Computers, Society, and Nature

Missed this post from Stargazer on GIS in space.

If the options for geo-spatial analysis offered by this planet are not satisfying, there is an alternative. GIS is not just being used on Earth but is also being used to map planets across the solar system. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program using datasets provided by NASA has made several maps of space bodies.

After all of NASA’s missions over the years, there is a huge amount of planetary data lying around. That’s where Planetary Data System (PDS) comes into play. According to NASA’s site, PDS “archives and distributes digital data from past and present NASA planetary missions, astronomical observations, and laboratory measurements.” It is sponsored by NASA’s Office of Space Science to make this data available for research and analysis purposes.

PDS is composed of seven different “nodes” of research that analyze specific elements of the huge amount of data provided within PDS. One such node is the Imagining Node, run by the USGS and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This node “provides to the NASA planetary science community the digital image archives, necessary ancillary data sets, software tools, and technical expertise necessary to fully utilize the vast collection of digital planetary imagery.”

So when does GIS come in? USGS has something called Planetary Interactive G.I.S.-on-the-Web Analyzable Database. In addition to being a funny sounding acronym, PIGWAD allows spatial data layers for Venus, Mars, Mercury, the Moon and the Jovian satellites: Io, Ganymede, and Callisto to be downloaded as ESRI shapefiles. This means you can use the data on ArcView! Also available for download is the metadata for each layer, as well as a screenshot of the layer. If you don’t want to download but just take a peep, you can also look at layers and images online using ArcExplorer.

The USGS website also has an awesome program called Map-a-Planet. This allows you to make customized maps of several planets with a click of a mouse that are then available for download. This site uses cartographic software called MapMaker to make maps out of Planetary Data System layers and images. It has three levels of functionality, so GIS novices can use the easy version whereas GIS nerds (like us) can use the advanced version.

If you want to map not only individual planets but the whole sky, you can download a program called AV_STARS which is a Celestial Mapping Project for ArcView.

Happy Space Mapping!

You can now add shapefiles to Google Earth without having to pay $200 for the “premium” service.

If this is done for Google Maps then this will change the face of web GIS.

Good article in the NYTimes on how Google Earth is worrying some governments (including the US) because of what the remoted sensed images–satellite images and aerial photographs–reveal. Governments such as South Korea and India have petitioned Google to remove images of sensitive features. Military bases spring to mind but, for India, features even include bridges. The conclusion of the article? Governments may be concerned; however, the “cat is out of the bag”. Now that the images are in Google products–indeed, now that the images have been shot–they can’t be kept from widespread distribution.

The article mentions potential applications of Google Earth for emergency services such as firefighters. I can’t wait to see applications for environmentalists. Depending on how easily the keyhole software (the basis for Google Earth) can be interfaced, all sorts of filtering algorithms could be applied to, for example, check patterns of land use or deforestation.

Here’s a previous post on Google Earth.

I was asked recently whether online mapping technologies such as scalable vector graphics could rival Google Earth in becoming the next killer app. Saying that SVG is competition is missing the point. What Google Earth (and, more recently, Microsoft’s Virtual Earth) does is marry mapping functionality with data. Without the data, users will always have to scramble to find the information they need. Irrespective of added functionality–SVG and online GIS have far greater mapping functionality–these other technologies will be displaced by Google Earth and Google Maps. Google mapping products may become ubiquitous to the extent that they may become the de facto interfaces to other GIS software packages.

Thanks to Miki in the Intro GIS course, who chose this application because it connects geology to GIS (and may help her find a job!).

An GIS called online United States Geological Survey (USGS)Water Watch displays real time stream flow and compares it with historical stream flow for the day of the year the site is being observed. As a geology student, job options are in the resource companies, research facilities or environmental consulting companies. Jobs also are available in federal agencies, which is why I chose to show a GIS application from the USGS.

The initial spatial layer shows the United States stream flows for that day, and gives the user the option to zoom in to specific states. By clicking on a state, you can view the stream flow for that state at much closer inspection. Then you can move your cursor over a specific site and see attribute data about drainage area, discharge, gage height, percentile and class symbol. Click on specific sites and you can see all available parameters for the site, specify the number of days you want to see, and choose to graph the data or see it in a table.

Water Watch helps the user understand how the stream flow on that day compares with the average from the past 30 years. If there was a huge flood, one could view the map and see how much higher the water is on that day than it usually is. So for the situation in New Orleans, one could view how the water levels compare with water levels from the exact same time of year (same day) in the past. I found the posted information to be informative and self-explanatory.

The site also contains some poignant messages that imply the high cost of maintaining the data collection:

Due to the loss of funding from the Atlantic Salmon Commission, the streamflow data for Pleasant River at Crebo Flats, 01022220, is no longer available. If the streamflow data is important to you, and you would like to become a partner in funding the collection of this important data, contact Gregory Stewart at (207) 622-8201 x 118, or email gstewart @ usgs.gov

One more post from a student in the Intro to GIS course.

Climatologist Dr. Steven Quiring has developed an interactive, web-based research tool to help farmers predict when to plant and when to fertilize. The name of his project is “Developing a Real-Time Agricultural Drought Monitoring System for Delaware Using a Geospatial Framework”. It uses information collected from databases and from nine environmental observation stations across the U.S. State of Delaware to show rainfall and model soil moisture content in a GIS. Eventually, Quiring wants the program to allow users to simply click on a spot on a map and get crop yield predictions for an area as small as 2.5 square miles. Quiring said:

The purpose is to allow the farmer to make decisions based on current soil moisture conditions and how they will impact yield and to use that information to make decisions like should I fertilize, should I irrigate. If they have better information, they can make better decisions, which will put more money in their pockets.

