Quantifying Land Cover Change in Urban Lake Watersheds
Posted 7 months ago
Urban development is known to impose stress on surface waters, often by dramatically altering water chemistry (Howell et al., 2012; Ren et al., 2014). To examine whether urban expansion within the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) is driving observed changes in water quality in a set of ~50 lakes, land cover change within their watersheds over […]
The future of public health is spatial
Posted 7 months ago
Demand for geospatial research has increased exponentially over the past decade (Casper et al., 2019). In the past two years alone, the global pandemic has heightened the importance of “place” with a deeper awareness of how the built environment can hinder or support public health by influencing individual behaviours and population-wide distribution of disease. One […]
Delineating Urban Lake Watersheds using Arc Hydro
Posted 10 months ago
Many natural and anthropogenic processes occurring within a lake’s watershed directly affect lake water quality (Soranno et al., 2015). As such, delineating the bounds of a lake’s watershed is often the first step towards identifying factors driving changes in water quality over time. This critical step can be achieved with the help of Arc Hydro, […]
The Deeper Picture on Ghost Gear
Posted 12 months ago
Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) is considered one of the most important marine debris issues that continues to threaten ocean sustainability. Globally, researchers are collectively working towards finding solutions to mitigate the impacts and reduce the presence of ALDFG in our oceans. Often, fishers don’t want to lose their gear, as it […]
Geovisualization of Health Data: Some examples from COVID-19 maps.
Posted 2 years ago
With the proliferation of COVID-19 geovisualization, also comes fundamental problems with the way these maps are presenting information to the viewer.
Transforming COVID-19 Data into Web Mapping Applications.
Posted 2 years ago
Geography has played a significant role throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, both locally and globally. With a second wave on the rise, understanding where COVID-19 exposure sites are is essential reducing community spread. Governments have been providing updated information regarding COVID exposure sites to increase public awareness. In Nova Scotia, such data includes the date, time, […]
Keep Motivated with GIS Remote Learning
Posted 3 years ago
As many schools across Canada have cancelled in-person classes due to COVID 19 and summer courses have quickly changed their teaching methods to online, it may be challenging to keep motivated. While many of us are stuck inside due to social isolation, these times may be an opportunity to learn a new GIS-related skill. Fortunately, […]
ActivScore: A Physical Activity Potential Score for Nova Scotia
Posted 3 years ago
Chronic illness is a prevalent concern, especially in Canada where it accounts for a high proportion of annual mortalities (Statistics Canada, 2017). Encouraging physical activity is important to prevent chronic illness, increase the overall mental and physical well being of the population, and increase the use of active transportation to facilitate more sustainable communities (Booth, […]
Story Maps as Part of the Virtual Conference?
Posted 3 years ago
The World Health Organization has officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic which is causing conferences around the world to be cancelled, leaving organizers scrambling to find ways to hold virtual conferences. Could Story Maps be part of the solution? I think so. Story maps are a useful tool for communicating and engaging an audience through […]
The move to ArcGIS Pro at Dalhousie University
Posted 3 years ago
During my time as a PhD student at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, I have been fortunate to operate in several roles with a connection to GIS and the ArcGIS platform. In addition to teaching GIS-centric courses (both as an instructor and teaching assistant), I have also had the opportunity to work with the Nova […]
