Day: February 18, 2009

Online Mapping of California’s Marine Environments

/ Matt Artz
…from the Los Angeles Times web site, February 16, 2009

marinemap“You can help map out what regions of California’s marine environments should be designated for conservation, recreation and commercial use.

“MarineMap.org, an online mapping application created by UC Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute with Farallon Geographics, allows anyone who visits the site to view maps of marine-related features in and around California waters. Users can log in and draw proposed MPAs (marine protected areas — coastal or ocean areas where certain uses are regulated to protect natural resources or biodiversity) and specify what regulations will apply there. Users can then share their reports with one another or export the shapes to Google Earth so others can view it.

“The interactive tool is meant to engage the public in protecting the local environment.

“View a demonstration of MarineMap here.”

More info on the project from the MarineMap.org web site.

Five Questions about GIS and Science

/ Matt Artz

I’m starting a series of short interviews with working scientists who use GIS. Each interview will consist of the following five questions:

  • Who are you and what do you do?
  • How did you get started with geospatial technology?
  • How does geospatial technology help you do your job / scientific work?
  • How important is a formal process/methodology (for example, the scientific method; the geographic approach) when using geospatial technology in your scientific work?
  • What features or capabilities would make geospatial technology even more valuable for scientific work?

Over the coming months I will be emailing these questions to working scientists, and will post the results on this blog. If you are a scientist working with geospatial technologies and would like to participate, send me an email. Also feel free to forward this to other scientists you know who are using GIS.