Latest Contributions by JosephKerski

I recently wrote about my experience giving a TED talk about the Whys of Where--the importance of digital maps, GIS, and geography in education and society.  Let's say you want to use some of the text of my presentation in your own advocacy and promotion efforts, and let's say you also wanted that text in Spanish (El Por Qué de Dónde).  I have provided them both below and provided a video version in English and in Spanish.  The translation may not be perfect and certainly my narration es muy mal, but I hope they inspire you to be a champion for spatial thinking and GIS in education in a wide variety of settings.    Slide Number Slide Content Narration in English Narration in Spanish 1 Joseph Kerski appearing in front of a map More than just about anything else in our modern world, maps are all around us. Más que cualquier otra cosa en nuestro mundo moderno, los mapas están en todos sitios. 2 An airport map Maps are something that people are willing to look at long enough… Los mapas son algo que la gente está dispuesta a mirar por mucho tiempo... 3 A route to Vail map … to learn something from … ...para aprender de ellos... 4 A bus system map … and even prompt them to take action. … y hasta pueden incitarlos a tomar medidas. 5 Belize students research results on a map Maps engage, maps inform, maps inspire. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, I submit that a map is worth 1,000 pictures.   Los mapas cautivan, los mapas informan, los mapas inspiran.  Si una imagen vale 1000 palabras, presento que un mapa vale 1000 imágenes.     6 Clay tablet map Maps have always been rich sources of data, communicating a large amount of information in a small amount of space—whether that space was—in the past, stone tablets… Los mapas siempre han sido una rica fuente de datos, comunicando una gran cantidad de información en un espacio pequeño---no importa si ese espacio fue---en el pasado, como tabletas de piedra...  7 UK geologic map by William Smith .. in the dirt, on wood blocks… ...en barro, o en bloques de madera... 8 Von Humboldt North American Map … paper, film, and now, in digital form--on our tablets, laptops, phones, in our cars, on our buses, … … en papel, en fotografia y hoy en día, en formato digital-- en nuestras tabletas, computadoras portátiles, teléfonos, o en nuestros automóviles y autobuses.      9 Map on a streetside Kiosk in our neighborhoods. ...en nuestras comunidades. 10   Joseph shows paper map and slide of paper map How many of you have lots of paper maps at home?  I do.  Paper maps are useful, but limited.  We cannot easily update them, add information to them, or change their scale.  They aren’t easily transported.. or folded. ¿Cuántos de ustedes tienen muchos mapas de papel en sus casas? ¡Yo si! Los mapas de papel son útiles, pero tienen sus limitaciones.  No podemos actualizarlos fácilmente, o añadir información, o cambiar su escala.  Tampoco son fáciles de transportar. …  o doblado! 11 Show map on phone Today’s digital maps are much more useful, mobile, and versatile.  They are revolutionizing how we navigate our world… Los mapas de hoy en dia son mucho más útiles, móviles y versátiles. Están revolucionando cómo navegamos nuestro mundo...   12 Map of airport …how we understand our world… ...  cómo entendemos nuestro mundo... 13 3D terrain map and how we can better enable our world for the future. … y cómo podemos mejorar el futuro de nuestro planeta. 14 City of Rocks in New Mexico Paper maps are still handy in the field, though, because technology can fail! Sin embargo, los mapas de papel todavía son útiles en el campo, cuando la tecnología puede fallar.  15 A Hurricane map Maps don’t just tell us WHERE things are, but help us understand WHY they are where they are.   Why do hurricanes occur where they do? Los mapas nos solo nos dice el DONDE están las cosas, pero también nos ayudan a entender la razón porque están donde están. ¿Por qué los huracanes ocurren donde ocurren?  16 A flood swipe story map Why do landslides occur more frequently along certain slopes?  How high are the floodwaters down the street from my home right now? ¿Por que los deslizamientos de tierra  ocurren más frecuentemente a lo largo de ciertas pendientes? ¿Como de alta están las aguas de una inundación en la calle próxima a mi casa en este momento? 17 A zebra mussels map Why are invasive species like zebra mussels spreading in these directions? ¿Por que especies invasivas, como los mejillones cebra, se está extendiendo en estas direcciones.  18 A geo-database. Today’s maps are not just graphics floating in cyberspace—they are tied to a powerful computer database—a geodatabase—a Geographic Information SYSTEM.   Los mapas de hoy en día, no son solo gráficos flotantes en el espacio cibernético-- Están atados a poderosas computadoras--- base de datos--- a datos geoespaciales--- a un Sistema de Información Geográfico.     19 Bio-Nano-Geo Technology graphic The US Department of Labor identified 3 fast-growing, key fields for the 21 st Century:  Biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, and geotechnologies.   Today’s maps are part of geotechnologies.  Geotechnologies include GIS (Geographic Information Systems), GPS (Global Positioning Systems), Remote Sensing, and Web Mapping. El Departamento del Trabajo de los Estados Unidos identificó las 3 áreas de más rápido crecimiento en el siglo 21: Biotecnologías, nanotecnologías, y geotecnologias.  Los mapas de hoy día son parte de la geotecnología. Geotecnologias  incluye: los sistemas de información geográfica (SIG o GIS por sus siglas en inglés), Sistemas de Posicionamiento Global (GPS por sus siglas en Inglés), teledetección, y mapas en el Web.      20 GIS network graphic GIS is like an elevator—it works behind the scenes -- you don’t think about it; you just use it.  GIS ensures that your phone got assembled with the right parts:  Supply Chain Management.   GIS enables your package to get delivered to you and millions of others today the safest, most fuel-efficient manner possible.  GIS allows you to pull up an app that says that Bus F will be at your stop in Vail in 4 Minutes 30 seconds. GIS es como un elevador---funciona tras bastidores---usted nuncas piensa en el, solo lo usa.  GIS garantiza que su teléfono fue fabricado con las piezas correctas. Manejo de cadenas de distribución. GIS garantiza que sus paquetes sean entregados a usted y millones de otras personas a tiempo y de forma segura y de la forma más eficiente economizando combustible.  GIS le permite el uso de una aplicación que les dice que el autobús F llegará a su parada en Vail en 4 minutos y 30 segundos.    21 Plate Tectonics 1 Let’s examine the world’s plate boundaries, volcanoes, and the last 30 days of earthquakes, asking the “whys of where” questions as we investigate.  What are the reasons for this pattern?  What is the relationship between earthquake locations and magnitude? Vamos a examinar las localización de los límites de las placas en nuestro planeta, volcanes, y la localización de terremotos en los últimos 30 días, preguntándonos, “El por qué de donde” según investigamos. ¿Cual es la razón de este patrón? ¿Cuál es la relación entre la localización del terremoto y su magnitud?”   22 Plate Tectonics 2 What is the relationship of earthquake locations and depth? ¿Cual es la relación entre la localización del terremoto y su profundidad? 23 Plate Tectonics 3 What is the relationship of earthquake locations to volcanoes and to plate boundaries?  How many major cities are within 50 km of these earthquakes?  How many occur in the oceans?  Why should we care?  Ah, tsumanis! ¿Cuál es la relación entre la localización de terremotos con volcanes y los límites de las  placas tectónicas?  ¿Cuantas ciudades estan a menos de 50 Km de estos terremotos?  ¿Cuántos terremotos ocurren en el océano?  ¿Por qué debemos preocuparnos? Por supuesto, Maremotos! 24 Plate Tectonics 4 We live in a 3D world so we have created 3D GIS tools, here, symbolizing magnitudes as cylinders. Vivimos en un planeta tridimensional por lo que hemos creado herramientas de GIS tridimensionales, como en este mapa, simbolizando magnitudes como cilindros.  25 Demographics 1 Let’s investigate population characteristics—demographics—at  scales from national to local.  Median age:  Blue, older.  Red, younger.  Why is Maine older than Texas? Vamos a investigar características de la población---demografía a escalas representado desde naciones, a escala local.  Edad media: rojo para representar población adulta, azul para jóvenes. ¿Por qué el estado de Main tiene más población adulta que Texas?           26 Demographics 2 Scale matters!  When we enlarge the scale, we see different patterns.  Why are the Great Plains older than the West? La escala es importante!  Cuando aumentamos la escala, podemos apreciar diferentes patrones.  ¿Por qué en los Grandes Planos hay más población adulta que en el oeste de los Estados Unidos? 