Uncertainty around funding, climate risk, and regulatory change is forcing utilities to rethink how they manage risk. This blog explores how utility risk management strategies grounded in structured data, adaptable workflows, and smart grid technology can help teams reduce delays, improve regulatory compliance, and keep grid modernization efforts on track. Learn how distributed intelligence enables better decisions, stronger coordination, and faster responses — even when conditions shift without warning. This approach unifies risk assessment and enterprise risk management (ERM) for utility companies, turning field observations into risk monitoring signals and actionable mitigation plans without slowing execution.
La entrada Navigating uncertainty through utility risk management se publicó primero en Fulcrum.
Last year I created the World Level O map for Tripgeo. This fun travel-tracking tool colors the countries of the world based on whether you have lived there, stayed for a while, visited, passed through or never been. You are then awarded a level based on how well you’ve “covered” the globe.States I'd Live In is a map in the same sort of personal tracking ballpark. However on this map
The following data source on the Tableau Public site invites data users to “Explore these sample data sets, data sources, and web data connectors to get started on your next visualization project. Download a data set and connect to it from Tableau to start creating. Data sets may be available in English only.” https://public.tableau.com/app/learn/sample-data I […]
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
ID Editor fue como muchos empezamos a editar en OpenStreetMap; después al subir el nivel empezamos a usar JOSM, con las ventajas que vienen con él.
Pero una cosa que extrañaba de ID Editor era que mi área de trabajo en JOSM estuviera delimitada con ese cuadro de color magenta. Estuve buscando en mis ratos libres hasta que encontré como cambiarlo.
En JOSM entramos a Preferencias (que se puede activar con la tecla F12) y en el apartado de Colores buscamos la opción que tiene por nombre inactivo. Damos doble-click en él.
Nos abrirá un cuadro de diálogo para cambiar el color; iremos a la pestaña RGB donde cambiaremos el Código de color por el que deseemos, para mi nostalgia, FF00FF. Damos click en el botón Aceptar.
Nos regresará a la ventana de preferencias donde veremos el cambio de color. Presionamos el botón de Aceptar.
¡Y listo!
Ya veremos nuestra área de trabajo en JOSM con el color elegido 🗺😃
One of the most underused features in Maplibre and MapBox is the video overlay, which enables developers to display a video on top of a base map layer.The Hailou AI Video Generator currently has a trial that allows you to create unlimited videos from a starting and finishing image. I decided to make use of this offer to create an animated sea monster. First I asked Gemini to create two images of
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
– only in Portuguese
Editora IVIDES abriu período de inscrições de propostas de capítulos para o segundo volume do livro
O prazo de submissão de proposta de capítulo para o livro “Estudos de caso em mapeamentos colaborativo e participativo”, volume 2, a ser lançado em 2026, foi estendido para aumentar o alcance da participação.
O livro possui uma seção sobre mapeamento com OpenStreetMap.
Prazo: 22 SET 2025
Idioma: português (qualquer variante)
Inscrições: https://ee.kobotoolbox.org/x/hBOFWAAg
No formulário para envio da proposta, são solicitados um resumo (400 a 500 palavras) e o nome do(a) autor(a) principal.
Será oferecido um prazo de 3 meses para envio do original e da lista completa de autores.
Preencha com cuidado o formulário para que possamos retornar o contato, a fim de organizar a sua participação.
O primeiro volume da obra pode ser obtido em: https://ivides.org/livros
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
GO Sync seems to go a long way in comparing GTFS to OSM handily.
It’s still a very labor intensive process, even on a relatively sparse transit system like MetroLink.
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
RapiD editor has rather unique feature that it can flag pedestrian crossings where node and way are tagged differently. But how to know where are such crossings if you can’t load entire city or country into iD editor? Luckily there’s overpass syntax for that. Quite a few people found this query useful, therefore I’m sharing it with wider audience.
Most of query was produced by LLM after feeding it with Overpass QL language reference. Only parent.u syntax needed manual fixing. I decided to use dynamic comparison of tag values because I wasn’t sure what would happen if there were some unique tagging typo, such as crossing=marked2 or similar.
[out:json][timeout:180];
{{geocodeArea:Estonia}}->.a;
/* Ways that explicitly have crossing=* */
way(area.a)["crossing"]->.ways;
/* Loop each way as .parent */
foreach.ways->.parent
{
/* crossing=* nodes of parent, but
with different crossing value */
node(w.parent)["crossing"]
(if: t["crossing"] != parent.u(t["crossing"]))
...
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
First post in hopefully a series of entries where I’m planning to share various OSM-related experiments I have conducted over the years.
Mapper asked if area should be mapped as grassland, scrub or heath. Since this kind of information is better to be extracted from infrared imagery, without knowing where the mapper is from, I pointed them to use global satellite dataset provided by European Space Agency (OSM wiki link) at Copernicus browser.
Two most commonly user IR imageries are using CIR-NRG and CIR-NGR styles. These acronyms essentially mean that when compared to regular RGB (red, green, blue) pictures, infrared images drop blue signal channel and instead use IR as red, and then original red and green as green and blue. For NRG, red becomes green and green turns blue; NGR is vice versa with green staying green and reds are blue.
Turned out that while Copernicus does have multiple infrared imagery layers (such as one simply called False Color is NGR), but because infrared...
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
“Spatial resolution” is one of the most often misunderstood terms in #EarthObservation and #geospatial. A Planet Stories article demystifies the underlying technical concepts such as Ground Sampling Distance, Ground Resolved Distance, and more, and shows how careful analysis is essential for accurately assessing image quality and separability of features.
04/09/2025-10/09/2025
Mapterhorn public terrain tiles [1]
Breaking news
The OpenStreetMap Foundation held its 19th Annual General Meeting on Saturday, September 13, 2025, at 16:00 UTC. Out of 1,836 eligible voters, 683 participated in the election. Roland Olbricht, Brazil Singh, and Daniela Waltersdorfer were elected to the Foundation’s Board. OSMF Members also extended their thanks to outgoing board member Guillaume, recognizing his six years of service on the Board.
Chairperson Report
Treasurer’s Report
Personnel Commitee’s Report
Mapping
LordGarySugar has proposed several new tags to represent the shape of a building’s underside in 3D renderers, aiming to complement the existing Simple 3D Buildings schema.
Mapping campaigns
The Spanish language podcast Ciudades y Transporte Sustentable (Cities and Sustainable Transport) highlighted how open mapping and community participation are reshaping mobility.
Community
We first reported about the Duitama (Columbia) college...
It seems wherever Reinder travels he finds a Map in the Wild. This one is from a pub in Dublin showing the locations of some of the most famous Irish whiskey (correct spelling for Irish as opposed to Scottish whisky). My favourite, Redbreast, isn’t on there.
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
You can find a German version of this article here: Kreise in MapLibre
I want to integrate a Geolocate control into a MapLibre map and customize it both visually and functionally to fit my app.
At first, I considered using the GeolocateControl that comes standard with MapLibre. However, I quickly discarded this approach because adapting it to my needs seemed too cumbersome without a lot of fiddling.
My goal is that when the button is clicked, the display of the current location is toggled—so it can be turned on and off.
MapLibre itself offers several ways to draw circles on the map, depending on whether they should be pixel-accurate or meter-accurate.
Circles on a MapLibre Map
My starting point is a simple map.
Demo 1
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
As an OpenStreetMap contributor, I’ve always been dedicated to enhancing the detail and usability of local data. Recently, however, I ran into a frustrating problem: in areas I’ve mapped, the Chinese names for many places fail to display correctly in certain applications and services (like OsmAPP, JawgMaps, and MapTiler). Instead, they either fall back to Pinyin or default to the English name (name:en), which looks odd—especially when a primary name tag clearly exists but is simply ignored.
The root of the problem lies in the peculiar rendering rules of these applications, which often prioritize name:[lang] tags that match the user’s language. Even though we add a name tag, the absence of an explicit name:zh or name:zh-Hans tag can leave the renderer confused, causing it to fall back to name:en or just display the Pinyin transliteration.
Manually adding these tags to thousands of elements is obviously out of the question. You can’t just copy and paste your way through it; the...
I want to blog about running, but having never mentioned it on here I feel like I should give some history, so let’s go back in time….
Back in 2008 my old boss Steve Frater mentioned to me that he was planning to run a 10k race near me and would I like to join him.
I’ve just entered the Liverpool 10K on Oct 5th - that gives you plenty of time to train so how about it?
I laughed at him and said that I don’t run, I cycle, but for some reason I did start considering it and ultimately did sign up. (Looks like his original suggestion was in April and I didn’t sign up until August the 1st!) I must have caught the bug as I ended up agreeing to do a 5k race two weeks before this too.
Over the years I did keep running but I didn’t really get into a regular pace, sometimes I’d run with friends, sometimes not. I did the Santa Dash and a few other races, including the Tunnel 10k Run through the Mersey Tunnel, but at times I would still get out of the habit and would stop for a long...
This year, Sparkgeo turned 15. To celebrate, our annual meet up was held in Prince George, British Columbia, the place where it all began in 2010. As a remote team, face-to-face time matters, and it’s especially important that the things we do together are fun. This year was a chance to reflect on our roots […]
The post 15 Years of Sparkgeo: Maps, Adventure, and Endurance appeared first on Sparkgeo.
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
To help make OSM more inclusive in line with the diversity statement https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Diversity_Statement I’ve gone through the wiki and changed all relevant instances of specific pronouns to their gender neutral versions. This both encourages inclusivity by including non binary people, and makes the pages easier to understand.
Pages and text that have not been changed are statements by members of the community, talks, personal user pages and other related pages where changing the phrases would reflect directly on someone’s opinion. This resulted in changes to around ~190 wiki pages, or if you include modified templates, another ~4100 pages. Below is a list of phrases I changed to their gender neutral version.
he/she
she/he
his/her
her/his
he or she
she or he
his or her
her or his
s/he
him/herself
her/himself
him/her
her/him
I’m surprised at the few recent pages still using he/she type references to people, namely the State Of The Map...
Everybody loves a good dot map, such as:CNN's Racial Data Map of the USAThe UK's ONS Census Dot Density MapThe Dot Map of South AfricaHowever the Toronto Dot Density Map is not just your average, run-of-the-mill dot map of census data. Yes, the map uses 2021 Canadian Census data to create dot map layers of gender, age, income, ethnicity, immigration, commute modes and commute time in Toronto -
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
Happy to be part of the Esri India User Conference—a great opportunity to learn new trends, attend practical sessions, and connect with industry experts and scientists. Grateful to my organization Jio-bp and my lead for giving me this chance to represent at the Esri India User Conference.
Nominatim has recently added a new kind of details to its results: entrances.
This post explains what the new feature looks like
and why that is useful.
One of the important applications for geocoding is routing: you give the
router a start and a destination address and then expect it to find a route
in between. Start and destination address are usually sent to a geocoder to
convert them into a set of coordinates. The problem here is that geocoders
and routers have a slightly different view of the world: when a geocoder is
asked for an address, it will return the building that belongs to the address.
The router on the other hand only knows about the road network. So it has
to make an educated guess on which street you actually want to start your
journey. That usually works okay for smaller buildings but when it comes
to larger structures like parks or airports the outcome might not
be what you expect:
That’s where entrances come into play. Instead of just returning the...
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
#Basemapkit is a new open-source library by Jonathan Lurie that provides customizable basemap styles for use with #Maplibre GL JS and #Protomaps #OSM #pmtiles. Its core style, avenue, is designed as a practical “one-size-fits-all” basemap, with optional relief shading for flexible cartographic use.
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
일부 혼란스러운 매핑을 정리하고 OpenRailwayMap 이용을 고려하기 위해 몇몇 부분을 다듬고자 초안을 작성함.
network 키 구분하기
* route=train : 일반철도 노선 (호남선). 지하철 노선에는 사용하지 않
* route=railway : 대중교통 노선 (호남선 무궁화호 등..)
노선 (운행 계통)
선로와 노선의 차이를 잘 구분해야 합니다.
번호가 붙지 않은 노선의 ref 태그에는 노선기호의 문구(신분당선 -> 신분당) 혹은 역 번호의 앞부분을 넣는 것을 고려 (예: 용인경전철 Y1## -> Y1 혹은 Y)
정거장
public_transport=stop_area_group가 비표준 태그이기 때문에, 사용을 지양해야 합니다. 링크
하나의 역은 하나의 public_transport=stop_area 관계로 나타내어야 합니다. (노선별로 관계를 분리하지 않아야 함)
출구의 name은 숫자가 아닌 이름이 있는 경우에만 입력합니다. (번호가 붙은 출구는 name을 비우고 ref만 입력합니다)
public_transport=stop_area의 name 역시 ‘~역’을 제거합니다. (시설물로서의 역을 나타낸다기보다 정거장으로서의 역을 나타내는 경향이 크기 때문)
Ref 키 사용 정리
철도 관련 지물에 붙는 번호/코드의 종류를 정리해 보았습니다.
노선번호(대중교통): route=railway의 ref
노선번호(선로): route=train의 ref 및 railway=rail의 ref
선로번호(역 구내): railway=rail의 railway:track_ref (ref를 쓰지 않도록 합시다)
타는 곳 번호(역):
역번호: 개별 역의 ref
역명 전산약어: 개별 역의 railway:ref
아래 ref키는 특별히 등록된 것은 아니고 이런 key를 사용하면 좋겠다는 부분입니다.
AFC(역무자동화설비) 코드: 개별 역(노선별) ref:AFC
매표단말 역코드:
KROIS...
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Explore the future of 3D geospatial innovation as charted at the Cesium
Developer Conference in Philadelphia. This comprehensive recap covers
groundbreaking advancements in open standards like 3D Tiles and glTF, the
transformative impact of AI and Gaussian Splatting on reality capture, and
the widespread adoption of digital twins in industries ranging from AEC and
defense to climate resilience. Discover how Cesium's ecosystem—from
CesiumJS and the Cesium ion cloud platform to powerful runtime plugins for
Unreal Engine—is empowering over 400 innovators worldwide to build a more
connected and intelligent virtual world
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
Hey OSM Kerala,
I’ve recently come across these innovative “Bottle Booths” scattered across Kerala as part of the state’s push for better plastic waste management. From what I’ve gathered, they’re public recycling stations designed specifically for collecting plastic bottles to reduce littering and promote recycling. The Kochi Corporation alone has installed over 300 of them in various spots, and similar initiatives are popping up elsewhere, often tied to the Haritha Karma Sena waste collection program.
