37.7°N · 100.9°W · Cimarron, Kansas · High Plains

Spatial analysis for hard country.

GIS for the systems that matter — water, power, land, and the communities that depend on all three. Applied in the field, grounded in data, built for decisions.

GIS Analyst · Applied Geospatial Services Graduate Researcher · MSU LRES FAA Part 107 · sUAS Utility · Environmental · Economic GIS

View current projects About & CV

BS

Geosciences

AAS

Drafting & Design

MS

LRES

FAA

Part 107

Areas of focus

Three domains, one frame.

01 — UTILITY GIS

Infrastructure that has to work

Operational mapping, asset inventory, outage communication, and spatial tools for rural electric cooperatives. GIS applied where the lights need to stay on.

02 — ENVIRONMENTAL GIS

Land, water, and what's changing

Ogallala Aquifer resource planning, land-use suitability analysis, remote sensing and change detection, and spatial evidence for long-range decisions in arid systems.

03 — ECONOMIC GIS

Analysis that survives a boardroom

Present-worth cost-benefit frameworks, MCDA suitability modeling, and decision-ready spatial outputs that connect maps to money and policy to place.

Featured work

The work starts where the questions are.

All projects

Live Dashboard

MCDA · Weighted OverlayFord County, KSJune 2026

Flat Out Suitable — Solar Siting Suitability Analysis

Multi-criteria weighted overlay GIS analysis identifying utility-scale solar development opportunity across Ford County, Kansas. Four-factor MCDA with five sensitivity scenarios. Full interactive dashboard including methods, results, and literature citations.

Open dashboard

In Progress

MSU LRES 575 CapstoneDodge City / GMD-3

Potable Reuse Feasibility — Ogallala Aquifer Response

Geospatial and present-worth cost feasibility analysis of potable reuse strategies for Dodge City, KS. Evaluates IPR/MAR vs. DPR + solar PV/BESS configurations across a 25-year cost-benefit horizon as aquifer depletion accelerates in GMD-3.

Coming 2028

Current projects

Active research & production work.

Live dashboards, ongoing research, and work currently in progress. Each project has its own analytical framework and deliverable structure.

Live Dashboard

MCDA / Weighted OverlayMSU LRES 505Ford County, KS

Flat Out Suitable — Ford County Solar Siting Suitability Analysis

Multi-criteria decision analysis using weighted overlay GIS to identify utility-scale solar development opportunity across Ford County, Kansas. Four siting factors — transmission proximity (40%), land cover class (25%), terrain slope (20%), road access (15%) — combined into a continuous suitability surface and classified into four interpretable zones. Includes a five-scenario sensitivity analysis. Built in QGIS 3.44 Solothurn, EPSG:3420. Full academic paper and interactive web dashboard published.

Open live dashboard

Research in Progress

MSU LRES 575 CapstoneDodge City / GMD-3

Potable Reuse Feasibility — Aquifer Response for Small Inland Arid Communities

Geospatial and present-worth cost feasibility analysis of potable reuse strategies for Dodge City, KS against Ogallala Aquifer depletion in GMD-3. Evaluates a $57M funded IPR/MAR project against a co-located DPR + solar PV/BESS scenario across four analytical pillars: GIS spatial analysis, water quality risk characterization, energy demand modeling, and 25-year cost-benefit analysis across three scenarios.

Coming Spring 2028

Past projects

Completed work.

Delivered projects, finished analyses, and archived work.

Coming soon

Past project archives will appear here as they are prepared for publication.

Software development

Tools built for the work.

Custom automation, spatial pipelines, web applications, and utility tools developed for GIS workflows, cooperative operations, and research support.

Coming soon

Development projects, tools, and applications will be documented here.

sUAS / Drone work

Eyes at altitude.

Aerial photography, photogrammetry, and remote sensing missions flown with the DJI Mini 4 Pro over southwest Kansas. FAA Part 107 certified.

Drone portfolio coming soon

Aerial photography and sUAS mission work will be presented here.

CAD work

Technical drafting & design.

Technical drawings, infrastructure layouts, and CAD deliverables produced for utility and infrastructure applications.

Coming soon

Technical drawings and CAD work will be added as projects are prepared.

About & CV

Corban Garcia GIS Analyst · CFM · FAA Part 107

Download CV (PDF)

Corban Garcia is a GIS analyst based in Cimarron, Kansas, working where geography, infrastructure, water, land, and rural operations overlap. His GIS practice is applied and field-aware: utility asset mapping, connectivity modeling, CAD-to-GIS migration, GPS inventory workflows, web map products, and decision-ready spatial analysis for southwest Kansas communities.

