GSC student earns 2nd place at URISA writing competition

OAKWOOD - Johnny Reed, a GSC Institute for Environmental and Spatial Analysis student from Oakwood, GA, placed second in URISA’s statewide GIS paper competition. He competed against both undergraduate and graduate students, and placed second behind a student from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Reed earned the second place Thomas Mettille Student Achievement Award for his paper entitled “A Probability Model for Prehistoric Archaeology Sites in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests.” The 17 page paper was based on a project Reed decided to undertake based on the fact that, “the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests contain many known prehistoric and historic archaeological sites at which evidence of human activity has been found.”

Reed’s abstract for the paper stated: “The purpose of this project was to produce a computer model based on binary logistic regression to aid in the identification of areas with a high probability for finding additional prehistoric sites within the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests. Using data from a set of points including both known prehistoric archaeological sites and random points, Minitab statistical software was used to produce a regression equation for the natural log of the odds of a point being a prehistoric site. Raster calculation was then performed to produce a probability surface for the area of the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests.”

Reed presented his paper at the Georgia URISA Annual Student Achievement Award/Career Day on April 14 at DeKalb Technical College in Clarkston, GA. Reed also presented a paper titled “A Suitability Analysis Model for Potential Blueberry Production in Georgia Using Geospatial Technology” at the 2009 annual meeting of the Georgia Academy of Science on April 3 at Spelman College in Atlanta.