GIS and StoryMap Training
Organisation: The Rivers Trust
Location: National
Type: Technical Support & Training
The best way to encourage and facilitate the use of the spatial data in GIS applications is to train practitioners to develop their GIS and spatial data skills and, in so doing, build capability in their organisations. Environmental professionals are often highly ‘geographically literate’, but they do still require specialised, application-based training to become skilled GIS technicians who can then incorporate the robust and effective use of GIS into their day-to-day work.
Desktop GIS training for CaBA Partners
To meet the growing demand for GIS training in the environmental sector Westcountry Rivers Trust have teamed up with the University of Reading, The Scottish Fisheries Coordination Centre (SFCC) and the Catchment Based Approach Support Group to develop a series of intensive GIS short-courses specifically tailored to develop and disseminate best practice and technical GIS skills for practitioners engaged in catchment management planning, landscape ecology, fisheries science, river restoration, ecology and conservation biology.
Online GIS training modules are available free for CaBA partnerships at Ecospatial eLearning Portal. CaBA partnerships can contact us for a username and password.
The Ecospatial eLearning portal uses ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap and ArcCatalog) within it’s modules. Other desktop GIS are being used by CaBA Partnerships including ArcGIS Pro (the next generation of ESRI desktop GIS software which is available to NGOs as part of the ESRI Non-Profit Programme) and QGIS (free open source GIS).
For those thinking of switching from ArcGIS Desktop to ArcGIS Pro we have developed a series of short video tutorials to help you get started.
ArcGIS Online and Storymaps
A series of webinars and demonstrations aimed at CaBA partnerships who would like to know more about how ArcGIS Online and StoryMaps can help share data and evidence, publish a catchment plan and engage stakeholders.
Short overview of ArcGIS Online and StoryMaps for CaBA Partnerships - 2020 (20 mins)
What is ArcGIS Online? What are StoryMaps and how are CaBA partnerships using them? What resources do you need to get started?
Introduction to ArcGIS Online and StoryMaps for CaBA Partnerships - 2017 (1hr 30mins)
What is ArcGIS Online and why are CaBA Partnerships using it? How do we get started and what are the costs?
StoryMap Inspiration (15 mins)
Be inspired by how other CaBA Partnerships are using the new StoryMap templates.
Creating a StoryMap (20 mins)
Get started using the new ArcGIS StoryMap template.
ArcGIS Online and StoryMap Training Manual and Courses
This is a technical training manual aimed at CaBA partnership and rivers trust staff with some GIS Desktop experience who want to learn how to use ArcGIS Online (AGOL) and StoryMaps to publish online maps and apps and develop a catchment portal. By working through this manual you should…
• Understand what ArcGIS Online is, what it can be used for and how to manage your account
• Understand how to find and use data, and how to upload and share your own data
• Have confidence to create, edit and manage a catchment storymap using the new ArcGIS StoryMap template
• Be able to combine multiple datasets and content into an engaging catchment portal
• Understand how to use tools such as ArcGIS Survey 123, Collector and Dashboards to support collaborative working
We have also developed a one-day technical training course based upon the manual which can be run in person or online to train CaBA partnerships in how to begin publishing online data and storymaps. The training course goes into greater depth than our online video tutorials and is designed to get you set you up with a draft partnership storymap which you can then take away and continue to edit and develop following the training. View the course outline and contact us for more details, costs and to discuss your requirements.
GIS Video Tutorials
We have developed a series of bite-sized training videos to help CaBA partnerships get started using GIS. Tutorials include:
- An introduction to ArcGIS Pro: Get started using some of the most common tools and features in ArcGIS Pro.
- An introduction to ArcGIS Online StoryMaps: Learn how to create a StoryMap using the new template and see how others are using them.
- Creating maps in ArcGIS Online: Learn how to create, customise and share an online map.
- Introduction to ArcGIS Online Dashboards: Be inspired by examples and get started creating a simple dashboard.
- Working with LiDAR: Learn how to use freely available LiDAR to generate a DTM, start identifying potential opportunities for river restoration and calculate pond storage volumes.