• A Home for the Firehouse: A Town Planner's Perspective (NEW for 2013)

By Jeff Blossom
This exercise uses spatial analysis software and publicly available geographic data to identify potential sites for a new fire station. Along the way, students will learn the process involved in performing a site suitability analysis—not just for a fire station, but for any new facility location task. Basic familiarity with ArcGIS required.

• A Little Spare Change: Monitoring Land-cover Change by Satellite (NEW for 2013)

By Garrett Love
In this lab, students learn if city utility services can use remote satellite data, processed with geographic information systems (GIS), to help track urban development, including evidence of possible change in land cover during a period of high growth. This lab is intended for upper-class undergraduates who have a familiarity with the manipulation and presentation of raster data in ArcMap.

• Analyzing Yoruba Political Power and Urbanization Patterns

By Jeff Blossom
One theory of political power, as proposed by French philosopher Michel Foucault (1984), is that visibility and line of sight determine the power structure of one group over another. In this lab, students use visibility analysis to assess the relative power wielded by the different chiefs in the Yoruba civilization, one of the oldest known civilizations. Some familiarity with GIS software required.

• Assessing Nonpoint Groundwater Contamination: Florida Caves

By Can Denizman
This lab investigates the potential for contamination in Florida caves from nonpoint pollution sources such as agriculture, poultry, pastures and rangeland. The lab gives students experience with basic vector analysis tools such as selecting and querying attributes, using buffer and clip tools, plus table operations such as field calculations.

• Assessing Point Groundwater Contamination Potential: Florida Caves

By Can Denizman
This lab builds on the investigation provided in “Assessing Nonpoint Groundwater Contamination: Florida Caves” and expands use of the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension, applying the Zonal Summary function to further examine point contamination potential for the caves in Florida. Skills used include join, spatial joins, and density grids.

• Assessing Point Groundwater Contamination Potential: The Floridian Aquifer

By Can Denizman
This lab examines where the Floridian aquifer is more likely susceptible to point contamination, such as from superfund and other hazardous waste sites. It serves as an introduction to the ArcGIS Spatial Analysis extension using raster functions.

• Assessing Risk and Accessibility to Search and Rescue Teams

By Alexandra Felix-Locher
This lab is focused on the Ouachita National Forest in northern Arkansas and assesses which areas are classified as high risk to rescuers searching for someone lost or injured, and which areas are more than 30 minutes from a hospital. This lab is intended for intermediate or advanced GIS students with background knowledge of geoprocessing and map layouts.

• Change in the Right Direction: Monitoring Land-cover Change by Satellite (New for 2013)

By Garrett Love
In this lab, students learn if city utility services can use remote satellite data, processed with geographic information systems (GIS), to help track urban development, including areas of the city that exhibit evidence of possible change in land cover during a period of high growth, and the type of change. This lab is intended for upper-class undergraduates who have a familiarity with the manipulation and presentation of raster data in ArcMap, including use of the Raster Calculator tool.

• Creating and Analyzing a Phoenician Navigational Safety Zone

By Jeff Blossom
Using a digital elevation model (DEM), observer point locations, and parameters available in GIS software, students can model landmark visibility and map the navigational safety zone within which the Phoenician people sailed for more than a thousand years. Cursory familiarity with ArcGIS software required.

• Delineation of Watersheds in Adirondack Park, New York

By Monika Calef
In this lab, students examine sources flow of water in the Adirondack Park in order to examine amount and quality. Advanced GIS experience required.

• Does Green Go with Gold? Environmental Assessment vs. Economic Development in the United States

By Sumeeta Srinivasan
This is one of three SpatiaLABS promoting spatial reasoning through a focus on spatial statistics. It uses statistical analysis to map various economic development and environmental indicators to examine whether there is clustering in any parts of the United States. Moderate familiarity with using ArcGIS 10 required.

• Early Childhood Education: Distribution of Pre-K Facilities and Children under Five Years Old (New for 2013)

By Deden Rukmana
In this lab, students determine how easy it for parents to access affordable and quality early childhood education facilities including pre-K. Familiarity with ArcGIS 10 and with Microsoft Excel required.

