GIS Days 2021

All GIS Days sessions take place via Zoom Webinar. Live captions will be provided by a professional real-time captioner for all sessions.

Are you at Western and interested in watching streamed sessions in person?

• The electronic instruction room in Weldon’s Map and Data Centre is streaming sessions daily between 9:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
• In celebration of International GIS Day, the Dept. of Geography and Environment is hosting a special streaming day on Nov. 17 in the Social Science Centre, room 1302. Email Kathy Tang for details and reserve your seat! Limited spots available, refreshments will be provided.

Fill out the event feedback form for a chance to win an Etsy, Skip the Dishes or Chapters/Indigo virtual gift card (valued at $25 or $50). Don’t forget to vote for your favourite sessions as well, the top lightning talks at the end of the week will receive Peoples’ Choice Awards (valued between $25 and $200).

Submit your map fashion contest photo to @sjanzen on Twitter or sjanzen@brocku.ca before 4:30 p.m. EST on Nov. 18th to win a $50 virtual gift card!

Sessions last 45 to 50 minutes and are followed by breaks of 5 to 10 minutes. Please see the program (coming soon) for details.

Attendees are automatically muted by session moderators when joining the Zoom Webinar.

Attendees can participate by:

• Writing out their questions in the Q&A text box throughout the session, or
• Speaking using the mic during the discussion period.

If using the mic, attendees should use the “raise your hand” feature during the discussion period to signal to the moderator that they wish to be unmuted.

Most lightning talks, tutorials, and demonstrations will be available to watch asynchronously following the wrap-up of GIS Days. Links will be sent to registrants to access recordings. All videos will be captioned.

Lightning talk session, 9:30 am

Duration: 1 hour (7 minutes per presentation)

• GIS and the united nations sustainable development goals - Amit Arora, Professor, Durham College
• Mapping the sporting wealth of a community – Abby Perfetti, Master of Arts in Kinesiology - Management & Leadership Student, Western University
• Investigating climate change basics using storymaps – Beth Hundey, eLearning and Curriculum Specialist, Centre for Teaching and Learning, Western University
• StoryMapping Queer Dallas – Isaac Williams, GIS and Data Services Librarian, Brock University

Demonstration session, 11:00 am

Duration: 1 hour (20 minutes per presentation)

• The geography of Pokémon Go – Vivian Kong
• Using Google Earth and census data to explore your city's spatial structure - David Gordon, Professor, Dept. Geography & Planning, Queens University

Lunch-time teachers tutorial, 12:30 pm

Duration: 1 hour

• Mapping like a 6th grader – Lauren Sinclair, Middle school GIS teacher & educator consultant, Esri, The French American International School, Esri
• Embedding spatial technology and geographic literacy into the Ontario Geography Curriculum - Ewan Geddes, Assistant Curriculum Leader CWS York Mills C.I., Can Geo Ed Ontario Rep, York Mills Collegiate Institute TDSB

Lightning talk session, 2:00 pm

Duration: 1 hour (7 minutes per presentation)

• A Snapshot of COFI's Forest Education Program - Jim Costley Manager, Forest Education, BC Council of Forest Industries (no recording)
• Mapping as problem-solving: adopting a geospatial approach to the study of inclusive education - Alexandra Minuk, PhD Student, Faculty of Education, Queens University
• Municipal elections in Quebec: How political parties can strengthen the democratic process - Amanda Gutzke, Undergraduate Student and USRI Participant, Western University
• Additional Dwelling Area (ADU) estimation in GIS: Application to the City of Windsor, Ontario, Canada – Terence Dimatulac, PhD Student, University of Windsor

Lightning talk session, 3:30 pm

Duration: 1 hour (7 minutes per presentation)

• Understanding electrification solutions - Benjamin Stewart, Senior Geographer, The World Bank Group
• MCE Geo Hub – Ryan Fortier, Geomatics Technician, Canadian Armed Forces (no recording)
• Development of a GIS tool for integrating road infrastructure risk analysis associated with the geomorphological dynamics of watercourses - William Massey, Research Associate, Concordia University
• GIS in telecommunications: Usage of spatial databases - Justin Sungsoon Chang, GIS Analyst, MOBIA Technology Innovations

