Applied Geography

Archive for the ‘Citizen Science’ Category

Using Citizen Science and GIS Technology to Connect the Local to the Global

In Citizen Science, Climate Change, Conferences, ESRI, GIS on June 21, 2010 at 8:26 am

ESRI Education User Conference

Keynote Address

Saturday, 10 July 2010, during the Plenary Session, 8:30 a.m.–noon

Mark Chandler, Ph.D., International Director of Research for Earthwatch Institute

‘People today are challenged with understanding how their decisions impact the local community as well as their impact on populations and places far away. The common axiom “think global, act local” reflects the need to juggle the local context of our actions with the larger global context. This is true in respect to issues such as food supply, energy use, water, biodiversity, and our role in natural disasters. And this concept of scale is important not only because it helps connect our local communities to a greater landscape and ultimately the Earth, but also because it helps direct the scope of the social institutions and efforts that should be involved.

Dr. Chandler will discuss these points and how powerful learning can happen when people are directly engaged in projects that operate at multiple scales—and are connected via tools such as GIS and GPS technologies. See examples of how different audiences can participate in field-based projects involving sustainable landscapes, agriculture, and more. Hear how addressing problems with scientific investigation can stimulate interest and thinking about the connection between the communities people call home and the greater world in which they live.

ESRI’s Education User Conference Puts Critical Thinking on the Map

In Citizen Science, Conferences, ESRI, Education, GIS on May 17, 2010 at 9:22 am

Keynote Speaker Mark Chandler to Discuss Citizen Science and GIS

ESRI marks its commitment to GIS education with its 10th annual ESRI Education User Conference (EdUC), scheduled for July 10–13, 2010, in San Diego, California. The conference provides the opportunity for the education community to share ideas and experiences and discuss the latest developments in geographic information system (GIS) technology through a series of presentations, panel discussions, and workshops. The conference overlaps the 30th annual ESRI International User Conference, which will be held July 12–16.

One of the hot topics at this year’s education conference is the use of GIS to promote analytic and critical thinking skills. “These are the higher-order problem-solving skills employers say they want in future employees,” says Angela Lee, libraries and museums manager for ESRI industry solutions.

Other key topics include the broader use of GIS for administration purposes in educational institutions, implementing ArcGIS Server in the teaching environment and its impact on educational resource sharing, and making greater use of the resources available on ArcGIS.com.

Michael Gould, ESRI’s director of education for industry solutions, says, “The Education User Conference brings together leaders in GIS education from different sectors and countries to both hear the latest news from the ESRI Education Group regarding future initiatives and strategies and share their own experiences and ideas. It is the premier event for educators who are passionate about employing GIS to help improve education and therefore improve our future.”

Dr. Mark Chandler, international director of research for the Earthwatch Institute, will be this year’s keynote speaker at the conference. He is a prominent conservation biologist with more than 20 years of experience conducting field research in Central and South America, East Africa, and New England. Chandler will discuss Using Citizen Science and GIS Technology to Connect the Local to the Global.

The Earthwatch Institute, a pioneer in citizen science endeavors, is committed to scientific research and environmental education. It is one of the world’s largest private funders of research expeditions and has used ArcGIS for several years to monitor and document the many expeditions it supports throughout the world.

Additional information regarding ESRI’s EdUC is available on the Web at www.esri.com/educ.

[Source: ESRI press release]

Enlisting Volunteers Can Boost Confidence in Scientific Research

In Citizen Science on May 6, 2010 at 7:40 am

…from the UC Davis School of Education…

“In an era of public skepticism about science and high-stakes decisions based on it, involving more non-scientists in research projects can boost public acceptance, understanding and the quality of the scientific results, a study co-authored by a UC Davis researcher suggests.

“The study will be presented on Monday, May 3, at the 91st annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Denver.

“For years, the National Science Foundation has encouraged the inclusion of volunteers from the public in the collection of data for scientific research. Through its funding, the NSF has institutionalized such so-called “citizen science.”"

(via @disruptivegeo )

eBird Citizen Science Project: How GIS Works with Crowd Sourced Data/Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI)

In Citizen Science, ESRI, Environmental Science, GIS, Video on February 24, 2010 at 1:13 pm

Demonstration from ESRI’s Federal User Conference earlier this week. The second demo shows the eBird citizen science project.

Less of Our Light for More Star Light: Join the 5th Worldwide Globe at Night 2010 Campaign, 3-16 March 2010!

In Citizen Science, Education, Environmental Science on February 24, 2010 at 9:01 am

What: The Globe at Night Campaign

When: 8pm to 10pm local time, 3-16 March 2010

Where: Everywhere

Who: You! (Everyone!)

How: See http://www.globeatnight.org

Why:

With half of the world’s population now living in cities, many urban dwellers have never experienced the wonderment of pristinely dark skies and maybe never will. This loss, caused by light pollution, is a concern on many fronts: safety, energy conservation, cost, health and effects on wildlife, as well as our ability to view the stars. Even though light pollution is a serious and growing global concern, it is one of the easiest environmental problems you can address on local levels.

Globe at Night is an annual 2-week campaign in March that helps to address the light pollution issue locally as well as globally. This year the campaign is March 3-16, 2010. You are invited along with everyone all over the world to record the brightness of your night sky by matching its appearance toward the constellation Orion with star maps of progressively fainter stars found at http://www.globeatnight.org/observe_magnitude.html. You then submit your measurements on-line at http://www.globeatnight.org/report.html

with your date, time and location. A few weeks later, organizers release a map of light-pollution levels worldwide. Over the last four 2-week Globe at Night campaigns, volunteers from over 100 nations have contributed 35,000 measurements.

