1. Introduction
Hello, my name is Kathleen, and I am from Dallas, Texas. I am a junior majoring in astrophysics with a minor in environmental science. I plan to work in meteorology or compact objects research. I am taking this course because GIS is one of the most important tools for tracking and predicting severe weather.
2. Reading
This reading surprised me but also taught me a lot about how GIS and how it is viewed and used by various groups of people. I don’t have any experience with GIS and I originally thought it was only used by environmental researchers, but this chapter taught me that it is used in so much more. On just page 1, I learned that even Starbucks uses GIS to find successful shop locations. GIS also has different “definitions” to different sections of the science community. In the chapter, Schuurman offers the examples of city planners who see GIS as a tool to see how residents are affected by possible infrastructure changes, while researchers see it as a way to define boundaries of changing phenomena. I found it very interesting that Canada, the US, and the UK all worked on computer cartography data together to shape what we know today. It is astounding that it would have been developed much later if Tomlinson and Pratt hadn’t sat next to each other on the airplane. The chapter states that GIS would have been inevitably created, if not by geographers, as its creation was supported by many other disciplines in the era of a world increasingly relying on digitalization of data. It is very cool that GIS has given researchers an accessible way to make conclusions through visual data. While Schuurman makes the point that some see it as “unscientific”, I believe that visuals are the best evidence to draw conclusions. This chapter also introduced the “behind-the-scenes” of GIS with GIScience and GISystems. GIScience looks at how the GISystems are used and GISystems looks at what data is needed and how it will be analyzed and coded. The end of the chapter provides us with a multitude of examples of how exactly GIS is woven into our lives. It is surprising how every little detail of our lives, down to what flyers we get in the mail, is influenced by GIS.
3A. GIS Application #1
I am an astrophysics major so I researched how GIS is used in astronomy. The most common use is selecting a site for radio astronomy. This source describes how GIS was used to determine the site for radio astronomy testing in Portugal. They determined that Herdade da Contenda was the location with the lowest risk factor of fire, flooding, impact on flora and fauna, and many other factors.
Source: https://www.mdpi.com/165092
3B. GIS Application #2
I travel to Colorado yearly to hike in the mountains, so the forest fires have had a high impact on our ability to go. This research used GIS to identify areas with a higher fire risk and to determine the factors that influence the intensity of wildfires.
Source: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rsase.2022.100872
4. Quiz
I have completed the quiz.