Dr. Robert Legg | Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences

Began teaching at NMU August 2006

Areas of Specialization

Geographic Information Systems, Computer Cartography, Spatial Analysis, Quantitative Methods

Current majors, minors, and certification

Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIST) Major
GIST Minor
Geographic Information Systems Certificate
Contact the EEGS department or Robert Legg with questions related to the Major, Minor or Certificate programs

Professional and so forth

Professor Legg’s teaching and research interests center on GIS and Technology (GIST). His efforts focus on applications involving pattern and spatial analysis combined with tools such as remote sensing and computer science across the spectrum of geographical and environmental research. The primary focus of Professor Legg’s research lies in geographic information science and (GIST) desired outcomes. Professor Legg has a particular interest in geoarchaeology and paleo-environments and demonstrates a track-record in this area through several published research projects. In practice, Professor Legg’s research involves GIS, spatial statistics, and the broader fields of GIScience and Geomatics, including work with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and predictive modeling.
Professor Legg has effectively taught GIS, spatial, and quantitative technologies at the undergraduate and graduate level. Many of his former students are now gainfully employed GIS professionals, with a variety of spatial-based carriers in the private sector and at various levels of government (federal, state, and local) in the United States and elsewhere globally.
NMU’s GIST courses link with several other departments. They involve integrating course offerings in both NMU’s highly-ranked Math and Computer Science department and also the award-winning Art and Design Program. As part of NMU’s GIScience and Technology education initiative, we provide each EEGS student with a Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Laptop, complete with the latest industry-standard GIS software, and county-wide internet access through NMU’s LTE network. Students will regularly bring these tools into internship opportunities, serving a variety of local and regional organizations with their GIS skills. Internships offer students the ability to strengthen their resumes, portfolios, and develop critically needed work experience.
Through the EEGS department, Internship-Opportunities (GC491) are available. We place interested students in both paid and unpaid internships, with offerings that exist through an established network of GIS professionals in the local community and further afield.
Our central EEGS mission focuses on providing high-quality undergraduate GIST education for a career-focused or just inquisitive-focused student body. We are excited to share our track-record for science-based opportunities and employment.

Publications (in progress/review)

Legg, R. J., Nakiguli, C., and Lejju, J. (Addressing reviewer comments) Water quality and heavy metal pollution in threatened urban wetlands in the Lake Victoria basin, Uganda.

