Notes on where to find historical aerial imagery (thanks to Kass Green): The USDA has an archive of aerial imagery in Salt Lake City at APFOhttp://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/aerial-photography/index. There is a ArcGIS online map of the tiles and dates of this photos. Search in ArcGIS online for the AFPO Historical Availability Tile Layer. USDA is in the process of scanning these photos, but you can order them through a manual process now (which can take a long time).
The EROS data center in Sioux Falls also has an archive of high altitude photos for the US from the 1980s. Also check out https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/NHAP and https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/NAPP . These photos are available digitally, but are not terrain corrected or georeferenced.
Just got off a call with a group of people focusing on historical data discovery at the Natural Reserve System (NRS). This process is part of the recently funded Institute for the Study of Ecological Effects of Climate Impacts (ISEECI). People in the group include:
- Peter Alagona, historical ecologist, UCSB
- Jessica Blois, paleoecologist, UCM
- John Christensen, UCLA
- Jeffrey Diez, ecologist, UCR
- Becca Fenwick, ecologist, UCM
- Laurel Fox, UCSC
- Lynn McLaren, UCSC
- Peter Moyle, UCD
Of particular note was the introduction of the Online Archive of California, which is a collection of metadata about historical archives. Peter is adding all his data to the OAC. His work was funded through a Research Opportunity Fund grant through UCOP, and a NSF grant. The process the NRS has used is different than what we have done with the REC data. They have assembled metadata from the research reports from the stations, and full digitization can be opportunisic and focused on particular questions. There is a Zotero database of publications that have resulted from the reserves.
I'm musing, contemplating and writing on the decade 2005-2015, as this is the GIF's 10-year anniversary. What a decade it was. Here I'll post and add to some of the key events that helped transform mapping (and the GIF) in the last 10 years.
Key background events
- 1996. Mapquest launched.
- 1997. Skynet becomes self-aware.
- May 2000. Selective Availabilility on GPS turned off, leading the way for GPS in smartphones.
- The Scan Line Corrector (SLC) on the Landsat 7 ETM+ instrument failed May 31, 2003.
- 2004. Open Street Map founded.
- March 2004. Yahoo! maps launched, first slippy maps (click and drag to pan and zoom the map).
- 2004. NASA releases WorldWind.
- October 2004. Google acquires Where 2 allowing AJAX map tiling to a desktop client.
- October 2004. Google acquires Keyhole.
What made 2005 such a crazy year
- Google Maps launches in February, and goes mobile in April.
- The first mashup: Paul Rademacher's Housingmaps.org. His original post on Craigslist asking for feedback: https://forums.craigslist.org/?ID=26638141
- Google Maps API launches in June.
- NASA's Blue Marble Next Generation released.
- Google Earth launches in June.
- Hurricane Katrina hits in August. Simple webmaps for the disaster proliferate, and ESRI and GE get on the scene.
- Kellylab's first blog post in September.
- GIF launches and hosts our first GIS Day in November with Michael Jones, formerly of Keyhole.
- The back-up solar array drive on Landsat 5 began failing and was not able to provide the power needed to charge the batteries. November 26.
Where we are in 2015
We've gone through a number of transitions in the world of mapping:
- Data have transitioned from being siloed, and found in clearinghouses to being open and provided through APIs.
- We’ve moved from desktop computing to cloud computing.
- Webmaps have transitioned from using proprietary stacks to networks with multiple open and proprietary options.
- We’ve moved from imagery gathered monthly or seasonally to daily; footprints are smaller, and our focus has shifted from local focus to global coverage.
- Our planimetric 2D view is changing with lidar and radar sensors.
- Visualization has moved from static cartography or simple animations to dynamic interactive visualization.
- Finally, mapped content is no longer anonymous or regulated, but highly personal and narrative.
Key GiF milestones:
- 2005 GIIF (Geospatial Imaging and Informatics Facility) launches
- 2006 OakMapper changes from ArcIMS to Google Earth API
- 2008 GIIF becomes GIF
- 2008 OakMapper 2.0 launches
- 2008 SNAMP website launches
- 2011 Cal-Adapt goes live
- 2013 EcoEngine/HOLOS goes live
- 2014 LandCarbon launches
- 2014 GIF and Cal-Adapt go to the White House
- 2014 vtm.berkeley.edu goes live, built from the HOLOS API
- 2015 Spatial Data Science bootcamp in May
Onwards and upwards!
/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>/span>Nice consise history of mapping from his lecture "The Ubiquitous Digital Map" by Gary Gale, Director of Global Ccommunity Programs, HERE.
http://www.vicchi.org/2013/02/19/the-ubiquitous-digital-map-abridged/
Great retrospective on 100 years of National Geographic map making.
100 Years of National Geographic Maps: The Art and Science of Where
Since 1915, National Geographic cartographers have charted earth, seas, and skies in maps capable of evoking dreams.
This beaut on the right is from 1968 of the ocean floor. The article says: " Based on the work of geophysicists Bruce Heezen and Marie Tharp, this 1968 map of the ocean floor helped bring the concept of plate tectonics to a wide audience. Tharp began plotting the depths in 1950 from soundings taken by ships in the Atlantic, but, as a woman, wasn't allowed on the ships herself. In 1978 she was awarded the Society's Hubbard Medal for her pioneering research."
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