Tag Archives: esri

GIS Hero Honor from Esri

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Not all heroes where capes, but sometimes they get to work closely with incredible humans who dream big to support the next generation.
I am so humbled to be named an Esri GIS Hero for our team’s work bringing the nation’s 1st GeoBus to life through our Citizen Science GIS & GeoBus work at University of Central Florida.
Thanks to our friends at Esri for always supporting our work. I first met Esri folks way back in 2002 as a Esri User Conference student volunteer in San Diego. That was a transformational experience for me, and over the last 20 years, I’ve worked with so many amazing folks at Esri to do science that matters. I am grateful. I am honored and appreciative of this recognition and can’t wait to see what’s next down the road for GeoBus at UCF!
Check out the full story in the summer issue of ArcNews.
GeoBus mobile lab parked at University of Central Florida.

GeoBus parked at UCF. Photo credit: Tyler Copeland.

New $1.25 Million NSF Award to Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Hawthorne’s Open Reef Team

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Open Reef heads west partnering with Smithsonian Institution on new $1.25 million National Science Foundation grant

August 21, 2018

A new collaborative $1.25 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation will support the Open Reef initiative of Citizen Science GIS at University of Central Florida. The Open Reef team led by Timothy L. Hawthorne, assistant professor of GIS in the Department of Sociology and College of Sciences GIS Cluster at UCF, will collaborate with MarineGeo researchers at the Smithsonian Institution to drone map eelgrass meadow sites along the west coast of North America from Baja Mexico to Canada. The collaborative grant entitled “Collaborative Research: The role of a keystone pathogen in the geographic and local-scale ecology of eelgrass decline in the eastern Pacific” was awarded in July by the NSF Biological Oceanography Program to a team of researchers led by Principal Investigator Dr. Emmett Duffy of the Smithsonian Institution. Hawthorne serves as PI of the UCF portion of the grant work.

Hawthorne and the Open Reef team will provide drone mapping expertise and training for community partners to use consumer-level drones for citizen science in west coast study sites. Hawthorne’s team will also help to create an open and freely accessible mapping portal through Esri’s ArcGIS Online of all drone imagery collected from the project to support greater scientific discovery in the field sites. The drone imagery will be processed with Esri’s Drone2Map software.

“Through this major NSF award, we are genuinely excited to launch a new portion of our Open Reef work along the west coast of North America with the MarineGeo team at the Smithsonian Institution. A collaboration of this magnitude is exciting for us as UCF researchers, but it should be equally exciting for the general public and citizen scientists as the results we aim to generate through the collection of drone imagery and related mapping data could revolutionize the way in which we understand these complex and important marine ecosystems,” said Hawthorne.

The collaborative grant includes faculty and students from a variety of universities and organizations, including MarineGeo at the Smithsonian Institution, Cornell University, University of California-Davis, and University of Central Florida.

Hawthorne and his Open Reef team already had an existing relationship with the Smithsonian Institution as part of their UCF Citizen Science GIS NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site. In the REU Site, Hawthorne’s team works in Belize to drone map Smithsonian MarineGeo sites along the Mesoamerican Reef (pictured below). That first partnership with MarineGeo through the REU Site led to the inclusion of the Citizen Science GIS at UCF team in this new grant.

Carrie Bow Caye Belize, home of the Smithsonian MarineGeo Site.

Hawthorne’s funding from the UCF portion of the new NSF award will allow the Open Reef team to expand research opportunities to the next generation of community-engaged scientists.  Funds will help support a new interdisciplinary post-doctoral scholar along with several undergraduate students. The UCF Office of Research is providing additional matching support for the new post-doc position.

“This major NSF grant is a testament to the fact that dynamic teams of scientists and social scientists can work together to explore some of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time. We are excited to work with the world’s foremost marine scientists and the next generation of scientists in the use of drone technologies for understanding these ecosystems, while I also exposing science’s next generation to the opportunities of working across disciplines in a project of this magnitude,” said Hawthorne.

