Building off of the last post I decided to incorporate Google Earth and some analysis to show where Al'Qaida and Taliban forces have been concentrating in Afghanistan. To determine the areas of operation of both of these terrorist organizations I compiled information from various sources to create a basic map of where these groups are operating and where the U.S ground forces are focusing their attention. After a little research I created a basic map of the areas of operation by simply using the measure tool in Cartographica to determine the X and Y coordinates in order to create …

The war is Afghanistan is currently an important issue for many people. Many families have loved ones serving our country in an attempt to fight global terrorism. Generally, speaking most of us know very little about the landscape of Afghanistan, including topographical, infrastructural, and political, layout of the country. In an attempt to provide a little spatial information about Afghanistan I have put together a blog post highlighting some of these issues related to this war torn county. The data for this blog post was recovered from Afghanistan Information Management Systems which is a free GIS data download website. The …

I recently came across an interesting New York Times article about crime in New York City. The article mentions that crime in NYC is highest during the summer months, which is a common finding among criminologists and others interested in crime trends. The article includes an interesting use of mapping by including an interactive map where victims, offenders, motive, and weapon can be viewed. The article mentions that crime in NYC is highest in the summer months, which is a classic issue in Criminology, and one that has been studied by numerous researchers. The increase in crime during the summer …

This post is an extension of the last Google Sketch Up/Google Earth example. In this post we are going to do a similar process except we are going to import a large structure on a larger plot of land. This posting is using an example that I developed after the city of Lexington, Kentucky announced that a new 40 story hotel would be built downtown. I used this opportunity to design what I thought would be an interesting building for the city. In this example we are dealing with a plot of land that actually included about 20 parcels …

Lets pretend that we are housing developers looking to develop land in a historic downtown neighborhood. We have identified a parcel of land in a prime location and we want to propose a plan for development on the land. We want to show our investors what we have planned by locating the parcels using Cartographica, and then importing those parcels into Google Earth so that we can show the investors a 3D mock up of the planned development. We can combine Cartographica, Google Earth, and Google Sketch up, to make this happen. In our hypothetical scenario there is one problem …

We all remember when the economic stimulus package was announced earlier this year by President Obama. However, what we were unsure about was were all of the money was going. MSNBC has released a new mapping tool that allows users to see where and how much stimulus money has been spent. The stimulus tracker is very interesting because it allows users to see not only where stimulus money is being spent, but also in what ways the money is being used. The website provides state and county level data and provides a detailed list for each project that is being …

I recently came across a great website called World Wind Central that has compiled a great source of orthophoto data. I decided to use data form the website to show how to download import and map orthophotos along with data collected from the census bureau. In order to create maps with orthophoto data included, you first must download the orthophoto data from a website like World Wind Central . If you wish to include census data you can simply download shapefiles and import the census and orthophoto data into the same map (assuming they are on the same projection). To illustrate …

Building off of Gaige's May 2009 post regarding data available online from the city of Washington D.C. I decided to create a few interesting maps just to show some of the analytic capabilities of Cartographica. The city of Washington D.C. provides a large range of data regarding practically anything that can be spatially analyzed within the city. For this example I decided to collect several demographic, infrastructure, and other social data to create a few interesting maps. Compiling a large amount of data from an online source such as D.C. GIS is a valuable skill to learn …

I came across an interesting article on GISuser.com about a new app for the iPhone that is designed to track outbreaks of infectious diseases like H1N1. The app "Outbreaks Near Me" provides users with real time information about the location of both the user and where the infectious disease was recorded. The application was created by the Children's Hospital Boston with help from MIT and Google.org. The app works on information based from the health information website HealthMap, which maps and provides information on infectious diseases from around the world. The purpose of the new app according to …

The U.S. Census Bureau released the data for the 2008 American Community Survey this week, which has created a buzz on the internet about some of the most interesting findings. One article on CNN Money mentioned that the U.S. economy had obvious impacts the economic, housing, and social data. The article mentioned that the highest median incomes in the United States are found in the North East and on the West Coast. The article also provides information about the highest and lowest earning states as well as the states that experienced the highest and lowest amounts of change …

