Working Lands Mapping Project

Undergraduate Research, ArcGIS Online, Survey Design

ArcGIS Experience

Joshua and Maeve at the Digital Projects Showcase

Project Summary

The College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences conducts agricultural, educational, and research activities across the 6,000+ acres of campus and adjacent ranches, collectively called “working lands”. These natural laboratories and outdoor classrooms contribute significantly to the Cal Poly community however, information about these lands has been fractured with each department or unit maintaining their own records, making coordination challenging. As the campus expands and develops, it is increasingly important for the College to have effective tools to record and communicate the value of the working lands to ensure that vital educational and research resources are not lost during campus expansion.

The Working Lands Mapping Project has been a first step to catalog these lands and understand how they are utilized for teaching, research, and agricultural production. The project utilized online surveying and GIS tools to collect, manage, and showcase spatial and non-spatial data. The survey, created in summer of 2025 was distributed to CAFES Department heads, unit managers, faculty, and staff in fall of 2025.

The survey received 44 total responses which were reviewed, summarized, and visualized on an online map. These data layers give us a snapshot of the research and teaching that occurred in the 2024-25 academic year along with personal testimony about the unique value of Cal Poly’s working lands.

An ArcGIS Storymap was made to document the project and has been shared with the Dean’s office and CAFES Advisory Council. Future work on these efforts should seek to create a staff position for managing and cataloging working lands utilization on an annual basis to ensure continuity through rotating student assistant hirings.