GIS in Education

Abstract submissions are now being accepted for the Western Pacific Geophysical Meeting, to be held 22-25 June 2010 in Taipei, Taiwan. The deadline to submit an abstract is 25 February.

The WPGM provides an opportunity for researchers, teachers, students, and consultants to review the latest issues affecting the Earth, the planets, and their environments in space. This meeting will cover topics in all areas of geophysical sciences.

Please visit the Scientific Program page of the WPGM website to search all sessions, review abstract submission instructions, and to access the Abstract Viewer link to search all abstracts submitted.

Integrity Logic released Geograph VA, the latest version of the popular GIS for the iPhone/iPod platform, covering the commonwealth of Virginia. This release features over 45 layers of geographic data which can be combined and merged. It is a self-contained application which does not require any Internet access.

Max Tardiveau, founder of Integrity Logic, said, "This is our best release so far and we really look forward to hearing about all the different things people will do with it." Like its 19 sister applications already covering 22 states, Geograph VA contains a wide array of data layers: - geological map from the U.S. Geological Service - public land ownership (local, state, federal) - states outlines - land elevation from NASA - ocean bathymetry - old faults - over 5,800 named features (summits, tunnels, cliffs, bridges, etc...) with link to USGS web site for each feature.

This release introduces a number of additional layers which can be downloaded from the application: - state assembly districts with link to the representatives' web sites - state senate districts with link to the senators' web sites - school districts - cities and villages with link to Census Bureau's statistics - town and city limits - landmark points and areas - airports with link to FFA web site for each airport - over 20,000 geodetic points - public and private golf courses.

Check it out here.

Starting with the January 2010 issue of the ASPRS journal, Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing (PE&RS), ASPRS members will have access to the full digital version of the journal online at www.asprs.org. This digital edition is complete with peer-reviewed articles, just as they appear in the printed version.

Members of ASPRS have exclusive assess to the peer-reviewed articles for 24 months from publication. After that, all articles will be available on the public side of the website. Members will have to log into the ASPRS website with their log in and password to see the complete digital version.

The enhanced version of PE&RS contains hot links for all ASPRS Sustaining Member Companies, as well as hot links on advertisements, ASPRS Who’s Who, and internet references.

A public version of the issue also is available on the ASPRS website, but it does not contain the complete peer-reviewed articles. To view the complete peer-reviewed articles, individuals may sign up for membership.

ASPRS will continue to publish and mail the paper version of the journal to all members for the foreseeable future.

Google Earth Blog provides a link to a KML file that you can download and run on Google Earth to view GeoEye featured images. Take a look at the new images before they are even posted by Google Earth.

Simply download this KML and run.

RapidEye, the only geospatial solutions provider to own and operate a constellation of five identical Earth Observation satellites, announced today that it has completed a baseline image campaign covering the Helmand river basin in Afghanistan. The project was requested with an imaging window from November 3rd to December 4th, 2009 with the majority of the collection taking place during a 10 day from November 18th to 28th.

Covering over 250,000 square kilometers, the Helmand river basin is the largest in Afghanistan, accounting for almost half of the country's territory. It is the world’s largest opium production region. The project was initiated to obtain baseline imagery maps and ground cover information prior to the beginning of the 2010 growing season.

Since the river basin contains the largest production of opium in Afghanistan, it is essential to understand growth patterns and estimate yields in this area as part of the United Nations (UN), US and other efforts to suppress production. The wholesale value of the opium trade in Afghanistan was estimated at about $3 billion USD in 2008. With its red-edge band and broad area coverage the RapidEye satellite constellation is ideally suited for collecting and characterizing agricultural fields and can contribute greatly to these efforts.

Timeliness and accuracy of information is key when providing frequent agricultural monitoring. The RapidEye constellation of five satellites has the unrivaled ability to image individual fields, counties, states or countries on a frequent revisit cycle. The Helmand river basin project reinforced these capabilities, as the area around and including Lahkar Gah, the capital city of Helmand, was collected seven times in 23 days. RapidEye’s satellites can collect up to 4 million square kilometers of Earth Observation imagery every day and revisit any region on Earth on a near-daily basis thus assuring quick and reliable coverage of large areas at high resolution.

The imagery covering the Helmand river basin is now available for purchase to clients and partners worldwide. Additionally, many more million kilometers of Earth Observation data can be accessed through the RapidEye Library, which contains their entire catalog of products including their most recently collected satellite imagery, or through the RapidEye Geodata Kiosk by visiting www.geodatakiosk.com. More information on RapidEye Products and Services can be found at the company’s website www.rapideye.de. Inquiries may be directed via email to sales@rapideye.de.

About RapidEye
RapidEye is an ISO-certified geospatial information provider focused on integrating customized and industry specific solutions into the workflow of global customers in agriculture, forestry, energy, infrastructure, government, security and emergency. RapidEye experts and the satellite system – a constellation of five satellites capable of downloading over 4 million km² of high resolution, multi-spectral imagery per day, and a ground segment for processing and archiving data – allow for cost-effective customized services. The unique combination of large area coverage, high spatial resolution and the possibility of daily revisit to an area provide for superior management information solutions. Currently, more than 120 experts from more than 20 countries are employed by RapidEye, with plans to grow the team to 130 within the next few months.

RapidEye benefits from a public-private partnership with the Space Agency of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. RapidEye is also co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the State of Brandenburg in Germany. For more information on ERDF please contact efreinfo@mw.brandenburg.de.

For more information about RapidEye, please visit www.rapideye.de.

Photos:
Download RapidEye's satellite image of the city of Lashkar Gar in Afghanistan.

This is a detailed set of workshop notes on analyzing spatial point patterns using the statistical software package 'R'.

These workshop notes, written in 2008, cover statistical methods available in public domain software.

The workshop uses the statistical package 'R' and is based on 'spatstat', an add-on library for 'R' for the analysis of spatial data.

Topics covered include:

* statistical formulation and methodological issues
* data input and handling
* R concepts such as classes and methods
* nonparametric intensity estimates
* goodness-of-fit testing for Complete Spatial Randomness
* maximum likelihood inference for Poisson processes
* model validation for Poisson processes
* distance methods and summary functions such as Ripley’s K function
* non-Poisson point process models
* simulation techniques
* fitting models using summary statistics
* Gibbs point process models
* fitting, simulating and validating Gibbs models
* multitype and marked point patterns
* exploratory analysis of marked point patterns
* multitype Poisson process models and maximum likelihood inference
* multitype Gibbs process models and maximum pseudolikelihood
* line segment data.

This workshop tutorial requires the software 'R' version 2.6.0 or later, and 'spatstat' version 1.14-5 or later.

Download the guide here, in PDF.

