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Geospatial Centroid Department of Geography, College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics

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About Us

The Geospatial Centroid is housed in the Department of Geography at Sacramento State University. The primary purposes of the Centroid are to:

  • Facilitate geospatial research support on-campus for CSUS faculty and student projects
  • Provide real-world work experience opportunities for CSUS 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
  • Patrick Oberle (Assistant Professor)
  • Jasmine Arpagian (Assistant Professor)
  • Mathew Schmidtlein (Professor)
  • Erica Orcutt (Assistant Professor)
  • Miles Roberts (Professor)

Current Student Assistants

  • TBD 2024-2025 AY

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 Centroid 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

Current Projects/Clients:
  • Community Engagement Center (2020-); GIS-based maps; Hornet Bus Tour
  • Mildly Scenic, a guidebook to the American River by Ashley Langdon (2023-2024); GIS-based maps

Past Projects/Clients:

  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2020-2022) data management, synthesis, analysis, documentation, QA/QC; map analysis; internal AGOL Dashboards

Current and Former Affiliated Students

Casey Echeveste, Gabriella Eimanverdi, T.Sean Hamiltom, Justin Liberman, Jessica Shugrue, Tyler Weston, Travis Randall, Carl de Joya

Past Student Assitants

  • Andrew Hernon, Student Assistant (2023-24)
  • Matthew Leung, GIS Specialist I (2022-23)
  • Hamish Watson, GIS Technician I (2021-22)