Did you know that in 2024 members the AmericaView Education and Outreach Team put together a series of lessons explaining how remote sensing and Earth observation technologies are integral to various sectors within society? These lessons are great! They are geared for middle and high school but can be adapted for your classroom. All six lessons follow a similar pattern: introduction, standards, warm-up (What’s going on in this picture?), a reading exercise, an online map exploration, a career exploration related to the topic, a quiz/assessment, and an online/printable game.
Over the next few months, we will be taking time on the blog to dig into these lessons. We hope you enjoy unpacking these lessons and learn more about earth observation and remote sensing. If you have any questions or suggestions for new lessons, feel free to email IowaView Coordinator, Amy Logan or leave a comment.
Earlier this year, IowaView Staff member, Amy Logan, created a new piece of art for IowaView’s Iowa as Art Collection. The piece is called Cautionary Waters. It is based off an IowaView blog post, Change Over Time – Flooding on the Landscape (NW Iowa), a series of IowaShots images that were released in 2022. This piece revisits those images and includes new Landsat images from the 2023 drought and 2024 flood.
Cautionary Waters: Visons of the Past, Planning for the Future
How are we planning for the future in our communities? Cautionary Waters is a piece of artwork that asks us to think about this question.
The piece includes four Landsat satellite images of the same area of Northwest Iowa taken in 1990 (a normal year, upper left), 1993 (a year of memorable flooding in the Midwest, upper right), 2023 (a year of drought, lower left), and 2024 (another year of memorable flooding, lower right). White areas in these images are water. These two flood events were roughly 30 years apart.
The piece asks viewers to reflect: when we are planning, do we consider only typical conditions, or does our planning account for extremes, flood or drought as well? Are we willing to allow development in the floodplain and take the loss when the flood comes, or perhaps make a harder choice to not develop there and lose out in the short-term? Also, in cases when we choose to develop in lower elevation areas, what kinds of zoning and development are we allowing in these areas?
The piece is currently on display as part of the “Do Justice” art exhibit at Harvest Vineyard Church, in Ames, Iowa, which runs through the end of January 2025. After that the piece is available for loan on a first come, first serve basis. If interested in displaying the piece or other Iowa as Art pieces, please contact, Amy Logan, IowaView State Coordinator for additional details.
Earth Observation Day 2024 is finally here as it the release of the AmericaView 2024 Earth Observation Day Poster! The poster is following the theme of this year’s Earth Science Week theme, “Earth Science Everywhere”. The front of the AmericaView 2024 Earth Observation Day poster features 6 image themes: agriculture, disaster, forestry, urban land use, water, and wildlife. The back of the poster explains the significance of the images and provides links to 6 themed lesson plans. IowaView was responsible for the disaster management lesson plan.
Next week, IowaView and the ISU GIS Facility will be hosting an Earth Observation Day celebration, on Tuesday, October 15, from 10:00 to 11:30 in Durham 206 as part of Earth Science Week 2024.
Here’s the schedule:
10:00 – 10:30 Dr. Antonio Arenas, Civil Construction & Environmental Engineering Topic: Google Earth Engine and Open ET (Evapotranspiration)
10:30 – 11:00 Dr. Brian Gelder, Agricultural And Biosystems Engineering, ISU GIS Facility Research Lead Topic: LiDAR Processing via ArcGIS and PDAL (a Python extension for translating point cloud data)
11:00 – 11:30 Bryce Pape – Graduate Student, Community and Regional Planning Topic: Google Earth Engine and Agriculture Residue Cover
We will also provide snacks (a cupcake cake) and Earth Observation Day swag including booklets, posters, and trading cards. Please come and go as you need to. We look forward to seeing you there.
The Iowa Geographic Map Server is a gem of historical and contemporary statewide aerial imagery for Iowa from the 1930s to 2021. It also has many other statewide layers including:
elevation maps (LiDAR and USGS topographic maps),
historical maps (General Land Office survey maps from 1800s, Andreas Atlas, historic topography),
land cover maps (historical and contemporary)
geology (landforms and bedrock)
Here’s your challenge: Zoom into your city or a place of significance to you and discover how it has changed over the years, look at how the land cover changed, challenge yourself to find as many changes as you can.
This week we are exploring urban growth in Ames, Iowa. The red areas are showing areas of vegetation that are primarily agricultural in the larger areas, the neon green areas are short grass and trees, the gray color is urban areas, and blue areas are water.
Timelaspse Video of Ames, Iowa 1984 to 2021 – Summer Landsat Images
As you watch the time lapse video notice several things:
The expansion of Ada Hayden (the large lake in the center right of the image.)
How the agricultural land in the center of the images fills in rapidly with development between 2008 to 2021
The increase in permanent water retention ponds in as the city develops.
Many of the red agricultural parcels along Ioway Creek (the left river) become smaller and more developed through the time series.
Compare an image of north Ames, Iowa from 1987 to 2021 – what other urban growth changes can you spot?
Celebrating 30 years of GIS at ISU today on GIS Day! We also celebrated the 50th anniversary of Landsat and were able to hand out playing cards, refreshments, posters, and other educational materials. This was a great opportunity for our staff in the GIS facility to share the work that they are doing, and teach others about GIS.
Happy Fall! Observe the changes across the landscape in seasonal images in Northeast Iowa. Snow, forest, farmland. Can you notice the areas of coniferous trees versus deciduous trees and where there is seasonal farmland compared to pasture areas? Also notice the changes along the Mississippi and Upper Iowa Rivers. Enjoy the changing seasons!
This year we are celebrating 50 years of the Landsat earth observing satellite mission. Landsat data helps us observe changes in our communities and environment over time.
