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Publications

Topographic Map of the Earth Released

Thursday July 02nd 2009
Filed Under Data | Leave a Comment

NASA has announced the release of the most complete topographic data of the earth to date. Over 99 percent of the earth’s surface was mapped using measurements obtained from NASA’s Terra spacecraft using the Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer instrument, aka Aster. Previously, the most comprehensive mapping of the earth’s topopgraphy was accomplished through the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission which produced data covering 80 percent of the earth’s surface. The new Aster data covers the earth from 83 degrees north latitude and 83 degrees south and produces new data for mostly desert and steep terrain areas not covered previously. From the press release:

For visualizations of the new Aster topographic data, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/20090629.html .
Data users can download the Aster global digital elevation model at: https://wist.echo.nasa.gov/~wist/api/imswelcome and http://www.gdem.aster.ersdac.or.jp .

(Seen via The Map Room)

Survey on Open Data Access and Intellectual Property Rights

Tuesday June 30th 2009
Filed Under Survey | Leave a Comment

Participate in this online survey on Open Data Access and Intellectual Property Rights (ODAIPR) for geospatial and cartographic data. The survey has been prepared within the International Cartographic Association (ICA) ODAIPR working group. The summary of the results will be sent directly to the participants toward the end of November.

Online survey on Open Data Access and Intellectual Property Rights (ODAIPR) for geospatial and cartographic data.

Learn to Use ESRI’s Map Templates

Tuesday June 16th 2009
Filed Under Cartography, ESRI | Leave a Comment

ESRI is offering a free online seminar of note to those who use ArcMap:

ESRI now offers map templates as a new resource to help ArcGIS software users make great-looking, professional-quality maps for print, the Web, and mobile applications.

Getting Started with Map Templates, a live training seminar airing at www.esri.com/lts on Thursday, June 25, 2009, will walk geographic information system (GIS) professionals and cartographers through the process of working with the templates. The times will be 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. (Pacific daylight time).

Mapmaking is an art that requires skill and, often, a lot of experience. But making high-grade maps will be much easier when using the cartography and data designs from these templates with your organization’s geographic information. The templates, created by ESRI’s cartographers, include examples of map documents, data models, and geoprocessing tools. Each template is a complete solution for a given type of map.

The seminar’s presenter will explain how to get started using the templates and how to adapt the cartographic and data designs to other maps.

Attendees will also learn about

· How to download map templates from the ESRI Resource Center at http://resources.esri.com/maptemplates

· What the map template kits contain

· How to use data with a map template

· Different kinds of map templates (e.g., street, topographic, and local government maps)

· Publishing map templates as mapping services via ArcGIS Online

Mapmakers from any organization who want to create professional-grade maps will find this live training seminar interesting and useful. GIS professionals and cartographers who are familiar with ArcGIS Desktop software and make maps on a regular basis will benefit.

A broadband Internet connection and an ESRI Global Account are needed to watch the seminar. Creating a global account is easy and free: visit www.esri.com/lts, click Login, and register your name and address. A few weeks after the live presentation, the seminar will be archived and available for viewing on the ESRI Training and Education Web site.

For more information about this free live training seminar, as well as upcoming classes, visit www.esri.com/training.

Clip Art for GIS and Geography

Sunday May 24th 2009
Filed Under Fun, Link Library | Leave a Comment

Find commercial free sources of clip art for globes, maps and other images useful for developing reports, web sites and banners relating to GIS and geography. Read more

UCLA’s Certificate in Geospatial Information Systems and Technology

Friday May 01st 2009
Filed Under Certificate Programs | Leave a Comment

My alma mater, the University of California at Los Angeles, has officially launched their new Certificate in Geospatial Information Systems and Technology program. Visit their web site to find information about the structure and content the program, as well as registration materials. Registration starts May 19th.

U C L A – Certificate in Geospatial Information & Technology (GIST)
6 July – 26 July 2009
Registration is now open!!!

The UCLA Certificate in GIST provides high-quality, practical and comprehensive training in the use and application of geographic information systems (GIS) and related geospatial technology. The certificate program is composed of three intensive workshops, covering a range of critical topics such as geospatial data acquisition and handling, spatial analysis and project management with GIS. Each of the three one-week workshops will be taught by UCLA faculty experts in geographic information systems and technology who have over 20 years of experience teaching and applying GIS in a variety of fields. The program promises to be a valuable and engaging experience for all participants.

On behalf of the GIST faculty and staff, we look forward to your participation this summer!!!

