Professor

Christopher J. Seeger

Professor, Landscape Architecture
Extension Specialist, Landscape Architecture

Education

MLA, Iowa State University, 1997
BLA, North Dakota State University, 1995
BS, Environmental Design, North Dakota State University, 1995
Certificates and Registrations:
Certified Geographic Information Systems Professional (GISP) 2008
Registered Landscape Architect (2004  Iowa #444)
 

On the Web

https://faculty.sites.iastate.edu/cjseeger/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-j-seeger/

Research Interests

Professor Seeger specializes in the integration of geospatial technologies, data science and visualization with collaborative design technologies (crowd-sourcing, Public Participation GIS and Volunteered Geographic Information) to develop local current datasets and indicators that can be used in the planning and design process. His research includes the utilization of crowdsourcing technologies to document and model the built environment for the purpose of creating healthy, sustainable communities that include safe routes to schools, connected trail systems, and environments/programs that promote healthy lifestyles. 

In addition to this research, Professor Seeger leads the ISU Extension and Outreach Indicators Program which aims to provide community demographic, health and economic data resources to the public and local decision makers. He is also a co-director of the ISU Data Science for Public Good Young Scholars Program.

Professor Seeger teaches an Introduction the Web Mapping and an Introduction to GIS as online courses in the College of Design. He also co-leads the ISU Extension and Outreach Geospatial Technology Program which provides GIS workshops and publishes  Task sheets on geospatial, data science and other technology related topics.

Current Projects

Languages Spoken in Iowa

Indicators Program: Data for Decision Makers

Geospatial Technology Program: Task sheets

Data Science for Public Good Young Scholars Program
 

Current Scholarship

• Iowa State University Award for Outstanding Achievement in Extension or Professional Practice, 09/21/2022
• Iowa ASLA Honor Award in Planning & Analysis, 09/13/2022

  Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program. Iowa Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Julia Badenhope, Director, Christopher J. Seeger, Collaborator

• University Interdisciplinary Research Team Award, 09/24/2021

  2021. University Interdisciplinary Research Team Award. Data Science for the Public Good Young Scholars Program. Iowa State University. Cassandra Dorius, PI, Associate Professor of Human Development & Family Studies; Shawn Dorius, Co-PI, Associate Professor of Rural Sociology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; Christopher Seeger, Co-PI, Professor, Extension Specialist in Landscape Architecture and Geospatial Technologies, Director, Extension and Outreach Indicators Program; Jim Reecy, Co-PI, Professor, Department of Animal Science, Associate Vice President for Research; Heike Hofmann, Professor of Statistics, Professor in Charge of Data Science; Adisak Sukul, Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Computer Science; Todd Abraham, Assistant Director of Data & Analytics, Iowa’s Integrated Data System for Decision Makers

• Innovation and Creativity Team Award - North Central Region Winner, 06/01/2021

  Harnessing Data Science for the Public Good during COVID-19. National Association of Community Development Extension Professionals (NACDEP). C. Seeger, G. Taylor, C. Dorius, S. Dorius, K. Van Selous. H. Hofmann, T. Abraham, A. Sukul, J. Reecy

• Award for Excellence in Research-Based Programing, 02/28/2021

  Data Science for Public Good Young Scholars Program. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. Christopher J. Seeger, Cassandra Dorius, Shawn Dorius, Todd Abraham, Adisak Sukul and Heike Hofmann.

• Iowa Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects - Merit Research Award, 10/23/2020

  Research Merit Award: Community and Block-level Transportation Analysis in the Age of Open Data

• NACDEP 2020 North Central Region Runner Up in the Educational Material team category, 06/01/2020

  “Geospatial Technology Task Sheets: A simple approach to increasing geospatial technical capacity,” a project by the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Geospatial Technology team of Christopher J. Seeger, Bailey Hanson, Amy Logan, Austin Dunn, Thomas Petitti and Ahmad Alhammadi, was the National Association of Community Development Professionals (NACDEP) 2020 North Central Region Runner Up in the Educational Material team category. The team created the Geospatial Technology Tasksheet series to provide ongoing support to citizens striving to improve their geospatial technical capacity. Designed to provide quick, easy instructions for performing specific tasks using a variety of geospatial tools, the 160 free-to-download, double-sided tasksheets were downloaded more than 8,000 times in 2019.

• NACDEP 2020 North Central Region Winner and National Runner Up in the Innovation and Creativity team category, 06/01/2020

  “Improving Community Mobility Through Spatial Data Science, Open Data and Interactive Visualization,” a project by the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach Community and Economic Development (CED) team of Christopher J. Seeger, Bailey Hanson, Cassandra Dorius, Austin Dunn, Erin Mullenix, Rakesh Shah and Jonathan Sherwood, was the National Association of Community Development Professionals (NACDEP) 2020 North Central Region Winner and National Runner Up in the Innovation and Creativity team category. The project examined low ridership of Marshalltown Municipal Transit’s public transit system. Beginning with minimal available data, the team created innovative methods to build an accurate dataset that was then analyzed and used to inform where system updates should be made to better serve the community.