27 Demographics 3 .. and now at the census tract or neighborhood level.  Why is this neighborhood in Vail older than those to the north and west? … y ahora mirando los datos del Censo de los Estados Unidos a nivel de distrito y a nivel de vecindario. ¿Por qué el vecindario de Vali tiene una población de adultos mayor que al norte y al oeste? 28 Demographics 4 We can add other variables including those that are crowd sourced - such as median income or commuting patterns – to plan effective services, housing, transportation.  The goal?  Sustainable communities.  We are asking a lot of questions, aren’t we?  Agood map teaches you to ask a better question. Podemos añadir variable que pueden incluir las que provienen de fuentes múltiples como ingreso medio o los patrones de transportación para la efectiva planificación de servicios efectivos de alojamiento y transporte. ¿Cuál es la meta? Comunidades sostenibles. ¿No cree que estamos haciendo muchas preguntas?  Un buen mapa te enseña a hacer mejores preguntas.  29 Map of TEDxVail attendees. Let’s map where everyone attending this TED talk is from.  Is this the pattern you expected?   Thanks to a web GIS called ArcGIS Online, this took me all of 5 minutes to create AND share.  Vamos a localizar en un mapa el lugar de procedencia de todos los participantes de TED Talk ¿Es este el patron que esperaba ver?   Gracias a un GIS en el Web llamado ArcGIS Online, solo me tardó 5 minutos el preparar Y compartir este mapa. 30 Discuss global challenges What would be in your Top 10 list of serious challenges facing our world?  Water quality and quantity, Natural hazards, climate, crime Energy, migration, Political instability  human health, Economic inequality   biodiversity loss   They all have a geographic component.  Hence they can be understood using GIS.  We can use our “Whys of Where” investigations to solve these global problems that increasingly affect our everyday lives. ¿Cuál será la lista de los 10 retos más serios en nuestro planeta?  Cantidad y calidad de agua, Peligros naturales, clima, crimen, energía, migración, inestabilidad política, salud humana, desigualdad económica, pérdida de la biodiversidad.   Todos tienen un componente geográfico, por lo que pueden ser entendidos mediante el uso de GIS.  Podemos usar nuestro “Por qué de Dónde” para  investigar cómo resolver estos problemas globales que cada día afectan más nuestras vidas.      31 A CDC map of disease patterns Here, the CDC is using GIS to examine the pattern of health variables not just to treat patients, but to build wellness. En este mapa, el Centro de Control de Enfermedades usa GIS para examinar patrones de variables de salud, no solo para tratar patrones, si no para fomentar salud. 32 GIS is becoming the  language of the planet By applying GIS to solve problems in an ever-expanding number of disciplines, maps through GIS are becoming the common language of the planet.   Even in your local government! – Zoning working with assessors, transportation, parks and recreation – around a common set of mapped data. The goal?  A smart city. El uso de GIS se está expandiendo a ser usado en un gran número de disciplinas para estudiar problemas.  Mapas creados mediante GIS se está convirtiendo en el lenguaje universal del planeta. Inclusive a nivel de gobiernos locales - Desde consultores trabajando en  zonificación, transportación, parques y recreación - Todo girando alrededor de datos en mapas. ¿Cuál es la meta? Una ciudad inteligente. 33 Web GIS platform-data-maps-but: -PEOPLE are most important component. But data and technology are only 2 parts of it.  For PEOPLE to effectively use these tools – we need a population that can:   ●     think spatially and critically, ●     that have been immersed in deep and rich field experiences, ●     that can think holistically and across disciplinary boundaries. Sin embargo, los datos y la tecnología son solo 2 partes de todo esto.  Necesitamos una población que pueda: ●      Pensar espacial y críticamente, ●      Que han sido altamente expuestos a ricas experiencias de campo. ●      Que puedan pensar holísticamente a través de disciplinas.   34 Joseph teaching geography Class Think of your last geography course.  It may bring memories of mind numbing memorization—what are the major exports of Peru?  The capital of North Dakota?   Conversely, it may have sparked your interest in our world.    I hope this was your experience. Piensen en el último curso de geografía que ustedes tomaron. Puede traer recuerdos de muchas memorizaciones aburridas.  ¿Cuales son las mayores exportaciones de Perú?  ¿Cuál es la capital de Dakota del Norte? De alguna forma,  Por el contrario, puede haber despertado tu interés en nuestro mundo.  Espero que esta haya sido tu experiencia.  35 Educators working with GIS. But if geography is fundamental to understanding the world through these mapping tools, why is geography so neglected? ¿Pero si la geografía es tan fundamental para entender nuestro planeta a través de estas herramientas de mapeo, por que se descuida tanto la geografía?  36 Students working with GIS/GPS outside. Our high-stakes assessment-focused, subject-divided school system leaves little room for the type of problem-based learning that GIS is a part of.   That’s what these Native students and I were doing on the Santo Domingo Pueblo.  In a semiarid region where soil is a precious resource, they measured gully erosion rates with GIS and GPS. Nuestro sistema escolar se basa en lo que consideran alta importancia  enfocado en la evaluación y dividido por materias lo que solo deja espacio limitado para este tipo de aprendizaje basado en problemas del que GIS forma parte.  Esto es lo que estábamos haciendo este grupo de estudiantes Nativos y yo en la región de Santo Domingo Pueblo en el estado de Nuevo Méjico, Estados Unidos.  Una región semiárida donde el suelo es un recurso preciado.  Ellos midieron erosión de cárcavas mediante GIS y GPS.      37 Map of schools using GIS in USA. But by working closely with faculty, students, parents, and administrators, schools are now using web-based mapping and field apps in history, geography, language arts, science, technology, engineering, and math classrooms.    The education community needs your help in turning these thousands of schools using GIS mapped here into TENS of thousands of schools. Sin embargo, trabajando en estrecha colaboración con los profesores, estudiantes y administradores, las escuelas están ahora usando mapas basados en el web y aplicaciones de campo en sus clases para estudiar historia, geografía, idiomas, ciencia, tecnología, ingeniería y matemáticas.   La comunidad educativa necesita tu ayuda para convertir estos miles de escuelas utilizando GIS en este mapa en  decenas de miles de escuelas.  38 Image:  A mentor with student. Geomentoring is one way to assist a school in their use of mapping technologies. Geomentoria es una forma de ayudar las escuelas en el uso de tecnología de mapas.  39 Image:  Working together Your expertise in advocating for and modelling deep learning in schools, after-school clubs, and universities is needed. Necesitamos su experiencia como expertos en la materia para abogar y desarrollar modelos de aprendizaje en las escuelas, programas después de la escuela y universidades   40 Image – Joseph with question and map. Maps are the WHYS of WHERE. Maps are more relevant than ever before.  Will you be a champion for mapping and spatial analysis in education and society? How do I end this talk?  I don’t … you do. Los mapas son el  “Por qué de Dónde”.  Los mapas son más importantes que nunca antes. ¿Estará usted dispuesto a aceptar el reto de ser un líder en la educación usando mapas y análisis espaciales? ¿Como puedo terminar esta presentation?  Yo no lo hago, lo hace usted.     ... View more

