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Outreach
GIS Outreach is an initiative of Penn State's Office of Outreach and Cooperative Extension. The University's outreach mission is to partner with our constituents to engage real-world problems in ways that will improve the quality of life in the Commonwealth and beyond. The Land Analysis Laboratory - a research unit of Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences - is an established leader in the application of geographic information technologies for environmental management and local government. The GIS Outreach initiative teams the Land Analysis Lab with the e-Education Institute of Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences to expand public access to advanced GIS applications.
Presently, visitors can access information about and resources for the LESA ArcView GIS application that was developed by Land Analysis Lab staff to automate the farmland ranking process for applicants to Pennsylvania's Agricultural Conservation Easements Purchase Program. Resource pages for other GIS applications are currently under development. Like the LESA ArcView GIS Project, these new pages will be accessed through the drop down navigation menu in the upper left hand corner of this page.
If you would like to be included on a mailing list with announcements about the various GIS Outreach programs, please give us your contact information.
Pennsylvania Spatial Data Access http://www.pasda.psu.edu
PASDA provides a wide variety of outreach and education services to the citizens, governments,
and businesses of Pennsylvania. One of the primary goals of PASDA is to promote the knowledge
and use of GIS, geospatial data, and metadata in the Commonwealth. Currently on PASDA, you will
find GIS tutorials, an extensive FAQ, information about metadata, resources for teachers, watershed
organizations, and conservation groups,and an online metadata entry form.
GIS Outreach Projects
Penn State Institutes for the Environment is involved in numerous GIS outreach projects which benefit the Commonwealth and the region. These projects include:
- PSIE is partnering with Cornell University, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and the PA Game Commmission for the 2nd Pennsylvania Breeding Bird Atlas http://www.carnegiemnh.org/atlas/index.htm
- PSIE is partnering with WITF television and the PA Historic and Museum Commission for Explore PA History http://www.explorepahistory.com
- PSIE partnered with PSU Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, the PSU Cooperative Wetlands Center, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, PA Geologic Survey, and Tussey Mountain Hawk Watch for Explore PA: Soaring the Ridges http://www.soaring.psu.edu
- PSIE is partnering with the Chesapeake Bay Program for the Chesapeake Bay Data Hub http://www.chesapeakebay.net/cims/
- PSIE works with the USGS to manage the National Biological Information Infrastructure Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Node http://far.nbii.gov
- PSIE has worked with watershed and conservation groups across the state for the USGS FGDC CAP Grant - Watershed and Conservation Outreach Program http://www.fgdc.gov
- PSIE and PSU School of Forest Resources worked with PA DCNR to develop the Pennsylvania GAP Species Explorer http://gis1.pasda.psu.edu/website/GapX/map.asp
- The Pennsylvania Catalog of Internet Map Services and Applications, PennCAT http://penncat.pasda.psu.edu/metadataexplorer/explorer.jsp
- Hurricane Ivan Imagery Viewer http://gis1.pasda.psu.edu/website/ivan/