Geospatial Training

Geocaching: A High Tech Game of Hide and Seek

CLEAR’s Geospatial Training Program recently held a workshop for the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History on the art (and fun) of geocaching. Have you heard of geocaching? No? Then you fall solidly into the “muggle” category – aka a human who is not in the know about the greatest real-world treasure hunt that’s happening […]

CT ECO: Shedding Some Light on Connecticut’s Lidar

Light Detection and Ranging – sounds fancy and highly technical, right? That’s because it is! In a nutshell, Lidar data shows the elevation of the earth’s surface.   But the cool parts are what Lidar looks like, shows, and how people are using it.  Why am I blogging about Lidar now? Two reasons – the […]

GPS “Apposphere” – Navigating Smartphone Data Collection Apps

December 17, 2013 Presented by Cary Chadwick and David Dickson, UConn CLEAR A simple search for “GPS” apps in the Apple App store or on Google Play will return thousands of results for free or low cost mapping apps now available on your smartphone. So where do you start? This webinar will start to answer […]

CLEAR’s Geospatial Training Program Goes Global

When an email from Dr. Yahaya Umar at the Nigerian Defence Academy came across my desk last July indicating interest in CLEAR’s hands-on workshop on Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, I was initially a bit skeptical. Why would anyone from the other side of the world want to travel all the way to UConn to […]

Where in Connecticut?

Connecticut (and the rest of the world for that matter) looks so different from above than from the ground.  I spend a good deal of time looking at aerial imagery of Connecticut including different color combinations, times of year (leaves or no leaves) and different years to see change. There are many places that I […]

Teens Master the Art (and fun!) of Mapping at UConn’s NRC Academy

The Natural Resource Conservation Academy (NRCA) is an innovative program in conservation and land use planning for a select group of Connecticut high school students. The Academy starts with a week-long field course at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Throughout the week, students interact with UConn faculty and learn about mapping and geospatial information, […]

Goodbye GPS Unit, Hello Smart Phone

Smartphones are the swiss army knife of the digital world. They have replaced countless single-function gadgets from calculators to cameras to pagers to, um, phones! But for mapping geeks, one of the gadgets they have not quite been able to shake is the handheld GPS unit, at least until now. The Geospatial Training Program at […]

Crackerjack Cartography: Mapping Our National Pastime

The first of April means the start of something magical to many, and I’m not just talking wood frogs and practical jokes. It’s Opening Day, the start of baseball season in America. A day when our nation’s pastime and my personal pastime collide. I love baseball and I love maps. This time of year, I […]

Connecticut Has New Aerial Imagery

What’s stunning, statewide, and captured last March? No, not mountain lions — Connecticut’s new aerial imagery! And, while it may not be quite good enough to help you find your car keys, it’s probably good enough to allow you to identify the car in your driveway.  Here are some key facts about this great new […]

NEW! Land Cover for the Long Island Sound Watershed

You may have heard of the Connecticut’s Changing Landscape project and website that provides basic land cover information through five directly comparable land cover datasets, from 1985, 1990, 1995, 2002 and 2006, allowing us to look at, and quantify, landscape change in Connecticut.  Now, thanks to the support of the Long Island Sound Study, we […]

CLEAR/DEEP Team Wins Award for "CT ECO" Mapping Website

The CLEAR and CT DEEP team responsible for the development and operation of the Connecticut Conditions Online, or CT ECO, website has won the 2012 Public Service Award from the Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association. CT ECO is a highly advanced internet mapping site that provides access to the state’s natural resource data. […]

CLEAR’s Newest Geospatial Technology Course Focuses on Land Trusts

CLEAR’s Geospatial Training Program (GTP) has partnered with the Connecticut Land Conservation Council to develop a new course for land trust staff and volunteers. The first workshop was held on a sunny Friday in September. The one-day course is designed to teach participants how to use a handheld GPS receiver to map property boundaries and […]

Demonstration of ArcGIS.com

July 18, 2012 Presented by Emily Wilson, UConn CLEAR Interactive web maps are powerful tools for organizing and disseminating information for public consumption. For years, Google has led this revolution in online mapping by making it easy for practically anyone to create a custom web map of their own using Google Maps and Google Earth. […]

Rain Garden App Coming Soon!

Several CLEAR programs (o.k., since you asked, it’s the CT NEMO, National NEMO Network, and the Geospatial Training Programs) have teamed up to develop a “rain garden” app for smart phones.  A rain garden is a vegetated depression that accepts and infiltrates runoff from a rooftop, driveway of other impervious surface.  Unlike many  “Low Impact […]

ArcGIS.com: A User-Friendly Tool for Creating Maps Online

May 8, 2012 Presented by Cary Chadwick and Emily Wilson, UConn CLEAR Interactive web maps are powerful tools for organizing and disseminating information for public consumption. For years, Google has led this revolution in online mapping by making it easy for practically anyone (even you) to create a custom web map of their own using […]

GTP conducts training on ArcGIS in Asheville, NC

CLEAR’s Geospatial Training Program (GTP) is conducting a workshop this week (March 21 and 22) in Asheville, NC for the USDA Southern Regional Water Program. The workshop focuses on the use of ArcGIS.com, a relatively new option for users of all levels of technical skill to create and share maps on the web.  The workshop […]

Emily Wilson Honored by CT Technology Council

CLEAR Geospatial Educator Emily Wilson is being honored as a Connecticut Woman of Innovation by the CT Technology Council.  As stated at the CTC website, “the awards program, sponsored by the Connecticut Technology Council, recognizes women in the workforce and at the high school and college levels, who are innovators, role models and leaders in […]

Using CLEAR Website Tools for Local Conservation Planning Webinar

November 8, 2011 Presented by Emily Wilson and Chet Arnold, UConn CLEAR Eligible for 1 CM credit. Local land trusts and conservation commissions are major players in land conservation in Connecticut, yet few have direct access to technical resources that can help them in their task of permanently protecting open space. In many cases, web-based […]