What roles does GIS play in scientific research and analysis?

Archive for November 30th, 2009

Senator Tom Udall Requests $1,000,000 in Funding for the Center of Excellence for Geospatial Situational Awareness

In GIS on November 30, 2009 at 1:19 pm

Senator Tom Udall has requested $1,000,000 in funding for the Center of Excellence for Geospatial Science at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, NM.  “The project will continue operations of the Center of Excellence for Geospatial Science in collaboration with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).  NGA provides intelligence analysis, maps, remote sensing of war zones, and geospatial analysis of Human Terrains for war fighters in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations.  The Department of Geography, Department of Surveying Engineering, and Physical Science Laboratory (PSL) at NMSU are conducting this work.  Continuing funding is requested to support NGA’s workforce development goals in geospatial analysis and Intelligence studies.  The project will deliver education, training, equipment, and student scholarships for those seeking careers with DoD, NGA, and in the Intelligence Community.”

[Source: Senator Tom Udall's web site]

ArcGIS Sensor Data Integration Demo

In ESRI, GIS on November 30, 2009 at 12:58 pm

…from the Sensor Web and Simulation Lab at the University of Münster…

“We’ve develpoed a small plugin component for the widely used ArcGIS platform which enables the user to access sensor data coming from a Sensor Observation Service.”

Watch the demo

Don Beck and Ravi Shankar: A Brief History of the Imaginary Map

In Geography on November 30, 2009 at 10:31 am

…from MungBeing…

“Nobody really knows why there is no patron saint of cartographers. Even the meanest human professions have one: criminals can turn to St. Dismas and drug addicts to St. Kolbe for comfort, but nobody offers the honest, hardworking cartographer solace against the misfortunes of an inaccurately drawn coastline or a spilled ink pot. Not so for navigators (and how far would they get without a map?) who have no less than four patron saints, including the queen of hearts of the patron saint deck, the Virgin Mary herself, and the indefatigable St. Francis Xavier who, in between conducting 40,000 baptisms, managed to find time to dine with head-hunters, raise the dead, and calm the occasional storm. It appears a patron has been set aside for every profession imaginable — except for cartography.

So spare a thought for the younger sibling of cartographers, the ‘fantasy cartographer’, who draws maps not of our real world, but of imaginary places. The chances of this small community of ever being bestowed their own patron saint must be smaller than the finest dot of a crow’s quill pen, although as this brief history of this obscure subculture of mapping shows, there are no shortage of candidates for the Patronus Sanctus Mappi Imago, or Patron Saint of the Fantasy Mapper.

In the beginning there was really no distinction between fantasy and factual cartography at all. Our understanding of the Earth and everything on it was sketchy to the point that beyond the next village, geographical fact often merged into fantasy. Blank spaces on maps are not good for the cartographer’s business, so to provide money’s worth to their customers, cartographers filled out the empty spaces on their maps with invented countries and fantastical creatures, including that old standby margin filler: ‘Here be Dragons’. Factual and fantasy cartography diverged in the 18th Century when exploration and map-making greatly improved and more reliable information edged the unicorns, gryphons, and dragons towards the borders of modern maps until they disappeared altogether. But during the same period, the birth of the mass produced printed picture created a large demand from a still largely illiterate population for illustrations of popular stories, including maps of fictional places. The public was keen to see an illustration of Dante’s nine circles of Hell (perhaps thinking that by memorizing a street map of Hades they could find their way out if they were unfortunate enough to be cast there in the afterlife) or the journey of Christian in ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress’ — a road map to salvation which if followed meant that Dante’s map would not be required.”

Ethnographic maps built using cutting-edge technology may help Amazon tribes win forest carbon payments

In Climate Change, GIS, Geography, Social Science on November 30, 2009 at 10:09 am

…from mongabay.com…

“A new handbook lays out the methodology for cultural mapping, providing indigenous groups with a powerful tool for defending their land and culture, while enabling them to benefit from some 21st century advancements. Cultural mapping may also facilitate indigenous efforts to win recognition and compensation under a proposed scheme to mitigate climate change through forest conservation. The scheme—known as REDD for reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation—will be a central topic of discussion at next month’s climate talks in Copenhagen, but concerns remain that it could fail to deliver benefits to forest dwellers.

