Here is a summary of responses I got after requesting suggestions for readings for a graduate seminar on GIS, for people who are not already familiar with the techniques and applications. I had responses from about a dozen people. If you need to know who sent a particular message please contact me.
David Inouye, di5@umail.umd.edu
Carey, P. D. and N. J. Brown. 1994. The use of GIS to identify sites
that will become suitable for a rare orchid, Himantoglossum hircinum
L., in a future changed climate. Biodiversity Letters 2:117-123.
Clark, J. D., Dunn, J. E., and K. G. Smith. 1993. A multivariate
model of female black bear habitat use for a geographic information
system. Journal of Wildlife Management 57(3):519-526.
Donovan, M. L., Rabe, D. L., and C. E. Olson. 1987. Use of
geographic information systems to develop habitat suitability models.
Wildlife Society Bulletin 15:574-579.
Goodchild, M. F. 1993. The state of GIS for environmental
problem-solving. Pages 8-15 in M. F. Goodchild, B. O. Parks and L. T.
Steyaert, editors. Environmental modeling with GIS. Oxford
University Press, New York.
Haslett, J. R. 1990. Geographic information systems: A new approach
to habitat definition and the study of distributions. Tree
5(7):214-218.
Hunsaker, C. T., Nisbet, R. A., Lam, D. C. L., Browder, J. A., Baker,
W. L., Turner, M. G., and D. B. Botkin. 1993. Spatial models of
ecological systems and processes: The role of GIS. Pages 248-264 in
M. F. Goodchild, B. O. Parks and L. T. Steyaert, editors.
Environmental modeling with GIS. Oxford University Press, New York.
Klinsky, A. D. 1995. The role and functionality of GIS as a planning
tool in natural-resource management. Computers, Environment and Urban
Systems 19:15-22.
Maehr, D. S. and J. A. Cox. 1995. Landscape features and panthers in
Florida. Conservation Biology 9(5):1008-1019.
Mladenoff, D. J., Sickley, T. A., Haight, R. G., and A. P. Wydeven.
1995. A regional landscape analysis and prediction of favorable gray
wolf habitat in the northern Great Lakes region. Conservation Biology
9(2):279-294.
Schulz, T. T. and L. A. Joyce. 1992. A spatial application of a
marten habitat model. Wildlife Society Bulletin 20:74-83.
Shaw, D. M. and S. F. Atkinson. 1990. An introduction to the use of
geographic information systems for ornithological research. The
Condor 92:564-570.
Stoms, D. M., Davis, F. W., Cogan, C. B., Painho, M. O., Duncan, B.
W., Scepan, J., and J. M. Scott. 1993. Geographic analysis of
California condor sighting data. Conservation Biology 7:148-159.
Nyerges, T.L. Understnading the scope of GIS: its relationship to
environmental modeling. Pages75-90 in M. F. Goodchild, B. O. Parks and L. T.
Steyaert, editors. Environmental modeling with GIS. Oxford
University Press, New York.
Congalton, R. G. and K. Green. 1995. The ABC's of GIS: An
introduction to Geographic Information Systems. Pages 9-24 in Wetland
and Environmental Applications of GIS (don't have the editors names).
Also: Check out Understanding GIS by ESRI...it has some great intro
chapters. I also have a booklet that talks about GPS and what its
all about if you are interested.
David -
Regarding your inquiry about readings you could do the following:
Attend the next Towson State University (Maryland) GIS conference, May 28-29, 1997 contact Jay Morgan for info. Lots of vendors are there showing off the latest technology as well as books.
Note there is also a GPS/GIS Conference in Annapolis this year--May 13-16.
Visit the web page of GEO INFO SYSTEMS magazine:
http://www.geoinfosystems.com
Frequently, short popular articles regarding application of GIS to natural resources management and assessment appear in this magazine.
Visit the IDRISI web page at: http://www.idrisi.clark.edu IDRISI is a inexpensive, yet powerful GIS developed by Clark University designed to be affordable in third world countries. I have a friend in Hamburg, Germany who is using it with his NGO to fight expansion of a major harbor project into a regionally significant wetland.