The evolution of geographic information system (GIS) technology to the web presents an excellent opportunity for the geography community to foster spatial thinking among colleagues, students, and administrators. The use of web maps, spatial data, and analysis tools to examine local to global issues has never been so powerful and easy to embrace. It also provides a means for the community to promote geography as an essential twenty-first-century subject to the general public. With the upcoming 2018 AAG Annual Meeting in New Orleans in April, these web maps and analysis tools can be used by anyone to thoroughly explore the city in order to enhance the time spent there and in the surrounding area.  These same tools and maps can be used to explore any location around the globe.  This article also appeared in the AAG newsletter. The following examples illustrate the use of geographic data and tools in an inquiry-driven environment. These maps cultivate the three legs holding a bench that I believe constitutes geographic literacy: content knowledge, skills, and the geographic perspective. Figure 1: Geoliteracy can be conceptualized as being supported by content knowledge, skills, and the geographic perspective. Teaching with these tools can foster students’ knowledge of core content, including concepts (scale, diffusion, patterns, relationships, systems), regions, and themes (geomorphology, watersheds, demographics, ecoregions). Skills include the use of maps, analyzing data, assessing data quality, charting, collecting and analyzing field data, symbolizing maps, and communicating geographic content. Through use of these tools, the geographic perspective—in which geographers see the world working through a series of interwoven, changing spatial relationships operating at a wide variety of scales—can be promoted. These tools can also promote the idea that big data exists at our fingertips, but it is of varying quality. Mapped data is distorted due to its map projection and may have gaps in attributes or resolution and scale. Inquiring about the data’s origins, date, scale, and other characteristics and examining metadata are key to data’s effective use. Discussions about copyright, location privacy, data aggregation, interpretation, dissemination, and communication can be interwoven with the following maps and activities. Through each, students can see that every issue in our world and communities has a geographic component. To start, let us focus on a few easy-to-use yet powerful tools, modeling how to use these resources in instruction. As an example, we will explore New Orleans and the surrounding region, but these tools can be used to study other regions as well. Examining Change over Time Using Photographs and Satellite Imagery The Esri ChangeMatters Viewer Historical and current satellite images can be compared via the Esri ChangeMatters viewer. Its Landsat images are recorded in infrared wavelengths, providing a springboard for discussion about the electromagnetic spectrum and what different wavelengths reveal. Because the US Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have been operating the Landsat satellites since 1972, over 45 years of earth changes are viewable with this single tool. These images can be interacted with in a three-panel view with time period one on the left, time period two in the center, and the change detection image on the right. Figure 2: Shown above is New Orleans, from Landsat imagery in 1975 (left), in 2010 (center), and as a change detection image from 1975 to 2010. What has changed, and why has it changed? What will this area look like in 10 years? Is it changing more quickly or more slowly than other parts of the world? Why? How does the land use here compare to elsewhere in the world? What influence does population, climate, or coastlines have on land use? Can you estimate the population in the area shown? What type of dwellings exist, and how do these dwellings compare in size and density to other regions? As an example, the intersection of such issues as irrigation, politics, climate, and internal drainage can be discussed by examining the shrinking Aral Sea in Central Asia over the past 40 years. The physical characteristics of the eruption of Mount St. Helens, the regrowth of some surrounding vegetation, and the volcano’s proximity to Portland and other regional volcanoes can be examined with the same tool. The urban growth of Las Vegas or São Paulo, the construction of the Three Gorges Dam and other dams, the expansion of center-pivot irrigation in the United States and Saudi Arabia, agricultural and mining expansion and reclamation, and changes in coastlines and glaciers are just a few of the themes that can also be examined using the ChangeMatters viewer. The USGS Esri Historical Topographic Map Explorer Physical and human-induced land-use and land-cover changes can be examined at a variety of scales using tens of thousands of USGS maps stretching back 100 years with the USGS Esri Historical Topographic Map Explorer. Enter a US-based location, click on the map, and choose from the historical maps covering that area, comparing them to the present-day topographic basemap. Each map’s transparency can be adjusted, allowing changes to be investigated. In New Orleans, the construction of levees, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, and draining of wetlands can be seen, along with below-sea-level contour lines that allow the physical setting of the city to be studied.   Supplementing the topographic map viewer with historical ground photographs can be instructive. Ground photographs taken in the same location during two different time periods can be used to analyze changes in land use, land cover, transportation, styles of clothing, the things that society values, and much more. Sources and maps include SepiaTown, WhatWasThere, and Historypin. Some historical street images are embedded in Google Street View scenes via a slider. Figure 3: Changes in New Orleans can be examined using the USGS Esri Historical Topographic Map Explorer, comparing the 1891 topographic maps (left) with the 2018 topographic basemap (right). Urban Observatory The Urban Observatory is a web-mapping application that allows 100 cities to be examined on dozens of variables. Created by Richard Saul Wurman, RadicalMedia, and Esri, the Urban Observatory provides a synchronized set of up to three maps, all showing the same theme and at the same scale. With this tool, you can analyze senior population, land use, current traffic, current weather, parks, and more. Up to three city maps can be viewed at once, and the maps are synchronized, making comparisons easy. Figure 4: Users can compare city park scores (developed by The Trust for Public Land) using the Urban Observatory for New York, New Orleans, and Denver. ParkScore maps show which areas of a city lie within a short walk of a park, and areas that are not served by a park. Demographic Analysis of New Orleans and Beyond ArcGIS Online is a web-based mapping platform from Esri containing analytical tools, maps, data services, and databases, which are behind most of the mapping tools described in this article. Start with ArcGIS Online > Map > Modify Map, then search for and add data on median age and median income. In the resultant interactive web map, shown below, examine the spatial pattern at the city level, such as New Orleans, or at a regional or state level—with no login required. The transparency of any map can be adjusted; the basemap can be changed from the topographic map pictured to a satellite image, OpenStreetMap, or others. Layers such as hydrography, ecoregions, or land cover can also be added. The classification method, variable, number of classes, and symbology can all be changed to help students understand the relationships among various datasets. What patterns are evident, and why do they exist? How do the New Orleans patterns compare to those of other cities? How do the patterns change as the level of geography changes between block group, census tract, county, and state? Figure 5: ArcGIS Online can be used to examine median age (left) and median income (right) for New Orleans. For more census maps in ArcGIS Online, see this gallery. Migration touches the themes of physical geography (such as climate and landforms), cultural geography (political systems, political instability, boundaries, demographic trends), sociology (perception, push-pull factors), and change. Migration causes deep and long-lasting changes in culture, language, urban forms, food, land use, social policy, and politics. Migration is a global issue that affects our everyday lives. It is also a personal issue, because we all have a migration story to tell about our own ancestors and families. Part of the Esri Cool Maps gallery, the Migration Trends map is an interactive 2D and 3D web mapping application running in a browser.International Migration Using data from the United Nations (UN) Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Migration Trends displays out-migration and in-migration data for every country from the 1990s, 2000s, 2010, and 2013. Line thicknesses indicate the number of migrants, and the line endpoints indicate the countries sending people out or receiving people. The raw number and percentage of out- and in-migration for each country are indicated. After viewing the animation, you can select individual countries and time periods. Compelling cartography and the ability to switch between 2D and 3D make this a useful teaching and research tool. Is climate-induced sea level rise the reason why a high percentage of Reunion Island’s population is moving to the United States? Why so much flow between Russia and the UK? Why does Australia have a high percentage of migrants, and how has in-migration to Australia changed recently? See my video for more questions to pose using this map. Explore the other maps in the Esri Cool Maps gallery; they change periodically, so check back often. Figure 6: The