Experience geography in the 21st century at GIS day

How do we use maps in the modern world? Your smart phone, GPS, digital camera and daily weather report all use modern versions of maps called geographic information systems. GIS day is an event that helps explain the growing importance of this technology in daily life.

Besides helping you find the closest restaurant on your smartphone, GIS is used to help make better business decisions, educate children and improve the overall quality of life in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and surrounding counties. The event showcases real-world applications of this technology in government, business, meteorology and school curriculum.

Owen Furuseth, UNC Charlotte associate provost for Metropolitan Studies and Extended Academic Programs, has been working with quality of life issues using GIS since the 1990s. Furuseth’s work on the Quality of Life Dashboard, which has been an on-going partnership with the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, will be featured with his co-presenter, Tobin Bradley, from Mecklenburg County. Fursueth said, “I alway enjoy being part of this event and meeting with people using GIS to see how their work is affecting areas of policy, planning, business and education.”

Part of this year’s event will be a hackathon. This is an event in which a tech-savvy group (computer programmers, software developers, graphic designers, interface designers and project managers) come together to create web-based developed tools (using maps with data) for public use. This event will showcase the award-winning interactive website entries from the local hackathon competition and event (register to participate). Other technology workshops will include GIS Internet applications.

There is also a lighter side to how GIS is used. In geocaching workshops, participants will embark on a treasure hunt in uptown Charlotte. Geocaching is a game played around the world using GPS coordinates to hide and find small containers called geocaches.

To help teach younger students about their world, the National Geographic Giant Traveling Map of South America will make its debut, before being displayed at the county’s schools.

Internationally, GIS day events are principally sponsored by the National Geographic Society, the Association of American Geographers, the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science, the U.S.G.S., the Library of Congress, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and the Environmental Systems Research Institute.