Articles

Series: WebGIS Using Open Source Tools

Emmanuel Jolaiya

Emmanuel Jolaiya's series on WebGIS using open source geospatial tools and technologies.

Breakdown of acquisitions by geospatial company by year. Chart: GISGeo.org

Mergers and Acquisitions in the Geospatial Market (2001-2020)

Geo Contributor

Andrey Pirogov, founder of GISGeo Project, takes a look at mergers and acquisitions in the geospatial technology market from 2001 to September 2020.

Review | The Best American Travel Writing 2020

G.T. Dempsey

Travel writing as it should be – we are invited to learn from the setting of lessons by the learned and the observant.

Eelgrass at Cape Cod National Seashore. Photo: USGS, public domain.

The World’s Biggest Seagrass Restoration Project Is Good News for Marine Life and Climate

Katarina Samurović

Researchers have been conducting the world’s most extensive seagrass meadow restoration.

Artistic rendering of the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite. Image: Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mapping Sea-Level Rise with Sentinel-6

Mark Altaweel

The recent launch of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich/Jason CS is the latest mission that will collect high resolution sea level measurements.

2020 Gift Guide For the GIS Person in Your Life

Caitlin Dempsey

Looking for a gift for your favorite GIS person? Here's a list of geo-related suggestions for a range of budgets.

Geography of Thanksgiving

Caitlin Dempsey

Each November, families in the United States gather to celebrate Thanksgiving.

The hexagon pattern formed by the distribution of different order settlements in Central Place Theory.

Understanding Central Place Theory: Key Concepts in Urban Geography

Mark Altaweel

In 1933, Walter Christaller introduced Central Place Theory (CPT) as a way to explain the location, number, and size of settlements.

Dan Ford is running a Kickstarter campaign to support the publication of his "Map Projections for Babies Board Book.

New “Map Projections for Babies” Board Book Helps Encourage Early Communication and Learning

Geo Contributor

Dan Ford explains how support from the geospatial community will help bring the "Map Projections for Babies" board book to life.

Isochrone map of walking times in central London in ArcGIS.

How to Create Public Transport Isochrones in ArcGIS Pro

Eric van Rees

This tutorial shows GIS users how they can create public transport isochrones using ArcGIS and the TravelTime plugin.

Import QGIS style files using the Style Manager.

QGIS Style Sharing Repository

Caitlin Dempsey

A new tool has been deployed that lets QGIS users share style files.

A view of a suburban subdivision being developed in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Image: USGS, public domain.

What are 15-Minute Cities?

Elizabeth Borneman

What if you could get from home to your job to the grocery store to the park, all in 15 minutes?

Map of the global distribution of mean annual soil respiration (Rs) between 2000 and 2014. Figure: Huang et al., 2020.

Mapping Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Soil Respiration

Mark Altaweel

Researchers recently developed a map of the global distribution of mean annual soil respiration (Rs) between 2000 and 2014.

Sub-branches of Human Geography

Caitlin Dempsey

Human geography focuses on the role that human play in the world.

Physical weathering by waves at Arcadia National Park in Maine. Photo: John J. Mosesso, USGS. Public domain.

Sub-branches of Physical Geography

Elizabeth Borneman

Physical geography is one of the two primary branches of geography.

Specific Pathogen-Free (SPF) Pacific herring reared in the wet laboratory at the Marrowstone Marine Field Station. Photo: USGS, public domain

Study Finds Staggering Decline in Marine Fishery Biomass

Katarina Samurović

A recent global long-term fishery biomass trends evaluation has found an alarming decline in fish populations worldwide.

Example results on synthesizing photos from Google Maps at 512x512 resolution using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). Source: Isola, Zhu, Zhou, & Efros, 2018, CC BY 4.0 https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.07004

Converting Historical Maps to Satellite-Like Imagery

Mark Altaweel

Old maps and images can now be converted to make them similar to our modern satellite-base views, giving stylized views a more realistic appearance.

Clip art showing the coronavirus and a need representing potential vaccinations.

The Potential Role of GIS in COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

Mark Altaweel

GIS can play a role in developing protocols for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

A road sign on Interstate 19 just south of Tucson taken April 18, 2005. Photo: NicAgent, Wikimedia.

The Only Metric Highway in the United States

Caitlin Dempsey

Currently, only three countries in the world have not adopted the metric system as the standard: The United States, Myanmar, and Liberia.

A Christmas tree farm in the mountains of western North Carolina. Photo: Randolph Femmer, USGS. Public domain.

What is the AP Human Geography Exam?

Caitlin Dempsey

The AP Human Geography exam requires in depth knowledge and analytical skills in a range of topics in the sub-branch of geography.

Map of Halloween Costume Spending Across the United States. Source: Esri.

Halloween GIS Fun

Caitlin Dempsey

Looking to add a little geo to your Halloween beyond the proliferation of Halloween Trick or Treater online maps? Halloween ...

Natural color images from the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite of fires burning in Colorado. Image: NASA, August 15, 2020, public domain.

Three of Colorado’s Wildfires are the Largest in Recorded History for the State

Caitlin Dempsey

Widespread drought and heat waves are helping to fuel a record-breaking fire season in Colorado.

Douglas fir forest on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, McKenzie Pass, Willamette National Forest. Photo: David Goodrich, NOAA. Public domain.

Rapid Growth Shortens Trees’ Lifespans – and Adds to the Climate Crisis

Katarina Samurović

Researchers have found that trees growing faster due to warming conditions are also dying faster.

A camera onboard NASA's high-altitude ER-2 aircraft captured this earthquake induced avalanche in northwestern Canada. Source: NASA, public domain

Forecasting and Mitigating Avalanches Using GIS

Mark Altaweel

GIS and computational specialists have been developing models and methods to better forecast the likelihood of avalanches.

Cassiodorus book

Review | The Selected Letters of Cassiodorus: A Sixth-Century Sourcebook

G.T. Dempsey

A millennium and a half ago, or so, if you wanted to break away from the western Roman Empire, you simply called in the barbarians.

John Nelson is well known for his creative cartographic visualizations. One of his latest works is the "100 Years of Wildfire". The effort behind this map can be explored on two Esri blog posts: 100 Years of Wildfire: GIS-ification and 100 Years of Wildfire: Cartograph-izing.

How to Communicate with Maps

Mark Altaweel

Making maps requires a careful balance between science, art, and knowledge of your target audience. Features a MapScaping podcast with Esri's John Nelson.