Migration Trends 2D and 3D mapping and visualization tool. Combining Fieldwork with Web Mapping Survey123 for ArcGIS can be used on a mobile device to collect data quickly and easily in the field via a form that can be created using a web browser or an Excel spreadsheet. Students can collect information on tree height and species, water quality, pedestrian or vehicle counts, weather, graffiti, or anything else in the field. The results are immediately captured and displayed on interactive web maps, which can be symbolized, classified, and spatially analyzed. The maps can be crowdsourced so the public can add to the content. Figure 7: Using ArcGIS Online and the Survey123 for ArcGIS app, citizen scientists can collaborate and use their smartphones to map trees. The interactive map is visible here. Using and Creating Story Maps People have told stories through maps for thousands of years, and the Esri Story Maps web mapping applications allow multimedia to be easily incorporated into mapping. A gallery of story maps includes New Orleans topics ranging from Hurricane Katrina, gauging US population change, sea level rise and storm surge effects on energy assets, and Alan Lomax’s video archive of the Deep South. Students can create their own story maps to present their own research through interactive maps, text, video, audio, and photographs. Story maps can be shared online and used on any device. Story maps can serve as assessment pieces in student portfolios; provide an alternative to PowerPoint or Prezi for students’ oral presentations; and be embedded in web pages, Sway presentations, or other types of media. Figure 8: This story map shows one aspect of change in New Orleans more than 10 years after Hurricane Katrina. Synthesis Students who use web mapping in geography develop critical thinking skills and understand how to use and evaluate data. This is particularly important with geographic data due to its increasing volume and diversity and its often sensitive and politically charged nature. Students who are well-grounded in the spatial perspective through web mapping have the ability to use data at a variety of scales and contexts, think systematically and holistically, and use quantitative and qualitative approaches to solve problems and become better decision-makers. Students can use these tools to understand that the earth is changing and begin to think analytically about why it is changing. After using these web maps, students ask and grapple with value-based questions. Should the earth be changing in these ways? Is there anything I can and should do about it? --Joseph J. Kerski, PhD, Instructor, University of Denver, and Education Manager, Esri Resources The Esri Education Community blog focuses on geotechnologies in education: tools, best practices, maps, and more. The Spatial Reserves blog and the book The GIS Guide to Public Domain Data, offer essays and activities on data sources, data quality, crowdsourcing, location privacy, and related topics. ... View more

I recently gave a presentation on The Whys of Where at a TEDx event.  The presentation, available here, focused on these core messages:  1.  Maps help us understand our world--past and present, and help us plan for a sustainable future. 2.  Maps make our world smarter, healthier, and happier. 3.  Maps have always been rich sources of information but are more relevant than ever to our 21st Century world.  4.  The digital mapping revolution through GIS affects our everyday lives--how we travel, what we eat, energy, water, health care, supply chain management, and much more.  Web maps produced with GIS have become the common language of the planet.  5.  Maps are not just "where" things are but "why things are where they are"--relationships, patterns, and trends.  Maps are the "whys of where!" The call to action in this presentation is:  The world’s problems require spatial thinking and geotechnologies in order to solve them.  Promote problem based learning, spatial thinking, and working with geotechnologies in your school, youth clubs, community colleges, and universities to empower our future decision makers to think critically and spatially. It was a great honor to be asked to present at TEDx; I did so at the Vail event.  Over the 12 months of preparing for this event, I met visionary and inspiring people from all walks of life from all over the world.  I am now working with several of them to help them integrate mapping technologies to further their own work in humanitarian relief efforts, business, environmental filmmaking, and in additional fields.  Before the event began, I participated in an event that sought to create solutions for hunger in local areas, including the Eagle-Vail valley in Colorado, called Race4Good.  I created a series of map layers on demographics, food distribution facilities, routes, maps of community gardens, and others, in ArcGIS Online and Business Analyst Web.  I think that mapping tools and data could be very useful in these efforts.  Just as importantly, our groups brought some viable solutions to the community; read more here.  And the best part was working with my fellow TEDx presenters and meeting the founder of Race4Good, Linda Cruse, a relief worker, great humanitarian, and inspirational human being.  The complete text of my presentation is below along with the slide that I showed with each statement.  I hope the presentation is useful in your own efforts to promote the value of spatial thinking and geotechnologies in education and society.  I look forward to hearing your comments.  1 Joseph Kerski appearing in front of a map More than just about anything else in our modern world, maps are all around us. 2 An airport map Maps are something that people are willing to look at long enough… 3 A route to Vail map … to learn something from … 4 A bus system map … and even prompt them to take action. 5 Belize students research results on a map Maps engage, maps inform, maps inspire. 6 Clay tablet map Maps have always been rich sources of data, communicating a large amount of information in a small amount of space—whether that space was—in the past, stone tablets… 7 UK geologic map by William Smith .. in the dirt, on wood blocks… 8 Von Humboldt North American Map … paper, film, and now, in digital form--on our tablets, laptops, phones, in our cars, on our buses, … 9 Map on a streetside Kiosk in our neighborhoods. 10   Joseph shows paper map and slide of paper map How many of you have lots of paper maps at home?  I do.  Paper maps are useful, but limited.  We cannot easily update them, add information to them, or change their scale.  They aren’t easily transported.  11 Show map on phone Today’s digital maps are much more useful, mobile, and versatile.  They are revolutionizing how we navigate our world… 12 Map of airport …how we understand our world… 13 3D terrain map and how we can better enable our world for the future.  14 City of Rocks in New Mexico Paper maps are still handy in the field, though, because technology can fail! 15 A Hurricane map Maps don’t just tell us WHERE things are, but help us understand WHY they are where they are.   Why do hurricanes occur where they do? 16 A flood swipe story map Why do landslides occur more frequently along certain slopes?  How high are the floodwaters down the street from my home right now?  17 A zebra mussels map Why are invasive species like zebra mussels spreading in these directions? 18 A geo-database. Today’s maps are not just graphics floating in cyberspace—they are tied to a powerful computer database—a geodatabase—a Geographic Information SYSTEM. 19 Bio-Nano-Geo Technology graphic The US Department of Labor identified 3 fast-growing, key fields for the 21 st Century:  Biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, and geotechnologies.   Today’s maps are part of geotechnologies.  Geotechnologies include GIS (Geographic Information Systems), GPS (Global Positioning Systems), Remote Sensing, and Web Mapping.  20 GIS network graphic GIS is like an elevator—it works behind the scenes -- you don’t think about it; you just use it.  GIS ensures that your phone got assembled with the right parts:  Supply Chain Management.   GIS ensures that your package got delivered to you and millions of others today the safest, most fuel-efficient manner possible.  GIS allows you to pull up an app that says that Bus F will be at your stop in Vail in 4 Minutes 30 seconds. 21 Plate Tectonics 1 Let’s examine the world’s plate boundaries, volcanoes, and the last 30 days of earthquakes, asking the “whys of where” questions as we investigate.  What are the reasons for this pattern?  What is the relationship between earthquake locations and magnitude? 22 Plate Tectonics 2 What is the relationship of earthquake locations and depth? 23 Plate Tectonics 3 What is the relationship of earthquake locations to volcanoes and to plate boundaries?  How many major cities are within 50 km of these earthquakes?  