IowaView Staff Present at the Iowa Water Conference!
Below is the poster that IowaView staff displayed at the virtual 2021 Iowa Water Conference, April 6-8, 2021. Click on the image below to explore the poster.
Category Archives: Outreach
IowaView Staff Present at ISU Research Days
This year IowaView Staff are presenting their research at a virtual university research conference. Staff built a poster using a tool called iPoster. Click on the poster below to interact with the virtual poster (available for a limited time, through March 2021).
Women in GIS
March is Women’s history month. Below are a few resources to begin exploring the contribution of women in GIS and related fields (cartography, remote sensing.)
Women and GIS: Mapping Their Stories and it’s sequel, Women and GIS: Stars of Spatial Science highlight stories of women using GIS tools to contribute to their world and community. Esri Press also created a webinar that has presentations by four of the women featured in the second volume of the series
Laura Bliss wrote a four-part series for Bloomberg CityLab in 2016 about women’s contributions in cartography and GIS.
Part 1: The Hidden Histories of Maps Made By Women: Early North America
Part 2: How Women Mapped the Upheaval of 19th Century America
Part 3: How 20th-Century Women Put the ‘Art’ in Cartography
Part 4: Meet the Extraordinary Women Making Maps Today
GIS Lounge has a Women in GIS Networking Groups page which highlights a number of groups that provide peer support for women in GIS: https://www.gislounge.com/women-in-gis/.
Brandman University released a webinar series in October 2020 titled, “Geospatial experts helping women build careers as geographic information systems analysts”. The series covers topics including career and professional development, how to be ethical with data, social justice, storytelling through storymaps, and COVID-19 response. Two lectures will be coming soon, Careers of Women in GIS: How to Explore Your Career – March 29, 2021 at 1pm and Careers of Women in GIS: Finding Your Authentic Voice – April 27, 2021 at 1pm.
Another webinar and storymap to view from the 2020 ESRI User Conference, “Women in GIS/ The New Analyst” which feature seven women in GIS who discuss their career paths, obstacles they’ve overcome, and the transformative role of GIS. Here’s the link for the webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9K3ZDT7KOk
Click below to explore the Story Map.
Exploring the Landscape of K-12 GIS and Remote Sensing Education in Iowa
IowaView staff have launched a study to understand the current use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software and technology in K-12 public school classrooms across the state as well as to gauge interest among non-users. The study has two surveys: one for superintendents and one for K-12 teachers. These surveys will provide a snapshot of GIS in K-12 education as well as identify barriers and opportunities for the use of GIS technology among non-users.
Here is the link to the teacher survey: tinyurl.com/IAK12GIS.
Please contact Amy Logan for any questions regarding the survey.
Iowa Student Map Contest 2021: Mapping Unique Iowa Features
The 2021 Map Competition for Iowa students is now underway.
Students in grades 4-12 are invited, with their teachers, to participate in this year’s mapping contest sponsored by Esri, the Iowa Geographic Information Council (IGIC), and William Penn University. This year’s theme is Mapping Unique Iowa Features.
Contest Website: https://sites.google.com/site/iowamapcontest/home
Story Maps Website: https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-storymaps/overview
How to participate: Use the Story Map application to tell a story about a unique feature site using a map and pictures.
There will be $100 cash prize and a certificate for the top five middle school (grades 4-8) and top high school (grades 9-12) map entries. The top entry from each state will be submitted to the national competition hosted by Esri.
Schools must submit their winners to the state for judging by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Iowa GIS professionals will judge the entries so Iowa awards may be announced, and send winning entries on to Esri for the national competition.
Seminar Alert: Reducing Nutrient Loss At Arkansas Discovery Farm
Today, Mike Daniels from the University of Arkansas will be presenting about how the Arkansas Discovery Farm is reducing nutrient loss, defining and building soil health, improving irrigation efficiency and edge-of-field monitoring of runoff. His statewide Extension efforts encourage agricultural producers to adopt conservation practices to protect natural resources and improve agricultural sustainability.
Here is the registration link: https://bit.ly/35AVFMt. The session will be recorded and are available on the Iowa Nutrient Research Center (INRC) website. For more information about the upcoming INRC seminar events: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/inrc/events/list?tid=304.
IowaView Rendezvous at Spirits in the Gardens
On November 1st, IowaView staff participated the “meet-a-scientist” at the annual Reiman Gardens Spirits in the Gardens event featuring a self guided pathway with hundreds of carved pumpkins as well as scientists to meet along the way. During our shift, there were over 250 visitors of all ages. We were able to share posters featuring remote sensing and GIS, which included aerial imagery of Ames and Reiman Gardens dating from the 1930s to 2019. Participants enjoyed seeing change over time as Ames has urbanize over the last ninety years. Staff gave out goodie bags with AmericaView poster, USGS trading cards, and Earth as Art bookmarks and booklets.
ISU Mapathon Greatest hits…show the highlights reel!
Over the past few years the ISU GIS Facility has hosted a number of mapathons. Most of our mapathons have a time set aside for mapping in Iowa and then a time where we focus on international projects.
It is amazing what even a small group of mappers can do to add to the OpenStreetMap basemap in a small town in Iowa. Below are three examples of demonstrating how a mapathon event can add to the OpenStreetMap.
And now for something weird: Joseph Kerski’s Weird Earth
Today we will be joining Joseph Kerski, a Geographer and GIS education enthusiast, exploring Weird Earth: Exploring the Earth with Interesting, Bizarre, and Odd Imagery. Joseph provides a narrated video on Youtube (primarily targeted at educators) but you can also explore these fascinating places on your own using this ArcGIS Online map. Thank you, Joseph, for taking us to new places and uncover hidden gems on our planet!
OpenStretMap And Humanitarian Mapping – Making A Difference For Others
OpenStreetMap is a publicly editable map of the world. It’s is often referred to as Wikipedia for maps. Anyone can sign up for an account and begin adding to the map. Edits to the map are reviewed and validated by other members of the community.
In 2010, OpenStreetMap was used as a humanitarian disaster relief tool after an earthquake in Haiti. Volunteers from across the world mapped buildings and roads from satellite imagery in areas that been damaged by the earthquake. Then teams on the ground were able to use that information to assess damage and begin recovery efforts.
Since that time the use of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap has spread around the globe helping in disaster response as well as disaster prevention and many other humanitarian efforts. We encourage you to take time during Geography Awareness Week to volunteer your time and talent to help with some of the following projects:
Suggested International Projects:
Public Lab Mongolia – https://tasks.hotosm.org/projects/9560/
Public Lab Mongolia (PLM), a local non-governmental organization in Mongolia, is leading the Mongolian chapter for volunteer mappers through the HOTmicrogrant COVID-19 project, as part of their mission to promote open data and disaster preparedness. This mapping will also help with COVID-19 response efforts. This project is to map Ulaanbaatar capital city of Mongolia, is organized by PLM in collaboration with the Mongolian Geo-spatial Association and local universities.
Hurricane Eta – Nicaragua – https://tasks.hotosm.org/projects/9765
Hurricane Eta brought wind, rain and storm surge to the coast of Nicaragua. This project is to finish the basemap of Bilwi (Puerto Cabezas) by digitizing buildings from MAXAR imagery. Available to beginners, there may be tricky tasks in this project as some areas have been partially mapped with older imagery and vegetation can often hide parts of structures. Maker sure to review the instructions for tips on how to overcome these challenges and provide high quality data.
Explore your own project: https://tasks.hotosm.org/explore