Coleman-Week 1

Introduction

Hi! My name is Maddie Coleman and I use they/she pronouns. I am a senior at OWU and I am double majoring in General Zoology and Environmental Science with minors in Botany and History. I was part of SSRP last summer and worked with plant genomics in Dr. Wolverton’s lab. I am still ongoing with his research as well as working on my own. I am a 2nd year RA in Welch Hall this year and am very passionate about building a sense of belonging on my floor. I am an advocate for pollinators especially honey bees and up until recently, I kept an apiary of my own for six years. I love to work out and read a good book when I have time apart from my classes. Currently, I am planning on taking a gap year after I graduate and then wish to pursue a graduate program in Entomology. I hope to restart my beekeeping business and learn about sustainable agricultural pest management.

Schuurman Ch.1 Reading Notes

I didn’t realize how GIS is used for a lot of different things including mapping out where to build corporation buildings like Starbucks. I think it is cool how GIS can mean and act in so many different ways based on the applications and purposes for using it. It seems like a useful tool for many different fields and not just science.I didn’t know the ideas of GIS go back to the 1960’s because it just seems like a fairly advanced technological development. I think it makes sense that the first guy responsible for helping to further GIS was in architecture since I feel like everytime I think of GIS I think of “mapping” and “lay out”. I love how Canada was responsible for one of the first GIS models and systems too. I won’t lie, I feel like the majority of the text gets confusing when it talks about some of its history and definitions in extensive detail, but some are interesting like how technology and social movements contributed to the foundation of GIS. It does make lots of sense that there was a vast amount of quantitative research and info that went into the development of GIS. Okay so two main groups used GIS in the beginning; one for extensions of mapping and one for spatial analysis. It seems like what the author is getting at was that the ending image as a result of GIS was more valued than all the input and methodology that went into it. I think this is because images can help people especially who are non-scientists to understand the outcomes better. I started getting confused again for GISsystems and GIScience, so many definitions and complexes lol. There is G-commerce that is crazy, so much new info. Now it’s got me thinking about what I use that is based on GIS everyday, GPS, weather(possibly), banking etc. Even research to compute diagrams and images is part of GIS which is something that I hope will be a part of my career.

GIS Applications

When I searched “GIS Applications” so many uses came up, but important ones pertaining to my interests are agricultural mapping. GIS can help farmers to figure out areas best for planting and managing land resources in order to become successful.

https://www.integratesustainability.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/GIS-pic-2-CropScope.png

Fig.1: Here is an image that shows crop data and what and where crops are being planted based on land availability. 

GIS can see honey bee populations and help find areas to raise and locate bees. 

Figure 1: Land map showing the potential suitability to beekeeping activity estimated by the approach described in the research [8]

References:

Geospatial World. (2018). How GIS is enabling the agricultural sector. Retrieved from https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/gis-in-agriculture/ 

Stork, N. E., McBroom, J., Gely, C., & Hamilton, A. J. (2015). New approaches narrow global species estimates for beetles, insects, and terrestrial arthropods. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(24), 7519-7523.