Category: Crisis-Mapping

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Bucknell/Local Interest Crisis-Mapping Data Environment General GIS GIS Jobs, Internships, Scholarships & Grad Programs Map Apps Slideshow

GIS Job Opportunities – DevelopmentSeed

Back in October I mentioned that developing GIS technical skills can help you land a job after graduation. Well, here’s the proof.  Recent Bucknell grad Chad Lawlis, Environmental Studies ’11, just got hired as the Mapping & Data intern for Development Seed, a Washington D.C.-based consulting/R&D company known for its innovative, open-source solutions for data visualization and mapping.

Chad never had a chance to take either of Bucknell’s intro GIS courses (GEOG204 – Applied GIS, taught by Duane Griffin and GEOL 230 – Environmental GIS, taught by Carl Kirby and Rob Jacob) at Bucknell, although I’m sure he wishes he had as both are phenomenal courses! Instead, he picked up GIS skills by working as a research assistant for Prof. Amanda Wooden, developing GIS datasets for her work on environmental activism in Kyrgyzstan. Chad also served as a GIS Student Assistant during Summer 2011 working on a variety of projects, including asset mapping for Lycoming County.  Chad writes:

“Currently I am working on the Atlas Project… compiling and processing a number of large demographic data sets for all of the US which will soon translate into making election maps using TileMill (DevelopmentSeed’s free, lightweight map design software). I am already learning so much about data cleaning and processing – using OpenOffice, TextMate, Google Refine, SQLite, and Terminal so far – and looking forward to what’s to come with map making in TileMill and hopefully a bit of web design as well. The office atmosphere is a lot of fun too, very much a startup vibe… in a small renovated apartment with foosball, pingpong, and even a bar in the basement and a few dogs running around as well.”

So… if you like your maps served up with foosball, beer and dogs (and would like to get paid for working in that kind of environment), you should definitely consider developing GIS skills during your time at Bucknell.  The Development Seed job and many others can be found on the GIS Jobs Clearinghouse website. Or feel free to schedule an appointment to come talk with me about GIS job options.

Chad Lawlis, Environmental Studies '11

 

Categories
Bucknell/Local Interest Crisis-Mapping Events/Calendar General GIS GIS by Academic Discipline GIScience, Pedagogy & Spatial Thinking Slideshow

Peer-reviewed articles on spatial thinking & GIS

Diana Sinton, Director of Spatial Curriculum and Research for the University of Redlands‘ LENS Initiative, recently tipped me off to a website with full-text PDFs of peer-reviewed papers that are being presented this week at the Spatial Thinking & GIS conference being held in Tokyo, Japan.  The papers  (including one from GIS Hall of Fame-r – yes, there is such a thing – Michael Goodchild from UCSB) cover a variety of topics related to spatial thinking and GIS. Quite a few of them present methods for integrating spatial thinking and GIS into different disciplines in the higher ed curriculum.

Click here to browse the paper abstracts and download free, full-text copies. I’ve also downloaded all of the papers to the GIS Server – contact me at jlg046@bucknell.edu if you don’t yet have access to the server. Below is a list of the paper titles.

