It is finally here, our favorite weekday friend - Friday. To ease you out of this long week and give you a little something to procrastinate, here is a list of reading materials and geoeducation resources shared throughout this week in our #DailyBrainCandiii posts. Enjoy!
Esri has long been a passenger on the education bandwagon. This resource – GeoInquiries – helps to solidify their standing (err, seat?) there. Rather than a typical article, this #DailyBrainCandiii post is more of a geoeducation resource for those teachers who need a spatial aid in subjects from Earth Science to American Literature. These how-to’s and references are based on the ArcGIS Online technology and offer a fun, interactive, and – even better! – pre-made way to deliver geo-edu to the younger masses.
Whether it be for environmental or monetary reasons, we all like to have an idea of how well our homes and offices are conserving energy. For those regions with more extreme climates, it is a real concern. For instance, Canada’s chilly winters call for more heat than what some areas would need. To help communities determine if their efforts to use this energy efficiently are actually paying off, MyHEAT Inc. has developed a public map visualizing and comparing the heat escaping from every building in a town or city in many major urban Canadian cities. This article shows examples of this application as well as details plans for a more extensive roll out across the country.
Interested in taking the guess work out of simulating stacked channel patterns? Well, this article has you covered. Originally published in the Marine and Petroleum Geology journal, this paper proposes a geometrical approach to control the connectivity between channels with the help of seismic data and fine-tuning of migration geometry.
Across many industries, the presence of mobile technology and the data it collects has had transformative powers. Healthcare, as it turns out, is no different. Wearable technology like the Fitbit and Apple Watch have spurred the collection of mass amounts of health-related data. This information, however, is more than just our steps – and may be used for things greater than making sure we get away from our desk every occasionally. This article discusses the possibility of “perfecting” algorithms based on Big Data to bring machine learning to healthcare, allowing for tailored patient cases and quick diagnoses.
Outside of long commute times and a list of restaurants too long to choose from, one of the perils of large cities is how its inhabitants and lifestyle can aide in the negative impact on the environment around it. Big cities are no strangers to realities like air pollution and smog – Many of which have taken measures to reduce these levels of pollutants in the air. Unfortunately, what happens when these efforts do not pay off as anticipated? This is one of the ways in which Big Data may come into play. Using India as an example, this article details ways in which data may be collected and then employed in research and response.
Map of the Day - Lights On, Lights Out
This week’s favorite #MapOfTheDay post comes to us in the form of a comparison of light. I do not mean color swatches or determining which areas of the room get more sunshine than the others. Rather, this comparison is of NASA satellite imagery from 2012 and 2016 showing areas of visible lighting. These regions are overlaid to determine urban pockets that have seen growth – depicted in blue in the image here – as well as those than have seen a decrease in visibility for whatever reason – show in pink. By employing ArcGIS in conjunction with this imagery, the author was able to compare multiple regions with ease. The reasons for these changes in development and life? Well, that may not be quite as easy to nail down. One purpose of this project is to invite users to speculate on reasons for such growth and stagnation. It encourages the art of asking questions, even if we do not immediately know the answer.
Bonus Points
You didn’t really think that was all, did you? It’s like you do not know us at all.
This week in our #MarcoMonday post, we continued our Q+A quest for Spatial Data Diagnosis. This time, we answered the question of “What are the commonly referenced datasets in broken map documents?” with the help of our friends Integrated Marco Desktop and Integrated Marco Commander. Things got a little heated in the process.
Also, we introduced an oldie – but a goodie – in our #MeetTheProduct post. Have a need for managing stakeholder information? Well, hop on over and introduce yourself to the Integrated Safe Neighbor Database.
#DailyBrainCandiii and #WeekliiiRoundUp are inspired by brain candiii, a division of Integrated Informatics that develops Geographic Information System (GIS) training for Energy and Natural Resources professionals.