How many occur in the oceans?  Why should we care?  Tsunamis? 24 Plate Tectonics 4 We live in a 3D world so we have created 3D GIS tools, here, symbolizing magnitudes as cylinders. 25 Demographics 1 Let’s investigate population characteristics—demographics—at  scales from national to local.  Median age:  Blue, older.  Red, younger.  Why is Maine older than Texas? 26 Demographics 2 Scale matters!  When we enlarge the scale, we see different patterns.  Why are the Great Plains older than the West? 27 Demographics 3 .. and now at the census tract or neighborhood level.  Why is this neighborhood in Vail older than those to the north and west? 28 Demographics 4 We can add other variables including those that are crowd sourced - such as median income or commuting patterns – to plan effective services, housing, transportation.  The goal?  Sustainable communities.  We are asking a lot of questions, aren’t we?  A good map teaches you to ask a better question. 29 Map of TEDxVail attendees. Let’s map where everyone attending this TED talk is from.  Is this the pattern you expected?    Thanks to a web GIS called ArcGIS Online, this took me all of 5 minutes to create AND share.   30 Discuss global challenges What would be in your Top 10 list of serious challenges facing our world?  Water quality and quantity, Natural hazards, climate, crime Energy, migration, Political instability  human health,  Economic inequality   biodiversity loss   They all have a geographic component.  Hence they can be understood using GIS.  We can use our “Whys of Where” investigations to solve these global problems that increasingly affect our everyday lives. 31 A CDC map of disease patterns Here, the CDC is using GIS to examine the pattern of health variables not just to treat patients, but to build wellness. 32 GIS is becoming the  language of the planet By applying GIS to solve problems in an ever-expanding number of disciplines, maps through GIS are becoming the common language of the planet.   Even in your local government! – Zoning working with assessors, transportation, parks and recreation – around a common set of mapped data. The goal?  A smart city. 33 Web GIS platform-data-maps-but: -PEOPLE are most important component. But data and technology are only 2 parts of it.  For PEOPLE to effectively use these tools – we need a population that can:   think spatially and critically, that have been immersed in deep and rich field experiences, that can think holistically and across disciplinary boundaries. 34 Joseph teaching geography Class Think of your last geography course.  It may bring memories of mind numbing memorization—what are the major exports of Peru?  The capital of North Dakota?   Conversely, it may have sparked your interest in our world.    I hope this was your experience. 35 Educators working with GIS. But if geography is fundamental to understanding the world through these mapping tools, why is geography so neglected? 36 Students working with GIS/GPS outside. Our high-stakes assessment-focused, subject-divided school system leaves little room for the type of problem-based learning that GIS is a part of.   That’s what these Native students and I were doing on the Santo Domingo Pueblo.  In a semiarid region where soil is a precious resource, they measured gully erosion rates with GIS and GPS. 37 Map of schools using GIS in USA. But by working closely with faculty, students, parents, and administrators, schools are now using web-based mapping and field apps in history, geography, language arts, science, technology, engineering, and math classrooms.     The education community needs your help in turning these thousands of schools using GIS mapped here into TENS of thousands of schools. 38 Image:  A mentor with student. Geomentoring is one way to assist a school in their use of mapping technologies.  39 Image:  Working together Your expertise in advocating for and modelling deep learning in schools, after-school clubs, and universities is needed.  40 Image – Joseph with question and map. Maps are the WHYS of WHERE.  Maps are more relevant than ever before.   Will you be a champion for mapping and spatial analysis in education and society?  How do I end this talk?  I don’t … you do.   It was a great honor to present at TEDx about the Whys of Where. ... View more

I recently created a mobile field data collection activity (available here on https://esri.box.com/v/survey123-jkerski-activity) for educators at a hands-on workshop I gave at a conference, and wanted to share it with the wider community.  The activity focuses on the Survey123 tools and app.  These are incredibly useful for educational purposes and far beyond--in natural resources, transportation, public safety, and in many more fields.  Indeed, many educators at the university, secondary, and even primary levels are using these tools to collect data on tree species, pedestrian counts, water quality, weather, noise, historical buildings, and much more in their own communities or on distant field trips.  These students gain skills in field data collection, citizen science, data assessment, mapping, and spatial analysis, and become connected with their own community and their role in the community in the process.  The activity begins by asking participants to add data to an editable feature service that I created with Survey123 on tree species, tree condition, and tree height. After examining the dashboard metrics and map, the next activity involves having participants create their own Survey123 using the web tools.  The activity then asks participants to use Survey123 to collect data in the field.   The form and map for this activity are open for your use in your own classrooms, so feel free to use this activity to begin your map-enabled field data collection, or to enhance what you already know about these tools.    A few reasons why map-enabled fieldwork is important in education.  This slide is a part of the Survey123 activity I developed and describe in this GeoNet essay.  ... View more

You know the drill: You're in a course or a workshop, and one of the first things the instructor does to encourage community building is to "go around the room" (or if online, as a discussion topic), have people introduce themselves, explain their background, and discuss their goals are in taking the course.  I turned this tried-and-true activity into a mapping activity numerous times by mapping a few of the things people share about themselves.  I do this simply by asking course participants to add their information to a shared spreadsheet, and then mapping the results in ArcGIS Online.  After having used this activity with students from primary school through university level, and with faculty covering those same levels, I can confirm that this activity sparks discussion about citizen science, data quality, how to map tabular data, ways to symbolize and classify mapped data, but in particular, how fast and easy it is to make a map!  The spatial patterns are immediately evident, and you can use the opportunity to discuss the other kinds of information that can be mapped, including weather, tree species, noise, pedestrian counts, trash, water quality, and much more.     As the instructor, you should set up the spreadsheet and make sure it is shared so that your course participants can add their information to it.  My sample spreadsheet with some data including points in Canada and Mexico to demonstrate that the geocoding works for any country is here.  I used Google Drive but other file sharing services such as OneDrive or Dropbox will work.  Notice that the first row in the spreadsheet contains the field names city, state, country items that will be used to map the data.  While you can use street address or latitude-longitude, I don't advise doing this for location privacy reasons.  Keep it simple and effective with city/country names, as shown below.  Instead of initials, you could ask the participants to make up a nickname for themselves--just remember to keep location privacy in mind.  Or, leave off the initials and insert other data, particularly numeric data, that you could map as graduated color or graduated symbol, such as "how many times did you eat out last week?" or, "how many times have you been swimming in the past year?" or "how many countries have you visited in your lifetime?"   Next, with a projector so that the course participants can see what you are doing, go to your spreadsheet, save it to the web as a CSV (comma separated value) file, then go to ArcGIS Online > Modify Map > Add Data > Add from web – CSV – point to the your CSV file, and indicate which fields contain city, state, and country.   Save and share the map.  Symbolize the result in different ways, by initials, hometown name, or as a heat map.  Change the classification method and observe the differences.  Change the base map, label the features, and change the default popup.  The result is shown here, with the clustering utility turned on.     If you have time on the same day or in subsequent days in your course, I encourage you and your course participants to dig deeper--try one or two of the many ways that exist in which to make a web mapping application, such as a story map, from the original map, or add a photograph of each of the hometowns to the data to practice your linking skills.  Don't have time or access to shared areas such as Google Drive?  No problem--simply build a spreadsheet in Excel (or even in Notepad or other text editor, using commas to separate the fields) in front of your students based on their input as they are speaking, and then use "Add Data from File" in ArcGIS Online to map it.  For more information, see my video explaining these procedures, step-by-step, this essay I wrote on participatory mapping, and other related education essays in this GeoNet space.    Have you tried this activity or something related?  I look forward to hearing your comments.  ... View more

