Below is a sample of the various skills I have learned and applied through my education and the career
that follows.
This page is subject to change as new accomplishments are added. More of my works can be accessed via
the menu above.
Colombia Choropleth (QGIS)
Central Washington University, 2020
For one of my very first GIS exercises as part of Intro to GIS & Maps, this map shows
the literacy rate in Colombia by administrative region, with darker shades showing
higher literacy and lighter shades showing lower literacy rates.
To create this map, I used the following skills: field calculation, symbolizing by field
value, maniplulation of labels to enhance viewer experience, and adding a basic
catographic layout (title, legend, north arrow, and scale).
Yakima County "Gerrymander" Map (QGIS)
Central Washington University, 2021
The map shown was a gerrymandering exercise for the GIS Analysis course, showing the
precincts of Yakima County, a majority Trump county (i.e., most of the votes in the
county went to Trump), grouped into three, contiguous regions – called “counties” in
this exercise. The goal was for two of the new counties (Yakama and Wanapum) to be
Biden-majority and each have a higher population than the third county (Ahtanum), which
would be Trump- majority county. The skills used for this map are field calculations,
cartographic manipulation (splitting a Trump majority county into two Biden majority and
one Trump majority areas) and cartographic layout design.
Spilhaus One World Ocean (ArcGIS Pro)
ESRI Cartography MOOC, 2024
As part of the Cartography MOOC 2024 course, this map shows all the world's oceans on a
single map.
The map is projected using the Spilhaus Ocean Map in Square coordinate system. In
a layout, I duplicated the map four times, moving and rotating these duplicates as
needed to achieve a continuous extended world ocean map. As a finishing touch, a black
vignette overlay was added to symbolize the importance of the world's oceans.
South Columbia Basin Irrigation District Online Web Map
Franklin County, 2022
This highly interactive map contains irrigation-related layers associated with the South
Columbia Basin Irrigation District (SCBID) and its clients/stakeholders. The map has
numerous moving parts that turn on/off depending on which scale the map is zoomed to.
Early on in the development of this map, a 'zoom-click system' was put into place to
ease communication between those involved, as well as with the later documentation I
wrote for reference at a later time.
Primarily learning & using QGIS at CWU, this was my first real-world experience using
both ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Enterprise. I encountered a number of different obstacles,
and went through numerous failures along the way, but I was eventually able to overcome
the obstacles to achieve completion. As a result, I was able to establish a strong grip
on ArcGIS products which has opened doors to working on other GIS projects during my
time at the County, as well as furthering my GIS career as a whole.
The primary skill used in this project was cartography - and lots of it. I also learned to use Arcade so I could set how some of the pop-ups and labels on the map are displayed.
Maximum Tsunami Wave Height
Central Washington University, 2021
This map is a cartographic depiction of a tsunami model simulating a magnitude 8.5
megathrust earthquake off the coast of Puerto Rico. Shown on the map are the calculated
maximum tsunami wave height at select simulated gauge locations across the Atlantic.
The wave height data was calculated as part of the tsunami model using GeoClaw. In order
to get the numbers to a GIS to be mapped, I took the gauge text files (containing a
table with wave heights, time passed since the start of the event, bathymetry, and other
values) for each gauge produced by GeoClaw, and ran it through an R script I wrote where
each gauge text file would be imported into R as tables, maximum wave height values
would be filtered from each gauge table, then the filtered values would be merged into a
completely new dataset. This is part of a larger, multi-earthquake tsunami research
project I completed during my final year of college.
Next, I imported the dataset into the GIS and merged them into a table I created
containing the gauge ID, coordinates (latitude/longitude) and gauge name. From there,
the skills I used to create the map from the data were join by attribute to join the two
tables, and the rest was basic cartographic design – classifying each gauge site by
maximum wave height, labelling each gauge site, and overlaying everything with a
shapefile boundary of world countries obtained from Esri. The grey background used for
the map is the bathymetry file I used for the original calculations in GeoClaw – ASCII
bathymetry files are compatible with GIS.
The skills used in this project were data creation via tsunami model to obtain the tsunami data and cartography to create the maps. I also had to write up a summary of the project and the results, then submit that to my advisor to receive credit for the research course and toward graduation.
Culvert Inspections in ArcGIS Field Maps
Franklin County WA, 2023
Franklin County has more than 1,000 culverts under roadways throughout the county with
the purpose of maintaining waterflow and preventing flooding which could cause damage to
county roadways which would be costly to repair. Occasionally, the culverts need to be
inspected and maintained to uphold proper functionality. I was tasked with utilizing
ArcGIS Field Maps to digitize the culvert inspection process.
