Student Spotlight: Chloe Seeborg Forges College Connections With GIS Technology

Chloe Seeborg was merging college programs before merging was even a thing at USU.

Seeborg, who is set to graduate this spring, chose a rather unusual program of study when she launched four years ago as a Quinney Scholar at USU. She decided to blend skills in ecology from the Quinney College of Natural Resources with a minor in soil science from the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences —and tie it all together with a certificate in Applied Geographic information Science.

The strategy played to her strengths, she said, and is an example of some of the collaborative advantages of the impending merger of the two colleges.

Growing up outside of Salt Lake City, Seeborg frequented the high evergreen and aspen forests of Mill Creek and Little Cottonwood canyons with her family. Her most memorable experiences were grandparents handing out big, black garbage bags and sending out the entire extended family to collect trash.

Seeborg really didn’t mind. She has always been interested in more than just appreciating the aesthetics of a natural place. She wanted to know how it functions and ways it could be managed.

At USU she found some of those answers. Foundational courses in ecology built her baseline knowledge. Drone training allowed her to get a bird’s eye view across landscapes. Courses from CAAS put her at the bottom of soil pits to compare profiles from the rocky soils of the benches with the silt of valley floors. A plant identification class with Andrew Kulmatiski allowed her to spend hours each week hiking in Logan Canyon, learning the nuance of the natural system.

“We went to Tony Grove and learned to identify the wildflowers like penstemon and mountain bluebells,” she said. “That really gave me new eyes for the outdoors. I started to really understand what was going on around me.”

But a course closer to the classroom was the thing that fixed her long-term learning trajectory — Introduction to GIS.

Geographical Information Systems, or GIS, is a data system that captures, analyzes and communicates data tied to locations across the Earth. Google Maps uses GIS technology to allow people easy access to an ocean of data — everything from satellite imagery to directions to your local Starbucks.

Building skills in GIS, Seeborg realized, could be a vital way to connect precise information to the complexity of the natural world. So she committed to earning a certificate in Applied Geographic Information Science.

“I found a lot of satisfaction learning to code and automate data processes,” she said. “There’s nothing quite like calculating a process, and then going back to validate a few rows with a quick check of the math, and realizing that you got it right.”

Seeborg worked as an intern and then as a GIS technician with the Riverscapes Assessment and Monitoring Laboratory, using data sets to monitor stream and river restoration. This allowed her to practice concepts from the classroom in real-world situations — even connecting with companies and agencies, teaching her what sets of skills these organizations value in new recruits.

“GIS data can really bridge the gap between the theoretical and what is actually happening on the ground,” she said.

In one project she used a set of data called Anthromes to create a land-use map of North America that spanned centuries.

“Starting in the 1800s you could see a dramatic increase in human impact on the land,” she said, “up until the year 2000 when most of the only remaining untouched places on the continent were the rocky and snowy peaks, the extremes. It was a cool project because rather than saying ‘I think this is the pattern’ … we can know it, systematically demonstrating change.”

Seeborg says she values GIS because it takes disparate points of science information and pulls them together into a whole, creating a more complete picture, easier to understand and easier to communicate to others.

Next steps for this graduate will be dedicating more time to GIS work with the Riverscapes Consortium, and exploring work with USU Extension analyzing soil-water data. She plans to get outside to learn more about how the data she uses is collected, and then to build on her knowledge, eventually, with a graduate degree.