To learn the five easy steps to participate in the Globe at Night program, see the Globe at Night website at http://www.globeatnight.org.   You can listen to our 10-minute audio podcast on light pollution and Globe at Night at http://365daysofastronomy.org/2010/02/03/february-3rd-the-globe-at-night-campaign-our-light-or-starlight/

For activities that have children explore what light pollution is, what its effects are on wildlife and how to prepare for participating in the Globe at Night campaign, see the new activities at http://www.darkskiesawareness.org/DarkSkiesRangers.

Monitoring our environment will allow us as citizen-scientists to identify and preserve the dark sky oases in cities and locate areas where light pollution is increasing. All it takes is a few minutes during the March 2010 campaign to measure sky brightness and contribute those observations on-line. Help us exceed the 15,000 observations contributed last year. Your measurements will make a world of difference.

Wall Street Journal: More Scientists Treat Experiments as a Team Sport

In Citizen Science, Science on November 20, 2009 at 8:47 am

…from the Wall Street Journal…

“Massive Collider, a Global Collaboration, Has a Bumpy Start; but Sometimes the Work of Crowds Yields Wisdom

“If all goes well, researchers Friday may power up the Large Hadron Collider — a $6 billion particle accelerator near Geneva. The atom smasher is so large that a brief status report lists 2,900 authors, so complex that scientists in 34 countries have readied 100,000 computers to process its data, and so fragile that a bird dropping a bread crust can short-circuit its power supply — as occurred earlier this month.

“Far from trouble-free, the proton accelerator is resuming operations after a catastrophic breakdown in 2008 that triggered a year of repairs and recriminations. Its large research teams operate on such an elaborate scale that project management has become one of science’s biggest challenges.

“Around the world, scientists are cutting across boundaries of place, organization and technical specialty to conduct ever more ambitious experiments. Inspired by such cooperative enterprises as Linux and Wikipedia, they are encouraging creative collaborations through networks of blogs, wikis, shared databases and crowd-sourcing.”

Cellphone App to Make Maps of Noise Pollution

In Citizen Science, Environmental Science, GIS, Geography on November 20, 2009 at 8:23 am

…from New Scientist…

“Cellphones could soon be used to fight noise pollution – an irony that won’t be lost on those driven to distraction by mobile phones’ ringtones.

“In a bid to make cities quieter, the European Union requires member states to create noise maps of their urban areas once every five years. Rather than deploying costly sensors all over a city, the maps are often created using computer models that predict how various sources of noise, such as airports and railway stations, affect the areas around them.

“Nicolas Maisonneuve of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, France, says that those maps are not an accurate reflection of residents’ exposure to noise. To get a more precise picture, Maisonneuve’s team has developed NoiseTube, a downloadable software app which uses people’s smartphones to monitor noise pollution. “The goal was to turn the mobile phone into an environmental sensor,” says Maisonneuve.”

Better World Maps, Drawn by Volunteers

In Citizen Science, GIS, Geography on November 20, 2009 at 8:16 am

…from Sci-TechToday.org…

“People have been contributing to digital maps for some time, building displays of crime statistics or apartment rentals. Now they are creating and editing the underlying maps of streets, highways, rivers and coastlines. That is changing the dynamics of an industry that has been dominated by a handful of digital mapping companies.”

NASA Invites Citizen Scientists to Help Improve Map of Mars

In Citizen Science, Geography, Planetary GIS on November 18, 2009 at 9:31 am

Are you bored working on Open StreetMap?  Are you submitting basemap corrections to Google and increasingly finding yourself thinking “there has to be more to life than this”?  Well NASA has a new way for you to volunteer your time to not just make the world a better place, but make the solar system a better place.

NASA and Microsoft Corp. of Redmond, Wash., have collaborated to create a Web site where Internet users can have fun while advancing their knowledge of Mars.

Drawing on observations from NASA’s Mars missions, the “Be a Martian” Web site will enable the public to participate as citizen scientists to improve Martian maps, take part in research tasks, and assist Mars science teams studying data about the Red Planet.

“We’re at a point in history where everyone can be an explorer,” said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “With so much data coming back from Mars missions that are accessible by all, exploring Mars has become a shared human endeavor. People worldwide can expand the specialized efforts of a few hundred Mars mission team members and make authentic contributions of their own.”

Participants will be able to explore details of the solar system’s grandest canyon, which resides on Mars. Users can call up images in the Valles Marineris canyon before moving on to chart the entire Red Planet. The collaboration of thousands of participants could assist scientists in producing far better maps, smoother zoom-in views, and make for easier interpretation of Martian surface changes.

By counting craters, the public also may help scientists determine the relative ages of small regions on Mars. In the past, counting Martian craters has posed a challenge because of the vast numbers involved. By contributing, Web site users will win game points assigned to a robotic animal avatar they select.

With a common goal of inspiring digital-age workforce development and life-long learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, NASA and Microsoft unveiled the Web site at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles this week. The site also beckons software developers to win prizes for creating tools that provide access to and analysis of hundreds of thousands of Mars images for online, classroom and Mars mission team use.

“Industry leaders like NASA and Microsoft have a social responsibility as well as a vested interest in advancing science and technology education,” said Walid Abu-Hadba, corporate vice president of the Developer and Platform Evangelism Group at Microsoft. “We are excited to be working with NASA to provide new opportunities to engage with Mars mission data, and to help spark interest and excitement among the next generation of scientists and technologists.”

