January 31, 2012 – Anything Geospatial

Are you taking advantage of local meet ups? Last night I dropped in on a lecture at the University of Victoria with my daughter. The presentation titled “The Greatest Infection of The Sea”, sponsored by the U Vic Biology Dept., was all about the state of the oceans and in particular, the alarming amount of plastics that are polluting this resource. It was pretty alarming really, presented by Captain Charles Moore who founded the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, CA. Some amazing items I picked up on: plastics are widespread and largely unseen (hence our feeling that there’s no issue here); fish are feeding on plastics, so much that biologists actually want to incorporate plastic into the food chain diagrams! Pollution comes from many sources, mainly plastic bags, water bottles, and the largest culprit is likely the Korean fisheries. These plastics find their way into the ocean, converge into the Great Garbage Patch and then start a journey navigating the Ocean via a series of currents, resulting in an endless trip and growing cycle of trash. What’s disturbing is the impact this is having on sea life and eventually on the human population.

Some interesting observations and notes from the lecture:

Some of the most common fish (in bio-mass) in the sea are consuming plastics (a study showd 35% of those surveyed had plastic present)
Fish are becoming weaker and have a lower reproduction rate after ingesting plastics
Korean fisheries are the largest commercial polluter of plastics
Golf courses by the sea in Hawaii ore littering the nearby shoreline with golf balls (450 found in one spot in just an hour)
Many items are not biodegradable when in the ocean
Pollutants are resulting in estrogen being introduced into human diets and potentially higher rates of diabetes and obesity
Plastic may be introduced into food chain diagrams!

Map of Currents moving the garbage patch – Source: Wikipedia

In an interesting, yet not so surprising, read from NPR a story about how the FBI wants to track and visualize social media activity using geospatial technology and mapping apps – sounds a lot like what Esri has been doing with their Social news maps and GeoCommons (GeoIQ) with social media map mashups. Apparently, NPR shares that the Bureau wants to access “publicly available information” like Twitter and facebook updates (are these data really public?) and then create geospatial alerts based on suspicious activity.

From the article… “According to the document, the bureau is looking for a mapping app — or a “geospatial alert and analysis mapping application” — that, among other things, helps it search “publicly available” sources like Facebook and Twitter for national security threats.”

See more details HERE

For an example of an Esri Social map see also The Esri Occupy Wall Street Social Media Map