Javier’s Field Site Burning
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geospatial matters
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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
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!
Note this all implies some kind of access control
Note extreme open-source bias... Definitely open to other suggestions.
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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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.
Since I have been watching "Rome" the mini-series, this seems appropriate. See Trade Routes Through History.