To view the NSF public abstract of the collaborative project, please visit: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1829890&HistoricalAwards=false

For more information about Open Reef and Citizen Science GIS: please visit www.citizensciencegis.org. Citizen Science GIS is a 2017 Esri Special Achievement in GIS Award winner. The mission of Citizen Science GIS is to change the way communities and scientists work together across the globe to visualize local knowledge through geographic information systems, maps, apps, and drones.

Mapping Marine Debris with Youth and their Local Knowledge on Caye Caulker, Belize

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Caye Caulker, Belize

11/12/2015

Today I had the privilege of returning to work with Form 3 and Form 2 students at the Ocean Academy on Caye Caulker, Belize.  As usual I was energized by the youth, particularly their ideas and their active engagement in the lessons we completed together.  Unlike previous trips with groups of college students in my study abroad course, I went in alone today.  It was somewhat terrifying being that outnumbered, but we had a great, great day.

It began with three simple questions.  Where is marine debris on this island? What do I know about? What can we do with maps to raise awareness about marine debris?

Maptastic selfies are the best way to show the power of collaboration with GIS.

Maptastic selfies are the best way to show the power of collaboration with GIS.

 

In the form 3 morning science class we first analyzed the data and maps created in last May’s study abroad program where youth and college students collected marine debris data using tablets loaded with ArcGIS Collector.  Today, the students concluded that debris is an island-wide problem, but it is most concentrated in non-business district areas and areas away from the eye of the tourist and boat docks.  They’ve really created a powerful visual that can attract greater attention to this important issue.

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Ocean Academy form 3 students mapping and analyzing their marine debris data from last year’s study abroad course.

 

Then we moved to the form 2 English class and introduced these students to the power of mapping and GIS (and we never even used the technology).  We had them create a map of Belize on the board and identify where they felt cyber bullying was most prominent.  This was one of their lessons in their English class so we wanted to connect our maps discussion to that.  They had some great ideas and without even knowing it created a database and project design that we can use to begin a cyber bullying mapping project in Belize in the coming months.  It’s going to be a challenging and exciting project and we are going to connect it with our People Loving People kindness mapping project as well.  More in early 2016.

Brainstorming a mapping strategy for cyber-bullying in Belize. Students drew a map predicting where they thought the hotspots would be located.

Form 2 students brainstorming a mapping strategy for cyber-bullying in Belize. Students drew a map predicting where they thought the hotspots would be located.

 

Then after lunch we brought together form 2 and 3 for some collaborative mapping using ArcGIS Online.  The youth focused again on marine debris, this time mapping their perceptions of the problem of marine debris.  Students were asked to map where debris was an issue and to estimate the severity of the problem from their collaborative memory of the spaces on the island.  They then mapped what the felt were the business, residential and environmental reserve districts to overlay their debris perceptions over to visualize spatial patterns.  What did they learn?  The power of the crowd can be harnessed to map things important to youth and can quickly tell a powerful and highly visual story.  About debris specifically?  Again, like they learned in the fieldwork last May, once you get away from the tourist and business districts, debris is not as likely to be cleaned up.  The youth are thinking about using their map results and some follow-up work to present data and solutions to the Caye Caulker Council.  Check out the online map at http://ucfonline.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=f6dc95764912444a85cfba9f069c0a6c

Form 2 and 3 students working together using ArcGIS Online to map their perceptions of marine debris and land use patterns on the island.

Form 2 and 3 students working together using ArcGIS Online to map their perceptions of marine debris and land use patterns on the island.

 

What a talented group of passionate and knowledgeable youth.

I’m excited for our return to Caye Caulker in early 2016 and continued collaborations with Ocean Academy.  Partnerships like this are what community GIS and citizen science are all about, and we are thrilled to continue this important work in the future.  Youth and geospatial technologies: a winning combination!

#citizensciencegis