My name is Hannah Wagner and I am a sophomore majoring in environmental science.

I first took the syllabus quiz and then read the text which was an introduction to GIS and its history as well as its uses. I found this whole reading to be very interesting and educating because I wasn’t really sure what GIS was and what it was used for. I understood the basics more when it was explained that in the past Ian McHarg had layered tracing paper with different parts of the landscape in order to see where a highway would cause the least amount of disturbance to the environment. I assumed GIS was just simple maps but I was unaware of the “layering” that gives much more data about the location. I was shocked to learn how many industries use GIS to make spatial decisions, especially when those decisions affect everyday life. I was really interested in learning how business farmers were using GIS to decide the best places to plant crops due to their distance to markets and even to understand why a section of crops may have a disease.  I was also very interested in “the two faces of GIS”, GISystems and GIScience.  I understood it as GISystems is straight forward, the process of gathering data, inputting it, analyzing it, and creating a map all with the given technology. GIScience is the side that questions the technology and digs deeper to find the best ways to represent data. I appreciate the GIScience side that doesn’t blindly trust the code to create the best and most accurate representation. I also found it very interesting that people can perceive information from visual displays easier than a data set or table. This makes total sense to me because I can understand data much better when it is visual and it can help me connect relationships between data much easier.

I have always been interested in agriculture and its relationship to the environment so I was excited to find a map related to agriculture.  I found a website showing lots of different ways GIS is used in precision agriculture mapping.  I picked a map that assesses vegetation.

https://www.satimagingcorp.com/services/geographic-information-systems/gis-maps-agriculture-mapping/

I also looked up GIS application in air quality and found a pretty neat visual that combined different data.

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/health/air-quality-aware

Hello, My name is Cooper Gensler and I am a sophomore, majoring in Environmental science and Geography

After taking the syllabus quiz, I completed the reading where I learned all about what GIS is and how it is being used to learn more about the physical world and its various implications. I found it very interesting how GIS is used by many different companies or people to find out different information using the same processes. One of the first recorded uses of GIS was in 1962 as it was used as a method to process cartographic information and then analyze said information. It was originally used by Ian McHarg who was constructing a highway and wanted to make it so it would be the least disruptful to the natural environment. McHarg did not use a computer as he layered pieces of tracing paper with sections such as housing, forests, and valleys on those papers. With this, he could effectively trace the path for a highway while successfully limiting the amount of wildlife that was misplaced. Learning about GIscience and GISystems was really neat. GIScience is primarily the computer based side of GIS as it describes why certain processes occur using justification and theoretical bases. This is opposed to GISystems which use processes to get a certain output. GISystems is what we as students are being taught and is more accessible to every day use. Overall both sides of GIS are incredibly important to how information is processed. GIS in general is a very powerful tool in how information is visualized across many different systems of earth. It can help convey information that can display how different parts of the earth are connected.

 

in this map, ARCGIS is used to display the distribution of fish species in the Western US. I thought that this was a very helpful and insightful graphic that shows information that would be helpful to someone who is a marine biologist or an adjacent field.

 

Hello, I am Sophie Buco, and I am a 2nd-year student, and I am majoring in zoology and environmental science. I also did the reading and quiz.

This first reading discusses how we use GIS in our everyday life even if we do not know it. Also the history about GIS, how it went from analog to computers. Some of the history includes how the GIS required massive physical and human resources to run. It also discusses how spatial analysis is different from mapping because it generates more knowledge and information. Mapping, though, shows geological data in visual forms. Even though the GIS was helpful when it first came out, it still was only recognized by a few people even with the analysis capabilities. This technology was generally referred to as “computerized cartography.” Because of this, GIS made a very unfortunate showing. The use of the GIS was not only in computers; it was used in coding for the census in the United States in 1890. These are only a few things about the GIS system that were talked about in this reading.

