The GIS520 Spatial Problem Solving course has taught me new concepts and tools that I didn't have experience with before. These new tools helped me develop skills in identifying problems, selecting the most appropriate spatial analytical approaches, and executing advanced geoprocessing and geospatial approaches. I found that lots of assignments are closely tied to the field of my program (Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology) as well as my own thesis research, which would benefit me both in the short term and long term. The assignment each week also prepared me to have the habit of documenting the process/workflow of geospatial analytics, which is crucial for checking errors and providing details for the reuse of the methods in the future. Through the course, I learned the techniques to solve spatial problems and reflect on what I learned, as well as being able to use the same techniques for a proposed scenario.
Some of the assignments are very helpful for my own research. For example, working with Census data is something I need to do for my thesis. My research aims to examine the "luxury effect", where high biodiversity occurs in high-income neighborhoods. Throughout the assignment, I learned how to search for specific datasets from the US Census and how to perform relevant spatial pattern analysis. The assignments on global and local spatial pattern analysis are also very useful for me. Being able to detect clustering patterns, derive the statistics of clustering, and identify the location of clustering can be applied to diverse fields. Suitability Analysis is another very crucial tool for wildlife ecologists. Learning from this approach allows me to do an evaluation of suitability results to be compared with actual occupancy data. For example, in the case of Black Bear suitability results, I could compare the identified suitable regions with the occupancy data of Black Bears to verify the suitability results and further improve the criteria and weights used for the Suitability Model. In summary, the techniques and tools from this course prepared me to do more complex spatial analytics, improve my understanding of spatial problem-solving, and widen the approaches that I could use for my research.