Because the problems that GIS analysts work on such as biodiversity loss and water quality do not stop at disciplinary or political boundaries, the ability to connect the map or attribute table that you are working on to another map or table in the same geodatabase or another geodatabase is powerful.  One way of doing this is to join features.  This has been a core function and a chief argument for the use of GIS for decades.  But with the advent of ArcGIS , including its Join Features tool along with data layers in the Living Atlas of the World, the ability that you have at your fingertips for joining features just became a lot more powerful.  I first saw a demonstration of this at the Esri User Conference from my colleague Jennifer Bell and I thought, "this is a fantastic capability for educators... and people in other sectors of society."   Why is this so incredible?  In the past, to join your data to another data set, you had to spend some time downloading and formatting that data set; sometimes you had to add additional fields and populate them, before that data set was usable in your GIS.  But the bottom line is that you now have access to data sets in the cloud, for example, in the Living Atlas of World.  And, similar to the capabilities included in the Enrichment tool, these data sets do not have to be on your own device or in your own geodatabase to use them! Additionally, you now have the capability of making choropleth maps from tabular data using the Join Features option.  Let’s say you have a CSV (comma separated value) table containing data for a set of polygons, such as ZIP codes in a state, or US states, or world countries.  If you add that table to ArcGIS  and make a map out of it, your result will be a set of points, one for each record in your table.  If your table represents world countries, your map will show one point in each country.  This is a useful exercise if you are teaching about geocoding in a GIS course but not so useful if your goal is to obtain a choropleth map on specific variables for your desired set of polygons.  In the past, your choices at this stage would be to use Esri Maps for Office to turn your table into a set of polygons in ArcGIS , or to use ArcMap or ArcGIS Pro to join your table to a table associated with an existing shapefile or geodatabase.  But now you can also use ArcGIS  to create a choropleth map!   How can you do this?  You can do this via the Join Tables tool and by accessing the Living Atlas of the World.  First, log into your account in ArcGIS .  Then > Map > Modify Map > Add Data.  Add your spreadsheet.  Need a spreadsheet?  The World Bank has a wide variety of data sets by country in tabular form.  Indicate the field (such as country code) for your place-based table, and the result will be a set of points, similar to that below (shown on the colored pencil base map, which I love): That is all good, but now for the really exciting part:  To make a choropleth map by country of this same data: Perform Analysis > Join Features, on step 1, select Choose Living Atlas Analysis Layer, and for step 2, choose your table, which  now resides in ArcGIS  as a layer, and join on a common field. In this example, I had no common field, so I first had to add a field in Excel for the 2 digit ISO country code and populate that field with the code.  Why?  Because the ISO 2 digit code did not exist in the World Bank table.  This is a good example of knowing your data and what you need to sometimes do to enable joins to take place.   While running the Join Features tool, select the Living Atlas, search for World Countries, and choose World Countries, as shown below: Therefore, you are joining your agricultural land table (#2) to the World Countries (Generalized) from the Living Atlas, as shown below: Indicate the fields that will serve as your join fields, as I have done below.  I will be joining on the 2 digit ISO code.  When possible, join on a code rather than names (of cities, countries, and so on) due to spelling differences, which will adversely affect your match rate. The result is a map joined to your original table!  Now, with the map at your fingertips, you can map any of your table attributes, such as agricultural land by country for 2015, as I have done below.  Now let's dig a little deeper.  Since we are working with agricultural land over time, we can create a custom Arcade expression that will allow us to visualize changes around the world.  I created a custom expression below, subtracting the 1980 percent agricultural land by country by the percent in 2015, as shown below.  Since the data are already in percent, there was no need to multiple by 100 (again, knowing your data is key!):  I also want the popup to display the change over time, and so I will add the same expression shown above to the popup custom attribute display, as shown below: The resulting map and popup are shown here.  What patterns do you notice? Why the big increase in Saudi Arabia, for example?  You could zoom in, change the basemap to imagery, and investigate the new center pivot irrigated fields in the middle of that country.  You could pan over to Brazil and examine fields reclaimed from wetlands and rainforest.  You could examine urban spawl in the USA and elsewhere as part of your investigation into why agricultural land has declined in many areas of the world.  Because I believe a data set like this is valuable to teach many core themes in environmental science, economics, and physical and cultural geography, I have shared the table here.  For more information about the Living Atlas, explore it here.  For more information about the Join tool in ArcGIS , examine this document.  I have created a video on this topic, here: While this is really a paradigm-changing workflow, I used a simple example to hopefully get the point across:    https://youtu.be/TjFZh7UbLZk ... View more

One of the challenges to working effectively in GIS has been the difficulty of importing certain spatial data formats into a GIS.  To meet this challenge, Esri's Data Interoperability Extension has been a longstanding and useful set of tools that enables a wide variety of spatial data formats to be imported for use in a GIS.  It is an integrated spatial ETL (extract, transform, and load) toolset that runs within the geoprocessing framework using Safe Software's FME technology. It enables you to integrate data from multiple sources and formats, use that data with geoprocessing tools, and even publish it with ArcGIS Server. I recently tested the Data Interoperability Extension in ArcGIS Pro and was thrilled with the results.  Read about how to install and authorize the extension here.  The extension does many things, but one that is particularly useful is that the extension creates a toolbox directly in ArcGIS Pro (graphic below).  I used this toolbox's Quick Import tool to import a SDTS Format DLG (USGS Digital Line Graph) file directly to a file geodatabase.  The tool, like other ArcGIS Pro geoprocessing tools, walked me right through the process:  I used Data Interoperability > Quick Import > pointed to my DLG files > named the resulting gdb (file geodatabase).  Once imported, I was then able to work with my hydrography, hypsography, roads, boundaries, and other data. DLG files have existed since the early 1990s.  Why are we still working with them?  The reasons include that (1) they are dated but still useful vector data sets; (2) many geospatial data portals still host data only in this format, such as the USGS Earth Explorer.  See below for step-by-step instructions with screen shots and I have created a video about this process here. 1. Use Toolboxes > Data Interoperability Tools > Quick Import, as shown above. 2.  Using QuickImport pulls up a "specify data source" dialog box, as shown above. 3.  In the specify data source dialog box, use "find other source" and then specify SDTS format. 4.  Selecting SDTS format. 5.  Pointing to the SDTS file (after it has been unzipped and un-TAR'd) and saving it into a geodatabase. 6. Once the file has been imported into a geodatabase, it can be added to a new map in ArcGIS Pro.  The data is now ready for use, as shown for this hydrography example, above.  UPDATE JULY 2019:   I have created a video about this process here. ... View more

