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Environmental GIS

Program Description

Nahant Marsh

Nahant Marsh

This interdisciplinary, skill based program is designed to provide students with an understanding of how environmental data is collected, what is being reported, and how to analyze what is reported. It provides training in basic concepts at all levels of ecology from populations to landscapes and the interaction between the physical and biotic environment. The course will focus on the applications of the geographic information system (GIS) to analyze and interpret ecological data. GIS is the leading technique used in ecosystem analysis since it provides a method of integrating the physical and topographic information in a landscape with characteristics of the biotic components of the environment. It provides a method of interpreting spatial information in relation to land use. Thus it forms a template for management and restoration decisions which increase the probability of more effective land use and success in environmental restoration efforts.

In the environmental field today there are few jobs beyond the technician level that do not require a background in GIS. Thus employees in areas of urban planning, industrial or urban facility and site development, agricultural management, resource development, environmental consulting companies, landscaping companies, state and federal agencies (for example Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, US Army Corps of Engineers, US Fish and Wildlife Service) all require their mid-level employees be familiar with the use and application of GIS to their particular missions. On-line programs and workshops in GIS focus on the mechanics of the use of GIS software. This program integrates training in GIS with training in the ecological techniques used to collect environmental data used interpretively by GIS. Thus students in this program will be better qualified to use ecological information and GIS technology for effective planning land use and restoration. Examples might include floodplain and mine land reclamation, wetland and drainage restoration, energy development such as wind-farms, natural disaster recovery programs in both urban and ecological preserves, and natural lands management.