Maps and Geographic Information Systems
In collaboration with the CMNH Section of 
Mammals, the GIS Lab has produced a web map documenting the route and highlights of the 1911-1912 Childs Frick Abyssinian Expedition. Childs Frick is the son of renowened Pittsbugh industrialst Henry Clay Frick. Over 500 mammals were collected for the Carnegie Museum during the expedition.
Click here to get more information on the expedition, as well as to see the web map.
You can now access records from seven DEP oil & gas reports 
through the GIS Lab’s unconventional wells map viewer. All records from the permits issued, SPUD, PUC, waste, compliance, production, and well formation reports are now available for each well in the map. To access these records, click on a well of interest. In the well pop up, click “Show Related Records” to access a table of records specific to that well.
The CMNH GIS Lab has released a web app 
highlighting recent forest ecology research initiatives at Powdermill Nature Reserve following a unique research opportunity, a large wind storm in June 2012. The project aims to test the long-term effects of salvage logging and deer exclusion on forest regeneration and wildlife following a major disturbance. The application combines maps, photos, and some background text to acquaint users with the project.
In collaboration with Civic Mapper, the Powdermill GIS Lab has captured fine-scale aerial imagery across various part of Powdermill Nature Reserve using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Imagery from two locations, the nature center and the avian research center, have been added as an optional layer to the Powdermill Nature Reserve web map. (Note: for best results turn off the Powdermill Nature Reserve boundary layer). The imagery was captured on October 29th and 31st using a Go Pro camera on a DJI Phantom 2 flying at 40 meters. If you would like either of the full mosaic images (with or without georeferencing), please contact the GIS Lab.
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History GIS Lab has produced a new web map viewer that adds 
additional functionality. Users can now graph unconventional gas production, violations, or data errors either state-wide or over a user-defined area by clicking the “Chart” button. The new “Draw” button allows the user to add graphics and text in order to produce their own maps. Like the previous web map, users can click on any well to view information in permits, drilling, inspections, violations, and other information. Users can still also can click on any producing well to see a graph of gas production since mid-2009 for that specific well. Stay tuned for an additional forthcoming update that will give users the ability to access a table of information on wells by stage, which can be filtered by map extent and exported as a CSV.
Click here to view the new web map.
The latest version of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Pennsylvania Unconventional Natural Gas Wells data set is now available. The update includes records through September 30, 2014. As with previous versions of the data set, you can now Download the data without registering. For information about updates, see the Version Information page. For more information, please see the Metadata and User License Agreement.
The latest version of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Pennsylvania Unconventional Natural Gas Wells data set is now available. The update includes records through June 30, 2014. As with the previous version of the data set, you can now Download the data without registering. For information about updates, see the Version Information page. For more information, please see the Metadata and User License Agreement.
The CMNH GIS Lab has produced a new web map to allow users to explore 
changes in the Powdermill landscape from 1939 to present using historic and current aerial imagery. The new map includes a list of bookmarks highlighting some of the sections of the reserve which have undergone substantial change. Photos for this map were obtained from Penn State’s Penn Pilot Program. While the map utilizes 1939 imagery, the GIS Lab has georeferenced and mosaiced all available imagery from the Penn Pilot for the Ligonier Valley. These rasters are available upon request by contacting the GIS Lab.
In collaboration with students in the Indiana University of P
ennsylvania’s Department of Geography and Urban Planning, the CMNH GIS Lab has produced a vegetation atlas of the 20 most abundant tree species at Powdermill Nature Reserve. These maps are based on the extensive vegetation survey conducted at Powdermill from 2006-2008. The complete vegetation dataset is now available here as an ArcGIS personal geodatabase that can also be accessed using Microsoft Access.
The Carnegie Museum of Natural History GIS Lab has produced a new web map to help researchers and the public to better understand the life of unconventional gas wells throughout Pennsylvania. The map uses the Carnegie Museum of Natural History Pennsylvania Unconventional Natural Gas Wells geodatabase to view information on permits, drilling, production over time, inspections, violations, and other information. View the map.