June 2023 Archives
Looking Forward: The Ocean
I have been fascinated by the ocean since my parents first planted me on a beach towel along the sandy expanse of the Atlantic Ocean when I was barely old enough to care. Like fire, the ocean is always the same but somehow is constantly changing. It has a mesmerizing quality of ever-flowing motion and […]
How Cool
Los Angeles uses GIS technologies to help residents find respite during heat waves In late August 2022, a vicious heat dome sat over Los Angeles just when summer would typically fade into fall. For a week, temperatures climbed as high as 115 degrees in parts of Southern California—and didn’t cool off much at night. The extreme […]
The Responsibility to Map the U.S. Coastline
(And the Inevitability of New Geodetic and Tidal Datums) Since the arrival of the first pilgrims to the North American continent, there has been a need for precise knowledge of the coastline of the new country, and the reasons are obvious. Arrival by boat was the only alternative when crossing the Atlantic and escaping religious […]
Q&A: 10 Questions with Hydrographer Helen Stewart
Helen Stewart is a multidisciplinary hydrographer with primary focus and expertise in multibeam sonar data processing, including experience in nautical chart surveying, scientific seabed mapping, pipeline inspection, geophysical survey, subsea survey work with both AUVs and ROVs, and geotechnical survey work. How did you get interested in hydrography. Did a specific event trigger your […]
Ocean Mapping Effort Makes Progress
Two new partnerships will advance Seabed 2030’s mission to map the entire ocean floor this decade Since ancient Egyptians began studying the Nile River, bathymetry has been the crucial component in hydrography. The great river gave rise to their great civilization, providing fertile soil for farming, water for irrigation, and a means of transportation […]
Out of Sight; Not Out of Mind
Cities are now creating their own subsurface utility maps to manage their underground assets. But the lack of an open-based geospatial model means that data are often not interoperable. A new mapping standard aims to fix that. In the years since 2004 when a leaking gas pipeline exploded in Ghislenghien, an industrial town in Belgium, […]