Education & Training

RGIS - Educational Modules, Great Plains

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Questions? Contact:

Leon Osborne, University of North Dakota
Regional Weather Information Center, UND Aerospace
3980 Campus Road Stop 9007
Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202
Email: leono@rwic.und.edu

The Use of Climate Data within a GIS

About This Module

This module is to educate and inform land use planners, water resource managers, and the general public on the use of climatological data in a GIS. The module in intended to give direction on replicating how to acquire climatological data for ones own geographical area and identifies some of the climate data sets currently available from the federal government. We will identify the methods used in accessing and downloading this climatological data and explain the methods used to process the data files once received. Also included is a description of the parameters that are observed from these reporting stations, along with reporting stations spatial variation from one region of the United States to another. The module also explains the importation of the station file that allows for the placement within the GIS of these surface stations. Included is an outline of the lesson, exercises with data sets and instructions, questions for discussions, other handouts, related information and publications, PowerPoint presentation materials, and as appropriate or applicable, web-based or stand-alone software.

Module Audience

This module is for those involved in the sciences with a basic understanding and knowledge of geographical information systems (GIS), internet browsing, and data downloads from the Internet. The general public who may not have a background in GIS can also use this module in order to learn how to access climate data available from government agencies. The basic structure of these data files allows them to be used in a spreadsheet without having to import them into a GIS.

Module Materials & Tools

  • PowerPoint presentation with annotation for each slide
  • Raw data for those who do not have access to the Internet, but still want to replicate the process

Module Software & Hardware Needs

  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • GIS software (optional – see below)
  • Projector

For basic use of this module, such as showing only the process of acquiring internet data, concepts, and terminology, only a computer running PowerPoint and a projector is required. For those who want to apply it with GIS operations, geographical information system software will be needed in order to import, analyze, and display the data. For this module, the ESRI suite of software was used, but other GIS suites should be available which could work with this basic type of text data.

For More Information Contact:

Leon Osborne, University of North Dakota
Regional Weather Information Center, UND Aerospace
3980 Campus Road Stop 9007
Grand Forks, North Dakota 58202
Email: leono@rwic.und.edu