GIS Virtual Water Cooler Presenters: Theresa Valentine and Adam Skibbe* August , 2011 * With a little help from our friends

Overview Let’s talk about GIS Seriously, let’s converse… ask questions GIS Tools – what’s popular Desktop Raster Online mapping Open Source Alternatives Emerging Trends GIS at LTER Sites Geospatial Analysis Committee GIS Working Group Main initiatives – LTERMapS, GeoNIS Next steps for GIS WG

Data management of geospatial data is inclusive of both GIS and remote sensing products though specific disciplines are different in scope, focus, and standards. Desktop GIS Vector and raster (image) datasets More robust: advanced cartography, analysis, geostatistics, etc. ESRI – ArcGIS 10.0 sp2 Integration with relational databases (Oracle/SQL Server) Remote Sensing Focus on raster (image) analysis and classification (See GAP, NDVI, Etc.) LiDAR emerging technology ERDAS, ENVI, IDRISI, GRASS software products GIS Tools

Online mapping providers Google Maps, Earth Bing! Yahoo Mapquest Customized applications ArcGIS Server 10 ArcGIS Online API’s Data services WMS,WFS,WCS,etc USGS, USDA, ESRI, Etc. On-line Tools

Open Source GIS Nearly all of the most popular/trusted projects are sponsored by the Open Source Geospatial Foundation ( Nearly all OSGeo products can interact with ESRI data formats and services Desktop Quantum GIS, gvSIG, GRASS GIS, uDIG, … Server MapServer, GeoServer, MapGuide, OpenLayers … Database PostGIS for PostgreSQL is the favorite, and standards-based, while MySQL Spatial is immature and not standards-based Libraries GDAL, OGR, FDO, GEOS, … Open Source Tools

ISO standard metadata (instead of FGDC) Cloud computing Web service based Merging data/applications from a variety of sources Collaboration sites (social networks): people with common interests Citizen scientists Expectations for “google like” applications Mobile device applications Moving from coverages/shapefiles to geodatabase (SDE and file, Oracle, SQL). Movement from ESRI GRID to geodatabase raster and to image servers. Embedding applications in web pages (GIS API’s, adding functionality) Emerging Trends

All sites using GIS except for CCE, PAL, and SBC (as of 2010 survey), although these sites use other spatial data application. 17 sites using GIS server technology. (web mapping) Search of data at LNO: only 23 data sets (sites working on getting data into EML) Search of bibliography at LNO: Your search on GIS resulted in 103 references. Examples from 3 sites and LTERMapS: GIS at LTER Sites

Nippert, J.B., T.W. Ocheltree, A.M.Skibbe, L.C. Kangas, J.M. Ham, K.B. Shonkwiler Arnold, and N.A. Brunsell (In Press). Linking plant growth responses across topographic gradients in tallgrass prairie. Oecologia. Craine, J.M., J.B. Nippert, E.G. Towne, S. Tucker, S.W. Kembel, A. Skibbe, and K.K. McLauchlan Functional consequences of climate-change induced plant species loss in a tallgrass prairie. Oecologia 165: Impacts of spatially heterogeneous nitrogen to grazer distribution and activity: Effects on ecosystem function in tallgrass prairie -PIs: A. Joern, J.M. Briggs, D. Goodin, E.G. Towne and A.M. Skibbe Konza

Assessing spatiotemporal variations of greenness in the Baltimore-Washington corridor area Tang, Junmei Co- Authors: Fang Chen, and Stuart S. Schwartz Communicating patterns of soil lead contamination to the public health community: the role of spatial models. Schwarz, Kirsten Co-Authors: Kirsten Schwarz, Steward T.A. Pickett, Richard G.Lathrop, Kathleen C. Weathers, Richard V. Pouyat and Mary L. Cadenasso Correlating spatial heterogeneity in diurnal eddy fluxes with remote sensing and land cover during the growing and non- growing seasons in suburban Baltimore Saliendra, Nicanor Co-Authors: John Hom, Rich Pouyat, Matt Patterson,Ian Yesilonis, Gordon Heisler and Dave Nowak Does spatial configuration matter? Understanding the effects of land cover pattern on land surface temperature in urban landscapes Zhou, Weiqi Co-Authors: Ganlin Huang, and Mary L Cadenasso Is everyone hot in the city?: spatial pattern of land surface temperatures, land cover and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics in Baltimore, MD Huang, Ganlin Co-Authors: Weiqi Zhou and M. L. Cadenasso Spatial patterns analysis of multiethnic settlement in Lijiang City, China Lin, Tao Co-Authors: Tao Lin(presenter), Ling Feng, Xianhua Guo, Jingzhu Zhao Spatio-temporal heterogeneities in mosquito communities and vector-borne disease risk in an urban landscape LaDeau, Shannon Co-Authors: Shannon LaDeau and John Wallace Baltimore Ecosystem

Andrews Website : For each study site, you get a Google map of the sites, and a link to more info. All database driven. (access through the data pages on the Andrews website) Andrews Digital Forest: The objective of this project is to spatially model current forest structure and composition of the Andrews. Digital Forest Link

LTER IMC Phase 2… in development, image coming soon

Geospatial Analysis Committee Charged by Executive Board Members include PI’s Broader look: Acquisition of large data sets, analysis tools. Jamie Hollingsworth and Theresa Valentine represent the GIS Working Group (and IM) on this committee First Effort: Working with SDSC center (Opentopography.org) on storage/access to LiDAR data for LTER sites.

GIS Working Group We try our best to fill the niche in the IMC related to Geospatial data and GIS technologies. Accomplishments to date: SiteBites GIS addition and several notes/articles, LTER GIS Base Data Standard, LTERMapS application, FGDC2EML stylesheet, input to EML best practices, workshop history at ASM, GIS surveys. Our current foci have been on better management standards for geospatial data as it relates to the NIS, and dissemination of those data through online media. FGDC2EML LTER MapS update GeoNIS introduction Coordinate with new Geospatial Analysis Working Group These are the needs we see… what else can we help with? Training opportunities? Other? Help us help you.

Future Directions Finalizing TOR Document LTER GIS best practices Fall IMC / EIM Birds of a feather x2 – September LTER MapS Product Oriented Working Group – October GeoNIS Workshop – Jan/Feb ASM – 2012 Propose another GIS issue of Databits (fall 2012) Respond to training/workshop calls

Membership/Resources Open to anyone interested mailing Adam Skibbe, Chair Meeting in Santa Barbara IM web portal pages: GIS Working Group pages We can help with specific requests.