A health check on capital-ists, 20 Nov 2009

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s not easy to handle the mantle of being the capital city. From its air, water and roads, everything counts.

A survey to check on the health status of the capital city’s population is being done by two major research centres of the Kerala University. The survey is titled ‘Urban Health: searching for patterns, differentials and correlations of Thiruvananthapuram corporation using GIS technology’.

It’s the Population Study Centre and the Centre for Geoinformation Science and Technology who are conducting the ambitious survey. Not only is the survey an effort to model the patterns of urban health, it also aims to find out the relation of personal health with natural parameters like availability of water, cleanliness and pollution.

It does not end there. The habits of citizens in the area of health, like their treatment-seeking pattern, access to treatment points and even the quality of drinking water would be surveyed.

As part of the survey, the surveyors will measure the sugar level as well as BP. This will be done free of cost. The details of these analyses will be handed over to the citizens.

“The survey would also examine various factors like mosquito breeding centres in the vicinity and the quality of the water in the local well,’’ said S. Santhosh, additional director in charge of the Population Study Centre.

“The PH value of the water in the wells will be studied. Apart from that, the water in the well will be sent to the lab for testing. These results will also be made available to the persons concerned,’’ he said.

The survey would also try to identify the reproductive and healthcare problems of the female population in the city. A health screening report of the households will be prepared on the basis of the survey, he said.

The pilot survey has been kicked off in selected wards in the coastal, rural, semi-urban and urban areas of the Corporation. In the next stage, the survey would be extended to all wards of the Corporation.

The Population Research Centre had earlier conducted a landmark survey, the ‘National Family Health Survey’, in 1992-93.

At present, seven surveys conducted by the centre are in progress and the major one is the ‘Baseline Survey on Reproductive and Child Health’ in Kozhikode and Palakkad districts.

Source – Express Buzz

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) will launch a Hydrology Interoperability Experiment (HDWG_IE1) on December 8, 2009. The initiators of the experiment seek participation by other organizations interested in developing standard ways of discovering, sharing and interpreting groundwater data using OGC Web Services (OWS) interface and encoding standards.

This interoperability experiment will advance the development of WaterML 2.0 and test its use with various OWS standards, including the OGC Sensor Observation Service (SOS), Web Map Service (WMS), Web Feature Service (WFS), and Catalog Service Web (CSW) Interface Standards. The experiment will also investigate the interaction of WaterML 2.0 with GroundwaterML (GWML) in scenarios involving the sharing of groundwater data between the USA and Canada.

Initiators of the experiment are: Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), US Geological Survey (USGS), and Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Organizations participating in the experiment will include the Geology Survey of Canada (GSC), NRCan; USGS; CSIRO, the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science (CUAHSI) and others.

Applications for participation are due by December 8, 2009. For further details or to register as a participant visit: http://external.opengis.org/twiki_public/bin/view/HydrologyDWG/GroundwaterInteroperabilityExperiment.

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 385 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. The OGC’s OpenGIS® standards Support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. These standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.

[Source: OGC press release]

Deadline for Submitting Abstracts Is December 15, 2009

Recognizing the growing importance of geographic information science (GIScience), ESRI has expanded the GIScience Research Track for the 2010 ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC) to be held in San Diego, California. Geographic information scientists are invited to submit papers that focus on cutting-edge research in GIScience. Accepted papers will be published in a special issue of the journal Transactions in GIS, to be distributed at the conference July 12–16, 2010.

Says Michael Gould, ESRI’s director of education, Industry Solutions, “Furthering advances in GIScience is the key to fully developing the potential of this discipline. This special track is just one of the ways that ESRI provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and information among the GIScience community. It is open to all geographic information scientists, whether or not their research utilized ESRI software.”

Abstracts of approximately 500 words must be e-mailed to Dr. John Wilson (jpwilson@college.usc.edu), University of Southern California, by December 15, 2009. Include “ESRI GIScience Abstract” and the author’s last name in the e-mail’s subject line.

The Transactions in GIS editorial team will review the abstracts based on their GIScience content and select nine for development into full papers. Notice of acceptance will be announced by December 22, 2009.

The completed papers must be submitted to Wilson for independent review by February 15, 2010. They should include no more than 6,000 words plus figures, tables, and references. Reviewed papers will be returned to their authors for editing by March 15, 2010, and final manuscripts will be due by April 8, 2010, for inclusion in the special issue of Transactions in GIS.

For more information on the GIScience Research Track at the ESRI International User Conference, contact Michael Gould at mgould@esri.com.

i was going through my archives on the computer and somehow managed to find this gem. an Indonesian friend of mine from high school – sam oswald setiadi – wrote this letter on a war craft forum; expressing his woeful lust for a girl in his class – ayumi. now, although sam was a really good friend of mine, i think it’s only fair if i share this grammatically floored expression of hope with the internet (seeing as it’s already out there) and in doing so, perhaps put a smile on your face. after the countless times i have read this letter (saved on my computer with the sole purpose of making me laugh) – i hope you enjoy it too. this is…

sam’s story

lets not talk about dota!! hehehe lets relax our mind and concentrate on other things…like me my love life…i need your proffesional help guys!
“yes i will”
true Story
my name is sam
i am 15
from indonesia living in msia for 12years
i am a chinese indonesian

i have troubles talking to girls…you can say i am shy to girls that i like ….you know …i mean you guys will say like
“SO WAT”,
or
“nothing wrong , is nature”
etc.

