Bing map layers now available in ArcGIS applications

ESRI and Bing Maps (formerly Microsoft Virtual Earth) have recently developed a seamlessly integrated solution to view Bing’s aerial, road, or hybrid data as a base map in ArcGIS applications.  These layers are the same that can be viewed via Bing Maps web interface offering a huge variety of imagery throughout the world including very high resolution sources.

The layers are easily integrated into ArcMap by adding the .lyr files from ESRI’s website to any project.  These small .lyr files may be saved on your hard drive and accessed just like any other layers that you have stored locally.   In order to use these layers, however, you will need to have the latest version of ArcMap (9.3.1) installed, and a new license must be installed as described in the link.  For those of you connecting through UC Berkeley’s license server, you will be happy to know that this license update has already been made.

OakMapper has gone mobile!

Not be mistaken with OatsMapper.com (mapping Hall and Oats reunion concerts), the OakMapper has gone mobile!

If you have an iPhone with OS 3.0, you can now download and install the mobile version of OakMapper on iTune's App Store for free. The mobile version of OakMapper allows you to do the same thing as the web version: view submitted Sudden Oak Death cases and report a SOD occurrence. However, the OakMapper makes those two actions much easier by taking advantage of the GPS unit onboard the iPhone. The GPS coordinates provided by the iPhone will allow you to quickly report an SOD case and will allow you to find out all the submitted SODs within a 20 miles radius around you. We hope that the ease of reporting SOD cases using the OakMapper iPhone application will encourage more submissions from the general public who own an iPhone. 

Mapping wetlands: the GlobWetland project

A bit late, but a good source of wetland mapping information from the the GlobWetland Symposium: Looking Lake Bogoria in Kenya, Landsatat wetlands from space.  The GlobWetland project was launched in 2003 with the aim of developing and demonstrating earth observation-based information services to support wetland managers and national authorities worldwide in responding to the requirements agreed under the Convention. The project involved 50 different wetlands in 21 countries and relied on the direct collaboration of several regional, national and local conservation authorities and wetland managers. It has now produced a number of standardised information products (e.g. land use and land cover maps, change-detection maps, water cycle regime maps and others) validated over the 50 selected sites by the users themselves, consolidated methods and guidelines for the users to continue the work after the project lifetime.

The GlobWetland Symposium was held in October 2006 in Frascati, Italy to inform the general public and policy makers of the importance of wetlands and to promote their conservation and protection worldwide. The papers in this special issue highlight the major points and recommendations derived from the Symposium while the final conclusions provide a basis for initiating new actions within the ESA in support of the EO requirements of the Ramsar Convention and the wetlands community.

The special issue in Journal of Environmental Management from the conference has many interesting papers on wetlands mapping.

Wall-E was right! Space junk mapped

Low earth orbitOrbital debris, or “space junk,” is any man-made object in orbit around the Earth that no longer serves a useful purpose. To minimize the risk of collision between spacecraft and space junk, the U.S. Space Surveillance Network tracks all debris larger than 10 centimeters. These images represent all man-made objects, both functioning and useful objects and debris, currently being tracked. Though the black dots that represent objects in space swarm around the Earth, obscuring the surface in the lower image, the space junk situation is not as dire as it may appear. The dots are not to scale, and space is a very big place. Collisions between large objects are fairly rare. The orbit of each piece is well known. If any debris comes into the path of an operating NASA satellite, flight controllers will maneuver the satellite out of harm’s way. From NASA's Earth Observatory.

Vast shifts in bird species expected as CA warms: Diana's article

From SF Gate: Because of climate changes in the next few decades, the changes in bird habitats and behavior between now and 2070 will equal the evolutionary and adaptive shifts that normally occur over tens of thousands of years, according to researchers with PRBO, also known as the Point Reyes Bird Observatory.

"What we found is that not only will species shift and communities change, but the composition of communities in certain places will not resemble anything we see today," said Diana Stralberg, a landscape ecologist and the lead author of the report, "Reshuffling of Species With Climate Disruption: A No-Analog Future for California Birds?" published in PLOS.

