Lesson 2 Overview and Checklist

Lesson 2 Overview and Checklist

Introduction

One of the first steps in any geospatial project is to find relevant datasets that you will use either to create maps, conduct an analysis, or both. For example, many projects in the environmental field require a site assessment with an inventory of natural features and concerns or related opportunities. This information is necessary to create management plans for conservation and recreation areas, environmental impact assessments for development projects, future land use plans, zoning, and parks and recreation plans for city planning, to screen and rank potential sites for various uses, and to plan for field data collection events.

In the U.S., most of this information is readily available on the Internet from various federal and state agencies. For example, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the U.S. Census Bureau provide geospatial datasets related to elevation, soil types, current and historical land use/land cover, wetland inventories, hydrological features, wildlife inventories, habitat assessments, invasive species, proximity or susceptibility to pollution, climate, energy potential, and risks of fires, drought, flooding, and demographic data. Also, many datasets are available within ArcGIS Online as data services.

GIS and geospatial technology make it very easy to combine this information into one place, analyze it, and create maps to communicate the information to interested parties. Before we can start analyzing data, we need to know where to find it and how to work with it. We are going to explore several providers of environmental data to create a series of natural features maps. We will explore each organization’s website to find which data sets they offer and information about each data set (metadata). We will also explore different methods to view each dataset, including interactive mapping websites and online data services.

Scenario

Your organization is beginning a new conservation project on the border of Montana and Wyoming. The project management team needs to understand the natural features of the site to plan field data collection efforts. Your job is to locate relevant geospatial datasets, communicate their opportunities and limitations, and share them with the team in a user-friendly format.

Goals

At the successful completion of Lesson 2, you will have:

• located publicly available geospatial datasets for environmental projects;
• chosen which format(s) are best suited for your project;
• explored opportunities and limitations of datasets by reviewing metadata;
• shared data and maps using ArcGIS.com.

Questions?

If you have questions now or at any point during this lesson, please feel free to post them in the Lesson 2 Discussion.

Checklist

This lesson is one week in length and is worth a total of 100 points. Please refer to the Course Calendar for specific time frames and due dates. To finish this lesson, you must complete the activities listed below. You may find it useful to print this page out first so that you can follow along with the directions. Simply click the arrow to navigate through the lesson and complete the activities in the order that they are displayed.

SDG image retrieved from the United Nations