Obtaining and Evaluating Data

Our models are only going to be as good as the data we use to created, parameterize, and evaluate them. If you do not collect the data yourself, you'll need to spend time really understanding the nature of your data.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn to use basic SQL commands in MS-Access to extract data from a relational database.
• Setup a point data file for modeling.
• Use tools in ArcGIS and R to evaluate different issues in the data.

Activities

• Presentation: Approaches to managing spatial data
• Presentation: Relational Databases and Structure Query Language (SQL)
• Presentation: Setting up for Modeling

Lab

Part 1: Setting up Data for Modeling

• DEM of California
• BioClim for California:
  • Min Temp of Coldest Month
  • Annual Precip
  • Annual Mean Temp
  • Max Temp Warmest Month

Part 2: Qualifying the Data

Other Resources

Below is the old presentation when we only had the MS-Access version of the data available.

• Presentation: Using MS-Access with the FIA plot database