Field and Method Course Pacific North-West: Geography – Geoinformatics
Changes in the landscape and land use around the Columbia River
7-15 April 2025
Teachers: Lasse Møller-Jensen (lmj@ign.ku.dk), Aart Kroon (ak@ign.ku.dk)
You are free to come with ideas for topics. They need to have a geographical component and fit in Physical Geography, Human Geography and/or Geoinformatics.
Ideas for topics:
- How are the beaches affected by the entrance of the Columbia River?
- What is the impact of storms and seasonal wave climate on the beaches in Oregon?
- How is the dune management along the shores?
- How is storm water dealt with in different places in Portland and how effective are the measures?
- How has Portland harbor changed over the years and how did it affect the land use and infrastructure?
- How do different groups in Portland deal with extreme weather events and is there a relationship between different neighborhoods and measures taken?
- How do small coastal communities in the Pacific Northwest adapt to current as well as projected climate risks?
- What are the aims and challenges within spatial planning in the Portland area, fx. related to spatial inequalities, accessibility to services, or other themes?
Field work can focus on field verification of remote sensing analysis, on spatial analysis and mapping using GIS, on performing onsite measurements on the dynamics, and on interviews. We will also visit or be assisted by some colleagues of Oregon State University in Corvallis.
Preliminary planning for the field trip: three locations where we stay for three days each. Three locations are along the shore, close to the Columbia River and in Portland.
We start and finish our field trip in Portland, Oregon.
Preliminary course planning:
- Theory, defining projects, remote sensing analysis (preparing field work) - Block 3 (February – March 2025).
- Field work (7 – 15 April 2025).
- Processing data, writing report on the project, exam - Block 4 (May-June 2025).