News

CaGIS is proud to present the winners of the 2021 Map Design Competition. We thank the many contributors and judges! Please be sure to visit the Gallery to see some of the winners from this year’s competition.

Carolynne Hultquist and Cascade Tuholske will be presenting “Using Geospatial Data to Evaluate Climate Hazards and Inform Environmental Justice” at the next GeoBytes webinar on Friday, April 22 at 12:00 pm ET. The webinar is FREE for all CaGIS members. See attached abstract for more information about the presentation.

Please see the CaGIS GeoBytes page for more information on registering.

Abstract

This webinar will introduce two new datasets released by NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC): Global High Resolution Daily Extreme Urban Heat Exposure UHE-Daily) v1 (1983-2016) and U.S. Social Vulnerability Index Grids v1 (2000, 2010, 2014, 2016, and 2018). UHE-Daily is a global inventory of extreme heat events covering more than 13,000 urban settlements from 1983 – 2016 across five different extreme heat thresholds. It includes the number of people exposed to each heat event as well as 34-year exposure trends. The U.S. Social Vulnerability Index Grids data set contains gridded layers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) for the overall score from 15 variables and four sub-category themes (Socioeconomic, Household Composition & Disability, Minority Status & Language, and Housing Type & Transportation) based on census tract level inputs. The webinar will introduce the datasets and provide brief tutorials in Python and QGIS.

Carolynne Hultquist is a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at the Columbia Climate School, Columbia
University. Hultquist specializes in developing computational methods for the fusion and validation of spatial data sources to better understand complex environments, especially
vulnerability in relation to climate hazards. She holds a Ph.D. (2019) from the Pennsylvania State University in Geography and Social Data Analytics.

Cascade Tuholske is an Earth Institute Postdoctoral Research Scientist working with the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESN) at the Columbia Climate School, Columbia University. His research centers on the intersection of climate change, urbanization, and food security, with a recent focus on mapping urban extreme heat exposure worldwide. He received his PhD in 2020 from the Department of Geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

On March 22, 2022, the world lost a GIS giant and cartography compadre when Dr. Lynn Usery passed from this earthly plane. Not even a week earlier, Lynn was busily planning workshops for AutoCarto 2022. He will be sorely missed by our community, not only for his many research contributions, leadership and vision, and tireless service, but also for his friendship and camaraderie.

Michael Tischler of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) wrote, “On paper, we knew him as the Director of the Center of Excellence for Geographic Information Science [CEGIS]. But he was far more than that title would lead one to believe. Lynn leaves a remarkable legacy given his extraordinary scientific accomplishments, presence as a leader in the geographic science community, and impact on individual geographic scientists inside USGS and around the world.”

It’s a challenge to specify the impact that Lynn has had on the field of GIScience because of the breadth and depth of his involvement and contributions. He was centrally involved in many areas of the discipline, including cartography, GIS, remote sensing, and spatial analysis. His eclectic research interests included digital cartography, map projections, scale and resolution, image classification, temporal GIS, geospatial semantics and ontology, and high-performance computing for geospatial data. It would be difficult to name a subject in our field about which Lynn could not speak knowledgably and insightfully.

Lynn was unique in that his impact came through his careers in both government and academia. Lynn started working for the USGS in 1977. He was a cartographer and geographer for the USGS from 1978 to 1988 focusing on developing automated cartographic production systems. In 1988, he took on a geography faculty position at the University of Wisconsin (UW) – Madison. In January of 1994, he moved to Georgia to serve on the geography faculty at the University of Georgia (UGA). In May of 1999, Lynn took on a Research Geographer position with the USGS in addition to his academic job at UGA. In 2005, he returned to USGS and ultimately conceived and became Director of CEGIS. In this role, he directed the science program and the visions and plans for topographic mapping research. While at USGS, Lynn also taught remote sensing at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

In all his positions, Lynn was a ground breaker. In his early days at USGS, he began the development of digital mapping systems for the automated production of printed topographic maps. At UW, he helped found a GIS program. At UGA, he helped establish certificate programs in GIScience at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. When he returned to USGS, he started a cartography research program that led to CEGIS. For CaGIS, he chaired AutoCarto 2005 to close an eight-year gap and resurrect the symposium series. He also spearheaded the effort to bring the International Cartographic Conference back to the United States for only the second time, the first being in 1978.

