BY ELIZABETH BORNEMAN
The Environmental Protection Agency has released a new mapping application that allows users to investigate environmental and demographic information about the places they live, work and play. The app, called EJSCREEN, intersects data sets from recent censuses and environmental maps to help users understand the relationship between the environment and demographics.
EJSCREEN utilizes 12 different environmental indicators, six demographic indicators, and 12 environmental justice (EJ) indexes which pair an environmental indicator with a demographic indicator. This allows users to obtain color coded mapping and reports for the specific locations they have selected to look at using the app. The app can then compare these specific reports to state data, regional data and national averages.
The app’s environmental indicators include areas of water pollution, air particulates, and can combine this data with the physical features of a city like factories that may be contributing to particular environmental problems. Demographic information using census data can indicate various economic, social, and ethnic divides in a city and pair them with environmental factors.
The motivation behind the creation of the app is environmental justice; the idea that everyone has the right to live in healthy and happy environments. Unfortunately, factors like income and socioeconomic status can expose people to higher levels of pollutants than those who live in wealthier areas of a city or state. The idea of environmental discrimination can now begin to be quantified after years of scientific speculation.
The app is used by scientists and policy makers as well as community members looking to improve the environmental quality of their communities. The app is the first consistent environmental tool for the Environmental Protection Agency to use that smaller environmental agencies can also utilize in their own conservation efforts. While far from perfect, the app is an important step in developing a greater understanding of the intersection between demographics and the environment in the United States.
References
EJSCREEN – Environmental Protection Agency
The EPA Has a New Tool For Mapping Where Pollution and Poverty Intersect (2015, July 14).
BY CAITLIN DEMPSEY MORAIS
If you have a CSV formatted file containing addresses, you can take advantage of QGIS to map out those addresses. This article contains step by step instructions for geocoding addresses using QGIS.
First, you will need to have QGIS installed on your computer. QGIS is an open source GIS software application that is free to download (See: QGIS Download and Installation).
Install the MMQGIS Plugin
In order to geocode addresses from a CSV file, you will need to first install the plugin MMQGIS. MMQGIS contains a suite of very useful plugins for manipulating vector GIS data and was developed by Michael Minn. Contained within this set of plugins is the Geocoding plugins which lets users either geocode an address file using Googles or OpenStreetMap APIs or from a street layer.
To install the MMQGIS plugin, you will need to load the QGIS plugin repository by selecting Plugins –> Manage and Install Plugins from the menu bar.
This loads the Official QGIS Plugin Repository where a list of plugins is available. Select MMQGIS for installation by either scrolling down the alphabetical list of plugins or by filtering the list via the search bar at the top. Check the box next the mmqgis and then click on the install plugin button.
Geocoding an Address File in QGIS
Now that the plugin is installed, you can access the Geocoding function by click on MMQGIS –> Geocoding from the top menu bar.
There are two geocoding options: one for geocoding your address file using either Google or OpenStreetMap geocoding web services or by geocoding from a street layer. For this tutorial, the address file will be geocoded using Google’s geocoding API. Geocoding using one of the web service options will require an Internet connection.
Once the “Geocode CSV with Google / OpenStreetMap” option has been selected, a GUI for the Web Service Geocode opens. From the window, load the CSV file (if you have the address file in a spreadsheet such as MS Excelor Google Fusion Tables, you will need to export the data out as a CSV file). Within the CSV you must have the proper information for geocoding address. The first line of the CSV file should contain the column names with each separated by a comma. The second and all subsequent lines contain the records for that file with each column again separated by a column. Within this file you will need to have a column for the address, a column for the city, and a column for the state (for US records) and/or a column for the countries. For my geocoding, I am using a CSV file containing the rankings and company information for the Fortune 1000 companies in the United States.
Now set the parameters for geocoding; select from each section the street address, city, state, and country columns in the CSV file that match. For web service, pick the desired geocoding service. Note: there is a 2,500 record limit within a 24 hour period when using Google’s service. Lastly, set where you want the resulting shapefile and CSV file that will record any records that were not able to be geocoded.