The number of mapping and analysis tools that are built on web-based GIS tools and data services continues to expand, offering educators exciting and innovative ways to teach core concepts, skills, and spatial thinking.  The EPA EnviroAtlas is an excellent example of this.  Its goal, according to ASPPH Environmental Health Fellow Jenna Hartley, who creates educational materials using EnviroAtlas, is to develop highly informed local decision-makers by equipping users with data and information to answer many environmental questions.  The Atlas can be used in geography, environmental science, hydrology, economics, and other courses, from middle school through high school, and in my view, makes an excellent resource for instructing at the university level as well. According to Hartley, the educational resources have been used with success in multiple university classrooms.   I found the atlas to be easy to use.  It is based on the ArcGIS platform, so its navigation and list of data layers will be familiar to users of ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro.  The EnviroAtlas contains over 100 layers for the USA covering three main themes--ecosystems and biodiversity, people and built spaces, and boundaries and natural features.  These layers cover a wide range of topics, from water use to people commuting by bicycle, from protected lands to at-risk species, and much more.  Each layer can be toggled on and off.  What's more, the working map session can be saved for later use. The "save session widget" saves the EnviroAtlas data layers that you are working with locally to your browser cache. You can even save the session to a file that you can share with others as well.  As one of my main concerns in education is to have students be critical of data, including mapped information, I was very pleased to see that the metadata on the EnviroAtlas is plentiful and easy to understand--the sources, scale, date, and other information about each of the map layers.  Using the atlas, I was quickly able to make maps, for example, fruit yields in thousands of tons per year, and was fascinated by the patterns, noting my homeland in western Colorado stood out with its magnificent orchard lands (below). A few of the layers I was curious to explore were not available during my last session with the atlas, and I was surprised and impressed to see a message indicating that an email was being automatically sent to the EnviroAtlas administrators about those very layers I was trying to access.  That's a great service that I wish more web mapping apps had! Thanks to educator Jenna Hartley, a multitude of educational materials can also be used to teach with the EnviroAtlas. In these lessons, students engage in highly interactive hands-on learning where they are introduced to data visualization and can build their analytical, geospatial and decision-making skills. The lessons can also be recreated for classrooms without access to computers or the internet.  Concepts the lessons address include ecosystem services, watershed geography and management, the water cycle, air quality, urban planning, biodiversity, and decision-making.  All lesson plans include an outdoor portion and align with both the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) and individual state Science Standards.   A university professor had this to say about the atlas: "Promotes critical thinking, uses actual data and students can ask many types of environmental questions and explore the tool in search of answers.”  A high school AP environmental science teacher said, "Where do I start? Learning about EnviroAtlas with the EPA will truly have an impact on not only student learning, but engagement into environmental subject matter. Using this data as a case study will allow teachers to bring a strong, in-depth perspective to learning.”  One of the most exciting things about many of today's web mapping applications, including the EnviroAtlas, is that the data layers can be used inside ArcGIS Online and even inside ArcGIS Pro.  This greatly expands the utility of the EnviroAtlas to the ArcGIS Online environment where spatial analysis tools such as routing and overlay can be performed on the data.  To do this in ArcGIS Online, select one of the layers, go to the layer list, and "access web service."  Copy the URL, go to ArcGIS Online, modify the map, Add data from Web, and paste the layer there. I did this for workers who bike or walk to work, focusing on the walk and bike-friendly community of Portland, Oregon, below.  This is really quite exciting and has enormous implications, because the hundreds of layers from the EPA EnviroAtlas can be used inside a GIS environment for further analysis!  For a list of all of the data available in this manner with their REST endpoints, access this URL: https://enviroatlas.epa.gov/arcgis/rest/.   One of the EnviroAtlas layers--percent of workers who bike or walk to work--shown in ArcGIS Online. For more information about how to use the Atlas, see these tutorials and videos. ... View more

My colleague Jill Clark and I frequently write about the need to teach about and be aware of location privacy with the rapid advancement and web-enablement of GIS on our data blog in conjunction with our Esri Press book The GIS Guide to Public Domain Data.  Thus it wasn’t a surprise when recent concerns arose over an amazing map from Strava Labs.  Maps generated from GPS-enabled fitness devices and other recreational uses of GPS such as GPS Drawing, as well as those from the fitness tracker market such as Fitbit and Garmin, have for several years been sharable and viewable.  Strava has been one of the leaders in helping people stay motivated to meet their fitness goals by providing tools such as apps and maps.  But perhaps the Strava map attracted more attention than others because it contains an amazing “over 1 billion activities and 13 trillion data points”, or perhaps because the map is so responsive and contains some stunning cartography that the web map user can customize.  Yes, billion and trillion - "b" and "t" - truly big data. Whatever the reason, as reported in USA Today,  Popular Mechanics, Wired, and elsewhere, location privacy concerns have arisen recently over the new Strava map.  Specifically, “Security experts over the weekend questioned whether the user-generated map could not only show the locations of military bases, but specific routes most heavily traveled as military personnel unintentionally shared their jogging paths and other routes.”  Some of the posts have reported that it may even be possible to scrape the data to discover the person behind each of the tracks, and the Strava CEO has responded to these and other concerns.  Any GIS user knows that much can be discovered through mapped layers and satellite imagery these days, shedding new light on what is really “secret” in our 21st Century world, but maps aimed at the recreational user are bringing these discussions to the general public. The particular concern with the Strava data is not so much just the location information, but the temporal data tied to the location, and potential identification of individuals. Much of it comes down to what we have been saying in our writings:  Help your students to be critical consumers and creators of data.  Help them understand the pros and cons of sharing, what to share, and how to share, geospatial information--whether for a GIS project or for fun and recreation.  Help them to investigate and understand the defaults for whatever they are doing in GIS, whether it is the projection of their geospatial data or the location-based app on their phone.  Encourage them to ask, “What is the default–is my data public by default? What is the default projection?  Where is my default location for saving my geodatabase or map project?  Can I override these defaults, and if so, how?  What is the best way to represent my spatial information?  Do I need to share this information?  If I need to share the information, how should I do it?”  and then act accordingly.   For more on this topic, I encourage you to read some of our short but pointed essays, such as Why Does a Calculator App need to know my location?, Making the Most of Our Personal Location Data, posting cat pictures,  and The Invasion of the Data Snatchers. A section of the Strava heat map, showing the results of people who have recorded and shared their fitness walks and runs.  As one might expect, city park and a high school track stand out as places where more people conduct these activities.  As with other maps showing locations where people are now or where they have been, location privacy concerns have been raised.  ... View more