A frequent application of GIS is GAP ANALYSIS: I recommend that your students read:
Scott, J. Michael, et al. 1993. Gap analysis: a geographic approach to protection of biological diversity. Wildlife Monographs No. 123.
Dr. Inouye: You might send this request to the following group. The list is a geostatistics group and might have alot of references. The address is:
ai-geostats@gis.psu.edu
During a recent course on GIS and its ecological applications, I received a reprint of an article by Gerrit Heil and Willem van Deursen (the latter wrote PC Raster, a GIS, with Wesseling). It concerns vegetation modelling in heathland, which is certainly relevant to conservation issues here in the Netherlands.
Heil, G. & van Deursen, W. (1996). "Searching for patterns and processes: modelling of vegetation dynamics with Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing". Acta Botanica Neerlandica 45(4): 543-556.
I am in the same situation as you, but have so far only compiled German
texts. I would appreciate it if you could post the responses to your query
to the list. Would you like the list of German references?
Thanks very much.
Jay Arnone
Department of Botany
University of Basel
Schoenbeinstrasse 6
CH-4056 Basel
Switzerland
See " A Regional Landscape Analysis and Prediction of Favorable Gray Wolf Habitat in the Northern Great Lakes Region" by Dave Mladenoff, et al. in Conservation Biology 9(2): 279-294.
David,
Here's a suggestion, complete with a professor's description:
Gersmehl, Philip. 1985. The data, the reader, and the innocent bystander. Professional Geographer 37:??-?? ("A delightful and powerful article about how data and maps are borrowed and reused and changed and some of the consequences of all of this - a MUST.")
I'm sorry I don't have the page numbers--I seem to have lost my copy. If I get the full citation, I'll let you know.
Contact Carl Richards at the Natural Resources Research Institute at UMD
(the other UMD!). He can be reached at "crichard@sage.nrri.umn.edu". He
uses GIS to compare land use, geology, etc and benthic community structure.
also, John Pastor (NRRI) has done some lovely GIS work with beaver pond and
landscape structure.
David,
You might want to contact Educational Services of ESRI in Redlands, CA. They might have some non-copyrighted material that would appropriate for your seminar. If you need any additional help let me know. The number for Educational Services is:
909-793-2853 Ext. 1585 (Press 1 before entering the extension)
David
Frank Davis from USCB has published quite extensively on the application of GIS to conservation biology. I believe some of this work can be found in Conservation Biology. Also, in about 1990 there was an issue of Landscape Ecology dedicated to GIS.
Hi David,
you could try the ESRI web page at
www.esri.com
Here's a few references for you:
White, J.D., Kroh, G.C., and Pinder, J.E., III, 1995. Forest mapping at Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, using Landsat TM data and a geographical information system. Photo. Eng. Rem. Sens. 61(3):299-305.
Johnson, L., 1990. Analyzing spatial and temporal phenomena using
geographical information systems. Landscape Ecol. 4(1):31-43.
Brown, D.G., 1994. Predicting vegetation types at treeline using
topography and biophysical disturbance variables. J. Veg. Sci. 5:641-656.
Stow, D.A., 1993. The role of geographic information systems for landscape
ecological studies. In: Landscape Ecology and Geographic Information
Systems. R. Haines-Young, D.R. Green, and S. Cousins, Eds. Taylor &
Francis; New York. .
Davis, F.W., Stoms, D.M., Estes, J.E., Scepan, J., and Scott, M.J., 1990.
An information systems approach to the preservation of biological
diversity. Int. J. Geog. Inf. Syst. 4(1):55-78.
Johnson, K.M., 1987. Natural resource modeling in the geographic
information system environment. Photo. Eng. Rem. Sens. 53(10):1411-1415.
Nyerges, T., 1993. Understanding the scope of GIS: its relationship to
environmental modeling. In: Environmental Modeling with GIS. M.F.
Goodchild, B.O. Parks, and L.T. Steyaert, Eds. Oxford University Press;
Oxford. .
Maclean, A.L., Reed, D.D., Mroz, G.D., Lyon, G.W., and Edison, T., 1992.
Using GIS to estimate forest resource changes. J. Forestry December,
1992:22-25.
