The Power of Where

 That's the title of a new book by Jack Dangermond in association with the wider GIS community.

A description:

The Power of Where presents the visionary concepts of Jack Dangermond, cofounder of Esri®, the world’s leading mapping software company. With a foreword by bestselling author and writer for The Atlantic, James Fallows, it’s filled with the latest web maps, illustrations, and real-life stories from a vibrant global community of geographic information systems (GIS) users. If you’ve never heard of GIS, this is the book for you, and if you think you know what GIS is, you’ll discover much more.

From the Ring of Fire to the Fertile Crescent, The Power of Where takes us on a visual and narrative journey into the world of modern GIS and reveals its growing potential to address the world’s greatest challenges. The technology is already ubiquitous, from running city governments and performing civic science to conserving open spaces and managing logistics—virtually every human endeavor.

Central to the book is the geographic approach—a way of solving problems that uses spatial location to perceive and understand patterns—from wildlife migration and rising seas to urban planning and food production. Drawing from 60 years of research and experience, the author writes from a fervent conviction that through this approach, we can confront climate change, hunger, water scarcity, inequity, and issues large and small in our everyday lives.

The book describes the methods of the geographic approach—visualization, communication, analysis, collaboration, accounting, and design—and shows how vast amounts of integrated data are propelling spatial applications into the mainstream. A companion website brings interactive maps and stories to life and serves as a starting point for students and educators—and anyone considering joining the GIS user community.

The Power of Where reveals how technologies such as web services, mobile devices, artificial intelligence, extended reality, and 3D visualization intersect with GIS and outlines the new opportunities they are creating. Its maps and stories arise from a passion for the power of place and from the mutually reinforcing revolutions in Earth observation, analysis, and collaboration that GIS and the human spirit make possible.

Explore live examples from the book and learn more about interactive mapping and the tools of modern GIS

Widely acknowledged as the leading visionary in the field of geographic information system (GIS) technology, Jack Dangermond and his wife, Laura, launched the Environmental Systems Research Institute in 1969 with a shared vision that system thinking along with computer mapping and spatial analysis could help people design a better future. For more than 50 years, their vision has guided Esri’s GIS mapping and analytic technologies worldwide. Jack’s life work has brought many honors, including the Planet and Humanity Medal from the International Geographical Union, the Champions of Earth Award from the United Nations, and the Alexander Graham Bell Medal from the National Geographic Society. Jack and Laura live in their hometown of Redlands, CA, where Esri is based.

New Antarctica GIS from BAS

The Antarctic Digital Database is a free new GIS linked to Antarctica.

What's that? A new map viewer bringing together all the data of the Antarctic Digital Database? Freely available?!

Go enjoy yourself zooming into bits of Antarctica, map lovers ⬇️https://t.co/DWwaghwzUh

The BAS ✨MAGIC✨ team looks after this project for @SCAR_Tweets. pic.twitter.com/vVqXQOxdV6

— British Antarctic Survey 🐧 (@BAS_News) May 18, 2024

Data can be downloaded through the data catalogue in Geopackage or Shapefile format.

Coastline and contour datasets are also accessible in the ArcGIS Living Atlas.

The datasets included in the ADD are:Coastline, including grounding lines and ice shelf fronts
Rock outcrop
Contours
Lakes
Moraine
Streams
Seamask
ADD data limit at 60°S

All datasets are in WGS84 Antarctic Polar Stereographic projection, EPSG 3031.

Watershed Pollution Map

 A new mapping option linked to the current river pollution issues...

Very excited to announce the launch of
THE WATERSHED POLLUTION MAP!

River health, landfills, sewage, road run-off, intensive farming, big industry, forever chemicals, abandoned mines, bathing waters, flood risk, protected areas and so much more... 🧵https://t.co/upIKfAJQhP pic.twitter.com/FnlRgip9ld

— Rachel Salvidge (@RachSalv) June 27, 2024

Visit the map here. 

What are the sources of pollution in your own local area?

Make Ways

 

We've started #MakeWays for walking - colouring the landscape to show good and bad ways to go.https://t.co/M6ZWPvKgAE

We're going to have different maps for different ways of getting about. What should we add to the pilot next?👩‍🦽🏇🛹🏊🏽‍♂️

I'd love to hear from wheelers!… pic.twitter.com/schrj5nMTD

— Dan Raven-Ellison (@DanRavenEllison) May 17, 2024

Visualisation of population by age in London

Thanks to Bob Lang for the link to this visualisation...