His technical background combines a BS in Geosciences from Fort Hays State University with an AAS in Drafting and Design from Seward County Community College. That mix shows up in the work: clean spatial data, practical map products, drafting-informed documentation, and systems built for people who have to use them outside the classroom.

Corban is a Certified Floodplain Manager, FAA Part 107 remote pilot, Class 4 KDHE Water Operator, and co-founder / Executive Director of Cimarron Animal Action Team, Inc., a local 501(c)(3) animal-welfare nonprofit. The common thread is building useful infrastructure — digital, civic, and physical — for rural places that usually have to solve hard problems with fewer tools.

Work history

2024 —
Present

GIS Analyst

Electric utility GIS · Southwest Kansas

Maintains and updates utility GIS data, identifies and corrects connectivity modeling issues, creates operational map products, and supports field inventory for missing equipment and infrastructure records.

Utility GIS Connectivity Modeling Asset Mapping Field Inventory

2019 —
2024

GIS Coordinator

Municipal building department · Liberal, Kansas

Built and administered a municipal GIS program, migrated utility map data from CAD into web-based GIS, created public-facing GIS map products, implemented GPS collection for sanitary and storm sewer inventory, and deployed lead and copper inventory workflows.

Municipal GIS CAD to GIS GPS Collection Public Web Maps

2025 —
Present

Executive Director & Co-founder

Cimarron Animal Action Team, Inc. · Cimarron, Kansas

Founded and leads a 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving the local community through animal welfare and public outreach programs. Manages budgets, grants, donations, policies, campaigns, fundraising events, website, and social media.

501(c)(3) Leadership Grant Writing Community Outreach Operations

Education

2023 —
2025

BS — Geosciences

Fort Hays State University · Hays, Kansas

Bachelor's degree focused on geography, geospatial analysis, cartography, and GIS applications. Additional certificates include GIS User, Grant Proposal Writing, and Crime Mapping and Analysis.

Geography / GIS GIS User Certificate Grant Proposal Writing Crime Mapping & Analysis

2021 —
2023

AAS — Drafting & Design

Seward County Community College · Liberal, Kansas

Associate of Applied Science degree in technical drafting, providing a foundation in design documentation, plan interpretation, CAD workflows, and precision technical communication.

Drafting & Design CAD SolidWorks Associate Technical Documentation

Certifications & credentials

Floodplain

Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM) Floodplain management, risk awareness, and local infrastructure context

Aviation

FAA Part 107 — Remote Pilot Certificate Commercial sUAS operations and aerial data collection

Water

KDHE Class 4 Water Operator Water systems literacy for practical environmental and municipal GIS

Safety

OSHA 10-Hour · Confined Space / Competent Person · First Aid / AED / CPR Field safety credentials for infrastructure and site work

Software

Microsoft Office Specialist Associate · SolidWorks Associate Word, Excel, PowerPoint, technical drafting, and design documentation

Technical skills

GIS Platforms

ArcGIS Pro ArcGIS Enterprise / SDE QGIS Web GIS

Utility & Municipal GIS

Connectivity Modeling Asset Inventory Lead & Copper Inventory Public Map Products

Data & Automation

Python SQL PostGIS GeoPandas

Drafting & Field

AutoCAD SolidWorks GPS Collection sUAS

Applied focus

Water

Floodplain management · Water operations · Ogallala Aquifer depletion · Potable reuse feasibility · Water quality characterization

Utilities

Electric distribution GIS · Connectivity modeling · Infrastructure documentation · Field inventory workflows

Local Gov.

Municipal GIS programs · Public-facing web maps · CAD-to-GIS migration · Regulatory inventory solutions

Methods

Remote sensing · Suitability modeling · GPS field collection · Drafting-informed spatial data management

Community & leadership

Cimarron Animal Action Team

Executive Director & Co-founder · 501(c)(3) · Cimarron, Kansas

CAAT is an animal-welfare nonprofit built for a rural southwest Kansas community. Corban's role spans the unglamorous infrastructure that keeps a small nonprofit alive: budgets, grant work, donations, policy, public campaigns, fundraising events, web presence, and daily outreach. Same discipline, different map.

501(c)(3)

Federal nonprofit status

2025

Executive Director