Scott, J.M., Davis, F., Csuti, B., Noss, R., Butterfield, B., Groves, C.,
Anderson, H., Caicco, S., D'erchia, F., Edwards, T.C., Jr., Ulliman, J.,
and Wright, G., 1993. Gap Analysis: A geographic approach to protection of
biological diversity. Wild. Mono. 123:1-41.
Pereira, J., and Itami, R., 1991. GIS-based habitat modeling using
logistic multiple regression: a study of the Mt. Graham Red Squirrel.
Photo. Eng. Rem. Sens. 57(11):1475- 1486.
Burrough, P.A., 1986. Principles of Geographical Information Systems for
Land Resources Assessment. Oxford University Press; Oxford. 194 pp.
Donovan, M.L., Rabe, D.L., and Olson, C.E., Jr., 1987. Use of Geographic
Information Systems to develop habitat suitability models. Wildl. Soc.
Bull. 15:574-579.
Moreno, D.D., and Heyerdahl, L.A., 1992. GIS helps revegetation efforts at
hazardous waste site. Geo Info Syst. April:46-51.
Goodchild, M.F., 1994. Integrating GIS and remote sensing for vegetation
analysis and modeling: methodological issues. J. Veg. Sci. 5:615-626.
Sample, V. A., Ed., 1994. Remote Sensing and GIS in Ecosystem Management.
Island Press, Washington, DC. 369 pp.
Subject: introductory (graduate class) level GIS readings? -Reply
An older, but still very pertinent text that covers most of the technical aspects of GIS construction and use, i.e., the stuff that determines whether the ecologist/land manager/agency should bother creating/using a GIS as a tool for help in making real-world decisions, is:
Burrough, P.A. 1986. Principles of geographical information systems for land resources assessment. Clarendon Press (Oxford University Press). 194 pp.
The basic principles are relatively straightforward, and there are a
number of "GIS as practical tools" papers in journals like Landscape
Ecology and Environmental Management. Acquiring appropriate and
accurate (georeferenced) data is probably still the ultimate hurdle in
making use of a GIS for natural resource management decisions.
David Inouye asked for suggestions on readings for a graduate-level
seminar on GIS applications to conservation biology. I recommend the
following:
Scott, J.M.B., et al. 1992. Gap Analysis: A geographical approach
to protection of biological diversity. Wildlife Monographs 57.
41 pp.
Haines-Young, R., Green, D.R., and Stephen H. Cousins. 1993.
Landscape Ecology and GIS. Taylor and Francis, New York,
N.Y. 288pp.
Pereira, J.M.C. and R.M. Itami. 1991. GIS-based habitat modeling
using logistic multiple regression: a study of the Mt. Graham
red squirrel. Photogram. Eng. Rem. Sens. 57: 1475-1486.
Agee, J.K., Stitt, S.C.F., Nyquist, M., and R. Root. 1989. A
geographical analysis of historical grizzly bear sightings
in the North Cascades. Photogram. Eng. Rem. Sens. 55: 1637-1642.
Dr. Inouye:
If you surf onto www.esri.com, you will find a wealth of information. They produce ArcView. They also have a number of books, one of which functions as a tutorial-text for ArcView. I think you will find what you need at that
site.
Additionally, I dealt with Dr. Mike Phoenix (mphoenix@esri.com) who graciously and generously sent me the text and the Arcview tutorial CD-ROM at no cost. He is extremely helpful. As a result, I wrote up a small exercise simply based on another tutorial that ESRI issues for the third edition of my lab manual.
The Conservation Technology Support Program
(http://www.desktop.org/ctsp) nicely links conservation with GIS.
The attached appendix from their grant application is a nice
tutorial--ignore the parts related directly to the application and you have a
great introduction to thinking about how to use GIS for conservation
science. If the attachment is lost, all their good stuff is on their website.
Hope it helps...
I'm far from being GIS educated myself, but I would suggest that the UNEP workbooks supplied by the IDRISI project, although rather expensive, may be suitable reading. There are free versions of some GIS (ArcView v.1 and a Dutch system PCRaster, etc.) dowloadable from the web. The PCRaster web site is worth visiting (http://pop.frw.ruu.nl/pcraster.html) - it includes some references to ecological work that has been done with the system. Haven't tried it though - just starting IDRISI.