BUT i am 15 now TURNING 16….i cant keep on being like this!! a sight of a girl that i fancy….i will desapier within 2sec!! what is this!!! i am a MAN !! i should not be shy or anything like this??? ermmm
plus i know some girls likes me BUT i am not taking advantage to IT…one of them was ayumi.

she is from japan, living in sg for 6 years and moved to msia where i belong.she is very beutiful….nice body because she swims alot! one of the best swimmer in our school….plus her legs are just perfect….is like looking at a new born baby’s bottom….smooth ,clean, and everything nice! belives me. wow when the first day she came to our school is like a “MOVIE just realise and is in the TOP CHART in the first 2 hours.” everyones fancied her including SIANWIN is one of the user in dota forum..you will probely sees him in the future replying this threat. anyway she was making a HUGE IMPACT in our school….nearlly every guys likes her even the lezbian but ofcourse except the gays but she is very shy…..she have a nice pair of double eye-lid eyes!! her face is like oval very cute!! her mouth is like a cherry mouth! very smooth! and her skin is very diferent ..her skin is not white!! but brownish! she is tant! she swims alot thats why…she has a nice body slim and i do not want to talk about her breast because no words can describe it…it is too too too “nice”.

thats her…can you guys imagine her?? and her height is like 1.60 m
anyway tahts her….i like her since the 1st time she came to our school…even though i like others girl…she is always in my list….
but guest wat guys!!! this is the good part……you can say is a bit of a mircale like a naix level 25 with burize,3 bashers, Heart etc losing to a level 1 sniper with a branch and potion and a GOLDEN SOUL…hehe
1 year later .it was around july ….i never spoken to her yet even though she is been in my class for 2 years…because i am so shy…i feel like cutting my private part off!!!!!

so then ..there was she , having new freinds talking, loughing , smiling…i was there standing …starting at her……asking myself….how d’hell i can get her??…because in september there was this special event called PROM where students having dinner in an expensive place and having fun such as dancing. and i wanted her to be my DATE for the event. days by days , the event getting more closer and closer…my heart punding faster and faster…i really wanted her to be my date…so then 1 night….think over and over again…saying words in my head what to do……until i stop with the words “got to do sumthing to make changes”..since then my mind went straight on a straight line focusing in every singel thing…i pick my phone up preesing the buttons to get to my phone directory scoring down until i get to a contac “IUME” thats her nick name for me. i decided to call her….i just need to prees CALL on my phone but my body seems stoping it from doing it but my mind wants to do it…something growing inside my stomach up through my lungs passing through my throat and a soft voice speaks”i cant do it” the feelings that i hate, that i wanted to get rid of it ..is coming back….my minds were spreading again….i felt weak….i felt i lost my arms, my legs, my bodies and my soul..darknes covered me once again.

a sudden peak of a light shines through insdie my body saying “do it”…my body stars to work again like a machine…my minds becomes clearer …..i stood up…rushing down to the swimming ( i live in an apertament and it has a swiming pool) with my hp on hard grip of my hand. i walk in a hurry to a wooden bench…..and sit….i look up on the sky ….try to relax and call her to ask her out…i sees stars…..bright shining onto me…i were warm…mintues later i held up my phone and prees CALL …..it was connecting and a sudden connection….”BEEp , BEEP, BEEP” i felt the time was stop ….

“hello” a cute mysterious voice came out from my hp speaker….
“hi ayumi, tis’ tis’ is sam” my voice were trembeling “are you going to prom?”
“ermmm maybe” speaking of her.

“ermm ayumi” i stoped. holding my breath and i know excatly what to say..the words had already been pictured in my mind…i let it go
“would you go with me to prom?”
a moment of silence for 7 sec….my heart stoped….i was graping the chair as hard as i could..i closed my eyes….my mind was blank..
out of no where

“maybe”the voice that i wanted to hear came out.

after the phone call…i felt i was relised from a prison …..even though the answer wasnt a YES or a NO.sincene then i waited…

“1 week later….a sms on sam from ayumi. the first word that sam saw it.”yes i will” he was so happy even though he never speak to her but ayumi always know they had something in common .LOVE
sam and ayumi went out to the prom together. a bliriant day for both of them.not only him having a good day
SIANWIN=sian had a date too…her name is YONG IN..what all people can do when they look at her is too look at her chest. it were gingantic..SIANWIN a happy man.

1 year later sam still likes ayumi…but she had to leave the school..she is moving to usa…..at the very last day…they both had a last untouchable memorial date.”

writen by: sam “i miss you”

…an article written by Helen M. Cox, associate professor of Geography at California State University, Northridge, appearing at GeoReport…

“A tool developed at California State University, Northridge, now converts NCDC historical climate data to a feature-class format. A menu-driven interface provides access to point temperature and precipitation data that can be interpolated easily through the tools provided in the Spatial Analyst toolbox to generate raster layers for any region in the United States averaged over any desired temporal period. Thirty-year baseline averages for the 1950-1980 period, for example, have been pre-calculated and stored in a geodatabase to permit easy calculation of anomalies relative to this period, providing the framework for climate-change studies.