 

New Ordnance Survey Data Layers

 New data is really important to those who make maps.

Ordnance Survey data layers are being added periodically, which allows people to investigate the landscape in more detail.

Field Boundary Data

The new Field Boundary data covers both rural and moorland areas across Great Britain and identifies the nature of field boundary features, for vegetated and manmade features such as hedgerows and stonewalls, captured through an automated process. Other characteristics are also included in the dataset such as the height and width of vegetated field boundary features.

OS Land Cover

OS is also enhancing the land cover information in the OS NGD, by linking to habitat classification schemes and providing percentage coverage information for natural land cover features. This will provide a consistent baseline of the natural environment that supports customers with habitat monitoring. The land cover enhancements cover natural land cover features across Great Britain.

Vernacular Names Tool

The Ordnancc Survey has been collecting vernacular place names. 

It has produced an additional set of information on its mapping database which includes 9000 names which local people use to describe places which may have a more official name. This is to help locate people whose problem may occur in a location which they know by a vernacular name...

The Guardian has an article on the work.

The data layer produced is called the VNT or Vernacular Names Tool. This article explains more.

The database, hosted in the OS National Geographic Database, is a replacement for FINTAN, a mapping tool created more than ten years ago in response to a request from HM Coastguard. It was created in partnership with OS and was designed to allow users to upload any local name, alternative name or nickname for a coastal feature alongside the accurate location or existing geographic name in the mapping database. These include cliffs, caves, sandbanks, coastal car parks and buildings to name a few. This ensured that HM Coastguard responders could get to emergencies – however their location was described – with much greater confidence and speed.

On a visit to the OS HQ, the Princess Royal added her own alternative name to the database.

The Coal Authority Maps

The Coal Authority has a GIS site where you can identify the locations of previous activity to mine for coal.

This was a big part of my life growing up in South Yorkshire. My grandfather and other family members were coal miners and we knew there were coal seams running under our village and surrounding areas - I remember a house collapsing from subsidence once. Now you can find these signs of the past on this map from the Coal Authority.

The miners' strike was something else I remember well. Several friends spent a lot of time marching and fund raising. Our minibus was occasionally stopped when carrying out undergraduate fieldwork as the police thought we might be flying pickets.

The village where I lived was only a few miles from the Maltby Colliery, and there was a lot of ill feeling between those who stayed out and those who went back. Orgreave was only about four miles from home too and the TV coverage of the time was all over the local news in the evening. This was a desperate time for many. There has been a number of recent TV dramas and documentaries as it is now coming up to 40 years on from the strike - amazingly.

All aboard the Windrush Line

A lot of coverage of this story this week, not all of it positive. 

Londoners have become very familiar with the names of the underground lines, including the new Elizabeth Line (originally Cross Rail) and the Jubilee line (with their Royal choice of names). Now Sadiq Khan has outlined new names for the overground lines to aid discussions about particular routes - Londoners and visitors will quickly adapt to their new names, but there have been some predictable moans about the nature of the names... from the usual suspects.

In Year 7, we study the story of the Windrush generation, through the use of the book 'Windrush Child' from the late Benjamin Zephaniah.

This BBC News page explains what the names of each of the lines means.

Image source: Transport for London

The Windrush Line will run through several areas associated with the Windrush migrants (in London at least).

Hunger Map from the World Food Programme

 

 I've featured this before, but it's worth another look.

🌎 Geography teachers here is a brilliant map https://t.co/VL1sbJ3Ytb by @WFP it shows food consumption, conflicts and natural hazards live that you can use in your classrooms.

— Charlie Jordan (@MINIJ0RDY) September 12, 2023

A range of data which is dramatically presented and makes a vivid impression.

Mapping the Great Kanto Earthquake

 

Over the years, I've had a great many links suggested by Keir Clarke's Google Maps Mania (now Maps Mania).

Yesterday saw the centenary of the Great Kanto Earthquake which led to fires which devastated the wooden buildings of Tokyo at the time. The Nikkei newspaper created a map which can be read in English (or Japanese).

