How good is eGovernment?

A few months ago I published a short piece on the evaluation of eGovernment web maps in the ISCR newsletter (Competition and Regulation Times).  

The piece reflected on my usability work creating an evaluation method for web mapping with Spatial IQ last summer.  If you are interested in reading the piece, its available at: http://www.iscr.org.nz/f958,25113/CRT_September_2014_web.pdf

Personal reflections on Geocart

This year at the Geocart conference I was elected to the New Zealand Cartographic Society committee.  Geoff Aitken, the editor of Cartogram, asked me to write a piece for the society's newsletter.

Click through to read the full article: http://cartography.org.nz/images/files/cartogram/NZCS_Cartogram-077_Dec2014.pdf

I raised two key challenges for the conference and cartographic industry in New Zealand - the lack of student and female involvement in the conference (despite high attendance by women).  Let me know what you think!

The Geospatial Skills Shortage in New Zealand

My paper on the geospatial skills shortage in New Zealand has just been published.  See: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nzg.12054/abstract

If you are interested in applying for a GIS or geospatial job in New Zealand, the paper is worth a read as it details the dimensions of the skills shortage and identifies the skills geospatial employers are seeking in New Zealand.

Summary of the paper:

Geospatial technologies span governmental, academic and private commercial sectors, and their potential for growth is considerable. The USA and Australia have trouble meeting demand for geospatial skills. This paper reports on a national survey of 157 organisations that identified a similar geospatial shortage in New Zealand. The paper also details dimensions of the shortage and the current frameworks for meeting the shortfall of skilled professionals. Arising from this skills gap, key challenges facing both the geography and geospatial communities are identified and discussed: raising student numbers, gaining experience, up-skilling current professionals and raising awareness of the value of the geospatial skillset.

Importance of geospatial academic qualifications and prior experience for most recently advertised position by New Zealand geospatial employer.

Paper available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nzg.12054/abstract

MGIS Thesis Talks: Wednesday December 10 5-6pm, CO304, Cotton Building, Kelburn Campus.

MGIS student thesis talks on Wednesday 10 December, 5-6pm

Cotton 304, Kelburn Campus, Victoria University of Wellington

::All welcome::

Modelling irrigation in an ecosystem services framework: A GIS module for the Land Utilisation & Capability Indicator

Stuart Easton

Supervisors: Bethanna Jackson, Mairéad de Róiste

There is a need for spatially explicit modelling of irrigation so that inefficiencies in water use can be determined and targeted for management or mitigation at sub-field scales. A complimentary need exists for irrigation modelling within ecosystem decision support tools so that nutrient and water movements can be accurately quantified. Preliminary outputs from a spatially explicit irrigation simulation model are presented. The model aims to add irrigation flows to the hydrology component of the Land Utilisation and Capability Indicator (LUCI) ecosystem service modelling framework and produce standalone outputs that can inform management decisions. 

Waiting and weighting: Public transport model sensitivity to waiting time and schedule deviation

Richard Law

Supervisors: Mairéad de Róiste, Toby Daglish, Yigit Saglam

Models of public transportation systems can take a variety of forms, but are typically based on the schedule and adopt assumptions about passenger waiting strategies that together lead to a representation that may not accurately  reflect the operation of the real transit system, such as delays and missed connections. Using the complete record of Greater Wellington Regional Council's real-time information (RTI) system, I develop more realistic models of Wellington's public transportation system, and quantify the error associated with travel time estimates and the measurement of spatial accessibility made from models that lack this additional information.

This blog article really spoke to me today

http://pgbovine.net/why-academics-feel-overworked.htm

"why do academics so often feel overworked?"
"I think the answer lies in the fact that, as an academic, your work comes from multiple independent sources...None of these sources of work know of or care about one another. They are completely independent. Thus, it's totally up to you to plan your time to balance all of these obligations. Instead of a single boss giving you work to do, academics have seven independent “bosses” pulling them in different directions."

Especially in a week of grading overload and setting up research students for the summer, this really struck home!

VUW Spatial Excellence

Of the six possible undergraduate and postgraduate finalists in the New Zealand Spatial Excellence Awards (http://www.nzspatialawards.org.nz/).  VUW has picked up 4 finalists!

Michelle Boodee and Jonathan Ball have been shortlisted for the Student of the Year (undergraduate) while Andrew Clouston and James Richardson were shortlisted for the Student of the Year (postgraduate).

Of these four excellent finalists, three are closely involved in the MGIS.  Michelle is about to enter her first year of the MGIS programme, Jonathan has just finished his first year and Andrew has just submitted his Master's thesis.

Congrats!

Women in leadership at VUW

At the opening of Victoria university's women in leadership day. Great attendance. 

While women are increasingly filling a reasonable proportion of academic roles, the number at more senior Ievels is low. Interested in finding out how VUW are looking at this.