I am trying to come up with ideas for a final project in my GIS intro class. It dawned on me that it'd be a lot of fun to do something AT or hiking related that may also benefit the backpacking community. Does anyone have any ideas of any mapping project that I could potentially do or help out with?
Are you at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA? The Great Eastern Trail in PA could use some GIS help, and there is a project that I think could be packaged into a college class type project. Not the A.T., but a similar footpath. E-mail me at
[email protected] if interested.
If it has to be the A.T., call the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office in Boiling Springs, 717 258-5771 - that's even a local call from Carlisle, not that that matters much anymore.
Banjo_Pirate
03-29-2012, 13:24
Crime (Specifically Murders) on the AT would be pretty interesting.
I worked in GIS for many years...
If you have the trace of the AT, you could start with basic stats based on layers from the census. How do demographics, income, education, etc vary in census tracts along the trail. Where is the richest vs the poorest? You could make maps that show ranges from low to high. Color the census tracts cold to hot colors to show the differences. Or you could tabulate records from trail journals.com to answer all sorts of questions... Where do the most thru hikers quit on the way north? Which sections tend to be the fastest, or slowest?
Alternatively, do a geographic analysis based on elevation, slope, or weather. In a similar way you could color code the trail cold to hot colors for the steepest slopes, highest rainfall, highest temperatures, greatest temp spread, etc you get the picture.
This is pretty basic stuff, but I've never seen such GIS analysis done of the AT. People have done Excel-spreadsheet sorts of analysis but GIS potentially is a lot more powerful. You have a chance to come up with some interesting maps that can answer a lot of questions. When you're done you might make it available online or send them to ATC in HF and maybe they could display them. Just a thought.