One interesting use I found for the GIS application is the behavior of sharks and how they interact with the environment around them. The reason I find this interesting is that I like to learn about how different shark species interact with the living organisms around them. Like how some sharks let certain fish stay with them to eat certain organisms off of them. The reason why GIS is so important to this is that it allows scientists to track the sharks. That allows them to learn about migration habits, feeding habits, environmental correlations, vulnerability and conservation, and so much more. (“Gemini”). Another source also says that sharks are important because they allow humans to learn about the climate and health of our oceans (Nicolas).

Hello. My name is Ben Lindley and I am a sophomore. Unfortunately I don’t really have any good pictures of me so this is the best I could do.

One thing I found interesting about the reading is that GIS is used in everyday life. It affects millions of people in a number of ways. What we eat and where it comes from as well as how we get to certain places all rely on GIS. GIS is also very important with urban life. I also found it interesting that GIS is not only rooted in computer labs in the mid twentieth century. There have been attempts made in the nineteenth century to automate calculations for example in the 1890 census. The reading also gives a good visual about the cholera outbreak in London in 1854. Because of this Dr John Snow was able to make the connection between water pumps and the spread of cholera. I googled GIS applications on navigation and found out that GIS enhances navigation in many ways. One big example of GIS in navigation is Google Maps. It helps with mapping and visualization. GIS excels at creating interactive maps. It also helps with urban planning and management to analyze traffic patterns, identify congestion points, and optimize transportation infrastructure. This contributes to smoother traffic flow and improved public transportation efficiency. One thing that surprised me the most was that GIS is used in drone navigation. I also googled GIS Applications in Cleveland and found that GIS is used in neighborhood planning and zoning. Here is a map on clevelandohio.gov website.

https://data.clevelandohio.gov/apps/f15dec13ee6648bcb218d4f5c8290691/explore

Hello my name is Braden Saeler. I am a junior majoring in environmental studies. I am from St Marys Ohio.

 

I have taken the syllabus quiz.  GIS is a very complex tool used by many for a variety of reasons ranging from being used by say archeologists to find potential dig sites. Compared to say Starbucks and potentially other large businesses using it to find the best place to put one of the buildings.  Specifically seen when talking about its inspiration and founding when maps were stacked to help show the best path of travel through terrain. Which also shows another way for it to be used showing that GIS doesn’t have its own identity but rather the intent behinds its use.  It has also greatly shown to be advanced and separating itself from simple mapping by producing a myriad of information. By being able to show elevations and land shaping as well as other details such as flora and fauna giving a much better look into what is truly there. The most important note I have read about however is what GIS can stand for. In the sense of geographical information systems commonly referred to as the Black Box.  This pertains to any and all systems including code, computers, hardware, and software.  Which is different compared to the science or GIScience as referred to in the text. I believe the separation of the two is an interesting take but possibly necessary to bring forth the thought of how for instance the spatial density of poverty in a city is computed instead of simply going along with this computer just makes everything accurate. As well as, asking questions  such as how a certain model holds up in another environments as used in the text how a hydrological model would hold up in a glacial biome compared to the wetlands it was used in. Overall a very interesting read in how GIS has come to be and how it has influenced so much of our lives without us even realizing it.

The first example of GIS I looked into would be Ash trees which I have been very interested about especially with how few healthy trees are left after facing an invasive species (the emerald ash borer).  I used Gemini to search for GIS what was provided was it mentioned how invaluable GIS is for species like the Ash trees found naturally in America in tracking previous sightings with the Emerald Ash Borer or EAB. With first being able to map out all Ash trees in a given location. Then providing extremely specific details on said trees for example exact measurements of the tree, if its health, previous treatment, and signs of epicormic shoots or signs of stress in any or all of the trees.  This further proves to be invaluable by being able to easily determine the risk factor of any of the trees to help contain the beetle. Allowing the correct response to be taken to either help or contain said trees in any given area.

https://apnews.com/article/f1e4351ae7f64bc7b278a4e3a533172a

Another study I found interesting using GIS was conducted on something called food deserts. Which is where an area of people have little to no access to fresh or general foods for homes. The study highlighted how covid had truly shown how prevalent these areas are restricting homes availability so good nutritious meals or just in general food to keep stocked at home. They used GIS to help map these food deserts and show how we as a society have left something so detrimental to small communities and impoverish households to run rampant.

