Report from the Lidar and NCALM workshop

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December 2 2012 the GIF and UC Merced scientists hosted a workshop on lidar for CZO support. This is an annual workshop organized by Dr. Qinghua Guo.

Qinghua presented an overview of his lidar work, which is pretty extensive, and Juan Carlos Fernandez Diaz from NCALM presented an overview of the NCALM program. He talked about the NCALM workflow and their instruments, including their new bathymetric lidar instrument (that can get bathy and terrestrial simultanously for coastal studies), their waveform lidar instrument, and their new balloon-based lidar instrument (cool!) They can run a suite of instruments at the same time: waveform and camera, etc. One of the great things he brought up is the support for graduate students:

The National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping surveys up to ten projects (each generally covering no more than 40 square kilometers) each year for graduate student PIs who need Airborne Laser Swath Mapping data. Beginning in 2012, graduate student PIs can specify either near infrared (Optech Gemini, 1064 nm) or green (Optech Aquarius, 532 nm) bathymetric ALSM data (only one wavelength can be selected), as well as optionally request high resolution aerial photography in conjunction with the ALSM collection. Graduate student proposals must define a basic research question in the geosciences (broadly defined). Check it out!

The 21st century map: it involves citizens and the web

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Check out this neat article about how research will likely increasingly use the web, mobile apps and the citizens who love them, in gathering data and in sharing information.

Rawiya Kameir says, in the article entitled "Researchers must harness powers of web and citizen science, experts say": As the web and web-based apps become more and more sophisticated, the role played by citizen science is growing in scope and size. And as the scientific process evolves, citizen involvement - especially in scientific endeavors that require large data sets - will become a cornerstone of research.

As the web and web-based apps become more and more sophisticated, the role played by citizen science is growing in scope and size. And as the scientific process slowly evolves, citizen involvement - especially in scientific endeavours that require large data sets - will become a cornerstone of research

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2012/11/10/researchers-must-harness-powers-of-web-and-citizen-science-experts-say/#ixzz2DRtd9Mvy
Researchers must harness powers of web and citizen science, experts say

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/2012/11/10/researchers-must-harness-powers-of-web-and-citizen-science-experts-say/#ixzz2DRtQgyqP

http://www.itproportal.com/2012/11/10/researchers-must-harness-powers-of-web-and-citizen-science-experts-say/#ixzz2ChoOfadS

A great week for radio

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What a great week for radio and matters geospatial+web. On Wednesday last week we finished out our GIS class with a talk about the geoweb and issues of access, bias, motivation, control, and of course privacy. I used alot of William Gibson's previous writings about Google (posted here earlier) in that lecture. Yesterday TTBOOK re-aired a great interview with Gibson, on the topic of writing, but also about the internet. I recommend it. Additionally, last week Talk of the Nation had a interesting interview with Jerry Brotton about his new book "A History of the World in Twelve Maps"; the interview touched on Google Earth and representation, why north is up, and many other fantastic questions raised through the history of cartography. Check them out!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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Range map of our friend Meleagris gallopovaThe ancestor all present-day gobblers—Meleagris gallopova - ranged from southeastern Canada to Mexico. 

Our present-day wild turkey has a loud call, with descending gobbles, and a variety of clucking notes. He struts through open woodlands, oaks, edges, and the occasional suburb.

The Wild Turkey’s popularity at the table led to a drastic decline in numbers, but they have recovered and now occur in every state except Alaska.

I think Ben Franklin said it best, in comparing the turkey to the eagle:

“For in Truth the Turk'y is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.... He is, (though a little vain and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for that,) a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards, who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Information from A Short History of the Turkey by the Collonial Williamsburg Newsletter, and BirdFellow.com.

Introduction to the Web-enabled Landsat Data (WELD) products using open source software

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Introduction to the Web-enabled Landsat Data (WELD) products using open source software

At American Geophysical Union Fall 2012 Meeting, San Francisco December 6, 2012
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The NASA funded Web-enabled Landsat Data (WELD) project is providing near-continental scale 30m Landsat time series products (http://weld.cr.usgs.gov).

This 4.5 hour training workshop will provide student and expert users with tips and techniques to handle the WELD products.

