Embedded Files
Selecting An Article (9/12)
Selecting An Article (9/12)
The first step of this project is finding a scientific journal article that uses a GIS process. Since we are both interested in the environment, this is the type of article we searched for. Independently, we compiled a list of articles that could work for this project to compare with each other. On September 12th, we met over Zoom to compare our articles. After eliminating the least interesting articles, we landed on "Modelling future landscape change on coastal floodplains using rule-based GIS". This article used the elevation data off the coast of England to analyze the effects of flooding on landscape change.
Finding the Data (10/1)
Finding the Data (10/1)
On October 1st, we met in the CGA to find the data used in the article. The data is stored in the CEDA Archive, which is managed by the British Government. To access this data, we had to request access. Our first hiccup with this project came with the difference between DEM and DTM data. The purpose of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of these offshore sea-walls. A DEM data layer includes these sea-walls, but also has vegetation and other buildings. DTM data just reflects the topographical information. The problems comes in that we want a layer that includes the sea-walls, but not the vegetation or other buildings. Brown used an external company to create this specific layer, which we do not have access to. Upon some research, there might be a way on ArcPro to recreate this layer by hand. This is possible for this particular case because the study area is very small. If this method does not work, we will just use the DTM data to analyze the control group while recognizing the validity of the process that the external company created for Brown.
Creating a Web Presence (10/1)
Creating a Web Presence (10/1)
On the same October 1st meeting, we started this very website through Google sites! This website will serve as the central location for our project, including the blog, progress report, and our tutorials.
The Struggles of Finding Data (10/7)
The Struggles of Finding Data (10/7)
It shouldn't be that difficult to find elevation data of the United Kingdom, but yet here we are. It turns out the data Brown used is only available to UK academics, which is not very useful to two academics from the United States. So our options are: email the author and beg for data, find open source equivelents, or forego the data and just review the methodology. We decided to send a quick email to the author to see if they would be willing to let us use the data. This struggle is not uncommon and a huge problem for access to data. There is a precarious balance between proprietary knowledge and open data. Open data is important allow everyone to access information, not just members of higher education of a particular country. There are advocates for governmnet data to be open access because it increases transparency, trust, and spurs innovation.
Team Meeting (10/8)
Team Meeting (10/8)
During this meeting we made significant progress on finding the data and analyzing Brown's methodology. We were able to get two of the six data layers Brown used, which is a success considered the challenges we ran into. We continued to update this website and started our analysis on Brown's geo processes. This article contains a lot of data and complicated language, so it is taking a bit of time to go through everything to make sure the process is reproducible.
(Finally) Working With Data (10/16)
(Finally) Working With Data (10/16)
After a long struggle of acquiring and projecting data (with a little help from Professor Davis), we are now finally able to start actually working with our data to replicate the methodology of our article. Challenges like this are common when using ESRI or GIS products and are very exciting when you figure out how to solve the problem! Unfortunantly, we are running out of time to work on this project and this is as far as we can get in this project.
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