April 30, 2008

Ohio Wesleyan GIS Research Published in Professional Journal

Project examined local opinions on converting old railways to recreational trails…

Tim Hawthorne ’03 and Professor John Krygier were featured in the Delaware Gazette in 2002 for their recreational trails project. Research from that project has just been published in a professional journal.

Photo Courtesy of Delaware Gazette

In 2000, Krygier’s GIS class began working on the Delaware Ohio Recreational Trails GIS Collaboration, which sought to identify and map potential walking and bicycling trails for the local community. The project included photograph-based research to visually determine people’s likes and dislikes regarding a possible rails-to-trails conversion.

“This was a class project, but it has had a real effect on the community,” says Krygier, who joined OWU’s department of geology and geography in 1999. “I think it’s important to get students engaged and involved in the community they live in.”

Krygier and Hawthorne presented their research at the 2003 Association of American Geographers conference in New Orleans, and expanded the information in 2007. The resulting paper, “Mapping Ambivalence: Participatory GIS Methods, Qualitative Data, and Rails-to-Trails Development in a Changing Human Landscape,” was published in Geoforum in March. Founded in 1970, Geoforum is an international, interdisciplinary journal that focuses on the organization of “economic, political, social, and environmental systems through space and over time.”

Krygier and Hawthorne’s research used Q-method, which Krygier describes as a “profound twist on an opinion survey,” to help gauge people’s thoughts about recreational trails. It addressed such questions as whether people would want railways to be converted to trails and whether they would want such trails near their homes.

“It has no preconceptions,” Krygier says of Q-method. “It generates data and identifies significant associations afterward.”

Hawthorne, now pursing his doctorate in geography at The Ohio State University, says the OWU project revealed that not all preconceived information about rails-to-trails programs was accurate and that place-based studies can provide important insight into issues of geographic change. His current research involves a GIS analysis of healthcare accessibility in Columbus.

While at Ohio Wesleyan, Hawthorne majored in geography and minored in English. He says he chose the University because he wanted to attend a smaller institution that valued students.

“I wanted to be in a place where my professors knew my name and helped me succeed,” he says. “I wanted to be in a place that would develop my critical-thinking skills, my writing abilities—hence the English minor—and lead me to a successful future. I also came to OWU because I had the ability to be a part of the OWU golf team.”

When he arrived at Ohio Wesleyan, Hawthorne’s interests lay in law and education. But after taking Krygier’s “Power of Maps” class, Hawthorne knew he had found the right direction for his future. Krygier also became Hawthorne’s advisor and mentor.

“His support meant the world to me,” Hawthorne says. “He never discouraged me from applying for awards or doing something beyond the typical undergraduate experience. I felt that he allowed me to express myself and engage in work that was fun, challenging and hopefully rewarding to some people beyond the academy.”

Hawthorne also credits Professor Dick Fusch, Ph.D., with helping him to succeed.

“His encouragement and financial support to present our work at conferences, such as the 2003 Association of American Geographers Meeting in New Orleans, led to my research assistantship at West Virginia University, where I earned my master’s degree in geography,” Hawthorne says. “My WVU advisor was in the audience as I presented. Krygier introduced us that day, and it led to a great opportunity.”

Hawthorne says Ohio Wesleyan also was the place where he met the love of his life, his wife, Alicia (Yonkof) Hawthorne. Also a 2003 OWU graduate, she is a PhD student in neurosciences at Case Western University in Cleveland. The couple lives in Ashland.

Back at Ohio Wesleyan, Krygier’s GIS class currently is studying how the local geography may affect people’s health and well-being. He anticipates the project will play a role in the fall Sagan National Colloquium, now in the planning stages.

Krygier also is working on a comic book-themed venture, “Ce N’est Pas Le Monde,” with Denis Wood, an independent scholar from Raleigh, North Carolina. The booklet, expected to be published as a peer-reviewed book chapter next year, explores the idea of maps as propositions (elements of logic that are either true or false), as well as alternative forms of academic discourse.

Krygier and Wood previously collaborated on “Making Maps: A Visual Guide to Map Design for GIS,” published by The Guilford Press in 2005. Krygier maintains a related blog at makingmaps.net.

– Cole Hatcher