Japanese newspaper Nikkei has marked the 100th anniversary of the Great Kantō earthquake with a mapped reconstruction of the resulting fires which destroyed nearly half of Tokyo.https://t.co/S4LkiKLFXb pic.twitter.com/DsYmH2lqLo

— gmapsmania mapstodon.space/@mapsmania (@gmapsmania) September 2, 2023

 

Wildfire Map using ESRI Data

A new map, using data from ESRI's Living Atlas. Zoom into an area to see what Wildfires are active.

Thanks to Addy Pope for the tipoff.

Very informative Wildfire Aware dashboard from the @LivingAtlas team that brings home the scale of this seasons fires - https://t.co/a6cJVG5hES #wildfire pic.twitter.com/t2ZCaPVjAa

— Addy Pope (@GIS4HE) August 18, 2023

The 22 data layers used in this application can be found in ArcGIS Living Atlas:

Environmental Protection Agency – Ecoregions and Air Quality Current and Tomorrow
National Aeronautics and Space Administration – MODIS and VIIRS
National Weather Service – Temperature Forecast, Wind Speed, Weather Watches and Warnings
US Department of Agriculture – Drought Monitor
US Census – Census 2020 Redistricting Blocks and American Community Survey
USDA Forest Service – Wildfire Burned Areas, Wildfire Hazard Potential, Forest Type Groups, and Forest Carbon Pools
US Fish and Wildlife Service – Critical Habitat
US Geological Survey – National Land Cover Database and Protected Areas Database
Integrated Reporting of Wildland-Fire Information (IRWIN) – Wildfire Points
National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) – Wildfire Perimeters
Nature Serve – Imperiled Species
Esri – 2023 Demographics and World Ecological Landforms

Wartime imagery released

 

Historic England has opened up an archive of aerial photography from the Second World War. 

There are quite a lot of images of Norfolk as there were a lot of airfields operating at the time, with personnel from a range of countries. There were several airfields within five miles of where I live now, and there is a particular curve in the road near Beeston where I can imagine that the landscape is absolutely unchanged since the 1940s and would be recognisable by anyone from back then. It also reminds me of the temporal connections made in Powell and Pressburger's 'A Canterbury Tale'.

A collection of Second World War aerial photography has been made accessible to the public for the first time. 📷

The photographs were taken by the United States Army Air Forces Photographic Reconnaissance units in England in 1943 and 1944.

See more. ➡️ https://t.co/ziBhpkjQFa pic.twitter.com/VEX8KeompG

— Historic England (@HistoricEngland) August 16, 2023

There is also a link to a whole generation of GA Presidents of the 1940s-1960s, who worked in aerial reconnaisance and image interpretation during the Second World War.

Check out the relevant posts on this link, with thanks to Brendan Conway for additional research. This is an area that deserves a little more attention I think.

Neighbourhood Colors

 

Another tipoff from the excellent Google Maps Mania.

How is land used in your neighborhood?

Neighborhood Colors works out the percentage of local land zoned for residential, business and recreational use. It even allows you to print out a postcard visualization of the results.https://t.co/wyWuXhRuin pic.twitter.com/K6feGbcG6i

— gmapsmania mapstodon.space/@mapsmania (@gmapsmania) August 14, 2023

It works for Berlin only... and creates a postcard with proportional shaded areas showing land use in your chosen neighbourhood.

GI Pedagogy

I previously posted about my regret at the ending of the UK's involvement with the ERASMUS+ programme following our withdrawal from the EU. Whenever I've met and worked with European friends and colleagues since then, they have expressed their sadness and bafflement at that decision. We can only hope that it might be reversed at some point.

The GI Pedagogy project was my 'final' involvement and last week we got the final assessment back from the British Council with a VERY GOOD assessment, which had improved on the original project bid - which is always good to see, and which commented on the quality of the outputs and support for teachers.

If you are thinking of increasing your use of GIS in the classroom please check out our website for the resources that we created as part of the project. The innovative aspect of our work is the use of Rosenshine's Principles to help inform the teaching with GIS.

These include:

- Our lesson template.

- Research reports on best practice when teaching with GIS. I contributed to all of these, but was particularly involved in the creation of the TOOLKIT. I'm very pleased with how that turned out.

- Check out our MOOC - free access, and full of useful videos and other resources

- A StoryMap of outcomes from people who have used our model.