Placemarks and waterlines: Racialized cyberscapes in post-Katrina Google Earth

Google Earth was released a few months prior to Hurricane Katrina and became an important tool in distributing information about the damage occurring in New Orleans, albeit not to all parts of society. While Google Earth did not create the economic and racial divides present in society, its use in the post-Katrina context reflect this gulf and have arguably reinforced and recreated it online. This paper has three main objectives. The first is to provide a clear empirical case study of how race remains relevant to the way people use (or do not use) the internet and internet based services. The second is highlighting the power of new online and interactive mapping technologies and demonstrating how these technologies are differentially adopted. The third and final objective is illustrating how any divide in accessing digital technology is not simply a one time event but a constantly moving target as new devices, software and cultural practices emerge. Thus, in addition to highlighting the racial inequalities in US society in general, Hurricane Katrina provides an important window on the way in which race remains a key factor in the access and use of emerging digital technologies.     

Walter Benjamin’s Dionysian Adventures on Google Earth

This paper argues, following Friedrich Nietzsche, that recent evaluations of Google Earth uncritically privilege the product’s Apollonian determinations at the expense of its Dionysian uncertainties. Specifically, when we understand Google Earth as a virtual globe composed of surveyed panoramas, sober rationalization, dystopic control, and transparent order – or, even, as a tool for participation and empowerment – we undersell its capacities as an alluring digital peep-box, an uncertain orb spangled with vertiginous paranoia, frenzied navigation, jubilatory dissolution, and intoxicating giddiness. We argue that the former interpretations not only risk foreclosing our theorizations about how Google Earth is actually used in various ways and different contexts, they also reproduce a one-dimensional and conservative reading of technology that can be traced back (at least) to the writings of Theodor Adorno. By drawing on the work of Walter Benjamin (Adorno’s critic and pen pal for more than a decade) we aim to ‘go beyond Apollo and Adorno’ by illustrating the extent to which Apollonian order and Dionysian love makes Google Earth go round. To do this, we examine Google Earth as a “digital peep-box” with an online collective that revels in its “Spot the Black Helicopter” competitions; illuminated profanities; alien and giant insect invaders; naked sunbathers; and crashed transport planes in Darfur.     

Interpretation of earthquake-induced landslides triggered by the 12 May 2008, M7.9 Wenchuan earthquake in the Beichuan area, Sichuan Province, China using satellite imagery and Google Earth

The 12 May 2008 M7.9 Wenchuan earthquake in the People’s Republic of China represented a unique opportunity for the international community to use commonly available GIS (Geographic Information System) tools, like Google Earth (GE), to rapidly evaluate and assess landslide hazards triggered by the destructive earthquake and its aftershocks. In order to map earthquake-triggered landslides, we provide details on the applicability and limitations of publicly available 3-day-post- and pre-earthquake imagery provided by GE from the FORMOSAT-2 (formerly ROCSAT-2; Republic of China Satellite 2). We interpreted landslides on the 8-m-resolution FORMOSAT-2 image by GE; as a result, 257 large landslides were mapped with the highest concentration along the Beichuan fault. An estimated density of 0.3 landslides/km² represents a minimum bound on density given the resolution of available imagery; higher resolution data would have identified more landslides. This is a preliminary study, and further study is needed to understand the landslide characteristics in detail. Although it is best to obtain landslide locations and measurements from satellite imagery having high resolution, it was found that GE is an effective and rapid reconnaissance tool.     

河南省冬小麦快速遥感制图

在省域尺度上,冬小麦遥感识别中存在冬小麦物候不一致、地表环境复杂、数据处理复杂、遥感数据冗余、选择适当的分类样本困难、分类精度低等问题,而遥感数据云平台为解决这些问题提供了良好的数据基础和数据处理能力。以河南省为研究区,以谷歌地球引擎(Google Earth Engine)云平台为支撑,基于2015年和2002年前后年份河南省冬小麦识别关键期内的2296景Landsat遥感影像,采用NDVI重构增幅算法建立冬小麦大区域遥感快速制图模型,实现了2015年和2002年的河南省冬小麦分布制图。结果表明：2015年和2002年冬小麦种植面积分别为56 055.79 km²和47 296.11 km²,与统计数据比,精度达到97%;2002-2015年,河南省冬小麦种植分布存在明显变化,总体播种面积呈增加趋势,2015年比2002年增加8759.69 km²,增幅为18.52%。与传统计算机冬小麦制图方法相比,基于Google Earth Engine云平台的数据处理和制图效率均获得千倍以上的提升。     

区域自动气象站资料Web实时发布初探

本文简单介绍了一种利用Google MAP API[1]实现区域自动气象站资料Web实时发布的方法.     

Google Earth和World Wind比较研究

Google Earth和World Wind是目前最具代表性的两款基于网络的三维地理信息浏览器,为空间信息的共享发布提供了新的解决思路和技术手段。本文首先深入分析了这两款软件的技术特点,并在此基础上作了比较研究。     

Ajax技术在WebGIS中的应用

研究了Ajax技术在WebGIS中应用的可能性,讨论了在WebGIS中浏览器与服务器建立异步通信机制的方法,以及如何使用Ajax技术提升WebGIS的性能,同时指出了在WebGIS中应用Ajax技术时应该注意的问题。     

What path and how fast? The effect of flight time and path on user spatial understanding in map tour animations

GIScience scholars have identified map tours as an important visualization type for communicating spatial information: map tours are animations where the virtual camera moves through space and are common on the web, mobile devices, and television. Understanding how to enhance their effectiveness is timely because of recent, growing interest in virtual reality and animated map presentation tools such as Esri Story Maps? and Google Earth? tours. Despite this popularity, little empirical evidence exists about how people learn from map tours and how they should best be designed to improve effectiveness. This research is aimed at answering that need. An empirical study is described, which was designed to understand how virtual camera speed, path, and dynamic tilting within a map tour influence subjects’ ability to develop survey knowledge. The results of the experiment show that paths encompassing overviews of the landscape improve the viewer’s ability to build up survey knowledge; that tilting appears to have a much weaker effect; and that combining fast speed and a difficult path within a map tour increases the viewer’s cognitive load.     

基于Google Earth的天然气加气站管理系统的设计与实现

Google Earth(GE)作为一款数据开放式的卫星影像浏览软件,已被应用到消防、农业发展、公共安全等重要领域中,并发挥关键性作用。文中提出一套基于Google Earth组件的开发方法,通过面向对象的程序开发技术,设计并实现天然气加气站信息管理系统,且具备一定的空间分析能力。以昆明市主城区内天然气加气站信息为例,验证本系统的可行性和稳定性,证明Google Earth平台的功能实用性。