“This GIS climate tool was written in Visual Basic using ArcObjects and reads data from the daily weather observations of more than 20,000 cooperative weather stations in the United States. Although the period of record can begin as early as 1850, most station histories begin in 1948 or soon thereafter. The data were obtained from NCDC.“

• Read the article

Department of Geography, Ohio University

Two two-year research assistantships at the M.A. level are available through a new project on local knowledge and climate change adaptation in Tanzania supported by the National Science Foundation’s Geography and Spatial Science (GSS) Program. The project – Linking Local Knowledge and Local Institutions for the Study of Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change: Participatory GIS in Northern Tanzania – investigates the myriad ways in which human, social, and institutional capital enable households and communities to draw on local knowledge and outside specialist knowledge to moderate the negative effects of greater climatic instability on rural livelihoods.

In addition to completing required courses for the M.A. program over two academic years (2010-2011 and 2011-2012), the successful candidates will contribute to an international interdisciplinary research project. We expect applicants to develop a thesis project that contributes to the project’s research objectives.

One graduate research assistant will work on the development of online multimedia applications derived from a participatory GIS. Background or interest in cartography and web-based mapping is desirable.

A second research assistant will work with the research team on the implementation of the project’s participatory field methodology and
contribute to data analysis. The student’s interests should be focused on environment- development interactions (e.g., the dynamics of resource access, political, environmental or cultural-linguistic dimensions of local knowledge systems, gendered aspects of climate change adaptation). Proficiency in Kiswahili or interest in learning Kiswahili at Ohio University is a plus.

The assistantships include two academic years of tuition waiver and stipend for students enrolled in the Geography M.A. program. Additional support is available for student field research activities in Tanzania.

Eligible students may also apply for a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship from OU’s Center for African Studies: http://www.internat ionalstudies. ohio.edu/ app-info/ flas.html

The Ohio University Department of Geography is a dynamic department with 150 undergraduate majors and a graduate program that has expanded to 25. Faculty in the department offer coursework and conduct research on topics that bring together the Earth’s human and physical components and focus on issues from local to global scales. Graduate students also benefit from the resources of Ohio University’s Center for African Studies, a National Resource Center (NRC) for Africa, which creates additional opportunity for the interdisciplinary study of African languages, societies, and environments.

The application deadline is February 15 for Fall 2010 admission.

For more information regarding the application procedure, consult the department and Graduate College websites: http://www.ohio. edu/geography& http://www.ohio. edu/graduate/ ).

For more information about the assistantships, contact Tom Smucker smucker@ohio. edu.

…from the ESRI Map Book Volume 1: GIS in State Government…

Nebraska Health and Human Services System

“The state of Nebraska conducts annual surveys of influenza activity in the state. There are multiple tools in place to collect and report data about health status related to influenza activity.

“During the current vaccine shortage and the shortage that occurred last year, the state of Nebraska used the Health Alert Network to communicate with providers and public health departments. Various automated surveys, fax surveys, and phone calls helped determine vaccine supply, antiviral supply, and vaccine need across the state. Many of these data sources were integrated into GIS and printed as maps for public health communication purposes and for data analysis by public health professionals.

“The map shows the number of doses of flu vaccine interpolated by the population by health district. The product is the number of doses per resident.”

• View the map

“Python is becoming the scientific language for GIS.”

–Bill Moreland

We’ve produced a set of interactive maps to monitor the impact of the recession at different geographical levels in the West Midlands:

• By West Midlands Local Authority
• By West Midlands Census ward
• Neighbourhoods in the Rural Regeneration Zone

The maps show Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) claimant rates (the proportion of the working age population claiming JSA), which gives an indication of unemployment.  The maps help us to see how the recession is affecting different areas.

West Midlands’ Local Authorities

The first recession monitoring map shows JSA claimant rates for each West Midlands’ Local Authority.

West Midlands’ Census wards

Following on, we’ve just launched a map that shows JSA claimant rates for each Census ward in the West Midlands. This was produced in response to requests to monitor the recession at a lower level than Local Authority.

The map also contains Local Authority boundaries and a background Ordnance Survey map to give context to the wards:

Screenshot: section of interactive map showing proportion of working age population claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance by Census Ward in the West Midlands. Local Authority boundaries shown in red. Background mapping selected. Aston ward selected.

Another useful feature of the atlas is that claimant rates can be compared to the regional or national average.

The maps shows that urban Local Authorities such as Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley and Sandwell had claimant rates at 10% or above in October 2009.

Aston had the highest claimant rate, at 13.8%.

Rural Regeneration Zone

We’ve also produced this map showing JSA claimant rates for neighbourhoods in the Rural Regeneration Zone.

The map shows how the recession is affecting some of the more disadvantaged rural neighbourhoods in the West Midlands.

Although the claimant rates have increased in the zone since the recession, most neighbourhoods have a lower claimant rate than the region.

A few neighbourhoods have had higher claimant rates than the regional average, over the past year. These neighbourhoods were scattered around North Shropshire, Bridgnorth, Herefordshire, Malvern Hills, South Shropshire and Oswestry.

More interactive maps

We’ve also recently updated a range of interactive maps on other topics, all of which are available on our website.

These maps are produced using InstantAtlas.

You need Adobe Flash Player to view the maps. Please let us know if you have any feedback about accessing the maps or using them in general.

Para relembrar o EUE, Encontro de Utilizadores ESRI de 2009, e também para quem não pôde estar presente, aqui fica um vídeo com todos os slides da minha apresentação bem como excertos de certas apresentações.

