Category Archives: Environmental Science

Archaeology: Examining Its Past and the Future

What is Archaeology? Simply, archaeology is the study of people in the past, their activities and actions, cultural practices, tools and technological development, and in some cases (where possible) their superstitious and religious practices, expression of their cultural identity and other beliefs about themselves or the world around them (1). It mostly looks at material…
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Environmental Biology & GIS

Environmental biology – rather like environmental chemistry – is a broad and growing subject that links environmental science to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Environmental biologists try to understand biological life as it relates to the environment – this can include impact on zoology, botany, ecology, landscape studies and more. Because of this landscape…
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Environmental Microbiology & GIS

Environmental microbiology is a growing niche area related to environmental biology, but dealing with the biology of lifeforms too small to see with the naked eye. Environmental microbiologists examine microbes as they relate to the environment – their effects on the landscape and how they are affected by it. This will include the spread of…
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Is It Safe? Raising Environmental Questions

When I hear this question, I think of Lawrence Olivier in Marathon Man probing Dustin Hoffman’s teeth to make him reveal the diamonds.  Today I repeat the question, but hopefully without the toothache. Albert Einstein said, “the environment is everything that is not me.”  Actually, “me” is definitely part of the environment.  It took us…
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How Sustainability Uses GIS

GIS is fast becoming the tool to use for sustainability and planning as we seek to maximise the efficiency of the environment around us and protect what needs to be protected while maintaining health and jobs in the modern economy. People who work in Sustainability know that many disparate elements must come together in order…
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Agricultural Science and GIS

GIS has still yet to be taken up in en masse in agricultural science yet there is massive potential for such areas as agricultural planning, attractive implications for the future of managing our crop production and increasing yields in line with other technology. Agricultural scientists are always looking at ways to best produce our crops,…
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Environmental Planning, Design, and GIS

If there is one area of environmental science in which GIS or Geographic Information Systems/Science is vital, it is Environmental Planning and Design. This is true whether we are looking at an urban or rural landscapes, both of which provide issues of their own with different sets of data and considerations. The role of an…
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Environmental Engineering and GIS

Geographic Information Systems/Science or GIS is becoming, if it is not already, a vital tool for the environmental sciences. It is more than a simple digital evolution from cartography to IT based geographic data and digital mapping offers enormous benefits to research, engineering, project management and resource allocation. Useful in the private and public sector,…
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Cultural Resources 101: Part of the Federal Environmental Process

The federal environmental process includes a myriad of individual subjects but there are five big players.  These are cultural resources, biology/ecology, hazardous materials, public outreach/involvement and permitting.  Cultural resources are relevant for every single federal project that must go through the environmental process.  The field encompasses archaeology (prehistoric and historic), historic architecture and Native American…
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Climate Science and GIS

GIS is growing and becoming vital to most sciences; right across the board in the public and private sector, everyone is realizing the benefits that digital mapping can bring to industry, to town planning, resource management and allocation, conservation and infrastructure management. In North America, it has been used to plot pipelines and plan relief…
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