What is GIS?

(This article is the fith of a seven week-series of articles that highlight the activities of the Coral Reef Initiative summer interns stationed at CRMO and DEQ. This week, CRM GIS summer intern Carlo Eric C. Calibo describes his project and work experience thus far.)

Saipan is a very beautiful island and is home to many beautiful and diverse coral reefs and beaches, which are one of the main tourist attractions our island has to offer. Saipan is just one of the small islands of the CNMI, but it is also one that has encountered many developmental changes to its environment over the years. As people advance toward commercialism and developing the islands for tourism and economic reasons, we need to keep track of our island’s geographical changes.

The GIS section of the Coastal Resource Management deals with making maps of the CNMI, database design, basic upkeep of CRM’s database, as well as providing people information about Saipan’s geographic characteristics. GIS, or Geographic Information System, is the process of taking geographic information and storing, integrating, analyzing, and displaying the data to related positions on earth. An example of GIS work can be seen in textbooks that contain maps, and maps of the world itself. As the GIS intern for CRM, my projects are to make maps of Saipan that contain geographical information, remote sensing, and orthophoto creation.

At first I didn’t know anything about what GIS was, but as I continued with this program with the help of my mentor, Ken Cochrane, it began to spark my interest because it is closely related to my interest in engineering. I found out that it is very similar to engineering as it deals with geography and the environment. In the first three weeks as an intern, I had to undergo extensive studying about GIS and its other branches such as remote sensing. After reading and learning about it in the first week, I learned and studied a software called ArcMAP, designed to aid in my GIS work. After learning the software, I studied another software called Leica, in which I created orthophotos. I also participated in a two-day training about Remote Sensing from experts in the GIS field that work for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

For the last three weeks I have been working on my project of orthophoto creation of Saipan. I take aerial photos of Saipan taken in 1987 and rectify or correct the images due to variations in scale, displacement, and distortion from the plane. After the process of rectifying the photos, I then lay it over or swipe the images over a recent Saipan Quickbird (image satellite) photo. By doing this I am also able to see where major developmental changes took place on the island.

The experience at CRM GIS has been both great and educational for me. With the help of my mentor, I have learned many wonderful things about GIS. In the past few weeks, I have gained a wider understanding and knowledge of what GIS is, and it has sparked an interest in me to maybe pursue a career that involves GIS. At the end of this summer program, I will return to my studies and pursue a degree in education at the Northern Marianas College. (Carlo Eric C. Calibo)

Carlo Eric C. Calibo is the Coral Reef Management’s GIS intern.