Once you have set all the parameters, hit the “OK” button to start geocoding. The length of time for geocoding depends on how large your file is. It took about 7 minutes for my 1,000 record file of addresses to finish geocoding. I selected the Google Maps web service which limits geocoding to five records per second.
Once the geocoding is finished, the end result is a geocoded point shapefile. Appended to the table are two tables that describe how each point was determined.
CyberCity 3D, Inc. ("CC3D”) announced today that it has signed a streaming 3D building services agreement with Analytical Graphics, Inc., (AGI) a provider of commercial software for the aerospace and geospatial communities.
CyberCity3D now provides streaming 3D building services in the Binary Gltf® format, which is designed for light-weight web transmission of 3D content. Released in Cesium 1.10, Binary Gltf groups 3D buildings together into tiles to reduce the number of network requests and WebGL draw calls. The result is blazing fast 3D streaming maps for all environments including mobile pads and smart phones. These services save time and money while communicating 3D maps for decision-making to the broadest possible markets.
"We are thrilled to be moving so quickly with the Cesium team. Streaming 3D maps with our joint technologies is truly a game-changer for cities worldwide seeking to make better decisions through mapping information," stated Kevin DeVito, CEO of CyberCity 3D, Inc.
CC3D is offering streaming 3D building and terrain services to both governmental and private planning and mapping sectors. CC3D has been creating high-resolution, interoperable 3D GIS city models for clients including Autodesk, Google and Esri for the past 8 years. It is the leader in 3D smart building content for most 3D mapping and visualization applications.
AGI’s Chief Operating Officer, Frank Linsalata praises, “CyberCity 3D provides exceptional 3D building content. We are very excited that they are utilizing the Cesium Building Server to stream rich 3D content to their customers.”
Above Image: Streaming 3D Map- MIT Campus with trees, ortho imagery & storm water catchment layers
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About Cesium
Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) is the incubator of the Cesium team who is the founder and primary contributor to the CesiumJS open source project. The Cesium team also builds off-the-shelf software products to enable the rapid dissemination of geospatial data products. For more information, email Email Contact.
About CyberCity 3D
CyberCity 3D is a global leader in the creation of the 3D built environment, producing smart and interoperable data sets for use in mapping and planning. For more information, email Email Contact.
Disclaimer: I know people and have friends that push pixels for a living, at least I did at the time of this writing.
The North American Imagery Program (NAIP) is a productive use of our federal tax dollars. NAIP is a program that is run by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), with a primary purpose of ensuring compliance in agriculture. Since many crops are subsidized and insured in this country, the NAIP conducts flights to image crops during the growing season in states that grow a large number of crops.
The imagery is used (remote sensed) to make sure that “Farmer Joe” is getting subsidies for the right crop. Typically, the imagery taken at a resolution of 2 meter pixels. However, every 5 years, generally, a state may be surveyed at the higher 1 meter pixels resolution. Once the imagery is certified by NAIP, it is released for public consumption via many sources, including Geospatial Data Gateway (GDG), a service run by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) through a close partnership between the three Service Center Agencies (SCA); Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Farm Service Agency (FSA), and Rural Development (RD).
NAIP and the GDG can be used to develop and train in-house staff on various geoprocesses, data management, data storage management, and understand the length and breadth of the associated processes. This approach can be very successful, and actually can yield quickly useable, realistic results. For those companies that have a reasonable number of geospatial analysts, one approach is to pick someone every year, and give them exposure to the NAIP and ask have them certain counties for a State or Area of Interest (AOI).
They would start by accessing the GDG, looking at the current year’s data, and begin downloading it. The GDG throttles how much data can be downloaded at once. Nonetheless, this would help the analyst start learning how to allocate resources, and manage time, with respects to keeping the downloads as continuous as possible.
Once the data is in house, a number of different applications and processes can be performed against the data. Some of these processes include understanding when pixels overlap from multiple images, how to choose which one you want to keep; how to ignore certain values (for example, black collars); and set up a workflow for the newly compiled image. “Rinse and repeat” these processes against other portions of the available data.
