WICCI’s Geospatial Working Group focuses on identifying climate-focused geospatial data needs, facilitating data sharing, and collaborating with other WICCI working groups, partners and stakeholders.
Summary of Issues and Impacts
The WICCI Geospatial Working Group identified the need to convert climate data into a map friendly format to facilitate the use of climate data for planning and analysis. Here are the group’s steps toward that goal.
Determine Climate Data Needs
Determine needs and define requirements for climate and demographic geospatial data among WICCI working groups, stakeholders, and partners. The scope of these data will encompass environmental effects, exposures, sensitive populations, and socioeconomic factors.
Create Data Resources
Identify, curate, and promote relevant geospatial datasets that may be useful in climate research and analysis in Wisconsin.
Provide Data on a Public Platform
Provide a platform for geospatial data sharing with the public and other WICCI working groups.
Promote Climate Tools
Inventory and promote geospatial tools, models, visualizations, and data infrastructure needed by the other WICCI working groups, stakeholders, and partners.
Analyze Climate Data
Analyze the relationships between climate effects and impacted communities.
Recommended Solutions/Strategies
In 2023–24 the Geospatial Working Group collaborated with the WICCI Climate Working Group on a major climate data project. We took detailed future climate predictions for Wisconsin (from 2021 to 2100), and historic climate data (from 1981 to 2010) and converted them to GIS formats (a map-friendly digital format).
Eric Compas from UW–Whitewater created supporting information (metadata) and developed training materials for GIS users of the data. The data is available on a publicly available portal, Geodata@Wisconsin. Currently, the project members are converting the latest climate projections for Wisconsin into the same map-friendly formats.
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Our Team
Stakeholders and Partners
- Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
- Wisconsin Department of Administration
- University of Wisconsin–Madison State Cartographer’s Office
- University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute
- University of Wisconsin Robinson Map Library
- Other state, county, and local agencies with an interest in climate and environmental justice geospatial data and analysis
Members
- Larry Cutforth (cochair), DNR IT GIS Section Supervisor
- Jim Giglierano (cochair), DOA, Geographic Information Officer (retired)
- Eric Compas, Department of Geography, Geology and Environmental Sciences, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, Professor and GIS Center Director
- David A. Hart, University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, Assistant Director for Extension
- Doug Miskowiak, Department Geography and Geology, University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, GIS Instructional Administrator and Department Chair
- Helena Tiedmann, DNR Water Quality Planning Coordinator & Water Management Specialist
- Robert Smail, DNR Forestry Division, Research Scientist
- Christa Schaefer, DOT Transportation System Development, Landscape Architect