The fourth annual GIS Day at UC Riverside was held on the afternoon of Thursday, Nov. 14 in the Orbach Science Library.

Geospatial Information Librarian Janet Reyes reflected on a successful community event at UC Riverside to celebrate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Day and Geography Awareness Week.

“It was great to see students from several disciplines participate in our poster contest this year,” Reyes said. “The contestants’ enthusiasm about using GIS to conduct their research was evident from their posters and was reflected in their lively discussions with GIS Day attendees.”

The first place winner in the poster contest was Brandon Fong, [center] for his poster on hillslope boulder displacement in the Box Springs Mountains. Second place went to Brooke Rose [right] whose poster depicted longleaf pine distribution under future climate projections. Third place was awarded to Hannah Hapich [left] for her poster on Twitter conversations on plastic pollution.

GIS Day also featured geography-themed activities in the Creat’R Lab and presentations highlighting both academic and practical applications of GIS, with topics including agriculture, census planning, artificial intelligence, public safety, and more.

“We are fortunate to have many GIS users on campus and in the community,” Reyes added. “In one way or another, they all apply GIS technology to increase our understanding of particular places or the planet as a whole.”

GIS Day 2019 was co-sponsored by the UCR Library, UCR Facilities Services, the Department of Anthropology, the Department of Entomology, the Department of History, the Department of Environmental Sciences, and the Center for Conservation Biology. Poster contest judges were Eli Knaap, Kat Koziar, and Elia Scudiero.

Additional contributions supporting GIS Day came from Associate Vice Chancellor Andy Plumley; UCR Library staff members Melanie Ramiro, Margarita Yonezawa, Ray Gonzalez, and Robert Wong; R'Geospatial Club; Esri; and the event speakers.

The GIS Day Planning Committee included Ademide Adelusi-Adeluyi, Hoori Ajami, Robert Johnson, and Karen Jordan, with Reyes as committee chair.