A year in the life of the world's precipitation: video

John Chiang gave the geolunch last week, and discussed the possible changes to tropical rainfall in the future. Tropical precipitation is controlled much differently than precipitation at the mid-latitudes.  To illustrate this, at the begining of his talk he showed us this video from UCAR/NCAR visualization team, which is a simluation for one year from the CommunitA snap from the video showing a Pacific storm about to drench Cali.y Climate System Model (CCSM), a coupled climate model for simulating Earth's climate system using the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM), the latest in a series of global atmosphere models developed at NCAR for the weather and climate research communities. Watch storms develop in the mid-latitudes as clear easterly moving systems; in the tropics you have daily convective action governing precipitation. 

DataSF.org - a new San Francisco data resource

The City of San Francisco has recently developed a new website (http://datasf.org) to help disseminate data related to the city’s elections, environment, geography, health, housing, public safety, public works, and transportation.  Many of which are available in GIS format!

From the site:

DataSF is a clearinghouse of datasets available from the City & County of San Francisco. While there is plenty of room for improvement, our goal in releasing this site is:
(1) improve access to data
(2) help our community create innovative apps
(3) understand what datasets you'd like to see
(4) get feedback on the quality of our datasets.

In addition to the wealth of data sources, there is also a section showing off some of the applications that outside developers have created with the data.

New NAIP imagery available for CA!

New Bay Bridge construction as seen in the 2009 NAIP imagery

Two great new resources from the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) are now available for the State of California, and can be download via Cal-Atlas:

2009 Natural Color Imagery: Divided into counties, natural color imagery is now available in MrSid Format.  These images were acquired in the summer of 2009.

2005 Color Infrared Imagery: Divided into quarter-quads, color infrared image tiles from the 2005 dataset are now available for the entire state in jpeg2000 format. 

Michael Byrne, California’s Geographic Information Officer, estimates that the color infrared imagery from the 2009 dataset will be available in 6-7 months.

Mapping US Energy Futures

19th & 20th century power: coal plants in the eastern US with existing power gridFrom NPR: these new maps showing the US energy grid, a "complex network of independently owned and operated power plants and transmission lines. Aging infrastructure, combined with a rise in domestic electricity consumption, has forced experts to critically examine the status and health of the nation's electrical systems." This site has maps of existing power sources (coal, nuclear, gas, hydro and oil), and potential for new alternatives (wind and solar - no bio).  What new infrastructure will be needed to bring wind and solar power from high production areas to the rest of the country?

Looking back to Loma Prieta... and forward

ShakeMap of the 1989 M 6.9 Loma Prieta EarthquakeToday is the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Although a bay area native I was not here then, but remember it vividly. I was worried about my parents, my childhood haunts, and Jose Conseco, who was playing at the time for the Oakland A's in the "Bay Bridge World Series" vs the SF Giants. Fans at the game on October 17 1989 talk about the field bulging and moving like a "giant rolling pin under the ground." Jose and my folks were ok, but many people lost their livExpected Levels of Shaking from Future Earthquakeses, the bay bridge was changed forever, and the region sustained billions in damage. There are many great maps of the shaking produced by the 6.9 quake, here is one at left found at the USGS guide to living in earthquake country. The region is still primed for another big shake: look at this graphic of potential shaking forecasted for the future.

Google Street View Special Collections

Google's developed a "trike" to expand their Street View into the non-street domain. College campuses seem like a great case for use of this technology. Perhaps we could get some votes for imaging UC Berkeley?

https://services.google.com/fb/forms/streetviewussuggestions/?utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=van&utm_source=en-van-na-us-gns-svn-com/trike

TauDEM software: for your hydro modeling needs

This was recommended to me recently by Orien; he is using it to create topographic indices to use as ancillary data in an object-based classification of palustrine wetlands in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. These wetland sites are terrifically important for rails, and mapping them efficiently is a challenge.  Topographic information is proving useful in the classification, and Orien used this software rather than the ArcGIS hydro modeler suite.

From David Tarboton at Utah State: Terrain Analysis Using Digital Elevation Models (TauDEM) is a set of tools for the analysis of terrain using digital elevation models. TauDEM currently provides numerous capabilities that expand on the ESRI suite including (more listed on website):

• Computation of flow directions and slopes;
• Contributing area using single and multiple flow direction methods;
• Multiple methods for the delineation of channel networks that include curvature;
• Delineation of watersheds and subwatersheds draining to each stream segment; and
• Specialized functions for terrain analysis, including wetness indices, accumulation measures, and downslope and upslope functions.

Some nice global cartograms via worldmapper.org

From www.worldmapper.org at the University of Sheffield, via the BBC.  All mapmakers must select a projection for their maps. Projections, especially for regional and global maps, can convey political messages, whether intended or not. The following show cartograms whose projections are based on factors other than polar coordinates.

First, these global examples from the Atlas of the Real World (more at their website).

Human poverty cartogramThe size of each territory shows the overall level of poverty, quantified as the population of the territory multiplied by the Human Poverty Index. The index is used by the UNDP to measure the level of poverty in different territories. It attempts to capture all elements of poverty, such as life expectancy and adult literacy. The highest index scores are in central Africa; the lowest in Japan.

Next, these population cartorgrams.

Spain's population cartogram

This example (chosen in honor of Celia) shows the dominance of Madrid and Barcelona in Spain's population. There are many other examples, and a nice flash app.

LAS 2.0 Specifications

Hot on the heels of the recent release of ASPRS LAS Specification 1.3 (mentioned earlier), the ASPRS Lidar Committee is now undertaking work on LAS 2.0.  LAS Specification 1.3 added support for waveform and flagging of synthetically-generated returns.  The goals and direction for LAS 2.0 are currently under discussion within the ASPRS Lidar Committee.  We welcome your participation at our upcoming meeting at the San Antonio conference – Lidar Hot Topics, Open Discussion – scheduled on Wednesday, November 18, from 4:00 to 5:00 PM. 
For more information, contact:

• Randy Rhoades: Lidar Committee Chair; Randy.Rhoads@optimalgeo.com

• Lewis Graham: Chair LAS Working Committee; lgraham@geocue.com

Some favorite ecology-related mashups

From Ken-ichi Ueda and friends: iNaturalist.org.

• Where you can record what you see in nature, meet other nature lovers, and learn about the natural world. Colorful, well-designed and useful, this site is a must for all you explorers of the natural world, or those of you who just ponder the wildlife in your backyard.

From GreenInfo Network and CalLands:

• The new California Protected Areas Database (CPAD 1.3) has just been released in geodatabase and shape file formats, and is available through google maps overlay here.

From UC Davis' Road Ecology Center and the Information Center for the Environment: California Roadkill Observation System.

• You can report roadkills you observe anywhere in the state, helping all of us to understand the causes of roadkill and how we can reduce the conflict between animals and vehicles. Roadkill is a major cause of mortality for many animals in California, but designing appropriate management responses takes political support, money, and knowledge of where and how to act. Roadkill data are an important part of that equation and we invite you, our expert colleagues, to join us in collecting these data on a public site.

From my lab: the OakMapper.

• OakMapper is designed to let users explore the locations of confirmed P. ramorum sites, and contribute to our database by reporting trees that might have the disease. And it is now mobile! Speaking of mobile:

From Imperial College London: EpiCollect.

• A mobile phone application will help professional and "citizen" scientists collect and analyse data from "in the field", anywhere in the world. The EpiCollect software collates data from certain mobiles - on topics such as disease spread or the occurrence of rare species - in a web-based database. Uses Android. The BBC article.