Integrative Spatial Modeling Project Initiatives
There are three main objectives for the 3-year Integrative Spatial Modeling Project:
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Faculty development in integrative spatial modeling. Foremost among project
objectives is training of faculty to incorporate integrative spatial modeling into their
teaching, particularly in a way that fosters a greater linkage among the natural sciences,
the social sciences, and the humanities. Toward that end, the project will conduct a
workshop in years one and two (three to four days) to provide training in spatial analysis
for fifteen faculty each year. The project will also sponsor a symposium at the end of the
initiative that will include external partners and will focus on project outcomes,
including assessment. We have received funding from Luce for the workshops and for the
symposium. Project Director Tsegaye Nega and ENTS Director Mark Kanazawa—in cooperation
with ENTS leadership, SERC, and ITS are responsible for planning and implementing all
workshops and for providing one-on-one support to faculty who seek to incorporate spatial
analysis into their courses.
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Faculty-student research on real-world problems using integrative spatial analysis as
a framework. ENTS faculty recognize the importance of involving students in
team-based investigation of real-world problems. The project emphasizes team-based
engagement, collaborative planning, and cooperative products by directly linking student
research to pressing environmental problems that arise from urbanization in the greater
Twin Cities metropolitan region.
The metro region is an ideal subject of study because of its geographical proximity to
Carleton, wide range of environments, availability of large socio-ecological databases, and
rapid growth issues. ENTS faculty, moreover, are already involved in the region's
environmental issues as scholars, residents, educators, and environmental activists. ENTS
has received Luce funding for faculty-student summer research, coordinated by Tsegaye Nega
and other faculty, that will focus on three issues:
- understanding the socio-economic determinants of increasing urbanization in the
region (especially the impact of roads and vehicles) and resulting patterns of land
use;
- assessing the impact of these patterns on ecosystems and human behavior, and
- developing spatial metrics useful for identifying/prioritizing conservation areas
and mitigation efforts.
Student teams, in cooperation with external partners, will assemble land-cover change data
in the region spanning decades and explore the rate, extent, and characteristics of land
conversion. They will then attempt to determine the key socio-economic determinants
underlying these changes by combining statistical analysis of socio-economic and
transportation data maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau and other agencies. Research will
engage students in developing tools useful to transportation policy planners and natural
resource managers.
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Incorporation of spatial analysis into the ENTS curriculum. The initiative
will provide faculty with curriculum development support to help them incorporate spatial
analysis into ENTS core courses, ENTS upper-level courses, and cross-listed elective
courses. These courses include:
- Core Courses. Faculty, drawn from across partner disciplines, will incorporate
spatial modeling modules into the ENTS gateway-level (first year, one-quarter) courses,
thereby introducing students to spatial modeling in a limited but significant way. The
junior colloquium, a two-quarter course, will involve formal introduction to spatial
modeling (first quarter) and project-based work (second quarter). The senior capstone,
directed by Tsegaye Nega, will feature a team-based project that requires spatial
modeling of a complex problem involving (at least during the three years of the
proposed project) urbanization and transportation.
- New ENTS Upper-Level Integrative Courses. ENTS Faculty will develop a methods
course and two new integrative ENTS upper-level courses. The methods course, taken
prior to the junior colloquium, will introduce students to a range of evaluative
skills, including research design, research methods, use of evidence, critical
thinking, hypothesis testing, and use of practical tools, including statistical
software and GIS. New upper-level integrative courses will be topic-based, requiring
student teams to define research questions, identify information and tools they need,
collectively analyze and evaluate data, and plan strategies to address problems.
Courses proposed by ENTS faculty thus far include:
(i) Field-intensive and group-based socio-ecological mapping,
(ii) Comparative Landscape Analysis Roads, and
(iii) Sustainability Planning and Managing Protected Areas in Urbanized
Landscapes
The objectives of these upper-level courses include (a) enhancing student understanding of
the relationship between the biophysical environment and the geo-demographic pattern of
human development; (b) enhancing student understanding of different approaches to analyzing
landscape change, with attention to integrating the various temporal and spatial scales
used by different disciplines; and (c) developing student problem-solving, collaborative
learning, and transferable skills (e.g., sampling strategies, mapping, use of GIS
applications), ensuring that students are prepared to accomplish capstone-level team
projects.
(iii) Incorporation of integrative spatial modeling units into existing ENTS elective
courses. The strength of ENTS results from involvement of faculty from across the
curriculum. Faculty offer electives counting towards an ENTS concentration, including
courses in international development (Sociology/Anthropology 312); American environmental
history (History 195); African environmental history (History 283); and environmental
geology (Geology 120). Not all cross-listed courses that count towards an ENTS
concentration will or should include spatial modeling. The purpose of the Integrative
Spatial Modeling Initiative is not to frame all environmental issues in terms of spatial
modeling. However, ENTS faculty, especially those who have enrolled and will be enrolling
in modeling workshops, anticipate that integrative spatial modeling will become
increasingly valuable in each discipline, meeting departmental needs and complementing the
integrative spatial modeling goals of ENTS.