Using Local Knowledge to Better Map Food Deserts

Hello! My name is Ava Johnson, and I am a senior majoring in East Asian Studies. I have no computer science or environmental sciences major or minor . I just had a fun time taking the second module of this course a year ago and figured I would do it again, just in reverse order!

Here are two pictures of me because I thought the first one was hilarious. My friends that I had made while studying abroad in Japan and we decided to go on a 3am convenience store run, just because. Second picture is me in my dorm residence bathroom (was a great place for selfies lol).

Taking this course after taking the second module first a year ago is a bit entertaining and funny to me now that I really think about it. Having said that, it was interesting reading the first chapter, along with taking the syllabus quiz, as I began reflecting on everything I have already learned and applying that to this course as well. Starting off, the chapter was pretty straightforward in terms of  a clear and concise introduction of the overview of the history of GIS and the different transformations it has made over the years. As I learned last year, yet still touched upon in this chapter, GIS is a lot more than maps or charts, and can allow for creativity to run wild once you truly become comfortable with the applications and layers. It was really cool to see so many large corporations, businesses and even states, counties and cities that utilize GIS in different ways. For example, here in Delaware, OH, different snow and ice area priorities are mapped using functions on GIS, along with climate patterns in completely separate areas around the world.

 

Application 1: I wanted to look at the different areas in Delaware, OH, where snow and ice removal have higher priorities as everyone can become more agitated once snowfall occurs with either how quickly or rather, not quick enough, snow removal comes through in different areas.

https://codgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/minimalist/index.html?appid=6e24626fa5544073b7d93b2676ce1aac

 

Application 2: I took a look at World BioClimates that factored influence of distribution of plants and animals

 

https://climate-arcgis-content.hub.arcgis.com/datasets/5826b14592ab4ebc99574919165bd860/explore?location=0.017175%2C0.000000%2C1.69

 

 

 

 

 

Hi, my name is Hektor and I’m a senior (sort of) (returning after some time off) double majoring in Fine Arts and Environmental Studies. My art education here is  mostly in jewelry/metals but we don’t have that now so I’m doing photography and crocheting on the side. As for the environment I’m interested in the social science of how culture leads us to impact the world, especially with our attitudes towards plants. I have an interest in invasive plants and what we define as “weeds” as well. I don’t have a good full body picture right now and I’m always changing up my hair and whatnot so I just have a selfie for now!

I took the quiz and it was fine, and then read the reading, which answered some of my questions and raised others. First of all I was confused as to how GIS even worked but the description of the pre-computer layered maps with tissue paper made it make more sense to me. Right off the bat the chapter mentions Starbucks using GIS and I have to imagine that most other companies with any kind of multiple locations would use it to track the most profitable locations as well, and controlling the flow of money is social control from monopolies (even, maybe especially from a coffee shop). I wonder how much the use of GIS for things like tracking property values, education, and crime is used to either uphold or fight against housing and education discrimination. One other thing I thought about a lot was the manipulation of data. You can have hard statistics that say one thing, but by organizing them a certain way in an infographic or a GIS layer you can make someone believe the opposite. Making data intuitive to people who don’t have a background in statistics can be a blessing or a curse if that data is manipulated by the wrong people. Another thing the chapter touched on were the two fundamental problems in science: some information is nearly impossible to make into quantitative data, and of course, no scientists can agree on anything. GIS begins to tackle the first problem in my opinion because by combining multiple layers of things like pollution, nature spaces, and health records, one could determine the overall health of a community in a more “human” way. Of course, if you have numbers to combine, you can make a numerical score to define that health that more people are likely to agree upon.

As I mentioned I’m interested in invasive plants and how they spread, and the density and spread of invasive plants is a good indicator of the overall health of a natural environment. I live in Columbus, which has a lot of urban forest spaces that unfortunately have a problem with several invasive species, especially honeysuckle. I grew up hanging out in the forests by the river, so I found an Inaturalist map of my neighborhood (because I also love the idea of crowdsourced spatial analysis) and an article about the spread of honeysuckle as well.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&taxon_id=82342

Invasive Honeysuckles and Birds. (2023, November 28). Ohio Birds and Biodiversity. August 22, 2025, https://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/2023/11/invasive-honeysuckles-and-birds.html

 

Hi all, my name is Luke Miller. I am currently a junior majoring in environmental science with a minor in Spanish, and I also play lacrosse. 