Lynn was involved in nearly every major activity of CaGIS. He was president of the society from 2002 to 2004. He was editor of the Cartography and Geographic Information Science journal from 2003 to 2006. He was the conference organizer for AutoCarto 2005, 2006, and 2010. He was chair of the U.S. National Committee for the ICA from 2008 to 2012. He was presented with the CaGIS Distinguished Career Award in 2012. He was designated an ACSM Fellow in 2006, a year after CaGIS became independent. In fact, the only CaGIS activity that Lynn cannot be recognized for is a winning entry in the Map Design Competition, which he never entered.

That Lynn was so involved in and rightfully earned recognition from the society for his dedication and many contributions is admirable. That he did the same with many other societies (ASPRS, UCGIS, ICA), at the same time, makes Lynn exceptional and unparalleled. There is truly no match for him in this regard, and really not even anyone in the running.

On a personal note, Lynn was born in December 1951. He had two children, a son Kelynn, born 1986, and a daughter, Lacy, born 1988. Lynn received his BS in geography from the University of Alabama and MA and Ph.D. degrees in geography from UGA. He died Tuesday, March 22, 2022, after a brief illness.

On an even more personal note, I first met Lynn when, as a lowly master’s student, I invited him to give a presentation at Indiana University using funding from the American Association of Geographers Visiting Geographical Scientist program. To me, Lynn was already a GIS giant. I placed him on a proverbial pedestal, but he wouldn’t stay put. He treated me as an equal, though I didn’t feel that was deserved. And throughout the remainder of our association, he continued to do the same. He also did that with everyone else I saw him interact with. He was truly a giant, but he interacted with people on the same level, not by bringing himself down to their level, but by elevating them to his. He will truly be missed.

Aileen Buckley

Ellie Leydsman McGinty will be presenting “A History of the Landsat Program” at the next GeoBytes webinar on Friday, April 8 at 12:00 pm ET. The webinar is FREE for all CaGIS members. See attached abstract for more information about the presentation.

Please see the CaGIS GeoBytes page for more information on registering.

Abstract

The Landsat Program, presently administered by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), provides the longest continuous remotely sensed record of the Earth’s surface. Landsat data have revolutionized scientific approaches, promoted an improved and deeper understanding of natural resources and ecosystems, and cultivated a profound appreciation for the remarkable and diverse landscapes on Earth. The Landsat Program has a fascinating history that was shaped by key agencies and prominent individuals. Of notable mention, Dr. William T. Pecora, eighth Director of the USGS, was the motivating force behind the Landsat Program. His initial vision of developing a civil spaceborne remote sensing program was speculative, but his foresight, intellect, and perseverance made it a reality. While the Landsat Program became a reality, operations throughout the decades were somewhat unpredictable. Presidential administrations and several pieces of legislation affected how the Landsat Program was managed over time. Despite financial and legislative hurdles, the Landsat Program has persisted and continues to be one of the most valuable, respected, and referenced Earth observation programs in the world.

Ellie Leydsman McGinty is a researcher and cartographer in the Remote Sensing/GIS Laboratory at Utah State University in Logan, Utah. She also serves as the State Coordinator for UtahView. Her academic interests include working with satellite and aerial imagery to develop land cover datasets that can be used to support conservation and restoration efforts. Through her work, she has grown a deep appreciation for Earth observing satellite systems and how they display the phenomenal beauty of planet Earth.

Dr. Duane F. Marble passed quietly in his sleep Tuesday February 22nd, 2022 with his wife and children nearby. He loved his family, geography, his students, the outdoors, travel, good food and wine, good books, great conversation, cats, and the company of friends.

Duane was born to Francis and Beulah Marble in West Seattle, Washington, December 10th, 1931. He earned three degrees from the University of Washington, earning his Ph.D. in 1959. He served on the faculties of the University of Oregon, the University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and The Ohio State University. At Buffalo, he established the first formal research unit dealing with Geographic Information Science (GIS) and the first graduate program in geography that provided a specialization in GIS. After retirement he held a courtesy appointment as Professor of Geosciences at Oregon State University.