“Much of the Amazon rainforest remains occupied by tribal groups. While few of these live as conjured in the imagination, the state of the forests in their territories is a testament to their approach to managing lands. But like the Amazon itself, these groups face new pressures from the outside world. For the indigenous, the lure of urban culture is strong—cities seem to offer the promise of affluence and the conveniences of an easy life. But in leaving their forest homes indigenous peoples are usually met with a stark reality: the skills that serve them so well in the forest don’t translate well to an urban setting. The odds are stacked against them; they arrive near the bottom of the social ladder, often not proficient in the language and customs of city dwellers. The lucky ones may find work in factories or as day laborers and security guards, but many eventually return to the countryside. Some re-integrate into their villages, others return in a completely different capacity than when they departed. They may join the ranks of miners and loggers who trespass on indigenous lands, ferreting out deals that pit members of the same tribe against each other in order to exploit the resources they steward. As tribes are fragmented, and forests fall, indigenous culture—and the profound knowledge contained within—is lost. The world is left a poorer place, culturally and biologically.”

Science Digs Into Civil War Sites: High-tech forensic tools help archaeologists uncover Atlanta history

In GIS, Social Science on November 30, 2009 at 10:00 am

…from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution…

“Just north of I-20 on Moreland Avenue in Atlanta sits an intersection on a low hill. There’s a gas station and a liquor store and some other businesses, but not much else.

“Though you would never know it from the unremarkable view, thousands of men died here 145 years ago in one of the fiercest fights of the Civil War.

“Confederate Private Sam Watkins, wounded in the battle that July day in 1864, recalled bodies, horses, wagons and cannon “piled indiscriminately everywhere” and “streams of blood.””

Gamma Theta Upsilon: The International Geographic Honor Society

In Geography on November 30, 2009 at 9:09 am

“Gamma Theta Upsilon (GTU) is an international honor society in geography. Gamma Theta Upsilon was founded in 1928 and became a national organization in 1931. Members of GTU have met academic requirements and share a background and interest in geography. GTU chapter activities support geography knowledge and awareness.

“GTU’s Goals are:

“1. To further professional interest in Geography by affording a common organization for those interested in the field.

“2. To strengthen student and professional training through academic experiences in addition to those of the classroom and laboratory.

“3. To advance the status of Geography as a cultural and practical discipline for study and investigation.

“4. To encourage student research of high quality, and to promote an outlet for publication.

“5. To create and administer funds for furthering graduate study and/or research in the field of Geography.

“6. To encourage members to apply geographic knowledge and skills in service to humankind.”

Quote of the Day

In Geography, Quotes on November 30, 2009 at 8:47 am

“The map is not the territory.”

–Alfred Korzybski

Lidar Solutions in ArcGIS: Three New Web-based Lidar Courses

In ESRI, GIS, Imagery on November 30, 2009 at 8:36 am

Due to the demand for lidar training, ESRI’s Training Center now offers three web-based courses on lidar. First is a free training seminar that provides an overview of lidar capabilities in ArcGIS and introduces high level concepts. The other two include hands-on exercises and are geared toward data managers and analysts.

Workshop on Geospatial Information for Developing Countries: Science and Technology

In Conferences, GIS, Science on November 30, 2009 at 8:25 am

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India
16 – 18 December 2009

“Geospatial Information has become an essential component of software applications in many vertical domains. Large scale spatial and spatio-temporal data are being produced by organizations through remote sensing, geosensor networks and other data acquisition technologies that have seen a large explosion in the previous decade. The Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE), IIT Bombay, and Department of Computer Science, University of Minnesota, USA under the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) have planned a 3-day workshop on “Geospatial information for developing countries: Science and Technology” to discuss state-of-art in GIS technologies, understand the challenges in applying them to problems in developing nations, and set future research directions. The workshop as well as the newly established Advanced Research Lab for Geographic Information Sciences and Engineering at CSE, IIT Bombay invites experts and academicians from India and US to participate in a joint workshop on management of massive spatio-temporal data and applications.

“This 3-day Workshop is proposed to bring together researchers, experts and professionals from computer science, geo-informatics, industry as well as large user organizations and Governmental departments to enable an understanding of the requirements of computational sciences in the domain of geo-informatics, especially in the current environment of ‘data-rich’ systems. This provides an opportunity to the participants to identify research challenges grounded in real world problems of a developing nation and aims to bring synergies into research programs across the two countries.

“The Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), established with a mandate to promote, bilateral collaboration in science and technology has funded this workshop which is being organized jointly by IIT Bombay, and University of Minnesota.”

