Exercises for GIS Guide to Public Domain Data book
This story map guides you through 10 exercises in ArcGIS Pro created in tandem with the GIS Guide to Public Domain data book, Esri Press.
These lessons can be used in full, in part, or modified to suit your needs. These 10 lessons contain 64 work packages (set of tasks to solve a problem), 370 guided steps, over 600 pages of content, foster over 100 skills, including GIS, communication, and data, and include 40 data sources containing 85 layers on themes ranging from climate, business, fire, floods, hurricanes, land use, sustainability, ecotourism, invasive species, oil spills, volcanoes, earthquakes, and agriculture.
- These lessons are aimed at university-level graduate and university or community college undergraduate student. Some GIS experience is very helpful, though not absolutely required. Still, my advice is not to use these lessons for students’ first exposure to GIS, but rather, in an intermediate or advanced setting.
The lessons can be accessed in a set of 3 learn paths. These paths also contain the readings from the book:
Part 1 of 3 Learn Path:
Part 2 of 3 Learn Path:
Part 3 of 3 Learn Path:
The lessons along with the answer keys and readings from the book are here:
To learn more about these lessons and and to access them, see here: https://spatialreserves.wordpress.com/exercises-and-data-for-the-gis-guide-to-public-domain-data/
The GIS Guide to Public Domain Data book
The GIS Guide to Public Domain Data gives users of geographic information systems (GIS) relevant information about the sources and quality of available public domain spatial data. Readers will understand how to find, evaluate, and analyze data to solve location-based problems. This guide covers practical issues such as copyrights, cloud computing, online data portals, volunteered geographic information, and international data. Supplementary exercises are available online to help put the concepts into practice.
Lesson 1: Assessing the impacts of potential climate change on coasts, ecoregions, population and land cover
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to assess the impacts of potential climate change on coasts, ecological regions (ecoregions), population, and land cover using GIS, spatial analysis, and the geographic perspective.
Lesson 2: Siting a high-speed Internet café in Orange County, California
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to determine the best site or an ultra-fast Internet café in Orange County, California using GIS, census demographic data, transportation data, landmark features data, and enriched business data.
Lesson 3: Siting a fire tower in Loess Hills, Nebraska
In this lesson, you will download and use raster and vector spatial data to decide where to site a wildfire observation tower in the Loess Hills near Blair, Nebraska.
Lesson 4: Analyzing floods and floodplains along the Front Range, Colorado
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to assess flash flood risk using GIS, historical and current records, imagery, and vector features. You will also consider the effect that sing public domain spatial data from a local government has on your final decision. The lesson is here.
Lesson 5: Assessing potential hurricane hazards in Texas
In this lesson, you will download and use a variety of regional and state-level public domain spatial datasets from a number of organizations to assess hurricane hazards in the state of Texas USA. The lesson is here.
Lesson 6: Analyzing land use and sustainability in Brazil
In this lesson, you will use public domain spatial data portals from national government agencies to assess the spatial pattern of land use and deforestation in Rondônia, Brazil. You will combine the data with Landsat imagery to understand the situation from a temporal and geographic perspective. The lesson is here.
Lesson 7: Creating a map for an ecotourism company in New Zealand
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to plan and create a map for a local ecotourism company. To complete this task, you will need to use public domain data, process it in a GIS, and output the data in several formats. The lesson is here.
Lesson 8: Assessing Citizen Science Portals and Analyzing Citizen Science Data on Invasive Species
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to assess the utility of different citizen science portals and then to analyze data from citizens and government agencies on invasive species using GIS. As part of this lesson, you will use public domain spatial data from the USGS National Map of the USA and the data portal of the US Federal Government. The lesson is here.
Lesson 9: Investigating three hazards: The Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption in Iceland, and the Haiti earthquake
This lesson invites exploration of three major hazards that occurred in 2010, including the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, and the earthquake in Haiti, using GIS as the investigative tool. Each hazard uses progressively more rigorous GIS tools and invites deeper exploration. The lesson is here.
Lesson 10: Selecting suitable locations for tea cultivation in Kenya
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to select the most suitable locations for expanding tea cultivation in Kenya using GIS and spatial analysis. You will use public domain spatial data from the World Resources Institute as your source for your analysis. The lesson is here.
The GIS Guide to Public Domain Data book
The GIS Guide to Public Domain Data gives users of geographic information systems (GIS) relevant information about the sources and quality of available public domain spatial data. Readers will understand how to find, evaluate, and analyze data to solve location-based problems. This guide covers practical issues such as copyrights, cloud computing, online data portals, volunteered geographic information, and international data. Supplementary exercises are available online to help put the concepts into practice.
Lesson 1: Assessing the impacts of potential climate change on coasts, ecoregions, population and land cover
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to assess the impacts of potential climate change on coasts, ecological regions (ecoregions), population, and land cover using GIS, spatial analysis, and the geographic perspective.
To support this investigation, you will use public domain spatial data from the GeoNetwork of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The lesson is here.
Lesson 2: Siting a high-speed Internet café in Orange County, California
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to determine the best site or an ultra-fast Internet café in Orange County, California using GIS, census demographic data, transportation data, landmark features data, and enriched business data.
You will also consider the effect that public domain spatial data from the US Census Bureau has on your final decision. The lesson is here.
Lesson 3: Siting a fire tower in Loess Hills, Nebraska
In this lesson, you will download and use raster and vector spatial data to decide where to site a wildfire observation tower in the Loess Hills near Blair, Nebraska.
The Loess Hills represent the largest expanse of windblown silt following continental glaciation in North America. Much of the terrain, as shown in the photograph, is covered with medium-length prairie grass. The lesson is here.
Lesson 4: Analyzing floods and floodplains along the Front Range, Colorado
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to assess flash flood risk using GIS, historical and current records, imagery, and vector features. You will also consider the effect that sing public domain spatial data from a local government has on your final decision. The lesson is here .
Lesson 5: Assessing potential hurricane hazards in Texas
In this lesson, you will download and use a variety of regional and state-level public domain spatial datasets from a number of organizations to assess hurricane hazards in the state of Texas USA. The lesson is here.
Lesson 6: Analyzing land use and sustainability in Brazil
In this lesson, you will use public domain spatial data portals from national government agencies to assess the spatial pattern of land use and deforestation in Rondônia, Brazil. You will combine the data with Landsat imagery to understand the situation from a temporal and geographic perspective. The lesson is here .
Lesson 7: Creating a map for an ecotourism company in New Zealand
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to plan and create a map for a local ecotourism company. To complete this task, you will need to use public domain data, process it in a GIS, and output the data in several formats. The lesson is here.
Lesson 8: Assessing Citizen Science Portals and Analyzing Citizen Science Data on Invasive Species
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to assess the utility of different citizen science portals and then to analyze data from citizens and government agencies on invasive species using GIS. As part of this lesson, you will use public domain spatial data from the USGS National Map of the USA and the data portal of the US Federal Government. The lesson is here.
Lesson 9: Investigating three hazards: The Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption in Iceland, and the Haiti earthquake
This lesson invites exploration of three major hazards that occurred in 2010, including the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland, and the earthquake in Haiti, using GIS as the investigative tool. Each hazard uses progressively more rigorous GIS tools and invites deeper exploration. The lesson is here.
Lesson 10: Selecting suitable locations for tea cultivation in Kenya
In this lesson, you will have the opportunity to select the most suitable locations for expanding tea cultivation in Kenya using GIS and spatial analysis. You will use public domain spatial data from the World Resources Institute as your source for your analysis. The lesson is here.