…from The Age (Melbourne, Australia), 27 July 1971…
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Day: September 15, 2009
Department of Interior Launches Climate Strategy; Geospatial Technology Demonstrates Impacts
…from the Washington Post…
“Kit Batten, science adviser to Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes, led reporters through an elaborate geospatial presentation that mapped everything from the frequency of large hailstorms and windstorms in the United States to the melting of Washington state’s South Cascade Glacier. “This will help us understand the impacts of climate change, adapt to the impacts of climate change and provide ways to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as a department,” Batten said. “This work is important to all Americans, not just scientists and land managers.” ”
GIS Technology Helps Reintroduce Endangered Wild Horses
…from GeoWorld…
“By integrating maps of horse movements, winter migration of livestock, seasonal dynamics of natural resources and threat locations, the data can be analyzed in a spatially explicit environment to address key ecological and management questions. Based on such analyses, it will be possible to assess KNRs carrying capacity for Przewalskis horses, interspecific dynamics of wild ungulates, impacts of livestock, and how livestock management and stocking rates may need to change. The results will provide urgently needed information on the ecology of Przewalskis horses in the wild and inform selection of future release sites in China and elsewhere.”
National Council for Geographic Education Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, September 23-27, 2009
“This National Conference on Geographic Education is an annual event where geography educators from across the country and around the world meet to exchange ideas, research, resources, and best practices in geography education. The conference is filled with opportunities for participants to attend workshops, paper and poster sessions, field trips, and more. Long-time conference participants enjoy the collegial atmosphere of the conference, opportunities for networking and brainstorming, and endless prospects for professional development. Conference participants are passionate about the prospect of advancing geography education and that energy is what draws educators to the meeting year after year!”
- More information
- Program [PDF]
Analyzing Geographic Clusters and Distributions: Free Online Seminar
…free web seminar from ESRI Canada…
October 8th, 2009, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time
By identifying and measuring relationships, you are in a better position to understand what’s going on in a place, to predict where something is likely to occur or to investigate why things occur where they do. This seminar will introduce a variety of analysis tools and workflows available in ArcGIS. Attendees will learn the benefits of cost path distance analysis, surface interpolation, spatial statistics tools and regression analysis.
- Introduce distance analysis methods and strategies
- Understand available surface interpolation methods in ESRI products
- Utility of spatial statistics for a wide range of applications
- Regression analysis in ArcGIS
Summer Interns Partner with Communities to Help Sustain Mid-Maine
…from Colby Magazine…
“Andrew Young ’09, who applied advanced GIS skills to transportation issues and produced a brochure on recycling options, formed an important bond with the community, though it came after his graduation and just before he left Waterville for a master’s program in chemistry at UNH. Wishing he’d begun earlier, he said, “One of my greatest fears is leaving and having the project fall apart. In the back of our minds is giving the next person what they need to succeed.””
Postgraduate Scholarship in Geobiosphere Science at University of Lund
Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystems Analysis
Faculty of Science, Lund University, Sweden
The position will be within the framework of a new research centre at Lund University, LUCCI (Lund University Centre for Studies of Carbon Cycle and Climate Interactions) financed by a long term (10 years) Linnaeus grant by the Swedish Research Council. Research at the Centre spans a broad range of disciplines, e.g., Geology, Physical Geography, Climatology, Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry, Ecology, Plant Physiology, Soil Science and Microbiology. There are c. 85 researchers from four different departments within the Faculties of Science and Engineering. Read more about LUCCI at http://www.lucci.lu.se.
The mechanisms underlying the evolution of Holocene CO2 and CH4 concentrations and climate remain controversial, including whether or not humans have played a discernible role regionally or globally. In this project we aim to improve existing knowledge about human land use over the last 6000 yrs. It will expand a global dataset that was implemented within the LPJ-GUESS modelling framework in order to better assess the role of past human impact on the carbon cycle. The project will link on-going ecosystem modelling work being carried out in Lund with vegetation reconstructions and will involve model applications using LPJ-GUESS.
Candidates should hold a Master of Science degree in Ecology, Geography, Geology, GIS or an environmental science, be interested in data assimilation and have an interest in past human and environmental history or archaeology. Some experience in programming or modelling using C++ or a similar language is required.
Excellent written and spoken English is a requirement.
See general study plan at www.naturvetenskap.lu.se/o.o.i.s/3056.
Western Kentucky University GIS Program Receives State Award
“This past week at the annual Kentucky GIS conference hosted by KAMP (Kentucky Association of Mapping Professionals) in Frankfort, Kevin Cary accepted a GIS award on behalf of the Department. The award is an Exemplary System Award for Geographic Information Science at Western Kentucky University. This award recognizes our GIS program as being *the* excellent GIS program in Kentucky. It was also mentioned that WKU has provided the most successful GIS Analyst/Specialists to the Commonwealth and in the greatest number (143 GIS Certificates awarded to date). For more information about the GIS program at WKU, please email Kevin Cary.”
[ Source: Western Kentucky University Geography and Geology Blog ]
How Business Intelligence and GIS are Becoming More Integrated
“Most people may think of geographic information systems (GIS) simply as Google maps or the navigation system for their car, but GIS tools do a lot more than help people get from A to B. Businesses are adding a spatial dimension to data to help make critical decisions in this tough economy.
“We recently interviewed Yellowfin CEO Glen Rabie to find out more about this topic and why Yellowfin Business Intelligence with spatial data is so much more than just Google Maps.”
Map Projections and Coordinate Systems: A Primer
…from Geoweb Guru…
“This two part article is intended as an introduction to map projections and coordinate systems. … They start a new series of articles which I shall be publishing over the next few weeks. I shall look at different projections and coordinate systems, the inadequacies of the current choices, and how to do something about it.
“Most users of online maps ignore the issues of different coordinate systems and projections. Any concern is usually limited to whether their system of choice will read the coordinates they have. As both are typically the same, the issue rarely surfaces. However, over the last two millenia, cartographers have produced hundreds if not thousands of different projections and coordinate systems for a wide range of different applications and locations.
“Most online map services use geographic longitude,latitude coordinates on the WGS84 datum using a Mercator Projection. Although the coordinate system and datum are both logical choices for global mapping, As you shall see, Mercator is a poor choice of projection for most map applications.
“So what are these different datums, coordinate systems, and projections? Why should we care?”
GIS and Science 