Articles

Geography Facts About the Mississippi Watershed

Caitlin Dempsey

The Mississippi watershed is the largest drainage basin in North America.

Photo of a Piping Plover on the sand.

The Foot-trembling Bird Gets the Worm

Caitlin Dempsey

Foot-trembling is a foraging technique used by some species of birds to find prey beneath the surface of the ground.

Lake Dukan. Photo: Alex Gerst, December 3, 2018

This Lake Looks Like a Christmas Tree

Caitlin Dempsey

The main body of Lake Dukan takes on a triangular shape that looks like a Christmas tree.

Various types and sizes of plastics collected from the Kinnickinnic River, Milwaukee, WI. Photo: S. Mason, State University of New York at Fredonia. Public domain. Source: USGS.

The 2018 Statistic of the Year is About Plastic Recycling

Caitlin Dempsey

90.5% of all plastics that have ever been produced have never been recycled.

Quickly Make a Map Poster From Any Urban Location on Earth

Caitlin Dempsey

Figuregrounder by Hans Hack is a fun tool that lets you create a simple map poster in seconds.

Free Urban Planning GIS Book and Exercises

Caitlin Dempsey

An open access book focusing on the use of GIS in sustainable urban planning and management includes six chapters containing exercises and GIS data.

3D Map of Puerto Rico’s Forest Shows How Hurricane Maria Reduced Tree Height

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers who compared before and after LiDAR measurements of Puerto Rico's tropical forests found that Hurricane Maria damaged or uprooted 40-60% of the tallest trees.

Map showing legal land border (black dots) crossings between the United States and Canada. GIS data from: United States. Bureau of Transportation Statistics

Interesting Geography Facts About the US-Canada Border

Caitlin Dempsey

Here are some interesting geography facts about theย Canadaโ€“United States border.

The End of the Rainbow: Picking Color Schemes in GIS

Mark Altaweel

The color symbology in displaying a GIS data on a map is an important decision to make in communicating geographic data.

Source: Watson et al., 2018

Mapping the Last Wilderness

Katarina Samuroviฤ‡

An international group of scientists led by James E. M. Watson and James R. Allan mapped the worldโ€™s remaining terrestrial wilderness in 2016.

Optimizing Traffic with Autonomous Vehicles and Machine Learning

Mark Altaweel

Improving traffic can be achieved by incorporating geospatial technology in autonomous cars, such as sensors and external information.

When AI Goes Wrong in Spatial Reasoning

Mark Altaweel

Machines can learn โ€˜wrongโ€™ or biased information, creating large problems and poor conclusions when it comes to spatial data.

Black-legged Kittiwakes forage on Pacific sand lance and capelin near their colony on Gull Island, Cook Inlet on June 28, 2018. Photo: Sarah Schoen, USGS, Alaska Science Center. Public domain.

Industrial Fishing Has a Global Impact on Bird Populations

Olivia Harne

A study published in Current Biology - from theย Sea Around Us project at the University of British Columbia and French National Center for Scientific Research in Montpellier - provides evidence that industrial fishing practices are starving seabirds around the world.

Layers of GIS Data

GIS Data

Caitlin Dempsey

GIS data info, exploring geographic data types (vector/raster), data errors, metadata, and online GIS data sources.

These Wolves in Minnesota are Very Very Territorial

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers with theย Voyageurs Wolf Projectย released maps showingย 68,000 GPS-locations of seven wolves being tracked. ย 

Screenshot showing the Jane Goodall Snowflake cut out.

How to Make Map Ornaments and Geography Themed Christmas Decorations

Caitlin Dempsey

If you want to lend a geographic touch to your Christmas celebrations, check out these ingenious geography crafting ideas.

Using Satellite Imagery to Track Volcanic Ash Clouds

Caitlin Dempsey

Researchers have developed an algorithm that can distinguish betweenย volcanicย and non-volcanicย clouds using high-resolution satellite imagery.

The Medieval Physician’s Almanac

Caitlin Dempsey

During the Middle Ages, the belief that spiritual and cosmological forces affected the body and mind was commonly accepted (BBC, ...

Using Machine Learning and Satellite Imagery for Street Address Generation

Caitlin Dempsey

Facebook and MIT Labs researchers have developed a method employing machine learning and satellite images to create street addresses in regions lacking unique building addresses.

Using Ground-level Imagery to Map Landscape Change

Mark Altaweel

Ground-level photographs have great value to demonstrate landscape change from a human eye-level perspective.

Climate Change Impacting Sea Turtles

Olivia Harne

What Mass Audubon describes as a, โ€œweather system of gale force windsโ€ is now causing frozen turtles to wash up on New England beaches.

A Brief Look at Medieval Maps and Travel Guides

Caitlin Dempsey

For many medieval maps created by European cartographers, locations were represented not by their geographic size but sized based on their importance to Christianity.

A Brief Introduction to Medieval Music

Caitlin Dempsey

Music was an important aspect of Medieval life.

2018 National Climate Assessment Warns of a Future with More Extreme Weather

Olivia Harne

The 2018 National Climate Assessment presents stark news for climate change and our environment.

2018 Gift Giving Ideas for Geographers and Cartographers

Caitlin Dempsey

If you're looking for a unique or thoughtful gift for the geo-enthusiast, check out this guide for interesting geography and cartography related gifts for a wide range of budgets.

The Link Between Organisms and the Movement of Continents

Olivia Harne

New research indicates that sediment subducting beneath tectonic plates may regulate their movements.

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