The local walk has been the lifeline for so many of us over the past year. The chance to get away from the desk and from the computer screen; the chance to get out and feel the wind against your back and the warmth of the sunlight on your face (or, perhaps, if you live in N. Ireland, yet more rain driving into your face!)
And, perhaps, during your local walks you have come to know your local area a bit more. Perhaps you’ve ventured down pathways or streets you don’t normally walk; perhaps you’ve come to appreciate that little bit more that place we call our community.
Maybe, like me, you’ve spent more time exploring your local river, getting to know all its twists and turns, watching it respond to the changing weather patterns. Perhaps you have come to appreciate it even more too.
If so, then the Great British & Irish River Management GIS Initiative might be just for you. Read on to find out more!
The idea behind this is to pool the resources of geography teachers and other interested parties in a kind of ‘citizen science’ data capture of river management across these islands. Not in some theoretical way – but in the way it happens on the river beside us, the river we have local knowledge and experience of. River management as it actually happens, warts and all. So we’re interested in the small scale stretch of river beside you; the kilometre or three that you walk along, that you know and love well.
We will use GIS to collect and collate the information. All it will take is for you to collect data with your phone and you will be supported into how to bring this into the wonderful world of GIS. Don’t worry if you haven’t much experience in using GIS so far. The skills you will need for this are very accessible and you will be supported in developing them.
Then? We share with each other.
And before you know it, we have a richly informed spatial database of rivers all across the UK and Ireland, full of all that wonderful local knowledge each of us has about our own area.
But, of course, that’s just the start. Because, it’s all about what we do with this data with our pupils. Again, we’ll give you some ideas of how they could interact with this. And we’ll be very open to hearing ideas from others evolve as this little initiative finds its wings.
What next?
First, simply fill in this short survey to register to be involved.
Secondly, if you haven’t already done so, sign up for a free ArcGIS Online account for your school.
Then, once we’ve got the initial information in, Brendan, Andy and I will put together the actual survey for us to complete. After that, it’s just an hour of your time when you’re next out for your walk!
Once the data starts coming in, we will arrange a training session for those interested in finding out how to do things like this below with the data…
Sneak peek
Here’s what I was able to do with the data I collected for my local river. Have a little explore and see what you think.
And here’s a link to what I’ve done with with the data I’ve collected from my local river, presented in a 3D Scene viewer on ArcGIS.
And here are some examples of some of the work my pupils did using this resource.
About us
Alistair Hamill is Head of Geography & Senior Leader (Teaching & Learning) at Lurgan College, Co Armagh and has become a total GIS geek since he first started dabbling with it with his classes just less than two years ago. He hasn’t looked back since. He tweets as @lcgeography
Brendan Conway teaches Geography at Notre Dame Senior School, Cobham, Surrey. He also works as an associate lecturer on the PGCE Geography programme and the Erasmus+ GI-Pedagogy project at St Mary’s University Twickenham and as an SLE with the Paradigm TSA. He is interested in finding out about the most effective ways to help students develop powerful geographical knowledge, including GIS. He tweets as @mildthing99
Andy Funnell is Head of Geography at Omagh High School, Co Tyrone and has become a GIS convert in the past 10 months. He tweets @GeogAndy
REflectED 