International Geospatial Digest December 18th, 2023
- Automatic digitizing of imagery using QGIS
- GISCorps volunteer assisting Oracabessa Marine Trust
- Interactive map shows the locations of over 300 famous films
- Lidar data shed new light hidden geological hazards
- New Flood Evacuation Tool helps with preparedness, evacuation and response
Automatic digitizing of imagery using QGIS
Automatic digitizing is the process of transforming satellite images or scanned maps into points, lines, and polygons. This process is essential in many projects in various sectors such as cartography, urban planning and more.
Here is good news for open-source GIS or QGIS users: Mapflow, one of the powerful plugins of QGIS is now offering a more accelerated and improved digitizing process with high accuracy and less manual effort. Read more on GeographyRealm to learn how to use the added automation and customization options of Mapflow in the digitizing process here
Figure: Flow of method showing a summary of the geospatial approach used in automatic digitizing of open street map in QGIS. Source: https://www.geographyrealm.com/automatic-digitizing-imagery-qgis/
GISCorps volunteer assisting Oracabessa Marine Trust
Oracabessa Marine Trust in Jamaica seeks to conserve the biodiversity of Oracabessa Bay as a Marine Protected Area. A GISCorps volunteer in Colorado was selected to support this group in discovering a conservation solution using GIS technology. The volunteer taught foundational GIS concepts, WebMaps and Apps in ArcGIS Online, and Esri’s ArcGIS Conservation Solutions. GIS was employed to help staff in their daily procedures as well as the biological assets protection.
This story explains the process of making various Geographic Information System products for marine conservation purposes, from the Oracabessa Patrol App as a tool for the staff’s signing in/out and reporting incidents in the conservation area to a dashboard as a visual component in the organization’s governmental report every month to present their improvement. Read more here
Oracabessa Marine Trust Dashboard
Interactive map shows the locations of over 300 famous films
Many small towns and villages around the world have been used as filming locations for famous movies, although their residents may not be aware of it.
CineMapper, created by Tim Hughes, is now an interactive map that allows people to explore locations worldwide that have appeared in famous movies. The map maker and the team are still updating the map with about 100 new sites each week. The CineMapper displays over 300 movies, TV shows and video games. It is fun to navigate through the map to check out where the popular movies were filmed. Read more about this story here
An interactive map dubbed the ‘CineMapper’ has been unveiled which reveals the locations around the world that brought famous movie moments to life. Source
Lidar data shed new light hidden geological hazards
Traditionally, geological surface mapping has relied on imagery and fieldwork observations, but vegetation often covers the ground surface.
Recent improvements in high-resolution topographic data that use lidar have made it possible for geologists and earth scientists to virtually eliminate vegetation and expose the bare land surface. For the first time, Lidar data for Paradise Valley and the northern gateway corridor to Yellowstone National Park have been released with high resolution as shown in the image below. Read more here
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Shaded relief maps based on lidar data and showing fault scarps in Paradise Valley, Montana. Lidar imagery is given as a colored, shaded slope map, with higher elevations in brown and white, and lower elevations in green. Darker shading indicates steeper slopes. Top image is a northwestward view (toward Livingston) of Paradise Valley near Carbella. The right side of the image shows an oblique perspective of the Emigrant fault scarp (shown by red arrows) that vertically offset young alluvial fan deposits. Highway 89 is visible on the left side of the image as a pair of parallel lines. Bottom image is a southeastward view showing the same fault scarp. Subtle flutes and ridges extending horizontally across the hillslopes above the scarps were carved by glacial ice flowing down the Emigrant Valley from the Yellowstone ice cap. (Lidar visualization by Yann Gavillot, MBMG, using 3-D scene in ArcGis Pro).
New Flood Evacuation Tool helps with preparedness, evacuation and response
South Carolina is highly vulnerable to severe flooding due to its eight major river basins. During flooding circumstances, Stakeholders need to find a balance between the various demands that arise from events that might impact their decision-making processes and pay attention to the service delivery infrastructure of affected people and structures.
Clemson University researchers have participated in developing a Flood Evacuation Tool that predicts floods, pinpoints at-risk roads, and confirms secure evacuation paths for people in flood-prone areas.The team utilizes human-AI teaming partnership to develop an intelligent model that manages flood evacuation decisions in remote South Carolina rural coastal communities. Read more here
Clemson University researchers are part of a national team that has developed a Flood Evacuation Tool to help forecast floods, identify at-risk roads and verify safe evacuation routes. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Roberto Di Giovine South Carolina National Guard)