Publications

Legg, R.J., Demel, S., Neilson, J. (In Press) Novel use of cathodoluminescence to identify differences in source rocks for late PalaeoIndian quartzite tools, Archaeometry.
Travis, C., Ludlow, F., Matthews, A., Lougheed. K., Rankin, K., Allaire, B., Legg, R., Hayes, P. Nichols, J., Towns, L., Holm, P. (2020) Humanities GIS, Cartesian, and literary perceptions of the north‐west Atlantic fishery ca 1500–1800. Geo Geography and Environment, e00085. https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.85.
Legg, R.J., Ludlow, F. and Travis, C. (2020) Mapping the Irish Rath (Ringfort): Landscape and Settlement Patterns in the Early Medieval Period. In C. Travis (Eds.), Historical Geography, GIScience and Textual Analysis, Springer Nature Switzerland Ag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37569-0_12.
Legg, R.J. and Demel, S.J (2020) Ground Penetrating Radar in the Northern Great Lakes: A Trial Survey of a Contact Period Occupation in Marquette County, Michigan., Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology (MCMA). https://doi.org/10.1080/01461109.2019.1696006.
Broadway, M.J., Legg, R.J. and Bertossi, T. (2019) North American independent coffeehouse culture: a comparison of Seattle with Vancouver. GeoJournal. https://doi.org/10.1111/gere.12253.
Holm, P., Ludlow, F., Scherera, C., Travis, C., Allaire, B., Brito, C., Hayes P., Matthews, A., Rankin, K., Breen, R., Legg, R., Lougheed, K., and Nicholls, J. (2019) The North Atlantic Fish Revolution (ca. AD 1500), Quaternary Research, 1-15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/qua.2018.153.
Broadway, M., Legg, R.J., and Broadway, J. (2018) Coffee Houses and the Art of Social Engagement: An Analysis of Portland Coffee Houses. Geographical Review, 108 (3): 433-456. https://doi.org/10.1111/gere.12253.
Davies, A.R., and Legg, R.J. (2018) Fare sharing: interrogating the nexus of ICT, urban food sharing, and sustainability. Food Culture and Society An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research 21(2):1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2018.1427924.
Legg, R.J., Regis, R.R., Lambert, J.M., Liesch, M., and Travis, C.B. (2017) Geoarchaeological modeling of late Paleoindian site locations in the northwestern great lakes. PaleoAmerica 3(2):150–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2017.1291244.
Liesch, M., Dunklee, L., Legg, R.J., Feig, A.D., and Krause, A.J. (2015) Use of business naming practices to delineate Michigan’s vernacular regions: a Michigan example. Journal of Geography, 114, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221341.2014.965187.
Loope, W.L., Jol, H.M., Fisher, T.G., Blewett, W.L., Loope, H.M., and Legg, R.J. (2014) A previously unrecognized path of base flow and elevated discharge from Lake Minong to Lake Chippewa across eastern Upper Michigan. In Coastline and dune evolution along the Great Lakes. In T. G. Fisher and E. C. Hanson (Eds.), Coastline and Dune Evolution Along the Great Lakes (Vol. 508, pp. 1-13) Boulder, Colorado: Geological Society of America. https://doi.org/10.1130/2014.2508(01)
Loope, W.L., Loope, H.M., Goble, R.J., Fisher, T.G., Lytle, D.E., Legg, R.J., Wysocki, D.A., Hanson, P.R. and AR Young (2012) Drought drove forest decline and dune building in eastern upper Michigan, USA, as the upper Great Lakes became closed basins. Geology, 40(4), 315-318. https://doi.org/10.1130/G32937.1
Legg, R.J., and Anderton, J.B. (2010) Using paleoshoreline and site location modeling in the northern Great Lakes: Geoarchaeological approaches to prehistoric archeological survey in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Geoarchaeology, 25, 772-783. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.20335.
Anderton, J.B., Legg, R.J., and Regis, R.R. (2010) Geoarchaeological approaches to site location modeling and archaeological survey in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Wisconsin Archeologist, 90(1 and 2), 19-30.
Legg, R.J. (2010) Book review, The SAGE Handbook of Spatial Analysis. Journal of Regional Science, 50(5), 1012-1014. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9787.2010.00709_6.x
Legg, R.J., and Bowe, T. (2009) Applying geographically weighted regression to a real estate problem, an example from Marquette, Michigan. ArcUser, 12(2), 44-45. https://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0309/files/re_gwr.pdf
Legg, R.J. (2007) Site catchment analysis. In D. Pearsall (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Archaeology (pp. 2002-2004) Oxford: Elsevier.
Legg, R.J., and Taylor, D. (2006) Modeling environmental influences on the location choice Irish Early Medieval ringforts. Geoarchaeology An International Journal, 21(3), 201-220. https://doi.org/10.1002/gea.20100.
Carroll, V., Legg, R.J., and Taylor, D. (2003) Redesigning an undergraduate geography course at Trinity College, Dublin, using WebQuests. Paper presented at the World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Chesapeake, VA. http://www.editlib.org/p/15085