To encourage more public participation, the site also provides a virtual town hall forum where users can expand their knowledge by proposing Mars questions and voting on which are the most interesting to the community. Online talks by Mars experts will address some of the submitted questions. Other features include interactive tools for viewing Martian regions and movies about people who study Mars in diverse ways.

“Mars exploration inspires people of all ages, and we are especially eager to encourage young people to explore Mars for themselves,” said Charles Elachi, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “We are delighted to be involved in providing the creative opportunity for future explorers to contribute to our understanding of Mars.”

“The beauty of this type of experience is that it not only teaches people about Mars and the work NASA is doing there, but it also engages large groups of people to help solve real challenges that computers cannot solve by themselves,” said Marc Mercuri, director of business innovation in the Developer and Platform Evangelism Group at Microsoft.

The Mars Exploration Program is managed by JPL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

To enroll as a virtual Martian citizen and start exploring, visit http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov

[Source: NASA press release]

Free U.S. Earth Imagery Sharpens Shared View of Global Challenges

In Citizen Science, Geography, Imagery, Science on November 17, 2009 at 8:59 am

USGS Director McNutt a Leader in U.S. Delegation at International Conference

Free, easily accessible U.S. satellite data enables any citizen, scientist, or analyst who can use the information to contribute to a shared vision of the challenges facing our planet.

That’s the message the newly-appointed director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. Marcia McNutt, plans to deliver when representatives of 80 governments and over 50 participating organizations convene at the international Group on Earth Observations (GEO-VI) meeting, November 16-17, in Washington, D.C.

“Our policy of providing free Landsat data supports a central GEO goal: to promote global distribution of earth observation data,” said McNutt. “With a continuous record of earth observation since 1972, Landsat provides the most complete set of land surface information as well as a vital historical perspective for researchers, decision makers, and commercial users around the world.”

From over 400 miles above Earth, the scale of Landsat imagery makes it particularly useful in understanding natural and human-induced changes to the planet. The data enable a wide array of investigations — from supporting disaster relief efforts to making agricultural crop assessments to correlating environmental conditions with famine, biodiversity, and human health.

Beginning with the launch of Landsat 1 in 1972, Landsat, a joint operation of USGS and NASA, has produced over two million space-based, moderate-resolution, land remote sensing images. The massive data archive is maintained at the USGS-EROS facility in Sioux Falls, S.D.

“As the world’s increasing population is compelled to face the effects of climate change and the limitations of water, petroleum, and other vital resources, the broad availability of images from Landsat and other earth observation satellites benefits both developing and developed countries,” said Dr. McNutt. McNutt became the 15th USGS Director on November 5.

USGEO, the American contribution to GEO, is sponsored by 15 federal agencies and two White House offices.

“I am very pleased to note that it was the agency I now direct, USGS, that opened the Landsat archive to the world free of charge,” McNutt continued. “Since the archive was opened, over 1 million images have been provided to users from 180 countries — a resounding success.”

For further information, visit:

[Source: USGS news release]

Structuring User-Generated Content

In Citizen Science, ESRI, GIS on November 11, 2009 at 9:06 am

New Tools Enable Public Participation in GIS Database Development

For many years ESRI has promoted the idea of “GIS for everyone”, and more recently the pace of this movement has accelerated thanks to the Internet.  We tend to think of “GIS for everyone” as broad, practically universal access to data and GIS/mapping tools.   But another facet is public participation in that fundamental, essential component of GIS—building and maintaining the geospatial database.

Traditionally, geospatial database are “owned” by the creators of the geographic knowledge, which are typically the individuals or groups charged with building and maintaining the databases that support their organizational missions.  These databases are considered “authoritative,” meaning that they meet the standards of the organizational creators and are suitable to meet the needs of their intended applications.  But this database workflow has its critics.  “One of the criticisms leveled at GIS has been its insistence on a single point of view,” said Michael Goodchild, professor of geography at University of California, Santa Barbara.  To address such criticism, Goodchild says that we need a framework “in which individuals are able to assert their own views of their surroundings and play a part in local decision making.”

In the GIS realm, user-generated content (UGC) refers to geographic knowledge created by “end users” or the general public.  UGC is considered “assertive” geospatial data; while the provider of the data may be confident in its accuracy, this does not necessarily guarantee the data meets the information standards of the organization, or that it is suitable for the intended application.

Concerns about UGC are many.  In contrast to GIS-based data, which is organized with consistent data models and collected systematically, UGC is mostly observational, qualitative, and very rarely collected systematically in a science-based framework. It typically does not have an organized foundation, nor is it associated with metadata, and there is no responsibility with respect to the organization or individual who reported it.

So is there value in UGC in a GIS environment?   Yes.  There are many ways that GIS users can take advantage of the rapidly growing amount of UGC on the Web. They include:

  • Using the data to validate data analysis and compilation efforts
  • Using geotagged photos to enrich the multimedia dimension of a GIS
  • Associating the observational data to other layers for query and enrichment of the GIS
  • Integrating citizen/consumer comments with public policy systems
  • Finding suggestions and recommendations about particular places
  • Enhancing the systematic inventories of things like place names and other observational data

This method of collecting observational geographic data and engaging the public is very powerful, especially for community involvement in collaboration and communicating about situational awareness. “I think the most significant new opportunity lies in the fact that a substantial fraction of the human population now has access to mobile phones and, hence, to electronic networks,” said Goodchild.  “Mobile phones could be used to acquire and share damage assessments in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and to develop detailed databases for community planning.”

