Crowd-sourced tree map to cap Geography Awareness Week activities
Geography Awareness Week, featuring the fast-growing field of geospatial science and geography, will be a four-day extravaganza of documentaries, presentations and a crowd-sourced campus tree mapping expedition Nov. 17-20 at RU.
Sponsored by the RU Geography Club and the Department of Geospatial Science, Geography Awareness Week will highlight how the disciplines are becoming a fast-growing field and high-growth occupation, said Assistant Professor Stockton Maxwell.
The week will culminate with a crowd-sourced campus tree mapping expedition that will encourage volunteers to fan out across campus with their smart phones to identify and map the campus' rich arboreal inventory. In conjunction with the biology department, the mapping expedition is an example of how geospatial science works with other disciplines to understand spatial phenomena, said Maxwell.
"Geography and geospatial sciences relate to environmental issues that are important to other majors and disciplines. They touch on cultures, people, weather and business," said Geography Club President Daniel Honeycutt, a senior from Suffolk. "We want to let the campus community know of its importance and the things we are doing."
The Geography Awareness Week schedule is:
Monday, Nov.17
"Belarus in Cultural and Geopolitical Context," a talk by Grigory Ioffe, professor of geospatial science. Ioffe is the author of the recently published "Reassessing Lukashenka: Belarus in Cultural and Geopolitical Context," about the Belarusian national leader and the Eastern European country. 4 p.m., McConnell Library Main Floor
"Return of the River," a documentary about the largest dam removal project in the history of the United States and the effort to restore an eco-system. 7 p.m., Cook 107
Tuesday, Nov. 18
"The Meaning of Wild, " a high-definition documentary by wildlife cameraman Ben Hamilton that takes viewers on a journey by boat, plane, kayak and foot through the Tongass National Forest of Southeast Alaska. 7 p.m., Cook 107
Wednesday, Nov. 19
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day
Crowdsourced campus tree map expedition. Volunteers meet at the Bonnie Plaza to participate in the GIS Day effort to build a comprehensive tree map of the Radford University campus using their smart phones. 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Bonnie Plaza
Thursday, Nov. 20
DamNation, a film odyssey across America that explores the changing national attitude from pride in dams as engineering wonders to awareness of the life and health of American rivers. DamNation's majestic cinematography moves through rivers and landscapes altered by dams. 7 p.m., Cook 107
For more information, visit the RU Geospatial Science Facebook page or contact Maxwell at rmaxwell2@radford.edu or Andrew Foy at afoy@radford.edu.