Participants will bring their own laptops and a Linux-like Virtual Machine will be installed with remote sensing and GIS open source software, sample WELD products, scripts, and example exercises that illustrate a variety of WELD environmental monitoring and assessment applications. Participants will be assisted through the example exercises and all training material will be available for their later consultation. New WELD product versions will be available and participant feedback and suggestions to evolve the WELD processing
algorithms, product contents and format will be sought.
More information at http://globalmonitoring.sdstate.edu/projects/weld/weldtraining.html

Cost: Free (No AGU Registration Fee Needed)
Date: December 6, 2012
Time: 6:00pm - 10:30pm
Location: San Francisco Marriott
Room: Sierra A

Interested in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? New Workshop at Berkeley

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Interested in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change?  Come hear Berkeley-based authors of the IPCC's upcoming Fifth Assessment Report discuss their contributions and take your questions!

Date/Time: Wed, Nov 28th 3:30-4:30pm (followed by coffee and cookies until 5pm)
Location: LeConte Bldg, Lecture Room 3.

Panelists Include:

  • Max Auffhammer, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics
  • Daithi Stone, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Michael Wehner, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Bill Collins, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Jim McMahon, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Kirk Smith, School of Public Health

Please see the attached flyer for more details!

 

On the eve on GIS Day, the word of 2012: GIF!

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Today the Huffington Post announced that the Word of the Year in 2012, according to the Oxford American Dictionaries, is GIF. Alas, they aren't talking about our GIF, fantastic resource for all things geospatial on the Berkeley campus, provider of innovative web mapping projects, source of useful training, meeting place for like-minded spatial aware professionals, and host of tomorrow's GIS Day, but about the humble Graphics Interchange Format, "relic of the 80s" and slave to internet kitties everywhere, which turned 25 this year. Still, this semantic confusion is likely to drive up our search results! Go GIF!

Urgent Request - GISCorps is looking for remote sensing specialists for Mega Storm Sandy

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GISCorps is looking for remote sensing specialists for Mega Storm Sandy

The project is in collaboration with the International Charter "Space and Major Disasters" (http://www.disasterscharter.org/). The assistance of Remote Sensing Specialists is needed for analyzing imagery in various regions affected by the recent mega storm in the east coast of the United States.

The desired volunteer(s) must have considerable expertise in working with TerraSAR-X (Synthetic Aperture Radar data in the X-band) imagery and conducting analysis related to TerraSAR-X. Some of the desired analysis includes measuring the extent of the flood (pooling of water), depth of water, and conducting change detection from TerraSAR-X taken at various stages of the storm and producing shape files from areas of change. The image datasets will be provided to volunteer(s) by the Charter and from their FTP site.
 
Duration: This project is urgent and work can start immediately; the approximate duration is 1-2 weeks and 3-5 hours a day.
 
Type of mission: this mission does NOT require traveling and is conducted remotely. The volunteer will be using their own hardware and software and will be working closely with Charter's contact person throughout the project via emails, phone, VoIP, IRC and FTP sites.

If interested in applying, please send an email to recruit@giscorps.org along with your latest resume by midnight of November 7th, 2012 (or as soon as possible).  Please reply ONLY if you have TerraSAR-X imagery experience.


Thank you in advance,

GISCorps Recruitment Team

GIS Day 2012! November 14th, Mulford Hall

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Please join us for GIS Day 2012, November 14, 5:00 pm to 8:15 pm.
UC Berkeley, Mulford Hall
http://gif.berkeley.edu/gisday.html

A list of speakers and topics are available on the event site.

GIS Day is free, but we encourage you to register, so that we know how many people to expect.  We still have room for posters, if you’d like to display a poster (project, map, imagery) just sign up online.

This year's event is co-hosted by the Bay Area Automated Mapping Association (BAAMA) and Geospatial Innovation Facility (GIF), with support from the Northern California Region of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS).

New ANR Statewide Program on GIS announced

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We are pleased to announce the development of a new statewide program called the ANR Informatics and Geographic Information Systems Statewide Program (IGIS). IGIS will organize, digitize and make Web-accessible some of California’s longest continuous data pertaining to agriculture and natural ecosystems, including weather and productivity related to management inputs — concrete data for modeling responses to change across the state.

IGIS will be supported and directed by a leadership team including Maggi Kelly (director), Lisa Fischer, Karl Krist and Joni Rippee, with key staff Shane Feirer, Kris Lynn-Patterson and Todd Perez. The responsibilities of the leadership team are to maintain IGIS direction, explore collaborations and maintain connection between ANR and UC campuses.  The team will work with an advisory board that will assist the leadership team on all components of IGIS from data standardization and acquisition to data access and specific project selection and feedback from potential users.

Our vision is that over the next five years IGIS will provide a home for ANR’s rich and diverse collection of data, information and resources for academics and members of the public who rely on geospatial and informatics data, analysis and display.