Quiring hopes to post a public interactive monitoring web site very soon, which he believes will have commercial applications as the site tracks reservoir levels, likely mosquito-breeding sites and additional agricultural data. Sounds like a pretty great project to me!

More information on Quiring’s work can be found here.

Here is Microsoft’s entry into online GIS/remote sensing for the masses: Virtual Earth. Some of the images are much clearer than Google’s, although Google Earth is supposed to have far greater coverage. Who knew that online mapping/digital gazetteers would become the killer app?

Now let’s see Microsoft release an api.

Thanks to a student in the introduction to GIS course.

Maps have been used throughout history to illustrate and dispute political borders. Maps first were used for navigation purposes and, among other regions, helped explorers chart the New World. As charting was inextricable from claiming ownership, European powers began using maps to chart borders. Each country produced its own maps, and the maps often purposely drew borders to benefit the mapmaker’s home country. The first such map to employ this technique was produced in 1656 by the French. Since much of the interior of North America was unexplored at this time, liberties were often taken with cartographical features. In the particular map Le Canada ou Nouvelle France, the cartographer places Lake Erie very near the border of Florida, at that time a Spanish possession. This placement maximizes the amount of French territory by squishing the English colonies right up to the coastline. Does this represent an unintentional distortion because of minimal knowledge of a region or a deliberate distortion to maximize ownership? Sometimes it may be hard to tell.

Like other economic powers of the time, the French continued to use this technique of selective border placement. A map published in 1718, Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississippi, claimed the Carolinas for France, in addition to placing Lake Champlain entirely within French territory. This map also minimizes the amount of territory shown as being controlled by the English, by squishing the colonies against the coast. After years of map-making by the French, the English fought back cartographically by publishing their own map. Their 1755 map of North America showed the borders of the British colonies extended over the Mississippi River. Maps like these continued to be published until the world became accurately charted to minimize scale distortions. Border disputes are another matter entirely and not a matter of navigational skill and cartography but of politics.

On the other side of the world, China and India have had a long running dispute over the province of Arunachal Pradesh, located in North-East India. The territory was ceded to India by Tibet while Tibet was an independent nation. China, however, never recognized the independence of Tibet, and thus claims that Tibet did not have the right to cede the area to India. Although the territory is presently controlled by the Indians, maps published in China extend China’s political boundaries to include the territory, without mentioning there is a territorial dispute. In addition, the Chinese maps also show the Paracel and Spratly islands as being entirely under Chinese control, ignoring the fact that they are claimed by no fewer that eight different countries!

The advent of GIS, remote sensing, and Global Positioning Systems presumably should put an end to border disputes. These tools are sold largely on the basis of their ability to accurately depict where locations (borders) are, characterize what’s going on at particular locations, and allow flexibility when users want to make changes. In theory, these tools should ensure that borders around the world are accurately delineated. Because GIS allows for extensive attribution of features, areas and regions could be characterized by their social, historical and ethnic makeup. Negotiators acting in good faith could create a GIS that determines whether peoples are closer culturally to the Chinese or to the Indians. Areas that are more Chinese could be awarded to the Chinese and vice-versa. A further application of GIS in this dispute could be to use remote sensed and raster images. Negotiators could analyze the topography of the region to decide what areas of the region could be better economically integrated as a part of India or as a part of China. Because the area is quite mountainous, such an analysis could indicate the feasibility of transportation links that could facilitate economic development. Most importantly GIS offers more flexibility than a map in terms of changes. Each side could view changes visually to see how it would affect them; if changes need to be made then they could be made quickly. In the past this was not possible and each time border negotiations occurred, paper maps had to be produced, thus dragging out the process. From all of this, spatial technologies should help avoid border disputes, and when they do occur, also should aid in solving them.

[Of course, borders disputes aren’t solved with new technologies. Borders aren’t rivers or mountains but political, social and historical creations. Greater accuracy and precision don’t make for smoother negotiations but may actually work in the converse: to give greater technological ammunition to each side that his/her case has the stronger argument and is therefore, right. This is one more example of the need to temper technology with political context.—sieber]

Links

International Map of Tibet
Chinese Map of Tibet
Look closely in the south-eastern portions of the map. In the Chinese map, Arunachal Pradesh is part of China. A closer examination reveals that that there are no roads or towns in the region. On the Western map, the disputed area is clearly indicated.

Le Canada ou Nouvelle France
Note the positioning of Lake Erie and the border of Florida.

Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississippi
The text below ‘Carolina’ clearly indicates that it is French territory, although in reality they had no claim to it.

This article discusses how GIS helps solve border disputes.

Just came across a very interesting application of GIS: tracking the spatial distribution of hate. This is a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that was created in 1971 to follow, report on, and litigate against hate groups in the U.S. The site, a part of SPL’s Intelligence Project, shows the point distribution of Neo Nazis, racist skin heads, White Supremicists, Ku Klux Klan, as well as Black Separatists. It also shows the cartographic power in choosing appropriate symbology. Like the disaster wiki, this application demonstrates the benefits of GIS.