Structure is Key

The key to useful, actionable UGC is collecting the data in a structured manner.  The USGS-Caltech ‘Recent Earthquakes’ application (http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/) is as an interesting example of how to do this right.  ‘Recent Earthquakes’ lets people report their earthquake experiences over the web, but it doesn’t ask them to rate the intensity of the earthquake directly.  Instead, it walks people through a more objective, structured series of questions to help determine how strongly they felt the earthquake.  “On the back end, the application determines how ‘intense’ the experience was as an aggregate of responses to individual questions,” said Matt Artz, ESRI’s GIS and science marketing manager.  “The web-based map is an interesting and useful service in itself, but potentially even more useful is that the answers to the individual questions also form a very useful data set for further analysis.”

ESRI has been building functionality, such as the new ‘featurelayer’ capabilities in ArcGIS 9.4, to support such structuring of UGC, and Web API’s for capturing UGC are being developed.   Structured user-generated content becomes another geographic layer in the geodatabase.  Advanced applications such as analysis, modeling, forecasting, management, and planning are enabled by structured data.  ESRI will continue to develop enabling technology that builds these concepts into ArcGIS and make it an integral part of the GIS system architecture.

“User created data that’s validated through essentially a cloud framework is going to take over,” said Larry Orman, executive director of Green Info Network.  “You can’t fight with that.  Individuals are really going to play a major role in the way we (create) information.”

 

The Power of the People

“There are already signs that the traditional authorities are willing to work with citizens,” said Goodchild.  “In the UK [United Kingdom], for example, the Ordnance Survey has developed a program that encourages volunteers to provide geographic information about their local communities, and volunteers are playing an increasingly important role in ensuring that authoritative sources of geographic information are accurate and kept up-to-date.”

“Our military has a slogan: ‘Every soldier is a sensor,” said ESRI president Jack Dangermond.  “With UGC, every citizen is a sensor.  This is another chapter in democracy, opening up and letting citizens participate in the development of geographic databases,” said Dangermond.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Taking Volunteers to Map Ash Trees

In Citizen Science, Environmental Science, Geography on November 6, 2009 at 1:12 pm

…from the Citizen-Times…

“Researchers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park are inviting people to volunteer as Citizen Scientists from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday to map locations of ash trees in the park.

“Volunteers will learn how to identify ash and other common trees found in the Smoky Mountains, read a topographic map, and use a GPS (Global Positioning System) unit. The ash trees are at risk from the invasive, non-native Emerald Ash Borer, a beetle that can travel undetected in firewood and nursery stock from quarantined areas of the country into new locations in the Park. The data that is collected will help park staff map the locations of ash trees parkwide to monitor the health of the forest and detect future infestations.”

Designing for Doubt: Citizen Science and the Challenge of Change

In Citizen Science, Conferences, Geography on November 5, 2009 at 5:47 am

…presented at “Engaging Data: First International Forum on the Application and Management of Personal Electronic Information”, MIT,  12 – 13 October 2009…

Designing for Doubt: Citizen Science and the Challenge of Change

Eric Paulos, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

“Vast quantities of data are collected about us and our world: credit card transactions, movements and traffic flows, social networks, disease outbreaks, bird migrations, and flowers blossoming. These datasets span a wide range of public and private information and contexts. However, it is the emergence of a host of mobile phone based citizen sensing platforms that is poised to become the dominant contributor to our datasets. In this paper we outline this important new shift in mobile phone usage – from communication tool to “networked mobile personal measurement instrument”. We propose to explore how these new personal measurement instruments enable an entirely novel and empowering genre of mobile computing and research called citizen science. More importantly we highlight a set of challenges and focus specifically on the need for introducing design strategies for engaging these datasets that encourage doubt rather than promoting blind acceptance of fact as a path towards social change.”

GIS for Climate Change Bibliography, Part 5: Disaster Management

In Citizen Science, ESRI, Environmental Science, GIS, Geography on October 27, 2009 at 6:08 am

Cyclone Leaves Its Mark on the Map: Analyzing and Monitoring Myanmar’s Damaged Rice Production Regions
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/fall09articles/cyclone-leaves.html

Mass Casualty GIS Data Management System (from Complaint to Grave)
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1866.html

Planning for Disaster by Pinpointing Populations Vulnerable to Hazards
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1194.html

Storm Surge and Flood Vulnerability in Cumberland County, NJ
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1618.html

Using the U.S. National Grid for Preparedness and Response
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1634.html

Managing Spatial Information to Utilize Disaster Records for Community Safety
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1331.html

13-County Houston—Galveston Region: Population Inside the 100 Year Floodplain (2035)
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume24/safety5.html

Combining GIS and Statistical Analyses to Support Global Pandemic Preparations
http://www.esri.com/library/newsletters/healthygis/healthygis-winter2007.pdf

Evaluating HIV/AIDS Programs: Mapping Affected Populations Fills Information Gap
http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0706/hiv1of2.html

GIS for Medical Emergency Preparedness: Siting Medical Distribution Centers in an Emergency
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume23/safety4.html

Hurricanes on the U.S. Gulf Coast
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume23/safety6.html

Rhode Island Critical Resources—Preliminary Flood Vulnerability Analysis
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/state1/ri2.html

Capacity Building Workshop on GIS-Based Hazard Risk Information Systems
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc08/papers/abstracts/a1572.html

Determining Flood Event Evacuation Areas & Floodwater Inundation with GIS

http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc08/papers/abstracts/a1556.html