Presentations

Legg, R., O’Connor, B., Collins, S. Travis, C. (2020) Analytical archeology, novel techniques in archeological modeling using Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, Poster presented to the Association of American Geographers, Annual Meeting April 2020, Denver, Colorado.
Legg, R., Neilson, J., Raubinger, G., Demel, S., (2018) Quartzite rock samples and their potential for stone tool making in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula,
Legg, R. (2017) Current and future direction of Undergraduate GIS curriculum in the USA, Presentation to the Summer Symposium, HAS University of Applied Sciences, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Legg, R (2017) Renaming a geography department to increase visibility and perceived scope, strategies and outcomes, Paper presented at the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting, Boston, MA.
Travis, C.*, Holm, P., Ludlow, F., Rankin, K., Klais, R., Lougheed, K., . . . Legg, R. (2016) The NorFish DeepMap. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the West and East Lakes Divisions of the Association of American Geographers, Marquette, MI.
Travis, C.*, Holm, P., Ludlow, F., Klais, R., Legg, R. J, and Rankin, K. (2016) The NorFish Platform: Geographical information science, data visualization, and mapping early modern coastal and maritime cultural heritage. Paper presented at the Oceans Past Platform Conference, Bayscapes: Shaping the Coastal Interface through Time, Trinity College, the University of Dublin.
Travis, C.*, Holm, P., Ludlow, F., Legg, R. J., and Rankin, K. (2016) The NorFish platform: geographical information science, data visualization, and mapping early modern coastal and maritime cultural heritage. Paper presented at the Presentation to the 48th Conference of Irish Geographers, St. Patrick’s College, Dublin.
Legg, R. J., Lejju, J., Kiwanuka, C., and Murphy, S. P. (2016) Identifying heavy metal pollution in selected urban wetlands of Lake Victoria, Uganda. Paper presented at the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
Legg, R. J. (2015) Developing an environmentally-based site location model of Paleoindian settlement in the northern great lakes. Paper presented at the School of Natural Sciences Lightning Talks, Trinity College, the University of Dublin, Ireland.
Legg, R. J. (2014) An environmentally-based site location model of Paleoindian settlement in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Archaeological Conference, Champaign, IL.
Legg, R. J., and Leonard, J. (2014) Redeveloping an undergraduate curriculum by applying strategies in active learning, techniques, issues, teaching, and technology. Paper presented at the Presentation to the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL.
Legg, A. T., Zubair, M. M., Saharan, S., Huang, J. H., Hohimer, A. R., Legg, R. J., and Langley, S. (2014) The volume of blood transfused predicts outcomes following congenital cardiac surgery. Paper presented at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL.
Legg, R. J., and Anderton, J. B. (2013a) Developing an environmentally-based site location model of Paleoindian settlement in the Northern Great Lakes. Paper presented at the Paleoamerican Odyssey Conference, Sante Fe, NM.
Legg, R. J., and Anderton, J. B. (2013b) Exploring a Native American early fur trade site with Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) in the Northern Great Lakes. Paper presented at the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, CA.
Anderton, J. B., Paquette, J., Buckmaster, M., and Legg, R. J. (2013) Geoarchaeology on the cusp of a changing world: The GLO#3 site (20MQ140), a protohistoric occupation in the Lake Superior Basin, USA. Paper presented at the Society of American Archaeologists (SAA), Annual Meeting, Honolulu, HI.
Legg, R. J., and Anderton, J. B. (2012) Ground-penetrating radar of archaeological sites on Grand Isle, Michigan. Paper presented at the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting, New York, NY.
Legg, R. J., and Anderton, J. B. (2011) A contested landscape in the Northern Great Lakes: Geospatial approaches to cultural resource survey on the Yellow Dog Plains in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Paper presented at the Presentation to the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA.
Legg, R. J. (2011) Landscapes of Conflict, A Geographer’s Experience in Israel. Paper presented at the Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU), Geo-Scope, Geography Speaker Series, Marquette MI.
Loope, W. L., Loope, H. M., Goble, R. J., Fisher, T. G., Lytle, D. E., Legg, R. J., and Wysocki, D. A.(2010) Massive dune building in interior Eastern Upper Michigan USA is temporarily correlated with the hydrologic closure of the Upper Great Lakes and spatially confined below 245m ASL. Paper presented at the Geological Society of America (GSA), Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Legg, R. J., and Diodato, N. (2010) Comparison of spatial modeling for climate inputs in the Mediterranean Region using limited data (MetEROBS – Monte Pino Met European Research Observatory, GEWEX-CEOP Network, World Climate Research Programme) Paper presented at the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Washington, DC.
Legg, R. J., and Bowe, T. (2009) Housing patterns in small-town America: an exploration of spatial analysis methods: a case study involving Marquette Michigan. Paper presented at the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting, Las Vegas, NV.
Loope, W. L., Goble, R. J., Fisher, T. G., Jol, H. M., Loope, H. M., Wysocki, D. A., and Legg, R. J. (2009) Holocene dune stabilization in interior Eastern Upper Michigan: signals of climate-sensitive biogeomorphic change or interbasin meltwater passage (or both)?. Paper presented at the Geological Society of America North-Central Meeting, Rockford, IL.
Loope, W. L., Jol, H. M., Fisher, T. G., Goble, R. J., Loope, H. M., and Legg, R. J. (2008) Use of OSL, GPR and GIS to constrain the hypothetical behavior of Lake Minong’s water plane and paths of meltwater discharge across Eastern Upper Michigan, USA. Paper presented at the Geological Society of America North-Central Meeting, Annual Meeting, Evansville, IN.
Hardenbrook, K., and Legg, R. J. (2008) Spatial distribution and habitat modeling of Pitcher’s thistle in the Grand Sable Dunes at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan. Paper presented at the Presentation to the Canadian Association of Geographers (Ontario) and the East Lakes Division of the American Association of Geographers (CAGONT ELDAAG), Annual Meeting, St. Catharines, ON.
Legg, R. J., and Bowe, T. (2008) Geographically weighted regression: Marquette real estate. Paper presented at the Canadian Association of Geographers (Ontario) and the East Lakes Division of the American Association of Geographers (CAGONT/ELDAAG), Annual Meeting, St. Catharines, ON.
Anderton, J. B., Legg, R. J., and Regis, R. R. (2008) Cultural resources survey using GIS modeling of geoarchaeological contexts in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (PIRO). Paper presented at the Western Great Lakes Research Conference, Annual Meeting, Marquette, MI.
Anderton, J. B., and Legg, R. J. (2008) Geoarchaeological approaches to site location modeling and archaeological survey, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan, USA. Paper presented at the Presentation to the Society of American Archaeologists (SAA), Annual Meetin, Vancouver, BC.
Loope, W. L., Goble, R. J., Jol, H. M., Fisher, T. G., Loope, H. M., Wysocki, D. A., and Legg, R. J. (2007) Optical dating of the demise of Lake Minong reveals an early Holocene connection with Lake Chippewa across eastern Upper Peninsula, USA. Paper presented at the Geological Society of America (GSA), Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Cislo, J., Legg, R. J., and Anderton, J. B. (2007) Temporal land use analysis of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Paper presented at the East Lakes Division of the Association of American Geographers (ELAAG), East Lansing, MI.
Legg, R. J., and Cumberlidge, N. (2007) Report on establishing a sister university with the Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara Uganda. Post-trip Symposium and Presentation to Northern Michigan University, Marquette, MI.
Anderton, J. B., Legg, R. J., Regis, R., Weesen, T., and Kitzman, C. (2007) Geoarchaeological investigations in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Michigan, USA. Paper presented at the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
Timmons, C., and Legg, R. J. (2007) Wind turbines: A preliminary site location assessment of an offshore wind farm in Lake Superior. Paper presented at the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters, Annual Meeting, Grand Rapids, MI.
Legg, R. J. (2005) Predictive modeling of ringforts: examining the possible influence of climate on settlement in Early Medieval Ireland. Paper presented at the Irish Quaternary Association (IQA) Series on Reconstructing Climate Changes, Dublin, Ireland.
Legg, R. J. (2005) Environmental influences on the distribution of ringforts in Ireland. Paper presented at the Computing Applications in Archaeology (CAA), (UK Chapter), Annual Meeting, Southampton, England.
Legg, R. J. (2004) Development of a predictive archaeological model for Early Medieval Irish settlements in the Blackwater Valley County Meath. Paper presented at the Presentation to the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.

