Javier’s Field Site Burning

You all saw Javier's talk last week about his field sites in Spain and how prone to burning they are. Well, he's just alerted us to the fact that one of them has burned again. See: October 8, 2005 - Fires flare up in Portugal and Spain for a view from MODIS.

People and Pixels

I have been browsing through this really cool book: People and Pixels-Linking Remote Sensing and Social Science. If you want to learn about the new possibilities of linking remote sensing technology with social processes-read it (I have it if you want to borrow it). Collaboration between remote sensing scientists and scientists working on environmental and social issues is the FUTURE (ok ok, so is LIDAR ) -esther

GPS: The Movie (or, Bring Teh St0opid)

Yes, the movie, in fact "the first movie based on the amazingly popular GPS treasure hunts." I expect the moon shall become as blood and the stars shall fall as the fig tree casteth her untimely figs fairly soon. Maybe tomorrow.

Geodata Provider for the GIIF

Finding geodata can be frustrating. There is no Google for publicly available geodata, and even within our own lab data exists almost exclusively on individual workstations, fallow and unsearchable, like oil tragically buried under a wildlife refuge. However, the GIIF has the funding, resources, and collective brainpower to alleviate this problem (uh, with the geodata, not the oil). Behold, my vision of the future: a centralized geodata provision service (or G-P-S, not to be confused with Gap, Inc. stock). I see this as a centralized repository for data relevant to us, stored in a standardized, possibly version-controlled manner that enforces metadata creation, and searchable through a usable web interface that allows queries on metadata and spatial queries (i.e. show me all the transportaiton data in Alameda County created after 2003). Here are my thoughts. Does anyone else think this is a good idea or should I seek therapy? What other features would you like to see? Does this software already exist? Please comment!

Geodata Server

Who it would serve

• GIIF users
• CNR
• UC Berkeley
• general public
• desktop users
• GIS application developers (including webGIS projects)

Note this all implies some kind of access control

What it would serve

• our own data (VTM, SOD models, fire models, wetland maps, etc.)
• external data (TIGER, FRAP, CaSIL, US Census, anything that allows redistribution
• spatially indexed links to external data where redistribution is prohibited
• symbologies (recommended symbologies and/or visualizations for complex data, i.e. Mapserver layer definitions and ESRI .lyr files)

Geodata Portal Application

How it would serve data

• flat file downloads
• WFS, WMS, WCS and other open geodata steaming standards
• ArcSDE/ArcGIS Server?

How it would store data

• extents stored in a geodatabase for retrieval via spatial query (box selection, search by distance, etc)
• metadata stored in a database for retrieval by metadata query (by date, by source, by type, etc)
• actual data maintained in original format (versioning? how do we deal with data in external geodatabases?)

How users would interact with the data

• search for data via spatial and non-spatial queries (see above)
• automatically generated previews (see what you're getting)
• AJAX development techniques used whenever appropriate
• submission: users should be able to submit new data, or modified versions of existing data
• enforced metadata: all data subject must have certain kinds of metadata before being accepted (date created, source, accuracy. We can derive a lot automatically, like extent, file type, projection, file size, etc)

Other ideas

• folksonomy (i.e. Flickr/del.icio.us-like tagging of data)
• open-source release of our final product

Possible models/inspirations

• Minnesota Department of Natural Resources GIS Data Deli
• California Spatial Information Library

Possible software tools/components

Note extreme open-source bias... Definitely open to other suggestions.

• UMN Mapserver (data preview display, WMS/WFS server)
• GeoServer (WMS/WFS/WCS server)
• GDAL/OGR (metadata extraction, file type conversion, data manipulation)
• PostGIS (extent storage, metadata storage, spatial queries)
• Subversion (version control)
• Drupal (CMS)
• Ruby on Rails (web application framework)

All Things Tufte

For all of you interested in the Edward Tufte powerpoint diatribe, the fallout continues... Here is his site, a link to purchasing his essay on powerpoint (I have the article if you'd like to borrow it) and a summary of the essay. Well, I'm off to convert all my lectures to 3x5 index cards. Wait... there are contrarians out there: here are two articles challenging the view: "in defense of powerpoint" and "people bore people". Regardless of how you feel about the tool (ppt that is), Tufte does have some cool stuff on his site.

GRASS and QGIS preview

Apparently GRASS and QGIS integration is coming along nicely: check out this really cool movie showing some of the QGIS/GRASS features in development. For those who don't know, GRASS is an open-source GIS software package that has been around forever and is fairly powerful, but has remained somewhat inaccessible by its steep learning curve and lack of a usable GUI. QGIS is another open-source GIS package with a nice ArcView-like GUI but lacking in deep functionality. Together, they fight crime

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Remote Sensing Resources

Here are some good remote sensing resources, including the ASPRS Guide to Land Imaging Satellites and the American Museum of Natural History and the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation Remote Sensing Resources Page.

California Images

This is a great resources for 3d visualizations of California. Geographer William Bowen has created these for many states. Here is our location by the Bay.

NASA New Orleans Flooding Simulation

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

Historic Trade Routes

Since I have been watching "Rome" the mini-series, this seems appropriate. See Trade Routes Through History.