With the theme "Map Your App," ESRI's 2010 Mashup Challenge invites members of the geodeveloper community to stretch their imaginations, test their technical skills and develop creative geospatial Web applications. Guidelines for this challenge are construct a mashup using ESRI’s ArcGIS online content and Web APIs, publish the related URL, shoot a video describing the application and post it on YouTube.

Prize for the first-place entry is $10,000, for second place entry is $5,000 and $2,500 for third and fourth place entries. Judges will choose top entries on the basis of uniqueness, utility, user experience and analytic process.

Michael Gould, ESRI’s director of education for industry solutions, said, “We are looking for applications that depict more than just points on a map. Online GIS is a decision-making tool and its analytic capabilities are fundamental to that process. This competition invites the world to connect new and innovative content and services to active maps.”

The deadline for submission is March 5, 2010. Additional information and details concerning the application process can be found on the ESRI 2010 Mashup Challenge Web page.

Bionatics released the version 2.0 of LandSIM3D, its 3D simulation and visualization software dedicated to territory planning and landscape preservation. This version 2 offers a great list of new features to answer the growing needs of city planning and landscape design professionals looking for powerful simulation and decision making tools able to guaranty a sustainable development of the territory.

Stéphane Gourgout, VP Sales Director of Bionatics, said, “This new version 2 is an important step in the development of LandSIM3D since it was mainly built from the comments and the suggestions of our clients. It improves the fast modelling and visualization of large cities or heavily urbanised areas containing a lot of 3D buildings and their evolution across the time.”

The version 2.0 facilitates the real-time loading and display of complete cities or larges territories made of thousands of buildings and stored in common 3D formats such as 3Ds or Google SketchUp. LandSIM3D v2.0 will stream the 3D models on the fly and display them in the 3D view near by the camera in addition to the full procedural display of the rest of the city. Such technology allows a very realistic visualisation of the city while maintaining the interactivity in the display of the scene. The time simulation features have also been extended to all the data used to build a scene (objects, elevation, aerial imagery, vector maps, biotopes ….) in order to simulate and the visualise all the characteristics of evolution of a city, a territory or a complex project thanks to the timeline.

Other expected functionalities in this new version:
- Import / Export with the Google SketchUp format,
- Automatic generation and mapping of the roof textures from the aerial imagery,
- New procedural roof model with 2 slopes and editable orientation,
- Easy comparison of project alternatives in the 3D view,
- Interactive visualization of a territory or a project at different period of time,
- Acceleration of data processing during the importation phases,
- New LandSIM3D viewer allowing the interactive comparison of project’s alternatives,
- All simulation features are now accessible from the LandSIM3D viewer,
- Control of the display distance of the aerial imagery according to ground type,
- Multiple selection and edition of vector and object properties,
- New procedural buildings,
- Shadow simulation ... etc

ScanEx published detailed EROS-B image (0.7 m) of the Haiti capital area, damaged as a result of the destructive earthquakes on January 12 for free access using the GeoMixer API software interface. Satellite maps of the Port-au-Prince districts, based on the GeoEye-1 VHR data (from GeoEye-1 images captured on January 13) on behalf of the Emercom of Russia, also have been published for free access. The American GeoEye-1 satellite delivered images of the disaster area on January 13.

EROS-B image was acquired on January 17 by the order of SCANEX RDC placed to the ImageSat Int. (Israel) Operator on behalf of the Emercom Russia. The SCANEX Centre specialists using the proprietary software ScanEx Image Processor conducted the processing and analysis of data. The image was provided to UNOSAT (UNITAR Satellite Applications Programme).

Maps of the Port-au-Prince show destroyed and damaged buildings, the road net of the region and tent camps. Central and western parts of the capital suffered worst losses. Rescue team of Russian Emercom has already started to operate in Port-au-Prince.

Highly-detailed images of the impacted area have been provided in near real-time by such satellite system Operators as DigitalGlobe (USA), SpotImage (France), ImageSat Int. (Israel), as well as by the Russian Resurs-DK1 satellite operator – the Research Centre for Earth Operative Monitoring of the Russian Federal Space Agency.

You may check the free Haiti images and maps here. You may also check out these related links for more free Haiti satellite images.

RapidEye has completed imaging of all of the regions in Haiti that have been most affected by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit the area on January 12. Now, RapidEye is concentrating on delivering these and future images of Haiti at no cost to governmental and non governmental organizations and institutions to fasten the relief work. The company has requested that organizations associated with emergency services in Haiti can contact sales@rapideye.de for the latest free satellite Images.

Despite the unfavourable weather in this area, RapidEye managed to image more than 80 percent of this large area between January 13 and 17, 2010 from an orbit of 630 km. The images clearly show the extensive damage to the region around the epicentre of the earthquake at 18°27'05''N / 72°26'40''W.

RapidEye has also made these images available for editorial use at their website www.rapideye.de. They may be published for editorial use only, in hard copy, electronic or in broadcast format, provided that credit is provided to “RapidEye” on all such products.

Check out this post for other free Haiti images.

Join fellow IDL users at the 3rd Annual IDL User Group Meeting on February 24, 2010 at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, CO (LASP). Hear presentations from members of the IDL community as well as the IDL development team.

Presentation topics will include, but are not limited to:

· Atmospheric and Cryospheric Analyses

· Climate Modeling

· General Physics and Mathematics

· Graphics and Visualization

· GPU Processing

· Cluster Processing

· Graphics Enhancements with IDL

· New Functionality in the IDL Core Language

Lunch is included. Pre-registration is required for this complimentary event but register now, as seating is limited!

Pre-Conference Sessions is on February 23rd:

ITT will host a full day of hands-on seminars for those interested in learning more about IDL 8.0 and the wide range of new functionality that is coming in this release – including a whole new graphics paradigm. Space is limited in these hands-on seminars, so please register early to reserve your spot. Due to the number of people attending, please provide your own laptop for this hands-on event.


Tuesday, Feb 23 - Location: LASP

9:00 – 11:30 Introduction to Scientific Programming with IDL
11:30 – 1:00 Lunch Provided by ITT
1:00 – 3:30 IDL 8.0 Tech Preview
3:45 – 5:00 IDL Roundtable

Conference is still accepting abstracts for presenters as well as submissions for the Best IDL Image Competition. Please submit responses to events@ittvis.com.

When: February 24, 2010 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Where:
LASP, University of Colorado Campus
1234 Innovation Drive, Boulder, CO 80303-7814

Register Now for the IDL User Group Meeting 2010

Free access to Haiti satellite images pre- and post-earthquake!

In an effort to help the humanitarian efforts underway in Haiti, DigitalGlobe's Crisis Event Service is offering free access to both pre- and post-earthquake imagery until January 28, 2010 with their ImageConnect plug-in for GIS software.

