Imaging Environment: Maps, Models, and Metaphors

This is a free conference Nov. 8-10 down at Stanford, and the speakers / schedule sounds pretty cool. I probably can't make the Thursday talks, but is anyone interested in going down on the Friday? From the description:

The effects of globalization on the natural environment and its representations confront academic disciplines with the task of finding new approaches to charting the present and shaping the future. This conference will take on this challenge by reaching beyond disciplinary specificity to interrogate the very ways we figure the natural world, and the consequences of these figurations for our actions in the global environment.

GIS, Public Participation, and Marine Conservation

NYtimes has a very cool article about environmental groups working with California fishermen to establish "no-trawl zones." Apparently the group Oceana sued the National Marine Fisheries Service for not setting aside adequate habitat for some bottom-dwelling species, which resulted in a court-ordered release of specific geographic fishing data. From the article,

When it was accepted as the preferred alternative, the court granted the environmental groups access to proprietary information about the trawl tracks that fishermen follow. Fishing captains are required to record their exact locations using global positioning system monitors from the moment they lower their nets until they haul them back onboard. Often covering up to 20 miles in a 6-to-10-hour tow, those tracks provided a precise picture of fishing and a key to the solution the National Research Council had recommended. Scientists at the Nature Conservancy and Environmental Defense overlaid the tracks on maps of underwater features like canyons and ridges, home to a wide variety of species vulnerable to nets.

Apparently environmental groups used this data along with data collected from interviews with the fishermen themselves, to create new conservation zones that would both preserve critical habitat without excluding fishermen from their livelihood. I think this is a neat story in a number of ways. The use of GIS for for conservation in the real world is exciting, as is the power of private organizations and private money in effecting large scale change in land management. Can anyone dig up any more papers on this? The NYTimes doesn't really cite its sources. Here's a related NPR story, and a Nature Conservancy press release. Oh, and a map!

Sudden Oak Death from Google Earth

While browsing Karin's sudden oak death KMZ file for Google Earth, I noticed some signs of SOD in Google's images. Take a look at the forest patch just northwest of China Camp State Park around confirmation number 1339597. There are a host of yellow, reddish, and bare crowns surrounding the area. Unfortunately, Google does not release the dates of image acquisition, so we can't use this for any sort of tracking (not sure how we could swing that anyway). On the bright side, this is a very visual and accessible way to show people the impact of sudden oak death in the Bay Area.

Open Source GIS Review (plus dynamic web modeling)

Aaron Racicot up at Ecotrust has recently posted his review of open source GIS software that he presented at the Oregon State University GIS Day. It's great material, providing an excellent overview of what packages are out there, what they're good for, and what they're not. He's also made some excellent posts on the OPENNR list about his work integrating open source tools in a web-based decision support tools for natural resource management.

Yar, thankee, satellites, for proving me sane

For years, biologists have laughed at sailors for reporting vast swaths of glowing ocean, or "milky seas." Also, they laughed at their funny accents and missing limbs. But now, cold, uncaring satellites have succored the sailor cause by providing real digital evidence of this phenomenon. Behold, a glowing milky sea the size of Connecticut! You can get all the details from the PNAS paper, but why would you do that when aliens are clearly to blame. Silly scientists, why do you even bother?

Tracking marine resources through historical menus

NYTimes has an interesting article on the efforts of some marine biologists to track the relative abundance of seafood species through their presence and price on historical restaurant menus. Very cool historical ecology project.

NASA New Orleans Flooding Simulation

This is very scary. See New Orleans Flood Simulation. It is Quicktime.