• Educational Performance and Family Income: Diamonds on the Soles of Scholarship? (New for 2013)

By Jeff Blossom
In this lab, students study whether there is a relationship between educational performance and family income. Academic test score information by school district with family income data gathered from the US Census are assessed to make a series of maps that illustrate income and educational performance.

• Environmental Equity and Air Toxics

By Rachel Russell
In this lab, students examine the spatial relationship between air toxics and median income or race/ethnicity in Los Angeles County. Intermediate GIS skills required.

• Forest Planning for Sensitive Wildlife Species

By Alexandra Felix-Locher
In this lab, students will assess habitat use by the owls and develop forest management considerations for conserving habitat. This exercise is intended for students with introductory or intermediate level skills with a limited background in GIS.

• Glimpses of the Past: Investigating Settlement Sites of Prehistoric Humans—Slope and Aspect (New for 2013)

By Garrett Love
This lab uses the capabilities of geographic information systems (GIS) to make a preliminary analysis of a set of archaeological site locations and to establish whether locations of particular prehistoric human activities may have been selected based on the slope of a location and the direction it faces—a characteristic known as the aspect. This lab is intended for upper-class undergraduates who have a familiarity with the manipulation and presentation of point feature databases and raster datasets in ArcMap. Students should also have a fundamental familiarity with statistical analysis.

• Glimpses of the Past: Investigating Settlement Sites of Prehistoric Humans—Stream Proximity (New for 2013)

By Garrett Love
This lab uses the capabilities of geographic information systems (GIS) to make a preliminary analysis of a set of archaeological site locations and to establish whether locations of particular prehistoric human activities may have been selected based on their proximity to a water source. This lab is intended for upper-class undergraduates who have a familiarity with the manipulation and presentation of point and polygon databases in ArcMap, both through the attribute table and layer properties. Students should also have a fundamental familiarity with statistical analysis.

• Groundwater for Many People: The Spatial Science of a Shared Resource

By Julienne Gard
The fragile balance between groundwater supply and demand is being tested. Increasing rates of urbanization and irrigation place demands on water needs, while the natural aridity of some environments does little to increase supply. In this lab, students will explore the spatial characteristics of this problem. Students should have basic computer skills—opening/saving files and word processing.

• High School Dropouts: The Effect of Neighborhood Characteristics (New for 2013)

By Deden Rukmana
In this lab, students study whether characteristics of neighborhoods in which students reside contribute to dropout rates among high school students. Familiarity with ArcGIS 10 and Microsoft Excel required.

• Hurricane Katrina: Understanding Physical and Social Vulnerability

By Su Jin Lee
By charting where the most damage occurred and why, investigators can help plan how to mitigate problems, respond to threats, and protect areas before and during similar events in the future. Basic familiarity with GIS required.

• Impacts of Sea Level Rise and Storms on Manhattan

By Monika Calef
In this lab, students assess what would be the impact of a major hurricane today in New York City. Intermediate to advanced GIS experience required.

• People of Manhattan at Risk

By Monika Calef
In this lab, students assess how many people in Manhattan are currently at risk from flooding by a major hurricane and how many people in Manhattan could rising sea level displace by 2100. Advanced GIS experience required.

• Point Patterns in Forest Fires

By Sumeeta Srinivasan
This lab exercise will try to answer questions about forest fires using spatial statistics. Basic skills in the use of ArcGIS 10 required.

• Population Mapping and Modeling for Manhattan

By Monika Calef
This lab examines the current population of Manhattan and the population for the year 2100 by census tract. Intermediate to advanced GIS experience required.

• Predicting West Nile Virus Outbreaks

By Jeff Blossom
What's the likelihood of a West Nile virus (WNV) outbreak where you live? Humans contract WNV through bites from infected mosquitoes, and areas that have high mosquito breeding activity are more likely areas for contracting WNV. In this lab, students will calculate county minimum and maximum temperature averages using monthly climate data for the 48 contiguous US states. Then, aggregating and averaging short-term monthly temperature data for any given month and comparing this to the climatic averages, they will determine counties that have mild winters, significantly warmer-than-average summer months, or a combination of these indicators of WNV threat.

