John F. Chamblee, Ph.D.

Database & Cartographic Design Portfolio

Coweeta LTER

Since starting to work for the Coweeta LTER in September of 2006, I have focused primarily on database development and database-driven research.

I have been regularly involved in collaborative research that examines the relationships between parcel-level decision-making, land values, land use, and government regulations. This collaboration has resulted in one published paper and at least two additional manuscripts.These papers required the development, maintenance, and manipulation of a four gigabyte parcel boundary and tax record geodatabase, managed using Microsoft SQL Server Express and ArcSDE.

In 2007, I contributed to the design of the ECOTRENDS Project Socioeconomic Catalog* by significantly redesigning the back end database for the project and migrating all project data into the new data model. In addition, I designed a Microsoft Access application that allowed project participants to update the metadata that formed the foundation for the data dictionary*.

In 2007 and 2008, I contributed to the Coweeta LTER grant renewal effort by collaborating with Coweeta P.I.s and L.P.I.s to produce GIS-based figures illustrating the expansion of urban and semi-urban land use practices*, the role of regional-to-parcel-level decision making* in socio-ecological research within the Coweeta study area, and the overall conceptual linkages* that comprised the Coweeta VI proposal.

I continue to collaborate with Coweeta researchers, especially those in the social science working group, to leverage relational database applications for integrated socio-ecological research. I have also developed prototype collaborative tools, including a secure Wordpress blog and a secure Wiki. Such tools can serve as platforms for the kind of network-based electronic collaboration that Coweeta's distributed research milieu demands.