GIS in Baja

Exploring Marine GIS: An ArcGIS Field and Lab Course

Note: this course is not running per se in 2007. We will be running a research team through Earthwatch Institute from March 24-31, 2007, which will have more of a GIS focus than our other teams, which may be of interest. The plan at the moment is to revisit this GIS course beginning in 2008.

Instructors

The following individuals were involved in teaching this programme in 2006.

Michelle Kinzel is a Biologist and GIS analyst with the Coastal Ecosystems Research Foundation, and Principal Investigator for the GIS programme. She has been working with CERF since 1996, first on grey whale physiology, and more recently on their use of habitat in British Columbia and Baja California. Now a graduate student at Oregon State University, she has worked extensively throughout Mexico, both on whales and on sea turtles, using GIS to study the animals’ movements. She has worked in San Ignacio for several seasons, both as a guide for the commercial whale-watching camps, and as a researcher leading our EW teams last winter.

Joe Breman is currently the Data Model Program Manager at ESRI. He is also an Oceanography Instructor at Crafton College, and authorized ESRI Instructor. He has over 10 years of experience working with Marine GIS, and with a focus on data models, to combine oceanographic research with natural and cultural resource management. He served as Vice President and advisory council member for the Society for Conservation GIS (SCGIS), and has led many marine-related initiatives at ESRI, including the publication Marine Geography; GIS for the Oceans and Seas.

Jose Beltran is an oceanographer with a Master in Science Degree in Coastal Oceanography and 8 years of hands on experience in GIS. In August 2001, he was the responsible for the creation and establishment of the Pronatura’s Center of Information for Conservation (CPIC), creating the GIS capacity for the Private Land Conservation Program of Pronatura (a Mexican environmental NGO) and its regional offices. Currently he is GIS Manager of the CPIC and responsible for the support of Pronatura’s GIS projects throughout 4 Mexican States (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora and Sinaloa) and for the generation, administration, management, and distribution of data and information that supports the environmental conservation efforts and decision making processes in northwestern Mexico. He has been working on implementing GIS from small local areas to large-scale, binational conservation planning initiatives providing GIS expertise to facilitate on-the-ground conservation efforts. His GIS lab has played a key roll providing training and cartographic-GIS support for more than 30 conservation projects in 4 years as well the leadership and the capacity for the development of Environmental Conservation GIS databases for the northwestern Mexican region.

CERF Research Crew

William Megill, PhD (Research Director) is a Lecturer (Asst Prof) at the University of Bath. He founded CERF in 1994 as a means of funding coastal ecology research, and has been running it ever since. His research is a combination of coastal ecology and mechanical engineering, designing, building and using novel submersibles and sensor systems for the study of the complex nearshore environment. He and his students are using GIS techniques to build an understanding of the complex interactions in the lagoon ecosystem.

Svenja Kurth and David Laskin were CERF's research students in 2006, and participated in the GIS course as teaching assistants.