• Street Kids: Geography and Risks for Homelessness (New for 2013)

By Deden Rukmana
In this lab, students study the social processes that contribute to the vulnerability of children and youth to homelessness. Familiarity with ArcGIS 10, understanding of spatial statistics, and understanding of ordinary least squares (OLS) regression required.

• The Global Oil Market: A Spatial Perspective of This Complex Phenomenon

By Jeff Blossom
In this lab, students examine the geographic landscape of oil production, consumption, and transportation. Advanced GIS experience required.

• The Spatial Distribution of Poverty: A Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR)

By Sumeeta Srinivasan
This lab examines data from Sri Lanka. Many quantitative studies use ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to estimate the effect of variables such as ethnicity, proximity to urban areas, elevation, and other indicators of development on poverty rates. This lab uses a more generalized geographically weighted regression (GWR) model in addition to the OLS model to incorporate the effects of spatial clustering. Familiarity with ArcGIS 10 required.

• Timber Harvest Planning Using GIS

By Alexandra Felix-Locher
In this lab, students will determine the spatial location of timber harvest and predict how the proposed harvest will affect habitat conditions for ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus). This lab is intended for introductory or intermediate-level students with some background in GIS.

• Finding Market Opportunities: Understanding the Market Environment Spatially

By Fred L. Miller
This lab focuses on environmental scanning in the search for market opportunities. Students explore the potential for an automated, self-service bike rental and repair kiosk using web-based GIS tools. No GIS experience required.

• Retail Site Selection: Identifying the Optimal Location for a Business

By Fred L. Miller
Students use web-based business GIS tools to determine the shopping center whose trade area best matches a target market for a health store. No GIS experience required.

• Customer Profiling: Demographic and Lifestyle Segmentation

By Fred L. Miller
In this lab, students use web-based business GIS tools to create a comprehensive profile of a child care center’s clients, including core demographic characteristics, lifestyle segmentation patterns, and buying behavior relative to child care, in order to develop a marketing plan and growth strategy. No GIS experience required.

• Sales Territory Design: Creating Balanced Territories for the Sales Force

By Fred L. Miller
Students use web-based business GIS tools to design a territory system for independent sales representatives of exercise equipment in Ohio. No GIS experience required.

• Assessing Global Markets: Identifying International Market Opportunities

By Fred L. Miller
Students use web-based data visualization and spatial analysis tools to identify the countries that best match the target criteria for an electronic managerial training system. No GIS experience required.

• Trade Area and Site Reporting: Mapping Market Patterns and Screening Potential Sites

By Fred L. Miller
Students use online resources to perform color-coded mapping of relevant demographic variables, define a market area, select an alternative potential location, and compare the two locations to determine if a new facility should be purchased. Introductory experience with GIS and familiarity with business analysis terminology required.

• Basic Business Environment Analysis: Using Thematic Maps to Find Opportunities and Threats

By Fred L. Miller
Students use color-coded mapping and symbology tools to map relevant demographic characteristics in a planned market area. Intermediate-level lab.

• Advanced Business Environment Analysis: Identifying Opportunities with Advanced Thematic Mapping and Data Analysis

By Fred L. Miller
Students create customized datasets for color-coded mapping, extract and display map layers for competitors and shopping centers, and use smart map and dynamic ring tools to identify potentially attractive locations for a new store. Intermediate-level lab.

• Trade Area Analysis and Site Selection without Customer Data: Recommending a First Store Using Spatial Analysis of Potential Sites

By Fred L. Miller
In the first part of this two-part lab students will recommend a site for a new store and design map documents that support conclusions and recommendations. Intermediate-level lab.

• Trade Area Analysis and Site Selection without Customer Data: Defining and Analyzing Trade Areas to Select the Best Site

By Fred L. Miller
In the second part of this two-part lab students will recommend a site for a new store and design map documents that support conclusions and recommendations. Intermediate-level lab.