The website has earthquake image gallery and damage analysis available.

Sign up for your free access now and get Haiti earthquake satellite images for free.

Maps are never pefect representations of reality, and increasingly they’re out of date before they’re finished. Complicating matters, mapping of live phenomena (geospatial or otherwise) is becoming more and more prevelant, and even expected. Looking back to earlier representations of movement can help us figure out how to represent the fluid spaces that mapping is moving in to. From Launch Pad, O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference, Burlingame, CA.

Video:

Blue Marble Geographics will provide a free web demonstration of the Blue Marble Desktop on Wednesday January 20th at 11:00 a.m. EST. Are you tired of never having any information about the coordinate system, or the ability to create proper datum shifts? Then learn how the Blue Marble Desktop can help you to accurately and properly reference both vector and raster datasets with flexible, yet powerful tools.

Blue Marble's geospatial data manipulation and conversion solutions are used worldwide by thousands of GIS analysts at software companies, universities, oil and gas companies, civil engineering, surveying, technology, enterprise GIS groups, government and military organizations.

There are many tools that allow you to georeference, but Blue Marble is the only toolkit that is both user friendly and flexible for file and coordinate conversion. The Blue Marble Desktop now allows you work with vector or raster data through the Geographic Transformer georefencer tool. Supported by the largest, most accurate and reliable coordinate transformation datasource Blue Marble allows you to easily establish an "image-to-world" relationship between image and map coordinates and reproject an image into a georeferenced map. With dockable windows, enhanced workflow tools and the ability to export to other users Blue Marble will save you time and money on every project. The Geographic Calculator allows users to work with raw survey data to conduct a best-fit transformation to take grid data to geodetic easily and correctly, also making use of the georeference tool. Learn why GIS analysts and surveyors that need to bridge the gap between highly accurate survey data and user-friendly GIS data turn to Blue Marble.

Space is limited, so sign up now.

According to a PTI report, University of Kashmir (KU) has introduced Master's Programme in Remote Sensing and GIS from the academic session 2010-11. The University has constituted an advisory committee, chaired by the Vice-Chancellor Riyaz Punjabi, for smooth functioning of this course.

He said the introduction of the programme will further help make the benefits of space technology and IT available to our state. Shoukat Shafi, KU spokesman, said, “The goal is to enhance the understanding and subsequent use of Remote Sensing and GIS for socio-economic environmental friendly development of the state."

University of Kashmir was the first University in the North India to offer PG Diploma in Remote Sensing and GIS in 2004.

Visit the university site.

As rescue workers scramble to provide assistance to hundreds of thousands of people following Haiti's earthquake, Earth observation satellite data continues to provide updated views of the situation on the ground.

Following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January, international agencies requested satellite data of the area from the International Charter on 'Space and Major Disasters'.

The Charter, an international initiative aimed at providing satellite data free of charge to those affected by disasters anywhere in the world, immediately began re-tasking their satellites to get the data urgently needed.

Data are being collected by various satellites including Japan's ALOS, CNES's Spot-5, the U.S.'s WorldView and QuickBird, Canada's RADARSAT-2, China's HJ-1-A/B and ESA's ERS-2 and Envisat.
These data are being processed into maps that show the degree of destruction. As soon as new data arrives, updated maps will be produced and made available to the international community. The updates may be accessed by clicking on the links on the right.

Other satellite missions that are complementing those from the Charter include Germany’s TerraSAR-X, Italy’s COSMO-SkyMed, South Korea’s KOMPSAT-2 and the U.S.-based GeoEye-1.

Update: Check this post for free Haiti Earthquake images.

Provided by European Space Agency

In October 2009 the biggest project finished in Chile worldwide of airbone of high resolution with sensor LIDAR and digital camera. Forest Arauco S.A. contracted Digimapas Chile for the mapping of this project that began together with the beginning of his operations in December, 2005. The Dr. Lothar Markus Rombach (general Manager of the company, Dr. in Geography of the University of Munich), was selected due to his experience in Remote Sensors, for treating itself about an eminence in the area and being a part of a select elite of investigation in the topic.

Due to the complexity of the project of 7.5 million hectares, Digimapas Chile elaborated the preparations necessary for the raising point of control in area, including the installation of more than 60 monoliths. During this period, DMCL realized also all the logistics of transport, plans of flight and facilities of his head office in Santiago of Chile for his DataCenter (processing and store of information).

The products there include Digital Models of Area, Digital Models of Surface, Images of Intensity Lidar (Infrared assets), real orthoimage VIS (RGB) and (infrared) CIR. For having been pioneering in this technology in the country, Digimapas Chile possesses personnel highly qualified and qualified directly, for the suppliers of each one of the components of his system and across the permanent production supervised of products of high resolution and high precision.

Digimapas Chile receives permanent support of TopoSys Germany and Applanix of Canada, both, members of the group Trimble Corporation. The nearby relation between these companies and the equipment of Digimapas Chile leads to an almost exclusive support of the service, which has given to our projects an excellent support with special attention to any of our requirements. This conduct also her has the supplier of the module of the navigation of the flight TrackAir, who is available 24h for Digimapas Chile.

The relation with Forest Arauco S.A. has fortified during this time of work (4 years). An example of this becomes present in that Forest Arauco S.A. together with Digimapas Chile and CONAF there take part in an international project of investigation of the institute of investigation North American, Whood Hole Research Center, who is financed by the NASA.

As DIGIMAPAS Chile owns all these data, it can deliver these products at reduced time and at reasonable cost to any interested For more information visit the webpage.

NASA released a photograph of sand dunes on Mars taken by HiRISE. HiRISE is the most powerful camera ever sent into space.

From the HiRISE blog: There is a vast region of sand dunes at high northern latitudes on Mars. In the winter, a layer of carbon dioxide ice covers the dunes, and in the spring as the sun warms the ice it evaporates. This is a very active process, and sand dislodged from the crests of the dunes cascades down, forming dark streaks... Falling material has kicked up a small cloud of dust. The color of the ice surrounding adjacent streaks of material suggests that dust has settled on the ice at the bottom after similar events.

ERDAS announces new training courses for ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 in Liège, Belgium. The first course will be held on January 26-27, 2010, with reservations being accepted via www.erdas.com/training.

ERDAS IMAGINE 2010 is an all in one, fully integrated desktop authoring platform, incorporating image analysis, remote sensing and GIS capabilities. Featuring a new ribbon interface, ERDAS IMAGINE makes it easier for users to streamline workflows and customize their workspace. ERDAS IMAGINE also provides enhanced tools for parallel batch processing, spatial modeling, map production, mosaicking and change detection. In addition, ERDAS IMAGINE also incorporates the ERDAS ER Mapper algorithms and implements OGC standards.

