CENTER FOR GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS NEWSLETTER
May 2007
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HIGHLIGHTS
- Trimble GPS Unit Available
- GIS Prize Deadline
- Detailed China Census Data Becomes Available
- ISPIRE Directive for European Spatial Data Infrastructure
- Microsoft SQL Server to go Spatial
- JPEG 2000 Specification Supports Web Streaming
- Geocoding Sound
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CGA NEWS
Trimble GPS Unit Available
CGA has a Trimble GeoExplorer3 GPS unit with 1-3 meter accuracy available for check-out on a first come, first serve basis. Email contact@cga.harvard.edu
GIS Prize Deadline Fast Approaches
The submission deadline for the Howard T. Fisher Prize in GIS is May 18th at 5PM.http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/academic/fellowships/prizes/gisprize/
ESRI Business Analyst in Testing
The Business Analyst package represents a combination of software and data which runs in ArcGIS, providing access to high quality United States census data, business data, shopping center data, street information and other items. CGA currently has one license and wants to gauge interest in the product. Please contact Guoping Huang atghuang@cga.harvard.edu if you are interested.
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HARVARD GIS COMMUNITY NEWS
On the Relationship Between GIS and Geography
Michael Goodchild writes about trends in the New Geography and Harvard’s roll past and present.http://www.esri.com/news/arcwatch/0407/feature.html
New China Datasets Available
The data company SRC and the University of MichiganÆs China Data Center have joined forces to offer subscription-based access to a detailed version of the China 2000 census data which includes township level data and thousands of variables: www.DemographicsNowChina.com
Harvard has two higher level China data publications available for use by Harvard affiliates on CD in the Map Collection or from HGL with a Harvard ID number and PIN.ááThe first is the historical county population census data from 1953, 1964, 1982, 1990, 2000. The variables are different for each year, but at a minimum they include the total population per county and the number of households. The layers in this publication can be accessed directly: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.gisdata:009900120.
The second dataset is the China 2000 county population census which includes 2000 county boundaries integrated with more than 1,900 variables from the 2000 population census data for counties and urban districts. These layers can be accessed from: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.gisdata:009898629.á Each layer for the 2000 census has many variables, and column names are cryptic. The descriptive column names are included in the metadata for each layer so it is important that users download the metadata file with the data.
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NEWS ON GIS RESEARCH AND SERVICES
Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) Directive Goes into Force May 15th
“The initiative intends to trigger the creation of a European spatial information infrastructure that delivers to the users integrated spatial information servicesà The target users of INSPIRE include policy-makers, planners and managers at European, national and local level and the citizens and their organisations.” http://inspire.jrc.it/
Gridded Population of the World (GPW)
A KML which provides a map and legend for the GPW data showing global population density is available:http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=337628
Microsoft’s SQL Server to Support Spatial Data
http://www.directionsmedia.net/newsletters.archive/index.php?ID=868
JPEG 2000 Supports Sophisticated Streaming
JPIP, a portion of the JPEG 2000 file format, supports streaming over HTTP thus making it easier to serve very large files from small servers. http://www.jpeg.org/jpeg2000/j2kpart9.html
Imagery Makes a Point
Satellite imagery from the University of British Columbia provides compelling evidence of the environmental disruption caused by fishing boats. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/science/15mud.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
Embedded GPS
GPS is finding its way into familiar items. An example is the Pileus umbrella designed in Japan by the center for Human Interaction Design at the Keio University Okude Lab. http://www.pileus.net/. Kids shoes are also getting space enabled:http://www.i4u.com/article7740.html.
FreeSound Project
The FreeSound project geocodes sounds from around the world. http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/geotagsView.php
One Meter Mapping of Martian Geologic Features
“The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) is flying onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission. HiRISE will investigate deposits and landforms resulting from geologic and climatic processes and assist in the evaluation of candidate landing sites.” http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/
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Editor of this issue: Ben Lewis
The CGA Newsletter is published monthly.
For the latest information, please visit our website http://gis.harvard.edu
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