Lab 1: Intro

Some Applications

• Check out the Sea-level rise model and viewer developped by NOAA. Zoom in on an area of interest to you and slide the water level to 1ft, 3ft and 5ft, to see the areas that get flooded if the sea level were to rise to that level.

• Check out the wind map and current map viewer. The data is updated in real time from US National weather data.

• Check out the Boston metro traffic simulation: mbta

Data

• Check out Open Topography. Zoom in on an area of interest and download data. When you choose the dataset, make a note of the resolution. For many parts of the US you will be abl eto find Lidar data at 1m- or 2m- resolution.

QGIS

QGIS (Quantum Geographic Information System) is a free, open-source software that allows users to create, edit, visualize, analyze, and publish geospatial information. It is likely the most widely used open source GIS. Download QGIS on your laptop and try to figure out how to vizualize the dataset you downloaded.