Among the many great posters presented at this year’s Celebration of Creative Inquiry at Gustavus Adolphus College, were two posters by Geography students Skylar Davis and Andrew Byron.
Skylar presented a poster titled “A Demographic Analysis of Cook County, Minnesota.” Cook County, the most northeastern county in Minnesota, is a popular place to own land and cabins by those with permanent residence outside the county. “[T]he cabin properties are creating a very distinct image of Cook County that isn’t representative of the county as a whole,” writes Skylar. “The results show the separate zoning classes of the county as well as the ownership of the land parcels, particularly the relationship of land values to the banks of Lake Superior. By analyzing the counties land zoning as well analyzing the individual land ownership parcels, the true demographic identity of Cook County Minnesota is revealed.”
Andrew presented a poster titled “Integrating GIS functionality into an iPhone App.” The goal of this project, according to Andrew, “was to integrate some level of GIS functionality such as utilizing layered data, clickable attribute information, searchable and measurable features, and GPS into an iPhone app available for purchase on Apple’s iTunes Store.” The app, which is not yet available to the public, allows the user to access a great deal of information on Yellowstone National Park in map, text and image format from their hand-held device. “From consumer-level GPS receivers, in-car navigation systems, and advanced web-based map servers, the availability and complexity of geospatial data readily available to the general public has increased substantially in recent years,” writes Andrew. “Coupled with the significant rise in popularity of Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, this provides an opportunity to expand the reach of free, user-friendly programs to display data in a GIS-type environment.”
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