Day: November 3, 2010

Redlands Forum Seeks Vision for City’s Prosperity

/ Matt Artz / 1 Comment

Panel Features Esri President Jack Dangermond and Community Leaders

Wednesday, 17 November 2010,5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Esri president Jack Dangermond and several leaders from the City of Redlands, California, will be joining together for a panel discussion that seeks to forge a vision for making the city an even better place to live.

University and K–12 school leaders, city government staff, police, and conservationists will participate in the forum moderated by Dangermond. Topics will include current city issues; the many facets that make Redlands special; and plans for future preservation, sustainability, and continued prosperity. Panelists will bring both strategic and practical ideas from their respective fields that we as a community can consider to truly distinguish and enrich our town.

The ultimate goal is to take the ideas generated from the forum and apply them to the GeoDesign process for improving the city. Based on concepts found in Ian McHarg’s seminal Design With Nature, GeoDesign integrates geographic science with design, resulting in a systematic methodology for geographic planning and decision making. This gives architects, urban planners, and others, the geographic information and analysis they need to design well.

Redlands Forum presentations are sponsored by Esri and the University of Redlands through the university’s Town & Gown organization.

Panel participants

  • Jim Appleton, President, University of Redlands
  • Jim Bueermann, Chief of Police, City of Redlands
  • Larry Burgess, Director, A.K. Smiley Public Library
  • Jim Holmes, President, Redlands Community Hospital
  • Sherli Leonard, Executive Director, Redlands Conservancy
  • Enrique Martinez, City Manager, City of Redlands
  • Lori Rhodes, Superintendent, Redlands Unified School District

To learn more about upcoming Redlands Forum events and speakers, visit esri.com/redlandsforum or call 909-748-8011.

[Source: Esri press release]

Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Land Use in Fringe Area using GIS: A Case Study of Madurai City, Tamil Nadu

/ Matt Artz / 1 Comment

International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences, Volume 1, No 2, 2010

Manonmani I.K.

“Urbanization is one of the most powerful socioeconomic components of the modern society. It is a dynamic force since it undergoes considerable spatial and temporal variations. In cities like Madurai this variation is more pronounced in the peripheral areas due to rapid horizontal expansion which has outpaced the vertical expansion of the city. In addition, the rapid growth of India which has triggered the infrastructure development like modern highways, proliferation of more automobiles etc. facilitates such horizontal expansion of the city and more and more people were found to shift from agricultural to nonagricultural occupation. Hence, it is logical to expect that a proper utilization of land in the fringe areas is basic for effective urban planning. Hence, in the present study an attempt has been made to study the fringe areas; particularly their land use modifications.”

Quantifying the Extent and Cost of Food Deserts in Lawrence, Kansas, USA

/ Matt Artz

Applied Geography, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 20 October 2010

Lucius F. Hallett IV, Dave McDermott

“Food deserts are places in the urban environment of otherwise developed nations that are poorly served by access to healthful food. Included in these are vegetables, fruits, and cereals comprising the items needed for a healthy diet. The lack of healthful food imposes high costs on residents and is associated with health problems resulting from poor diets. We attempt to examine and refine the discussion of food deserts by using geographic information systems and remote sensing to quantitatively define such deserts and to measure the costs of distance imposed on consumers. Our initial application of these methods is in the small city of Lawrence, Kansas, USA, though the methods presented are appropriate for rural and urban communities as well.

“Research highlights

  • Maps the locations of full-service grocery stores with respect to transportation networks.
  • Uses remote sensing data to develop measures of size for food retailers.
  • Applies the concepts of cost surfaces to develop measures of the cost of accessing food.
  • Questions the validity and description of food deserts in the face of demographic and cost surface realities.”

More information