  • Spatial Thinking & the GIS User Interface (Michael Goodchild)
  • Modeling and Simulation in Geographic Information Science: Integrated Models and Grand Challenges (Michael Batty)
  • Understanding and nurturing spatial literacy (Sarah Witham Bednarz, Karen Kemp)
  • Collaborative mobility: using geographic information science to cultivate cooperative transportation systems (Harvey J. Millera)
  • About the International Master‘s Program in Cartography (Jukka Krisp, Stefen Peters, Liqiu Meng)
  • Addressing Structural Instability in Housing Market Segmentation of the Used Houses of Tokyo, Japan (Kazi Saiful Islam, Yasushi Asami)
  • Analysis of Scenic Perception and Its Spatial Tendency: Using Digital Cameras, GPS loggers, and GIS (Koun Sugimoto)
  • An Approach to Modeling Spatial Perception for Geovisualization (Kenan Bektaş, Arzu Çöltekin)
  • Assessing College Students’ Spatial Concept Knowledge in Complexity Levels (Katsuhiko Oda)
  • Beyond geo-spatial technologies: promoting spatial thinking through local disaster risk management planning (Kristoffer B. Berse, Fouad Bendimerad, Yasushi Asami)
  • Classification and feature extraction of criminal occurrence points using CAEP with transductive clustering (Atushi Takizawa)
  • A Collaborative Process for Developing Map Symbol Standards (Anthony C. Robinson, Robert E. Roth, Justine Blanford, Scott Pezanowski, Alan M. MacEachren)
  • The components of spatial thinking: empirical evidence (Robert S. Bednarz, Jongwon Lee)
  • Ecotourism Development and Security Restructuring: A GI Based Planning for Peaceful Dissuasion of Anarchism in Forest Provinces of India (Abhisek Chakrabarty)
  • Effectiveness of Digital Educational Materials for Developing Spatial Thinking of Elementary School Students (Minori Yuda)
  • Empirical Comparison of the Various Spatial Prediction Models: in Spatial Econometrics, Spatial Statistics, and Semiparametric Statistics (Hajime Seya, Morito Tsutsumi, Yasushi Yoshida, Yuichiro Kawaguchi)
  • Enable Spatial Thinking Using GIS and Satellite Remote Sensing – A Teacher-Friendly Approach (Yick Cheung, Matthew Pang, Hui Lin, Chi Kin John Lee)
  • Geographic Information Science: Building a Doctoral Programme Integrating Interdisciplinary Concepts and Methods (Thomas Blaschke, Josef Strobl, Karl Donert)
  • Hedonic Analysis for Estimation of Condominium Rent Utilizing WEB Information (Takafumi Miura, Yasuhi Asami)
  • Implementation of a Flow Map Demonstrator for Analyzing Commuting and Migration Flow Statistics Data (Quan Ho, Phong H. Nguyen, Tobias Åström, Mikael Jern)
  • The Implications of Using a Gravity Model to Determine Territory in a Circular Domain (Hidenori Tamagawa)
  • Importance of considering grain and extent for the analysis on spatial dynamics: perspectives from comparison between theory and empirical example on seagrass bed dynamics in Tokyo Bay (Takehisa Yamakita, Masahiro Nakaoka)
  • Intraregional Flow Problem in Spatial Econometric Model for Origin-destination Flows (Morito Tsutsumi, Kazuki Tamesue)
  • Land price maps of Tokyo Metropolitan Area (Morito Tsutsumi, Akira Shimada, Daisuke Murakami)
  • Land use/cover change detection and analysis for Dzalanyama forest reserve, Lilongwe, Malawi (Kondwani G. Munthali, Yuji Murayama)
  • Land use land cover change in National Capital Region of India: A remote sensing & GIS based two decadal spatial-temporal analyses (Kianoush Suzanchi, Ravinder Kaur)
  • MeAdian robust spatial filtering on satellite images (Didier Josselin, Julio Rojas-Mora, Alexandre Ulmer)
  • A New Areal Interpolation Method Based on Spatial Statistics (Daisuke Murakami, Morito Tsutsumi)
  • Optimizing the groundwater monitoring network using MSN theory (Yangsha Guo, J.F. Wang, X.L. Yin)
  • Scenarios and Indicators Supporting Urban Regional Planning (Petrov Laura Oana, Shahunyan Harutyun, Williams Brendan, Convery Sheila)
  • Sequencing spatial concepts in problem-based GIS instruction (Jeffrey T. Howarth, Diana Sinton)
  • Shocks, spillovers and the location of firms (Andrés Artal-Tur, José Miguel Navarro-Azorín, Luisa Alamá-Sabater, Antonio García-Sánchez)
  • Site Suitability Evaluation for Ecotourism Using GIS & AHP: A Case Study of Surat Thani Province, Thailand (Khwanruthai Bunruamkaew, Yuji Murayam)
  • Spatial concentrations of surnames in Great Britain (James Cheshire, Paul Longley)
  • Spatial index of educational opportunities: Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte (Wolfram Lange, Fatima Alves)
  • Spatial Literacy and the Postgraduate GIS Curriculum (Claire H. Jarvis)
  • Spatial mismatch problem of childcare in Tokyo (Mizuki Kawabata)
  • Spatial thinking in geographic information science: a review of past studies and prospects for the future (Yoshiki Wakabayashi, Toru Ishikawa)
  • Spatiotemporal Types of HFMD and Climate (JF Wang, G Christakos, YS Guo, WZ Yang, YL Liao, XZ Wang)
  • Spatio-Temporal Clustering of Road Accidents: GIS Based Analysis and Assessment (V. Prasannakumar, H. Vijith, R. Charutha, N. Geetha)
  • Spatio-Temporal Urban Land Use/Cover Change Analysis in a Hill Station: The Case of Baguio City, Philippines (Ronald C. Estoque, Yuji Murayama)
  • Stability tests of urban physical form indicators: The case of European cities (Amon Boontore)
  • Techniques for Highlighting Relief on Orthoimaginery (Miguel A. Bernabé-Poveda, Iván Sánchez-Ortega, Arzu Çöltekin)
  • The Use of Geospatial Information and Spatial Cognition of Taxi Drivers in Tokyo (Yoshiki Wakabayashi, Shuichi Itoh, Yota Nagami)
  • Using GIS for Linguistic Study: A Case of Dialect Change in the Northeastern Region of Thailand (Sirivilai Teerarojanarat, Kalaya Tingsabadh)
  • Using video case studies to assess the impact of the use of GIS on secondary students’ spatial thinking skills Robert (A. Kolvoord, David H. Uttal, Nathaniel G. Meadow)
  • Visualization through GIS of Residents’ Conscious, Attitude and Activities to Prevent Disasters (Masahiro Arima, Michitaka Arima)
Categories
Crisis-Mapping Environment General GIS GIS in Political Science Slideshow

