Land Use and Land Cover:

Using Geographic Information Systems
to develop a Sense of Place

a project from the WWNFF Core Institute on Environmental Science, 1997

Abstract:
Geographic information systems (GIS) is a modern innovation of looking at anything that can be georeferenced. The GIS approach is best explained by the creation of maps based on a set of thematic layers. That is, the base layer might be a boundary theme such as a country or county. Overlying that may a theme for rivers and then a them for roads, vegetation, land use, etc. The power of GIS is the control of the choice of themes and sequence of layers. One can easily make inferences about the relationship between the features of different themes such as large cities are invariably located on significant rivers.

This project specifically looks at land use in the surrounding areas of Princeton, New Jersey. As such, it is intended as a model of how we could examine the affect of land use on land cover over a period of time such as 10, 20 or 30 years.

To see the entire project, click HERE.
To obtain GIS training, see below:

TORCH: Teacher Outreach
GIS & Environmental Science Institutes: Summer 1998, 1999, 2000
University of the Pacific, Stockton, California
Click HERE to see original grant proposal, dates, location, eligibility, etc.
Applications now available for July 3-14, 2000
Teacher "Projects" with downloadable activities
and GIS resources from the summer institutes of 1998 and 1999
Click HERE to view activities and program description