Hi Everyone,
In my last blog post, which was tragically deleted, I mentioned that I was reading up on ArcGIS. What is ArcGIS, you ask?
Well…ArcGIS is a software package that lets you share and compile maps. It allows you to layer and analyze the maps so that you can see trends and data across layers in order to draw conclusions. It’s dauntingly powerful with almost an infinite number of toggles, buttons, adjustments, and functions.
Today, I spent 3 hours in the Geology Library taking a workshop on how to use this glorious monstrosity. Although I wouldn’t consider myself “tech-savvy”, the workshop was extremely beneficial. I now feel ready to compile my maps. Which is good…because that’s what’s on the table for this week.
I’m excited to layer topography, groundcover, subsurface geology, stream paths, soil types, land use, and vegetation and start figuring out exactly what’s going on in Pescadero.
Tomorrow, Kate is going to help me download ParFlow, the modeling software that I’ll be using to create my hydraulic model. Learning that software is going to be significantly more difficult, but hopefully the Internet can teach me a thing or two.
Or three.
Besides acquiring all of these mad software skillz, I’ve been spending a lot of quality time with Mendeley.
No, Mendeley isn’t a person.
Mendeley is a bibliography tool that allows you to compile a digital library of your sources. You can annotate them through it’s “view” feature, and share them between collaborators. Then, when the time is right, you can compile them into a bibliography page. It’s great because it allows you to keep all of your documents in one place, without cluttering up you desktop with folders and folders of papers.
Now that I’ve accrued a decent number of papers on the region, I’ve moved on to finding papers about how surface and ground water interacts, and how water management can be treated under the lens of ecosystem services.
For all non-scientists out there:
Ecosystem Services: a service or good that has value, that is provided by nature. Ex: Forests provide timber, Mountains provide a good time, and lakes provide drinking water
If I can find a picture of the map I created today in the workshop, I’ll make sure to post it under this post. I’m sure I’ll be posting again soon with a poignant description of my misadventures with ParFlow!