After attending a workshop at the 2023 Northwest GIS Conference in Yakima, and receiving
assistance from the County Road Administration Board's GIS Team, I was able to develop a
Field Maps app within a couple of months and deploy it in December when the road crew
was ready to start inspecting culverts. I went out with the inspection crew during the
first week of culvert inspections to show them how to use the Field Maps form, and
identify any areas of improvement and make changes to the app as needed (which did end
up happening a couple of times). Soon after, I was able to let them go out with the
tablet, and eventually they were able to teach the others on the road crew how to use
Field Maps for culvert inspections.
The skills used in this project were data creation, app development and field data collection.
Gravel Road Maintenance Dashboard
Franklin County WA, 2024
This public-facing dashboard was created to provide information on gravel road
maintenance including gravel road blading and Magnesium Chloride (MgCl) application. The
web map contains two feature service layers: A Gravel Roads line layer and a Blading
Record table that are linked using a common Road Segment field. Every week
throughout the gravel road blading season, my tasks were to create timecard reports of
gravel road maintenance activities using the department's internal WinCAMS system to
update the two layers.
Each week during the season, I used the following skills/tools: Data creation and Excel
structure manipulation. In ArcGIS Pro, I went through the timecard reports and updated
the Gravel Roads feature service layer, and took the table I created in Excel to update
the Blading Records table.
McClellan and Owhi's Journey
Central Washington University, 2021
This map was the final project for the GIS Analysis course, showing an estimated path
George McClellan and his crew took through the Wenatchee Mountains in September 1853,
interpreted from McClellan’s journal and other sources. Skills used in this exercise
were interpretation, terrain analysis, visibility analysis, and creating a hillshade
from a DEM raster.
Environmental Camp Site Selection
Central Washington University, 2021
This map is the final product of an environmental site selection exercise, showing three
candidate sites for an environmental camp based on several criteria, including proximity
to communities and roads but not too close to communities, not within federal or tribal
land but close to forest service land, average slope of less than 6%, land area between
0.5 and 2.5 square miles, and a portion of the site in an area with a suitability score
of 15 or higher. The skills used in this exercise include proximity analysis,
suitability analysis, and terrain analysis.
Question: What is the average speed limit of all roads crossing the Rural
Residential District zoning type?
SELECT Avg(CAST (r.speed AS INT)) AS avg_speed
FROM zoning AS z
JOIN roads AS r
ON ST_Intersects(z.geom, r.geom)
WHERE zone = 'RR';
SQL Advanced Query
Central Washington University, 2021
This is an advanced SQL query I did for a couple of extra credit points, showing the
average speed limits of all roads crossing a particular zoning type. This was done as
part of a larger SQL analysis of some data from Grays Harbor County, WA. Skills used to
complete this analysis are grabbing the average speed from a database named zoning
intersected with another database named roads, and filtered by zone “RR” (or Rural
Residental).
Python/ArcPy - Running Tools Within a Loop
Central Washington University, 2021
This is python script that imports arcpy from ArcMap with the purpose determining the
best places for bird watching for each bird habitat in Cache County, Utah. The skills
used to accomplish this task were creating a roads buffer, clipping the roads buffer to
a boundary extent, erasing private land from the clipped road buffer, then looping
through each bird habitat map file in a geodatabase and clipping those habitat maps to
the shapefile generated in the first three steps.
Result:
R - Converting a Pie Chart to a Bar Plot
Central Washington University, 2019
This simple script I did for extra credit had one purpose – taking the data in a pie
chart used in a lecture for another class (GEOL320 Rocks and Minerals to be specific)
and creating a bar chart from the data. The instructor of the class had a dislike for
pie charts so offered extra credit for us to create a bar plot out of it. The data shown
are the weight percent of the most common elements that make up the Earth. The skills
used to accomplish this task were entering data, creating the bar chart and adding value
labels for each element. The last part was added recently as I was working on this
portfolio.
Java - Tic Tac Toe
Central Washington University, 2017
This code was the final project of the Programming Fundamentals I course, showing a
functional Tic Tac Toe game using Java. I had to use all the basic skills I learned
throughout the quarter to complete this project, including scanner and random utilities
and looping. My memory is a little fuzzy about this project but it was functional when I
turned it in.
Typhoon Haiyan Research Paper
This is a scientific research paper I did for the Oceans, Atmosphere & Climate course I took at
CWU. The paper is about how typhoon intensity has changed in the Philippines region over time
due to climate change, and has a particular focus on Haiyan, which was a massive typhoon that
devastated the Philippines in 2013 and is used as an example of events already occurring due to
climate change and warming oceans.