Disaster Response Application for Non-governmental Organizations
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc08/papers/abstracts/a1571.html

FEMA-ERT-N Geospatial Intelligence Unit: GIS and Disaster Response
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc08/papers/abstracts/a2069.html

Hazards Analyst: North Carolina’s New Tool for Disaster Preparation/Response
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc08/papers/abstracts/a1673.html

Key Investment Pays Worthwhile Dividends
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc08/papers/abstracts/a1155.html

Long Term Recovery and GIS
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc08/papers/abstracts/a1361.html

Providing Real-time Spatial Data for Flood Response
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc08/papers/abstracts/a1187.html

Risk Analysis and ArcGIS Schematics – California Delta Levees
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc08/papers/abstracts/a1675.html

Special Population Planner 4: An Open Source Release
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc08/papers/abstracts/a1374.html

Constructing COP of EOC at Niigata-ken Chuetsuoki Earthquake, 2007
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc09/uc/abstracts/a1798.html

Development of DSS for Mitigation of Flood Related Damage
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc09/uc/abstracts/a1730.html

Disaster Mitigation Models for the City of Redlands
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc09/uc/abstracts/a1405.html

Flood Mitigation Using GIS
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc09/uc/abstracts/a1540.html

GIS in Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc09/uc/abstracts/a1304.html

Lee County, Florida, ArcGIS Server Mobile Damage Assessment Tools
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc09/uc/abstracts/a1717.html

Mapping Successful Incident Response
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc09/uc/abstracts/a1564.html

Registration & Repatriation of Disaster Evacuees: A Geospatial Approach
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc09/uc/abstracts/a1062.html

Using Mobile GIS in Assessing Impacts of Historic Iowa Flood
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc09/uc/abstracts/a1581.html

Web Based Geographic Intelligence for Emergency Management Practitioners
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc09/uc/abstracts/a1649.html

Application of Multi-objective Shortest-Path and Allocation Analysis for Flood Prevention
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1992.html

Embedding GIS in Disaster Simulation
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1847.html

Estimating Evacuation Ratio in the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1934.html

Geospatially-Enabled Geographic Response Plans
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1840.html

GIS Improves Community Readiness Saving Lives During Emergency Disaster
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1376.html

GIS in Severe Weather Impact Analysis
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a2012.html

A GIS Tool to Determine Affected Population
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1716.html

Levee Inspection and Reporting System
http://proceedings.esri.com/library/userconf/proc07/papers/abstracts/a1587.html

Harris County Flood Control District Custom Map Book Series
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume22/public.html

Tsunami Inundation Zones
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume22/public4.html

Disaster and Recovery: The Impacts of Hurricane Katrina on Gulfport, Mississippi
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume22/public6.html

Enhanced DFIRM
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume22/public7.html

The Asia Pacific Natural Hazards and Vulnerabilities Atlas
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume22/public9.html

Harris County Storm Surge Inundation Zones
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume22/public11.html

Ground Elevations Compared to Static Base Flood Elevations for the City of Seabrook
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume22/public12.html

Sarasota County, Florida—An Assessment of Disaster Vulnerability
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume21/public_safety4.html

Kyoto City Multi-Hazard Maps
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume21/public_safety6.html

Rhode Island Critical Resources—Preliminary Flood Vulnerability Assessment
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume21/public_safety7.html

Mapping Flood Risk and Vulnerability in the Lower Mekong Basin
http://www.esri.com/mapmuseum/mapbook_gallery/volume20/safety2.html

FEMA and Local Governments Battle Hazards with a New GIS Tool
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer04articles/fema-and-local.html

GIS Supports Indian Ocean Tsunami Disaster Relief
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/spring05articles/gis-supports.html

Turkish Government Bases National Emergency Response System on GIS
http://lbs360.directionsmag.com/articles/index.php?article_id=696

South Carolina Devises Earthquake Preparedness Plan with GIS
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/winter0203articles/south-carolina-devises.html

Urban Information Systems for Earthquake-Resistant Cities
http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0702/earthquake.html

In Japan, Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake Damage Assessment Data Is Gathered More Efficiently Using GIS
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/winter0506articles/in-japan.html

Bibliographies in this series:

ESRI Brings GIS to the Public with Mapping for Everyone Web Site

In Citizen Science, ESRI, GIS, Visualization on October 20, 2009 at 10:16 am

esriOnline Resource Offers Three Simple Ways to Make Maps for Free

ESRI has launched a Web site that allows users to create maps for free with simple geographic information system (GIS) tools. Called Mapping for Everyone, the Web site includes tools that cover a range of mapping needs, such as embedding an interactive demographic map into a Web site, creating custom applications using Web Mapping APIs, and using a 2D/3D globe viewer on the desktop.

Mapping for Everyone contains the following mapping resources:

Make a Map—The Make a Map feature includes a simple interactive Web map showing seven different U.S. demographic layers. Visitors can zoom in to an area of interest, select a demographic layer, then embed the map into their own Web pages simply by copying and pasting the automatically generated HTML.

Web Mapping APIs—Visitors can access or download ArcGIS Web Mapping APIs to make their maps. Web Mapping APIs allow users to develop rich, interactive applications using JavaScript, Flex, and/or Silverlight. The page includes step-by-step instructions for installing the APIs, samples to help visitors get started, free map layers, and a gallery of live user sites where visitors can get ideas from applications other people have built. Web Mapping APIs are free for noncommercial use.

