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I would like to acknowledge the help of several individuals for the successful completion of this research. First, I am grateful to all of my committee members. I will forever be indebted to my advisor, Dr. Robert Rohli, because without him I would have never made it through graduate school, let alone finish this research. He has spent endless hours working on this project with me, and has been a great teacher, co-author, and friend. Dr. Rohli is also responsible for my funding for the last year and I cannot thank him enough for that. Next, I acknowledge Dr. Michael Leitner for his assistance when I first arrived at LSU and his continued support and aid throughout my stay. He has offered great advice on cartography, GIS, and statistics, and has also been a friend. Finally, Dr. Maurice McHugh has helped a great deal by providing data and the maps shown in Chapter 6. He has also been a great research collaborator. All of my committee members have been so supportive and easy to work with; I hope they understand how thankful I am. A world of thanks also goes to several other individuals. Natalie Vines has been a great friend, providing some much needed fun and some of the data needed to do thi