Hello, and welcome to GeoSpatial Stream. I’m your host, Todd Danielson, and today’s Lead Sponsor is Planet Earth.
Today’s Top Story is Earth Day, which celebrates its 46th anniversary on Friday, April 22nd. We cover a lot of topics here at GeoSpatial Stream, but you may have noticed that the environment is a personal favorite. I can’t help it. I like this planet …
Well, Earth Day is the world’s largest environmental event, where an estimated 1 billion people from 192 countries are expected to be involved in some way or another. This year, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon invited every world leader to the United Nations to officially sign the Paris Climate Agreement reached by more than 195 countries in December 2015. In addition, the Earth Day Network is pledging to plant 7.8 billion trees, one for every person on Earth, as it counts down to Earth Day’s 50-year anniversary in 2020.
Perhaps this episode is a little light on the technologies we cover on this program, but all of them can be used to make our Earth a better place. So check out this Web site and this map to learn about the Earth Day events in your area and what you can do to help.
That was today’s Top Story. I’ll be back with more news after this interview clip of Sam Veloz, the climate adaptation director for Point Blue Conservation Science.
In honor of Earth Day as well as National Park Week and National Volunteer Week, American Express partnered with Games for Change to create a free mobile game called “Save the Park,” where animated park volunteers save the day by planting trees, protecting habitat and cleaning the environment. It’s recommended for anyone ages 4 and up, and you can download it on iTunes. It’s a fun way to expose children to environmental ideas, and American Express is donating one dollar to the U.S. National Park Foundation for each download.
I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about El Niño this year, as it was a big one, but here’s an interesting video from NASA on how the phenomenon can affect marine plant life.
In industry headlines, AGI released its STK 11.0.1, adding volume analysis and visualization as well as free streaming terrain.
Esri added to its ArcGIS platform Maptiks Web map analytics, which is available on the ArcGIS Marketplace.
In addition, Esri and the USDA Forest Service published an Engagement Portfolio, a gallery of maps and apps that provides everyone access to U.S. forestry data.
East View Geospatial now provides Planet Observer’s PlanetDEM 30 Plus elevation models based on the SRTM 30-meter dataset extensively corrected and enhanced with ASTER and other elevation data.
And PCI Geomatics released Geomatica 2016 geospatial image-processing software, featuring tools for remote sensing, digital photogrammetry, geospatial analysis, mosaicking and more.
For today’s Final Thought, I’m just going to close out the episode with an Earth Day video. Happy Earth Day, everyone …
