Bzdafka – week 1Â
Hi everyone, my name is Alex Bzdafka. I am a biology and environmental science double major here at OWU. I’m a junior and I’m on the track and field team, my main event is pole vault. I’m excited to be learning GIS because being able to utilize spatial data is something I am unable to do currently and it will be very helpful for my future research and career. I focus my course work on plant ecology, and my research is on plant-pollinator interactions.Â
The week started out by reading the syllabus and the schedule, followed by taking the quiz and acing it. After that work I did the reading, which explained some history behind GIS and how it was essentially developed a number of different times and by different individuals and groups. I found it interesting how the book listed a number of uses for GIS and how versatile of a software it truly is. The book also interestingly discussed the differences between GIScience and GISystems. GIScience is more of the computer science and mechanistic study of GIS itself and how the program functions. GIScience also looks into the validity of the program and how it defines polygons when tasked with isolating or grouping spaces. GISystems is more of what we (the students) are, and what we are being trained in; as GISystems is the actual use of GIS in assisting with projects.Â
After completing the reading I looked into some of the uses for GIS. The possibilities are seemingly endless as the software is very broad and can be used in many different capacities as long as you are willing to be creative with it. The most basic use case of GIS is to visualize space, however it is also a powerful tool for visualizing data similarly to a graph. The main uses I see for GIS are in agricultural consulting (which I plan to do in the future), as I can display soil conditions on various properties, and track it over time. I can also use it to visualize water movement which can be used as a proxy for soil infiltration rate. I also would likely use GIS to map percent plant coverage (not grass) to show plant diversity, and soil coverage which prevents splash erosion and soil compaction by rain. I have mainly seen GIS used in literature for categorizing land use types, such as urban/developed, natural, semi-natural, and agricultural (Geslin, et al. 2013).Â
Map showing natural status of given areas. In green are natural areas, beige are semi-natural, and grey are urban/impervious areas.Â
Geslin, B., Gauzens, B., Thébault, E., & Dajoz, I. (2013, May). Plant pollinator networks along a gradient of Urbanisation. Plant Pollinator Networks along a Gradient of Urbanisation. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0063421 Â
Evers, J., & Editing , E. (2025, June 5). GIS (Geographic Information System). Education. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/geographic-information-system-gis/