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Geospatial Lab @ Sacramento State Department of Geography, College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics

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About Us & Projects List

The Geospatial Lab @ Sacramento State (formerly the Geospatial Centroid) is housed within the Department of Geography. The primary purposes of the Geospatial Lab are to:

  • Facilitate geospatial research support on-campus for Sacramento State faculty and student projects
  • Provide real-world work experience opportunities forSacramento State students, developing critical workplace competencies
  • Encourage collaboration among faculty, students, and groups in the Sacramento-area community who benefit can from using geospatial technologies
  • Empower communities through geospatial research, maps, and geographic techniques
  • Develop spatial literacy and geospatial research on campus and in the community
  • Make geographic skills and expertise available to community-based non-profit organizations

Faculty and Personnel

Faculty Members:

  • Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson (Associate Professor), Director
  • Mathew Schmidtlein (Professor)
  • Patrick Oberle (Assistant Professor)
  • Jasmine Arpagian (Assistant Professor)
  • Hanieh Molana (Assistant Professor)
  • Erica Orcutt (Assistant Professor)
  • Miles Roberts (Professor)

Current Student Assistants:

  • Darcy Francis, 2024-2025
  • Ian Michael Brown, 2024-

Current Affiliated Students:

Project Spotlight: Mildly Scenic

Sample chapter spread from Mildly Scenic

Mildly Scenic is a guidebook of bite-sized adventures along the lower American River, written by Sacramento resident, Ashley Shult Langdon. The idea of the guidebook was born during COVID-19 lockdowns as she took her two young sons out for adventures along the American River. When she tried to find a guidebook for the river, she found that one did not exist. Thus, she decided to create one herself! Intutively geographically-minded, she knew she wanted spatially-accurate maps for her guidebook, but did not have access to the GIS tools and skills necessary to bring her vision forward. Ashley reached out to the Geography Department and Geospatial Lab for help, and after consultation, we were able to work collaboratively to find/covert the geospatial datasets she wanted represented and to visualize the maps needed for the guidebook (see testimonial). In total, seven undergraduate students worked on this project, overseen by Prof. Klimaszewski-Patterson. The guidebook is available as of May 12, 2024, and available for order anywhere books are sold.

Clients and Projects

Projects/Clients:

Current

  • SafeAtWorkCA.org (2025 - ) Initial GIS assessment of territorial assignments
  • Muslim Life and Resource Center, CSUS Office of Inclusive Excellence (2024 - ) Online resource mapping for Muslim Community in the greater Sacramento area and Sac State campus
  • Mapping Journies, Belonging, & Success @ Sacramento State, CSUS Office of Inclusive Excellence (2024 - ) Prototype portal for recruitment and advancement of students through building a sense of community
  • University Arboretum (2024 - ); Custom Survey123 and Field Maps forms, StoryMaps site, mapping and assessment
  • CSUS Risk Management, EH&S, and College of NSM (2024 - ) Evacuation and emergency mapping, and prototype digital twin
  • Community Engagement Center (2020 - ) GIS-based maps; Hornet Bus Tour

Past

  • US Prosthetist Accessibility Analysis Project (2023-24); Spatial and statistical analyses, documentation, written report
  • Mildly Scenic: a Guidebook to the Lower American River by Ashley Langdon (2023-24); GIS-based maps. Featured in: Sactown Magazine, CSUS Newsroom, CBS Good Day Sacramento, the Making of Mildly Scenic event.
  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2020-22); Data management, synthesis, analysis, documentation, QA/QC; map analysis; internal AGOL Dashboards

Former Affiliated Students:

Elisama Arredondo Beltran, Ian Brown, Zechariah Devine, Brittany Goins, Abby McDonough, Davit Petrosyan, Nola Rowe, Eric Stokes, Madison Thompson, Leslie Troutman, Casey Echeveste, Gabriella Eimanverdi, T.Sean Hamiltom, Justin Liberman, Jessica Shugrue, Tyler Weston, Travis Randall, Carl de Joya

Former Student Assistants:

  • Andrew Hernon, Student Assistant (2023-24)
  • Carla Medina Cruz, Graduate Researcher (2023-34)
  • Matthew Leung, GIS Specialist I (2022-23)
  • Hamish Watson, GIS Technician I (2021-22)