Inspired by this, I’ve started mapping them into OpenStreetMap! So far, I’ve added a few in my local area, tagging them as:
amenity=recycling
recycling_type=container
recycling:plastic_bottles=yes
Optional extras like name=Bottle Booth and operator=Local Corporation (e.g., Varkala Muncipality) if known.
I’m not entirely sure about the full benefits of mapping every single one—maybe it’ll help apps like OsmAnd or Organic Maps guide people to the nearest booth,...
After a bit of a summer hiatus our OpenStreetMap interview series is back!
We last heard from Martijn van Exel when we interviewed him about OpenStreetMap in Utah back in 2022. Besides being an active mapper and local organizer, Martijn is also a prolific OpenStreetMap tool developer. Today we have a chance to chat with him about his Meet your Mappers service.
1. Martijn, welcome back! For those who don’t yet know you, who are you and what do you do? What got you into OpenStreetMap?
Thanks, happy to be back and thanks for having me! I am somewhat of a senior citizen in the OSM community: I got involved in 2007 after I attended a mapping party in Amsterdam. The idea of a community-based map-making project sounded pretty cool to me, and it still does! If I had to name one thing that I appreciate most about the project is the local communities all over the world. I started the OSM Utah community when I moved to the United Stated in 2011 and have been organizing monthly meetings...
Google has announced the winners of the very first Google Maps Platform Awards. The awards were launched to mark the 20th anniversary of the release of the Google Maps API and were open to anyone who has used the Google Maps Platform over the past two decades.As one of the judges for the competition, I can attest to the overall quality of the maps submitted. Winners were named in 10
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
Merhaba.
yaptığım düzenlemelerde hatalar olmuş ve yetkili tarafından düzenlenmiş
bana mail olarak geldi mesajı okudum hatamı anladım fakat hala düzenleme yapamıyorum yardımcı olursanız sevinirim
https://prnt.sc/XRCtescwmNnc -
https://prnt.sc/7XiO-hw3YZf_ -
https://prnt.sc/G1gPDpibpcrX
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
I’ve been mulling over an idea for a while: what if we grab a complete snapshot of OpenStreetMap data for a given region, then run some statistics over it?
Things like which tags are most frequently used, who the top contributors are by edit count, and who has been active in that area the longest.
For the last one, “longest active” means the timespan between a contributor’s very first edit within that region and their most recent edit (also within that region). This distinction helps separate two very different contributor types: the one-hit wonders who show up during a mapping campaign, make a huge number of edits in a short burst, and then disappear forever; and the long-term caretakers, often locals, who quietly keep the map up to date whenever they notice changes in their surroundings.
To explore this idea, I had to build some tools.
Step one was downloading all OSM objects within a given administrative boundary (relation) :...
At AEC Forum 2025, Tapan Mozumdar, Senior Vice President, The Global Network for Zero, unpacks the real challenges and opportunities of digitalization in construction. He highlights why interoperability in BIM […]
The post Interoperability, BIM & Digital Twins: The Road to Net Zero Infrastructure | AEC Forum 2025 appeared first on Geospatial World.
Reinder shared this art piece by Lu Xinjian entitled City DNA/Deventer. “This painting in the Eicas museum in the Dutch town of Deventer, turns out to be inspired by the street pattern – by Lu Xinjian. Quite amazing … “ The detail is almost hypnotic
Flow Immersive is a platform that specializes in immersive data visualization for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) environments. It transforms data into interactive 3D visual stories - called “Flows” - which can be viewed on a variety of devices, including VR headsets, desktop browsers, and mobile screens in AR.CO₂ Emissions Per Household is a demonstration “Flow” that uses a
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
#DuckDB’s #spatial extension is about to support #Mapbox Vector Tiles (#MVT) with the newly merged ST_AsMVT and ST_AsMVTGeom functions. The two new functions are scheduled to be shipped next week in DuckDB version 1.4.
This month we’ve ramped up the infrastructure behind the download server, and downloads should now be available earlier
and faster. There’s also a small technical change in that requests for a “…latest” file will now be answered with a
HTTP redirect to the specific latest version (see previous blog post).
I would like to use this opportunity to appeal to users of the download server to “download responsibly”. We want
to continue offering this service as powerful and as convenient as possible within our means. We want everyone
to have easy access to the latest OSM data in a form that is useful to them.
Every now and then, people break things for others. There have been individual clients downloading the exact same
20-GB file 100s of times per day, for several days in a row. (Just the other day, one user has managed to download almost 10,000 copies of the italy-latest.osm.pbf file in 24 hours!) Others download every single file we have on the
server, every day. There’s a limit to...
There has been much written in recent weeks about the African Union's endorsement of the Correct the Map campaign. Reuters The true size of Africa is one of the better explanations of why Africa is encouraging the use of the Equal Earth map projection over other maps.In a neatly illustrated article Reuters explains how for centuries, the Mercator projection has dominated classrooms and
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By FOSSGIS e.V. / OSM Germany
•
Vernetzungstreffen für Geoinformatiker:innen, FOSSGIS-Konferenz-Teilnehmende, Mitglieder und Interessierte in der FOSSGIS-Community
Am 10. September hat das zweite Online- Vernetzungstreffen für die FOSSGIS-Community stattgefunden.
14 Teilnehmende nutzten die Gelegenheit, sich Wissen und Informationen zum Digitalen Zwilling und XPlanung zu holen und sich auszutauschen und zu vernetzen.
Der Teilnehmerkreis bildete eine große Bandbreite von geobasierten Berufserfahrungen ab. Ebenfalls konnten wir uns sowohl über FOSSGIS-Neulinge freuen, als auch über einige „Alte Hasen“ aus der Community.
Einen herzlichen Dank gilt Andreas von Dömming (BKG), der sich die Zeit genommen hatte, den teilnehmenden einen Einblick in das Themenfeld Digitale Zwillinge zu geben. Der Leiter des Referates „Digitale Zwillinge“ am BKG erklärte, was einen Digitalen Zwilling ausmacht und welche Potentiale durch die Umsetzung entstehen können. Er berichtete von dem Projekt, einen Digitalen Zwilling für ganz...
The vector data format is unbelievably useful, but one artifact of the format is discrete boundaries. Vector has to draw a line somewhere, but the visual result can imply more certainty or discrete solidity than is really going on, in this case smoke concentration in the air. How can we benefit from the utility of …
Aligned with our theme of this blog of “be critical of the data,” consider the following recent fascinating story: An artist wheeled 99 smartphones around in a wagon to create fake traffic jams on Google Maps. An artist pulled 99 smartphones around Berlin in a little red wagon, in order to track how the phones […]
Wenn man sich mit Daten-Themen auseinandersetzt, ist „Datenräume“ schon einige Zeit ein geflügeltes Wort. Was die aktuellen Entwicklungen im Thema sind, habe ich am Swiss Data Spaces Forum in Rotkreuz mit anderen Interessierten diskutiert. Quelle Header-Bild: Swiss Data Alliance Datenräume Letzten Dienstag traf sich die Schweizer Daten-Community in Rotkreuz zum diesjährigen «Swiss Data Spaces Forum». …
Matt Harrison explains how his firm, Transport Designed, redesigned the network map for Northern, a train company that handles passenger services across northern England, from Liverpool to Newcastle. Northern’s historic network map, whilst representing the… More
The fifth biennial Ruderman Conference on Cartography, which will be held 8-10 October 2025 at Stanford’s David Rumsey Map Center, focuses on the cartography of “anything but the earth’s surface,” viz., astronomy, geology, oceanography. Schedule,… More
With the organizers of the Great North Run apologizing for printing t-shirts and medals with a map of Sunderland rather than Newcastle, the Guardian takes the opportunity to look at recent instances of map mistakes,… More
Sometimes things happen at a slow burn. One thing I’ve been trying to do in what spare time I have is resurrect the QGIS-US group. It’s starting. I’ve reached the point now where emails/virtual hangouts are about to start happening. So I made a google form and in general I’m just trying to figure out […]
The post QGIS-US User Group appeared first on North River Geographic Systems Inc.
At AEC Forum 2025, Satish MV, Executive Committee Member & Advisor to CMD, Larsen & Toubro, explores how digital technologies are redefining construction and infrastructure worldwide. From automated generative design […]
The post Digital Engineering at L&T: The Power of BIM, AI & Smart Construction | AEC Forum 2025 appeared first on Geospatial World.
The CFB Charts Imperialism Map is a fan-created, season-long project that turns the college football season into a map-based "conquest" game. It started on Reddit and Twitter a few years ago and has become a tradition among college football fans.Here’s how it works (I think):Each FBS team begins the season owning the county in which its school is located (and probably all the nearest counties).
Chris and Krishna discuss their experiences working with geospatial embeddings, search and remote sensing in general, and how they think through problems.
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
Discover the winners of the 2025 Prix Carto award of the Swiss Society for Cartography: Fabian Lang for his book “Schweizer Bergwelten”, Sachit Mahajan for the R package “greenR”, and Aubry Cholleton for the web app “isochrone.ch”.
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
2025.09.08
I am two days late to write this post. Life gets in the way. However, I felt I should have this in writing. On 6 September 2025, after 11:30 PM, I suddenly realized that the ending day marks something significant. It marks the 10th year completion of my journey with OpenStreetMap. 10 years ago, on this day in 2015, I entered a workshop arranged by Save the Children International in Bangladesh. The workshop was arranged by a project named Kolorob (Bengali word for the sound of a lot of people cheering together) who were training youths on how to edit OpenStreetMap. Little did I know back then that it will entirely change the direction of my life.
10 years since 6 September 2015 consists of 3654 days. Checking my HDYC told me that I mapped 3425 days in that 10 years. That is about 9.38 years of mapping each day. It felt quite overwhelming. Mapping became such an integrated part of my life that it hardly feels something I do, rather something automated that is to be...
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
For two decades, the Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data (HIFLD)
Open portal was the bedrock of U.S. disaster response and community
planning—a free, authoritative map of the nation's most critical assets.
Now, it's gone. This in-depth article explores the profound impact of the
recent shutdown of HIFLD Open, from its origins in the wake of 9/11 to its
vital role in responding to hurricanes and wildfires. Discover what made
this curated government data uniquely powerful for emergency managers and
researchers, and why its disappearance leaves a critical void that
commercial and crowdsourced maps cannot fill. We examine the consequences
of this decision for national resilience and the uncertain future of open
data in America.
Lots of coverage at Polish news network TVP World on suspected Russian GPS jamming in the Baltic region. A report submitted by the Baltic states to ICAO found that 123,000 flights were disrupted by GPS… More
Ley Line Locator
The idea of ley lines was first proposed in the 1920s by the amateur archaeologist Alfred Watkins. In his book, 'The Old Straight Track', Watkins suggested that many ancient sites in Britain - such as standing stones, barrows, and old churches - could be joined by drawing straight lines across the landscape. He believed these alignments were not accidental but reflected a
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
y first day in mapping was sweet and exciting. I felt good to know that even small tasks I did could help improve global maps. It was interesting to discover how roads, buildings, and other features are added, and I enjoyed learning while contributing to something meaningful. That experience motivated me to keep mapping and to grow my skills further.
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
Wijzigingenset: 171572422.
Ford gewijzigd in vlonderpad. Bij een ford (doorwaadbare plaats) is de waterstand hoger dat is hier niet het geval. Zie onderstaande foto.
Kevin Carey said “After a nice morning walk up Craigendarroch in Ballater. It was nice to see this table top decoration in the local cafe (The Bothy Ballater)”
Official OSM logo by Ken Vermette, CC-BY-SA 3.0 & trademarks apply.
Voting for the 2025 board election has started. You can read the board candidates’ answers and manifestos here.
Emails were sent to eligible OSM Foundation members today, and link directly to the voting page – listing each candidate in random order and allowing you to rank the candidates in order of preference.
Eligibility to vote
You are eligible to vote in the election if
you have been a member for the full 90 days prior to the date of the Annual General Meeting (which will take place on 13 September 2025), and
your membership is not in arrears 7 days before the date of the Annual General Meeting, and
you are a natural person.
OpaVote voting email
If you are eligible to vote, the OpaVote email was sent to the email address associated with your OSM Foundation membership.
The subject of the email is: [OpenStreetMap Foundation] Voting on 2025 board election...
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
Hello OSM friends! I’m Bhausaheb…… from Nashik, working in GIS Industry as an GIS Engineer. Recently, I have been mapped new buildings around my locality using ID Editor.
My word, (and forgive the language), but what an arse of a job they’ve made of this. This is at the Brussels terminal of the Eurostar where they’ve superimposed some historical mapping, geology maps, the tube map and a picture of Shakespeare and some other random graphics to make a horror of a montage for […]
Happy 7th birthday, Mappery! I travelled with my OS flask all summer, but I admit I forgot it when hiking in the mountains. I took it when I visited Arles for the photo festival. There were a few maps at the exhibits so that they will arrive in a few days.
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
(My first diary entry, am I doing this right?)
I’ve been mapping my beautiful town for now 1.5 or more years. I discovered OSM through a Polish youtuber talking about motorways, and at first I made some small changes, not knowing what I got myself into. Through the years, I’ve fixed the landuse, updated all of the POIs, kept up with constructions, repairs, etc., and did all sorts of detailing.
I’ve reached a point where… I need to move outwards. There is not much left to do except wait for something to close, open or change.
It’s been a heck of a ride.
I would like to give the Polish OSM community a warm thank you for helping me out in sticky situations.
Link for the map, go explore!
Today is our 7th birthday, really quite amazing. That’s 2,000 posts and 3,000 images! I chose these pix from the Shipping House in Amsterdam (aka Scheepvaarthuis) that Reinder sent to me for 2 reasons – firstly, because the windows are absolutely beautiful and represent the essence of a Map in the Wild and secondly because […]
Tokyo has one of the most comprehensive public transit systems in the world. Curtis Fenner has built an isochrone map that allows you to see where you can travel in the city by train in a given time.The purpose of the map is to help people make crucial decisions about where to live by visualizing real-world commute times. It effectively achieves this by not only showing the reach of the entire
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
Hello OSM friends! I’m Pratap from Mumbai, working in GIS. Recently, I mapped new buildings in my locality using iD editor and did QA checks with OSM Inspector. I’m excited to share my learning with the community
Many small and mid-sized organizations find technology modernization daunting due to costs, complexity, and skill shortages. However, a strategic, step-by-step approach focusing on business goals and small, high-impact wins can ease the process. Embracing gradual changes and leveraging expert guidance helps unlock new efficiencies and competitive advantages.
