Tag Archives: career and professional development

Day 5 GAW: Have you discovered the Iowa Geographic Map Server?

By Education, Geography Awareness Week, Imagery, Iowa Geographic Map Server, Observation, Remote Sensing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

Interested in learning more about the Iowa Geographic Map Server? Watch Gregg Hadish’s recent presentation, “Accessing Iowa Map Services in GIS and Web Applications,” for the Iowa Geographic Information Council September 2023 Lunch and Learn professional development series.

Women in GIS

By Book, Education, Outreach, Women's History Month, , , , , , , , , , ,

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.