Nearing end of boardwalk to beach. Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, Florida. March 2015 Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, near Santa Rosa Beach, Florida (east of Destin & Walton Beach), is one of my family’s favorite vacation destination. It is a state park with many things to do, besides their beautiful white sand beach. Along with the beach, we most enjoy all the biking trails this park offers.
This past spring, I had an opportunity to visit Topsail (local abbreviation of the park’s name) while I was taking a GIS class at Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC). I decided to develop a GIS map of Topsail concentrating on the endangered species of the park, along with points of interests for new park visitors.
I developed several items for this project: an ESRI story map, an ArcGIS on-line interactive map, and a PowerPoint presentation of the GIS map’s development. The links are listed below.
ESRI Story Map: http://arcg.is/1EqNzkO
ArcGIS On-Line Interactive Map: http://arcg.is/1bEkIiN
This past spring, I had an opportunity to visit Topsail (local abbreviation of the park’s name) while I was taking a GIS class at Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC). I decided to develop a GIS map of Topsail concentrating on the endangered species of the park, along with points of interests for new park visitors.
I developed several items for this project: an ESRI story map, an ArcGIS on-line interactive map, and a PowerPoint presentation of the GIS map’s development. The links are listed below.
ESRI Story Map: http://arcg.is/1EqNzkO
ArcGIS On-Line Interactive Map: http://arcg.is/1bEkIiN
Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, the on-line interactive GIS map: the red balloons are points of interest in the park; the green balloons are historical locations of red cockaded woodpeckers, and the purple area is where the endangered Choctawhatchee beach mouse is found.
At NWACC, this project was an assignment made to meet their EMPACTS requirements. EMPACTS stands for "Educationally-Managed Projects Advancing Curriculum, Technology and Service", and this program gives back to the community in a variety of ways. As for all EMPACTS projects, a school coordinator created an EMPACTS project website for the Topsail project also.
To my surprise, WaltonOutdoors.com, a county tourism site run by volunteers, decided to write an article about these mapping efforts and posted it, along with the maps’ links on their website.
Walton County Tourism Website Article: http://www.waltonoutdoors.com/arkansas-student-documents-topsail-hill-preserve-state-park-for-gis-project/
I really enjoyed working on this project! I look forward to visiting this Florida State Park again and discovering even more about it!
- JMB
12-9-15 Post Script - ESRI changed the configuration steps for their Story Map product, so I had to remake the story map recently. I did a quick job of it and it does not contain as much information as the original Story Map version.
To my surprise, WaltonOutdoors.com, a county tourism site run by volunteers, decided to write an article about these mapping efforts and posted it, along with the maps’ links on their website.
Walton County Tourism Website Article: http://www.waltonoutdoors.com/arkansas-student-documents-topsail-hill-preserve-state-park-for-gis-project/
I really enjoyed working on this project! I look forward to visiting this Florida State Park again and discovering even more about it!
- JMB
12-9-15 Post Script - ESRI changed the configuration steps for their Story Map product, so I had to remake the story map recently. I did a quick job of it and it does not contain as much information as the original Story Map version.
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