This two day course includes instruction on the most recently added functionality and enhancements made to ERDAS IMAGINE. Appropriate for both novice and experienced ERDAS IMAGINE users, this course will include a brief introduction to the product, with the majority of time devoted to ERDAS IMAGINE 2010. Key areas of focus include the new Ribbon interface, added customization options and shortcuts, tips and tricks to streamline and simplify the ERDAS IMAGINE experience. The course also provides an overview of the new and updated modules in ERDAS IMAGINE, including the recently released IMAGINE Feature Interoperability and IMAGINE SAR Interferometry.

Last year, ERDAS opened its expanded training center in Liège, Belgium. Supporting ERDAS’ growth in Europe, the center contains state-of-the art training and meeting facilities, in a convenient and central location for customers and business partners.

This facility offers regular and complete training in ERDAS’ desktop authoring products, as well as introductory courses in ERDAS’ enterprise solutions. Some other upcoming courses include Fundamentals of ERDAS IMAGINE I & II, Introduction to ERDAS Enterprise, Introduction to LPS, IMAGINE Defense Analysis, Multispectral Classification and Spatial Modeling & Expert Systems.

ERDAS’ expanded training center is located within the company’s Liège office at Quai Timmermans 14/01, 4000 Liège, Belgium. The phone number for this office is +32 4 364 03 64.

For more information about ERDAS, please call +1 770 776 3400, toll free +1 866 534 2286, or visit www.erdas.com.

ERDAS released ERDAS ADE 2010. It is an integrated suite of products for real-time editing of spatial and business data via the web, desktop or mobile device. Integrated with the Oracle technology stack, this suite of products includes ERDAS ADE Remote, ERDAS ADE Mobile and ERDAS ADE Enterprise.

“ERDAS ADE is an enterprise-enabled solution providing geospatial access and accurate data capture in a web, desktop or mobile application,” said Mladen Stojic, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, ERDAS. “With an improved workflow, ERDAS ADE 2010 efficiently handles data and gives users control of database updates,” continued Stojic.

ERDAS ADE Remote provides rich, secure and flexible spatial and operational management for field force operations that require the capture and maintenance of location and business data. Users can manage data locally (files on disk), connect directly to Oracle, or connect to ERDAS ADE Enterprise.

Providing connected and disconnected users with a common software platform, ERDAS ADE Mobile offers versatility and flexibility for data collection and validation requirements. ERDAS ADE Mobile is a powerful spatial editor for any Windows Mobile GPS or hand-held device.

ERDAS ADE Enterprise provides the ability to scale in a web based environment as well as real-time spatial data editing. Leveraging the complete Oracle technology stack, ERDAS ADE Enterprise supports editing of all Oracle data types, including spatial, topology features, topology primitives and attribute data.

In ERDAS ADE 2010, there is now WMS (Web Mapping Service) support, as well as new viewer manipulation tools to swipe all rasters or vectors in the view to see underlying data. The offline file storage system has been improved to allow more data to be taken into the field. Support for targeted updates and improved conflict resolution tools give users greater control, should problems arise from multiple users editing the same data. This release also introduces a new implementation of the ERDAS ADE Mobile product with better memory management, performance, user experience and the ability to edit Shapefiles.

You can buy it here.

[report] The U.S. Geological Survey is using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to support a student who’s investigating social Internet technologies as a way to quickly gather information about recent earthquakes.

In this exploratory effort, the USGS is developing a system that gathers real-time, earthquake-related messages from the social networking site Twitter and applies place, time, and key word filtering to gather geo-located accounts of shaking. This approach provides rapid first-impression narratives and, potentially, photos from people at the hazard’s location. The potential for earthquake detection in populated but sparsely seismicly-instrumented regions is also being investigated.

Social Internet technologies are providing the general public with anecdotal earthquake hazard information before scientific information has been published from authoritative sources. People local to an event are able to publish information via these technologies within seconds of their occurrence. In contrast, depending on the location of the earthquake, scientific alerts can take between 2 to 20 minutes. By adopting and embracing these new technologies, the USGS potentially can augment its earthquake response products and the delivery of hazard information.

For more information on this project, please e-mail USGSted@usgs.gov or follow @USGSted on Twitter.

Mapping Forestry from ESRI Press provides a unique view into some of the many ways geographic information system (GIS) technology is being used throughout the world to support better forestry and land management decisions. The book provides firsthand reports from forestry professionals on their use of GIS to manage commercial operations and promote sustainable stewardship. Presented are approaches for determining the best route for building roads through forest lands, whether logging in a particular area is commercially viable, which fire-damaged areas of forest should be restored first, and more.

Peter Eredics, editor of Mapping Forestry and ESRI’s manager for forestry solutions, comments, “From developing countries to the developed world, forestry professionals rely on GIS to understand the timber resource, make strategic plans, manage resources sustainably, reduce costs, create efficiencies, and increase profitability.”

Forestry managers today must deal with unprecedented challenges posed by increasingly complex regulatory requirements and evolving social expectations. As a result, the business of sustainable forestry is currently undergoing transformation in an era of dramatic economic change and intensifying global competition. Mapping Forestry details how GIS software is helping foresters manage, view, and model data so they can meet environmental and commercial demands.
Mapping Forestry (ISBN: 9781589482098, 88 pages, $39.95) is available at online retailers worldwide, at www.esri.com/esripress, or by calling 1-800-447-9778. Outside the United States, visit www.esri.com/esripressorders for complete ordering options or contact your local ESRI distributor.

Google's latest location-based feature for mobile devices, which went live recently, will make it easier to find restaurants, bars, ATMs and more when you're in an unfamiliar area, PC World reports. The feature, called "Near Me Now," is available on the Google homepage on your iPhone (OS 3.0 or later) and Android (OS 2.0.1 or later) devices. Near Me Now is currently available only for United States users, and was first announced in December, alongside other new mobile search features including Google Goggles.

Google "Near Me Now" - How It Works
Before you can use Near Me Now, you must allow Google to identify your location;, Google is not entirely clear on what this means, but I assume the search giant is talking about enabling its My Location feature. Once that's done, you will see your location and a "Near Me Now" link under the search box on the Google mobile homepage. If you click on the link, you'll see an expanded list of five categories: Explore Right Here (more about this later), Restaurants, Coffee Shops, Bars, and ATMs and Banks.

Then, you simply select the category to find a hotspot for lunch, the closest ATM, or the nearest place to grab a latte. With Near Me Now you can also drill deeper to find restaurant reviews, hours of operation, and contact information just as you can with Google Maps.

