Ushahidi Digital Mapmakers Help Haitian Rescue Efforts

"Right now it's about getting information out as much as possible," says Patrick Meier, the humanitarian response and crisis mapping specialist in Ushahidi's 10-person team and a PhD student at Tufts University, where Ushahidi's situation room for the Haiti earthquake aftermath is based. In this situation room, 10-20 volunteers work around the clock to find, evaluate and post relevant information. As of this morning, the Haiti earthquake site on Ushahidi had about 300 pieces of information. READ MORE

Ushahidi Haiti web site ...

GOOGLE Grabbing More Geo Data

At the recent Where 2.0 Conference Google announced that it would open its servers to geographic data belonging to anyone. This means that developers can now quickly build a location-based Web service without the need of establishing and hosting their own data server. The benefit to Google is that the location data will be integrated into Google's search index, making it searchable and, ultimately, capable of generating advertising revenue. MORE INFO

Those in the disaster/emergency management field need to use caution concerning privacy, data sensitivities and reliability when using capabilities like this.

Geospatial Systems That Support Emergency and Disaster Operations

The Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) and the Public Technology Institute have released a new case-study guide that illustrates how local government and utility first responders are using geospatial information in large-scale emergencies. DOWNLOAD ~10MB (.pdf)

DHS Earth

DHS has developed DHS Earth, a geospatial mapping and visualization application based on GOOGLE Earth, to share data related infrastructure protection and improve situational awareness. READ MORE

Anybody know if the DHS/FEMA folks are working to integrate HAZUS-MH with this capability? If nothing else the two systems should be sharing the same infrastructure database!

Geospatial Coordination Web Site Launched by California

The Cal-Atlas portal facilitates the coordinated and sustainable development, maintenance, licensing and sharing of geospatial data and web map services by California government agencies, partners and stakeholders. California government agencies work with the California GIS Council, regional GIS collaboratives and the broader California GIS community to define the data architecture, systems, standards, agreements and processes for a fully integrated and effective California Spatial Data Infrastructure. GO THERE

The new Cal-Atlas portal will centralize a variety of data and information. Cal-Atlas provides a number of important Web accessible services. These include:

* A catalog for use by organizations to categorize and share information about their geospatial information resources (e.g., maps and geospatial data, Web services and applications)
* A library from which interested parties may obtain Geographic Information System (GIS) data and where agencies can place their data to share with others
* Tools to make it easy to find GIS data and services
* A "gallery" of maps and mapping sites contributed by Cal-Atlas users
* A portal to help organizations work together on GIS data and share the costs of acquiring imagery and other kinds of geospatial data.

The Changing Geospatial Landscape

In January of 2008, the Secretary of the Interior formed the National Geospatial Advisory Committee to provide advice and recommendations related to the management of Federal and national geospatial programs. This diverse committee is comprised of 28 experts from all levels of government, academia and the private sector.

In January 2009 the committee published a white paper - The Changing Geospatial Landscape - to describe the changes and advancements the community has witnessed over the past three-plus decades and to set a context from which in part we will base our future deliberations. DOWNLOAD