Intro: Hello, my name is Alayna Moore. I’m a Sophomore, and I transferred to OWU at the end of my freshman year. Delaware Ohio is my hometown, so I always wanted to go to OWU. I plan on double-majoring in Biology (B.A) and Environmental Science (B.A). As for a career, I want to spend time in the field doing surveying. I’m interested in working as an environmental consultant or working for a national park. I also have a deep interest in fungi and have written many amateur scientific papers about them. I’m very new to GIS, but I hope it will help me succeed in these fields of work. In addition to this, I enjoy knitting clothing and doing graphic design when I have the spare time.
Chapter Reflection: After reading the GIS textbook chapter, I learnt a lot of new and interesting information that I was previously confused about. I was largely unfamiliar with the concept of GIS as a whole. I knew it involved mapping and was used in the environmental science field, but that was the extent of my knowledge. Through reading the chapter, I learned that GIS can be applied to various fields and topics. For example, a city planner, a police officer, and a research scientist may all use GIS within their work for different purposes. As a result, GIS can have a massive effect on our societal function from its pervasiveness across multiple important disciplines. I also learned that Spacial analysis is one of the core functions of GIS. Spatial analysis represents more than just geographical data in a visual form, as seen with basic maps. It allows us to gain knowledgeable insights on the data being explored through using a Geographic Information System (GIS) as a tool. One part of the chapter I found interesting was when early forms of geographic information systems were being discussed, specifically the formation of the Canada Geographical Information System (CGIS). This was one of the earliest operational computer cartography systems as it was created in the 1960’s. I found it interesting because it was created out of a want to gather data on the Canadian forests for the purpose of land management by overlaying the land data with other relevant structures like soil layers and urban areas. This was a wanted concept because this creation would allow for analysis of large amounts of data to determine how one might efficiently manage Canadas forests. As someone who is interested in the surveying and management of land as a potential career path, it was insightful to learn that one of the earliest computer cartography systems was created for that express purpose.
GIS Applications 1: As previously mentioned, I am deeply interested in fungi and their environments. This led me to discover a scientific report on the topic of mapping soil fungi within a specific region. The researchers decided on mapping the fungi species located in Wielka Żuława island in northern Poland in order to provide a baseline for a new approach towards mapping landscape-scale fungi distribution patterns. The researchers succeeded in their venture of depicting large-scale landscape mapping of the distribution of specific soil fungi within the region, as depicted below.
Source 1: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-37538-7
GIS Applications 2: Another topic I am interested in is Invasive species. I find their rippling impacts they have on the environments they are introduced to extremely interesting. Because of this interest, I found a paper published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture relating to the control of a invasive plant species. More specifically, the paper highlights the potential of handled GIS technology in monitoring the control of the species. The paper acknowledges that within Arizona, there are many different invasive species of weed that are impacting the function of Arizonas ecosystems. One solution that is highlighted is implementing the use of handled GIS systems for landowners and managers within Arizona to operate, allowing them to gather and plot data on the invasive weeds. This ability to digitally gather data may allow for more efficient and accurate information on the location and spread of the invasive weed.
Source 2: https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/pubs/rmrs_p036/rmrs_p036_298_301.pdf