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
Geospatial foundation models and the rise of Discrete Global Grid Systems (DGGS) are reshaping how we think about, and interact with, spatial data. In an episode of the #Geomob podcast, Luís Moreira de Sousa offers an overview of, and introduction to, #DGGS-s and their use-cases.
The USGS announced a new, more detailed national geologic map last week. The new USGS map, called The Cooperative National Geologic Map, was created using more than 100 preexisting geologic maps from various sources and is… More
Jennifer Mapes created a large corkboard map to illustrate the history of Kent, Ohio’s South End, a neighbourhood inhabited by railroad workers, immigrants, and African Americans moving north during the Great Migration. I purposefully created… More
Land subsidence threatens safety, compliance, and productivity across mining operations. Reliable GIS field data in mining ensures that every observation, from surface cracks to elevation shifts, flows into models that guide risk detection and response. Structured field measurements provide the foundation, while remote sensing, satellite imagery, and digital elevation models (DEMs) add the broader context needed to keep subsidence models accurate. Digital platforms tie these inputs together in real time, turning raw field observations into actionable strategies for safer, more resilient operations.
La entrada The role of GIS field data in mining for subsidence risk mitigation se publicó primero en Fulcrum.
On the Geographical magazine website, Tim Marshall explains how a 1907 topographical map fuels a current-day border conflict between Cambodia and Thailand. And without any imagery of the map at all (right). It’s about the… More
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
In the world of geospatial technology, two powerful currents shape our
digital maps: the polished, enterprise-ready ecosystems of proprietary
software like Esri's ArcGIS and the passionate, community-driven innovation
of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). This is not a story of opposition,
but of a complex, thriving balance. From corporate giants optimizing global
logistics to volunteer armies mapping disaster zones in real-time to save
lives, both models are fundamental to our modern world.
This article delves into the heart of this dynamic, exploring the
philosophies that divide and the open standards that unite these two
worlds. We deconstruct the powerful FOSS4G stack—featuring titans like QGIS
and PostGIS—and examine the sustainable business models that prove "free"
software is a viable, enterprise-grade choice.
More than just code, we uncover the soul of the movement: the Open Source
Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and the global community that...
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
Lifecycle Tagging
Lifecycle tagging is the representation of the temporal state of an object (e.g., whether it is under construction, demolished, or abandoned). Since there is no single convention universally accepted by the community, different and inconsistent schemes have developed, making automatic interpretation and uniform data management difficult. In many map editors, there is no section dedicated to editing this lifecycle, which makes it even more difficult for new users to understand how to use the system.
The goal of this project is to devise and implement a method for applying lifecycle tagging in a way that is simple, intuitive, and does not interfere with existing tagging practices.
PR can be viewed here.
Study
Before fully committing to the development of a new interface, a study was conducted to assess which tagging schema is the most popular, consistent and suitable for integration into the iD editor. Many other editors have been. Full study available here.
I...
At AEC Forum 2025, Eric DesRoche, Director – Infrastructure Business Strategy, AEC Design, Autodesk, shares powerful insights into the global shifts shaping the AEC industry. From India’s rapid rise in […]
The post AI, BIM & India’s Infrastructure Boom: The Future of AEC | AEC Forum 2025 appeared first on Geospatial World.
Carol Ely spotted this, “While maps are often used on TV news shows, it took a while for the penny to drop that the entire background and graphic scheme of the MSNBC (US) show Inside with Jen Psaki is a stylized map of Washington DC. It often looks like a Mondrian grid! I’m a huge fan of […]
The nights are beginning to draw in which can only mean one thing: autumn is nearly upon us! And for "leaf-peepers" everywhere, that means it's time to consult the annual Smoky Mountain 2025 Fall Foliage Map. This incredibly popular interactive map is back to help you predict the best time to see the vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows of fall across the United States.Every year, Smoky Mountain
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
An analysis drawing on ecosyste.ms data reveals that a large share of #opensource projects are maintained by just one person, for example nearly half of the 13,000 most-downloaded #NPM packages, with this pattern holding for all but the largest download counts. This insight puts a spotlight on the need to carefully think about project and #community health in the modern #software landscape.
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
Después muchas pruebas, les comparto un método para realizar las correcciones de manera masiva y controlada. Este flujo de trabajo es el más simple, rápido y seguro que pude lograr.
⚠️ MUY IMPORTANTE:
Seguí las instrucciones paso a paso. El orden de los reemplazos es importante.
No mezcles las dos tareas (network y ref). Hacelas por separado y subilas en changesets distintos.
Requisitos:
Un editor de texto que soporte “Buscar y Reemplazar” con expresiones regulares (RegEx). Notepad++ es perfecto para esto.
JOSM instalado y actualizado.
Tarea 1: Normalizar la etiqueta ref
🎯 Objetivo: Quitar los prefijos “RN” y “RP” de la etiqueta ref en todas las relaciones de ruta.
Paso 1: Obtener los datos desde Overpass Turbo
Vamos a descargar un archivo .osm que contiene únicamente las relaciones que necesitan ser corregidas.
Andá a overpass-turbo.eu y pegá la siguiente consulta.
Modificá la línea {{geocodeArea:...}} para poner la provincia en la que querés...
Disasters are becoming more frequent, more intense, and more costly. From cyclones and floods to record-breaking heatwaves, the threat to global infrastructure is real—and growing. At AEC Forum 2025, Amit […]
The post Resilient Infrastructure in an Age of Disasters | AEC Forum 2025 appeared first on Geospatial World.
The Guardian's map, Visualised: Europe's population crisis, is an effective and stark visualization of the continent's emerging demographic issue. The map's primary purpose is to highlight the dramatic difference migration makes to Europe's population projections by 2100. It successfully achieves this by comparing Europe's projected population "With migration" and "Without migration".It is often
Here’s how you can take an image, turn it into a repeating texture, and apply it to the whole world. We’ll make a cement-sourced gritty texture and then a water-sourced wave texture. We’ll use the Vector Tile Style Editor to make these textures global layers for ArcGIS, ready to pour tactile charm and reality into …
Welcome to GeoAI Unpacked! I am Ali Ahmadalipour and in this blog, I share insights and deep dives in geospatial AI, focusing on business opportunities and industry challenges.
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
📢 Venho compartilhar com vocês o Material de Apoio do Projeto Mapeia Crato/CE 2025.
Neste material, você encontra um passo a passo completo para o mapeamento das edificações (buildings) utilizado no projeto, organizado de forma prática e acessível. O conteúdo está disponível em três formatos: ODT, PDF e uma apresentação em MP4, para que cada mapeador possa escolher a melhor forma de aprender e aplicar.
👉 O material pode ser baixado diretamente no site do projeto:
🔗 https://www.umbraosm.com.br/projeto-mapeiacrato
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
https://imgur.com/cUFxKT5
🚀 Venho compartilhar o Material de Apoio do Projeto Mapeia Crato/CE 2025!
📂 Disponível em ODT, PDF e MP4
🏠 Passo a passo para mapear edificações (buildings)
🌍 Pode ser usado em qualquer projeto com dados do Open Google Buildings
⚡️ Fluxo de trabalho simples e produtivo
📥 Baixe agora: umbraosm.com.br/projeto-mapeiacrato
At AEC Forum 2025, Maj. Gen. Sameer Srivastava, AVSM, VSM, Additional Director General, Land Works and Environment, Indian Army, shares how the Army is reimagining infrastructure for the future. From […]
The post Indian Army’s Future-Ready Infrastructure: Resilient, Sustainable & Strategic | AEC Forum 2025 appeared first on Geospatial World.
Meteorological fall started on September 1, but if you live in the contiguous U.S., you may not have noticed the typical crisp, cool air. That's because the season has been steadily warming for decades. Since 1970, average fall temperatures have risen in every single county in the country.On average, fall temperatures are now a remarkable 2.8°F warmer than they were in the early 1970s. This
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
SIWES Diary – Day 1
Date: 2nd September, 2025
Organization: Unique Mappers Network, Nigeria
National Office: Suite 7, Mapathon Center, UNIPORT Mall, Abuja Campus, University of Port Harcourt
Activities:
-Reported to the National Office of Unique Mappers Network and settled into the Mapathon Center.
-Was introduced to the organization’s vision, mission, and the role of open mapping in sustainable development.
-Met fellow IT students including Favour, Alexander and Salvation, who are also undergoing their internship.
-Created an OpenStreetMap account and was tasked to locate my community and count the number of buildings. Many buildings were not visible, so using aerial imagery and my local knowledge, I edited the map by adding missing buildings.
-Since the office router had no internet subscription, I used my personal data for mapping and contributions.
-Received four major tasks for the internship period:
Watch the video “The Magic of Maps and Mapping” (YouTube...
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
Der Datensatz “WMS LGL-BW ALKIS” enthält liegenschaften und Hausnummern.
TL;DR;
Auszug Rechtliches in https://www.lgl-bw.de/Produkte/Open-Data:
Die offenen Geobasisdaten und Geodatendienste der Vermessungsverwaltung Baden-Württemberg können unter den Bedingungen der Datenlizenz Deutschland - Namensnennung - Version 2.0 (http://www.govdata.de/dl-de/by-2-0) unentgeltlich genutzt werden. Die Namensnennung hat in folgender Weise zu erfolgen: “Datenquelle: LGL, www.lgl-bw.de, dl-de/by-2-0”.
Details
Es gelten die Nutzungsbedingungen aus den Metadaten
Dort ist die liberale https://www.govdata.de/dl-de/by-2-0 zitiert, als auch die (nicht so liberale) AGB
Zu Luftbildern gibt es eine Freigabe zur Nicht-Nennung.
Lesenswert ist auch die Anfrage.
Im Tagungsband der FOOSGIS 2025 steht auf Seite 56:
Baden-Württemberg gehört zu den Bundesländern, die mit Inkrafttreten der Durchführungsverordnung
ihr Open Geodata-Angebot um ALKIS [10] erweitert haben.
* Lizenz (Download und Dienste):...
Last week someone posted an animation of a Typographic Map of France on Reddit. This map gradually added the names of 1,156 French communes to a blank canvas, starting with those with the largest populations. I really liked the effect of the animation and remembered that TripGeo's Scrambled Maps has a database of around 11,000 cities worldwide - complete with population data.
by Minh NguyễnCore Software Development Facilitator, OpenStreetMap Foundation
In June, I had the privilege of representing OpenStreetMap as part of the Sovereign Tech Agency’s delegation at UN Open Source Week in New York City. Joining me was Sarah Hoffmann, who maintains several well-known OSM software projects. This was a unique opportunity to raise OSM’s profile among global institutional supporters of open source projects and promote best practices for fostering and sustaining authentic open source communities.
Among the open source projects represented at the event, OSM stands out as an open data project, giving us a special perspective on issues of governance and community-building. At the unconference-style “Maintain-A-Thon”, Sarah shared some of her deep experience as maintainer of Nominatim in discussing how to create accessible entry points for new contributors. A few steps away, I joined open source maintainers from around the world as we discussed our challenges...
Mapping Munchies
Tuesday, September 2nd 2025, 12:50 BST
London, UK
My wife and I run a blog where we review the restaurants we go to when we go out for dinner on Friday evenings.
And on this website you can look at all the reviews, but it is a bit difficult to see as to where the restaurants are.
So I decided that I wanted to add a map to our website.
We have already recorded the addresses for this, but not quite yet the coordinates.
So in order to show a map we needed to convert the addresses to coordinates, and there are several ways of doing so.
You can roll something yourself with a Nominatim, which is part of the OpenStreetMap project. But I decided to try a different service, called OpenCageData, which provides a geocoding service. I didn't want to maintain a geocoder myself.
After signing up and creating API keys, I used their PHP library (handily...
Russia is suspected of engaging in GPS jamming that disrupted the navigation systems of a plane carrying European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on a flight to Plovdiv, Bulgaria: BBC News, The Guardian, Reuters.… More
Dot maps can be a powerful way to convey the scale of large numbers. But when each dot represents a human life, there’s a risk that the individual stories behind those numbers will be lost. Reuters’ latest visualization of European migration tackles this challenge head-on: instead of starting with statistics, it begins with a close-up of a single overcrowded boat, allowing viewers to see the
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
In 2025 alone I found vandalism incidents specifically targeting map of Indonesian parliament compound twice, in March and now in late August. Thankfully these are all restored.
What made me sad that some Indonesians don’t understand the OpenStreetMap at all, what they only know in their head is political activism. They do by erasing - or editing - the place of institution they despise. Not really sure if these incidents are unique to maps in Indonesia or there’s international example of politically motivated vandalism of OSM maps?
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
Memang repot menghadapi sebagian netizen Indonesia yang sepertinya menyalahgunakan peta sebagai alat perjuangan politik ketimbang bantuan navigasi dan informasi.
Selama delapan bulan terakhir, vandalisme bernuansa politik sudah dua kali terjadi: Maret 2025, dengan mengubah batas wilayah negara (yang mungkin gampang diketahui oleh pengurus OSM); dan Agustus 2025 dengan mengganti dua tempat menjadi reservoir.
Target utamanya kalau tidak lain dan tidak bukan kompleks DPR/MPR, khusus untuk Agustus 2025 juga menimpa peta kawasan Polda Metro Jaya (DKI Jakarta). Jika anda punya ketidakpuasan politik di Indonesia, jelas OpenStreetMap bukan tempatnya dan yang anda hadapi adalah dihukum oleh pengurus OpenStreetMap. Mungkin ini satu-satunya vandalisme bernuansa politik di OpenStreetMap
(Update 06/9/2025 - sebenarnya bukan, cek kolom komentar di diari versi Bahasa Inggris, dimana disebut terjadi vandalisme besar-besaran di peta Rusia dan Ukraina terkait perang, serta kasus vandalisme peta...
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
Discover #Mapterhorn by Oliver Wipfli: a collection of global #terrain tiles in the lightweight #PMTiles format, built from open data sources such as Switzerland’s ultra-detailed #swissALTI3D model by #swisstopo. With open-source pipelines, ready-to-use code samples, and a live viewer, Mapterhorn makes it easy to add hillshaded relief and detailed 3D terrain to your webmaps.
At the AEC Forum 2025, Srikant Shastri, Chairperson of Geospatial Data Promotion & Development Committee, Govt of India, connects the dots between India’s National Geospatial Policy and the country’s new […]
The post Why Digital Twins Are Urgent for India’s Future | AEC Forum 2025 appeared first on Geospatial World.
