Center for Geographic Analysis Harvard University

1. Center for Geographic AnalysisHarvard University • CGA is a member organization of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS www.iq.harvard.edu). • CGA has 3 full time staff and several part time members CGA’s website: gis.harvard.edu • CGA services are available to all schools, departments and other organizations across Harvard.

2. CGA Goals • CGA focuses on research and education in the field of spatial analysis and geographic information. • The Center’s goal is to work with entities across the university to • strengthen university-wide GIS infrastructure and services; • provide a common platform for the integration of spatial data from diverse sources and knowledge from multiple disciplines; • enable scholarly research that would use, improve or study geospatial analysis techniques; and • improve the ability to teach GIS and spatial analysis at all levels across the university.

3. CGA Basic Services • Maintaining help desks in both campuses; • Consulting with students, faculty, and staff on research and teachingprojects; • Consulting on grant proposals; • Providing non-credit group instruction in geospatial software applications on a regular basis; • Assessing, organizing, financing for, and maintaining university site licenses for software; • Providing hardware and support for geospatial tools; • Undertaking initiatives that improve the university infrastructure in relation to geographic analysis.

4. Research Consultation • Data issues, e.g. • Public and commercial data sources • Data collection and management techniques • Data conversion, scanning, digitizing, etc. • Hardware/software issues, e.g. • What GPS to buy – accuracy, compatibility, etc. • Which software to use for various tasks • Methodology issues, e.g. • How to select parameters in spatial interpolation • How to build location-allocation models • Visualization issues, e.g. • How to do 3-D maps or time-series animation • How to allow users make interactive maps from a web browser

5. Project Partnership • Jointly write grant proposal • Manage contracts, outsource data development or programming tasks • Perform analysis for a project • Automate analysis procedures • Write technical documents, users manuals, training materials, etc. • Conduct customized training for long term project assistants

6. Instructional Service • Semester courses in Faculty of Arts and Sciences • Winter recess courses in Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health • Non-credit GIS training seminars • Customized GIS course modules in various courses (e.g. history, business, government) • Extension school courses in GIS • Online tutorials and self-learning materials

7. CGA Software Administration Site licensed software • ESRI – complete suite of products (ArcGIS) and extensions • Leica Geosystems - ERDAS Imagine • Safe Software – FME • Clark Labs - IDRISI Andes, Land Change Modeller • Google Earth Pro (260) • Arc2Earth Pro (1) • Global Mapper (1) • ESRI Business Analyst 2006 (1) • Trimble Pathfinder Office (1), Trimble GPS Correct (2) • Garmin MapSource (2) • Visual Learning Systems - Feature Analyst for ERDAS Imagine (1) • Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, VPN Client. Other software (number of licenses) Other relevant software available free for Harvard use at http://downloads.fas.harvard.edu/download

8. Infrastructure Maintenance • Computer labs on both campuses • GPS and field data collection equipments in loan • CGA Website http://gis.harvard.edu • Monthly Newsletters

9. Academic Events • Workshops (symposium, mini-conference) • CGA Launch / GIS symposium (May 2006) • Remote Sensing Workshop (Feb. 2007) • Georeferencing Workshop (March 2008) • Executive Session on Situational Awareness: Assuring Cross-Boundary Information Sharing in a Geospatial Environment (May 2008) • Academic Seminar Series and Colloquia • Technical Seminars (monthly) • Student Awards • Howard T. Fisher Prize in GIS for undergraduate and graduate students

10. Data explosion Satellite image resolution changes GPS accuracy improves Local Positioning Systems Analytical advancement Geometry and topology Spatial statistics and geo-statistics Pattern recognition and feature extraction System evolution from individual/group to enterprise/societal Data volume Computational intensity Multi-dimensional visualization Geo-referencing non-spatial data Representing phenomena without finite geographic location Opportunities and Challenges

11. Internet Batch Geocoding: www.batchgeocode.com Google Earth Download: http://earth.google.com Surgical Safety Web Map: http://cga2.cga.harvard.edu:8080/KML/Surgical_Safety.htm

13. Mapping the Record of American Democracy (ROAD) 1984-1990

14. Spatial-Temporal 3d Visualization of Globalization

15. Spatial Overlay Analysis • Locate urbanized area • Estimate the population of each urbanized area • Outline the extent of each urbanized area • Distribute rural population

16. Hypothetical Sea Level Rises in the Gulf of Mexico

17. Interactive public web maps created by CGA: Africa Map http://africamap.harvard.edu Fall of the Roman Empire http://cga2.cga.harvard.edu:8399/Byzantine/ Chinese Earthquake Web Map http://cga2.cga.harvard.edu:8399/China_Earthquake China Earthquake Geospatial Research Portal http://gist.fas.harvard.edu/CEGRP/ Surgical Safety Web Map http://cga2.cga.harvard.edu:8080/KML/Surgical_Safety.htm More on all of these at: http://gis.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k235&pageid=icb.page138037

18. Our website:http://gis.harvard.eduContact Us:contact@cga.harvard.eduMailing Address:Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University1737 Cambridge St.Cambridge, MA02138