Category Archives: Outreach

A Great Day For Earth Observation – Part II

By Earth Observation Day, Education, Event, Outreach, , , , ,

The second part of Earth Observation Day was dedicated to using OpenStreetMap to remotely map Wayland, Iowa and Mindanao region of the Philippines.

Amy Logan, an IowaView staff member, gave a brief introduction to remote sensing and OpenStreetMap. Then mappers began working on a TeachOSM task – Improving the Iowa OSM Basemap: Wayland, Iowa (https://tasks.teachosm.org/project/981). Beverly Conrad, the city clerk of Wayland came for the mapathon and was able to provide local knowledge about the areas participants were mapping. New mappers were encouraged to do the OSM iD Editor Walk-through before they began mapping. It provides users with a nice hands-on introduction of the OpenStreetMap interface and how to create data.

Beverly Conrad discussing a feature with mapathon participants.

Wayland is a small town (population: 966) in southeast Iowa that has wanted to move towards a GIS asset management system, yet much of their city needed to be mapped. As a result of the volunteer efforts of our 22 mappers during the Earth Observation Day mapathon event, partcipants mapped over 70% of the city, including over 470 buildings as well as sidewalks, alleys, parks, and other points of interest. Below is a before and after screenshot of the OpenStreetMap basemap for the City of Wayland, Iowa.

Thank you, Mappers!

The second project was a Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Task improving the basemap in the Philippines to promote food security. This project added details to the basemap such as minor roads and path, buildings, and farmland.

Loess Hills: Iowa Landforms Revealed

By Education, Imagery, IowaLandformsRevealed, Outreach, , , ,

Obscured from view by vegetation and built structures, Iowa’s often subtle landforms are revealed through a LiDAR-derived bare earth digital elevation model in a Geographic Information System. Geological and human made features can be seen in this series of LiDAR color hillshade maps from across the State.

Loess

Deep deposits of wind-blown silt define the Loess Hills region of western Iowa. Intricate drainage networks and agricultural terraces are visible in this map from along the West Nishnabotna River near Hamburg.

Click on image to explore.
This image is of part of the Loess Hills in southwest Iowa.

Algona Moraine: Iowa Landforms Revealed

By Imagery, IowaLandformsRevealed, Outreach, , , ,

Obscured from view by vegetation and built structures, Iowa’s often subtle landforms are revealed through a LiDAR-derived bare earth digital elevation model in a Geographic Information System. Geological and human made features can be seen in this series of LiDAR color hillshade maps from across the State.

Algona

The elevated curved features in this map are glacial moraines deposited during the most recent period of glaciation in north-central Iowa. The largest in this view is called the Algona Moraine.

The Algona Moraine is located in north central Iowa.

    Oneota River Valley: Iowa Landforms Revealed

    By Imagery, IowaLandformsRevealed, Outreach, , , ,

    Obscured from view by vegetation and built structures, Iowa’s often subtle landforms are revealed through a LiDAR-derived bare earth digital elevation model in a Geographic Information System. Geological and human made features can be seen in this series of LiDAR color hillshade maps from across the State.

    Oneota

    Originally called the Oneota, the central river feature in this map is the Upper Iowa River. The well-defined drainage features are characteristic of the Driftless area of northeast Iowa.

    Click on the image to explore in detail.
    The Oneota River Valley is located in northeastern Iowa.

    Coming Soon: Earth Observation Day – Tuesday October 15, 2019

    By Earth Observation Day, Education, Event, Outreach, , , ,

    When: Tuesday, October 15, 2019
    Where: GIS Teaching Lab, Room 248, Durham Center, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

    This year the ISU GIS Facility in collaboration with IowaView will be celebrating Earth Observation Day. This year the theme is “Geoscience is Everywhere.” We have a great day planned.

    To start out our day at 10:30am, Professor Peter Wolter will share how he is using remote sensing to measure forest structure and composition. Then we will have a Humanitarian Open Street Map Event 11am-12:30pm. No experience is needed. First, we will have an Iowa-Focused activity 11:00am-11:45am and then we will focus our efforts on an international Humanitarian OpenStreetMap activity from 11:45am-12:30pm. We will also have pizza and you are encouraged to try our new puzzles.

    REGISTER NOW: https://forms.gle/pDeEHbLY1eEV6Ejq7Ejq7

    Paha Ridges: Iowa Landforms Revealed

    By Imagery, IowaLandformsRevealed, Outreach, ,

    Obscured from view by vegetation and built structures, Iowa’s often subtle landforms are revealed through a LiDAR-derived bare earth digital elevation model in a Geographic Information System. Geological and human made features can be seen in this series of LiDAR color hillshade maps from across the State.

    Paha

    The elevated linear ridges in this map are erosional geological features called Paha and are found primarily in east-central Iowa along major river valleys.

    The Paha ridges are found in east-central Iowa.

    Introducing Iowa Landforms Revealed

    By Imagery, IowaLandformsRevealed, Outreach, , , ,

    This spring, Gregg Hadish of USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and staff member of ISU GIS Facility put together a series of images called Iowa Landforms Revealed. The project looks at Iowa geological features using LiDAR. Gregg also used interesting color ramps to give these images an artistic component, inspired by the USGS Earth as Art project. The initial project includes a series of 4 images which debuted at the Iowa Technology And Geospatial (ITAG) Conference in West Des Moines, Iowa, this summer. We will be highlighting each image over the next several weeks as a special series feature on the IowaView blog. Please feel free to leave comments or suggestion for future landforms for us to explore.

    AmericaView’s YouTube videos rock!

    By Article, Education, Outreach, ,

    Are you new to remote sensing? Are you moving from using ArcGIS Desktop to ArcGIS Pro? Would you like to learn how to better use E-Cognition?

    Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne, a professor at University of Vermont and the Director of Spatial Analysis Laboratory has produced an amazing collection of videos which range in scope for those just beginning in remote sensing and GIS to advanced topics and demonstrations.

    Here’s the link to Jarlath’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZb1tQu3rctbyuUQLa1vWnQ. He writes a blog called Letter from the SAL (Spatial Analysis Laboratory.)