I read an interesting article this morning about the U.S. Department of Agriculture's new study on food production on the East Coast. According to the USDA website, the Agricultural Research Service is conducting a large scale evaluation that includes researchers from "Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tufts University, Iowa State University, Cornell University, and Pennsylvania State University. Two other USDA agencies—the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the Agricultural Marketing Service—are also contributing to the study." The USDA website notes that people think of the East Coast as mostly urban, however, the East Coast has an agricultural economy over …

I read an interesting article on Bloomberg.com about a "Giant" oil discovery made recently by U.S. Oil Giant BP in the Gulf of Mexico. One estimate in the article is that the newest find is somewhere in the area of one billion barrels of oil. The article mentions that Oil companies are going to greater lengths to reach oil once thought to be impossible to obtain. The reasons mentioned for this are dwindling supplies of domestically produced oil, and reluctance of other counties in the Middle East and South America to allow U.S. oil producers to tap …

In an Article from the Air Force Space Command it is reported that on Aug 17th the United States Air Force Launched the last of a series of 8 modernized satellites to replace aging GPS satellites. The latest launch was somewhat of a milestone in the history of GPS. The latest satellite is the final IIR satellite to be launched, and is the final satellite to be launched on the Air Force's United Launch Alliance Delta II Rocket, which is the only launch vehicle that has been used since the beginning of the GPS program in the 1970's. According to …

There have been numerous reports coming out of California about problems the state is facing in dealing with wildfires. An article on CNN mentioned that hundreds have been evacuated from their homes because of threats from the fires . Unfortunately, officials are unsure as to what has caused the fire, but high winds have contributed to the fire's growth. Reading this article sparked my interest in trying to find out where wildfires are currently burning in the United States. I searched out data about fires and came across latitude and longitude data for fires that are currently burning in the United …

I recently completed a paper on the relationship between a governmental program known as HOPE VI and changing crime patterns in Lexington, Kentucky. I discovered some very interesting patterns that occurred as large numbers of public housing residents were relocated throughout the city. The methodology for this study was somewhat more complex than simply comparing a few maps over several years. I employed various statistical techniques to determine if the presence of HOPE VI residents could significantly predict higher rates of crime and social disorganization. For this post I am including the maps that show a significant growth away from …

Recently a friend of mine received information in the mail about becoming a Naval Officer. In the packet of information was a brochure that included information about locations of U.S. Naval bases and ports throughout the world. The location information was simply a list of cities around the world where the bases and ports are located. I thought it would be both interesting and informative to talk about how to turn a list of cities into a map. The process for creating the map is pretty simple, and can be completed in just a few easy steps. The first …

Last week's House hearing on the state of Federal geospatial data management encouraged me to search out good places for both free and inexpensive GIS data. Basically, I wanted to create a brief overview about good places to find GIS data. I will mostly likely post several blog postings on this issue as I discover new places to find data. With the growing number of users learning to use GIS in both their professional and private lives, the need for an organized data management system is apparent. Unfortunately, there is currently not a one-stop-shop for GIS data, and as more …

Yesterday (July 23) the House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources held a hearing about the future of federal geospatial data management. The purpose of the meeting was to cover various issues related to geospatial data, and to talk about the need to promote better geospatial data management and a national geospatial data infrastructure. The hearing was published on the House Committee on Natural Resources website for public viewing. The hearing included a panel of mapping professionals that were at the hearing to testify about the value of geospatial data and the importance of creating a national database of federal …

I was attempting to find some Climate Change data when I came across GeoData.gov ,which is a really excellent website for free GIS data. When I was attempting to find climate data I came across some very interesting data regarding tornados in the United States. The data included an entire log of tornados from 1950 through 2006 which includes nearly 50,000 data entries. The tornado data includes a lot of information about each event including the strength of the tornado on the F-Scale, the number of injuries and deaths, how far the tornado went, how wide the path …

I found a really interesting website earlier this week that is used for tracking marine vessels around the world. The website, MarineTraffic.com provides a look at most (but not all) coastal areas around the world that have large ports and heavy sea traffic. The website gives the location of a ship on a map by providing a symbol that corresponds to the type of ship that is being represented. The user can click on the symbol and learn a lot of information about the ship, like where it is from, where it is going, what its job is (i …