The Spatial History Project at Stanford University

In GIS, Geography, Social Science on November 30, 2009 at 8:08 am

“The Spatial History Project at Stanford University a part of the Bill Lane Center for the American West, is made possible by the generous funding of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

“The project brings together scholars working on projects at the intersection of geography and history using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in their research. While enthusiastic about GIS, which offers a common framework for this research, the Spatial History Project is gearing up to move beyond GIS, to create tools to harvest useful information from large heterogeneous datasets of maps, images, and texts, and create dynamic, interactive digital visualizations for analyzing and representing change over space and time.

“The primary research projects within the Spatial History Project include:

  • How the West Was Shaped — Richard White’s project is developing a large database and computer graphics tools to study and represent visually how people’s experience of space and time was dramatically shaped by railroads in the North American West in the 19th century.
  • Terrain of History — Zephyr Frank’s collaboration with colleagues with colleagues at Brown University and the Cecult team at UNICAMP, Brazil has been supported by the Stanford Humanities Center.
  • Critical Habitat — Jon Christensen’s research grew out of his work with an interdisciplinary team supported by the Woods Institute for the Environment to study the feasibility of reintroducing the Bay checkerspot butterfly to the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, where it went extinct locally in 1997.

More information

The Copenhagen Diagnosis: Updating the World on the Latest Climate Science

In Climate Change, Environmental Science on November 30, 2009 at 7:53 am

Climate Change Accelerating Beyond Expectations, Urgent Emissions Reductions Required, Say Leading Scientists

Global ice-sheets are melting at an increased rate; Arctic sea-ice is disappearing much faster than recently projected, and future sea-level rise is now expected to be much higher than previously forecast, according to a new global scientific synthesis prepared by some of the world’s top climate scientists.

In a special report called ‘The Copenhagen Diagnosis’, the 26 researchers, most of whom are authors of published IPCC reports, conclude that several important aspects of climate change are occurring at the high end or even beyond the expectations of only a few years ago.

The report also notes that global warming continues to track early IPCC projections based on greenhouse gas increases.  Without significant mitigation, the report says global mean warming could reach as high as 7 degrees Celsius by 2100.

The Copenhagen Diagnosis, which was a year in the making, documents the key findings in climate change science since the publication of the landmark Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report in 2007.

The new evidence to have emerged includes:

  • Satellite and direct measurements now demonstrate that both the Greenland and Antarctic ice-sheets are losing mass and contributing to sea level rise at an increasing rate.
  • Arctic sea-ice has melted far beyond the expectations of climate models. For example, the area of summer sea-ice melt during 2007-2009 was about 40% greater than the average projection from the 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.
  • Sea level has risen more than 5 centimeters over the past 15 years, about 80% higher than IPCC projections from 2001. Accounting for ice-sheets and glaciers, global sea-level rise may exceed 1 meter by 2100, with a rise of up to 2 meters considered an upper limit by this time.  This is much higher than previously projected by the IPCC.  Furthermore, beyond 2100, sea level rise of several meters must be expected over the next few centuries.
  • In 2008 carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels were ~40% higher than those in 1990. Even if emissions do not grow beyond today’s levels, within just 20 years the world will have used up the allowable emissions to have a reasonable chance of limiting warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius.

The report concludes that global emissions must peak then decline rapidly within the next five to ten years for the world to have a reasonable chance of avoiding the very worst impacts of climate change.

To stabilize climate, global emissions of carbon dioxide and other long-lived greenhouse gases need to reach near-zero well within this century, the report states.

[Source: News Release]

Using AIRS Data with ArcGIS

In ESRI, GIS, Imagery on November 30, 2009 at 7:41 am

…from NASA/JPL/Cal tech…

“Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are computer applications that incorporate geographical features with tabular data in order to map and analyze real-world problems. ArcGIS is a system introduced by a company called Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) to meet the needs of a wide range of GIS users.

“On the blog titled ‘GIS and Science’ maintained by the GIS and Science Program Manager for ESRI, a number of ‘how-to’ videos are outlined that detail using AIRS data with ESRI GIS tools. The tools are developed on top of ESRI’s ArcGIS suite of GIS products utilizing ArcObjects.

“These videos demonstrates a component of a series of tools developed by the Redlands Institute at the University of Redlands, CA as part of a collaborative project with JPL to download, visualize, and analyze source AIRS satellite sounder data.”

Scanned Historic City Maps added to Harvard Geospatial Library

In GIS, Geography on November 30, 2009 at 7:36 am

The Harvard Geospatial Library (HGL) is collection of 6,799 worldwide and regional geographic data layers, scanned historic maps and associated descriptive information that can be searched mapped and downloaded for use for use with your GIS software.

