Award-winning National Geographic photojournalist Dennis Dimick leads the celebration of International GIS Day and Geography Awareness Week at Ohio University during the second annual GIS Open House on Wednesday, Nov. 18, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Steven L. Schoonover Center for Communication Lower Level Atrium.
This event is free and open to the OHIO community and the public, and light refreshments will be available.
“Geography connects people to their environment, and maps enable us to visualize these connections and spatial patterns. GIS Day is a chance to raise awareness about how important these relationships are in our lives, and how we use spatial data on a daily basis,” says James Dyer, chair of the OHIO Geography Department, said. “Ultimately, GIS Day helps build geographic literacy.”
The special presentation by Dimick, executive environment editor of National Geographic Magazine, will be from noon to 1:30 p.m. in Schoonover Room 145. He will lead a narrated visual journey using photography, animations, maps and time-lapse satellite images that reveal the dramatic human-induced transformation of the planet, or as scientists have called it, the “Anthropocene Era.”
Interactive displays at the GIS Open House will showcase the many ways that Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is communicating all types of information about our dynamic world in a more visual way. The Open House demonstrates how GIS applies to University research and regional projects related to the environment, health, communication, policy, business, entertainment and much more.
“GIS technology is a very powerful tool – there’s probably not a single discipline on campus that couldn’t benefit from it,” Scott Miller, director of the Consortium for Energy, Economics & the Environment (CE3) part of the Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, said. “What we’re hoping to do through celebrating GIS Day is to expose people to GIS technology to demonstrate to them how it can help better manage resources and answer questions that have some sort of geographic component.”
GIS Open House hosts and sponsors include CE3; Voinovich School and its Environmental Studies program; Scripps College of Communications; Department of Geography; College of Arts and Sciences Themes: Sustainability Studies and Fire to iPhone; and the Ohio Chapter of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association.
For more information, follow @OhioGISDay and visit www.ohio.edu/ce3.
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