I've recently been reading up (as I'm sure many have) on the mosquito-borne Zika virus and have been considering the impact from the perspective of a beekeeper. Why bring it up in relation to beekeeping? Because we already, at present, deal with fairly extensive mosquito spraying for other health and safety reasons, including West Nile. There is an interesting research paper by Bogoch et al. that contains this figure:
Indeed, with changes in climate, our proximity to wetlands (along the Wasatch Front, the back valleys, and the Cache Valley - where I happen to keep bees), we could also be subject to seasonal occurrences here. If you take a look at the map, you can zoom in on the Utah area and see that modeling already predicts suitable habitat to support an outbreak around the Great Salt Lake.
The full article is here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673616000805
This will bring additional required spray instances to many who keep bees should the outbreak spread into these seasonal mid-latitude regions.
Here's a quandary: You have employees that are amazing. In fact, some of the most driven and intelligent people you know. They work hard, in fact, harder than they get paid for and they do a great job on the work they complete. Sounds like ideal candidates for rewards, kudos, hey, even salary increases, right? Of course I'm right. The problem is, working for a public university, an institution of higher education where bright people help improve our world, one finds it almost impossible to offer rewards to employees due to rules, regulations, and the nature of higher education and research.
I've had this problem looming over my head for the better part of five years. Great people doing excellent work, and almost no way to reward what they do. And that poses a problem. How long would you work in an environment where your work seems less-than-appreciated? How long would you keep up the good work ethic without a reasonable (more than cost-of-living) salary increase? The answer is pretty clear... not long. And who can blame someone who want to be rewarded for their hard work? I certainly can't.
This was a email I put together for a USU QCNR graduate student. Maybe someone else will find the information useful. I suggest using caution since this information is subject to change as Esri/EPSG may change transformations and PRISM may change data formats/etc. Please leave a note if you find errors and I will attempt to clarify and/or fix. It is was a copy/paste job email to blog - so user be warned.
Download (or view) the associated FGDC Metadata. Note that the various details are NOT the same for each PRISM layer. Projections and cell sizes vary product to product.
Use the ASCII to Raster tool in ArcToolbox
Input the downloaded ASCII file
Assign the output file a .tif extension. We generally try to work with tiff files since they are universally read by GIS and RS software. You can also use .img files since they have similar properties if you wish. Avoid leaving it blank (native ArcGIS format) or assigning a .jpg format.
Use the Define Projection tool to assign the proper projection to the newly imported file
ArcGIS will make a best guess about the initial projection and use that projection in your ArcMap view. Do not rely on the project-on-the-fly functions for anything beyond looking at the data; never for analysis.
After defining the projection you need to reproject the data to match the best option for your field data or analysis region. This is done using the Project Raster (for raster data) utility in ArcToolbox. Note that the PRSIM data is generally developed using WGS72, WGS84 or NAD83/GRS80. This is not adequate or acceptable for inter-continental spatial analysis.
Depending on the scale of your study, you will want to select the correct projection. If you conducting a multi-state or regional study that would stretch across UTM zones, I suggest using Albers Equal Area (USGS version); if you are working in a small area, such as the state of Utah, and all of your data is within one UTM zone, I suggest stepping from unprojected (geographic) to Albers (or similar) and then to UTM. You can go from unprojected straight to UTM if you wish, but realize that you need to subset the data (extract by mask) to your study area once you complete the process and that any data outside of your UTM zone is invalid as it is spatially inaccurate.
In the Project Raster tool, add your Input Raster; assuming you have defined the original projection, it will populate under Input Coordinate System.
Select an output location. I suggest that you do not allow it to go to Default.gdb. You will also need to give it a file extension, similar to above, I suggest that you use .tif.
Select the Output Coordinate System. This is where you select the best system depending on the coordinate and system and scale of your study. Don't mix coordinate system if at all possible. Actually, just don't mix coordinate systems!
If you are moving from GCS_WGS_1972 to NAD83, you will need to add to selections to the Geographic Transformations box; that is, the first one will be WGS_1972_to_WGS_1984_2 (which is slightly better than _1) and the second transformation will be WGS_1984_(ITRF00)_To_NAD_1983. Another good discussion about "what to use" is here (http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/48328-Datum-NAD83-NA2011).
Leave the Resampling Technique as NEAREST
Output Cell Size, set this based on the metadata. Generally PRISM has 1KM and 4 or 5KM data; you can also download 800m Normals data, just make sure you opt for the correct cell size according to the product you download. I suggest not leaving the default as you will end up with oddly-sized cells.
Click OK
Once it is properly projected to the continental (Projected) projection, you can step down to UTM or use the data as is. You can also subset the data (extract by mask) at this point.
I seem to be able to follow the standard rule of not posting a blog entry more than once a year. I figure there is enough stuff out there for folks to read... who needs more?!
That being said, I do try to make the occasional post worth while. In this case, I wanted to toss the info out there that I've been recording intro to GIS (and GISci) lectures for USU and putting them up on YouTube. Anyone is welcome to use, review, or comment on the lectures.
I would suggest using Introductory Geographic Information Systems by Jensen and Jensen as a companion text for the lectures. I've been searching for a satisfactory GIS text for years and finally feel like the Jensen (father and son team) have done a good job at putting a reasonably solid text together. There are a few things I would change, but I'm not going to write my own book, so this will do very well.
The lectures are generally in 10 minute segments and I've tried to provide the proper citations to any outside source material. However, if you note something of your creation that I didn't cite properly, please let me know and I will fix as soon as possible.
You can find all of the videos on my YouTube account. I've embedded the first two below for you to take a look at and make sure they are worth your time and effort to review/use the others.
Again, please comment. I look forward to fixing my mistakes (of which I'm sure there are plenty) and making the clips better through time. Each 10 minute segment takes about two to three hours to produce (recording, editing, uploading, etc.).