Encontram-se também online vídeos completos das demonstrações efectuadas:

Superfícies Tácteis

Microsoft Surface Parte 1/2

Microsoft Surface Parte 2/2

Mahup’s e RIA’s

ESRI baru saja me-launching GIS wiki di http://wiki.gis.com.  Situs ini belum dipublikasikan secara resmi dan baru diinfokan oleh Mike Hogan yang bekerja di ESRI lewat twitter @mikehogan. Situs utamnya GIS.com bahkan tidak mengindikasikan adanya situs wiki ini.  Halaman statistik mengindikasikan ada lebih dari 1,800 halaman.

Namun demikian apabila melakukan pencarian ke twitter, sebenarnya isu ini telah cukup beredar  untuk mendapatkan masukan dari project ini.

Jadi teringat rencana RSGISForum untuk membuat GIS Wiki dalam bahasa Indonesia yang belum kesampaian juga. Ada yang mau bantu pengelolaannya?

The first thing I did this morning to reacquaint myself with the homestead routine was clean the chicken coop, harvest a double-handful of ripe cherry tomatoes and visit all of my plants in the yard to see how they were doing. I’m happy to report that they are all doing well, and the vegetable garden is bursting with bounty. That’s what I like to see.

The lettuce has done really well in the garden. Since about two weeks of planting it, it has continued to produce plenty of tender, spicy leaves for salads. In fact, we haven’t been able to keep up.

The chard was looking pitiful. It ended up in the back where the sunlight isn’t as abundant and it struggled for quite awhile with pests and weeds. After I mulched and left it alone for the week, it looks like all of the plants have doubled in size and managed to fend off the bugs (or the bugs have retreated for the rest of the season).

Shallots and green onions, carrots and collards are all steadily growing. The carrots and collards have really taken off since we left. I’m happy to see it.

I’ m still reading A Sand County Almanac. It’s a relaxing break from school work but manages to keep me in the right mindset. I’m really looking forward to my upcoming winter break from classes. I hope I actually take the time to enjoy it, because I’m also anticipating my next term when I will get to study GIS, Ethnobotany, Forest Ecology and Natural Resource Issues. All is well regardless.

The family is doing great, and I’m going to go spend some time with them.

Goodbye, with warm regards.

Sara

Last lab/laugh of the GIS class! Only the assessed essay after this… This week’s lab deals with modelling and using land cover change analyses. I cannot say I understand everything in this lab. I tried to understand why I was doing each directed step, but sometimes it was just too much! But I will do my best to explain and demonstrate what was required. Read on to learn more. It will be worth your time — there are land cover change animations! How thrilling…

CONTENTS (click each to be directed to that section)

I. Reading Summaries

II. Project Update and Data

III. Land Change Modelling Lab

*Note: you can click on the images to see the larger version in a separate window.

I. Reading Summaries

II. Project Proposals

For my assessed essay project, I think the section on biodiversity analysis may have some useful components. I am currently doing some readings about using remote sensing data to identify species, ecosystem richness, and biodiversity. It may be useful to additionally use some of the analyses provided in this lab.

III. Land Change Modelling Lab

6-1 LCM: Projects and Change Analysis

This section deals with analysing observed change over a period of time once land cover has been classified using supervised or unsupervised methods (see Week 4 lab). I used pre-classified land cover data from central Massachusetts from 1985 and 1999. Using simple visual analysis alone, it is difficult to determine how much land has changed and in what ways (Fig. 1). Using the IDRISI module Land Change Modeller (LCM), I created histograms that demonstrate how much land was converted to various other land forms between the two years. Figure 2 shows overall gains and losses of various land covers. I then broke that down to look at three different categories in particular: Large Residential (Fig. 3), Open Land (Fig. 4), and Cropland (Fig. 5). This change can then be spatially represented using change and transition maps (Fig.6, 7).

Primary Themes:

• Mixed and deciduous forests and croplands have experienced the greatest losses in land cover
• Residences of greater that two acres have experienced the greatest gains in land cover

Secondary Themes:

• (Question 6-1-1) Some area from Large Residential (> 2 acres) is lost to Smaller Residential (< 2 acres and multifamily). Most likely this is due to property subdivision, the transformation of large single-owner estates to multiple small private residences.
• Open land gains are coming primarily from losses in cropland. These losses are focused on the central region of the study site (Fig. 8).
• (Question 6-1-2) The changing land covers most contributing to a decrease in open land are mixed and deciduous forests (Fig. 4). This indicates that land classified as ‘open’ in 1985 in 1999 was classified as mixed or deciduous forest. This conversion could be classified as secondary forest regrowth.

Question 6-1-3 Comparing the map of change to large residential to the trend map for cropland, what can you conclude about the main driving forces of change in this area of Massacusetts?

Answer: From those two trend maps alone, there is little I feel I can conclude about the main driving forces of land cover change because they do not directly correlate to each other – one is all categories to large residential, the other is cropland to open land alone. The maps indicate that where cropland has the most significant changes to open land (central study site) corresponds to the area of least change to large residential. One might therefore be tempted to designate these two categories as the driving forces of land change in the entire area. However, the total hectares of land change in the croplands/open lands category is on the scale of half the size of conversions from forests to residential.

We know from Figure 2 that mixed and deciduous forests and croplands have experienced the greatest losses in land cover and residences of greater that two acres have experienced the greatest gains. Then, we know the primary contributor to deforestation is a change to large residential areas. We also know cropland has largely been converted to open land and much open land has been replanted with mixed and deciduous forest. However, the conversion to forest has not been in areas previously cropland (as far as we know from this data). So I would say the driving forces of land change are primarily urbanization of agricultural and forest lands. However, while there seems to be a trend to reforest certain areas of open land, there is not a trend to relocate or re-establish agriculture in this area.

