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  Geospatial Competition >> 2006-2007 Competition >> Competition Resources

Please show this powerpoint presentation to your students as background material:

Additional readings:

Questions scientists ask about climate change
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Spatial Data Sets

  • Glaciers of Glacier National Park
    • This data set contains spatial information on the glaciers of Glacier National Park. Within this data set there are four different shapefiles of glaciers found within the park. The data on some of the glaciers dates as far back as 1850. There is also a general glacier data set with all of the current glaciers of the park, along with a park boundary.
    • If you are looking for imagery to serve as a backdrop for this data you can access the 2005 aerial photography for this area (tile numbers, 1604, 1605, and 1606. Be sure to download the ".aux" files (spatial reference data) to accompany the imagery. Click here to go to get aerial photos of Montana.
  • Montana Climate Trends
    • This data set includes average temperature and precipitation for several Montana sites. Each site has averages for 1950 and 2000. We have also included a field with projected averages for temperature and precipitation for the year 2050.
  • Montana Forest Fires
    • This data set includes perimeters of all fires to strike Montana during 2003.
  • Fire History of Region 1 (1985-2005)
    • This spatial data set contains historical information on forest fires in region 1 of the forest service (Idaho and Montana) from 1985 – 2005. There are several different data sets within this folder; a shapefile with all of the years and several other shapefiles with all of the years disaggregated. You will also find a shapefile with historical forest fire data for 1940 – 2001; however, this data does not appear to be as accurate as the previously mentioned file. The two primary data sets are accompanied with metadata to help make sense of the data.
  • Montana Climax Vegetation
    • This data set includes climax vegetation information for Montana. The shapefile is broken into seven categories as represented by the ecocode field in the attribute table. To determine what each ecocode represents, open the climax_veg.html file and scroll down to the ecocode information table.
  • Montana Ecoregions
    • This polygon shapefile shows Montana ecoregions - areas of general similarity in ecosystems and in the type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. To determine what each ecoregion code represents, open the ecoreg_2002.html file and scroll down to the entity and attribute information table.

For further information and sources for climate-related spatial data please visit the LINKS and DATA sections of the SpatialSci website. 

Chat Narrative 12-12-2006
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Chat Narrative 1-23-2007
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