HELLO, PLEASE NOTE THIS SITE HAS BEEN ARCHIVED AND THE CONTENT HAS BEEN RE-POSTED ON MY NEW SITE HERE:
http://healthycitymaps.blogspot.com/
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I am an urban geographer passionate about human health and environmental sustainability. I have six years of experience creating precise and engaging maps and other data visualizations that support research, policy development and community engagement. I have specialized experience working with interdisciplinary data sets including: socioeconomic census data, postal codes, transportation network data sets, land use types, early child development indicators, physical activity measurements, food-supply locations, and many types of environmental assessment data sets My knowledge translation skill set also includes creative design of print and web-based materials, audio-video recording and photography, and event facilitation and evaluation. I am also an avid triathlete, photographer and gardener.
I graduated with an honours B.A. in Human Geography from UBC in 2009. My undergraduate research focused on the confluence of urban studies, environmental sustainability and human health. My honours thesis involved mapping the local ‘population ecumene’ of British Columbia, under the guidance of Dr. Brian Klinkenberg. For this project, I developed a unique multi-level dasymetric model to determine exactly where people do – and do not – live across the province by integrating information from land use, landcover, elevation, transportation, postal and census data layers.
In 2008 I received the UBC Geography Faculty prize for cartography and in 2009 I was awarded the Geomatics Canada Scholarship in recognition of my ongoing contribution to cartography and geographic information science. My past research has explored diverse interdisciplinary topics such as how national forest change effects climate change, mapped patterns of turtle mortality off the coast of Florida, classified neighbourhoods along the urban-rural continuum, and applied hotspot analysis to evaluate the socio-economic realities of vulnerable population groups. I have also quantified geographic accessibility to social services, social capital and street network walkability in neighbourhoods across BC. More generally, I am interested in social policy, urban planning, spatial statistics and geographic data visualization.
Between 2008 and 2012 I worked within the Early Child Development (ECD) Mapping Unit of the Human Early Learning Partnership at UBC. This project is devoted to understanding how environments such as households, residential neighbourhoods, and political landscapes impact child development. My primary duties included conducting spatial data analysis to identify key research findings, and creating engaging maps and data visualizations for diverse community, academic and government audiences.
Since early 2012, I have expanded my urban planning knowledge working as a GIS Specialist and Cartographer at Golder Associates – Sustainable Communities Group, a division that was formed through the acquisition of HB Lanarc in 2011. In this consulting role, I work closely with numerous clients and apply my expert knowledge of GIS to support dozens of urban planning, landscape architecture, public engagement and environmental assessment projects. I routinely automate tasks using model builder and python. Moreover, I have gained transferable experience related to land use and neighbourhood concept planning; active transportation and trail master planning; 3D building modeling and photo-based simulation; walkability measurement and health impact assessment; energy density and transportation VKT modeling; land cover classification and impervious surface calculation using remotely sensed data; groundwater modelling, watershed risk assessment; and a broad spectrum of skills for large environmental assessments.
This planning experience is complemented by my ongoing involvement on the BC Healthy Built Environment Alliance, where I have helped create an evidence-based toolkit for planning healthy communities. I also expanded my knowledge of transportation planning by volunteering and attending the Walk21 Conference and workshop on Integrating Active Transportation & Health into Municipal Transportation Planning. Most recently, I was also selected to attend the CUTA Sustainable Transportation Summit in Calgary.
I spend my free time cycling, running, swimming, hiking and doing yoga to stay fit for triathlons, growing food in my community garden, and making beautiful maps whenever I find some cool new data. If you have any mapping ideas, be sure to visit the collaboration section of this site. Thanks for taking some time to learn a bit about me!