In service of the ANR continuum, University of California researchers, academics from other institutions and the public, IGIS will provide the ability to connect with rich and diverse ANR resources, datasets and information through an online web accessible portal. IGIS will assist in applied research and extension activities that rely on geospatial data, analysis and display. IGIS will offer networking and collaboration and, when possible, provide training and research support on important agricultural and natural resource issues.

Specifically, IGIS will become the umbrella for ANR-wide GIS and informatics activities in order to

Provide coordination for research and extension activities that require GIS and/or geospatial analysis
Provide acquisition, storage and dissemination of large data sets from ANR Research and Extension Centers for researchers, managers and the public via Web-access (REC RAC, REC Web, Cal-EON)
Create a virtual GIS and Informatics service center to provide for project level work that has Division-wide application (GIS Service Center)
For more information, please see our developing website http://ucanr.edu/sites/IGIS.

Barbara Allen-Diaz
Vice President, Agriculture and Natural Resources

Aerial photography highlighted on new US Forever Stamps

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Check out some of the gorgeous imagery that will be featured on a new series of US stamps. NASA imagery is highlighted, and the South Bay Salt ponds are featured on one stamp (see below). From the US Postal Service:

"Depicting America’s diverse landscapes on photos taken from ultra lights to satellites, the Earthscapes stamps provide a view of the nation’s diverse landscapes in a whole new way — from heights ranging from several hundred feet above the earth to several hundred miles in space.

south bay salt pondsThe stamps provide an opportunity to see the world in a new way by presenting examples of three categories of earthscapes: natural, agricultural, and urban. The photographs were all taken high above the planet’s surface, either snapped by satellites orbiting the Earth or carefully composed by photographers in aircraft. Howard E. Paine of Delaplane, VA, was the art director."

 

Hey Sandi Toksvig! Denmark is releasing data...

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From the LASTools list. Recently, the Danish government released this announcement of free access to public sector data. Among other things, it means that Danish mapping and elevation data will become free (apparenty "free" as in speech as well as in beer).

Apparently, the intention is that the data should be accessible from the beginning of next year. Ole Sohn, Danish Minister for Business and Growth said:

“When the data has been released it can be used to develop completely new types of digital products, solutions, and services, which will benefit our companies as well as society at large. It is a vital part of Denmark's digital raw material that we are now releasing, which will create growth and jobs in Denmark”.

ESRI MODIS Toolbox

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Cool MODIS NDVI tool pointed out to us from Jenny P.

This toolbox contains scripts that download NASA satellite imagery from MODIS and import it into ArcMap. The four data products currently supported are: evapotranspiration, land surface temperature, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and enhanced vegetation index (EVI).

These products are available for the entire surface of the Earth at 1 km resolution and for any month going back to January 2000, when MODIS first launched aboard the satellite Terra.

http://resources.arcgis.com/gallery/file/geoprocessing/details?entryID=9CC382D2-1422-2418-34F8-DC9F97B24052

Food: An Atlas by Guerrilla Cartographers is ready for your support!

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An atlas of food: a cooperatively-created, crowd-sourced and crowd-funded project of guerrilla cartography and publishing. Check it out! Food: An Atlas is ready to roll. Check out the promo at kickstarter and consider supporting the project.

5 months
+ 80 collaborating cartographers and researchers
+ 8 volunteer editors
+ An abundance of volunteer campaign wranglers, academics, designers, and artists
+ You
= Food: An Atlas

CartoDB launches tools for visualizing temporal data

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CartoDB, a robust and easy to use web mapping application, today launched "torque" a new feature enabling visualization of temporal data sets. 

From the CartoDB team:

Torque is a library for CartoDB that allows you to create beautiful visualizations with temporal datasets by bundling HTML5 browser rendering technologies with an efficient data transfer format using the CartoDB API. You can see an example of Torque in action on the Guardian's Data Blog, and grab the open source code from here.

Be sure to check out the example based on location data recorded from Captain's logs from the British Royal Navy during the first World War.  Amazing stuff!

 

Land Change Science Position Open!

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We are very excited to have open a new Cooperative Extension specialist position in Land Change Science. The successful Land Change CE specialist will have a PhD, and will develop a vibrant applied research program, primarily based in California. There are no formal teaching duties with this position, instead, the incumbant will have outreach and extension duties.

