During the past decade, spatial technologies such as geographic information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), and remote sensing have become essential tools for geographers and other social and environmental scientists across the globe.

The purpose of this class is to assemble a small group of graduate students and public agency scientists to evaluate the rapidly changing practice of geospatial technologies applied to environmental policy. Sessions will vary in format, but typically will be a mixture of short presentations and discussion, often with background readings. Informal follow-up sessions with libations may follow.

The class will be held in the GIS teaching lab, and will include opportunities for hands-on evaluations of current GIS and geodatabase technologies and applications identified as of interest to the participants.

Topics of interest could include:

• Urbanization and land use modeling
• Wildlife corridor analysis
• Biodiversity data and “conservation portfolio” models
• Open GIS, GML, the Semantic Web and related open-source developments
• Automated change detection
• Field tools (e.g., PDA/GPS) for biological surveys and monitoring
• New tools in ArcGIS 9.2
• Cool new data resources

Schedule:

Week 1: Organizational meeting January 3, 3 pm, 1137 PES, or contact organizers (addresses below)
Week 2: Introductions and review of some current initiatives
Weeks 3-10: Presentations and lab sessions. Some weeks, we may invite visitors for the first hour.

Contact Jim Quinn (jfquinn@ucdavis.edu; 752-8027), Karen Beardsley (kbeardsley@ucdavis.edu) or Nate Roth (neroth@ucdavis.edu) for more information.