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The University of Southampton
Geography and Environmental Science

More than Maps: spreading research skills for environmental monitoring

Published: 13 October 2022
Showcase of the student responses
PGR Daniela Rivera Marin showcasing some of the student responses, at Degrees to Save the World

We’re excited to report to you that the More than Maps team continues to grow within SOGES and internationally. In recent months we have welcomed Dr Vicky Dominguez Almela and Daniela Rivera Marin to the team, adding to the collaborative efforts of Prof Jadu Dash, Prof Emma Tompkins, Prof Jack Corbett, Dr Sien van der Plank, and Yanna Fidai. We are currently developing workshops to run in partnership with colleagues at the University of Ghana and for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bhubaneswar.

In June, More than Maps team hosted multiple events. We engaged over 70 individuals across human and physical geography methods.

 

More than Maps at the Python Undergraduate Bootcamp Short course
More than Maps at the Python Undergraduate Bootcamp Short course

We offered a two-hour workshop on 14th June on “Using Google Earth Engine for Environmental Monitoring” as part of the Python Undergraduate Bootcamp Short course, developed by postgraduate students in the School of Geography and Environmental Science.  For the first time, this More than Maps workshop was able to be delivered in-person, which was an exciting development.

On 16th June, we joined the Festival of Nature, an initiative to celebrate and connect with the natural world through collaboration. Participants were introduced to this Google Earth Engine to use satellite data to detect changes on the earth’s surface, such as agriculture yield due to drought, landscape changes due to wildfires, and presence of algal blooms.

Finally, on Monday 27th June the More than Maps team headed down to the National Oceanography Centre Southampton to run our Stakeholder Analysis workshop for the Degrees to Save the World day. Degrees to Save the World was run for Year-12 students, to demonstrate how we're preparing our undergraduates with the knowledge and skills to help tackle some of the world's greatest challenges.

More than Maps achievements since 2020
More than Maps achievements since 2020

Feedback from participants at all these events was overwhelmingly positive. One participant at Degrees to Save the World shared: “I never realised that geography was so interesting!” Participants’ confidence in using Stakeholder Analysis and Google Earth Engine increased greatly through the workshop.

We’re always looking for more opportunities to run the workshops and for more researchers to get involved. Check out www.morethanmaps.sartrac.org for further information, or email sien.vanderplank@soton.ac.uk.

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