Geography Matters

Governor of California Acknowledges Benefits of GIS in Major Address

GeographyMatters — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:40:00 GMT

"Well, we are now, because of her (State Chief Information Officer Teri Takai) help, we are moving full steam ahead. A perfect example is, for instance, GIS. GIS is a form of digital mapping technology, kind of like Google Earth but better. (Laughter) During last year's firestorm it allowed firefighters to see through the smoke, giving them a more accurate real-time view of the conditions on the ground. And because of that, many of them told me that saved lives and it saved an endless amount of homes. And this is just the start, because I have directed Teri to create a taskforce now to help other agencies and departments to tap into that vast potential of GIS."

- From Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's keynote address at the Conference on California's Future on May 15, 2008

New GIS Day Poster

GeographyMatters — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:08:00 GMT

The new GIS Day poster is an ideal educational tool for K-12 students. The front side is a colorful poster containing GIS Day photos from over the years. The inside provides a brief overview of GIS and encourages readers to explore GIS by hosting a GIS Day event, thinking about a future in GIS, or visiting a collection of interactive GIS-related Web sites. Download the Poster for your GIS Day event.

Global Warming and the Shrinking Gangotri Glacier

GeographyMatters — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:11:00 GMT

Situated in the Himalayas at around 10,500 feet, the Gangotri Glacier is the source of the holy River Ganges. Its headwaters pour from an ice cave on the glacier and flow for more than 1,500 miles to the Bay of Bengal.

Among more than 7,000 Himalayan glaciers, Gangotri is one of the largest, measuring approximately 18 miles long and 1-3.5 miles wide.

As massive as this might seem, a recent United Nations climate report indicates that the Himalayan glaciers, the source of Asia's biggest rivers, are melting more quickly each year and could disappear within only a few decades. Rivers in the region, including the Ganges may become seasonal rivers, which has serious ramifications for poverty and the economies in the region, warns the report issued by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The River Ganges is considered sacred in Hinduism and is said to flow through the hair of Shiva, a principal deity in that religion. Hindus believe that bathing in the river causes the remission of sins and facilitates the attainment of salvation. They often travel from distant places to distribute the ashes of their kin in its waters. In addition, the Ganges provides water for drinking and farming for more than 500 million people.

Tracing the retreat of the Gangotri Glacier (1780-2001) - Image courtesy of Wikipedia

GIS - A Critical Tool in Fighting the Spread of Infectious Disease

GeographyMatters — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:23:00 GMT

GIS is a vital tool for scientists and public health officials investigating the cause and spread of deadly diseases around the world. Outbreaks of infectious diseases such as SARS can be quickly analyzed using GIS tools.

The SARS Mapping Web site was developed by ESRI China (Hong Kong) to track the locations of reported SARS cases. It is part of an ongoing program to serve the local community through the innovative deployment of GIS. The site was established and hosted as a voluntary initiative. Once the epidemic was over, the site was taken offline. While it is hoped there will be no call to reactivate it, the site is ready if the need arises.

Courtesy of the ESRI.com Web site http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer04articles/tracking-sars.html

John Snow and the Origins of Disease Mapping

GeographyMatters — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:49:00 GMT

During the 1800's, England suffered regular epidemics of Asiatic cholera that killed thousands of its residents. Opinions in the medical community regarding the origins of the disease were divided, and, as such, no effective prevention or treatment was implemented.

Physician John Snow set out to prove his theory that cholera was a disease spread by unsanitary water. During the 1854 outbreak, he began an epidemiological study of the area and residents around the public water pump on Broad Street in London. Snow tracked hundreds of cases of cholera to nearby schools, restaurants, businesses and pubs. By mapping the residences of those who died from the outbreak in proximity to the Broad Street pump and representing the fatalities as short lines at those addresses, Snow developed positive proof that the pump was the source of the cholera epidemic.

For additional information, see "John Snow - a historical giant in epidemiology" on the UCLA Department of Epidemiology Web site http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow.html. The included map is courtesy of that site.