Virtual Globe Viewer—A third mapping option is ArcGIS Explorer, ESRI’s free virtual globe viewer. Using ArcGIS Explorer, users can explore the world in 2D and 3D using both their own data and free available data from the ESRI Web site. In addition to the ArcGIS Explorer download, the virtual globe page gives visitors easy access to map layers that they can add to ArcGIS Explorer, such as topographic maps, shaded relief, and world transportation. Once visitors become familiar with ArcGIS Explorer, they can also visit this page to find free add-ins that extend the software’s capabilities.

Mapping for Everyone also includes a Community section where visitors can ask questions and collaborate with others. This section also provides access to ESRI’s ArcGIS Explorer and Web Mapping API blogs.

Visit www.esri.com/mapping to get started making your free maps.

[Source: ESRI news release]

Mobile Application Helps Professional and Citizen Scientists Collect and Analyse Data in the Field

In Citizen Science, Geography, Spatial Analysis on September 18, 2009 at 7:27 am

…from BBC News…

“The EpiCollect software collates data from certain mobiles – on topics such as disease spread or the occurrence of rare species – in a web-based database.  The data is statistically analysed and plotted on maps that are instantly available to those same phones.

“The approach is outlined in the open-access journal PLoS ONE. The software has been developed for so-called smartphones that run Google’s Android open-source operating system.

“Researchers can report back to the EpiCollect database with results from experiments they do in the field, and ‘citizen scientists’ can send back photos or videos of certain species from their own backyards.”

Lessons of the Chesapeake: Fairfax County Educators Turn Green for Water Quality

In Citizen Science, Earth Systems Science, GIS on September 3, 2009 at 1:07 pm

…from the Springfield Connection…

“The project, still in development, is built on NG FieldScope, a new Web-based mapping, analysis and collaboration tool that engages students as citizen scientists investigating real-world issues. It is part of National Geographic’s effort to bring Web-based geospatial technologies to the classroom. With FieldScope, students are able to see their own experiences and water quality samples in the context of the larger Chesapeake Bay watershed and estuary ecosystems.”

Collaborative Mapping Drives a New Age of Exploration

In Citizen Science, GIS, Visualization on August 12, 2009 at 7:25 am

From the 15th Century through the 18th Century, The Age of Exploration was a period of unprecedented discovery.  Driven by economics, politics, religion, fame, or other less tangible factors, intrepid explorers went off to far corners of the earth, often without maps to guide them.  They came back with tall tales of new places, new species, new tribes—and new maps.

The Age of Exploration gave way to the Industrial Revolution, which itself gave way to the Information Age as more jobs moved from production to service.  Geographic information system (GIS) technologies—computer-based applications for viewing and managing information about geographic places, analyzing spatial relationships, and modeling spatial processes—were born during this period, and by the end of the 20th century had become ubiquitous across government and industry as indispensable decision support tools.  In the 21st century, the Age of Information is giving way to the Age of Collaboration as the Internet provides a platform to connect people and information to solve ever-more complex problems.  Exploration is being redefined, and a new emphasis has been placed on the value of the geographic information being created and shared by GIS professionals.

The old adage “information is power” is historically thought of as “he who has the information, has the power.”   In the Collaboration Age, information is democratized, transferring the power from the few who “own” the information to larger groups or the population at large.  This is certainly true in the realm of geospatial technology, where we are seeing a revolution in the ways that maps and mapped information are created, used, and shared.

The New Explorers

Exploration used to mean mapping the unknown.  The type of information that used to be cloaked in mystery and only accessible by a few people through much difficulty is now easily accessible by literally billions of people.  Thanks to this new era of data availability and easy-to-use technology, today’s explorers take information from multiple sources to look at well-known areas in entirely new ways.  Widespread access to maps and well-informed awareness of the world around us means this new generation of explorers is immense, smart, creative, and innovative—precisely the prescription we need for a planet in peril.

This new age of exploration has three primary features:

  • A vast virtual library of geospatial information is readily available over the Web.
  • A new generation of exploration and visualization tools lets people leverage this virtual library quickly and easily.
  • The large community of geospatial professionals has the skills to develop custom mapping applications (or “mash-ups”) and perform sophisticated spatial analysis when the solution to a problem demands more than simple exploration or visualization.

Working together or working with data or mash-ups that others have already built and shared, now anyone can use geographic information to explore the world around them.

Nationwide Audubon Effort Funds Volunteer-powered Conservation Projects at Maine’s Largest Saltwater Marsh

In Citizen Science, Environmental Science, GIS on July 21, 2009 at 11:53 am

mn_aud…from MaineToday.com…

“Maine Audubon is recruiting volunteers to assist three wildlife conservation projects at Scarborough Marsh, the largest saltwater marsh in Maine, on five Saturdays and one Sunday this summer, fall, and next spring. The work is part of TogetherGreen Volunteer Days, a nationwide effort Audubon launched last fall, with funding from Toyota.

“Volunteers will be trained to use GPS units and surveying techniques to monitor selected areas of Scarborough Marsh for an invasive reed, Phragmites australis. They will find, measure, and map the reeds to collect data for a GIS database. No experience is necessary to volunteer.”

Citizen Science Helps Build a Case for Climate Action

In Citizen Science, Climate Change, Environmental Science, GIS, Science on July 15, 2009 at 9:40 am

audWilliam B. Monahan, Senior GIS Scientist with Audubon California, has written an essay on (published at Grist.org) 0n how data collected by volunteer scientists is helping to build a case for climate action.

“They traipse through forest, grass and wetland, through mud, rain and even snow. They carry binoculars and take careful notes of everything they see.