Growth and stagnation in F2F and distance education programs – including some recently released NCES data, a survey, and a synopsis that I thought was quite informative as we as a community think about how to best structure education and its delivery:   https://wcetfrontiers.org/2018/02/01/de-growth-access-is-a-big-motivator/ --Joseph Kerski  ... View more

In this essay, I will share how to access, use, and analyze Lidar data from The National Map in ArcGIS Pro.  By extension it could be applied to Lidar data from other sites as well, but the USGS data portal NationalMap remains an excellent resource for spatial data, and why I focus on it here.  For videos of these procedures, go to the YouTube Channel geographyuberalles and search on Lidar.  For an entire book with exercises on using Lidar in ArcGIS Pro, see the Esri Press book from two of my favorite colleagues Kathryn Keranen and Bob Kolvoord.  From a user perspective, in my view the National Map site is still a bit challenging, where the user encounters moments in the access and download process where it is not clear how to proceed.  However, (1) the site is slowly improving; (2) the site is worth investigating chiefly because of its wealth of data holdings:  It is simply too rich of a resource to ignore.  One challenging thing about using NationalMap is, like many other data portals, how to effectively narrow the search from the thousands of search results.  This in part reflects the open data movement that I have been writing about on the Spatial Reserves data blog, so this is a good problem to have, albeit still cumbersome in this portal.  Here are the procedures to access and download the Lidar data from the site: To begin:  Visit the National Map:  https://nationalmap.gov/ > Select “Elevation” from this page. Select “Get Elevation Data” from the bottom of the Elevation page.  This is one of several quirks about the site – why isn’t this link in a more prominent position or in a bolder font? From the Data Elevation Products page left hand column:   Select “1 meter DEM.” Select the desired format.  Select “Show Availability”.   Zoom to the desired area using a variety of tools to do so.  In my example, I was interested in Lidar data for Grand Junction, in western Colorado. Note that the list of  available products will appear in the left hand column.  Lidar is provided in 10000 x 10000 meter tiles.  In my example, 108 products exist for the Grand Junction Lidar dataset.  Use “Footprint” to help you identify areas in which you need data–the footprints appear as helpful polygon outlines.  At this point, you could save your results as text or CSV, which I found to be quite handy. You can select the tiles needed one by one to add to your cart or select “Page” to select all items.  Select the Cart where you can download the tiles manually or select the “uGet Instructions” for details about downloading multiple files.  Your data will be delivered in a zip format right away, though Lidar files are large and may require some time to download.   The National Map interface as it appeared when I was selecting my desired area for Lidar data. Unzip the LAS data for use in your chosen GIS package.  To bring the data into ArcGIS Pro, create a new blank project and name it.  Then, Go to Analysis > Tools > Create LAS dataset from your unzipped .las file, noting the projection (in this case, UTM) and other metadata.  Sometimes you can bring .las files directly into Pro without creating a LAS dataset, but with this NationalMap Lidar data, I found that I needed to create a LAS dataset first. Then > Insert:  New Map > add your LAS dataset to the new map. Zoom in to see the lidar points.  View your Lidar data in different ways using the Appearance tab to see it as elevation, slope, aspect (shown below), and contours.  Use LAS dataset to raster to convert the Lidar data to a raster.  In a similar way, I added the World Hydro layer so I could see the watersheds in this area, and USA detailed streams for the rivers. Aspect view generated from Lidar data in ArcGIS Pro. There are many things you can do with your newly downloaded Lidar data:  Let’s explore just a few of those.  First, create a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and a Digital Surface Model (DSM).  To do this, in your .lasd LAS dataset > LAS Filters > Filter to ground, and visualize the results, and then use LAS Dataset to Raster, using the Elevation as the value field.  Your resulting raster is your digital elevation model (DEM).  Next, Filter to first return, and then convert this to a raster:  This is your digital surface model (DSM).  After clicking on sections of each raster to compare them visually, go one step further and use the Raster Calculator to create a comparison raster:  Use the formula:  1streturn_raster – (subtract) the ground_raster.  The first return result is essentially showing the objects or features on the surface of the Earth–the difference between “bare earth” elevation and the “first return”–in other words, the buildings, trees, shrubs, and other things human built and natural.  Symbolize and classify this comparison surface to more fully understand your vegetation and structures.  In my study area, the difference between the DEM and the DSM was much more pronounced on the north (northeast, actually) facing slope, which is where the pinon and juniper trees are growing, as opposed to the barren south (southwest) facing slope which is underlain by Mancos Shale (shown below). Comparison of DEM and DSM as a “ground cover” raster in ArcGIS Pro. My photograph of the ridgeline, from just east of the study area, looking northwest.  Note the piñon and juniper ground cover on the northeast-facing slopes as opposed to the barren southwest facing slope. Next, create a Hillshade from your ground raster (DEM) using the hillshade tool.   Next, create a slope map and an aspect map using tools of these respective names.  The easiest way to find the tools in Pro is just to perform a search.  The hillshade, slope, and aspect are now all separate raster files that you can work with later.  Once the tools are run, these are now saved as datasets inside your geodatabase as opposed to earlier—when you were simply visualizing your Lidar data as slope and aspect, you were not making separate data files. Next, create contours, a vector file, from your ground raster (DEM), using the create contours tool.  Change the basemap to imagery to visualize the contours against a satellite image.  To create index contours, use the Contour with Barriers tool.  To do this, do not actually indicate a “barriers” layer but rather use the contour with barrier tool to achieve an “index” contour, as I did, shown below.  I used 5 for the contour interval and 25 (every fifth contour) for the index contour interval.  This results in a polyline feature class with a field called “type”.  This field receives the value of 2 for the index contours and 1 for all other contours.  Now, simply symbolize the lines as unique value on the type field, specifying a thicker line for the index contours (type 2) and a thinner line for all the other contours. Next, convert your 2D map to a 3D scene using the Catalog pane.  If you wish, undock the 3D scene and drag it to the right side of your 2D map so that your 2D map and 3D scene are side by side.  Use View > Link Views to synchronize the two.  Experiment with changing the base map to topographic or terrain with labels.  Or, if your area is in the USA like mine is, use the Add Data > USA topographic > add the USGS topographic maps as another layer.  The topographic maps are at 1:24,000 scale in the most detailed view, and then 1:100,000 and 1:250,000 for smaller scales.   2D and 3D synced views of the contours symbolized with the Contours with Barriers tool in ArcGIS Pro.  At this point, the sky’s the limit for you to conduct any other type of raster-based analysis, or combine it with vector analysis.  For example, you could run the profile tool to generate a profile graph of a drawn line (as I did, shown below) or an imported shapefile or line feature class, create a viewshed from your specified point(s), trace downstream from specific points, determine which areas in your study site have slopes over a certain degree, or use the Lidar and derived products in conjunction with vector layers to determine the optimal site for a wildfire observation tower or cache for firefighters. Profile graph of the cyan polyline that I created from the Lidar data from the National Map in ArcGIS Pro. Tracing downstream using the rasters derived from the lidar data in ArcGIS Pro. Slopes over 40 degrees using the slope raster derived from the lidar data in ArcGIS Pro. I hope these procedures will be helpful to you. ... View more