Video:

GeoWeb 2010 Conference
July 26-30 · Vancouver, B.C. Canada
Call for Presentations and Workshops

Overview: GeoWeb 2010 will take place in Vancouver, Canada July 26‐30 and its organizers are currently seeking submissions for presentations and workshops. GeoWeb is the industry‐leading conference focused on the collective impact of the Web on geographic information standards, architectures and technology and the convergence of GIS and the Internet and the resulting economic, social and technical consequences. GeoWeb 2010 will feature well known keynote and invited speakers, workshops and tutorials, technical presentations, panel sessions, and product showcase opportunities. No other geospatial conference provides this level of knowledge intensity and is a must‐attend conference for anyone involved in shaping the future of the geospatial industry.

Theme: The emphasis for GeoWeb 2010 is Going Real Time. GeoWeb is about the technologies for information sharing and collaboration respecting events and activities in the real world. It is about designing our world and reacting to the changes in the world around us. It is about managing our way in the world using the best information about the current and probable future state(s) of the world.

Official Call: This announcement is the official Call for Presentations and Call for Workshops for GeoWeb 2010 Going Real Time. All submissions must include a title, theme, a detail abstract (<200 words) and a short description (<75 words) and are to be submitted via the online form at www.geowebconference.org no later than February 19, 2010 (4pm PST). Presentation sessions will be 35 minutes in length. Workshops will be 3 hours in length and should focus on a key technology or standard.

Presenters will be chosen based on a formal selection process led by the 2010 GeoWeb Planning Committee and will be notified of the status of their submission by March 15, 2010. Please note that all approved presenters will be provided with a 25% discount on the registration fee but are responsible for their own travel and expenses.

Suggested Topics: Presentations can deal with any aspect of the following key areas:

• Air traffic management
• Geospatial technology & analysis
• GeoWeb & SDI architecture & registries including Sensor Webs
• 3D model acquisition, imagery & visualization
• Virtual worlds & media application
• Urban infrastructure, planning, design, management, protection, & BIM
• Business development & marketing
• Public health & social services
• Security, defense, privacy & intelligence
• Emergency planning, public safety, response, monitoring & analysis
• Environmental & land data management & registries
• Asset management & monitoring
• Data aggregation, integration, management, modeling & publication

Questions: For all questions regarding the submission of abstracts and agendas please contact James Sakamoto at jsakamoto@gita.org.

*Special Note: The Call for Papers specific to the 3D and Sensor Web Academic/Science tracks are separate submissions. If you would like to submit a technical paper to either of these tracks please contact Corwin Hiebert, GeoWeb Conference Manager, at chiebert@galdosinc.com.

Spot LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globalstar and DeLorme jointly announced the world’s first rugged, handheld GPS and satellite communicator product. The DeLorme Earthmate PN-60w with SPOT Satellite Communicator will be the first handheld GPS navigation device capable of sending customized text messages even when the user is operating far beyond the range of cellular communications. General product availability is scheduled for spring 2010, and will be unveiled this week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

SPOT technology allows real-time location updates and the ability to summon help in an emergency. Custom messages and waypoints can easily be shared with social networking sites like SPOTadventures.com, Geo-caching.com, Twitter and Facebook. As an emergency back-up, the SPOT Satellite Communicator has stand-alone capability to send location-based SOS notification to an emergency response centre.

“This announcement combines the latest in sophisticated handheld GPS with SPOT satellite communications providing one-of-a-kind, custom messaging and sharing of geo-location information with others in real-time,” said Peter Dalton, President of Spot LLC and CEO of Globalstar.

“For the first time, people will be able to type custom text messages using the Earthmate PN-60w internal keyboard and then transmit wirelessly to the unique DeLorme SPOT Communicator for sending satellite messages around the globe,” said Caleb Mason, DeLorme Vice President.

Users of the PN-60w can easily manage their profile online including custom maps and message history utilising a fully integrated user interface designed by SPOT. Information can be kept fully private or shared with family and friends using custom tools like SPOT shared pages and SPOTadventures.com.

As a stand-alone GPS, the Earthmate PN-60w delivers premium navigation features including a 32-channel GPS chipset, blazing-fast dual-core processor, 3-axis electronic compass, sensitive barometric altimeter, elevation profiles and GPX file transfers. At CES, DeLorme also will be announcing new worldwide map data for the PN-60w, including high-resolution colour aerial imagery. SPOT also will be showcasing its SPOT Satellite Messenger product family and satellite-based services at CES including the award-winning SPOT Personal Tracker and the new SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger.

Digital Map Products (DMP) launched its new SpatialStreamT SaaS spatial development platform, according to GPSWorld. SpatialStream offers access to sophisticated yet easy-to-use spatial technology and spatial data sets and facilitates the streamlined development of embedded GIS applications.

"We at Digital Map Products think the launch of SpatialStreamT is a giant leap forward for end users. It has always been our goal as a company to make spatial technology available to everyone in an enterprise. Finally, the business world is catching on to the advantages of visualizing data and with SpatialStreamT, we can empower them to spatially enable their applications in record time,'' said Jim Skurzynski, CEO, DMP.

"With ParcelStreamT, Digital Map Products transformed online real estate search by making it easy to both reference parcel data and to display and integrate it with other data and spatial technology," said Marty Frame, President of Realtors Property Resource, LLC, a long-time partner of Digital Map Products and an early adopter of consumer facing spatial technology.

The Company stated that SpatialStreamT takes advantage of another powerful trend, cloud computing. With no upfront capital expenditures or unpredictable expense hikes, customers of SpatialStreamT gain immediate access to sophisticated functionality. DMP's spatial platform lets businesses spatially enable their applications in a fraction of the time it would take with traditional methods and technology.

"The platform facilitates the streamlined development of embedded GIS applications," Geoffrey Wade, DMP's Chief Technology Officer, said. "It frees up developers so they can focus on developing workflow solutions and integrating organizational data sets. Digital Map Products has years of experience in spatial technology. You can outsource that part of your business to us, and have more time to focus on your core business."

The TatukGIS Viewer, often recognized as the world's best free GIS Viewer, just got better. The version 2 upgrade adds significant new features including advanced support for coordinate systems, support for additional data formats, advanced map rendering features, updated user interface, and much more.

The free Viewer is a slimmed down variation of the TatukGIS Editor product, without the Editor's data editing/saving/export features and scripting/programming features.

