Individual house postcodes

The Irish government has just released a postcode system for Ireland - to be called Eircode.  Up until now, the country did not operate one.  However there are some interesting aspects to the postcodes.  First, it is for every individual address in the State.  The code comprises of a routing key and then a unique identifier.  But here's the kicker; the routing key isn't directly related to towns or counties (similar in system to that used for phone number prefixes).  While the system provides spare capacity for future growth in different areas (a problem with some current postcodes), it will not help 'locate' an address based on where it is on a road or to significantly narrow down the area.  The applications to emergency services will therefore be dependent on their buying into the system and the methods they have in place to update the database.  As many addresses in Ireland are non-unique, this may solve some of the issues with logistics but the lack of openness may hamper its wider appeal.

http://www.thejournal.ie/postcode-ireland-system-eircode-addresses-1437443-Apr2014/

The Wellington ESRI GIS Regional Meeting April 11th 2014

On the 11th of April this year, the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences (SGEES) sponsored the ESRI GIS User Group meeting in Wellington. This meeting attracts participants from industry, government and the tertiary sector to dissemination information on GIS projects in the region.  This was the 5th meeting of a series of regional meetings throughout New Zealand.  The meeting attracted just under 80 people. The School was well represented with seven attendees and a number of recent alumni.

Andrew Rae, the SGEES GIS Technician, is a member of the national ESRI GIS User Group committee and he organised the day’s events as well as brought his unique charm and wit to the event by acting as MC.

These meetings inform GIS professionals on updates to the tools and software.  The meeting hosted two workshops by Eagle technology on updates and developments in ArcGIS.  Many of these developments are focused around mobile services and cloud computing.  Of particular interest to spatially aware researchers is the provision of a soon-to-be-released free web service of LINZ aerial photography that will work both with ArcGIS and other GIS software, such as MapInfo.

Talks during the day covered nutrient farm management systems (of particular interest to SGEES researchers working in hydrological modelling), addressing and geocoding, automation of mapping services using Python, fence maintenance and the greater availability through web services of Statistics New Zealand data.  Mairead de Roiste, SGEES Senior Lecturer in GIS, presented on her work with the Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation (ISCR) on their SET (Spatial Econometric Transport) model.

The talks and presenters were from a wide variety of backgrounds (conservation, research, central government, consultants, etc.) and covered different methodologies and tools; giving the audience a great insight into the work in GIS being done across the region by some very passionate professionals.

The final presentation was by the GIS in Conservation group (GIC).  This group is seeking GIS volunteers to work with organisations implementing GIS in conservation efforts, such as Zealandia and Predator Free New Zealand.  The day finished with drinks and nibbles with a chance to socialise and chat about the day’s events.

The interest from the School of both current and former students in attending this event is illustrative of the growth of this area and the key role Victoria University and the School have played and continue to play in shaping and supporting the geospatial industry.

Making too much sense of geographic data

Nice article on the role of the Ordnance Survey

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/19/end-of-the-road-ordnance-survey-rachel-hewitt

Mapping the spaces

I love the idea of this map - showing the locations of where we're not.  Alaska is pretty expected but other parts weren't.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2014/04/map-all-places-us-where-nobody-lives/8910/

Interested in learning more about remote sensing?

Karen Joyce, a lecturer in Australia (and formerly of DOC and GNS in New Zealand), has put together a website explaining some of the important concepts.

http://remotesensinglab.com/

Goodbye Ireland as we know it...

http://www.ryot.org/melted-polar-ice-caps/650645

The link shows sea level rise across the world if all the polar ice melts.

Game of Thrones Geology Map

http://www.stanford.edu/group/anthropocene/cgi-bin/wordpress/game-of-thrones-geology/

A rather wonderful representation of the geology of Westeros

How should cartographers map Crimea?

The internet acts a new dimension to the authoritative nature of maps in situations of contested boundaries.  How does Google map these areas?  How should we as a community of cartographers and disseminators of geographic information treat this information sensitively and appropriately?

Good article with examples here: http://geoawesomeness.com/cartographers-map-crimea/

geoguessing

A neat game where they show you a random location in Google Street View and you guess where it is on a world map.  So go on, how good are you?

http://www.geoguessr.com/

Affordability of Wellington and Auckland

Just got a job in either Wellington or Auckland - where can you afford to live?  

Great idea for an animated geovisualization.

http://affordability.org.nz/wellington.html

Stripy Zebras

It seems that zebras may have developed stripes to ward off flies - this article, summarising research just published in Nature Communications, used ecological and observation data to test a number of competing theories to explain zebras' stripes.  Obviously the geographic extent played an important part!  Nice example of how simple GIS techniques when applied to areas that normally don't use GIS can identify some pretty important results.   

Free Historic Online Maps

Over 20,000 historic maps put online by the New York Library.  Some stunning examples of cartography here.

http://www.openculture.com/2014/03/new-york-public-library-puts-20000-hi-res-maps-online.html

Lord of the Rings - Story map

A few more of these examples and I might just be convinced that story maps are a good idea...

http://lotrproject.com/map/?path=1#path=1&zoom=3&lat=-1334&lon=1500&layers=B

Angkor Temples - panoramic street views on google maps

http://google-latlong.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/wander-through-angkors-thousand-year.html

A nice use of Google maps to explore exotic locations

Big data - big mistakes?

A great article from the Financial Times on the use of Big Data and the projected 'End of Theory'.  In particular, the locational bias should be of interest to GIS peeps looking to use Big Data (especially as the article puts it - found Big Data).

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/21a6e7d8-b479-11e3-a09a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2xrsWdbOW

Immigration infographic

Still GI but is it a map?

http://qz.com/192440/where-everyone-in-the-world-is-migrating-in-one-gorgeous-chart/

Wind

Beautiful graphic displaying the world's winds - definitely need to click through on this one ;)  Also click on the earth button to display different variables.

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/equirectangular=-189.57,-47.73,1108

Play Google Cube

Looking for a cute, GIS related time waster?  Look no further...

Google Cube - A game about google maps.  Now you get to play with it: http://www.playmapscube.com/

It has the nice added bonus of explaining some of the Google Maps extras like cycle restrictions.

Post Apocalyptic OS Map

Great map theme (comes in a close second to the watercolour theme by Stamen) displaying the earth using post apocalyptic textures and reimagining markers.  More detail on the map available at: http://www.wired.com/2014/02/map-box-space-theme/#more-577301

The True Size of Africa

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/cartography?fsrc=scn%2Ftw_ec%2Fthe_true_true_size_of_africa

This might come in very useful in explaining how Greenland is not the same size as Africa...