6-2 LCM: Transition Potential Modelling

The next two sections use data from the Bolivian lowlands, Chiquitania, to create land cover change models with different variables and variable combinations to anticipate land cover in the future based on trends seen between 1986 and 1994 (Figure 9). This first section creates transition potential model maps for four different land cover categories. To do this, I used a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network. Unlike a simple linear regression, a neural network allows me to analyse multiple variables at once, much like a multi-variate regression. As opposed to the previous section, all land change was conversion of various land covers into a single category (anthropogenic disturbance). The primary change categories are mapped in Figure 10.

The first step in creating the model was to determine which variables to use to best explain change between 1986-1994. I looked at seven different  (continuous quantitative) variables: distance from previous disturbance, distance from streams, distance from roads, distance from urban areas, elevation, slope, and likelihood of transition. The latter variable was created from the qualitative layer of land cover by recalculating land cover types as probabilities of transition over the given time period (Figure 11). The resulting transition potential model maps are displayed in Figure 12.

6-3 LCM: Change Prediction

This section uses the transition potential maps from section 6-2 to predict land cover in the year 2000 based on trends established between 1986-1994. Models of three different degrees of complexity were performed:

1. Figure 13: Model was run using all static variables, i.e. assumes variables like road infrastructure and location of development remain as they were in 1994 at the start point of the model.
2. Figure 14: Model run with distance from disturbance set as a dynamic variable. This is done by running the model in iterative stages, recalculating the distance from disturbance variable based on the new (anticipated) scenario. This particular model was run in three stages, i.e. once every other year.
3. Figure 15: Model run with distance from disturbance and roads set as dynamic variables, reserve area constraints in place, and in six stages (i.e. one per year). The reserve area constraints are based on indigenous forest reserves that do not allow for increases in anthropogenic disturbance. Therefore, the model does not include them.

*Note: Each model contains both a hard and soft prediction. Hard predictions show areas as they are anticipated to look in the future. Soft predictions give a buffer range of ‘areas of concern’ that have a potential to be affected.

A final set of models was run for a long prediction of thirty years at 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 30 stages. It appears that increasing the number of stages used increases the amount and connectivity of anthropogenic disturbance. Figure 16 shows the outcome with one stage versus 30 stages.

6-4 LCM: Validation

In this section I assess the models created in the previous section for error and compare the value of scenario models (hard predictions) with vulnerability models (soft predictions).

I used a map of actual land cover from 2000 to use as a base line for my model results. When assessed on a full-map level, my models had reasonably low error rates (94% accuracy). However, this is because most of the land in the study area remained the same. This does not mean that increases of anthropogenically-disturbed land were not significant. To better assess only anthropogenic disturbance, I did a cross-classification of predicted change to actual change. This produced a map showing areas of correctly-identified change/non-change and additionally areas of false-positive and false-negative error (Fig. 17).

Much of this error can be attributed to a policy change that took place during the mid-1990s. This caused trends in land change to be different from those seen between 1986 and 1994. However, it is important to note that while these changes registered as error in a scenario model, much of the change still fell within areas of concern within the vulnerability model.

Question 6-4-1: Given that there was a major policy change that had a huge impact on land cover change, what can you conclude about the relative benefits of soft prediction? What are the potential drawbacks?

Answer: Soft prediction can better account for unanticipated events because it shows essentially a buffered area of concern rather than a discrete changed landmass. In GIS speak, this means it is more likely that areas of concern will be correctly identified in prediction models. In policy speak, this is important because it allows for the identification of a wider area of concern with graduated degrees of importance. Ranges are easier to work with than absolutes. However, just as is the case with any flexible boundary/situation, a soft prediction leaves more room for dispute which could be a problem if decisions need to be made immediately.

6-5 LCM: Dynamic Road Development

This section uses a portion of the LCM IDRISI module to model anticipated road development. I began by modelling road development with a given set of parameters concerning road length and spacing. I then tried different spacing and growth length parameters to attempt to identify reasonable parameters and assess sensitivity of the model to initial parameters. Below are my findings and an animation of my preferred parameter settings (Fig. 18).

• Increasing length but not spacing narrowed margin of effect around roads but not drastically. Roads looked more realistically spaced to me.
• Increasing spacing but not length did about the same, but more knobbly. Roads were too long without enough branches in this case.
• Doubling both variables seemed to generally increase the area of disturbance, but it also may have just shifted. The roads themselves look too long without enough branches in this scenario.
• Overall, changing the numbers as I did definitely seemed to have an effect on land cover change, but (at least visually) not a drastic one. I found the roads with an increased spacing but not length in comparison to the given figures looked most realistic, but I did not do extensive testing due to time constraints.

6-6 LCM: Habitat Assessment, Change, and Gap Analysis

This section addresses the implications of change by looking at changes in habitat quality and by using gap analysis. Specifically, I looked at implications of land change on bobcats in central Massachusetts. Data for habitat suitability consists of expert assessment of habitat requirements for the species. Land is then identified as primary habitat, secondary habitat, primary potential corridor, secondary potential corridor, or unsuitable. Change in habitat for the bobcat due to land change between 1985 and 1999 can be seen in Figure 19. While all habitat categories experienced some decreases, only suitable primary habitat has experienced a net decrease in area with 44,124 hectares (over 170 sq miles) lost.

