GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH LABORATORY

The Geographical Research Laboratory does spatial analysis and cartographic work. Geographic Information Systems and Science (GIS) are applied to solve spatial problems, help manage environmental problems, and map patterns and processes. The laboratory is managed by Dr. Miriam Helen Hill and Dr. Thomas Baucom. Both undergraduate and graduate students cooperate in the research in association with the geography undergraduate major and in association with the Spatial Analysis and Management Concentration in the Master of Public Administration degrees offered in the department.

The wide-ranging data sets include sufficient detail to support regional concentration on problems in Alabama and the local area of Calhoun County. In combination with department faculty, an environmental emphasis predominates. Currently, software use includes the ArcGIS/ArcInfo 9.1 suite of products and ArcView 3.3 from Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) and Intergraph’s, GeoMedia Professional 6.0. Idrisi from Clark University, Adobe Illustrator, and the MicroSoft Office Suite are also available for remote sensing analysis, graphic production, and spreadsheet, database, presentation, and report generation. Hardware includes a Hewlett-Packard 42” large format printer, a large format scanner, twenty Dell personal computers, four tablet digitizers, laser printer, and various scanners. Color laser printer capability is supplied through the facilities of the Archaeological Resource Laboratory. The Geographical Research Laboratory also maintains a server to provide a website at http://www-geography.jsu.edu to display environmental data to the World Wide Web using ArcIMS.

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