From Big Data to Dirt Research: Mapping Canadian Energy Transitions in City, Field, and Forest
Start Date
13-11-2024 12:00 AM
End Date
13-11-2024 12:00 AM
Description
From prairie wheat kings to log-waltzing timber drivers, Canadians evoke a sense of working with the natural world. For most of Canadian history, its primary sector operated in what economist E. A. Wrigley called the “solar regime” of energy history, limited by the biomass that plants and animals could convert from the sun’s energy. The transition from biomass to fossil fuels was universal, but in Canada it was surprisingly slow, and historians know relatively little about it. From careful map analysis in historical Geographic Information Systems (HGIS) to Deep Learning Models in ArcGIS Pro, we use a range of digital methods to mine data and examine these transitions in UPEI’s GeoREACH Lab (for Geospatial Research in Atlantic Canadian History). We use HGIS for everything from automated polygon recognition to online participatory mapping, and combined with traditional historical methods such as oral interviews and census data development, our students have helped to digitize maps and manuscripts with a focus on the period of Canada’s largest energy transition (circa 1870-1970).
Type
Presentation
Location
budsc2024/keynote
From Big Data to Dirt Research: Mapping Canadian Energy Transitions in City, Field, and Forest
budsc2024/keynote
From prairie wheat kings to log-waltzing timber drivers, Canadians evoke a sense of working with the natural world. For most of Canadian history, its primary sector operated in what economist E. A. Wrigley called the “solar regime” of energy history, limited by the biomass that plants and animals could convert from the sun’s energy. The transition from biomass to fossil fuels was universal, but in Canada it was surprisingly slow, and historians know relatively little about it. From careful map analysis in historical Geographic Information Systems (HGIS) to Deep Learning Models in ArcGIS Pro, we use a range of digital methods to mine data and examine these transitions in UPEI’s GeoREACH Lab (for Geospatial Research in Atlantic Canadian History). We use HGIS for everything from automated polygon recognition to online participatory mapping, and combined with traditional historical methods such as oral interviews and census data development, our students have helped to digitize maps and manuscripts with a focus on the period of Canada’s largest energy transition (circa 1870-1970).