OpenStreetMap Blogs
• By OpenStreetMap User's Diaries
•
Styles for vector tiles are typically written in the MapLibre GL style language. These definitions exist in JSON, which, for various reasons, is not a good language for humans to write in. Software called Charites preprocessed my Street Spirit style to improve readability. This helped a great deal and removed the two largest pain points: no comments and only one file.
Charites’ main features are:1
letting you write in YAML instead of JSON,
importing other YAML files into the main one,
and the use of simple variables to allow common style constants to be set once.
I made use of the first two features, but I still found myself limited by them. I still faced issues where the project’s structure revolved around the styling language rather than what makes sense to a cartographer.
A good example of this was road layers. With Charites I had to have separate files for each layer, so I had separate files for each of the thirteen layers. With glug I was able to have one file...
The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 3.6.0!
Best Served with PostgreSQL 18 Beta3
and recently released GEOS 3.14.0.
This version requires PostgreSQL 12 - 18beta3, GEOS 3.8 or higher, and Proj 6.1+.
To take advantage of all features, GEOS 3.14+ is needed.
To take advantage of all SFCGAL features, SFCGAL 2.2.0+ is needed.
3.6.0
source download md5
NEWS
HTML Online en ja sv fr zh_Hans
PDF docs: en ja, sv, zh_Hans, fr
Cheat Sheets:
postgis: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_raster: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_topology: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_sfcgal: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
address standardizer, postgis_tiger_geocoder: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
This release includes bug fixes since PostGIS 3.5.3 and new features.
Topoprint now supports creating relief maps as RoundRects (rounded rectangles) alongside traditional disc shapes, offering a fresher yet practical alternative. Backend optimizations have accelerated 3D model processing significantly—a model that once took up to 10 minutes now completes in just a few minutes, complete with a progress bar update to keep users informed. Additionally, the Topodisc Designer web app has been revamped for mobile devices, making interaction more intuitive with larger maps and improved gestures.
This vegetation classification map layer for North America was recently released and is amazing! https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=66c13612635d4ee9bd4d6500cf462e7f Once there, examine the metadata, and you can open it immediately in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Pro (or another GIS package) and explore! You can also download the data as a layer package (see the bottom of the metadata page […]
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Cami Maselli
•
From the inky blackness at the edge of space, a slender silhouette patrols
the upper atmosphere, a silent sentinel against the gentle curvature of the
Earth. This is the domain of the Lockheed U-2, an aircraft known by the
mythical moniker "Dragon Lady". For nearly seven decades, from the iciest
depths of the Cold War to the complex surveillance demands of the 21st
century, this visionary aircraft has been a constant, often unseen, factor
in global geopolitics.
Born from a desperate need to peer behind the Iron Curtain, the U-2 was a
high-stakes gamble. Its story is one of groundbreaking technological leaps
forged in secrecy at Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works, but it is equally a
story of profound human endeavor. Discover the incredible skill and courage
required of its pilots, who flew solo for hours at over 70,000 feet,
navigating the razor-thin margin of the "coffin corner" while sealed inside
an early spacesuit.
Go behind the scenes of the U-2's most...
In 2024, atmospheric methane levels reached their highest point in more than 800,000 years, with the oil and gas sector playing a major role in that surge. The methane leaks from oil and gas operations don’t just warm the planet - they also release toxic pollutants that can harm people’s health.The Methane Risk Map plots significant methane leak events across the United States. By combining
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
Update from the #SGS action #SWISSGEO: The first prototype of the Swiss geospatial platform aiming to unite various map, service, and data offerings from Swiss authorities is online for your testing and feedback.
In conversation with Mr. Kalyan Chakravarthy, Director – Sales, Garudalytics, where he talks about how GeoAI is helping in developing actionable insights with expert human intervention, offering AI to the […]
The post Legacy Software and Data are Impeding the Adoption of GeoAI appeared first on Geospatial World.
The United States Geological Survey has released a new geologic map of the United States that lets you click anywhere in the country to see the rocks, sediments, and geologic units under your feet, along with their age and material type.The Cooperative National Geological Map was created by combining around 100 state and regional maps into one seamless, nationwide view of U.S. geology.
A short video about the Map Center, the Rhode Island-based map store that, you will recall, Andrew Middleton took over two years ago. The video came about, Andrew says, when a customer came back and… More
This Tryptich, entitled Daventriptiek, was made by Marco Mout en Gezellen. Reinder explained “Daventriae = Latin for Deventer: an old town in the Dutch province of Overijssel – so the title of this triptych is quite appropriate”
In his opening remarks at the AEC Forum 2025, held in New Delhi, Sanjay Kumar, Founder & CEO of Geospatial World, highlighted the urgent need for resilient and sustainable infrastructure. […]
The post Building Resilient & Sustainable Infrastructure | AEC Forum 2025 appeared first on Geospatial World.
The geo-guessing genre has seen a sudden surge in AI-powered experimentation. Just yesterday, I reviewed GeoGPT, which pits players against an AI to identify locations using Mapillary imagery. Today, I came across GeoGuesser AI, a geo-guessing game that’s actually hosted by an AI..In many respects, GeoGuesser AI follows the familiar geo-guessing format: you’re dropped into a
The USGS has posted a “geonarrative” (i.e., a StoryMap) that delves into great detail about the seismology of the magnitude 8.8 earthquake that took place on 29 July 2025 off the Kamchatka Peninsula, providing history,… More
Library and Archives Canada has posted a four-part series on early automobile maps to their Facebook page (they don’t have a blog, just social media accounts), featuring examples from their collection: Nova Scotia, Montreal, Banff… More
Back in September 2024, Phil Edwards explored the hidden, unofficial economy Google Street View, where third parties spend money and resources uploading 360-degree imagery to promote a region or tourist attraction or local business or… More
A conceptual model that enables interoperable representation of indoor navigation networks and spatial relationships
The post OGC publishes IndoorGML 2.0 Part 1: Conceptual Model Standard appeared first on Open Geospatial Consortium.
Steven Gordon sent us these pics from the bathroom walls from Lapin Bleu Bar and Art Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC. (the bathrooms are unisex, accessible to all) Lapin Bleu Facebook page
GeoGPT is now one of my favorite geo-guessing games. GeoGPT follows the usual GeoGuessr inspired format: you’re dropped into a random street-level image, and your task is to figure out where in the world you are. But here’s the twist - rather than competing against other humans, you’re up against an AI, which makes its own guesses alongside yours. The closest guess to the true location wins
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
High on a remote mountaintop, you spot a metallic glint set in the bedrock:
a weathered brass disk stamped with cryptic words and a perfect triangle.
What is this object? It's a geodetic survey marker, a physical anchor from
a two-century-long scientific odyssey to measure and map a continent.
This is the story of how a network of brass and sweat, laid down with
grueling labor and uncompromising precision, formed the invisible framework
of our modern world. Discover the audacious vision of Ferdinand Hassler,
the brutal life of a survey party, and the elegant science of triangulation
that transformed an unmapped frontier into a tangible nation.
But in an age of GPS, are these markers mere relics? Explore the paradox of
why these "silent sentinels" are more critical than ever, anchoring our
virtual, satellite-driven age to the solid ground beneath our feet.
Reinder spotted this series of posters on the Rue Piat in the 20th Arrondissement of Paris. The heading of the map translates (according to Google as “The Seine’s upheavals – watershed, living basin” – would love to know what Greendock is that needs to be stopped if any of our French followers can provide more […]
Every year Telegeography publishes a comprehensive, annually updated map that visualizes active and planned submarine telecommunications cables around the world. The futuristic looking 2025 Submarine Cable Map was released back in January. This map shows the current extent of the world’s active submarine telecommunications cables and those currently under construction.The Internet
Finding the right balance between Running-the-business (RTB) and Changing-the-business (CTB) can be challenging. This post explains that if RTB tasks are kept to a minimum, Scrum can be effective. However, if those tasks increase, adopting a hybrid or Kanban system can significantly help maintain smooth workflows and achieve operational excellence.
Reliable GIS starts with field mapping workflows designed for accuracy from the outset. These workflows keep field data and real-time data in sync with web maps and feature layers so spatial data stays trustworthy from collection to decision. By combining automatic GPS tagging, in-field validation, and mobile tools that streamline data capture, teams produce consistent data that drives dependable maps and actionable insights. With better data capture and digital workflows, projects stay accurate without wasted effort in the field.
La entrada When your field mapping workflows break your maps se publicó primero en Fulcrum.
Spatialty emphasizes a modern GIS approach centered on automation, accessibility, and education, transforming challenges into opportunities and enhancing organizational decision-making through geospatial intelligence.
Elizabeth spotted this piece of carto based art in Granary Square, Kings Cross. The underlying map is from the Great Northern Railway which used to run into Kings Cross.
The Size of Anything is an interactive map that lets you compare the sizes of different locations around the world.To be honest, when I first heard about The Size of Anything I thought, “Not another size comparison map.” Just off the top of my head I can think of several similar tools:The True Size Of ... GeoSize Compare Country Size Comparison Reprojector - all of which let
Continuing my thoughts on deep horizontals, looking at AI and Geospatial economics. Another point of comparison is the use of consumer tools in enterprise workflows.
It’s a single animated map in a larger, infographic-rich Bloomberg CityLab article about how NJ Transit is the least reliable New York City area commuter rail service, but you can’t help but pay attention to… More
Miguel García Álvarez weighs in on the Correct the Map campaign to replace the Mercator projection with Equal Earth: I think the Equal Earth projection is an excellent compromise. But as a cartography enthusiast, it… More
This isn’t a tale about Lunar correspondence, but of letters shaped from the craters and shadows of the Moon. Alphabet Moon uses imagery of Lunar contours and ridges to shape a typeface out of unfamiliar terrain. Each letter is drawn not with ink but with the valleys, peaks, and scars of the lunar surface, transforming geological history into the letters of the alphabet.Enter your name - or any
AI adoption is facing the same problems that Geospatial has been struggling with. Services-driven products are one solution, MIT, A16Z, and OpenAI all agree.
The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 3.6.0rc2!
Best Served with PostgreSQL 18 Beta3
and recently released GEOS 3.14.0.
This version requires PostgreSQL 12 - 18beta3, GEOS 3.8 or higher, and Proj 6.1+.
To take advantage of all features, GEOS 3.14+ is needed.
To take advantage of all SFCGAL features, SFCGAL 2.2.0+ is needed.
3.6.0rc2
source download md5
NEWS
HTML Online en ja sv fr zh_Hans
PDF docs: en ja, sv, zh_Hans, fr
Cheat Sheets:
postgis: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_raster: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_topology: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_sfcgal: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
address standardizer, postgis_tiger_geocoder: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
This release is a beta of a major release, it includes bug fixes since PostGIS 3.5.3 and new features.
The coordinates 56.4907 N, 4.2026 W lead to the Stone landmark. I found the coordinates on a site titled “Where is Scotland?” Happy to have more information from our followers on the subject.
Over recent years, a number of urban planning maps have revealed just how much valuable city land is devoted to surface parking lots. For example, the Parking Lot Map highlights the percentage of land in U.S. city centers taken up by parking.The School of Cities at the University of Toronto has gone a step further with its project From Parking Spaces to Living Spaces. Using a
The Word for World is both an upcoming exhibition and an upcoming book exploring the maps of Ursula K. Le Guin—i.e., the maps she herself made for worlds like Earthsea. When Ursula K. Le Guin… More
The magnificent David Rumsey Map Collection now has an AI Search Assistant that can help you find maps, learn more about individual maps, and even query specific elements within maps.The David Rumsey Map Collection is one of the largest online collections of maps, and its new AI Search Assistant is a fantastic resource. It not only helps you search and discover maps in the collection
“In the end, what’s most remarkable about the campaign against Oregon’s wildfire map isn’t that misinformation found an audience. It’s that it worked.” ProPublica looks at how misinformation and conspiracy theories led to the downfall… More
Geospatial | Towards Data Science
• By Lee Vaughan
•
Use Python, GeoPandas, Tropycal, and Plotly Express to map the number of hurricane encounters per county over the past 50 years.
The post Where Hurricanes Hit Hardest: A County-Level Analysis with Python appeared first on Towards Data Science.
Tourist Minesweeper is a twist on the classic puzzle game, using a gridded map of real locations to highlight the spread of Airbnb in popular Spanish tourist destinations. If you’ve ever played Minesweeper (and who hasn’t?), you’ll recognize the rules - but here, instead of dodging bombs, you’re “sweeping” for zones of tourist pressure.Currently you can play Tourist Minesweeper on gridded maps
One of my favorite recent side-projects has been Meet Cute, a playful web map that generates tiny “micro-romance” stories whenever you click on a location. The conceit is simple: click on a map, and out comes a love story set in the nearest town.
But behind that simple experience was a not-so-romantic technical problem: finding the name of the nearest town.
At first, I leaned on the Overpass API
A data-driven approach to understanding, predicting, and preventing heat-related deaths in urban neighborhoods.
The post How Cities Can Beat Extreme Heat: Mapping the Invisible Killer appeared first on Open Geospatial Consortium.
GIS Application Developer II - MassGIS / Executive Office of Technology Services and Security / Commonwealth of MA, 1 Ashburton Pl, Boston, MA 02108 posted on 2025-08-19
Geospatial AI can forecast infrastructure needs, model environmental changes, and support critical decisions, but its accuracy depends on reliable field data. Fulcrum equips teams to capture precise, validated information in the field and send it directly into GIS and AI workflows. By maintaining accuracy from collection through analysis, Fulcrum helps ensure geospatial insights reflect real-world conditions. This streamlined connection ensures that your geospatial artificial intelligence models receive the most accurate, real-time spatial inputs possible.
La entrada How Fulcrum amplifies geospatial AI with advanced field data analysis se publicó primero en Fulcrum.
The Washington County, Wisconsin USA GIS team (https://gisdata.washcowisco.gov/) has, using Esri Business Analyst, created an amazing set of resources so that their staff and communities can visualize situations and patterns and make effective decisions. I also believe this set of resources can be instructive for others to look at and derive inspiration from. Pat Walker, […]
Eclipse Atlas is the third iteration of Michael Zeiler’s solar eclipse map websites. First there was Eclipse-Maps.com, which launched in 2010; then came the Great American Eclipse website to cover the North American total and… More
Im ersten und zweiten Teil dieser Mini-Blogserie habe ich gezeigt, woher GNSS-Daten (umgangssprachlich GPS-Daten) stammen und wie sich diese in spezialisierten Tracking-Studien gezielt erfassen lassen. Im heutigen und letzten Teil widmen wir uns nun einer Anwendung, die den Nutzen solcher Daten greifbar macht. Ich zeige, wie sich der Einfluss von Hitze auf fussläufige Erreichbarkeiten quantifizieren …
The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 3.6.0rc1!
