Hi, my name is Maddy Howard and I am a sophomore majoring in Environmental Studies & Geography. I am from outside of Cleveland, Ohio- Avon Lake, on the west side. I like coffee, hanging out with my friends, and occasionally photography. My campus activities include being a part of Delta Zeta Sorority 🙂
I knew that GIS was something very important, but didn’t exactly know why, or really anything about it. I took this class to get a better understanding of GIS, as I knew that it was a skill to learn and know about, so I wanted to understand it more. This article really helped me understand more about the subject, including the background of it. I had no idea how many uses GIS truly has, from the well known use of navigation, to what you eat, to Starbucks using it, to police officers being trained in it, and so much more. Also, its foundations going all the way back to the 1960’s and that it didn’t even use a computer was quite surprising to me. The fact that the development of GIS was happening simultaneously within multiple different countries not knowing of the others is also quite interesting. The background of GIS involving landscape architecture and surveying, not purely geography, and that its history doesn’t involve just technology, plus the actual history of GIS being of contempt, is also something I didn’t expect. The complexities between GISystems and GIScience is something I might need more clarification on, as even though broadly GIScience is the theoretical basis for GISystems, it is not as simple as that. I know it is explained a lot in the reading, but sometimes elaboration about certain topics just confuses me more. I also never thought about spatial analysis and relationships in GIS. Using that to predict future events is extremely interesting but also seems hard to actually do. Overall, learning about all the different ways you can use GIS makes me more excited about the class itself. Its complexities will surely be hard to understand, as anything that is woven into everyday life seemingly unnoticed that much of the time should be, but it will be interesting to try to figure it all out.
At risk terrestrial plant and animal species in the U.S.- This online GIS map shows the total number of species that are either listed as G1, G2, or federally endangered residing in each U.S. watershed. The data is from NatureServe in 2011. The owner of this map, Enviroatlas, is part of the EPA and provides geospatial data, tools, and resources about ecosystem services, ecosystem chemical and non-chemical stressors, and human health. This website, https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas , provides more information about the map owner and creator.
https://m.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?layers=c481510217f347b7b026febd15839dca
Invasive species in Vermont- This online GIS map I came across shows sightings of invasive species. This data is from the State of Vermont Agency of Natural Resources Invasive Species Database, which provides information about invasive species and how to identify them for the public at https://anr.vermont.gov/special-topics/invasive-species.
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?layers=b1ae7b7b110447c3b452d9cacffeed36