New Viewer version 2 features:

* NEW! Advanced support for coordinate systems/projections based on EPSG codes and OpenGIS WKT definitions, almost 3,000 predefined coordinate systems (including all U.S. State Planes), user-defined coordinate systems
* NEW! Automatic recognition of the coordinate system of each map layer
* NEW! On-the-fly reprojection of vector, image, and grid layers with display of layers from different coordinate system as a single map
* NEW! Support for new data formats: DWG2000, S-57, JSON, WMS, WFS, LandXML, OpenStreetMap, GSHHS, Surfer Grid, ESRI PGDB
* NEW! Antialiased output for enhanced map rendering quality
* NEW! Unicode support for foreign language characters
* NEW! HTML style rendering of labels
* NEW! Hierarchical layers, layer grouping, sub-projects
* IMPROVED! Better user interface for faster and more intuitive operations
* IMPROVED! Improved data table operations
* IMPROVED! Default world and continent mini-map presentation
* IMPROVED! Rewritten help files
* IMPROVED! Hundreds of other small improvements

The TatukGIS Viewer product is available free of charge from the Downloads page of TatukGIS web site.

SatNav Technologies, the pioneers in GPS Navigation in India since 2005 and market leaders by far, today launched their latest device, SatGuide Moov200 3.5” Entertainment device with Navigation. The product was unveiled at a glittering function held at a city hotel, attended by over 200 sales and business partners of the company. The device is sleek and unique as it has video, audio and photo features—a first among other products in its category. The product has SiRF StarIII GPS chipset which comes with Instafix technology helping locate the position in the shortest possible time. With a 2GB memory and its ability to play all file formats, this device stands out among all products sold by players in the Indian market today.

The new addition to the family comes with SatNav’s Ver 8.0 maps released today, which boast of highest street coverage spanning across 628 cities and with whopping 2 million Points of Interest. Major cities are constantly updated by survey and customer feedback, and an additional 200+ cities have been added since the previous version of maps. The POIs are arranged in 42 different categories like Airlines, Airports, ATMs etc for the convenience of the user. SatNav intends to continue this

Competitively priced at just Rs 13,990, SatGuide Moov200 device will be extensively sold through their distributors such as Gras Impex, Galiakotwala and also be available at major Large Format Retailers (LFRs) like Car Plus, Xcite, Jumbo, Gizmos, Croma, EZone, Reliance Digital, Autozone, Staples etc., across the country. SatNav has recently strengthened its presence in the North with a dynamic 10 member sales team, headed by the President of Sales - Surinder Saini who leads their All India Channel Sales. At the same time, they have also setup a strategic alliance with a strong distributor Gras Impex to further strengthen their presence across the country. This dedicated sales team will be based out of the Delhi office of SatNav.

Speaking at the launch Amit Prasad, CEO, SatNav Technologies said “SatNav strongly believes in innovation to develop economical and efficient products which cater to the needs of the Indian consumers, bringing savvy Moov200 Entertainment device which also offers GPS Navigation is another step in that direction. We have over 100 leading stores selling our products in each metro city today and we look forward to further ramp that up in the coming months."

Hardware
CPU Samsung
GPS Chipset 20-channel SiRFstarIII
RAM / Memory 32+ MB minimum / 2 GB
Memory Slot SD/MMC (Compatible)
Color Display 3.5" TFT with Touchscreen
Resolution 320 x 240 Pixels (WQVGA)
Display Orientation Landscape
Battery Un-swappable rechargeable Lithium battery cell
Battery Capacity 720 mAh
Battery Life Up to 2.5 Hrs
USB Yes (V 2.0)
Speaker Yes
Earphone Jack N/A
Depth 17.7 mm (0.7")
Width 98 mm (3.8")
Height 84 mm (3.3")
Weight 145 g (5.11oz)
Software
Navigation software & Maps SatGuide Navigation software & Maps
Video Player .mp4/.mov/.avi/.3gp/.asf/.wmv
Audio Player MP3/WAV/WMA
Picture Viewer .jpg/.jpeg/.gif/.bmp

About SatNav Technologies
Incorporated on January 9, 2004, SatNav Technologies is an ISO certified IT Products Company that is a pioneer in GPS Navigation products. SatNav’s products include an immensely popular GPS Navigation Product SatGuide available at hundreds of stores all over the country including leading retailers like Croma, EZone, Reliance, ABRL, Staples among others - that is helping customers “Never Get Lost!” , variants include Navigation solutions for dedication navigation devices, PDAs, Phones, Laptops, Desktops, SatGuide Logger among others. Also in SatNav portfolio are unique products; a Business Infrastructure Management System, a-mantra; and an online directions portal Roadsofindia.com, among others.

For more information, please contact:

Siddhant Singh Chauhan
The PRactice
Email: siddhant@the-practice.net
Tel. +91 11 46504100 – 03 ext 205
Mobile +91 9999984807

Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop, is pleased to announce the 2010 schedule for its comprehensive 2-day MAPublisher training course. This 2-day class offers in-depth MAPublisher training that will enable MAPublisher users to maximize their use of MAPublisher and fully exploit its features and power.

MAPublisher training is offered in hands-on computer labs at locations around North America. Training is also available onsite at customers’ locations and online in which case certain aspects of the course will be tailored especially for the specific organization and workflow.

Features of the 2010 round of MAPublisher classes include content on creating interactive data-rich Flash maps, geospatial PDF export and MAPublisher LabelPro advanced text placement.

"I did find the training session very informative and I did learn a fair amount in those two days. I am impressed with the capabilities of MAPublisher and I will definitively recommend MAPublisher and the training session to any of my colleagues working in the map design industry", said Carlos Serpas of SAIC Polytechnic.

2010 MAPublisher Training Dates & Locations:

* San Francisco, CA – February 4-5
* Washington, DC – March 18-19
* Tampa, FL – May 13-14
* San Diego, CA – July 15-16
* Philadelphia, PA – September 9-10
* Denver, CO – November 4-5

For more information and to access the registration form visit the MAPublisher training page.

SuperGeo Technologies today officially announces the release of SuperGIS DataConvertor 3 and SuperGIS DataManager 3. SuperGIS DataManager 3, SuperGIS DataConvertor 3, and SuperGIS DataRectifier 3 are the applications of SuperGIS 3 series products.

SuperGIS DataManager 3 is a set of data management tool. SuperGIS DataManager 3 supports common vector formats and raster formats, such as GEO, SHP, DXF, DWG, DGN, ECW, SID, TIF, JPEG, etc. Users are allowed to copy, move, delete, etc the physical files of the data. Moreover, SuperGIS DataManager 3 supports users to search with conditions to help users find the needed data rapidly.

In addition to the functions described above, SuperGIS DataManager 3 supports to create and edit the metadata of the layers, including hundreds of fields for definitions, like publisher, publish organization, modification date, etc. Users can not only create the contents of the data but also use the contents as the query conditions. SuperGIS DataManager 3 supports the international standard—FGDC formats.