I then performed a gap analysis on the 1999 bobcat habitat to look at correlations between protected areas and habitat type in hopes of identifying potential areas still in need of protection (Fig. 20). Although much of the bobcat’s primary habitat is protected, it looks as though over 50% of it still remains unprotected. Also, although much of the secondary habitat is in the eastern portion of the area and possibly of less use (because it does not link up to any primary habitat) there remain some important areas of secondary habitat in the west that, if protected, could provide important range for bobcats that would otherwise be degraded to corridor or unsuitable status.

Note: Interestingly, many of the protected area borders match up with areas of primary habitat while much of the areas of protected secondary habitat seem to be incidentally protected because their borders do not match up. This might be caused by (at least) two things. First, protected areas were created in areas of primary habitat with the explicit purpose of protecting identified primary habitat. Second, the areas may have been protected previously and as development has decreased areas of suitable primary habitat, primary habitat has been restricted to protected areas. More data would be needed to determine which is the primary driver of this phenomenon.

6-7 LCM: Species Range Polygon Refinement and Habitat Suitability

In this section I used range polygons as defined by experts to identify habitat suitability for the species Vicugna vicugna in South America. The initial polygon indicated a discrete area (i.e. suitable or unsuitable) based on state borders. I used six environmental variables to assess land within that polygon for different habitat requirements for the vicugna. The polygon was then refined to show the degree of habitat suitability within the expert-defined polygon (Fig. 21). Then, using the parameters for degree of habitat suitability, I extrapolated the data over a larger region so that habitat range was no longer constrained by state borders (Fig. 22). Interestingly, although the original polygon would indicate that the entire initially-defined area is suitable vicugna habitat, the area actually classified as entirely suitable (value 1.00) in the entire range of the species is a small fraction of the original area.

6-8 LCM: Biodiversity Analysis

In this section I looked at five different biodiversity indicators, alpha diversity, gamma diversity, beta diversity, Sorensen’s dissimilarity index, and range restriction index, to assess amphibian biodiversity of an area in the northern Andes. I looked at gamma diversity and Sorensen’s index using both focal zones (of 50 km) and pre-defined regions.

Question 6-8-1: Using the results [of the focal zone run], how is the region being protected in terms of local richness, regional richness, richness change, species turnover, and protection of endemics?

Answer: In general, the protected areas are in the regions of concern (i.e. exhibiting high biodiversity); however, many key hotspots are missed (Fig. 23/24). The protected regions look as though their borders were decided based on topographical or political issues rather than biodiversity because many protected areas are only moderately biodiverse (in comparison to neighbouring areas) while many of the areas with highest biodiversity are not actually protected at all. However, there appears to be an inverse relationship between basic biodiversity measures like species richness (alpha and gamma shown in Fig. 23) and the ones that account for endemism and regional effects (shown in Fig. 24). This makes sense in an alpine situation – the more rugged the terrain, the more specialised the amphibian species would be. So although the richness may be lower in some of the alpine areas, the species there are more likely to be endemic and highly dependent on a specific environment (and possibly more dependent on protection?)

Question 6-8-2: Compare the results of beta and gamma [from focal zone and regional] runs. How do they compare? What does gamma tell us about the biodiversity of each eco-region? Which eco-region is more diverse? Which one is least diverse?

Answer: The beta and gamma from the two runs identify similar levels of biodiversity in similar areas, showing that the eco-regions generally do match up with different levels of biodiversity (Fig. 25/26)*. Displaying biodiversity by region is helpful for generalising biodiversity in specific areas, but it less accurately represents areas on a micro level. For example, there is a biodiversity hotspot on the west side of the Gamma Focal50 that is not recognised within an eco-region. The Focal50 run is able to identify it while the run by region is not. Overall, the most biodiverse eco-region for amphibians is the tropical and sub-tropical moist broadleaf forests while the least biodiverse is mangroves.

*Note: I think there may be a problem with the beta diversity eco-region assessment because the little spot in the north-east corner is such high biodiversity in relation to the rest of the area that it has thrown off relative measures. Either this is a completely unrecognised biodiversity hotspot, or (more likely) it is a classification error of some kind.

I’ve had a personal blog intermittently for a few years. I use it to keep track of websites I like, movies I saw, books I read, etc.

I decided to create one just for cartography and GIS. Hopefully, it’ll be useful to some people as much as it will be to me. The main goal is to have it as a place where one can find links pertaining to GIS, cartography, and geography in general.

很久沒寫網誌了，不過這次看到好東西還是推薦一下：

中研院GIS（人社中心地理資訊科學研究專題中心）中心推出了一個新的WebGIS介面，可以疊合Google Map與諸多新舊台灣地圖，對於登山客、公路、鐵路舊線跡探勘者、城市發展、環境變遷研究者來說應該都是很好的一項工具。

網址：http://gissrv4.sinica.edu.tw/gis/twhgis.aspx

蒐集圖層包括：

其實先前中研院就曾經推出Google Map小工具，最初是整合了日治台灣堡圖的圖層，以Plug-in小工具的方式在Google Map上使用，後來在2009/07又新增了三幅日治地圖。這次直接開發出新介面，並且把較近代且非常詳盡的經建會版地圖也放上去，對民國70餘年以來的圖資又做了更完整的補遺。