• Customer Profiling with Enterprise Sales Data: Identifying Distinctive Customer Characteristics

By Fred L. Miller
This lab focuses on the first of these growth strategies. Students must create a profile of a company’s existing customers and use it to identify opportunities for increasing sales to this group by selectively expanding the firm's line of products and services. Intermediate-level lab.

• Site Selection with Enterprise Sales Data: Using Customer Data to Select New Sites

By Fred L. Miller
This lab examines opening new stores to increase sales from new customers in the market area. Students must use enterprise sales data to analyze sales patterns for a firm's first store, evaluate potential sites for two new stores, and recommend the best locations for those stores. Intermediate-level lab.

• Creating Sales Territories: Sales Territory Design and Balancing

By Fred L. Miller
Students perform the role of firm's business GIS analyst to design this system of six territories with approximately the same level of sales potential in each. Intermediate-level lab.

• Customer Profiling: Understanding Loyal Customers to Achieve Market Growth

By Fred L. Miller
Students perform the role of firm's business GIS analyst to create profiles of a firm’s current customers to support two growth strategies—by seeking greater penetration of the market areas served by current stores and by opening new stores in new geographic areas of the US. Intermediate-level lab.

• Customer Segmentation: Targeting Potential Customers for Sales Growth

By Fred L. Miller
Students perform the role of firm's business GIS analyst to use existing profile data to create segmentation plans that support both the penetration and expansion strategies. Intermediate-level lab.

• Finding Market Opportunities: Understanding the Market Environment Spatially (using online software)

By Fred L. Miller
This lab serves as a guideline for an independent project in which students will perform an environmental scanning analysis for an actual client organization. In it, students will develop a profile of the organization and its objectives as well as an understanding of what environmental factors create threats and opportunities for it. They will then use online business GIS software to analyze the spatial distribution of those factors within the organization's market area. Advanced experience required.

• Finding Market Opportunities: Understanding the Market Environment Spatially (using desktop software)

By Fred L. Miller
In this independent project, students perform an environmental scanning analysis for an actual client organization. Students develop a profile of the organization and its objectives as well as an understanding of what environmental factors create threats and opportunities for it. Students use business GIS software to analyze the spatial distribution of those factors within the organization's market area. Advanced experience required.

• Customer Profiling: Understanding Customers to Identify Penetration and Expansion Opportunities

By Fred L. Miller
In this independent project, students perform customer profiling and segmentation analysis for an actual client organization. In it, students use business GIS software to develop a profile of the organization and its objectives, geocode and profile the organization's customers, and use the profiles to develop penetration and market expansion growth strategies. Advanced experience required.

• Initial Site Selection: Finding the Best Location for a New Business

By Fred L. Miller
In this independent project, students perform an initial site selection analysis for an actual client organization. In it, students develop a profile of the organization and its objectives and analyze several available locations to recommend the best initial site for the client organization. Students use business GIS software to analyze the spatial distribution of those factors within the organization's market area. Advanced experience required.

• Building a Geodatabase

By Glen Jordan
In this lab exercise, students explore improving forest inventories using GIS. They will create a geodatabase and import shapefiles, coverages, feature classes, data table, rasters and imagery. A basic working knowledge of GIS is required, particularly ArcGIS software.  

• Documenting a Geodatabase

By Glen Jordan
Students will take advantage of the built-in capabilities that geodatabases provide for documenting the data they hold. Specifically in the woodlot geodatabase, students will assign feature class aliases and numerous attribute field aliases and coding domains using ArcCatalog. A basic working knowledge of GIS is required, particularly ArcGIS software.  

• Building an Elevation Surface

By Glen Jordan
In this exercise, students build a digital elevation model (DEM) raster from mass points, and from that, a hillshade raster. Students map this data in 2D and 3D using ArcMap and ArcScene, respectively. A basic working knowledge of GIS is required, particularly ArcGIS software. 

• Updating with GPS

By Glen Jordan
In this exercise, students use GPS track data to incorporate a new line feature into the woodlot's basemap and public roads feature classes. A basic working knowledge of GIS is required, particularly ArcGIS software.