Best Served with PostgreSQL 18 Beta3
and soon to be released GEOS 3.14.
This version requires PostgreSQL 12 - 18beta3, GEOS 3.8 or higher, and Proj 6.1+.
To take advantage of all features, GEOS 3.14+ is needed.
To take advantage of all SFCGAL features, SFCGAL 2.2.0+ is needed.
3.6.0rc1
source download md5
NEWS
HTML Online en ja sv fr zh_Hans
PDF docs: en ja, sv, zh_Hans, fr
Cheat Sheets:
postgis: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_raster: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_topology: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_sfcgal: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
address standardizer, postgis_tiger_geocoder: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
This release is a beta of a major release, it includes bug fixes since PostGIS 3.5.3 and new features.
Google has announced that Street View imagery is now available for Nepal. Meanwhile, Apple observers are reporting that cycling directions are rolling out for Hong Kong and Taiwan in Apple Maps (AppleInsider, MacRumors). Update, 22… More
Spreadsheets fall short when it comes to capturing reliable horizontal construction daily logs. Fulcrum mobile workflows replace spreadsheets with structured, real-time documentation that improves consistency, strengthens claims, and reduces risk. By using a mobile app for construction workflows, field teams streamline business processes and replace slow, error-prone manual entry with workflow automation that works anywhere they do.
La entrada Fulcrum mobile workflows vs spreadsheets for horizontal construction se publicó primero en Fulcrum.
A new front has been opened in the never-ending war against the Mercator projection. The African Union endorses Correct the Map’s campaign to replace the Mercator projection (which diminishes the relative size of Africa) with… More
Logistics advice for the independent map seller. The Independent Map Artists (previously) have compiled their experiences of, and opinions about, dealing with online marketplaces, printers and shippers—the logistics vital to running a business selling printed… More
Welcome to GeoAI Unpacked! I am Ali Ahmadalipour and in this blog, I share insights and deep dives in geospatial AI, focusing on business opportunities and industry challenges.
Tell Us About Yourself Hi, I’m Aaron Koelker. I was introduced to GIS while pursuing an Environmental Science degree and quickly became hooked on its unique blend of problem solving, storytelling, and visual design. I then spent eight years with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection providing enterprise GIS support and working on a wide variety of mappy […]
The post Maps and Mappers of the 2025 Calendar – Aaron Koelker – July appeared first on GeoHipster.
Resilience planning relies on accurate, current field data that reflects real-world conditions. Structured, location-aware workflows make that data reliable, easy to use, and ready for action. When the right information flows quickly from field to office, infrastructure resilience stops being theory and becomes something teams can build and maintain.
La entrada Data-driven resilience planning: Why better field workflows lead to smarter infrastructure se publicó primero en Fulcrum.
Paper checklists may be familiar, but they fall apart fast, especially when you need clean data, real-time visibility, or a process crews will actually follow. Mobile workflows with Fulcrum bring structure, accountability, and speed to inspections, powered by an intuitive mobile app that streamlines business processes and supports workflow automation from the field to the office.
La entrada Ditch the clipboard: how mobile workflows make inspections better se publicó primero en Fulcrum.
Paul Shapley's Open Source Geospatial Blog
• By [email protected] (Paul J. Shapley)
•
With reference to the source 'Compiling SAGA on Linux'.https://sourceforge.net/p/saga-gis/wiki/Compiling%20SAGA%20on%20Linux/You can also simply run these modules in QGIS but you would miss out on some excellent advantages such as having multiple map windows synchronized and a simple interface.Current 'Debian/Ubuntu' libraries only go up to version 9.2.0. This will install the latest version (currently 9.10.0).1. ~$ sudo apt install libwxgtk3.2-dev libgdal-dev libproj-dev libpq-dev libpdal-dev libopencv-dev libhpdf-dev unixodbc-dev(You may see this error:) 'E: Unable to locate package libpdal-dev' this does not prevent continuation of compilation process.2. ~$ sudo apt-get install g++ cmake cmake-qt-gui make libtool git3. ~$ sudo apt install libwxgtk3.2-dev4. ~$ sudo apt install libcurl4-openssl-dev5. ~$ sudo apt install g++ make cmake git swig python3 python3-dev python-dev-is-python36. ~$ sudo mkdir /home/devel7. ~$ cd /home/devel8. ~$ sudo git clone...
NLT Blog - New Light Technologies
• By NLT Staff
•
A Journey of Growth: NLT’s Evolving Role at TUgis
New Light Technologies (NLT) is proud to have served as the Platinum Sponsor of the 2025 Maryland GIS Conference (TUgis 2025). Our journey with TUgis has been one of significant growth and deepening commitment. Over the years, we have evolved from presenters and lower-tier sponsors to becoming a leading sponsor in 2025. This progression underscores our dedication to the geospatial community and our continuous efforts to advance geospatial solutions.
I heard regular people can just buy, and then remotely pilot, small flying robots with exquisite cameras. I figure these things have to have some utility in the mapping realm, so I got the cheapest one I could find that might get me going on making some basic maps. Why? Why not? Goals We’ll figure …
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Mapidea Location Intelligence
•
NIQ’s Oliver Pape explains how NIQ’s strategic partnership with Mapidea
transforms market and consumer data into powerful, actionable insights. By
uniting NIQ’s datasets with Mapidea’s geospatial intelligence platform,
clients gain faster, clearer decision-making capabilities—unlocking new
opportunities for growth and competitive advantage.
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Pedro Moura
•
Every couple of years, sales organizations brace for the big territory
reorganization: costly consultants, months of meetings, anxious reps, and a
shiny “new map” that’s already ageing when it launches.
At Mapidea, we’ve seen this across industries—and we know there’s a better
way. Continuous Sales Territory Optimization uses a geospatial intelligence
system to track territory performance in real time, assess the impact of
changes, and make small, frequent adjustments collaboratively with the
people who know the field best.
It’s faster, less expensive, and far more effective. Why wait years for the
next reorg when you can optimize today?
It’s weird to say “Time for the 7 month check-in” but there I stood at the doctors office waiting for my 7 month evaluation. Long story short – I’ve got some form of Heart Disease. I say some form because people have said a half dozen things around me and they all resolve around that […]
The post Time for the 7 Month Check-in appeared first on North River Geographic Systems Inc.
OGC, Khronos, and the geospatial community are integrating 3D Gaussian Splats into glTF—unlocking compact, photorealistic, interoperable 3D.
The post OGC, Khronos, and Geospatial Leaders Add 3D Gaussian Splats to the glTF Asset Standard appeared first on Open Geospatial Consortium.
CNG is the place where geospatial data users create the future together. To make the share of knowledge between those data users even smoother, we’ve refined our process for getting blog posts onto cloudnativegeo.org. Whether you want to share a deep-dive technical tutorial, highlight lessons learned from a recent project, or explore ways to strengthen our community, this updated approach makes it simple to propose, write, and publish.
The following information can also be found at CONTRIBUTING.md.
What we’re looking for
Evergreen topics - We are always open to content about new ways of using geospatial data, case studies that show the benefits of using cloud-native approaches, technical tutorials, open-source tools, best practices in geospatial data management, and tools that help data users share, access, and work with geospatial data more effectively.
Current priorities - This year, we are also interested in blog posts that address the following common community...
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
The end of the spatial join? Vikram Gundeti, CTO of #Foursquare, is reimagining #geospatial for #datascientists by eliminating traditional GIS hurdles and embracing #ML-friendly, agent-ready solutions. Will geodata be seamlessly accessible and “mapless” by default?
I hardly ever do Mergin Maps blog posts. I need to do more. So I’ve been mapping random things in Chattanooga for OSM – which puts me out with my Bad Elf GPS and Mergin Maps. I don’t do nearly enough field work these days. It sort of scratches an itch. It’s fun. I’m probably […]
The post Sketching in Mergin Maps appeared first on North River Geographic Systems Inc.
In my mental model of a walkability map it’s not enough to know how far away something is, but also how long it takes me to get there. My perceptions of the same distances, but with different walk times, are much different. There are realities that slow me down like intersections, buildings, water features, or …
While parks and public spaces are vital to public health, environmental resilience, and city infrastructure, many park systems still rely on outdated tools and informal routines that limit visibility, delay maintenance, and waste resources. With structured field data, consistent inspections, and spatial context, cities can manage park infrastructure assets more effectively, improve reporting, and extend the life of public spaces. By combining parks management software with mobile tools available on any mobile device, field crews can capture real-time data feeds, streamline maintenance tasks, and tackle backlogged tasks before they escalate.
La entrada Smarter parks: turning public spaces asset data into sustainable park management se publicó primero en Fulcrum.
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
The Swiss Territorial Data Lab (#STDL) is a collaborative initiative within Switzerland’s geoinformation strategy, running from 2020 to 2025, dedicated to advancing data-driven solutions for public administration using #geodata and #datascience. Their 2025 report highlights organizational and methodological insights gained over the past years, with further technical resources available at tech.stdl.ch.
Qiusheng Wu, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Geography and Sustainability at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Each month, we’re highlighting the community leaders who volunteer their expertise to guide CNG’s direction. Our Editorial Board Spotlight series features a different board member sharing their perspectives on geospatial trends and tools, what’s capturing their attention through reading or their current work, and the challenges they believe our community should focus on.
1. What geospatial trend or tool excites you right now?
I’m particularly excited about the growing convergence of geospatial data and AI, especially through open-source tools that lower the barrier to entry. Tools like the Segment Anything Model (SAM), combined with geospatial wrappers such as segment-geospatial and GeoAI, are enabling rapid experimentation in image segmentation and...
The focus of our book and this blog is geospatial data–how to find it, how to assess its quality, and understanding and teaching about societal issues such as copyright, location privacy, and ethics. Since the dawn of GIS in the 1960s, data has been central to successful vibrant use of GIS–seeing what was, what is, […]
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
LightningMaps.org is a global #crowdsourcing project that lets you watch #lightning strikes in real time, drawing data from more than 500 volunteer-operated sensors. The site offers configurable web and mobile maps, showing not only each lightning strike as it happens, but also the location of participating stations and the spread of thunder across the landscape.
In a previous post we talked about the potential of Generative AI for urban modeling, keeping with this theme at the 11th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2), Na Jiang, Boyu Wang and myself had a poster entitled Agent-based Models with Large Language Models: Two Modeling Examples. In this poster and extended abstract we detail how LLMs can help with many aspects of agent-based modeling development. If this sounds of interest, below you can see the abstract, the poster and the full referece and link to the extended abstract .Abstract:Large language models (LLMs) play an important role in AI-powered code assistants such as code completion, debugging, and documentation. Such models can be further fine-tuned on smaller amount of data for specific tasks, often with the improvement of performance compared to generic LLMs. However, such fine-tuning techniques are seldomly used in generating sophisticated agent-based models (ABMs), because they are often...
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
#StackOverflow published the results of their 2025 user #survey. The data features roughly 50,000 responses from 166 countries on user #demographics, #technology, #AI, work, and more.
It’s that time of year! We’re excited to issue the call for maps for contributions for the 2026 GeoHipster calendar. Entries are subject to these rules and guidelines for entry are listed below. So, send us your maps! (The deadline is 2025-10-15.) Guidelines: I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to […]
The post 2026 Calendar Submissions appeared first on GeoHipster.
Discover the incredible NISAR mission — a powerful collaboration between NASA and ISRO that’s set to transform how we monitor our planet. In this video, learn 5 key facts about […]
The post What is NISAR? 5 Things to Know About U.S.-India Satellite, NISAR appeared first on Geospatial World.
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
Explore how artist Yufeng Zhao used millions of #Google #StreetView images to create a searchable map of every word written on #NewYork City’s streets — revealing hidden patterns and the power of urban data at the intersection of art and technology.
Explore how GIS keeps wildfire response moving from risk modeling and crew coordination to long-term recovery. See how wildfire data becomes actionable across the full lifecycle, and why usability in the field is just as critical as analysis at command.
La entrada How GIS supports every phase of wildfire response strategy se publicó primero en Fulcrum.
Joseph Elfelt is a software developer in the geo world as a result of a life-long interest in maps and self-teaching. His interest in maps began as a child looking at his father’s collection of USGS topographic maps for a large part of Minnesota. After college, Joseph moved to Seattle and went to work for […]
The post I curate a list of 5,000+ ArcGIS server addresses at all levels of USA government. appeared first on GeoHipster.
It’s been a summer full of side projects here. Which is a very good sign — I used to do many, many side projects, but for the last couple of years, poor health has left me with reduced energy, and my output dropped off significantly. It’s nice to feel inspired again, in so many directions … Continue reading A Sketch of Isle Royale →
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
#NASA’s #JPL demonstrates autonomous #EarthObservation satellite operation: a #cubesat using “dynamic targeting” to decide, on its own, where to collect the most useful #EO data in real-time. This innovation could make future satellites smarter and more responsive to changing conditions during each orbit.
Stardour, a stealth-mode Indian space-tech startup, has successfully completed the test fire of India’s first hydrogen and oxygen propulsion engine, developed in-house by Stardour and tested at the prestigious Indian […]
The post Stardour Successfully Test-Fires India’s First Hydrogen-Oxygen Propulsion appeared first on Geospatial World.
Mike Long, Co-Founder of Spatialty, won the 2025 Esri SAG Award for his innovative contributions at Austin's CapMetro transit agency. His leadership in developing a geospatial platform integrated various operational systems, enabling automated data flows and enhancing real-time data access. This work improves transit operations and long-term planning efficiency.
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
FediFollows published a list of recommended geospatial #Fediverse / #Mastodon accounts. The list features, among others, geospatial conferences, news channels, blogs, software, organizations, government bodies, geospatial professionals, #OSM-related accounts, and discussion groups.
Explore how drones and remote sensing power faster, safer environmental field surveys across forests, wetlands, and contaminated zones. Ground teams combine environmental science with modern surveying techniques and quantitative data from GPS devices and GPS tracking to validate every environmental field survey. Learn how teams improve accuracy, reduce risk, and cover more ground without slowing down field workflows.
La entrada Remote sensing and drones in environmental field surveys se publicó primero en Fulcrum.