Grants

NMU Faculty research grant, Café Culture, and Social Engagement in the Borderlands: A Comparison of Seattle, WA, and Vancouver, BC. (funded 2018 - 2020), Proposal by Michael J. Broadway and Robert Legg.
Faculty reassigned time award (2016 and 2017) Building healthy futures: Water quality, policy, and sustainable development in the Lake Victoria Region, Uganda: Maintaining an international Memorandum of Understanding among partnering institutions in the European Union, East Africa, and Michigan.
Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation (2016) Establishing ecological reference conditions in remote regions to assess the effects of recent anthropogenic activity in the Lake Superior basin, with Gayle McGlynn (PI), Robert J. Legg, Luis León Vintró.
Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation (2012) Geomorphology and chronology of sand dune activity and former glacial lake levels, Huron Mountains, Upper Michigan.
National Science Foundation (2011-2013) Increasing adoption of active learning in Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) discipline by integrating a faculty development program, and a technology-facilitated learning environment Course Curriculum Learning Initiative (CCLI).
US Department of Education and US Institute of Peace (2010-2011) Middle East Initiative
Google (2010) Google Earth Pro education initiative aimed at finding creative ways to integrate Google Earth Pro materials into the classroom.
NMU Faculty reassigned time (2010) Developing GIS-based materials for course support within the Geography Department.
National Park Service (NPS) and the Mid-West Archaeological Center (MWAC) (2007-2008) Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Geoarcheological investigation and survey.
NMU Academic Service-Learning (ASL) award (2007) Support for an active service-learning (ASL) component in computer cartography (GC337).