribution of current food pantries, but also other potential sites, called human service assets in this studio, to possibly expand the food pantry distribution system in the near future. To review the complete project, click here.
Strategic Community Resilience Plan
for the Town of Secaucus, New Jersey
In the wake of major natural disasters in recent years - such as Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Irene - planning for more resilient communities has become an acknowledged necessity. While flooding, especially in the aftermath of Sandy, remains the top concern in Secaucus, flooding is not the only hazard of concern. The 2008 Hudson County All-Hazards Mitigation Plan identified several hazards, including severe winter storms, drought, extreme temperatures, ground failure and other geological hazards, earthquakes, and wildfires, coastal erosion and storms, and flooding.
The purpose of a Strategic Community Resiliency Plan (SCRP) is to inventory community assets, evaluate risks, and identify viable strategies to be implemented to increase resiliency. The SCRP presents the findings of the Studio planning team’s research and analysis through a series of maps, visual data, and narratives. Overall, the research showed that Secaucus is vulnerable to a variety of hazards that could negatively impact the town. The findings from this research provided a foundation for identifying a series of resiliency strategies that Secaucus can implement to address the gaps and vulnerabilities identified as part of the planning process.
Our studio consisted of ten participates; I worked on most of the GIS analysis.
To view the final Secaucus SCRP, click here.