From the syllabus quiz and reading, I learned that the uses of GIS are vast and varied, being used for environmental, geological, economic, and even medical purposes. Along with this, GIS does not have its own fixed and secure identity, as the user determines its value and how they choose to use it, even within specific fields. For example, a marine biologist might use GIS for completely different reasons than a wildlife biologist. Another variance in the uses of GIS is that it deals with both the “why?” and “how?”, and can be used in different ways based on what the user seeks to answer or find. I enjoyed reading about the first use of GIS, which was to optimize the construction of a highway in a way that would minimally interfere with the environment, which made me wonder what percentage of highways in the US were built using GIS, as I find many of them to be inconvenient. Another concept I learned about was that spatial analysis is different from mapping, as it extracts more data from preexisting data, whereas mapping is just a presentation of existing data. I was also intrigued by the idea that people “reason” using imagery and are able to better understand spatial analysis using imagery. It is for this reason that GIS has become increasingly popular over the years, in that its applications make complex relationships easier to understand and visualize. Finally, I found Bruno Latour’s concept to be interesting in that scientific knowledge and technology must first be disputed to become legitimate. Once they are legitimized, they are then assumed to always be true. This is true with GIS, in that because it has become a legitimized technology, no one questions the validity of its findings, which is both a good and bad thing. 

 

I found the application of GIS to assess the water quality of lakes in my home state of Minnesota to be interesting. In a 2002 study, researchers took existing maps of lakes over a 25-year period and used GIS to correlate them with information about the surrounding areas, such as pollution, to determine the most prevalent causes of water pollution in that specific area. 

Another use of GIS I found to be interesting was a study conducted in 2009 in Indiana. This study investigated the prevalence of ticks, which are the main cause of Lyme disease, found on deer harvested from 2005-2007. All deer in this study were entered into a GIS database to find where deer ticks were most prevalent. 

 

Sources

Brezonik, P. L., Kloiber, S. M., Olmanson, L. G., & Bauer, M. E. (2002, May). Satellite and GIS Tools to Assess Lake Quality. Water Resources Center; The University of Minnesota. https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=7c6ca4d3d77ef0b0417e3f8304f1e66427809323

Keefe, L. M., Moro, M. H., Vinasco, J., Hill, C., Wu, C. C., & Raizman, E. A. (2009). The Use of Harvested White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and Geographic Information System (GIS) Methods to Characterize Distribution and Locate Spatial Clusters ofBorrelia burgdorferiand Its VectorIxodes scapularisin Indiana. Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases, 9(6), 671–680. https://doi.org/10.1089/vbz.2008.0162

 

Hello, I’m Dylan Patel and I’m a Jr currently majoring in Environmental Studies. I’m from Anaheim Hills near Disneyland.

 

Learning about GIS was spectacular. I didn’t know that GIS had so many applications in industries like Starbucks to maximize its store placement, epidemiology for identifying infectious disease clusters, and even law enforcement for crime mapping. Of all of these, epidemiology surprised me the most because I always assumed GIS was mainly for cartography and city planning.

I was also intrigued by how, in the 1950s-1960s, there was pushback against digitalization. At the time, computer-generated maps were considered crude compared to the artistry of manual cartography. Yet pioneers like Brian Berry, Waldo Tobler, and Duane Marble in the US, and Tom Waugh and Ray Boyle in the UK, pushed forward with algorithms and code that laid the foundation for spatial analysis. That persistence transformed GIS from “computerized cartography” into a powerful analytical science (Schuurman, 2004).

