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I am Brandon Brown, an undergraduate dual major at CU-Boulder, with an independent focus on applied GIS for sustainable development planning. Geography’s interdisciplinary nature sets it apart from other majors due to the flexibility with which a student can dual major, minor, or pursue a certificate. I transferred from Colorado Mountain College in Fall 2022 with a major in Environmental Studies, swiftly adding a Geography dual major after taking Intro to Mapping. GIS generates insights into spatial relationships, societal patterns, and geographic boundaries. The limits of applied cartography for analytics are the limits of human imagination. Ask where!

Geography offers academic experiences for students in environmental science, social sciences, and cartographic practices. Sarah Schlosser coordinates the GIS certificate which will familiarize students with RStudio, Python, and ArcGIS Pro for mapping platforms. Professor Taneesha Mohan coordinates internships for the department while teaching courses on methods and skills for socially conscious research. Professors John Adler and Rachel Isaacs teaches remote sensing and mapping climate change, both giving students the opportunity to implement remotely sensed imagery into their map products. Professor Stefan Leyk organizes the GIS Track of the Geography major with a heavy emphasis on spatial analysis, modeling, and programming. Studying Geography taught GIS methods I apply in my Honors thesis for clean energy site selection with an environmental justice lens.

The goal of my Honors thesis is to illustrate wind and solar energy potential in the state of Colorado, with the possibility of remediating contaminated environments on EPA REPower sites within Energy Communities. It is important to consider land ownership, indigenous sovereignty, economic policy at state and federal levels, solar and wind resourcing data, and potential environmental impacts. Qualifying advanced energy projects focus on commercial viability, greenhouse gas impacts, domestic labor/manufacturing, and community engagement.

A federal interagency working group has created the Energy Community initiative, geographic identification of areas for reinvestment as power sources are decarbonized. The EPA has designated contaminated sites with potential remediation efforts of renewable development called REPower sites. The Tribal Government territories of the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain are officially recognized Southwestern Colorado. Solar and wind data is provided by NREL’s archived RE-Atlas. By further honing in on EPA REPower sites within Energy Communities we can affordably remediate contaminated lands while decarbonizing power sources with qualifying advanced energy projects. My research uses multivariate criteria analysis of ethical, economic, policy, and environmental data to make recommendations for the initiative.

Recently passed, the Colorado Clean Energy Plan is a policy mandating Xcel Energy to reduce statewide energy-based carbon emissions 80% by 2030 as compared to 2005 levels. Greenfielding is a term I use to describe geographic areas which contain both the highest wind potentials and the highest solar potentials in their region. Below you will find a map of Colorado I made taking each criteria into account. I successfully defended my Honors thesis on April 8!