“These are the folks—thousands of dedicated bird watchers—that for more than 100 years have been taking part in the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, documenting fluctuations in bird populations the old-fashioned way: counting birds one by one, year after year.

“Old fashioned as it is, this data has proven invaluable for researchers through several generations. Now, we at Audubon California have found a way to use the work of these volunteers to shed new light on climate change, one of the most challenging issues for bird conservation today.”

Science 2.0 and GIS

In Citizen Science, GIS, Science, Social Science on May 26, 2009 at 6:33 am

“The potential of Web 2.0 to bring together the isolated knowledge, tools and people for successful research and development has inspired the term Science 2.0.

“Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technologies can be used to analyse information about specific geographical regions, such as neighborhoods, zip codes, cities, or counties. Advocacy groups can analyse campaign demographics to improve voter participation on key social services issues. Consumer rights advocates can use GIS to identify where services are distributed in an area in order to better advocate for access to service and improved service delivery.”

GIS Helps Identify Prime Stopover Sites for Migrating Birds

In Citizen Science, Environmental Science, GIS, Science on May 13, 2009 at 7:32 am

tnc_logo_2009…from PhysOrg.com…

“A legion of highly skilled volunteer ornithologists is helping a team of scientists to identify the best stopover sites for migrating birds in the southern coastal zone of Lake Ontario. The study specifically focuses on Neotropical migrants. These songbirds summer in the subarctic part of Canada through northern New York and winter in Central America and the northern part of South America.”

“The goal of the project is to produce a GIS-based tool that will allow the Nature Conservancy, Audubon and other conservation groups to focus on preserving the most important places”

Dynamic GIS Case Studies: Wildfire Evacuation and Volunteered Geographic Information

In Citizen Science, Conferences, ESRI, GIS, Science on May 6, 2009 at 12:34 pm

uc2009Advances in GIScience: Research Session 2
2009 ESRI International User Conference
Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 10:15 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Room 29C

Edward Pultar, Martin Raubal, and Michael Goodchild, UCSB Geography Department, and Tom Cova, University of Utah Geography Department, will be presenting the following paper:

Dynamic GIS Case Studies: Wildfire Evacuation and Volunteered Geographic Information

Incorporating the temporal element into traditional GIS is a challenge that has been researched for many years and has many proposed solutions. The implemented system “Extended Dynamic GIS” or EDGIS is based on the “geo-atom” and Space Time Point (STP). EDGIS provides a platform for spatiotemporal data representation, storage, and query in order to address the need for a dynamic GIS to manage complex geographic data types. The system has the capability of executing spatiotemporal object interaction queries (OIQs) such as crossing and coincidence of field-objects and object-fields. In this paper existing dynamic GIS analysis techniques are further improved and enhanced through exploration of more in-depth case studies. Further examined here are applications to wildfire evacuation modeling and travel scenarios of urban environments with individuals providing volunteered geographic information (VGI).

Addressing Climate Change through Collective Intelligence

In Citizen Science, Climate Change, Environmental Science, Quotes on May 6, 2009 at 12:24 pm

logo_mit-cci“We have a big project in the Center for Collective Intelligence on global climate change. We call it the Climate Collaboratorium. The starting premise is that many people would say that global climate change is one of, if not the most, important societal problem we face. And if ever there was a problem that needed the most collective intelligence we can muster, this would be one of them.

“So what can we do? How can we harness the collective intelligence of thousands of people all over the world and whatever computational resources they can take advantage of to help us humans figure this out?”

–Thomas Malone, Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management

    Citizen Science: GIS for Conservation Science Paper Session at the ESRI User Conference

    In Citizen Science, Conferences, ESRI, Environmental Science, GIS, Science on May 6, 2009 at 6:37 am

    uc20091

    GIS for Conservation Science
    2009 ESRI International User Conference
    Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 8:30 a.m. to 9:45 a.m.
    Room 32 B

    “Citizen Science is a generic name given to the different ways that volunteers and citizens can contribute to scientific data of all kinds. Ranging from birdwatchers to water quality testing, there are thousands of opportunities, and online GIS is playing an increasingly important role in the management, understanding and support of citizen science efforts.”

    Papers in this session include:

    WebMapping at the Nature Conservancy
    Danielle Conboy, the Nature Conservancy

    Distribution of Least Bell’s Vireo in Border Field State Park
    Andrew Fisher, EDAW, Inc.

    Interdisciplinary Research in Ecology using GIS Technique at Kimmes Tobin
    Donald Davidson, Mary Balcer, and William Bajjali, University of Wisconsin-Superior

    GIS and Citizen Science: Volunteers Needed in Maryland

    In Citizen Science, Environmental Science, GIS, Science on May 1, 2009 at 6:09 am

    rivkeep…from Examiner.com…

    Patuxent Riverkeeper, with the assistance of its volunteers, strives to provide stewarardship over the Patuxent River watershed. Volunteers can participate in the following programs.

    • Citizen Water Quality Monitoring – In association with the University of Maryland’s Chesapeake Biological Lab and the Morgan State Estuarine Research Center, volunteers are trained and supplied with water quality testing supplies and access to the online data collection system.
    • Patuxent Roughnecks – Hardy outdoors persons are recruited for mapping, hiking, surveying, planning and clearing sections of the Patuxent river. Their goal is to keep water trails open to paddlers. Efforts are coordinated with local landowners. GIS mapping has been improved dramatically by the Riverkeeper efforts.