SuperGIS DataConvertor 3 is the data conversion tool. With SuperGIS DataConvertor 3, users can convert the common vector formats and image formats to the SuperGeo self-defined formats and even convert batch files. Therefore, not only the time for converting files can be reduced but also the file compatibility between SuperGIS series products and other software platforms can be enhanced. Additionally, SuperGIS DataConvertor 3 integrates the NRT Data Converter tool of SuperGIS 2 series. Thus, users will be able to apply SuperGIS DataConvertor 3 to convert NRT files to prepare for the route analysis.

Besides file format conversion, SuperGIS DataConvertor 3 can also facilitate users to convert the spatial reference of the layer files. Therefore, when users are converting the file formats, the spatial reference can be converted simultaneously as well to improve the efficiency.

Now you can try the latest and most powerful SuperGIS DataManager 3 and SuperGIS DataConvertor 3 by visiting Download in www.supergeotek.com.

ERDAS announces the release of IMAGINE Feature Interoperability, a new product extending ERDAS IMAGINE’s native vector support by adding support for additional CAD and GIS formats and tools.

IMAGINE Feature Interoperability offers direct support of the DGN format in ERDAS IMAGINE. Powered by Safe Software’s FME technology, IMAGINE Feature Interoperability provides direct read and write support to an ever expanding number of vector feature formats, starting with MicroStation’s DGN v7 and v8 format files. In addition to direct DGN support available from the Manage Data ribbon in ERDAS IMAGINE, Safe Software’s FME Workbench and Viewer allow for format conversion, as well as data manipulation and analysis.

“IMAGINE Feature Interoperability makes it easier for users to exchange data, easily converting to and from various formats,” said Mladen Stojic, Senior Vice President, Product Management & Marketing, ERDAS. “The ability to directly read and write the DGN format makes this format available in ERDAS IMAGINE for visualization, analysis and mapping.”

Safe Software’s FME Workbench offers a graphical environment for modeling the flow of data through a process.The environment can define whether further analysis or modification of data such as clipping, merging and filtering type functions are performed during processing. By dragging and dropping data, features and processes onto the canvas and making relevant connections, a multi-step conversion of features can be reduced to a single workflow.

IMAGINE Feature Interoperability is included in the ERDAS 2010 Software media kit. In addition, this product can also be downloaded from the ERDAS website. For more information on ERDAS, please call +1 770 776 3400, toll free +1 877 GO ERDAS, or visit www.erdas.com.

Radio astronomers have uncovered 17 millisecond pulsars in our galaxy by studying unknown high-energy sources detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The astronomers made the discovery in less than three months. Such a jump in the pace of locating these hard-to-find objects holds the promise of using them as a kind of "galactic GPS" to detect gravitational waves passing near Earth.

Paul Ray at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington said in a report, "Radio astronomers discovered the first millisecond pulsar 28 years ago. Locating them with all-sky radio surveys requires immense time and effort, and we've only found a total of about 60 in the disk of our galaxy since then. Fermi points us to specific targets. It's like having a treasure map."

Millisecond pulsars are nature's most precise clocks, with long-term, sub-microsecond stability that rivals human-made atomic clocks. Precise monitoring of timing changes in an all-sky array of millisecond pulsars may allow the first direct detection of gravitational waves -- a long-sought consequence of Einstein's relativity theory.

"The Global Positioning System uses time-delay measurements among satellite clocks to determine where you are on Earth," explained Scott Ransom of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia. "Similarly, by monitoring timing changes in a constellation of suitable millisecond pulsars spread all over the sky, we may be able to detect the cumulative background of passing gravitational waves."

The sources Fermi detected are not associated with any known gamma-ray emitting objects and did not show evidence of pulsing behavior. However, scientists considered it likely that many of the unidentified sources would turn out to be pulsars.

Ordnance Survey (OS) has announced that its mapping can be relied on by surveying critical infrastructure changes to roads and bridges in Cumbria (North West of England) following November’s flooding. Surveyors from Ordnance Survey have been in Workington, Cumbria, recently to start the task of mapping the changes after November’s floods.

The changes to bridges, Workington Railway Station and the road network will be reflected in their OS MasterMap Topography and Integrated Transport Network Layers from early 2010.

The first changes to be made have been the addition of the new army-built Barker Bridge and the Workington temporary railway station. David Henderson, Ordnance Survey Product Manager, said, “Although these changes will be temporary, the new bridge and railway station will remain in place for some time, and it is important to provide updated mapping to support those managing the general recovery of the area from the terrible impact of November’s floods. As and when the bridge and station are more permanently restored, we will ensure that our data is updated again.”

Ordnance Survey has worked with Cumbria County Council to identify the changes that need to be made. Through continued liaison with the local authority all the other bridges in the county that are still closed, condemned or collapsed will also be recorded and updated as required.

Sokkia introduced the new GRX1 GNSS system. However, this new system will be available in early 2010. It includes a new SHC250 data collector, a new controller and post-processing software. Denny Welch, senior vice president and general manager, Survey Business Unit, said, “These new products further strengthen the entire Sokkia product line-up.”

He said that the new GRX1 GNSS receiver has an integrated antenna, digital UHF radio, GSM module, Bluetooth module and detachable battery in a compact, rugged, magnesium-alloy body. Its fully upgradeable features allow users to start with an entry model for L1 GPS that can be upgraded to L1 GPS+GLONASS, to L1/L2 GPS, up to 72-channel L1/L2 GPS+GLONASS receiver.

He added that the new SHC250 data collector incorporates the latest Windows Mobile 6.5 OS, built-in Bluetooth modem and the new spectrum survey field software that fully controls the GRX1 receiver with unsurpassed ease and speed.

“This new GNSS system provides versatility and usability in RTK, network RTK and static applications that require millimetre or centimetre positioning accuracy,” he said.

Imagery from DigitalGlobe's Newest High-Resolution Satellite Now Available!

DigitalGlobe, a leading global provider of commercial high-resolution world imagery products and services for defense and intelligence, civil government, and commercial customers, announced today that its latest high-resolution satellite, WorldView-2, has achieved full operational capability. Imagery from the satellite is now available to global resellers, partners, and customers.

Launched on October 8, 2009, WorldView-2 joins DigitalGlobe’s existing sub-meter satellites, QuickBird and WorldView-1, on orbit. WorldView-2 significantly expands the constellation’s collection capacity, enabling an annual imaging capacity equivalent to three times the area of earth’s land mass, and allows for intraday revisit, providing customers with the most timely, relevant imagery available in the commercial market. WorldView-2 is also the industry’s first commercial high-resolution satellite to offer eight multispectral bands, which provide more spectral information and allow for greater analysis capabilities, including improved feature identification and change detection.