Lightning talk session, 9:30 am

Duration: 1 hour (7 minutes per presentation)

• Mapping coastal erosion disadvantage in Scotland - Craig MacDonell, GIS & Remote Sensing Technician, University of Glasgow, School of Geographical and Earth Sciences (no recording)
• Estimating ecosystem processes from autonomous underwater gliders in the Great Lakes - Nolan Pearce, Postdoctoral Fellow, Trent University
• Ecological Connectivity/Restoration Project outside of Point Pelee National Park – Tom Dufour, Geomatics Technician, Essex Region Conservation Authority
• Watershed creation and where does water flow? – Terry Chapman, Upper Thames River Conservation Authority

Demonstration session, 11:00 am

Duration: 1 hour (20 minutes per presentation)

• Finding historical topographic maps in the Scholars GeoPortal - Amber Leahey, Data & GIS Librarian, Scholars Portal, Ontario Council of University Libraries
• Open-source software for geospatial data discovery, exploration and reuse - Kevin Worthington, Geospatial Data Manager, Colorado State University Libraries

Networking session, 12:30 pm

Duration: 1 hour

• Careers in Canada's GIS and remote sensing sector - Jonathan Murphy, Managing Director, GoGeomatics Canada (no recording)

Lightning talk session, 2:00 pm

Duration: 1 hour (7 minutes per presentation)

• M & M: Muskox and Movement - Hayleigh Conway and Paden Lennie, Geomatics Technician / Resource Management Officer II, Parks Canada
• Impact of urban development on the longterm viability of a Blanding’s turtle population - Anne-Christine Auge, PhD Candidate, Trent University
• The interaction of deer and hunters in Oklahoma, USA - Caitlyn North, Undergraduate Thesis Student, Western University

Lightning talk session, 3:30 pm

Duration: 1 hour (7 minutes per presentation)

• Mapping library fellowships with ArcGIS StoryMaps - Jason Dyck, Teaching & Learning Librarian, Western Libraries, Western University
• Mapping works in German Literature for a Digital Humanities Course - René Duplain, GIS Librarian, University of Ottawa
• Mapping farmstead-sanctuary connectivity using least cost path - Christine Davidson, Doctoral Candidate/Sessional Instructor, Department of Classics, McMaster University
• Open Educational Resources and GIS - Emily Carlisle-Johnston, Research and Scholarly Communications Librarian, Western Libraries, Western University
• Mapping medieval flood mitigation strategies for AR educational gaming – Zack MacDonald, Map Librarian, Western Libraries, Western University

Lightning talk session, 9:30 am

Duration: 1 hour (7 minutes per presentation)

• The Loyalist Migration Project - Jacob Vanderhoeven
• Munsee-Delaware map - Claudia Jones
• Herzberg50 - Ben Harris
• Sites of the 'Second Wave': Mapping London women's history - Sophie Thompson and Sydney Cabral-Poleck, Undergraduate Students, Huron University College

Lightning talk session, 11:00 am

Duration: 1 hour (7 minutes per presentation)

• Weather extremes in England's Little Ice Age, 1500-1700 - Madeline Bassnett and Daryl Wakunick, Associate Professor and PhD/Research Assistant, Department of English and Writing Studies, Western University
• Using GIS to re-imagine historical Niagara - Jessica Linzel, Historical Researcher, Brock University
• Getting a ley of the land: Fostering urban legibility through ley line mapping - Colton Sherman, English PhD Candidate & ASP Peer Coach, Western University
• Researching Military Service using Geovisualization in Eleventh to Twelfth Century Normandy - Christopher Hewitt, Lecturer, Geography and Tourism Studies, Brock University

Networking session, 12:30 pm

Duration: 1 hour

Lightning talk session, 2:00 pm

Duration: 1 hour (7 minutes per presentation)