From the abstract: By facilitating independent shifts in species’ distributions, climate disruption may result in the rapid development of novel species assemblages that challenge the capacity of species to co-exist and adapt. ...Projections of future no-analog communities based on two climate models and two species-distribution-model algorithms indicate that by 2070 over half of California could be occupied by novel assemblages of bird species, implying the potential for dramatic community reshuffling and altered patterns of species interactions. ...Efforts to conserve and manage biodiversity could be substantially improved by considering not just future changes in the distribution of individual species, but including the potential for unprecedented changes in community composition and unanticipated consequences of novel species assemblages.

New(-ish) graphics software

These are not GIS or mapping software, but if you are looking for cheap, intuitive, effective and well-designed software for processing your summer vacation snaps or spreadsheets, consider these software programs:

• Acorn: an innovative image editor built with simplicity in mind. Fast, easy, and fluid, Acorn provides the tools you need to alter and enhance your images, without any overhead. Acorn feels right, it won't drain your bank account, and you don't need a Ph.D. in computer graphics to use it. Cropping, color management, transformations are a breeze.
• OmniGraphSketcher: helps you make elegant and precise graphs in seconds by combining the data plotting power of charting applications with the ease of a basic drawing program. You can import directly from excel. (Other Omni software includes OmniGraffle, my other favorite line drawing program (with TONS of stencils to steal ideas from)). On Tim's suggestion, I just recreated a series of excel charts for a publication using this software, and really like the switch.

New Interface for the Manhatta Project. Check it.

We talked about this before here; and the Manhatta project has a nice new interface for exploring the 1609 map of the island of Manhatta(n), block by block, through time.  I love this project! The combination of mashup, history, design and art are breathtaking.  (And our own Tim Bean worked on reconstructing the early topography! - see his comment below.) Go Fullscreen on your 30"-monitor. I dare you.

“The goal of the Mannahatta Project has never been to return Manhattan to its primeval state. The goal of the project is discover something new about a place we all know so well, whether we live in New York or see it on television, and, through that discovery, to alter our way of life. New York does not lack for dystopian visions of the future…. But what is the vision of the future that works? Might it lie in Mannahatta, the green heart of New York, and with a new start to history, a few hours before Hudson arrived that sunny afternoon four hundred years ago?”

- from Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City

It's hot down there! New map of the London tube hot spots.

I have a real fondness for the London Underground, having spent many hours on it as a child and teenager, but also because of the role the first tube map played in transportation cartography and 20th Century design, so nicely described in Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island.  From a BBC website devoted to the map: the map was devised in the 1930s by Harry Beck, who worked on it throughout his life, trying to improve and modify it. A nice website that captures this evolution is here. Many of the world's cities use a similar "non-geographic, electrical wiring" design for their public transport maps.

Luckily, many of my hours on the Tube were on the cooler Jubillee Line, and not on the Central Line. A new map compiled by Transport for London (TfL) has revealed the hottest spots on the Tube network, notorious for its lack of air-conditioning.  For many, it proves that London has indeed become a melting pot. The Central Line — which serves some of the most popular tourist spots such as Oxford Street and St Paul’s Cathedral — is one to avoid on a hot day.  The Central Line boasted some of the highest temperatures when the heat map was compiled on July 28 last year — the hottest day. Many sections of the tube reach over 30C (86F). Full-size graphic:  Graphic: underground hotspots. From the Times, via the Map Room.

NY Times Interactive Map of SoCal Wildfires

The New York Times has an interesting interactive map displaying the progression of the latest Southern California wildfires over the course the past week. In addition to the rapid spread of the fires, what's interesting is that this map was generated via satellite imagery. (The map legend states that a fire has been detected by satellite within each 0.5 mile buffer displayed). Unfortunately no further details of the source data are offered.

Update on Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 5:38PM by Maggi

Thanks Sarah. I was looking for a map of the fires.
The collected NASA MODIS images of the fire can be found here.

Plus the USFS MODIS large fire incident tracker: http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/.

William Bowen: 3 new aerial flights of the Sierra Nevada

William Bowen has produced some new lovely high res aerial flyovers (some with what he describes as "choppy and unscripted" - but very informative - narration). At left, one of his great images of the Delta from the California Atlas of Panoramic Images.

Three new silent movies focusing on the High Sierra:

• High_Sierra_Loop
• Highest_Sierra_Loop
• Sierra_Nevada_Crest

Examples with narration:

• Sierra_Nevada
• Central_Coast
• Central_Val_Delta
• SF_Bay_Area
• Transverse_Ra