    For more info and online volunteer application: http://www.paxriverkeeper.org/get-involved/volunteer/

    Citizen Science Opportunity: The USA National Phenology Network

    In Citizen Science, Climate Change, Education, Environmental Science on April 7, 2009 at 10:04 am

    logoThe USA National Phenology Network brings together citizen scientists, government agencies, non-profit groups, educators, and students of all ages to monitor the impacts of climate change on plants and animals in the United States. The network harnesses the power of people and the Internet to collect and share information, providing researchers with far more data than they could collect alone.

    Ninety Years of Birdwatchers’ Notes Going Online

    In Citizen Science, Climate Change, Environmental Science, Science on March 26, 2009 at 6:19 am

    …from CNN.com…

    “More than 100 years ago, J.A. Loring had his eyes on the California sky and his hand on a pen.

    “His hand-scribbled notes, along with those of 3,000 other ‘citizen scientists,’ can be found lining the drawers of green filing cabinets in the basement of a U.S. Geological Survey building in Reston, Virginia.

    “These note cards — 6 million of them, spanning almost a century — contain a trove of invaluable information that could help unravel the effects of climate change on bird behavior.”

    GIS, Citizen Science Reveal Global Warming Threat to Bird Populations

    In Citizen Science, Climate Change, Environmental Science, GIS, Modeling, Science on February 10, 2009 at 2:36 pm

    In a press release today from the National Audubon Society, the impact of global warming on North American bird populations was analyzed thanks in part to the spatial analysis capabilities of GIS.

    “Detailed GIS maps produced using the California research project where the birds are likely to be in 50 to 100 years. Findings will help policymakers and land managers augment efforts to mitigate the severity of global warming impacts with better habitat conservation investments to address changes that can’t be avoided.”

    The study also a good example of how Citizen Scientists can assist in important projects.

    “Analyses of citizen-gathered data from the past 40 years of Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC) reveal that 58 percent of the 305 widespread species that winter on the continent shifted significantly north since 1968, some by hundreds of miles. ‘Citizen Science is allowing us to better recognize the impacts that global warming is having here and now. Only citizen action can help us reduce them,’ said Butcher.”

    Geospatial Technology and the Citizen Scientist

    In Citizen Science, Climate Change, Earth Systems Science, Environmental Science, GIS, Modeling, Science on January 7, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    “The purpose of the GIS and Science blog is to provide news, resources, commentary, and interviews on the use of GIS technology by the scientific community and for scientific applications.” When I originally wrote that, it was very carefully worded for a reason: scientists are not the only people doing science.

    There are a lot of different ways to slice and dice the demographic makeup of the GIS and Science blog audience. Here’s one:

    • Scientists: People doing science as a full-time job.
    • Professionals Doing Science: Science is not their job, but it’s a component of their job.
    • Citizen Scientists: People who have an interest in strong interest in science, but it’s not part of their job.

    Looking at the citizen scientist in particular, words that come to mind are hobby; entertainment; volunteer; and amateur. The word “amateur” should really be taken with a grain of salt: citizen scientists can and do make important contributions to various fields of study.

    Some citizen scientists work just fine all alone. These self-directed types might very well be in their garages developing “the next big thing.” But more often they are networked, working together with fellow citizen scientists. And this is where they become a powerful force to be taken seriously within the scientific community. Scientists, and “professionals doing science,” often are the ones organizing these networks; they realize the great value a group of eager volunteers can bring to a project.

    A good, although somewhat controversial (depending on your belief in intelligent extraterrestrial life) example of a mass of volunteers carefully organized to work on an overwhelmingly humongous project is SETI@home.  As a volunteer, you download some software that utilizes the “idle time” on your home computer to scan through reams of radio telescope data and search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. If nothing else, it has served as a model for bringing large numbers of volunteers (more than five million participants worldwide) together to work collectively on a massive task.

    Closer to home, CPDN and APS@home are two distributed computing projects with an earth science spin. CPDN is investigating how small changes affect climate models. APS@home is looking at atmospheric components of climate change. Although public participation in both CPDN and APS@home is not nearly at the same scale as SET@home, the potential is certainly there.

    Is there an opportunity for the citizen scientist to leverage geospatial technologies in their quest for knowledge, entertainment, and contributing to society? Absolutely. With the relatively recent arrival of powerful (and free!) geospatial visualization tools such as Google Earth, ArcGIS Explorer, and NASA World Wind, it’s easier than ever for the citizen scientist to have some fun with maps while making a potentially important scientific contribution.

    Amassing large numbers of volunteers to work on geospatial problems such as climate change is already taking place as shown by the CPDN and APS@home examples. What is needed next is something at a much larger scale, where not just physical, but also biological, social, cultural, economic, and political data and models are integrated to give a more accurate depiction of the complexities inherent in the anthropogenic Earth.

    First we need to create an environment that successfully brings together a plethora of data sources and modeling systems—a noble vision for GIS, but not something to be tackled by citizen scientists. Once the data and technology is in place, and a clear framework is established, then comes the opportunity to organize a large group of volunteers who would do the “grunt work” of tackling one of the biggest challenges facing us.

    Imagine a framework where tens or even hundreds of thousands of citizen scientists log in to a web site and download geospatial data sets and work task lists, then using a focused desktop geospatial application they also downloaded, they run different analysis and modeling scenarios as defined in the task list…then upload the results of their analysis back to the main data repository.

    If properly structured and managed, such a project could significantly advance our understanding of the planet. At this scale, it would be difficult if not impossible to pull off without the participation of citizen scientists. They are out there, anxious to help… just waiting for us to create the framework.