以下稍微簡介一下這個好用的介面：

▼初始畫面，右上方的方塊可以選擇Google Map要顯示的模式：「地圖」、「衛星」、「混合」、「地形」、「地球」。左方即為主要的選單。

▼最重要的功能還是「圖層」這個項目，點選所要的地圖後可以選擇透明度選項。

▼以1924年日治五萬分之一地形圖與Google Map地圖疊合，設定49%透明度的結果，可以看到羅東林鐵舊線（森林用鐵道）跡與196縣道、羅東郊區的產業道路完美地疊合。

▼能高越嶺道（圖中西北至東南的粗黑線）奇萊南峰與南華山段，疊合衛星空照圖與日治五萬分之一地形圖設定59%透明度。由西往東分別可見松原警官駐在所、能高警官駐在所、東能高警官駐在所。以及奇萊主山南峰南麓、南華山東北麓在衛星圖上是明顯的灰白色大草原！

▼以下從經建會各版地圖可窺知信義計劃區發展沿革

經建一版(1985) 聯勤兵工廠支線猶在	經建二版(1992) 新市政中心開始建設
經建三版(1999) 松智松仁松勇路陸續出現	經建四版(2003) 人行徒步小巷亦見於圖

▼另外比較實用的也有「測量」工具，可以標定特定位置之經緯度、測量路徑長、多邊形面積。以下即圍得台大公館校區面積約為0.874平方公里。

整體介面的功能相當直截，簡單易用。且讀取的順暢度也蠻不錯的，推薦給各位地圖愛好者！也感謝中研院GIS中心的大德！想到以前要對照舊線跡總得要拿著圖書館影印的地圖，眼花撩亂地在數個版本的地圖書上一一對照著。或是登山前規劃路線時反覆對照著Google Map、影印的經建版地圖。如今有此等方便的工具實在是大幸。

“Streets remain relevant but digital networks and ubiquitous computing create opportunities for new uses of old urban areas.” – Zook and Graham, 2006, p. 467

Neogeography is the progression in geographic thought as a result of technological and societal changes. Many-to-many, collaboration, and spatially free knowledge generation and transfer are at the root of many of the changes being seen in geography as a discipline and a process, manifested in neogeography. Issues of access, censorship, and quality arise in any examination of the Internet. Neogeography manifests as DigiPlace, a physically dissociated place, in existence online.

It could be argued that the Internet is a technocratic institution, but the proliferation of user friendly, and open source applications lessen this. Information distribution is difficult to control on a network scale. The Great Firewall of China is a notable exception, yet this requires the complicit participation of many larger companies, from “do no evil” Google, Microsoft, and others, that work with Chinese authorities to maintain strict censorship.

However, as opposed to earlier permutations of Internet based geography, GIS and the technocratic, elitist, institutions utilizing GIS, neogeography frees information from expensive, elitist uses. Neogeography is decentralized, user generated, user friendly, and user orientated. Open source mapping, GIS, and wiki software, coupled with the proliferation of high-speed internet, has allowed for wide-scale adoption of geographic applications.

Geography itself has become ubiquitous. Internet based mapping systems have seen evolutionary processes. Based in the static, one-to-many information distribution of traditional cartography and GIS, based on html and generally useful only in limited applications (ie. MapQuest), Internet mapping systems have evolved into a dynamic, advanced protocol such as interactive applications like Google MapMaker, Google Earth, OpenStreetMap, Wikimapia, and many other collaborative maps. The integration of user generated information to the general map in OpenStreetMap and Wikimapia represent a many-to-many information proliferation. OpenStreetMap represents the most pure version of web 2.0 mapping. The entirety of the map is user generated, from the locations of lakes, rivers, roads, airports, and footpaths, to the integration of information sources similar to those presented in Google Maps.

Wikimapia uses established Google Maps satellite and map data with user generated tagging. Cities, buildings, objects, and spaces are tagged and described. For example, the De-Militarized Zone between North Korea and South Korea has been extensively described including locations of North Korean surveillance towers, border crossings, and façade villages. The democratization of information is presented spatially. For someone to learn basic information about a place one could navigate to the place on Wikimapia and merely select information presented. Further, data inputs are spatially removed. Any user could place information about any point on the earth from their laptop.

There are quality control issues with user generated content. Often it is far from expert, with the example of youtube as a bastion of mediocrity and bias and errors evident in wikipedia. The lack of centralized oversight of user generated information has been supplanted by user centered oversight, with blatant vandalism and misinformation in wikipedia entries often corrected in hours. This contrasts with the lengthy publication cycles it takes for new revisions of print media to be corrected.

Two other trends of note with respect to neogeography are the politicization of DigiPlace, and the creation of DigiPlace as distinct communities. Both of these trends reflect entrenchment by users into specialized communities based on interests or belief. The example of politicized DigiPlace by Zook and Graham (2007), centered on Google MapMaker, includes the support and opposition to George W. Bush’s war in Iraq through place markers and description; opposing sides on boundary disputes in Cyprus and Kashmir; and the mapping of buildings used for torture by Agusto Pinochet’s regime in Chile.

Support or opposition is unlikely to be swayed, however, by this proliferation due to the retreat from a singular public dialogue to specialized dialogues in often homogenous views. This affliction is shared in many instances across topics, and disciplines, in part due to the sheer amount of information created and explained by neogeography concepts. DigiPlace can help by making available to those who seek it out spatially free dialogue on virtually anything, yet could also further entrench groups into specialized dialogue spaces.