What separated Duane from most professors was his active interest and involvement with his graduate students. He took an enthusiastic and supportive role as an advisor, a mentor, and a friend, providing great personal and intellectual encouragement and support, which carried on well past graduation. During his forty-year academic career, more than seventy-five graduate students completed their degrees under his supervision. His high standards prepared his students for successful careers, with many of these now close friends holding senior positions in academia, government, and industry.

Dr. Marble was instrumental in developing GIS as a strong, scientific academic endeavor. He established the International Symposia on Spatial Data Handling, collaborated on creating instructional software used by over 300 universities worldwide, and led GIS seminars in several countries. In 1993 he received an American Association of Geographers (AAG) Honors award and in 2011 he was awarded University Consortium of Geographical Information Science Fellow status in recognition of his remarkable impact.

After retiring from teaching, Duane and Jackie moved to Oregon and he stayed active in consulting, researching, and guiding scientific research in Geography. His presence in GIS education will continue through the Marble Fund for Geographic Science which he created in 2005. This Fund supports the William L. Garrison Award for Best Dissertation in Computational Geography and the Marble-Boyle Undergraduate Achievement Award, which are administered by the AAG.

Duane is survived by his spouse of 65 years, Jacquelynne, his cousin Kathy Kelley, his children, Kim and Dan Schnell and Doug and Claire Marble, and his grandchildren, Elizabeth and Brendan.

In lieu of flowers, the family wishes any memorial contributions be made to the Marble Fund for Geographic Science, managed by the American Association of Geographers (https://www.aag.org/donate/#/donate, select designate my donation to “other,” select the Marble Fund for Geographic Science.)

The Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS) is pleased to announce its inaugural awardees for the CaGIS Rising grant program. CaGIS Rising projects include research or outreach efforts that have the potential to transform global challenges into new opportunities that advance and promote Cartography and GIScience. Creativity, novelty, and the potential for broader impacts to society constitute key criteria for evaluating these proposals for funding.

The first round of CaGIS Rising projects to be selected for funding include:

• Remastering Natural Earth with Neural Networks Bridget Walker, Dilpreet Singh, Tom Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny  Monash University, U.S. National Park Service
• Modeling and Visualizing the Extents of Historical Regions Ivan Majic, Rizwan Bulbul, Johannes Scholz, Karl Grossner, and Eric Delmelle Graz University of Technology, University of Pittsburgh, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• Change in US Contrail Outbreaks Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic Eun-Kyeong Kim, University of Zurich

CaGIS congratulates these project leaders, and we look forward to announcing the next call for proposals for the second round of CaGIS Rising grants in the near future.

Tom Augspurger will be presenting “Scalable Sustainability with the Microsoft Planetary Computer” at the next GeoBytes webinar on Friday, February 25 at 12:00 pm ET. The webinar is FREE for all CaGIS members. See attached abstract for more information about the presentation.

Please see the CaGIS GeoBytes page for more information on registering.

Abstract

Working with environmental, geospatial data can be challenging. The huge amount of data from a many different sources makes it difficult to find the bits that you care about. Analyzing the data is difficult, especially if it’s larger than your machines memory. The Planetary Computer helps address these challenges by hosting and cataloging environmental data in consistent formats, providing APIs for searching the data, and compute to scale your workflows.

Tom Augspurger is a software engineer at Microsoft working on the Planetary Computer. He helps maintain several libraries in the PyData ecosystem, including pandas and Dask.

CaGIS is pleased to announce the call for submissions of extended abstracts and pre-conference workshop proposals for AutoCarto 2022 which will be a hybrid event for both in-person attendees and remote meeting participants. The theme of AutoCarto 2020 is Ethics in Mapping: Integrity, Inclusion, and Empathy which brings attention to ethical responsibilities we face in all aspects of our discipline with conversations on the power of maps and the critical need for integrity, inclusion, and empathy in cartography and GIScience. Submissions on topics from all areas of cartographic and geographic information science are welcome

AutoCarto will be held in Redlands, CA, on the Esri campus November 2-4, with Workshops on November 1.