With analysts having a mature understanding to geospatial data processing, companies should enture that they working with the IT Infrastructure group on provisioning enough free storage capacity, such that it allows the analysts to combine several very large images (often over 100GB per image).
At this point the analyst can take ownership of the data set. Luckily, the actual time an analyst spends at the keyboard is relatively small. The majority of time is taken up with computer processing. However, analysts will check frequently to make sure the process is still running.
Once processed, the newly compiled data would get loaded into an image server, file share, webservice, or someone other device that can distribute and share the new aerial image for other users to utilize.
Ideally, processing of the NAIP data should take place every year. Analysts can look at images from the past and the current ones to see what had changed. In combination, there are great benefits for end-users, while providing each with a realistic learning experiences for internal analysts who want to be developed, and utilizing available resources .
The outcome of this process of training is to develop analysts who are capable of:
• Project management;
• Learning from mistakes;
• Learn new skill sets;
• Being aware of public datasets;
• How to improve analysts on their use and understanding of how data is formatted and transformed; and of course
• Taking pride in their work.
Source
ENVITIA is pleased to announce that Blighter Surveillance Systems, a British electronic-scanning radar and sensor solution provider, has chosen MapLink Pro to provide the map visualisation capability in BlighterView HMI 2.
BlighterView provides users with a simple interface to control and view one or more Blighter radars with additional controls for advanced users to optimise the radar settings and the HMI display characteristics for specific applications. MapLink Pro enables users to embed high performance mapping components within their systems and is designed and optimised for tactical display environments.
Envitia MapLink Pro was chosen due to its superior performance, cross platform support and flexible licensing model.
“It is a pleasure to welcome Blighter into the growing community of MapLink Pro users” said Dr Matt Perrin, Sales and Marketing Director, Envitia Ltd. “The decision to use our technology demonstrates Blighter’s commitment to providing the highest performance and operational reliability to its users”.
Nick Booth, Sales and Marketing Director, Blighter Surveillance Systems, said: “Envitia’s best-in-class MapLink Pro toolkit is one of the key components in our BlighterView software application. The framework allows a variety of open-source, commercial and military 2D surface maps to be displayed and 3D data to be included, allowing customers to easily integrate coordinate based remote sensors, such as cameras, into their security solution.”
Envitia MapLink Pro is a suite of powerful SDKs (Software Development Toolkits) that enables developers to quickly build and deploy high performance mapping and terrain visualisation systems. It is the “visualisation toolkit of choice” for dynamic management and display of geospatial information and live track data.
About Envitia
Envitia is a world leading geospatial software and solutions provider, serving defence, government and industry customers all around the world. We help our clients make better operational decisions from geospatial intelligence using open information-sharing and visualisation solutions. We specialise in serving customers working in mission- and time-critical domains, delivering products, sub-systems and end-to-end geospatial solutions. Established in 1989, Envitia is a privately owned, small to medium sized enterprise (SME) with offices in the UK and USA.
About Blighter Surveillance Systems ( www.blighter.com)
Blighter Surveillance Systems is an electronic-scanning radar and sensor solution provider. It delivers an integrated multi-sensor package to systems integrators comprising the Blighter e-scan radars, cameras, thermal imagers, trackers and software solutions. Blighter radars combine patented solid-state Passive Electronically Scanned Array (PESA) technology – utilising digital beamforming (DBF) on transmit and receive – with advanced Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) and Doppler processing to provide a robust and persistent surveillance capability and an unmatched combination of high reliability, accuracy and performance with a low cost of ownership. Products are manufactured under a BS EN ISO 9001:2008 certified management system. Blighter Surveillance Systems is a Plextek Group company, a leading British design house and technology innovator, and is based at Great Chesterford on the outskirts of Cambridge, England.
Contacts:
Envitia Ltd
North Heath Lane
Horsham, West Sussex
RH12 5UX, UK
Tel: +44 1403 273 173 Fax: +44 1403 273 123
Email: Email Contact