For more information and details about the certificate and workshops, visit http://www.geog.ucla.edu/gist

Monitor the Swine Flu Real-time with Google Maps

Monday April 27th 2009
Filed Under Current Events | Leave a Comment

Created by niman, a Biomedical Researcher based in Pittsburgh, the Swine Flu map plots real-time cases of confirmed and suspected cases of H1N1 Swine Flu as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) (according to Gizmodo). The map color-codes markers based on the following:

Pink markers are suspected cases of swine flu H1N1
Purple markers are confirmed cases
Yellow markers are negative

Markers that lack a dot indicate a death from the Swine Flu. Click on each marker to get more information about that specific case.

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

Office of the Geographer

Sunday April 19th 2009
Filed Under Career | Leave a Comment

The March 2009 issue of “State” profiles the Office of Geographer which looks at geographers employed by the State Department: “The geographer of today is a mix of social scientist, fi eld worker, graphic artist and technology wizard, and is at ease in the office environment and remote corners of the world.Add diplomat to the mix and you have today’s geographers at the State Department.” (Seen via Catholicgauze)

Mapping the ‘Buzz’

Tuesday April 07th 2009
Filed Under Data Analysis | Leave a Comment

Although alcohol probably played a role at many of these events, it’s not the subject of this study. The NY Times takes a look at mapping the geography of cultural ‘buzz’ in both New York and Los Angeles. Elizabeth Currid, an assistant professor at USC collaborated with Sarah Williams from the Spatial Information Design Lab at Columbia University to map out ‘buzz worthy’ parties and events based on photos obtained from Getty Images. The photos were taken over the course of a year starting in March of 2006. The maps were geocoded to a street location and categorized by type of event (e.g. art, fashion, film, or theater to name a few). By doing so, hotspots were identified in each city for the various types of events.

Sunday April 05th 2009
Filed Under Career | Leave a Comment

The OMG! Blog (Open-source, Mapping and GIS) has a short post on “How to find a GIS job in tough economic times“.

1,380 Crimes At One Point

Sunday April 05th 2009
Filed Under Data Analysis | Leave a Comment

The Los Angeles Times highlighted the distortion caused by geocoding undecipherable addresses to a default location around the corner from City Hall. The mapping application housed at www.lapdcrimemaps.org places all addresses the software is unable to geocode at the location in the 200 block of West 1st Street. This has result in nearly 4% of all crimes being attributed to this location in the time period between October of 2008 and March of 2009. This anomaly apparently went unnoticed by the Los Angeles Police Department until it was alerted by the Los Angeles Times. As a short-term fix, the consultants that developed the mapping application, Lightray Productions and the sub-consultant PSOMAS (which does the geocoding), are plotting problematic locations to a new crime hotspot found off the coast of West Africa (corresponding to a lat/long of 0).

In the meantime, other applications such as EveryBlock that pull data from the LAPD site have propagated the error on their mapping sites. Adrian Holovat, the founder of EveryBlock, responded by saying, “We have to assume at some fundamental level that the governments aren’t feeding us data that is complete garbage,” a sentiment echoed in their disclaimer which states, “Any mistakes found on EveryBlock should be sent to sources that provide the original data.”

Read more: Highest crime rate in L.A.? No, just an LAPD map glitch – Los Angeles Times

MIT Map Collection Closing

Monday March 16th 2009
Filed Under Map Collections | 1 Comment

As a result off mandated budget cuts, the Lindgren Library is one of two branches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that will be closing. The Lindgren Library serves the Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Department. Part of the casualty of the library closing is the loss of access to roughly 30,000 maps that are part of the library’s collection. One graduate student interview stated “We are worried. We can get books everywhere”, but “we also need maps and data … and it’s difficult to get this in electronic format.” The article didn’t explain what will happen to the map collection once the library closes.

Restricting Internet Mapping Imagery

Monday March 02nd 2009
Filed Under Issues in GIS, Privacy Issues | 7 Comments

A California Assemblyman, Joel Anderson, is trying to find a committee home for his proposed bill to restrict the publication of imagery covering certain buildings on Internet mapping sites. His bill would call for the blurring of imagery covering what he calls “soft terrorism” targets: schools, hospitals, churches and all government buildings. His apparent inspiration is from reading about terrorism attacks that were plotted from imagery obtained from Google Earth and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth:

“All I’m trying to do is stop terrorists,” said Anderson is quoted as saying. “I don’t want California to be helping map out future targets for terrorists.”

Ironically, if the bill does gain traction and eventually becomes law, many of these buildings already are available online as many schools, hospitals and government agencies post photos of the buildings online through their respective web sites.

Read more; California lawmaker targets Internet mapping sites - Mercury News