We are searching for someone who can help us understand, predict and plan for the complexities of land use change in California. This might be someone from geography, landscape ecology, sociology, or economics, for example, and might focus on planning, modeling or observations of land change, biophysical feedbacks from land change, or spatial analysis. But they must be an adept and capable communicator who can speak to diverse audiences, from landowners, to politicians, to farmers, to scientists, to planners, to citizens.

The Specialist would provide science-based solutions and bridge conflicting interests with knowledge, targeted research, and local education regarding the relationships between expanding population and climate change, and the remaining matrix of wild landscapes, urban areas, working landscapes and agriculture.

The Specialist would provide resources for county-based Cooperative Extension personnel, including learning from UCCE personnel about the needs of decision makers at the local level, and acting as a information and training resource for the use of new tools (GIS, remote sensing, smart phone applications, etc.) for land use analysis.

Please consider applying if this fits you! I will be happy to answer questions.

Pre-development Delta report from SFEI

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The San Francisco Estuary Institute-Aquatic Science Center is pleased to announce the publication of its latest report, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Historical Ecology Investigation: Exploring Pattern and Process. The report is the culmination of several years of research synthesizing thousands of pieces of historical evidence with contemporary scientific understanding. The report provides new information about how the Delta functioned to provide habitat for native species and includes dozens of rarely seen historical accounts, maps, and photographs. For more information, please see today's press release.

The report and Geographic Information System (GIS) data are available for download here. Printed copies of the report will be available in several weeks, at a cost of $75 each (plus tax/shipping).

Media Contacts:
Robin Grossinger, Senior Scientist, San Francisco Estuary Institute-Aquatic Science Center, (510) 746-7380 (office), 510 326 3732 (cell), or robin@sfei.org

Carl Wilcox, Policy Advisor to the Director for the Bay-Delta, California Department of Fish and Game, (707) 738-4134, or cwilcox@dfg.ca.gov

Welcome to Columbus, OH! GIScience in the heartland

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Welcome to Ohio! When I arrived, Columbus was cloudy and warm, with the city in a buzz from a visit from President Obama.

GIScience 2012 was an amazing conference: small (~300 people) and focused, with a terrific program: 2 keynotes each morning, sessions through the day and a panel session of 6 speakers in the evenings. I went to sessions on spatial uncertainty, the geoweb (where Renee Sieber gave a terrific talk on the challenges of participation in webGIS (I learned a ton!)), and big data among others, and Thomas Blaschke and I organized a workshop on obia. The keynotes were especially satisfying: big picture, often provocative talks from gifted speakers. Helen Couclelis talked about her vision of GIScience as a meta science: an "information oriented, context sensitive, spatially referenced, method of representing the real world". I loved the discussion of intentionality and context in her talk, and overall it gave me so much to think about. Noel Cressie showed his group's work modeling uncertainty in a North American regional climate change model: summer is going to be hotter in the North American south, and winter is going to be warmer in the Canadian north, no matter how you slice it. Jack Dongarra gave a riveting talk on the future of supercomputing: he walked us through the building of a supercomputer from an individual core, and made clear the power, software and hardware requirements of these machines. Doug Richardson presented his high level perspective on GIS and health; he and the AAG have been working hard to make geoinformatics more evident in public health research through workshop, grants and tireless lobbying. Also a great treat was my visit with Desheng Liu, former lab member, who is now Associate Professor of Geography and Statistics at Ohio State University. We spent some time walking around the lovely campus and catching up. I also got to visit, very briefly, the Thurber House, home of one of my favs James Thurber, who went to OSU and lived in Columbus. Great stuff! As for our workshop, here are the key items the participants were interested in (in order of popularity): terminology, the future of geobia, integration with GIS, semantics, accuracy, change, standards, learning from the past.

New study on diabetes risk and neighborhood walkability

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The reading for this week's GIS class on vector analysis discussed network buffer measures of neighborhood walkability, and the class came up with numerous components of the built and social environment that the authors didn't include in their land-use based walkability measure that also likely influence people's walking behaviors (e.g. destinations to walk to, crime/safety, trees and greenness, sidewealk quality and ramps, traffic, disincentives from parking costs, etc.). It was a great discussion! I just came acrosos this write-up about a recent article in the journal Diabetes Care that finds a strong relationship between neighborhood walkability and diabetes risk, especially for low-income immigrants. The UC Library doesn't have online access to the most recent one month of articles for this journal, so I haven't been able to look at the full methodolgy for their walkabilty measure. But, I wanted to note it here and will follow-up later with details. Or, if anyone finds access to the full article, please let me know!