A. Starling's GIS Blog

          My GIS Day event centered on introducing my parents to GIS and mapping. It's easy to say GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems, but that doesn't help people (in my experience) really   understand  what that means and how it applies to career goals - especially when family asks! I decided a good example of showing off GIS would be creating a water line map of my family's property with my family. The property used to be used for swine raising, and there are several water lines implemented by family not shown on any map -- I thought it might help in the future if there was  something  that indicated line approximate locations.      To start the process, I prepared a map for field data gathering in ArcGIS Online using Field Maps Designer, and added layers for "Broken/Hazards" (with small drop down of descriptions, "Turned off manually", etc.), "Spigots", and "Water Lines". When that was done,  I took some tim...

  My LinkedIn I recently updated a LinkedIn profile I had when I was still in undergrad (around 2019). My updated profile now reflects more professional experience, as well as the academic projects I've accomplished that are of note. While most of the academic projects mentioned focus heavily on GIS, I included a few projects that had a focus on geology. I want potential employers to note that I have some background in geology, as I hope to stay centered on earth sciences in some way.  I've also updated the list of skills I've acquired through the current Geographic Information Systems program I'm a part of at University of West Florida, and have included select information on my internships I'm currently pursuing.  I'm not very comfortable with my face being in my profile, but that may be something I update in the future - I understand employers may want to put a face to a name. 

We were asked to conduct a job search for GIS positions and examine what GIS skills the job requires, as well as why the job may interest us. A key takeaway from our GIS job search assignment was just how diverse the industry is for GIS positions. With the right experience, you can work anywhere from local government to space exploration. Using the learned skillset of data management, ArcGIS applications, geospatial tools, and with the initiative to learn – you could end up working in the industry of your choice.  

     As part of obtaining the GIS Graduate Certificate at University of West Florida, a requirement is undergoing 130 hours of hands-on GIS related experience – this can be done in a few different forms, but I am attempting to undergo an internship experience. In order to obtain an internship, I considered the industry and type of business that may use GIS and sent correspondence when a business/governmental agency aligned with my goals.      I’ve started an internship with a private environmental consulting firm. I will be expected to produce quality maps that indicate appropriate site planning, general environmental maps, and test my ability when it comes to creating flow in ArcGIS Pro/Online. I may supplement this internship with ESRI courses as it applies.     I've  also gotten a recent positive response from one of my local government departments. This department has a GIS Manager who has indicated willingness to act as a supervisor ...

       An important consideration in mapping to take into account is scale. The larger the scale value, the more detailed a map may be (showing a smaller area). For example, if we were to make a map of airports with airports represented as points (vector data) and we zoomed in significantly, we would be able to see many more details (polygon features indicating building, lines indicating runways). As a note, vector data consists of points, lines, and polygons.      Raster data, on the other hand, is comprised of cells. The smaller the cells, the more details/higher resolution. The bigger the cells, the lower the resolution. The level of detail relates to the processing time of the data cells, so the higher the resolution, the more processing time is necessary.      Gerrymandering is manipulation of districts to give an advantage to one political party over another. One way to determine if a district is undergoing gerrymandering is to...

     In this lab, we sought to use different interpolation methods to determine which would be the best to most accurately depict the BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) within the Tampa Bay area in Florida. We explored Thiessen, Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW), and Spline (Regularized and Tension) methods. Thiessen interpolation advantages include the interpolated surface equaling the values of each given sample point, which means there isn’t a difference between the true and interpolated values. Disadvantages include the abrupt change of between values at the edges of the polygons this interpolation method outputs. While Thiessen interpolation is good for sampled locations, it may not be as accurate around unsampled locations. IDW averages values and determines the weight based off point cell proximity. This method assumes points closer to one another are more alike and is good for more evenly distributed, uniform, dense points. Spline interpolation will estimate va...