Using G.I.S. to Help Analyze and Visualize Disasters

Guest post by Michael Grasso, Environmental Studies ’13

G.I.S. has an extremely large variety of applications. With G.I.S. one could map an area affected by a natural disaster in order to analyze the extent of the damage, the value of the property damaged, and how different areas were affected differently. G.I.S. can even be used just to help someone visualize the totality of the damage that occurred.

One such disaster that has been mapped was the F5 tornado that ravaged Joplin, Missouri on May 23, 2011. There are many different maps that are available to the public that can used for different applications.

This link is a google map created using G.I.S. that one could use to assess what property was damaged or completely destroyed. It also labels different areas based on an average amount of damage as well as marking where the tornado begins, changes in intensity and direction, and when it dissipates.

 

 

This link is primarily to help someone visualize the affects of the tornado. This map was created using G.I.S. and is basically a before and after picture where you can zoom into different areas.
http://gis.wustl.edu/Joplin.HTML

 

 

This is a picture of the Joplin High School after the tornado’s destruction

 

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Crisis-Mapping Events/Calendar General GIS GIS in Political Science Slideshow Videos

Where 2.0

The 2011 Where 2.0 conference is wrapping up today in Santa Clara, CA.  Over the course of the week, many of the presentations have been streamed live over the conference website. I’m including a few YouTube videos for some of noteworthy presentations.

Jack Dangermond – CEO and founder of Esri: “Living Maps – Making Collective Geographic Information a Reality”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIbGwY3aG0g&p=0B2FEB8AACD826BE

 

Blaise Agüera y Arcas, Architect of Bing Maps and MSN at Microsoft:  “Read/Write World”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X9u4JG9H6E&p=0B2FEB8AACD826BE

 

Ben Fry – principal of Fathom: “Mapping: From Interesting to Insightful to Irrelevant” (coming soon)

 

Patrick Meier, Director of Crisis Mapping & New Media for Ushahidi: “May the Crowd Be With You: The Future of Crisis Mapping for Disaster Response”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_NguESRZ4g&p=0B2FEB8AACD826BE

 

Dennis Crowley, Co-founder, foursquare; and Robert Scoble, Managing Director, Rackspace: “Future Location: Scoble & Dens”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpTDGeLiFnc&p=0B2FEB8AACD826BE

 

John Barratt, self-described “Geo, twitter & weather web hacker”:  “Who, What, Where, When: Creating New Maps from Geo-tweets”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey_m0F_b-Vw&p=0B2FEB8AACD826BE

 

Sylvain Carle, CEO & co-founder @ Needium: “Locking Yourself Out in London (and Tweeting about it)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvcs4H_A0Wc&feature=autoplay&list=PL0B2FEB8AACD826BE&index=16&playnext=1

 

 

 

Categories
Crisis-Mapping General GIS GIS in Political Science Map Apps Slideshow

NPR Story on Crisis Mapping in Japan

Last week NPR ran a story on crisis mapping in Japan – focusing on the open-source, citizen-driven Sinsai.info website. Here’s the description from the NPR website:

Open source software called Ushahidi allows people to add and update information to maps that anyone with an Internet connection can access. In Tokyo, a crew of volunteers is using the software to map everything — from health services to the location of emergency aid workers — in Japan’s hardest hit areas. Patrick Meier, director of the crisis mapping segment of Ushahidi, says that because of the robust Internet infrastructure in Japan and tech-savvy citizenry, online crisis mapping is being utilized to its fullest potential.

Click here to hear the NPR audio clip. Thanks to Deb for the heads up about this story!