By Mina Syadi
Published 12/6/24
Workshop recording available on YouTube
The Community Engagement Core of NM-INSPIRES (New Mexico Integrative Science Program Incorporating Research in Environmental Sciences) offered a workshop on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools using RStudio to address Environmental Health and Justice led by Theodros (Teddy) Woldeyohannes. The workshop focused on supporting New Mexico communities in addressing Environmental Health and Justice (EHJ) issues in their local areas or incorporating it into their research efforts.
The workshop took place at the University of New Mexico (UNM) Department of Communication and Journalism on September 17th, 2024 from 4 to 6 pm. Teddy was introduced by Dr. Tamar Ginossar, the Community Engagement Core Leader. Talyia MacLeod, Research Coordinator, and Dr. Asis Lopez, Research Scientist 2, at the Community Engagement Core shared their RStudio expertise and provided technical and logistical support. Participants included members from community organizations, as well as UNM faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and students, all united by a shared commitment to addressing air quality issues in New Mexico.
The goal of the workshop was to teach participants to use critical tools and resources, enabling them to take action on EHJ by confidently supporting their efforts with solid data and analytics. This was done by guiding participants on how to access publicly available data from city, county, state, and federal-level databases. In addition, the workshop provided insights on processing and analyzing the data. Participants were introduced to GIS tools to create and analyze map data, visualization tools to digitize, load, and plot complex data sets and relationships, data-structures to manage and access data, and regression analyses to identify spatial data relationships – all in the free statistical computing software R Studio.
For community members and UNM students and staff interested in learning more about RStudio and the workshop, Teddy has made all resources publicly available. This includes an R Markdown file – which is an interactive document that allows the user to execute pieces of the code and immediately view the results in real time – allowing for users to walk through the code and understand what each line is executing at their own pace.
The Workshop was recorded over Zoom, and is available for free on the Communication and Journalism Department YouTube account: https://youtu.be/gNGhiXebHiU (direct link to R Workshop). The documents, including code and additional resources, for the R Workshop are located in the publicly available GitHub Repository located at: https://github.com/Theodros-Woldeyohannes/INSPIRES-SpatialReg-workshop
Theodros Woldeyohannes is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of New Mexico (UNM). His research interests are in applying GIScience and geospatial technologies for addressing environmental health issues and understanding the spatial patterns behind exposure and human-environment interactions. Theodros is a research assistant and trainee at three UNM Centers: the New Mexico Integrative Science Program Incorporating Research in Environmental Sciences Center in the Community Engagement Core (NM-INSPIRES CEC), the UNM Metals Exposure and
Toxicity Assessment on Tribal Lands in the Southwest (METALS) Superfund Research Program Center, and the Center for Native Environmental Health Equity Research (Native EH Equity). His ongoing work includes environmental sampling, exposure modeling, and remote sensing to help assess exposure to particulate air pollution and other contaminants from forest fires, mining operations, and other sources in partner communities.
If you would like to learn more about Teddy, please visit his website: https://theodros-woldeyohannes.github.io or reach out to him (twoldey94@unm.edu).