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Forbes Lipschitz, an assistant professor and Suzanne L. Turner Professor at the Louisiana State University Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture, recently collaborated with UT adjunct assistant professor in Landscape Architecture, Justine Holzman, to lead a two-day workshop for students in the UT School of Landscape Architecture.  The workshop focused on the application of geographic information systems (GIS) as a geovisualization tool.

The Strategies for Mapping Migration workshop introduced new methodologies and workflows for mapping, manipulating and designing with geospatial data, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software.  Beginning by tracing the evolution of geovisualization as a research tool, the workshop moved into an overview of critical GIS techniques that represent change in dynamic landscape systems and iintroduced methods of visualizing dynamic datasets in two-dimensional media.

Each workshop session began with a short lecture introducing contemporary and historic visual material and design precedents from contemporary practice, followed by hands-on skills laboratory sessions using GIS and the Adobe Suite.  Each skills lab centered on a study area that covers a range of applied skills while also producing high-quality visual material.

Through the workshop, students realized that GIS is a valuable tool to spatialize data, depict a narrative, and prompt design strategies.  Students were challenged to visualize various types of data at multiple scales.

Over the two days, Lipschitz delivered the lecture, “Visual Thinking and The Role of Geovisualization in Facilitating Interdisciplinary Problem Solving” and two intensive workshop sessions covering the topics, Critical GIS Overview, Georeferencing, Spatial Analysis, Mapping Climate Data and Data experimentation.

Lipschitz’s research in geospatial analysis and representation rethinks regional landscape systems, particularly in North American agricultural territories.  At LSU, Lipschitz teaches studio and seminar courses in landscape planning, geographic information systems and representation. Her professional experience in landscape architecture has spanned a range of public, private, and infrastructural work, including a multi-year installation at Les Jardins de Metis.

Lipschitz earned a master of science degree in landscape architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where she was awarded an American Society of Landscape Architects Certificate of Merit award for her thesis, “The New Regional Pattern: Syncing Livestock Production and Urban Systems in the Broiler Belt.”  Originally from Little Rock, Ark., she graduated cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in environmental aesthetics from Pomona College in Claremont, California.

Lipschitz will return in March 2016 for a second workshop, entitled “Animating Geospatial Dynamics.”