Caitlin Dempsey

Caitlin Dempsey is a geographer, writer, and founder and editor of Geography Realm. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Geography from UCLA and a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from San José State University.

For more than two decades, she has written about geography, maps, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, satellite imagery, and environmental science. Her work focuses on making geography accessible to a broad audience through articles, tutorials, and educational resources.

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Fish stocking in the 1930s. Photo: Rocky Mountain National Park.

Extreme Fish Stocking: Repopulating Lakes by Air

Caitlin Dempsey

To repopulate remote lakes, Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) uses airplanes to drop fish into lakes.

PaleoDEMs: Map the Earth’s Changing Topography Over the last 540 Million Years

Caitlin Dempsey

Users can download paleogeographic datasets reconstructing paleotopography and paleobathymetry dating back to 540 millions years ago

Global Dataset of River Widths Developed from Landsat Imagery

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers used a combination of satellite imagery and field measurements coupled with statistical modeling to calculate worldwide river and stream surface measurements which is now available as a GIS dataset.

Interviews with Geographers and Cartographers

Caitlin Dempsey

Access interviews with prominent geographers from the 1970s to 1990s via the Library of Congress.

Will Self-Driving Cars Make Traffic Worse?

Caitlin Dempsey

The World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group studied the possible effects of autonomous vehicles on Boston's future traffic.

Human Eyesight is Sharper Than It Is For Most Animals

Caitlin Dempsey

A team of researchers from Duke University assesses the visual acuity of over 600 species encompassing insects, birds, mammals, fish, and other animals.

Cormorant: Raven of the Sea

Caitlin Dempsey

Cormorants are a family of about 40 aquatic birds, mostly of medium to large size.  All species of cormorants are ...

125 Million Building Footprints in the US Now Available as Open GIS Data

Caitlin Dempsey

Microsoft has made 124,885,597 footprints from all 50 U.S. states available as open data.

Learn to Use GIS to Map and Analyze Surface Water Data

Caitlin Dempsey

Esri Press recently published a book to teach users how to use GIS to analyze surface water using the National Hydrography Dataset produced by the USGS.  

More Animals Are Becoming Nocturnal Thanks to Human Activity

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers from UC Berkeley undertook a study that looks at the effect of human activity on the daily activity patterns of wildlife.

Screenshot showing the reprojected map with a Pacific Ocean centric view in QGIS.

QGIS Tutorial: How to Change the Map Projection to be Centered Over the Pacific Ocean

Caitlin Dempsey

This quick tutorial shows you how to recenter your map project in QGIS so that the center of the map view is on the Pacific Ocean.

How to Use the Color Blind Preview Option in QGIS

Caitlin Dempsey

With the release of QGIS 3, you can now preview how your maps will look for those with two types of red-green color blindness.

Laptop with QGIS, a desktop GIS software program

How Much Do GIS Jobs Pay?

Caitlin Dempsey

Your potential salary as a GIS professional is going to vary depending on several factors such as the location of the job, the title, and experience.

Sentinel-5P Tracking Emissions from Hawaii’s Kīlauea Volcano

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers are using data from the Sentinel-5P satellite to map out sulphur dioxide emissions from Hawaii's Kīlauea volcano.

Lava from Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano Reaches the Ocean

Caitlin Dempsey

This image captured by the USGS-HVO shows the active ocean entry of a branch of lava from the Kīlauea Volcano in Hawaii.

The Aorounga Crater in Northern Chad

Caitlin Dempsey

The Aorounga Crater is an impact crater located in northern Chad just south of the Tibesti Mountains in the central Sahara desert.

How Much Would You Need to be Paid to Give Up Digital Maps?

Caitlin Dempsey

A trio of economists sought to figure out just how much money it would take users to give up digital services like Google Maps.

When a line feature cross back over itself without a node at the intersection of the two lines, the result is a weird polygon.

What are Weird Polygons?

Caitlin Dempsey

The straightforward definition of a weird polygon is a GIS data feature that is missing nodes.

Department of the Interior is Considering Charging for Landsat Data

Caitlin Dempsey

The Department of the Interior (DOI), which oversees the USGS, has tasked a federal advisory committee with exploring how instituting a fee for Landsat data might impact scientists and other users

Using Machine Learning to Speed Up Electrical Grid Mapping

Caitlin Dempsey

Development Seed, working for the World Bank Group, created a methodology for integrating machine learning with manual mapping in order to speed up the mapping of  high-voltage (HV) grids in developing countries.

A map of China with region boundaries in teal.

Where to Find GIS Data for Historical Country Boundaries

Caitlin Dempsey

Finding historical GIS data can be hard to find. Listed here are available sites that offer historical country data in GIS file formats.

Review | The Nocturnal City

Caitlin Dempsey

Robert Shaw's newly published book, The Nocturnal City, is an effort to delve into the city at night which is a “very different time-space from day.”

Study Finds a Lower Abundance of Songbirds in Poorer Urban Areas in England

Caitlin Dempsey

A recently published study looked at the spatial relationship between people and birds across urban areas in Southern England in order to understand patterns of abundance and species richness among birds in populated areas.  

An aerial view of a chinstrap penguin rookery. Photo: Dr. Mike Goebel, NOAA NMFS SWFSC Credit: NOAA NMFS SWFSC Antarctic Marine Living Resources (AMLR) Program, public domain

King Penguins Like to Maintain Just the Right Amount of Personal Space

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers found a liquid-like spacing in King penguin colonies is the result of a balance between territorial pecking and a need to form in large groups as protection against predators.

Viz Palette Helps You Pick Colors for Your Maps and Data Visualizations

Caitlin Dempsey

There's a new color picker tool to help with selecting a palette for data visualizations.

Source: Oliver et al, 2018

Marine Heatwaves are Becoming Longer and More Frequent

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers, using satellite observations, have found that marine heatwaves are becoming more frequent and longer lasting.