Connecting GIS to epidemiology is especially fascinating. A famous historical example is Dr. John Snow’s 1854 cholera map in London, where plotting deaths around contaminated water pumps revealed the true source of the outbreak. That map demonstrated how spatial visualization could unlock hidden relationships in health data. Building on that legacy, epidemiologists today use GIS to identify disease clusters, track outbreaks, and assess environmental risk factors. For example, GIS has been used to study cancer incidence in relation to toxic exposures, evaluate where infectious disease cases are concentrated, and plan interventions for public health emergencies like COVID-19. What makes GIS so powerful in this field is its ability to merge multiple layers-population density, environmental hazards, transportation routes, or healthcare access-and reveal patterns that would remain invisible in raw tables or reports. As Rushton (2003) argues, GIS provides health officials with spatial analytic tools that can improve both research and decision-making, ultimately saving lives.

Overall, Chapter 1 made me realize GIS is more than just “maps.” It is both a science and a system-one that influences how we see, organize, and act upon the world. As an environmental studies student, I can see myself using GIS not just for conservation, but also to understand how environmental health risks connect to human populations.

Source: GIS basics page, The Epidemiologist R Handbook (used for the illustrative image) EpiR Handbook

An example of how GIS is used to track the spread of diseases and relative populations.

______

Schuurman, N. (2004). GIS: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Rushton, G. (2003). Public health, GIS, and spatial analytic tools. Annual Review of Public Health, 24, 43-56.

 

 

My name is Aiden Walz. I am a junior who just transferred from Columbus State Community College. I am from Blacklick, Ohio. I am majoring in biochemistry with a minor in environmental science. 

Picture of me after getting injected with lidocaine at the dentist.

After I took the syllabus quiz I started to read the first chapter of Nadine Schuurman GIS: A Short Introduction. This first chapter provides a wonderful introduction and insight of how GIS has impacted our lives along with providing a brief history of how GIS came to be. With Canada creating the first true operational system, drawing inspiration from people like Ian McHarg who manually mapped multiple map layers of a suburban development so he could find the most optimal route for a highway. However GIS is more than just a program to find the best routes for highways. GIS has allowed users a better means of spatial analysis especially with geographical visualizations of areas which can be highly important to not just local counties trying to lay infrastructure down but also allowing users to visualize complex data into a visual representation. GIS is also wonderful in that it’s hard to just list a single overall use as GIS is such a versatile tool that has allowed humanity to visualize these spatial entities that would be hard to view otherwise. Schuurman also does a wonderful job of showing how GIS uses quantitative data and spatial visualization to make the data more accessible and impactful in people’s everyday lives. This chapter does however leave the reader with one question; what area isn’t GIS useful for? Throughout this chapter it becomes abundantly clear that GIS is useful for a multitude of areas, ranging from agriculture to waste management, climate change to infrastructure, and even as a tool for sociologists to understand humanity itself better. In the end, this chapter showcases that GIS is not just a tool to look at land a little bit differently, but a piece of revolutionary technology that has and will continue to help humanity answer questions, solve problems, and change humanity’s outlook on the world.

Application 1: The first application I looked at was how GIS was used to map Bigfoot sightings across the United States. This map was set up mainly for visual purposes and less for analytical purposes. However it could be used to filter these sightings by geography or other variables in order to focus on one aspect of these sightings or to limit the amount of possible ‘credible sightings’. Interestingly enough, there are quite a few sightings in Florida, which is quite interesting as I don’t know how a giant beast with fur would be able to survive in the heat, and also while still remaining elusive.

Source: Geospatial Training Services, Introduction to GIS Analysis using Sasquatch Sightings

https://geospatialtraining.com/introduction-to-gis-analysis-using-sasquatch-sightings/ 

Application 2: The next application I looked at was crime per capita in Blacklick, Ohio. This map showcases the crime rate in the areas surrounding Blacklick, with more red colors indicating a higher percent of crime committed in that area. This GIS map helps illustrate the safety of the area and surrounding areas which can be helpful to home buyers, residents, and even law enforcement. This application can also further help by raising awareness of crimes and alerting the public to address safety concerns. Overall Blacklick got a B+ for safety and ranked in the 76th percentile for safety. 

Source: Crime Grade, Violent Crime in Blacklick

https://crimegrade.org/violent-crime-black-lick-oh/