Congratulations to our friends at Precision Plant Systems

The company took first place in the October 16, 2009, Bend Venture Conference. The Corvallis start-up was founded in 2006 and will qualify for the $120,000 prize, once it passes standard due diligence with the validation of market traction of its cropIQ system. The investment prize was largest in the event’s history. More on event…

Precision Plant Systems President Larry Plotkin reacts Friday evening, after his company was announced as the winner of the Bend Venture Conference. Rob Kerr The Bulletin

Precision Plant Systems beat out four other contending companies in the competition.“I really did not expect what happened,” Larry Plotkin, the happily surprised company president told the Bend Bulletin.  For full article…

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The cropIQ system http://www.cropiq.com/ is a data integration platform for growers, consultants and grower associations to acquire and manage data gathered in the field and provide ground-breaking management and decision making tools.

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The technology is partially based on work done at OSU by Les Fuchigami, OSU horticulture professor emeritus. More on the OSU connection…

Precision Plant Systems was also an exhibitor at the recent WIN 2009 event and an excellent example of the creative synergy that we can build on in the Willamette Valley. Innovational Musings plans to visit this innovative company in the next few weeks to shoot a video of their award winning technology.

…from New Scientist…

“Cellphones could soon be used to fight noise pollution – an irony that won’t be lost on those driven to distraction by mobile phones’ ringtones.

“In a bid to make cities quieter, the European Union requires member states to create noise maps of their urban areas once every five years. Rather than deploying costly sensors all over a city, the maps are often created using computer models that predict how various sources of noise, such as airports and railway stations, affect the areas around them.

“Nicolas Maisonneuve of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, France, says that those maps are not an accurate reflection of residents’ exposure to noise. To get a more precise picture, Maisonneuve’s team has developed NoiseTube, a downloadable software app which uses people’s smartphones to monitor noise pollution. “The goal was to turn the mobile phone into an environmental sensor,” says Maisonneuve.”

• Read the article

…from Sci-TechToday.org…

“People have been contributing to digital maps for some time, building displays of crime statistics or apartment rentals. Now they are creating and editing the underlying maps of streets, highways, rivers and coastlines. That is changing the dynamics of an industry that has been dominated by a handful of digital mapping companies.”

• Read the article

From The Redlands Institute at the University of Redlands, a demonstration of Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) version 4.0.

…from the ESRI Map Book, Volume 24…

“The City of Houston needed to locate all contaminated sites within its municipal boundary. Several agencies at the federal, state, and municipal levels tracked these locations, but there was no single source to show the entire universe of contaminated sites in the Houston area across all the programs. A comprehensive geodatabase would enable the city to analyze concentrations of these sites and prioritize locations to remediate.

“Aggregating and analyzing these contaminated sites based on ZIP Codes, neighborhoods, council districts, and other boundaries gave policy makers vital data to better serve citizens. Houston’s office of the mayor compiled the information from various environmental agencies and turned it over to the Planning Department’s GIS mapping team. The mapping team took the data, which was broken down by participating program, and geocoded the addresses. Afterward, the feature classes were organized into a geodatabase by program affiliation and the concentrations of these sites were analyzed based on various regional boundaries. The final presentation map set summarizes the findings of the study, highlighting the concentrations of these contamination program sites based on known Houston geographical areas.

“Courtesy of City of Houston Department of Planning and Development.”

• View the map

A small announcement by the UK Government on Twitter a few days ago seems to have gone largely unnoticed, but could have a great impact for those of us keen to unleash the benefits of GIS R&D onto the environment sector.

Up until now it has been very difficult to obtain free base maps, especially of regions which mirror those adopted by the conservation sector, for example UKBAP, because of the prohibitively priced Ordnance Survey Crown Copyrighted maps.

Now the good news is the UK government has declared that some maps will be made available for free use.

This may well boost an R&D effort in the commercial GIS sector which could mirror that in the US and Canada, where map outlines are made freely available by various bodies including the state governments.

They need not give away the Crown Jewels, but county outlines with rivers and relief are a must. Major highways would also be useful in identifying predator highways and barriers to migration.

A key issue for the conservationists might well be whether the map’s outline should be political or ecosystem based? Thus a ’smart’ use might be to create maps based on geophysical or ecosystem boundaries, such as the Fens, Dales, Peak District, etc. Arguments may rage and much ink be spilt but anything for free is better than the past.

This is a big, good announcement which deserves much credit to the initiating agency.

PS: GIS is an acronym for Geographical Information Systems, or in part digitized maps.

April 12-15, 2010 | Toronto, Ontario

Call for Presentations – Deadline Extended: Submissions due December 7, 2009

GeoTec Event 2010 is the No. 1 gathering place for top-level geospatial technology professionals from the private and public sectors looking for insights, ideas and innovations to help boost best practices and profitability. As Canada’s largest geomatics conference, the GeoTec Event attracts professionals from around the world. The conference is designed to provide a broad vendor-neutral overview of geospatial-technology tools and applications.

There’s still time and speaking slots available. We’re currently seeking qualified speakers to deliver timely, high-quality presentations (papers, sessions, panel discussions) that will fit into the following concurrent tracks:

• Data
• Emerging Technologies
• Executive Decision Support
• Interoperability

Format
All sessions must speak directly to the issues associated with application solutions, best practices or profitability (e.g., how to boost revenue, how to cut expenses, etc.). All session proposals must be educational and noncommercial in nature.

Abstract Submission
Please click here for further information and to access the Abstract Submission Form.

E-mail questions to Kathleen Hastings at khastings@geoplace.com.