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
A group of industry leaders at the 2025 #NORTH51 conference is charting a new course for the geospatial sector with their “#GEOFESTO” — a #manifesto outlining five key principles to drive #innovation and #impact in a rapidly changing world.
News of the weird…or possibly normal. . I hit two “almost a problem” problems with the longest running install of this system: Things: Weird things: Not so weird things: Health Things: I leave you with a Cat pic.
The post Updates on the TN911 side of things appeared first on North River Geographic Systems Inc.
Today we are excited to announce the release of stac-fastapi-indexed! stac-fastapi-indexed is an implementation of the STAC API specification. Like several similar projects, it draws on the indispensable stac-fastapi package. This project implements a new approach to data management to reduce hosting overheads. STAC and STAC API The STAC and STAC API specifications have proven […]
The post Introducing stac-fastapi-indexed: Low Overhead STAC Metadata Support appeared first on Sparkgeo.
Tell Us About YourselfI’m Qianyi Cao, with a background in Geographic Information Science and currently part of the Erasmus Mundus MSc in Cartography program across TU Munich, TU Vienna, and TU Dresden. My academic path blends map design, geospatial science, and cross-cultural storytelling. I’m passionate about using cartography as a bridge — one that connects […]
The post Maps and Mappers of the 2025 Calendar – June – Cao Qianyi appeared first on GeoHipster.
Running together at CNG Conference 2025
On the last day of CNG Conference, we held a facilitated discussion to identify what our community needs to thrive.
As Chris Holmes noted in his opening keynote, the geospatial field has reached a pivotal moment. We have more data, better tools, and greater computational power than ever before. The question now is how we use these resources to address real-world challenges. The six themes below emerged from our discussions and will shape our collective work in the coming year.
These challenges are deeply interconnected. Progress in one area often enables progress in others. And with AI rapidly changing the landscape, we need to stay adaptable and collaborative. We invite governments, funders, educators, enterprises, and entrepreneurs to join our community in this ongoing effort.
Geospatial education isn’t helping people get good jobs
The problem
Workforce and talent development...
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
The rapid progress in #AI sparks diverse and thought-provoking discussions about its role in #programming and skill development. Three recent articles offer interesting, yet differing, perspectives.
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
Yesterday, the #OpenStreetMap Foundation (#OSMF) launched #vectortiles on #OSM, delivering a sharper and faster map powered by a new backend. Developers may use the OSMF-hosted tiles under the Vector Tile Usage Policy and apply their own map styles.
The new Standard integrates dynamic data from systems such as sensors, drones, and satellites into modern geospatial applications using RESTful APIs.
The post OGC Announces Publication of OGC API – Connected Systems and Updates to Supporting Standards appeared first on Open Geospatial Consortium.
We are delighted to share that the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has been honored with the ‘Best Geospatial Enabler Award’ at the National Geospatial Awards...
The post OGC Wins ‘Best Geospatial Enabler Award’ at FOSSEE National Geospatial Awards 2025 appeared first on Open Geospatial Consortium.
I have long been an admirer of the Colorado Geospatial Portal. My history of being a GIS professional in that state extends back to the days before our state even had a portal, so I am very thankful for it and for the efforts of our state GIS Manager Jackie Phipps Montes in coordinating, assembling, […]
Im ersten Teil dieser Mini-Blogserie habe ich gezeigt, woher GNSS-Daten (umgangssprachlich GPS-Daten) stammen und wie sich diese in spezialisierten Tracking-Studien gezielt erfassen lassen. Heute nehmen wir solch eine Studie genauer unter die Lupe und zeigen, wie sich mit moderner Tracking-Technologie und passenden Befragungen Verhaltensexperimente durchführen lassen, die komplexe Fragen der Verkehrs- und Stadtplanung beantworten. Die …
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Miguel Marques
•
Why using geography continuously across your business is essential.
Democratizing geospatial intelligence empowers every department to make
smarter, faster decisions and unlocks lasting competitive advantage.
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Pedro Moura
•
A personal letter to BI and data leaders on why geography must become a
core dimension in analytics. It's not just a map—it’s the missing link in
your data stack.
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Mapidea Location Intelligence
•
Combine NielsenIQ’s market data with Mapidea’s geospatial intelligence to
empower retail & FMCG teams with continuous, actionable insights driving
smarter decisions & growth.
The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 3.6.0beta1!
Best Served with PostgreSQL 18 Beta2
and soon to be released GEOS 3.14.
This version requires PostgreSQL 12 - 18beta2, GEOS 3.8 or higher, and Proj 6.1+.
To take advantage of all features, GEOS 3.14+ is needed.
To take advantage of all SFCGAL features, SFCGAL 2.2.0+ is needed.
3.6.0beta1
source download md5
NEWS
HTML Online en ja sv fr zh_Hans
PDF docs: en ja, sv, zh_Hans, fr
Cheat Sheets:
postgis: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_raster: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_topology: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
postgis_sfcgal: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
address standardizer, postgis_tiger_geocoder: en ja sv fr zh_Hans
This release is a beta of a major release, it includes bug fixes since PostGIS 3.5.3 and new features.
In the past we have written about how one can study urban shrinkage with a specific emphasis on Detroit from both an agent-based modeling perspective and also from analyzing newspapers through natural language processing Keeping with the theme of Detroit and urban shrinkage we (Xiaoliang Meng, Yichun Xie, Junyi Wu, Heather Khan Welsh, Shi Zeng and myself) have a new paper entitled "Examining spatial expansion and stemming strategies of urban shrinkage: evidence from Detroit, USA" which was recently published in npj Urban Sustainability. In this paper we introduce a method for studying urban shrinkage by constructing multi-scale spatial structures based on urban network connectivity which we call gravity-networked spatial interaction zones-based spatial panel modeling or GSIZs-Spanel for short. We demonstrate this method by exploring the spatial processes and scopes of past urban shrinkage in Detroit between 2000 and 2020. If this sounds of interest, below you can read the abstract...
Landsat imagery and NDVI are used to monitor vegetation change, from invasive grass spread in rangelands to early stress detection in coastal marshes.
The post Using Landsat and NDVI to Map Vegetation Change appeared first on Geography Realm.
Discover how our natural language interface prototype has the potential to make satellite imagery accessible to everyone. By translating plain English queries into structured STAC queries, we're simplifying access to valuable Earth observation data. Learn how our system uses NLP, serverless architecture, and geospatial standards to search for satellite images
The post Making Satellite Data Searchable with Natural Language appeared first on Sparkgeo.
Many of you attended our webinar “3D: a new dimension!” Vincent Picavet was on the mic : 3D challenges in 2025: digital twins, publishing data on the web, sharing data,...
Do you deal with sensitive geospatial data ? Are you concerned by cybersecurity threats ? Oslandia and partners ( e.g. OPENGIS.ch) launched the « Security Project for QGIS » :...
Spatialists – geospatial news
• By Ralph Straumann
•
On August 26, Stefan Keller of FH OST will lead a free webinar focused on (geo)data manipulation and integration using #Apache #Hop, an open-source, low-code platform for building data workflows. The session will also touch on emerging trends in #AI and #LLMs within the data integration space.
Photo: ESA/J. Mai (source)
Recently the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Living Planet Symposium (LPS) was held in Vienna, Austria.
This was likely the world’s largest gathering of the Earth Observation community. The LPS website claims there there were 6500+ registered participants and 4200+ presentations & posters in 250+ sessions, but those are conservative numbers… I counted 4428 presentations & posters in 453 sessions.
Also it says there were 2300 “Children at the School Activities”, and I can confirm there were lots of kids at the conference (and on the metro). Awesome to see!
I attended LPS on behalf of Radiant Earth and the Cloud-Native Geospatial (CNG) Forum.
I was there to learn how CNG specs and tools are being adopted by the Earth observation community and to help build awareness. Given the size of the conference (it had 30 separate content tracks!), my first challenge was to determine what content would be presented where and...
Ohne harte Fakten bleibt jeder Veloweg ein Bauchentscheid und jede Taktverdichtung ein Ratespiel. GNSS-Tracking, besser bekannt als GPS-Tracking, schliesst diese Wissenslücke, indem es Bewegungsmuster in hoher räumlich-zeitlicher Auflösung liefert. Dieser Beitrag zeigt, welche Datenquellen es gibt, welche Technik dahintersteckt und wie eine Tracking-Studie geplant und durchgeführt werden kann. Daten sind das Grundgerüst jeder Verkehrs- und …
A global dataset of 700 mud volcanoes was recently published by geologists from Sapienza University.
The post GIS Data: Shallow Sea Mud Volcanoes appeared first on Geography Realm.
Iris is about unlocking the value of what you already have. Built on open source and proprietary tools, Iris enforces open standards and promotes integration.
FAO’s global dataset maps access to towns and cities of all sizes within reasonable travel times, identifying patterns of urban interconnectedness.
The post Explore the City-Regions Dataset from FAO appeared first on Geography Realm.
London made it a priority to create a environmentally friendly city where the pedestrian comes first. Our role was to help build the tools to make that possible.
Researchers mapped 540 million years of sea level change, showing major short-term shifts during ice ages driven by Earth's orbital cycles.
The post Mapping Short-term Sea Level Changes Over 540 Million Years appeared first on Geography Realm.
von Laurin Bertozzi (sieber&partners), Daniela Herzig (EBP Schweiz), Patrick Saxer (EBP Schweiz) Workshop-Inhalte Im Workshop 3 BIM in der Bauausführung – Informationsbedürfnisse und veränderte Möglichkeiten haben wir uns folgendem Inhalt gewidmet:Die Bauausführung ist ein komplexes Zusammenspiel zwischen Bauherr:innen, Unternehmer:innen und Planer:innen – drei zentralen Akteur:innen mit jeweils unterschiedlichen Informationsbedürfnissen und -verantwortlichkeiten. Im Zuge der fortschreitenden …
von Claus Maier (EBP) & Philipp Dohmen (QAECY) 30 Teilnehmende, eine Frage: Wie verwandeln wir vorhandene Daten in nutzbares Wissen für bessere Entscheidungen? Die Anwesenden schilderten ihr gemeinsames Problem: Unmengen von Daten liegen verstreut in Modellen und Ablagen vor. Doch wie können sie sinnvoll erschlossen und genutzt werden? Aus diesem Grund stiess das Thema des …
I may have done something terrible or something good. To get some of you up to speed: So I pulled every bike lane in Chattanooga as were defined in OpenStreetMap. I learned a few things – mainly was OSM was greatly out of date and greatly wrong in spots. That’s too be expected and is […]
The post I want to ride my bicycle: Third Act appeared first on North River Geographic Systems Inc.
Groundwater stored over many years is a significant contributor to streamflow in Western United States mountains according to a published study.
The post Water Can Take Years to Seep out of Mountains appeared first on Geography Realm.
NLT Blog - New Light Technologies
• By Mario Field
•
DMVGIS Website launch: An Excellent Resource to drive and facilitate collaboration, coordination, and awareness of GIS in the DMV region.
New Light Technologies (NLT) is thrilled to launch the DMVGIS website, your new online platform for the geospatial community in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region. This website is designed to be a central hub for DMVGIS, offering a handy resource for GIS information, data, and events. It will also help facilitate professional networking, participant collaboration, and information sharing. Whether you're looking for the latest GIS news or details on upcoming events, this website will serve as the nexus of activity for our regional geospatial community.
Bubbles created by the movement of waves can influence how much carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ocean.
The post Study Models How the Behavior of Waves Affects Blue Carbon Storage appeared first on Geography Realm.
When Data is Easy, Geospatial Will Change Everything Geospatial technologies are transforming how we model the world, plan infrastructure, monitor change, and make decisions. But for that transformation to be realized at scale, one foundational element must be addressed: access to data. At Sparkgeo, we believe that improving access to geospatial data is essential for […]
The post The Industry Data Access Survey appeared first on Sparkgeo.
Data justice is an emerging set of discussions and research, involving the collection, analysis, sharing, and use of data entirely in service of and with accountability to participants and their communities. As our book and this blog focuses on spatial data and associated societal issues, this concept is an important one for the readers of […]
So I was flooded on linkedin the other day with “Congrats on your work anniversary” and it always makes me feel weird. I was also at a potential client’s location a few weeks ago and the comment was made “I heard you died”. All the congrats were for 19 years of working for myself – […]
The post 15 years plus a Few Days……. appeared first on North River Geographic Systems Inc.
This is a guest post by Guilhem Allaman. Mid-June, the French-speaking QGIS Users Meeting was held in Avignon, Southern France – a… Read more Presentation and feedback from the QGIS-fr Users Meeting in Avignon
In the current issue of Environment and Planning B, we (Boyu Wang, Na Jiang and myself) have a new editorial entitled "Generative AI and Urban Modeling". The premise of this editorial is that Generative AI (GenAI) is impacting all aspects of our daily lives and as such has we were wondering how will it impact urban modeling? For example, in the editorial we discuss how GenAI could speed up the overall urban modeling process. To demonstrate this we show how ChatGPT (and its built-in coding interface Canvas) can take published papers and build agent-based models from them (one being of an abstract space and another being spatially explicit). However, while model building is time consuming task, another challenge modelers face is how to incorporate decision making within them. To this end we also discuss how large language models (LLMs) have the potential to help with agent-decision making in the form of generating agent-personas or scheduling agent activities. We conclude the...
Stephanie Long, co-founder of Spatialty, has been recognized as Faculty Leader of the Year for 2025 at Austin Community College. This honor acknowledges her outstanding leadership in geospatial education, curriculum development, and mentorship. At Spatialty, she enhances consulting by providing tailored training and simplifying complex technology for clients.
After a long development cycle, Giro3D 0.43 is available. The Globe entity We were talking about it in a previous article, the main feature of this release is of course...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Terradepth, led by CTO Andrew Lunstead, focuses on helping people make
better decisions about the ocean, an environment less understood than the
surface of Mars due to data collection challenges. Their approach involves
both developing high-endurance autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for
massive data gathering and the sensor-agnostic Absolute Ocean data platform
. This platform, built on CesiumJS, provides an intuitive, world-view
interface for managing and visualizing current and historical undersea
surveys. Terradepth supports critical sectors like offshore energy,
resource management, and defense. While accommodating data from any source,
Terradepth has consolidated its cloud operations within AWS, including
GovCloud for enhanced security. A significant innovation is leveraging
edge computing with Absolute Ocean to drastically reduce the "scan to
decision" time from months to mere hours, greatly enhancing the speed of
critical operations
Before it was HIFLD, it was briefly FGDWG. Before that, it was a nameless thing in its infancy. In those early days, it bounced around between conference rooms in Norfolk, Dahlgren, and Chantilly. I was fortunate enough to be in the rooms where it was born and took shape. I was a contractor supporting an … Continue reading HIFLD Open Is Dead*, Long Live HIFLD →
It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to play with a new version of QGIS. The stars have aligned so I’m digging through the changelog and testing some things out. Not that I’ve been super attentive for a while – BUT I have noticed the DB Manager has been a bit stagnant. Which […]
The post Playing with QGIS 3.44 Solothurn: SQL appeared first on North River Geographic Systems Inc.
