Andy Atallah

Geospatial Summer Intern at Massachusetts Geological Survey • MS in GIS Technology, UMass Amherst • BA in Environmental Studies, Middlebury College

The following is a digital portfolio assignment created for the course GEOG 693: WebGIS, in which I was enrolled during the Spring 2025 semester. Students were tasked with choosing three strong assignments and improving them.

Note for grading purposes: While my Production Assignments were graded, I did not receive written TA feedback on what could be improved for Production Assignments 2-8. I felt that Production Assignment 1 and 2 were similar but that Production Assignment 2 was a stronger product, so I opted to choose to improve the latter for this portfolio. I have supplied links to the previous/original versions of assignments where necessary to allow for a comparison.

Product 1: Invasive Species and Areas of Critical Environmental Concern

Platform: ArcGIS Online
Modification of: Production Assignment 2: Data Configuration
Original feedback: While the TA graded my assignment, I did not receive written feedback on what to improve. In the absence of feedback, I thought back on the course and considered what changes I could make to increase interactivity. What follows is a link to the original assignment (Production Assignment 2) on Canvas.

Description: This product is a web app created in ArcGIS Experience Builder. It aims to present a point layer of an invasive plant species – yellow horned poppy – alongside one of the MassGIS conservation-related layers – Areas of Critical Environmental Concern. The product is based on the idea that the managers of these vital areas would want to see whether any invasive plant observation points are particularly close or even inside their borders, for part of the danger of invasive plants is whether they might spread to new areas in the future.

Improvements made:

  • The Production Assignment on which this product is based was constructed using ArcGIS Instant Apps, which is the more limited Esri web app tool students interacted with in the early weeks of class.
  • Users are now able to view the pop-up for a feature in a side panel which matches the height of the screen. This helps in that users are more easily able to see the picture for each yellow horned poppy observation without having to scroll down.
  • Users can flip through all features in both feature layers (polygon areas and observation points) and apply actions to each feature, such as zooming to them.
  • Users can switch the basemap to Imagery to see what the coastline looks like at the spot where an invasive species was observed.
  • Users can choose to view bookmarks which correspond to the inset maps on the previous version, which were perhaps in the way sometimes.
  • Users can choose to filter for observations from the current year, the last three years, or the last five years to give a sense of which observations might be able to be curbed as part of an Early Detection and Rapid Response (EDRR) initiative, which aim to tackle invasive plants as soon as they are observed.

Product 2: Amherst Area Invasive Plant Species Survey

Platform: ArcGIS Survey123
Modification of: Production Assignment 8: Making a Survey
Original feedback: While the TA graded my assignment, I did not receive written feedback on what to improve. In the absence of feedback, I thought back on the course and considered what changes I could make to increase interactivity. What follows is a link to the original assignment (Production Assignment 8) on Canvas. As communicated to instructor Dr. Hongyu Zhang, the submitted link on Canvas is the same link used for the improved survey; thus, I reconstructed the original version of the survey and have linked it here.

Description: This product is a web survey created in ArcGIS Survey 123. Its aim is to provide a way for community members to send geographic information concerning invasive species sightings directly to non-profit organizations or governmental bodies invested in aquatic invasive species monitoring. I was directly inspired to create this survey based on a summer internship I had with Charles River Watershed Association. My supervisor tasked me with creating a way for the organization to keep up to date on observations of aquatic invasive plant species occurring within the watershed boundaries. One of the options I looked at was Survey123, but my supervisor recommended we use an iNaturalist project group instead. I was thus already interested in what this form might look like in Survey123. While I was not sure if a survey fit the expectations of the assignment, instructor Dr. Hongyu Zhang provided that students should make sure any included survey asks a spatial question and encourages users to contribute. I feel that the product meets these requirements.

Improvements made:

  • Added visibility rule for geospatial question (map) to reflect the concept of geoprivacy; users may be concerned about their device asking for their location. Instead, users are prompted to answer whether they would like to share their location, and a question with a list of popular water features is included if users opt not to share their exact location.
  • Added important contextual information and links to the description of the survey.
  • Introduced and added links to iNaturalist for the invasive plant chosen in a question to foster knowledge of community science and encourage contribution to a global database.

Product 3: UMass Amherst Science Building Tour

Platform: Google Maps JavaScript API, JSFiddle
Modification of: Production Assignment 6: Making A Google Map
Original feedback: While the TA graded my assignment, I did not receive written feedback on what to improve. In the absence of feedback, I thought back on the course and considered what changes I could make to increase interactivity. What follows is a link to the original assignment (Production Assignment 6) on Canvas.

Description: This product is a Google Map created using the Google Maps JavaScript API and the associated documentation for this service. The goal of the map is to present a series of features - in this case, science buildings on the UMass Amherst campus - and create a natural order between them to facilitate a self-guided walking tour. There are many buildings on campus, and this map highlights a few for STEM-minded prospective students or those new to campus so that they are not lost in the sea of other place names. Using the Google Maps JavaScript API proved challenging but rewarding in terms of the content I was able to create.

Improvements made:

  • Added pop-ups using JavaScript to show names of science buildings.
  • Added many more features to fill out a roster of science buildings for a tour.
  • Added a real purpose to the map - i.e., a tour - rather than simply showing a set of science buildings. Used official UMass branding to add authenticity and association with University materials.
  • Added numerical glyph to feature pins to show an order by which a user may take a tour from one side of campus (Holdsworth) to the other (Morrill).
  • Highlighted Lot 25 with a polygon. It seemed like good place to park given the location of Stop 1, Holdsworth Hall.