• Quantifying aquatic macrophytes with satellite, drone, and rake data – Robert Bailey, Professor, Ontario Tech University
• Urban tree canopy assessment using geospatial technologies: A case study of the town of Lincoln, Ontario - Baharak Razaghirad, Master of Sustainability Student, Brock University
• Evaluating effect of tree canopy cover on human thermal comfort – Arthur Dolinar, Undergraduate Student, Department of Geography and the Environment, Western University
• Google Earth Engine: A case study in forest cover and landscape metric calculation - Miranda Postma, NSERC Research Assistant, Geospatial Lab, Department of Geography and the Environment, Western University
• Empowering the human-nature bond - Valeria Widjaja, Sustainable Finance, Research Assistant, Ivey Business School, Western University

Plenary session, 3:30 pm

Duration: 1 hour

• What to expect when you're mapping - John Nelson, Map Person, Esri

Trivia event, 7:30 pm

Duration: 3 hours (approximately)
Geography-Themed Trivia Night. Prizes to be won

How to play: Join with a team, or let us put you in a team. Questions will be streamed via the Twitch channel, and team answers will be collected via the Trivia Discord. Lots of prizes up for grabs.

Lightning talk session, 9:30 am

Duration: 1 hour (7 minutes per presentation)

Theme: International Week
In celebration of International Week, join presenters from South Korea, Pakistan, and Ontario as they chat about digital mapping topics from around the world.

• Galaxy mapping by machine learning classification - Robin Kwik, Masters Student, Department of Geography and the Environment, Western University
• The Northern Tornadoes Project: Mapping Canada's tornadoes - Aaron Jaffe, The Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University
• How GIS applications help us to rethink our relationship with the nature - Leo Poon, Survey Officer, Planning Department
• Combining measurements of built-up area, nighttime light, and travel time distance for detecting changes in urban boundaries: Introducing the BUNTUS Algorithm - Muhammad Luqman GIS Specialist, RIMES International

Demonstration session, 11:00 am

Duration: 1 hour (20 minutes per presentation)

• Processing big geospatial data using FME Workbench and other cool tricks to get your desired output - Meaghan Kenny, Geospatial Data Specialist, MacOdrum Library, Carleton University
• HGIS and local museums - Why the future of collections management systems is spatial - Ben Woodward and Julia Armstrong, GIS and Digital Archives Co-op Student and Volunteer Archivist, Bayfield Historical Society and Archives

Networking session, 12:30 pm

Duration: 1 hour

This session will be run as a Zoom Meeting as opposed to a Webinar. This is an open meeting of the London GIS Working Group, anyone who is interested in learning about GIS jobs and listeing to GIS professionals is welcome to attend. The session will run as a show-and-tell round table.

Demonstration session, 2:00 pm

Duration: 1 hour (20 minutes per presentation)

• Tracking COVID-19 in low- and middle-income (LMIC) countries using open source GIS tools – Crystal Wai, Undergraduate Student, Mount Royal University
• ArcGIS dashboard for COVID-19 – Kathy Tang, Department of Geography and Environment, Western University

Tutorial session, 3:30 pm

Duration: 1.5 hours

• Starting from scratch using QGIS – Martin Healy, Professor, Fanshawe College School of Design

Tutorial session, 10:30 am

Duration: 3 hours

• Featuring a brief introduction of Western’s Esri Canada Centres of Excellence Program (10 minutes) – Kathy Tang, Department of Geography and the Environment, Western University
• Spatial data science workflows with ArcGIS (2 hours 50 min) – Michael Leahy, Higher Education Developer/Analyst, joined by Anastassios Dardas and Hossein Hosseini, Higher Education Specialists, Esri Canada

Workshop participants will need an ArcGIS Online subscription user account and a copy of ArcGIS Pro installed and licensed on a compatible Windows PC.

Tutorial session, 2:00 pm

Duration: 2 hours

• Introduction to ArcGIS Online - Sharon Janzen, Map Library Associate/Geospatial Data Coordinator, Brock University

No experience necessary but a curiosity for all things 'mappy' would be an asset. Be sure to have a valid login for ArcGIS Online (public or organizational accounts welcome). Visit https://www.arcgis.com/index.html to sign up for a public account.