Essential Information Organization Uses GIS to Monitor Bank Lending Trends

GeographyMatters — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:11:00 GMT

Founded in 1982 by Ralph Nader, Essential Information is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization involved in a variety of projects to encourage citizens to become active and engaged in their communities.

The organization's GIS Action for Economic and Social Justice Project addresses a range of crucial and closely interwoven social and economic justice needs. The project focuses primarily on core social and economic concerns: workers earning less than a livable wage, affordable housing needs, regressive federal budget policies, housing discrimination and exclusionary housing policies, and access to financial services, especially for community reinvestment purposes, small business, and small farms.

Subprime lending, which has grabbed newspaper headlines for the past several months, has been a long time concern for the organization. Below is a map of Richmond, Virginia depicting the subprime lenders' market share of conventional refinancing loans in 2002 as viewed by census tract. The diagonal overlay highlights minority residential areas.

Courtesy of the Essential Information Web site http://www.public-gis.org/index.html

Mapquotes - Eleanor Roosevelt

GeographyMatters — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:07:00 GMT

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home-so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any map of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person: The neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."

From Statements at Presentation of In Your Hands: A Guide for Community Action for the Tenth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1958)

Logo courtesy of the United Nations Human Rights Web site http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/WelcomePage.aspx

The 60^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be celebrated on December 10, 2008.

Who Inspired GIS Day?

GIS-Day-Team — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:09:00 GMT

Do you know where the inspiration for GIS Day came from? During a GIS Day kickoff celebration at the National Geographic Society in 1999, Jack Dangermond, ESRI president, said GIS Day was inspired by Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and environmentalist, as a way to inform the public about the emerging role and benefit of GIS. Read more.

Mark your calendar; the tenth annual GIS Day celebration will be held on Wednesday, November 19, 2008. Learn more about GIS Day.

ESRI Supports Conservation Efforts Throughout the World

GeographyMatters — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:01:00 GMT

ESRI has participated for many years in a number of conservation initiatives including those projects sponsored by the UNEP-WCMC and the highly successful Conservation Geoportal.

The Conservation Geoportal is a collaborative effort by and for the conservation community to facilitate the discovery and publishing of GIS data and maps, to support conservation decisionmaking and education. It is primarily a data catalog, intended to provide a comprehensive listing of GIS datasets and map services relevant to biodiversity conservation. The Conservation Geoportal does not actually store maps and data, but rather the descriptions and links to those resources, known as metadata.

The Conservation Geoportal is designed to make it quick and easy for conservation practitioners to find, and if possible, preview and download GIS data and maps. Similarly, it is easy for conservation data publishers to post metadata describing the data and maps they want to share, how to access them, and under what terms. This is a free tool for all conservation practitioners and supporters to use and contribute content.

Image courtesy of the Conservation GeoPortal http://www.conservationmaps.org/index.jsp

Happy Earth Day 2008!

GIS-Day-Team — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:38:00 GMT

As a follow-up to our first post titled "Celebrate Earth Day with GIS," check out the interesting things you can do with ArcGIS Explorer for Earth Day.

New GIS Day Promotional Video Now Available

GIS-Day-Team — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:44:00 GMT

GIS technology, GIS users, and GIS Day. They all make a difference in our world. Join us as we visit GIS Day events hosted by Loma Linda University, the Libraries of the Claremont Colleges, and Stantec Consulting Inc. This video offers insight into the many benefits of hosting a GIS Day event, illustrates how different organizations are celebrating GIS Day, and provides ideas and encouragement to the GIS Day community. We hope this video inspires you to join the tenth annual GIS Day celebration, Wednesday, November 19, 2008. Watch the Video.

GLOBIO Maps the Footprint of the Human Impact on Our Planet

GeographyMatters — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:22:00 GMT

The Global Methodology for Mapping Human Impacts on the Biosphere (GLOBIO) project was begun by a consortium in 2001 to develop a global-scale spatial model of the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity.

The consortium includes the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (MNP), and GRID-Arendal.