• Updating with Imagery

By Glen Jordan

In this exercise, students use changes indicated on an aerial photo to update the woodlot inventory. A basic working knowledge of GIS is required, particularly ArcGIS software.

• Assessing Balsam Fir Tipping Potential

By Glen Jordan
In this lab exercise, students assess the woodlot for its balsam fir tipping potential. Students compile and map the distribution of areas of young balsam fir by their crown closure status and accessibility. A basic working knowledge of GIS is required, particularly ArcGIS software, and geodatabases.

• Evaluating Economical Timber Amounts

By Glen Jordan
Disturbances, such as fire, insects, and disease, wipe out whole areas of trees, and new trees of uniform height and age grow in their place. Such stands of trees lend themselves to clearcutting, a common harvesting technique in such forest regions, where cutting trees clears the way for skidding them to roadside for transportation. In this lab, students evaluate economic timber amounts in the woodlot and create a map layout, summary table, and chart of operable timber amounts. A basic working knowledge of GIS is required, particularly ArcGIS software, and geodatabases.

• Comparing Fixed and Variable-Width Riparian Buffers

By Glen Jordan
In this lab, students determine whether better stream protection means more timber value excluded from harvest. Students conduct an analysis that compares the relative "costs" of two buffering strategies in terms of timber values. A basic working knowledge of GIS is required, particularly ArcGIS software, and geodatabases.

• Determining Insect Vulnerability

By Glen Jordan
In this exercise, students analyze the woodlot's overall vulnerability should a spruce budworm outbreak occur. Students calculate budworm vulnerability index values for stands as a function of their spruce and fir species composition, age, and isolation. They can then map and summarize timber volume amounts by defoliation classes. A basic working knowledge of GIS is required, particularly ArcGIS software, and geodatabases.

• Compiling Harvest Opening Sizes

By Glen Jordan
In this exercise, students compile and map the distribution of harvest openings created in the woodlot over the past 10 years in order to answer questions such as “Are openings mostly large, mostly small, or some other distribution?” and “What does that confirm about aesthetic, economic, or ecological effects?” A basic working knowledge of GIS data, including use of a geodatabase is required.

• Calculating Visible Clearcut Amounts

By Glen Jordan
In this exercise, students learn how GIS technology helps measure and monitor the aesthetics of clearcutting activity in a forest over time. Students measure the length of road shared with immediately adjacent clearcuts and calculate the amount of clearcut area visible in the distance. Students should have a basic working knowledge of GIS data, including use of a geodatabase, and ArcGIS software in particular.

• Measuring Watershed Impacts

By Glen Jordan
In this lab, students determine how clearcutting affect a region's watersheds. A basic working knowledge of GIS data, including use of a geodatabase, as well as some experience with rasters and the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension.

• Calculating an HSI for an Old Growth Indicator Species

By Glen Jordan
Students examine how to use GIS technology to explore the ecological well-being of a forest. A basic working knowledge of ArcGIS software and GIS data, including use of a geodatabase is required. There is also some computer programming knowledge needed, Visual Basic in particular.

• Summarizing Timber Value by Stand Type and Accessibility

By Glen Jordan
Students identify how valuable is the woodlot's standing timber, and how is that value distributed across types of stands and between accessible and inaccessible stands. A basic working knowledge of ArcGIS software and GIS data, including use of a geodatabase is required. There is also some computer programming knowledge needed, Visual Basic in particular, and Microsoft Excel experience, including pivot table calculation.

• Evaluating Maple Sap Production Potential

By Glen Jordan
In this labs, students learn how GIS can help determine a forest's value for maple syrup production be evaluated, aside from identifying sugar maple stands. A basic working knowledge of ArcGIS software and GIS data, including use of a geodatabase is required. There is also some computer programming knowledge needed, Visual Basic in particular, and Microsoft Excel experience, including pivot table calculation.

• Assessing Forest Recreation Value

By Glen Jordan
In this lab, students examine how much recreation potential (e.g. hunting, fishing, bird-watching, hiking, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling) exists in a forest.   A basic working knowledge of GIS data, including use of a geodatabase, as well as some experience with rasters and the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension.