Centre for Spatial Analysis

The Centre for Spatial Analysis (CSA) is located on the 3rd floor in GLIER.  The CSA team is a group of highly trained and qualified geospatial specialists who utilize geospatial technologies (GIS, Remote Sensing, GPS and UAVs), models and theories to help address various environmental questions and problems related to the Great Lakes and Windsor-Essex regions.   Our group develops high-end environmental and social models for multidisciplinary research, such as air and water pollution prediction and exposure, spatial database and portal development for decision-making initiatives, and programming and application development for data extraction and automation of geospatial workflows.  To date, the team has brought in $1.5 million in research funding from various academic, government, commercial and non-profit organizations.
In addition the team also provides essential geospatial services to the University and the Windsor-Essex region at large, for example, we:

• Teach and train geospatial theory and geospatial technology usage at both the graduate and undergraduate levels 
• Support faculty, staff and students at the university by providing access to geospatial software and by maintaining various GIS/RS site licenses
• Advise departments on how to integrate GIS software within their computer labs.
• Advise on spatial data acquisition, development and visualization
• Advise the university community on integration of GIS  software within other departmental computer labs
• Encourage and collaborate on projects and grant proposals that incorporate significant geospatial components

The CSA facility houses a number of high-end, networked workstations installed with industry standard GIS/RS software (ESRI, ENVI, IDRISI, etc.) for the visualization and analysis of spatial data.  The CSA also houses 4 large terabyte scale servers for data storage, application development and implementation, backup services, distribution of software licenses, etc.  We also have 2 small scale drones and a number of differential global positioning systems that are used for location tracking and mapping.

The team is headed by Ms. Alice Grgicak-Mannion, a faculty member of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and the School of the Environment. Other members of the team include: Dr. Richard Zeng, Geospatial Application Programmer; Ms. Rebecca Shearon, MSc Candidate and Geospatial Data Development Assistant; and Ms. Courtney Spencer, Geospatial Data and Metadata Developer.

For more information about our services and group please contact:

Alice Grgicak-Mannion
Phone:  (519) 253-3000 X 2170
Office:  GLIER Room 306
GIS Lab:  GLIER Room 302
e-mail: Alice Grgicak-Mannion

Centre for Spatial Analysis (CSA) Team