Hi! My name is Emily and I am majoring in International studies and Environmental studies, with a minor in Spanish. I love traveling and just got back from studying abroad in Chile. I love animals and nature, I have three cats, two dogs and a turtle at home.
Before this reading, I had no idea what GIS was, or the importance it has. It was interesting that the history of GIS goes back to the 1960s, yet many people like myself are unaware of the significance of GIS analysis. It has become essential in many different fields from urban planning to public health. What I thought was most interesting was that GIS can be defined as both a system and a science. GISystems focused more on software and hardware, and GIScience is the more theoretical parts of spatial data and analysis. This introduction chapter peaked my interest in the applications of GIS and challenged me to think more critically about spatial data and how it influences real world outcomes.
For the first GIS application, I explored its use in water resource management. I am specifically interested in water depletion. GIS can be used to analyze and visualize water depletion by mapping various factors contributing to water scarcity such as groundwater levels, water usage patterns, land use, soil types and climate data. This provides information on where water depletion is more severe and why.
I searched up “water depletion GIS California” and found information on groundwater depletion in California’s central valley. Residents in this region rely on groundwater for agricultural growth, and this study found that 45 selected urban areas with a population average of 7 million people are at risk of Aquifer depletion.
Source: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/0c1fce0700c4465180b3258c4751ecbb
For my second application, I searched “GIS application for animal shelters in Ohio” and I came across a website titled “Get started tracking at-risk animals using GIS data”. This seems to be information on a project happening in northern Ohio. They use GIS to target at-risk animals in communities so shelters can understand where at-risk animals are coming from and determine where it makes sense to target planned interventions. GIS, in this case, is used to help animals.
Source: https://www.aspcapro.org/resource/get-started-tracking-risk-animals-using-gis-data