Tag: mapping

Ocean 20% mapped

Modern measurements of the depth and shape of the seabed now encompass 20.6% of the total area under water. When Seabed 2030 was launched in 2017, only 6% of the oceans had been mapped to modern standards. So, it is possible to make swift and meaningful gains. For example, a big jump in coverage would be achieved if all governments, companies, and research institutions released their embargoed data. Seabed 2030 is not seeking 5m resolution of the entire floor (close to something we already have of the Moon’s surface). 1 depth sounding in a 100m grid square down to 1500m will suffice; even less in much deeper waters.

Mapping Angkor

Most people don’t realize that Angkor Wat is just 1 of more than 1000 temples in the greater Angkor region. This settlement may have been home to 900k people at its height in the 13th century. Angkor was comparable to the 1m people who lived in ancient Rome at its height. Researchers were able to map 10Ks of archaeological features at Angkor. Because Angkorian people built their houses out of organic materials and on wooden posts, these structures are long gone and not visible on the landscape. But lidar revealed a complex urban landscape complete with city blocks consisting of the mounds where people built their houses and small ponds located next to them. This work has created one of the most comprehensive maps of a sprawling medieval city in the world, leading us to ask: How did the city develop over time, and how many people lived here?

Fully automated mapping?

Shashua claimed their mapping system now builds the maps without need for any manual labour. That makes them very quick and affordable to build.

a complicated claim, but certainly a milestone for the industry, if true.

OSM challenges

On the cultural challenges as OSM grapples with the influx of corporate contributors.

Leeskarte

A secret map brought down a pirate alliance on the irish coast. Using old dutch maps to reconstruct pirate history

Istanbul island

The Bosporus is 3x busier than the Suez Canal, and getting worse. To resolve marine congestion, Turkey wants to build a ‘second Bosporus‘. The controversial project would alter local geography – and may have unintended consequences.

Swiss Maps eastereggs

For decades, mapmakers working for the Swiss Federal Office of Topography have defied their mandates to create the most accurate maps possible by covertly inserting drawings in official maps.

Genomic epidemiology

We believe this may have occurred by the WA1 case having exposed someone else to the virus in the period between Jan 15 and Jan 19 before they were isolated. If this second case was mild or asymptomatic, contact tracing efforts by public health would have had difficulty detecting it. After this point, community spread occurred and was undetected due to the CDC narrow case definition that required direct travel to China or direct contact with a known case to even be considered for testing. This lack of testing was a critical error and allowed an outbreak in Snohomish County and surroundings to grow to a sizable problem before it was even detected.

this is a great summary of the state of the art on using mutations to reconstruct how a disease spreads.

The Earth Must Be Mapped

There is an urgent need to digitally capture the planet’s surface, providing a record for future ecologists, archaeologists, and historians. The Earth Archive project plans to do just that.

Mapping the Ocean Floor

One of the most amazing things to find unexpectedly is often a wreck. There are tons of those around, we don’t know where they are, and we often find them unexpectedly. We’ve found seamounts—4000-meter-high seamounts that we find when we think nothing is there, and these have impacts on biodiversity and circulation. We find all kinds of interesting structures on the seafloor that we just don’t understand yet. And again we find it looking at it now through a new lens of high resolution.