My name’s Matilda and I’m a third-year student in the Geomatics program at the University of Waterloo, where I work with geospatial data and programming software alongside coursework in data science, geography, and environmental studies. This co-op term, I had the privilege of working with ConnectON, contributing to data collection, dashboard development, and geospatial mapping. ConnectON is a data and mapping platform developed to help municipalities, economic development professionals and planners better understand Ontario’s food and farming sector. It brings together information about agricultural production, food businesses, infrastructure, supply chains and economic activity, helping users identify clusters, opportunities and potential connections within the food system. Being part of a project supporting the growth and resilience of local and regional food systems, and seeing how the work directly informs real decisions, made this an especially fulfilling experience that I am very grateful for.
My work
A significant part of my summer was spent cleaning data for ConnectON’s mapping interface to ensure records were accurate and consistent including updating datasets for Renfrew County and Brampton. The Renfrew County update also allowed our team to refresh the Ontario East data, a project we had been working on. To make sure the platform serves its users to the fullest extent, I also designed a user survey to gather direct feedback and created a summary report highlighting key findings and recommendations to guide the future of the platform, its mapping interface, and the data behind it. Additionally, I helped out on a project identifying gaps in ConnectON’s existing GIS layers and proposed new ones, most notably a land capability layer to better understand where agricultural land sits across the region, which is still in development. I’m excited to see where this will go in the future, and I look forward to watching ConnectON continue to grow into an even more powerful tool. Thank you to the ConnectON and GHFFA team for welcoming me to the team! Visit the ConnectON platform to learn more https://www.connecton.ca/ConnectOn/login.home