1. Odds and ends TA office hours are during other recitation sections
Case studies contribute to your participation grade
If you miss a case study, you can turn in written responses for partial credit

2. Case Study 2
Topic near and dear to my heart
National Park Trails

3. Scenario
Your group is responsible for planning the construction of 3 new trails in a National Park of your choice (ideally pick someplace you’ve been or would like to go – see me if you need some inspiration).
Guidelines
One easy, one moderate, and one strenuous trail
The easy trail must be paved
The trails should be inviting (i.e., people will want to use them)
Question of the day: What geographic information would you utilize for this task?
Come up with both the criteria for site selection & how you can assess agreement with your criteria in terms of spatial data (e.g., having "pretty views" is great, but how can you measure that?)
Criteria should to include what the trails should and should not do/cause/cost/etc.
Imagine having to pitch this plan to the Park Superintendent, how would you back up your proposal with data?
Considerations
Some criteria may differ depending on the trail type
Opinions of what criteria are important depend on who you ask.
For example, a park ecologist is likely to have a different set of concerns compared to the head of the trail crews that will have to build and maintain the trails
Other stakeholders might include facilities managers, tourism directors, archeologists, safety professionals, backpackers, anglers, birdwatchers, rock climbers, cross-country skiers, etc.
Think about what you discussed last week as a starting point
There are no wrong answers here, I mostly want you to be creative and think about WHAT data you would want and how you would USE those data.
At the end of class each group will give a few of their criteria, the associated data, and an explanation.

4. Geographic information can include
Geographic information can are:
Any data associated with specific spatial locations
Geographic information can include
Might Be Useful For Today:
Satellite Imagery (can be used to derive landuse & landcover maps)
Existing Road & Trail networks
Existing infrastructure (e.g., campgrounds, parking lots)
Elevation data (can be used to create slope, aspect, etc.)
Climate data (varies in scale)
Hydrography (water features)
Soils
Geology
Field data (can be almost anything)
GPS data (turns field data into geographic data)
Legal (cadastral; zoning laws)
Political (county lines; school districts)
Cultural (language; ethnicity; religion)
Climatic (temperature; precipitation)
Topographic (elevation; slope angle; slope aspect)
Biotic (biodiversity; species ranges)
Medical (disease; birth rate, life expectancy)
Economic (median income; resource wealth)
Infrastructure (roads; water; telecommunications)
Social (education; neighborhood influences)
Just to help you along

5. How to structure your write-up
Easy Trail
Criteria 1:
Data:
Explanation:
Criteria 2:
Etc.
Moderate Trail
Strenuous Trail
Come up with at last 2 for each trail type. More than 2 is great, but I’m more interested in quality & creativity than quantity, so think about them.

6. What did you come up with?
Criteria
Data
Explanation

7. Have a nice LONG weekend!
See you Wednesday