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Chuck last attended Lake Superior State College in 1985 earning an Associate Degree in Natural Resources. After working in the land surveying industry for fourteen years he started his own cartography and GIS consulting business in 2004. In the fall of 2008 Chuck returned to LSSU to pursue a BS degree in the newly created Applied Geographic Information program. Chuck’s senior research project was a geospatial distribution analysis of applicants to LSSU. This study will help the university better understand its potential student market and lays the foundation for further research into how place influences the conversion of university applicants into students. Chuck plans to continue to grow his consulting business, No Boundaries Maps and Graphics, and resides in Sault Ste. Marie with his wife Bev and daughter Theresa.

Chuck McCready
2010 Oustanding Graduate
Applied Geographic Information Science

Applied Geographic Information Science

Capturing, storing, querying, analyzing, and displaying geospatial data

What is Applied Geographic Information Science?

Degrees

GIS is a computer system capable of capturing, storing, analyzing, and displaying geographically referenced information. Its power comes from the ability to relate different information in a spatial context and to reach a conclusion about this relationship.

Most of the information we have about our world contains a location reference, placing that information at some point on the globe. When rainfall information is collected, it is important to know where the rainfall has occurred. This is done by using a location reference system, such as longitude and latitude, and maybe elevation. Comparing the rainfall information with other information, such as the location of marshes across the landscape, may show that certain marshes receive little rainfall. This fact may indicate that these marshes are likely to dry up, and this inference can help us make the most appropriate decisions about how humans should interact with the marsh. GIS can reveal important new information that leads to better decision-making.

3d mine with well data Many computer databases that can be directly entered into GIS are being produced by federal, state, tribal, and local governments, private companies, academia, and nonprofit organizations. Different kinds of data in map form can be entered into a database. GIS can also convert existing digital information, which may not yet be in map form, into forms it can recognize and use.

GIS technology can be used for scientific investigations, resource management, and development planning. For example, it might allow emergency planners to easily calculate emergency response times in the event of a natural disaster, or it might be used to find wetlands or vulnerable natural areas that should be protected when city administrators are planning developments.

Uses of GIS

Environmental
- Monitoring
- Modeling
Business
- Site locations
- Delivery systems
Industry
- Transportation
- Communication
- Mining
- Oil & Gas pipelines
- Healthcare
- Forestry
- Fishery & Wildlife
- Park & Recreation

Government
- Local
- State
- Federal
- Military
Emergency Services
- Fire
- Police
Education
- Research
- Teaching tools
- Administration

How is LSSU's program different from others?

Environmental monitoring of toxic plume Lake Superior State University's program in applied geographic information science is unique in the way it is offered and expands on the GIS minor.

Only a few Michigan universities currently offer a bachelor's degree in geography or GIS and those that do offer it have planning-oriented or geography-focused programs, or computer-science oriented programs. The LSSU program is unique in requiring an internship, a capstone thesis and 36 hours in geography and GIS.

Here is a sample of the courses you will be taking:

Introduction to GIS
Intermediate GIS
Advanced Raster Analysis
Web/Databases GIS
Digital Terrain Analysis
Remote Sensing
Medical Geography & GIS
Environmental Health & GIS

The Dept. of Labor predicts the need for GIS-trained graduates will grow 15% by 2014 and some fields that employ GIS experts, including marketing, environmental science, planning, and engineering, are expected to grow even more.

BS Applied Geographic Information Science
- Detailed course listing (pdf)

Have a Question?

A Spatial Analysis of Greenhouse Gasses and Household Income

Scott Sowers

Emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by industries have been increasing at an exponential rate in the past century. As these emissions increase in number of sources, as well as amount of output, the impact on the environment becomes more significant. However, the United States relies heavily on industry for creation of new products, materials, and economic factors such as employment. Industries attract employment opportunities, which in return attract living accommodations. The basis of this project was to see if there is any spatial correlation between GHG emissions and income of households (within a county) of a GHG emitter. Using Geographical Information Science (GIS), we are able to search for a correlation between lower class households and amounts of GHG emissions. After processing the data, we are able to show that there is no trend in GHG emissions and the proximity to lower class households. Towards the end of the project, we were able to see an extremely slight trend of lower amounts of GHG emissions near upper class households. The project also provides the statistics, or any autocorrelation, of the data for significance testing to determine whether or not there is a probability of the relationship. The statistics provided will be the R2 value, regression, and correlation.

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