ECISMA

Trees of the Everglades Slide Presentation

Invasive Plants and Animals of the Everglades Presentation

USDA Web Soil Survey

As a beginner user with the help of the tutorial I was able to browse through the information.  If I did not have the tutorial I would have felt just as frustrated as I did trying to use the ArcGIS Mapping tool discussed my previous post.  One use for this tool would be in tracking levels of carbon, phosporus, nitrogen, etc in soil samples taken in protected areas.  The information collected could aid in creating better management practices in regards to the runoff of pesticides and pollution from surrounding areas.  This is especially important in wetland areas like the Everglades where there is a delicate balance and tiny changes in soil composition can effect the entire ecosystem and its biodiversity.

I do feel this is a useful tool for those knowledgeable with similar programs or the termanology used when talking about soil.  As for the average person it is a little bit overwhelming and would require additional information to create effective tools for the use of promoting biodiversity.

http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/WebSoilSurvey.aspx?aoissa=FL615&location=(-81.56636%2026.99120,-79.29216%2025.73305)

Climate and Weather Resources for the Everglades

This link provides historical climate data from 1961-1990 by choosing a point on the map.  It then creates a number of graphs for the user.

http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/cgi-bin/data/usclimate/state.pl?lane=fast&state=FL

This Florida State University site, Florida Climate Center allows the user to create a climate graph based on data from one of 100 Florida climate tracking stations. It also has other data specific to Florida such as a discussion on humidity with maps showing humidity levels.

http://climatecenter.fsu.edu/climate-data-access-tools/climate-data-visualization

http://climatecenter.fsu.edu/topics/humidity

The site also has a link to: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/

Where I found this link:

This is a bookmark specific to the South Florida area including the Everglades where the user can look at a large number of current conditions in the area from temperature, wind speed, sky cover, etc.

http://digital.weather.gov/?zoom=7&lat=26.02432&lon=-81.47145&layers=F000BTTTFTT&region=0&element=11&mxmz=false&barbs=false&subl=TFFFF&units=english&wunits=nautical&coords=latlon&tunits=localt

This map on Wundermap allows the user to look at current data or historical data for a selected area by adding different layers.  The map can also be put in motion.

https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/?lat=37.77490&lon=-122.41940&zoom=10&type=terrain&units=english&tl.play=0&tl.spd=2&tl.dur=1&tl.mode=simple&groupSevere=1&groupHurricane=1&groupFire=1&groupCamsPhotos=1&groupRealEstate=1&eyedropper=0&drought=0&extremes=1&extremes.db=ncdc&extremes.alldates=0&extremes.maxt=1&extremes.mint=1&extremes.lomx=0&extremes.himn=0&extremes.prcp=0&extremes.snow=0&extremes.alltime=1&extremes.yearly=0&extremes.monthly=0&extremes.daily=1&extremes.storm=0&extremes.startdate=11-03-2014&extremes.enddate=11-04-2014&fault=0&favs=0&femaflood=0&fire=0&firewfas=0&fissures=0&fronts=0&hurrevac=0&hur=0&labels=0&lightning=0&livesurge=0&mm=0&ndfd=0&rad=0&dir=1&dir.mode=driving&sst=0&sat=0&seismicrisk=0&svr=0&ski=0&snowfall=0&stateLines=0&stormreports=0&tor=0&tfk=0&tsunami=0&riv=0&wxsn=0&cams=0&pix=0&PrecipStart=0&favs=0

This website allows the user to search through government data for different information providing maps and data on climate for the United States.

https://catalog.data.gov/dataset?q=climate&sort=none&groups=climate5434&ext_location=&ext_bbox=&ext_prev_extent=-142.03125%2C8.754794702435617%2C-59.0625%2C61.77312286453146

Google My Map vs. ArcGIS Explorer Desktop

GOOGLE MY MAPS

My experience with Google My Maps was a positive one.  Being a novice map builder I found it to be very user friendly.  I liked that the user is able to create multiple layers easily by importing data or adding points to the map.  However, while creating this map I found that on occasion I had fully created a point on the map only to realize that I had created it in the wrong layer.   When trying to move the point I was disappointed that it couldn’t be moved to a different layer but, had to be completely recreated and the original deleted.

The ability to have access to a large number of photos and YouTube videos to add to the map is a plus.  I also liked the ability to add URL links to web pages for additional information.  I would have liked to have been able to use photographs directly off the hard drive of my computer not just the ones available through Goggle Image Search, Image URL, or YouTube Search. 

Overall, I think this is a mapping tool that a person with any range of experience can easily use and I enjoyed the process of learning and creating a basic map.

The map I created through the program:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1MeA-3gx03cUC96aN3SFpm7LzN2k&vomp=1&cid=mp&cv=V6Ul6-MCnQo.en.



ArcGIS EXPLORER DESKTOP

My experience using ArcGIS couldn’t be more different than my one with Google My Maps.  Being a novice map builder I found the ArcGIS program difficult to use and was unsuccessful at finding any useful tutorials to give me insight into the program.  I did try to use the help function but, I felt it assumed that the reader had previously used other versions of the program or other related programs.

After being provided some help from my professor I was able to play around with the program and get a better feel for it.  I can see the unique benefit of the 2D/3D function that this program provides that Google My Maps does not.  If the initial goal of the user is to create maps based on already collected data this program would be sufficient.  However, the program is not user friendly and if trying to engage the general population by creating an interactive citizen science program promoting biodiversity stewardship through the use of maps I think the use of this program would fail.

Classification of Organisms Slide Show