Additional items recently added to HGL include scanned historic maps of the following cities: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Madison, Kansas City, St. Louis, Denver, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland (Oregon), Quebec City; Louisbourg, Halifax and Port Royal (Nova Scotia); Mexico City, Havana, Dublin, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Copenhagen, Gibraltar, Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Moscow, Jerusalem, Beijing, and Tokyo. Also recently added to HGL is a global oil pipeline data created by the Center for Geographic Analysis.

Tool Kits in Regional Science: Theory, Models, and Estimation

In Books, Geography, Modeling, Spatial Analysis on November 30, 2009 at 7:30 am

“Regional Science is now more than 50 years old; in the last two decades, significant advances in methodology have occurred, spurred in large part by access to computers. The range of analytical techniques now available is enormous; this books provides a sampling of the toolkit that is now at the disposal of analysts interested in understanding and interpreting the complexity of the spatial structure of sub- national economies. The set of tools ranges from the more traditional (input-output) to new developments in computable general equilibrium models, nonlinear dynamics, neural modelling and innovation.”

GISCA 2010: Central Asia GIS Conference, Kyrgyz Republic, 27-28 May 2010

In Climate Change, Conferences, Environmental Science, GIS, GIScience on November 30, 2009 at 7:23 am

Water: Life, Risk, Energy and Landuse
May 27-28, 2010 – Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic

The Austria-Central Asia Centre for GIScience at the Kyrgyz State University of Construction, Transportation and Architecture, and the Centre for Geoinformatics (Z_GIS), University of Salzburg, Austria are proud to announce the:
4th GIS-in-Central-Asia Conference – GISCA 2010. The main objectives of this conference are to bring together GIS academics, researchers and practitioners in the Central Asian countries and encourage international cooperation and knowledge exchange in GIS education. Geographic Information Science and Technologies have evolved into a key instrument for managing our societies, environments and infrastructures, as well as individuals’ daily lives. Continued success of this development depends on cooperation across disciplines, open information policies and a highly educated workforce. The GISCA series of conferences aims at building a Central Asian network of GIS professionals supporting the sustained development of this region into an environmentally friendly, secure and prosperous society.

In 2010, GISCA is focused on the main theme of WATER:

  • Life: WATER for drinking and agriculture
  • Risk: WATER posing a threat to settlements
  • Energy: WATER for renewable hydropower
  • Landuse: WATER controlling regional landuse

Particularly due to climate change, increasing pressure on resources, regional conflicts and social dynamics, quality and quantity of water supply are critical factors in developing our societies. GIScience offers an indispensable set of instruments for managing the water cycle.

Information and Registration

http://gisca10.aca-giscience.org

Press Contact

Dagmar Baumgartner
Public Relations
University of Salzburg | Z_GIS Centre for Geoinformatics
Hellbrunnerstr. 34 | 5020 Salzburg | Austria
phone: + 43 (0) 662 8044 5224
fax: +43 (0) 662 8044 182

Map of the Day: Myanmar (Burma) Cropland Recovery and Severity Analysis of Tropical Storm Nargis—2008

In ESRI, Environmental Science, GIS, Map of the Day on November 30, 2009 at 6:49 am

…from the ESRI Map Book, Volume 24…

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“Tropical cyclone Nargis struck the heart of Burma’s rice growing region in the low-lying Ayeyarwady Delta on May 2, 2008, causing extensive damage to agricultural lands, infrastructure, livestock, and stored food grains. A nearly 2,000-square-mile area of prime farmland was inundated with salt water and/or heavy rainfall. The affected region normally accounts for roughly 60 percent of the nation’s rice production.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) had conducted a post-flood assessment that indicated that as of May 30, 2008, flood waters receded over a sizable area (300,000 hectares total recovery; 490,000 hectares improved since May 5, 2008). However, a month after the cyclone, approximately 1.40 million hectares, or 80 percent of the original inundated area, were still affected by some degree of flooding. Approximately 870,000 hectares had shown no improvement. The areas that showed the greatest change in the severity of flooding were the coastal areas of southern Ayeyarwady division. Natural drainage in these coastal rice farming areas must have aided the recovery, as further inland crop areas did not show the same degree of improvement. In contrast, much of the southern regions of Yangon division, which were heavily inundated, did not show much improvement a month after the cyclone’s passing.

“The Foreign Agricultural Service of the USDA works to improve foreign market access for U.S. products, build new markets, improve the competitive position of U.S. agriculture in the global marketplace, and provide food aid and technical assistance to foreign countries.

“Courtesy of U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service.”