Lectures -- Tuesdays, January 13 – April 28, 2009, 12:30 - 2:20 PM

· 1^st hour -- Case studies

· 2^nd hour -- How to

Week 1 – January 13

· Linking Simulation Modeling and GIS – an Overview

· How to read maps -- A Map Coordinate Review

Week 2 – January 20

· Modeling Tropical Land Use Change in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve -- The ecstasy and the agony of compiling data sets north and south of the equator

· Map accuracy -- issues of projection, scale, resolution, coordinate systems, methods of data acquisition and interpretation, accuracy, aggregation, formats

Week 3 – January 27

· Super Mapping of Superfund Contaminants in Onondaga Lake Sediments – 2D Kriging

· Maps as Data, Maps created from Data, Intuitive Communication of Mapped Data, Metadata, and where to find data!

Week 4 – February 3

· Modeling with maps -- Cartographic Modeling, Map Algebra, and Boolean Logic

· Using VBA to calculate soil erosion with the Universal Soil Loss Equation

Week 5 – February 10

· Simulating Glacial Retreat in Glacier National Park to the Year 2100 as a Function of Climate Change

· How to create Digital Elevation Models – using Triangulated Irregular Networks (TINS) or Kriging

Week 6 – February 17

· Modeling Non-Point Source Pollution

· How to extract stream networks and watershed boundaries from digital elevation models (DEMS) -- a look at several overland flow routing methodologies

Week 7 – February 24

· Using Gradient Analysis to evaluate current, and simulate future Vegetation Distribution Patterns in Glacier National Park, Montana.

· How to plot the distribution, abundance and/or growth of species as a function of environmental gradients -- the GEO2ECO model

Week 8 – March 3

· Modeling Photosynthesis in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico – guest speaker, TBA

· How to Model Sunlight over one day – trigonometry required!

SPRING BREAK (March 7 – 15)

Week 9 – March 17

· Modeling sprawl in energy-subsidized environments – forest fragmentation in the North Eastern United States

· How to determine statistically the importance of independent variables in model parameterization; validation of calibration, sensitivity analysis.

Week 10 – March 24

· Modeling spread – fire, wind, pests, humans, disease!

· How to model Fire -- distance, vector and spread functions

Week 11 – March 31

· Modeling Primary Production in Little Sandy Creek, a 1^st Rate Model for a 3^rd Order Stream in Upstate New York -- guest speaker, TBA

· A review of several whole ecosystem Process Models

Week 12 – April 7

· The importance of communication in modeling. Good visualization versus crummy… Graphic considerations in computer output and presentations

· How to visualize time-series simulations

Week 13 – April 14

· Wildlife and fisheries modeling -- populations on the move – guest speaker, TBA

· How to create an object oriented ecosystem model – future directions with Visual Basic

Week 14 – April 21

· Student presentation of papers relevant to their modeling interests

Week 15 – April 28