Mapping Habitat Changes Through Time Using ArcGIS Online
Summary
In this activity, students use ArcGIS Online to visualize changes in California Black Bear habitats through time. Students begin by adding geospatial data layers, including black bear range data from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and historical wildfire perimeters from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Students then filter wildfire data to focus on the years 2020, 2021, and 2022. Using spatial analysis tools, they determine the area of black bear habitat affected by wildfires using overlay functions and then merge the data to assess cumulative impacts over the three-year period. Finally, students create a bar chart visualizing the total black bear habitat area impacted by wildfires over time. In this lab, students develop skills in GIS, spatial data filtering, and visual representation of environmental changes due to extreme events, such as wildfire.
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Context
Audience
This activity was designed for a lower-division "Earth System Biology" (i.e. biology for environmental sciences) course to apply ecosystem/ecology concepts while also introducing students to GIS applications. The activity introduces students to spatial analysis concepts using ArcGIS Online Map Viewer, focusing on assessing the impact of wildfires on California black bear habitats. It assumes no prior experience with GIS but some basic understanding of biological concepts, such as fundamental niches and the impacts of wildfires on wildlife. While this activity has been used effectively in a college-level course, it could be adapted for high school (or even middle school) learners.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
The activity has been used as a standalone laboratory assignment to introduce the principles of GIS. Students are typically lower-division undergraduates who have no previous experience with GIS software or spatial analysis. However, students should have some basic knowledge of biology, specifically ecological concepts like species distribution and how natural disasters such as wildfires impact local wildlife
How the activity is situated in the course
The activity is short (30-60min) and was designed as a standalone laboratory assignment to introduce students to GIS applications and spatial analysis in ArcGIS Online (free to students at our University). While topics such as the fundamental niche and wildfires are discussed, the activity was created to give students practice with spatial data analysis as a form of scientific investigation, and other datasets from ArcGIS Online can be used to similar effect. This activity builds on the students' understanding of the scientific method, ecological principles of fundamental niches, and expands upon how GIS tools can be used to analyze environmental conditions through time. ArcGIS Online is used because it has a user-friendly interface and requires no prior experience with ArcGIS software or datasets.
This activity was initially designed by an undergraduate, Juliana Gonzalez, as a part of her research activities and has since been successfully used in the Earth System Biology course as an accessible laboratory experiment for students who are unable to collect field-based measurements.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Briefly describe the content/concepts goals
Students should be able to:
● Navigate ArcGIS Online Map Viewer to create and manage maps.
● Add and manipulate geospatial data layers from ArcGIS Online.
● Filter data layers to analyze specific timeframes.
● Conduct spatial analysis using overlay and merge tools.
● Create visual representations of geospatial data through charts.
● Assess the impact of wildfires on black bear habitats over multiple years
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
Students should be able to complete a spatial analysis using online tools to provide insight on how one environmental parameter (wildfire) has impacted another (habitat ranges) through time. Additionally, students should be able to interpret graphs and interpret findings.
Description and Teaching Materials
Students will work with ArcGIS Online Map Viewer to analyze the effects of California wildfires on the habitat of California black bears over multiple years (2020-2022). The steps will guide students through adding and editing geospatial data layers, conducting spatial analysis using overlay and merge tools, and visualizing the results through charts. The final deliverable will be a map with chart visualizations showing the total area of black bear range affected by wildfires over the three years, along with answers to critical thinking questions. All data is public domain data from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and is freely accessible online. The ArcGIS Online platform (through which the data is downloaded and analyzed) does need paid access, though most institutions have free access for students and instructors.
Student Handout (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 145kB May14 25)
Teaching Notes and Tips
The activity is fairly short (30-60 minutes), and is meant to explore the use of online data analysis/satellite visualization tools. The actual data sets used and the synthesis questions could easily be altered to target different land use change questions.
Assessment
Assessment is based on the final map images provided by the student and the answers to the worksheet questions based on the graphs created in this activity.
References and Resources
The only main resource needed is ArcGIS Online (ESRI software).