GIS Mapping:  An Essential Skill for Environmental Scientists and YOU

Goal: Understand the use of GIS mapping in the Environmental Sciences and practice applying GIS skills in Mass Envirothon activities.

Above Map – An example of a student-created GIS map of the storm surge impacts on some Massachusetts coastal towns. The colors represent worst-case hurricane surge flooding from categories 1, 2, 3, and 4, with blue as category 1 and red as category 4 storm strength.

 Learning Objectives: Be able to –

1. Define what is GIS mapping software.
2. Illustrate why and how Environmental Scientists use GIS mapping.
3. Identify how GIS mapping can be useful tool for Mass Envirothon teams.
4. Obtain and practice GIS mapping skills to research questions and analyze the resulting data.

Activities:

1. Define what is GIS software: GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software is designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of geographical data. The key word to this technology is Geography – this means that some portion of the data is spatial or represented on the Earth’s surface.

 

https://www.esri.com/en-us/what-is-gis/overview

2. Illustrate why and how Environmental Scientists use GIS:

For each map below, what data was necessary to include? How could Environmental Scientists use this type of GIS analysis?

 

https://www.environmentalscience.org/sustainability-gis

https://youtu.be/4_OweFVOXe8

 

3. Identify how GIS can be a useful educational tool for Mass Envirothon teams:

EXAMPLES BELOW –

Participate in the September Challenge:

• EnviroTrek Story map project for all teams: https://arcg.is/0yOvy8
• Farmers Market Survey for all teams: https://arcg.is/09zb8W

Forestry Resources and GIS:

• Identify and map the trees in a local park or on your campus
• Identify and map local trees impacted by invasive insects
• Create a Story Map of pictures and locations of the above

Aquatic Resources and GIS:

• Measure and map stream or lake water quality at different locations, depending on land uses.
• Create a Story Map of pictures and your water quality data illustrating the effects of agriculture, industry, city runoff, wastewater treatment, stormwater, etc. on water quality.

Soil Resources and GIS

• Measure and map soil characteristics (ex. infiltration rate or porosity)
• Use the USDA Web Soil Survey Tools to create a local soils map – https://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm
• Create a Story Map of pictures and your soil data illustrating impacts of different land use types on soil characteristics.

Wildlife Resources and GIS:

• Identify and map suitable wildlife habitats and the species most likely found at each.
• Create a Story Map of pictures and locations of wildlife habitats illustrating differently land use.

 

4. Obtain and practice GIS mapping skills to improve your Envirothon Natural Resources knowledge base and to research your Current Issue project. Here are two extensive resources:

Guide to GIS Mapping: https://learn.arcgis.com/en/educators/

Guide to Story Maps: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/ and https://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/resources/

Guide to Creating an Environmental Survey for the field: https://esri.app.box.com/v/survey123-jkerski-activity and http://survey123.arcgis.com