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Southern Colorado Geodata Laboratory |
About the Geodata Lab:
The Geodata Lab
was created in 2000 with a five-year “Program of Excellence Award”
from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. The Geodata Lab’s
mission is threefold: 1) Education,
2) Research, and 3) Outreach.
We use two labs in Columbine Hall equipped with 38 Windows 2000 PC’s
running the latest suite of GIS software, as well peripherals such as
Global Positioning Systems (GPS), plotters, and digitizers.
The Southern Colorado Geodata Lab is a center for education
in the latest geographic technologies and applications. One of the fastest
growing departments at UCCS, Geography and Environmental Studies currently
has 150 undergraduate majors in the program and 21 Master’s students.
Beginning in January, we will also be offering ESRI certified short-courses
in ArcGIS8.2 software for professionals in the community and surrounding
areas.
The Department of Geography and Environmental Studies boasts nationally
recognized and award-winning faculty members and a graduate program in
Applied Geography. This, along with the advanced equipment the Geodata
Lab provides, allows for relevant and exciting research
on many topics, including natural physical systems, population and society,
natural hazard mitigation and policy issues, and other applied uses of
GIS.
Outreach projects within the
University and larger community have included map creation for various
non-profit organizations, GPS outings with local elementary students,
habitat characterization/identification studies, and an interactive map
of geologic hazards in Colorado Springs and El Paso County on the web
for public information. Our base of excellent undergraduate and graduate
student workers and researchers, allows the Geodata Lab to conduct top-notch
GIS projects and geo-spatial research at a lower cost than private GIS
companies and consulting firms.
Example Outreach Project:
"Hazards Mapping on the Web "
The city of Colorado Springs has several unique geological conditions that can cause problems in dwellings and commercial sites if not recognized and mitigated. The Geodata Lab has created and maintains a website with fully interactive, GIS-based maps of the area. Go to Maps...
Read more...
The Online Geo-Hazards Map (web.uccs.edu/geogenvs/Hazards/), shows areas of risk from landslides, mine subsidence, unstable slopes, debris fans, debris slides, floodplains, rock falls, talus, swelling soils, and dipping bedrock.
The map is fully interactive, allowing the user to move around the map, zoom in to different scales, query the data, and choose which features to display.
The interactive map is accessible from
Colorado Springs or anywhere around the world via Internet connection.
We are linked from the UCCS Geography and Environmental Studies home page
(web.uccs.edu/geogenvs) as well as the City of Colorado Springs (www.springsgov.com)
home page.