PERSPECTIVES
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Why should open geospatial data and software be taken seriously?
It’s now the eve of the State of the Map (SOTM) and Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) events, which take place back-to-back in Denver. The OpenStreetMap and FOSS4G communities will converge to cover open data and open source software, with a focus on development tools, applications, and shared objectives. The combined audience of more than one thousand users and contributors from around the globe (200 for SOTM and more than 840 for FOSS4G) speaks to a vibrancy in tough economic times, and should make you wonder what you’re missing if you’ve brushed aside this community in the past.
- Matt Ball, co-founder and editor, Americas and Asia/Pacific
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FEATURES
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Sustainable Tourism and Enviroment Protection - NaturNet Plus
Sustainable tourism is an important aspect of many European countries and regions. It plays a crucial role in parks, protected areas and coastal zones. To be able to guarantee tourism activities and development in regions, public servants have to be trained about potential influence of investment in tourism on the environment. Nature protection and support of tourism activities at the same time are the key issues.
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TOP 5 LINKS OF THE WEEK
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Reader's Links (submit links to
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COLUMNS
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Wide Area Engineering and the Future of GIS
 GIS has its roots in what a geographer or cartographer might call “small-scale” information, information primarily related to issues of land management and the environment. In the early days, there were many competing acronyms for what is now known as GIS, such as Land Information Systems (LIS), and Facility Information or Facility Management Systems (FMS). As people began to realize that all of these different concepts were based on a common set of underlying capabilities (e.g. the ability to represent, manage, and visualize 2D geometry), these other terms came to describe various types of GIS applications, a situation which continues today.
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INTERVIEWS
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European Environment Agency Embraces Sensors and Systems Approach
 The European Environment Agency is responsible for developing, implementing and evaluating environmental policy for 32 member countries in the European Union. As part of their mandate, they look closely at adapting environmental governance due to our rapidly changing world. V1 editor Matt Ball spoke with Jacqueline McGlade, executive director of this agency, at the recent Esri International User Conference where she gave a keynote about her agency's lead role on sensors and systems, and about the growing need to mitigate impacts on the environment.
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BOOK REVIEW
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Understanding GIS: An ArcGIS Workbook
 Many books present GIS in terms of technology alone, fewer attempt to embrace real problems and link concepts to exercises that explain how all the dots connect when using GIS. Understanding GIS: An ArcGIS Project Workbook benefits from the wealth of experience authors Christian Harder, Tim Ormsby and Thomas Balstrøm bring to the book, providing the guidance and explorations necessary to develop critical-thinking and geographic problem-solving skills.
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TOP 5 BLOG POSTS OF THE WEEK
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EVENT COVERAGE
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Mappers Gather in Denver for State of the Map
 The fifth annual OpenStreetMap State of the Map Conference took place in Denver, Colo. from Sept. 9-11. The event drew its largest crowd yet, with an engaged international gathering of more than 250 attendees from 34 countries. The event drew a mix of volunteer mappers, developers of solutions that build upon the data, academic researchers, crisis mappers, and web-based mapping companies eager to harness the data. |
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GIS in the Rockies Addresses Rapid Technological Change
The 24th annual GIS in the Rockies took place from Aug. 31 to Sept. 1 at the Cable Center in Denver, Colo. The event theme, "Emerging Technolgies; Are You Read?," addressed both these new technologies as well as the need to stay abreast of these developments in order to make the most of the possibilities. This regional gathering of users in the intermountain west of the United States is aligned with GITA, ASPRS, URISA and the Professional Land Surveyors of Colorado, providing for a broad and diverse take on current tools and practice.
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TOP STORIES
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HEADLINES
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Research Lies at Heart of Kenya's Progress
Russia: Crowdsourced Map of Electoral Violations Launched
Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory Scientists Detect Snowfall Intensity Using Doppler Radar
Nigeria: Akinjide Blames Ibadan Flood On Poor Planning
'Mother Nature Has The Upper Hand' In Wildfire Fight |
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EVENTS
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AGI GeoCommunity, Sept. 21-22, Nottingham, UK
Autovation - The Smart Utility Conference, Sept. 24-27, Washington, D.C.
INTERGEO, Sept. 27-29, Nuremberg, Germany
Urban Data Management Symposium, Sept. 28-30, Delft, The Netherlands
Environmental Information Management Conference, Sept. 28029, Santa Barbara, Calif.
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Everything Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas (2010)
By Denis Wood
From mapping radio waves permeating the air to Halloween pumpkins on porches, Wood's joyful subversion of the traditional notions of mapmaking forge new ways of seeing not only the particular, but also the very nature of place itself.
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By T. E. Graedel, Braden R. Allenby
The first book of its kind devoted completely to industrial ecology/green engineering, this introduction uses industrial ecology principles and cases to ground the discussion of sustainable engineering–and offers practical and reasonable approaches to design decisions.
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Elements of Parametric Design (2010)
By Robert Woodbury
Driven by new computer and digital fabrication tools, the architectural designs that are being built are pushing boundaries of form, customization and construction.
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SUBSCRIPTIONS
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