“Today’s achievement is an exciting milestone for both DigitalGlobe and the satellite imagery industry as a whole,” said Jill Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of DigitalGlobe. “Our three satellite constellation, together with our comprehensive ImageLibrary, will enable us to provide our customers with more comprehensive high-resolution imagery coverage of the world faster than ever before. The innovation offered by WorldView-2, including industry leading agility and the unique eight multispectral bands, will bring new value to the earth imaging industry and imagery’s every day users.”

To learn more about DigitalGlobe’s advanced constellation of sub-meter satellites, please visit www.digitalglobe.com.

PRWEB: Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) and Team Pennsylvania Foundation have selected GIS Planning Inc. to build their new commercial property and business research website to give Pennsylvania a competitive advantage in the corporate site-selection process.

The state-of-the-art website will be built upon the GIS Planning technology, called ZoomProspector Enterprise, and is designed to position Pennsylvania DCED and Team Pennsylvania Foundation at the cutting-edge of economic development organizations websites in the US.

The website’s groundbreaking features are slated to include powerful demographic analysis, community search and a social media strategy that is fully integrated within the website. The geographic information system (GIS) powered website will be centered around an interactive online map that will offer sophisticated site-selection capabilities, including Google Street View and Google Earth.

According to Anatalio Ubalde, CEO and co-founder of GIS Planning, “While many Economic Development Organizations are fearful of investing in their future due to current economic conditions, Pennsylvania DCED and Team Pennsylvania Foundation are truly leading the economic development industry with an aggressive investment in their community. They are making the right moves to best position themselves to gain a competitive advantage as we emerge out of this recession. We are excited to partner with industry leader like Pennsylvania DCED and Team Pennsylvania Foundation to meet the needs of Pennsylvania’s communities through this state-wide implementation, and look forward to the business growth and investment this will generate for the state.”

The website will also be integrated with GIS Planning’s national site selection search engine called ZoomProspector.com, which allows website visitors worldwide to do a national search of cities and commercial properties that match their unique criteria. When a community or any commercial property in Pennsylvania matches a business search on ZoomProspector.com, the user will then be able to click through to the new GIS website to analyze the unique business advantages.

Cairo: Web: A study conducted by the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, commissioned by the Arab Forum for Environment and Development, warned that Egypt would be one of the Arab countries most affected by climate change. The study analyzed a variety of scenarios of climate change impact, particularly on coastal areas, based on satellite images of the region, and showed that Egypt would be the most affected Arab country due to a rise in sea levels. The study stated that, “at least 12 million Egyptians will be forces to migrate from their area of residence in parts of Nile Delta and that with a rise in sea level by 5 meters, almost one third of the total affected Arab population would be Egyptian.

The Study was prepared by Dr. Eman Ghoneim, a research professor at the Center for Remote Sensing and devoted a large portion of its findings to the impact of rising sea levels on the Nile Delta. The study warned, “under the scenarios of rising sea levels, much of the Nile Delta would be lost forever, and the analysis of remote sensing and geographic information system, classified some areas in the Nile Delta at risk if sea levels rise by one meter” The report estimated that a rise of one meter only could engulf much of the Nile Delta. With about one third of the Delta area underwater, some of its coastal cities, such as Alexandria, Edco, Port Said and Damietta, would be in great danger.In this scenario, it is estimated that about 8.5% of the country’s population (7 million) would be forces to migrate to other areas.

The study added, “In extreme case scenarios of a 5 meter sea levels rise, more than half of the Nile Delta (58%) will face devastating effects and 10 major cities would be threatened, including Alexandria, Damanhur, Kafr El-Sheikh, Damietta, Mansoura and Port Said. Rising water would drown productive plots of agricultural lands and force about 14% of the country’s population (11.5 million) to move to areas of the more densely populated areas south of the Nile Delta region.”

The study went on to say that, “the Nile Delta, which covers about 24,900 square kilometers, and accounts for about 65% of agricultural land in Egypt, was once the largest site for sediments deposits in the basin of the Mediterranean Sea. It is an extreme example of low, flat land located in an area that is very vulnerable to rising sea levels.” The Delta is threatened due to accelerated erosion of the coastline and the establishment of the Aswan High Dam in 1962, which subsequently sequestered large amounts of sediment behind the dam in Lake Nasser.

The study showed that coastal erosion of the Delta as a result of natural causes and the extraction of groundwater can be seen in satellite images, especially near the coastal cities of Rosetta and Damietta. The analysis of satellite images shows that the Ras Rashid, “Rosetta”, lost almost 9.5 square kilometers of area. Likewise, the coastline retreated 3 km in the last 30 years (1972 to 2003), meaning that this part of the Delta declines at an alarming rate of about 100 meters in the year.

Study also discussed the consequences of climate change on the Arab region as a whole, including the impact of rising sea levels and its effects on the growth of cities, stating that the southern part of the Nile Delta is now suffering from uncontrolled population growth in the city of Cairo. The results also showed a loss of about 12% (62 square kilometers) of the agricultural areas adjacent to Cairo, between 1984 and 2002.

Masters in Geography Graduate Research Assistant - Fellowship

The Department of Geography at the University of New Mexico is seeking to hire a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) in Historical Geography, starting Fall 2010. GRAs are expected to be enrolled full-time in the MS in Geography program. Some of the specific research projects the GRA will be working on include:

• Historical transitions in New Mexico’s water resource management funded by the National Science Foundation. This research examines the ways local New Mexican communities responded to federal and territorial/state initiatives for centralized water management in the early 20th century. Data sources include district court cases, newspaper publications, and archival materials.

• Development of hydrological science in the arid West funded by the National Science
Foundation. This research examines the rhetorical, cultural, and structural Development of hydrology as a “science” for irrigation in the late-nineteenth-century American West, focusing on the ways water engineers and water administrators represented their work. Data sources include government documents, newspaper publications, and personal papers of water engineers.

• Cartography and expertise in water management funded by the National Science Foundation. This research examines the role of cartography in early 20th-century water management in New Mexico. Data sources includes government documents, district court cases, and personal papers of water engineers.

Qualified applicants should have an undergraduate degree in Geography or related field, with strong research and writing skills. Interest in natural resource management and experience with archival materials is also desirable. The GRA position consists of a competitive monthly stipend, including tuition waiver and benefits. Those interested in the positions should apply to the MS program in Geography and indicate that they would like to be considered for the GRA position in Historical Geography.

Application deadline to be considered for Fall 2010 is February 1, 2010.

Applications materials can be accessed at www.unm.edu/grad/admissions/admissions.html. Details on the Department of Geography and the MS program in Geography can be found at geography.unm.edu. More details on these specific research projects can also be found at www.unm.edu/~mdlane.

For more information, contact:

Maria Lane, Assistant Professor
Department of Geography
Bandelier West Room 111, MSC01 1110
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
E-mail: mdlane@unm.edu
Tel: (505) 277-1752