International Geospatial Digest for April 1st 2024

1. Use of remote sensing and GIS technologies to reduce deforestation in Africa
2. Vermont Uses Site Scan for ArcGIS and ArcGIS Online for Quicker Flood Response
3. Create Earth Climate Digital Twin using NVIDIA’s latest API
4. Satellite photos depict the Baltimore Bridge both before and after it collapsed
5. Barcelona’s Urban Innovations has Superblocks, Sustainable Mobility, and Future GIS Possibilities

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Use of remote sensing and GIS technologies to reduce deforestation in Africa

The team at Proforest Africa has recently seen a decline in the coverage of forest area in one of Ghana’s forest zones, which is the consequence of illegal mining activities. The first observations made using publicly available Sentinel 2 satellite imagery (10 m resolution), which were then followed up by drone surveys using Very High Resolution (VHR) outputs to confirm that some mining activity was still going on.

The emphasis of this year’s International Day of Forests is “Forests and Innovation: New Solution to a Better World.” This is a chance to leverage technology to promote sustainable practices and good change in the forest industry. Activities that accelerate forest change can be taken on head-on with the use of cutting-edge hardware, AI-machine learning algorithms, GPS data collection tools, trained workers, and remote sensing technologies (drones and satellites).Read the article here

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Vermont Uses Site Scan for ArcGIS and ArcGIS Online for Quicker Flood Response

When floods struck Vermont in July 2023, a long-standing collaboration between state agencies and the biggest institution in the state resulted in the kind of quick response that was required to mobilize resources. Unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS), boots on the ground, and GIS tools like ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Instant Apps (like the Sidebar template), and Site Scan for ArcGIS were all being used within hours of the floods to gather and process mapping data and imagery for easy sharing.

In the middle of the storm, the University of Vermont’s drone team put in a lot of extra hours to obtain its aerial imagery; at times, they knocked on people’s doors to get permission to launch a drone from a front yard or backyard, or they traveled to isolated locations with spotty or nonexistent cellphone service to locate and collect landslide imagery. Read the entire article here

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Create Earth Climate Digital Twin using NVIDIA’s latest API

Earth-2’s new cloud APIs on NVIDIA DGX Cloud, which are a part of the NVIDIA CUDA-XTM microservices, was announced. These emulations enable almost any user to create AI-powered simulations to accelerate the delivery of interactive, high-resolution simulations encompassing a variety of issues, from typhoons and turbulence to the global atmosphere and local cloud cover.

NVIDIA Omniverse, a computing platform that ensures people and teams create 3D processes and apps based on Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD), is another essential element of Earth-2 cloud APIs. Read the entire article here

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Satellite photos depict the Baltimore Bridge both before and after it collapsed

The U.S. Coast Guard reports that at 1:27 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, March 26, the 948-foot containership struck the four-lane bridge over Interstate 695. The ship lost power, contacted for assistance, and then struck the main Baltimore bridge.

The pieces of wreckage left in the Patapsco River’s waters following the cargo ship collision with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge is visible on satellite images. Read the entire article here

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Barcelona’s Urban Innovations has Superblocks, Sustainable Mobility, and Future GIS Possibilities 

Barcelona’s municipalities find that using information technology, such as GIS and asset management systems, is essential for increasing the effectiveness of asset management procedures because of the city’s aging infrastructure and financial restrictions. Enhancing the consistency and availability of asset data across different systems makes integration easier, allowing for better information sharing and flow between stakeholders and removing gaps in access.

Superblock architecture from Barcelona, which dates back to the nineteenth-century urban plan, is being explored for implementation in a number of places. Some districts feature a grid-like street network, while others have different layouts. Based on urban characteristics and street network topology, street appropriateness for superblock design is evaluated through geospatial modeling and network analysis using data from OpenStreetMap. Within the superblock structure, this method finds the best places for multifunctional streets. Read the entire article here