Using GIS for Critical Thinking
I mentioned on my previous Vendor Recap post that I’ve been fascinated with GIS for a while now. The power of overlaying data on maps is really awesome for thinking about all sorts of relationships that have some sort of geographical connection. I tried to think of applications for physical education back when I was in the classroom, but I didn’t have much luck. Those social studies teachers have it made on this one.
The presenters today are Patty Warner, Andrea Campbell, and Jed Herzog, who are all associated with Clemson University. Their presentation is entitled “Where Ya at and What’s Happenin’: Using GIS for Critical Thinking in the Global Community.” They are using ArcExplorer, a free GIS data viewer developed by ESRI. There are many other GIS applications, a mix of open source and commercial. We’re looking at a map of Clemson, SC with information about city topography, floodplain, city boundaries, annexation history, land parcels, and building footprints. All the layers can be viewed individually or layered.
Now Andrea is going through some live applications of GIS using the Clemson maps. She’s showing how you can actively query the underlying database and display the results of those queries on the map. Very cool! Some queries we’ve run:
- Show all vacant, city-owned land that is in a 100-year flood plain
- Show colored elevation gradients on the topographic map and identify the highest points, displaying the various land owners.
- Indentify all residents who have property valued greater than $1 million.
- Identify and highlight all churches in Clemson, SC.
- Determine how many acres are owned by Clemson University.
- Identify the percentage of flood plain in the city, draw a 100-ft border around the flood plain and identify the land parcels that would be affected by the buffer.