NatureServe has developed an updated 30-meter hexagon map of regional ecosystems in the contiguous United States and adjacent areas.
The post High Resolution Ecosystem Map of the Contiguous United States and Adjacent Areas appeared first on Geography Realm.
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has officially approved OGC API – Records – Part 1: Core as a new standard. This modern, API-based specification enables seamless discovery, access, and search of geospatial metadata across federated systems. Supporting various catalog deployments, it bridges the gap between legacy CSW implementations and new open web technologies—paving the way for broader geospatial interoperability and innovation.
The post OGC Membership approves OGC API – Records – Part 1: Core as an official OGC Standard appeared first on Open Geospatial Consortium.
I have just gotten back from attending the 19th International Conference on Computational Urban Planning and Urban Management (CUPUM) in London and thought I would share the two papers we presented at the conference. The first paper was with Qingqing Chen and Linda See and was entitled "Using New Sources of Data for Urban Climate Modeling Generated through MLLMs on Street View Imagery. "As the title might suggest, this paper was about how one can leverage multi-modal large language models (MLLMs) to extract information on building height, age and function from street level photographs. We demonstrate this using street view images from Mapillary and than ask ChatGPT to estimate the building height, age and function and compare the results to authoritative data sources. If this sounds of interest, below you can see the abstract to the paper, some if the figures (i.e., the work flow and prompts) while the results can be seen in the attached paper (see the link below).
Abstract:Urban...
The time since I’ve last posted has been quite busy. I’ve completely recovered from my previous eye issues and have been able to start traveling again. In fact, I’m writing this post from a hotel room. In addition to my consulting work at Cercana, I took on a role as the CTO of Photometrics AI, … Continue reading Geospatial, AI/ML, and Infrastructure →
This blog post outlines the process of creating multi-color 3D prints using the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon printer and the Topoprint software. I explain how to prepare multiple STL files for distinct landscape features, using OrcaSlicer for effective slicing. The final print, requiring extensive filament changes, showcases the Landwasserviadukt.
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings
• By underdark
•
The QGISUC2025 team has done an awesome job recording and editing the conference presentations. All “presentation” type talks where the presenter has accepted to be published are now available in a dedicated list on the QGIS Youtube channel. I also had the pleasure of presenting our Trajectools plugin and you can see this talk here: …Read More
Paul Shapley's Open Source Geospatial Blog
• By [email protected] (Paul J. Shapley)
•
If your concerned about sharing QGIS projects on the web there are many options apart from the 'qgis2web' plugin. This just utilises a docker image containing a demo project.Share your QGIS projects with QGIS Server • Gispo
Lake Chapala was formed at the intersection of three grabens.
The post Lake Chapala: a Tectonic Lake at Mexico’s Triple-graben Intersection appeared first on Geography Realm.
When someone proposes an idea to you, smile and assure them that you understand (yes ...). Express your enthusiasm about it (... yes ...) with an even bigger smile. Then, offer to enhance and extend their great idea (... and ...). You can compare this creativity technique to rubber duck debugging, but always remember that you should not replace a human with an LLM.
When and where?
Geomob Netherlands will take place in Eindhoven on the evening of Thursday, September 18th, 2025 at the office of HERE: Kennedyplein 222, 5611 ZT Eindhoven - Maps:
HERE,
OpenStreetMap,
Google Maps
Agenda
Doors open at 16:30, set up and general mingling
Talks begin at 17:00 with a very brief introduction
Each speaker will have slides and speak for 10-15 minutes.
After each talk there will be time for 2-3 questions.
After the speeches, we vote for the best speaker. The winner will receive the best speaker prize and unending glory (see the full list of all past winners).
Discussion and #award and #geobeers paid for by the sponsors
The speakers:
Dean Carstens, Why does HERE support GeoMob, a warm welcome!
Joost Gevaert, Geotechnical Data = 3D Vector Data
Prof Hans van der Kwast, Digital Sovereignty and open source software
Daniel Escobar Valdivieso, Creating a Playground for Innovation through Digital Twin...
When and where?
Geomob Berlin will take place at 18:00
on Thursday the 25th of September, 2025
in the office of Bettermile
at Oranienstr. 183 (Aufgang B), 10999 Berlin
(Google Maps, OpenStreetMap). The nearest station is Kottbusser Tor.
Agenda
Our format for the evening will be as it always has been:
doors open at 18:00, set up and general mingling
at 18:30 we begin the talks with a very brief introduction
Each speaker will have slides and speak for 10-15 minutes.
After each talk there will be time for 2-3 questions.
We vote - using Feature Upvote - for the best speaker. The winner will receive a SplashMap and unending glory (see the full list of all past winners).
We head to a nearby pub for discussion and #geobeers paid for by the
sponsors.
The speakers:
Michael Cruickshank, Anthropocene Analytics: Leveraging geospatial data and complex network models to efficient defend urban areas against the climate crisis.
...
When and where?
Geomob Edinburgh will be held at 6:30pm (doors open at 6pm) on Tuesday, September 30th, 2025
at the office of Esri UK: Floor 2, Quartermile Three, 10 Nightingale Way, EH3 9EG Edinburgh Google Maps, OpenStreetMap
Agenda
Our format for the evening will be:
doors open at 18:00, set up and general mingling
at 18:30 we begin the talks with a very brief introduction
Each speaker will have slides and speak for 10 minutes.
After each talk there will be time for 2-3 questions.
Matthew will show us the diorama / physical model of Fort William his team made!
We head to a nearby pub for discussion and #geobeers sponsored by OpenCage, Esri.
The speakers:
Noon van der Silk, Is this the worst school crossing in Edinburgh?
Peter Creasey, Raytracing large Scottish Lidar datasets
Matthew Akerman, Fort William
We are always looking for speakers, volunteer to speak!
The organizers:
Geomob Edinburgh is organized by Gala...
When and where?
Geomob London will place at 6:00 PM
on Wednesday the 22nd of October, 2025
at Geovation Hub at (Sutton Yard, 65 Goswell Rd, London EC1V 7EN)
Agenda
Our format for the evening will be as it always has been:
doors open at 18:00, set up and general mingling
at 18:30 we begin the talks with a very brief introduction
Each speaker will have slides and speak for 10-15 minutes.
After each talk there will be time for 2-3 questions.
We vote - using Feature Upvote - for the best speaker. The winner will receive a SplashMap and unending glory (see the full list of all past winners).
We head to a nearby pub for discussion and #geobeers paid for by the
sponsors.
The speakers:
Joe Leach, Unique property reference numbers, a very British love affair
Rain Wu, Maps as desires
James Cheshire, The Library of Lost Maps
Nigel Edmead, The Open Geospatial Consortium
Dustin Carlino, How did...
When and where?
Geomob Edinburgh will be held at 6:30pm (doors open at 6pm) on Tuesday, November 25th, 2025
at CodeBase
at 37a Castle Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2EL (Google Map,OpenStreetMap)
Agenda
Our format for the evening will be:
doors open at 18:00, set up and general mingling
at 18:30 we begin the talks with a very brief introduction
Each speaker will have slides and speak for 10 minutes.
After each talk there will be time for 2-3 questions.
We head to a nearby pub for discussion and #geobeers sponsored by OpenCage, Esri.
The speakers:
Samarth Bachkheti, Geospatial machine learning for subsea engineering
Colin Blackburn, A QGIS plugin for geological field data capture
More speakers coming soon!
We are always looking for speakers, volunteer to speak!
The organizers:
Geomob Edinburgh is organized by Gala Camacho
Thanks
Geomob would not be possible without speakers and sponsors.
See the list of past speakers.
Please get in touch...
Summary thread
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
When and where?
Geomob Edinburgh was held at 6:30pm (doors open at 6pm) on Tuesday, June 24th, 2025
at room 1.26 in Paterson’s Land, The University of Edinburgh Holyrood Campus
(Google / OSM)
Thank you to The Community Access to Rooms project for providing this space for us, free of cost!
This event is part of The Data Lab’s Geospatial Month - other events listed here.
Agenda
Our format for the evening will be:
doors open at 18:00, set up and general mingling
at 18:30 we begin the talks with a very brief introduction
Each speaker will have slides and speak for 10 minutes.
After each talk there will be time for 2-3 questions.
We head to a nearby pub for discussion and #geobeers sponsored by OpenCage, Esri and on this special occasion also by Avineon Tensing.
The speakers:
Laura Munoz, Putting Marketing on the Map: My journey as a marketer in the geospatial edtech...
When and where?
Geomob Netherlands will take place in Utrecht on the evening of Thursday, December 11th, 2025 at the NOVI University of Applied Sciences: Newton House, 4th floor, Newtonlaan 247, 2584 BH Utrecht OpenStreetMap, Google Maps
Agenda
Doors open, set up and general mingling
Talks begin with a very brief introduction
Each speaker will have slides and speak for 10-15 minutes.
After each talk there will be time for 2-3 questions.
After the speeches, we vote for the best speaker. The winner will receive the best speaker prize and unending glory (see the full list of all past winners).
Discussion and #award and #geobeers paid for by the sponsors: NOVI Hogeschool.
The speakers:
TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON
Would you like to speak?
Speaker volunteers are always welcome
The organizers:
Geomob Netherlands (GeomobNL) is organized by
Dirk Voets,
Leonardo Mauri,
and Melissa Kwakernaak.
Thanks
Geomob would not be possible without...
When and where?
Geomob London will place at 6:00 PM
on Wednesday the 28th of January, 2026
at Geovation Hub at (Sutton Yard, 65 Goswell Rd, London EC1V 7EN)
Agenda
Our format for the evening will be as it always has been:
doors open at 18:00, set up and general mingling
at 18:30 we begin the talks with a very brief introduction
Each speaker will have slides and speak for 10-15 minutes.
After each talk there will be time for 2-3 questions.
We vote - using Feature Upvote - for the best speaker. The winner will receive a SplashMap and unending glory (see the full list of all past winners).
We head to a nearby pub for discussion and #geobeers paid for by the
sponsors.
The speakers:
Siobhan Ryan, Avineon Tensing, TBD
Would you like to speak? Please volunteer.
The organizers:
Geomob London is organized by Ed Freyfogle
and Steven Feldman
Thanks
Geomob would not be possible without speakers and sponsors.
See the list of past...
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Mapidea Location Intelligence
•
Should you map influence areas using distance or time?
From retail site selection to public service planning, the way you define
"reach" matters. In this article, we break down the difference between
radial buffers and isochrones—when to use each, and why choosing the right
method can dramatically improve the precision of your location-based
decisions.
Read now to avoid the most common mistake in spatial analysis.
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Pedro Moura
•
Discover how combining market intelligence from NielsenIQ with geospatial
analytics is helping retailers identify opportunities, outsmart
competition, and move faster.
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Mapidea Location Intelligence
•
Mapidea partners with NielsenIQ to bring together powerful market data and
geospatial intelligence—helping businesses make smarter, location-based
decisions.
When we began writing this blog on geospatial data and society, few articles and discussions existed about geospatial data trust. Certainly beginning with John Pickles’ book Ground Truth from the mid-1990s, people began to discuss the ethical decisions that are made when using GIS, and that GIS use was not an impartial act, nor was […]
This is a slightly different post to normal, in the sense its not really about papers but my take on agent-based modeling, urban analytics and the growth of Artificial Intelligence impacting both. First up, while I was in Santa Fe last October for the 2024 International Conference of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas I was interviewed by John Cordier from Epistemix for their Flux Podcast which resulted in this "From Micro-Behaviors to Macro-Patterns: Exploring Agent-Based Models with Andrew Crooks. Rather than me trying to sum it up I will just quote from the podcast episode "In this episode of The Flux, host John Cordier sits down with Andrew Crooks ..... They dive into the world of agent-based modeling (ABM) - what it is, why it matters, and how it helps us simulate and better understand human behavior in complex systems. From simulating traffic jams to modeling social influence on vaccine uptake, Andrew shares how data, geography, and synthetic populations...
Open source geospatial 3D innovation has just reached another important milestone, thanks to a Cesium Ecosystem Grant for a new 3D globe view in QGIS. This is the second grant that the team of North Road and Lutra Consulting received from Cesium, and we’re proud of what we’ve delivered for our QGIS users. The new 3D globe will be available to all in QGIS v.3.44. This was an extremely interesting project to undertake, as it required a heavy research and experimentation process by our developers. There’s many potential approaches for implementing a large-scale, 3D globe, and each have their advantages and trade-offs. We were very lucky to have insight from Cesium’s Kevin Ring to advise us at the start […]
The big goal with the TN 911 project is to eliminate steps and still enter good data. I’d like to fill out as much of the database as I could with minimal work from the person putting in data. Hence I’ve riddled the database with triggers and made drop down lists of about everything I […]
The post TN911: Adding Elevation appeared first on North River Geographic Systems Inc.
Summary Thread
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
When and where?
Geomob London took place at 6:00 PM
on Wednesday the 18th of June, 2025 at Geovation Hub at (Sutton Yard, 65 Goswell Rd, London EC1V 7EN)
Agenda
Our format for the evening will be as it always has been:
doors open at 18:00, set up and general mingling
at 18:30 we begin the talks with a very brief introduction
Each speaker will have slides and speak for 10-15 minutes.
After each talk there will be time for 2-3 questions.
We vote - using Feature Upvote - for the best speaker. The winner will receive a SplashMap and unending glory (see the full list of all past winners).
We head to a nearby pub for discussion and #geobeers paid for by the
sponsors.
The speakers:
Keir Clarke, Scrambled Maps
Steve Karmeinsky, OpenStreetMap UK update
Anne Lee Steele, How maps and spatial thinking can be used for art and advocacy
...
Credits: Pixabay (Pixabay Content License) The Importance of Compliance A geographic data layer must comply with many rules and constraints. For example: Geometric Topological Arbitrary rules – no angles smaller...
