Education & Training

RGIS - Educational Modules, Chesapeake Wilkes University

Introduction to GIS
and CITYgreen – An Environmental Planning Tool

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About This Module

This is both an informational and “hands-on” education module emphasizing concepts, terminology, visualizations, procedures, and applications of GIS and land use planning and management for communities.  This module complements the previous two education modules (watersheds and stormwater) from Chesapeake Wilkes (see below) and is intended to be “hands-on” with example data sets and exercises.  This module is provided in several parts:

Part 1.  PowerPoint providing background information on CITYgreen with example data sets and analysis for the study area, Toby Creek.  This is listed as “CG Presentation.ppt.”

Part 2. GIS data for Toby Creek - a tributary of the American Heritage River (Susquehanna) watershed - are provided in order to allow hands-on applications and analysis with CITYgreen to estimate the economic value of trees and forest in the watershed relative to savings in stormwater runoff, carbon sequestration (to incrementally “offset” affects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere), and air pollutant removal (e.g., oxides of sulfur and nitrogen).

Part 3.  CITYgreen Overview bulletin – intended and in review/development as an RGIS technical bulletin at University of Wisconsin.  Available here as a supplemental reference document (with journal citations on the economic value of ecosystems) for this module.

If there is an interest in additional background material for this module, please see Chesapeake Wilkes’ “Stormwater Management Concepts and Tools for Local Communities: A Focus on CITYgreen” module and “GIS Watershed Concepts for Local Communities and Environmental Groups” module.  While these two modules may provide interesting and helpful information, they are not essential to being able to do this CITYgreen module.

After a model run and analysis of the Toby Creek watershed for existing conditions of land cover (early 1990s actually), several land development scenarios are simulated to assess the economic loss when natural areas (forest) are removed.  The use of interpretation and use of these data for land use planning purposes are considered along with model assumptions and limitations.  Model output will be generated that is similar to that illustrated in the PowerPoint from the “Stormwater Management Concepts and Tools for Local Communities: A Focus on CITYgreen” module.

The second part of the module provides GIS data to allow hands-on applications of CITYgreen; this part of the exercise will use ArcView 3.x and CITYgreen 5.0 since local planning groups and/or environmental organizations may already have these from community grant programs to obtain GIS software.  The use of ArcGIS and CITYgreen 7.0 will be demonstrated at a later time.

Module Audience

This module is for involved citizens, environmental groups, local government officials and township managers, and the general public involved with stormwater problems and issues of land use planning from a community watershed perspective.  This module assumes that the instructor is knowledgeable about GIS, geospatial data, and basic applications with GIS, including CITYgreen as an ArcView extension.

Module Materials & Tools

  • PowerPoint presentation with some annotation of most slides
  • Hands-on exercises with real data (Toby Creek, PA) – illustrated in the PowerPoint presentation
  • GIS Data from CITYgreen and site specific data for Toby Creek
  • Instructor Guide with information on use of GIS data sets for this hands-on module

The CITYgreen portion of the module has study site shape files and land cover (from satellite imagery) data for three different applications:  Toby Creek Watershed; a land trust acquisition near a new nature center along a remote area of the Susquehanna River; and Miller Mountain, Pennsylvania’s second highest vertical relief along a scenic region of the Susquehanna River.  These three sites illustrate complementary approaches to land use planning, each with different environmental features and community uses.  Additional GIS data for each site is provided in order to construct maps to highlight relative conditions at each location.

The module could potentially be reformatted as an exercise guidebook on GIS, land use planning, and CITYgreen modeling concepts covered from a watershed perspective.

Module Software & Hardware Needs

  • ArcView 3.x
  • CITYgreen 5.0
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Internet access via an internet browser
  • PC laptop with sufficient RAM and storage to run the software
  • Projector

For More Information Contact:

Dale Bruns, Wilkes University
150-180 S River Street
PO Box 111
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 18766
Email: dbruns@wilkes.edu