Monday, August 5th, 2013
The advent of Earth-observation satellites transformed how we view our planet—from occasional snapshots to near continuous, comprehensive, and real-time coverage. Likewise, the advent of cabled sensor networks on the sea floor is beginning to provide scientists and the public with a continuous flow of data, including video streams, that will revolutionize our understanding of
Monday, June 17th, 2013
This feature originally appeared in the inaugural issue of Apogeo Spatial magazine (formerly Imaging Notes). According to a recent United Nations report, stresses on water supplies aggravated by climate change are likely to cause more conflicts, and water should be considered as vital to national security as defense. The report points out that 145 countries
Tuesday, May 28th, 2013
In my work supporting disaster response operations, I have often heard practitioners say, “Where can we quickly get detailed and up-to-date map from?” Chris Hepp, by profession a medical doctor, faced the same issue when deployed on humanitarian and peacekeeping missions with international organizations to Albania, the Kosovo, Rwanda and Haiti. He recognized the value
Monday, May 6th, 2013
Every year, several hundred million hectares of forest, grasslands, and other types of vegetation burn throughout the world, and this amount is set to increase due to climate change. Wildfires pose a challenge for ecosystem management because they can be both harmful—threatening human life, property, economic activity and contributing to climate change—and beneficial—by regulating plant
Sunday, April 21st, 2013
Organizations responsible for environmental monitoring, especially when it comes to ‘smart development’ in environmentally sensitive areas, are increasingly using the right geospatial data, tools and processes to ensure minimal impact.
Friday, March 15th, 2013
A workshop was recently organized to develop Geographic Information System (GIS) for one of the Lesser Himalayan districts of Uttarakhand State, the Rudraprayag, drained by glacial fed mighty rivers Alaknanda and Mandakini. The workshop was jointly organized by the Center of Excellence for Natural Resources Data Management System (COE, NRDMS) in Uttarakhand, Department of Geography,
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013
The sciences, technologies, and practices of remote sensing and of geographic information systems (GIS) arose separately, developed in parallel, intersected, and are now inextricably linked. Nearly all the features in most GIS are collected by means of satellite imagery or aerial photogrammetry, and GIS is the application where this imagery is most commonly visualized. “All
Tuesday, February 26th, 2013
Good management decisions require the availability of quality information. For forest resource managers, the combination of airborne Light Detection And Ranging (lidar) remote sensing data together with Esri’s ArcGIS and the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s own FUSION software have created a powerful 3D environment capable of modeling a forest’s canopy structure.
Monday, January 21st, 2013
If Old McDonald had a farm today, he could manage it from his laptop computer and map it with an application on his handheld device. When he was out in the field, his tractor’s guidance system could know its position to within less than an inch, turning his planters and sprayers on and off accordingly.
Tuesday, September 18th, 2012
Traditional GIS applications have long been a trusted tool of the trade for professionals working in the field of emergency management. Recent advances have led to a greater capability to undertake a holistic approach to incident management utilising much more than the conventional knowledge derived from static maps and GIS silos.