Their latest model, GLOBIO3, estimates the impacts on biodiversity through time of land use change, climate change, fragmentation, infrastructure, and nitrogen deposition.

Image courtesy of the GLOBIO Web site http://www.unep-wcmc.org/GLOBIO/

Celebrate Earth Day with GIS

GIS-Day-Team — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:28:00 GMT

In less than two weeks thousands of people around the world will be promoting environmental awareness through Earth Day, April 22, 2008. Consider incorporating GIS into your celebration by organizing a joint Earth Day/GIS Day event.

Here are some resources to help you get started:

Activities

ArcLessons (select the physical/earth sciences category under the "lessons currently available" section)
Earth Day Photo Contest

Web Sites

Visit Earth 911, the nation's real-time recycling and local environmental information service
World Resources Institute's Earth Trends, a comprehensive online database that focuses on the environmental, social, and economic trends that shape our world.
Global Forest Watch
USGS Interactive Topographic Map
Earthguide
USDA Forest Service Maps and Brochures

Literature

Visit the GIS Day Web site to register your event.

What's in a Name?

GeographyMatters — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:04:00 GMT

Because of the need by Qatar's Centre for Geographic Information Systems (CGIS) to include precise geographic names and locations in its national GIS database, CGIS embarked on a comprehensive research program to determine exact placenames by tracing their origins through on-site visits, meetings with municipal officials, interviewing aging Bedouin herdsmen, and attending communal majlis. Due to foreign mis-pronunciation and phonetic misspelling, original placename errors became fact when recorded on early maps.

Findings by the research teams have been nothing short of amazing. For example, the country's major port city, Umm Said was originally known as "Mesaieed." Mesaieed is a derivative form of the word "massad," which refers to a soil type where the shrub known as "seid" grows. Seid once commonly grew in the area around Mesaieed. Over the years, the original name was unintentionally transformed into Umm Said, which means "Mother of Happy." An interesting folklore story grew around this.

Long ago, a slave and his master lived in what is now known as Mesaieed. Because the slave was habitually good-natured, saieed, which in Arabic means "happy" came to mind whenever the master saw him. Due to his circumstances, however, the master decided that a diminutive form of the word would be more appropriate for the slave and so named him, Mesaieed.

Due to the CGIS research, this error has been rectified and Mesaieed is again the official name of the port. Data collected for the Geographic Names Project is included in the national GIS database, which will help the country correct existing maps and other geographically referenced materials.

Courtesy of the CGIS Web site http://www.gisqatar.org.qa/

The Naming of Cats is a Difficult Matter

GeographyMatters — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:07:00 GMT

- From Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T.S. Eliot

In addition to cats, the process for selecting geographic placenames is too a difficult matter. In the suburban town of Temecula in Southern California, the city's main sports park was recently renamed the Ronald Reagan Sports Park. Reagan had never visited Temecula, but made an obscure reference to it in a speech he delivered to the US Olympic Committee 25 years ago. "The folks in a rather small town, Temecula...got together and built themselves a sports park, held fund-raising barbecues and dinners. And those that didn't have money volunteered the time and energy." Aside from basking in the reflected glory of an ex-president, the name has little to do with the community.

A more serious debate continues to rage around the European country sometimes known as the Republic of Macedonia, which gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Greece, its neighbor to the south immediately objected to what it considered the appropriation of a Hellenic name, because a northern region in Greece is known as Greek Macedonia, the birthplace of both Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great. A temporary contrivance to allow the Macedonians a seat in the United Nations refers to the country as "Fyrom" derived from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

While the country exists constitutionally and has been recognized by much of the international community, it wants to join the European Union (EU), which requires a unanimous vote. Greece has already indicated that it will oppose the inclusion of the Republic of Macedonia in the EU under that name.

Names proposed and rejected by either Greece or Macedonia include Republic of Upper Macedonia, Independent Republic of Macedonia, New Republic of Macedonia, Democratic Republic of Macedonia, and Constitutional Republic of Macedonia.

To read the entire article, visit the BBC News site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7278023.stm