Jesse and Sue have been working on a new video series on Virtual Heritage called Recreatus. This first video episode focuses on the broader context of Digital Heritage before we […]
Read about how the Amazon once flowed east to west and how the strength of Hurricane Isaac once change the course of the Mississippi river.
The post Rivers that Flow Backwards appeared first on Geography Realm.
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/introduction-to-mergin-maps-tickets-1387725035939 One of the big questions I get asked on QGIS is “What’s the mobile environment like?”. Which leads to a whole discussion on Qfield and Mergin Maps. I’m more familiar with Mergin Maps (Plus a Business Partner). After talking to the Mergin Maps team we’re doing training. It’s going to be a mashup […]
The post Mergin Maps Training on July 10th 2025 appeared first on North River Geographic Systems Inc.
I’ve got into a bit of a habit of writing occasional posts with links to interesting things I’ve found (probably because it’s a relatively easy blog post to write). This is another of those posts – this time, written in June 2025. So, let’s get on with some links: Why COUNT(*) can be slow in […]
Shortly after getting out of the Hospital I fell. I went down hard. It was embarrassing. Probably the worst thing is it took two people to help get me up. One person was pulling me up towards the left and one person was pulling me forward…which wasn’t helping my balance at all. I got up. […]
The post I want to ride my bicycle Part 2 appeared first on North River Geographic Systems Inc.
Alan Leidner shares how 9/11 revealed the need for better underground data—and how that insight led to the global MUDDI Standard for smarter, safer cities.
The post From Ground Zero to Global Change: Alan Leidner on the Power of Underground Data appeared first on Open Geospatial Consortium.
Summary thread
Post by @[email protected] View on Mastodon
When and where?
Geomob Barcelona took place at 6:00 PM on Wednesday the 11th of June, 2025 at CoWorkIdea, at Carrer de Torres i Amat, 21, First Floor.
doors open at 18:00, set up and general mingling
at 18:30 we begin the talks with a very brief introduction
Each speaker will have slides and speak for 10-15 minutes.
After each talk there will be time for 2-3 questions.
The talks will be in English.
We vote - using FeatureUpvote - for the best speaker. The winner will receive a SplashMap and unending glory (see the full list of all past winners).
We head to a nearby bar for discussion and #geobeers paid for by the sponsors.
The speakers:
Isaac Hoyes Ester, onocoy - High Precision Positioning
Mick Larson, Giga - Building the largest open and live map of school locations and their connectivity status
Toni del Hoyo, Cercador d’escoles
...
Clark University has joined the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), reinforcing its legacy in GIS innovation and environmental sustainability through its Center for Geospatial Analytics.
The post Clark University joins the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) appeared first on Open Geospatial Consortium.
A project led by Dr Michael Goodchild that I had the honor of participating in has resulted in the publication of an article documenting some key work in GIS and society: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10879120. Entitled “Locational Data and the Public Interest”, it not only documents the work a group of people in academia, industry, law, nonprofits, and […]
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
The way we observe our planet from orbit is undergoing a seismic shift,
moving beyond the limitations of traditional satellite tasking to embrace a
future of intelligent, interconnected Earth observation. This revolution is
powered by the synergy of "virtual constellations" – diverse networks of
coordinated sensors – and sophisticated "tipping and cueing" workflows,
where broad-area monitoring by some assets automatically directs
high-resolution satellites to points of critical interest. Underpinning
this entire evolution is the transformative power of Artificial
Intelligence, which not only automates the detection of subtle changes and
orchestrates complex tasking but also distills vast streams of imagery into
actionable insights, promising a more transparent, responsive, and
understandable world.
Interoperability isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress. Learn how incremental, machine-readable standards unlock real ROI and reduce integration costs.
The post The “All or Nothing” Myth of Interoperability. appeared first on Open Geospatial Consortium.
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
In this interview from the 2025 GEOINT Symposium, Adam Simmons of Project Geospatial speaks with Phill Thomas from Innovate. Phill discusses his career path, starting at Accenture and moving into federal government work. He introduces Innovate as a woman-owned small business headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, with a history primarily in federal civilian and commercial sectors. Innovate is now excited about bringing their solutions to the Intel community. Phill details Innovate's evolution, including their decision in 2012 to focus intensely on the Salesforce and Esri platforms, becoming "an inch wide and a mile deep". He highlights their extensive experience with over a thousand Esri deployments and over 800 Salesforce deployments, their gold level partnership with Esri, numerous specialty certifications, and the presence of Salesforce certified architects. This deep expertise allows them to build reusable component repositories for efficiency. Phill shares that GEOINT 2025 is...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons interviews Yuval Lorig, VP R&D at Asterra, at the GEOINT 2025 conference. Yuval shares his background in physical geography and the geospatial industry. They delve into Asterra's work, which utilizes satellite data, particularly SAR, to monitor critical infrastructure like dams, levies, and canals, in addition to their traditional focus on water leaks. Yuval discusses the company's expansion into APIs, a SAS platform called EO 2.0, their global reach across over 70 countries, and their focus on improving technology accuracy and developing in-house AI models.Highlights• Interview with Yuval Lorig, VP R&D at Asterra.• Astera focuses on monitoring critical infrastructure (dams, levies, canals) and the water industry.• They utilize satellite data, specifically SAR, for subsurface penetration to gain insights.• Expanding their offering to include APIs and a SAS platform (EO 2.0).• Customer base is now global, working in more than 70 countries with almost a thousand projects.•...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons of Project Geospatial speaks with Burt Wagner, a Data Architect at Broadcom, during the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Burt, with 25 years supporting the US intelligence community and federal law enforcement, discusses Broadcom's lesser-known big data solutions. While Broadcom is widely known for semiconductors and acquiring VMware, Burt highlights their significant data products, including Gemfire and Greenplum databases. He explains how Greenplum, based on PostgreSQL, provides massive scalability (up to tens of petabytes) for analyzing geospatial data, overcoming PostgreSQL's limitations. The conversation also covers Broadcom's Unified Data Management (UDM) solution, which includes capabilities for crossing network security boundaries and operating in environments with denied, delayed, intermittent, and latent communications. UDM facilitates bringing edge data centrally for detailed analysis and building AI/ML models that can then be exported for use on small edge...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons interviews Craig Brower from Unseenlabs US at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Craig discusses Unseenlabs' capability to provide satellite-based RF (Radio Frequency) data for monitoring and tracking, which is integrated into customer workflows for rapid tasking and delivery. He highlights the ongoing need to educate the community about RF data and SIGINT-type sources, noting that many, including traditional imagery analysts, may be unfamiliar with it. Craig describes their data as simple "dots on a map" where status changes indicate behavior, such as a vessel turning off its AIS. He mentions that Unseenlabs is unique in being a profitable company, recently secured a large investment to build 20 new satellites and next-generation birds, and currently has 16 satellites on orbit.Highlights• Interview with Craig Brower from Unseenlabs US.• Provides satellite-based RF (Radio Frequency) data for monitoring and tracking.• Data is integrated into customer workflows for quick tasking...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons of Project Geospatial interviews Dan DeGennaro (CTO), Bryan Cosme (CEO & Co-founder), and Brian Buttaccio (COO) of Trevity at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Bryan shares his background, including experience in the Marine Corps specializing in geospatial, which informs Trevity's focus. Dan, a physicist turned coder, focuses on AI, Augmentation, and integrating capabilities into analyst workflows. All of them discuss Trevity's mission to increase analyst productivity, believing they can nearly double it. They highlight their new software, Inkwell, which addresses the challenge of managing vast amounts of geospatial data. Inkwell allows for targeted data scraping and, crucially, enables analysts to interact with and filter data using natural language. This helps analysts quickly find and understand relevant data within an area of interest.Highlights• Trevity's founders have a background in the Marine Corps specializing in geospatial intelligence.• Trevity aims to significantly...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Mats Palsson, CEO of T Kartor Group, shares his journey from engineering to finding his passion in geospatial and maps. He introduces T Kartor Group, founded 40 years ago, which specializes in map and information management solutions based on the principle that maps represent information assets with a position. T Kartor provides solutions for major cities, defense organizations, and public safety sectors in Europe and the US. Palsson mentions T Kartor has significant operations in St. Louis and Sweden. He explains that "making maps" for them involves managing information and tailoring its presentation for diverse end-users, such as military personnel and public transport systems. The company has evolved to focus on information management with a cartographic element. Recent developments include providing customers with dashboards to monitor how their information is used. Palsson discusses the significant industry changes driven by the tremendous amount of data from satellites and...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons of Project Geospatial interviews Geoffrey King, Vice President of Strategy at Greater St. Louis Inc. (GSL), at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Geoffrey discusses GSL's role in growing and strengthening the geospatial cluster in St. Louis through the GeoFutures Initiative. He explains GSL's various functions, including business attraction, downtown revitalization, and supporting small and diverse businesses. Geoffrey highlights NGA as a key anchor institution for the region's geospatial growth. He talks about GSL's presence at GEOINT for over five years, showcasing St. Louis's assets to attract talent and investment. He notes that St. Louis is hosting GEOINT for the third time this year and will host again in 2029, emphasizing the significant effort invested in the 2025 event. GSL aims to collaborate with partners and connect different sectors and communities to maximize the economic impact of geospatial growth in the region.Highlights• Geoffrey King of Greater St. Louis Inc....
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons interviews Tim Klawa of Figure Eight Federal at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Tim discusses the critical importance of data validity for training effective AI programs, particularly for users like warfighters and operators. He emphasizes that understanding the attributes and relevance of training data to specific mission needs is essential for building confidence in the resulting AI models. Tim mentions that Figure Eight Federal's technology, including their enterprise data labeling platform Artemis and their Hydra AI platform for situational awareness and decision support, helps address this challenge. He notes that they will be demonstrating their capabilities at Amazon's booth.Highlights• Interview with Tim Klawa of Figure Eight Federal.• Emphasizes the importance of data validity for AI programs.• Understanding data set attributes and alignment with mission needs is crucial for AI confidence.• Discusses Figure Eight Federal's technology platforms.• Artemis platform is...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons of Project Geospatial speaks with Billy Sokol and Brent Perry of Progress Federal during the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Brent, with a background in full stack engineering and data analytics for defense and IC customers, highlights geospatial as one of the top ways to visualize intelligence. They introduce Progress Federal, a business unit within Progress Software that includes the capabilities of the acquired company MarkLogic. They explain that MarkLogic's history spans diverse industries and government, focusing on a multi-modal database that can aggregate data from multiple systems, regardless of format. This database is designed to operate at immense scale and also to scale down to a laptop for use in hostile environments with denied, delayed, intermittent, or latent communications. They emphasize the importance of being agile due to the rapid rate of change in user expectations and technology in the market.Highlights• Progress Federal is a business unit of Progress...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Guy De Carufel, CEO of Cognitive Space, shares his background as an aerospace engineer from NASA and Firefly. He introduces Cognitive Space as an AI software company dedicated to making the most effective use of space leveraging assets. De Carufel explains his motivation for starting the company was to apply modern AI to automate space operations, addressing the manual methods previously used. He describes their product focused on mission management for ground systems, which automates the process of generating effective schedules from mission priorities and integrates with C2 systems. Cognitive Space uses AI to orchestrate proliferated satellite systems, diverse sensors, and different organizations (national, commercial, allied). He also mentions their Sentient Earth product for aggregating data and providing predictive capacity analytics. Their primary customers manage constellations, including government and commercial entities. De Carufel highlights Cognitive Space's focus on...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons of Project Geospatial interviews Nicole Sullivan from Gateway Geospatial Group at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium in St. Louis. Nicole proudly states that Gateway Geospatial Group is St. Louis born and bred. She shares some of the company's capabilities and interests, including their work with low-cost mesh networks for data collection. A key area of focus is performing near real-time AI/ML on the data collected via their mesh network. They are also interested in the challenges related to different data formats. Nicole encourages attendees and viewers to visit their booth or website to learn more and share ideas.Highlights• Nicole Sullivan represents Gateway Geospatial Group at GEOINT 2025.• Gateway Geospatial Group is a company based in St. Louis.• They work with low-cost mesh networks for data collection.• A key capability is performing near real-time AI/ML on collected data.• The company is interested in exploring ideas related to their technology and addressing challenges...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons speaks with Will Clapperton from GDIT at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Will highlights GDIT's focus on supporting tactical missions with advanced technology. He provides an example of their innovative work using VR/AR technology for post-damage assessment scenarios. This allows users to immerse themselves in a virtual landscape containing geospatial data, identify areas needing attention like damaged infrastructure, plan subsequent steps, and share that critical information with other responders. Will stresses that GDIT's involvement goes deep into everyday missions, far beyond traditional IT support, and emphasizes their passion for working close to the tactical edge. He also offers advice to young professionals entering the field, encouraging technologists to prioritize understanding and addressing tactical mission needs.Highlights• Interview with Will Clapperton from GDIT.• GDIT focuses on supporting tactical missions with technology.• Discusses the use of VR/AR...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons speaks with John True and Andy Dearing from Cultivation Capital at GEOINT 2025, gaining insights from their perspective as investment professionals in the geospatial sector. They offer advice to startups attending GEOINT, emphasizing the importance of developing dual-use technology applicable to both government and commercial markets rather than focusing solely on federal contracts. They highlight that they look for companies that are genuinely solving problems for the customer base, particularly addressing the challenge of data overload and analyst shortages, potentially leveraging AI and machine learning. They discuss monitoring exit strategies in the market, like SPACs, and the increasing value of data for internal processing by larger companies to build solutions. John and Andy are proud of Cultivation Capital's foundation built on the experience of former geospatial operators, which allows them to offer unique insight and support to entrepreneurs.Highlights•...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Susan Moreira from Axiologic Solutions discusses her company's role as an Intel integrator specializing in system, data, and cyber security engineering for complex intelligence systems. She explains their support for geospatial data across customers like NGA and DIA, including managing the Mars program and improving analytic workflows. Moreira highlights their "mission ready" approach, working directly with analysts and operators to translate requirements. Axiologic Solutions is involved with AI efforts, supporting Project Maven and prototype development, focusing on successfully integrating AI with constrained resources and accelerating Authority to Operate (ATO) processes. Other supported efforts include the common data fabric and DIA's data hub. Cyber security is a key focus, integrated from the project's beginning, offering advisory services and researching future challenges like quantum engineering for security. Moreira shares what Axiologic hopes to achieve at GEOINT, such as...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons of Project Geospatial interviews Trent Tinker, who leads the Federal Business Development team at Cesium, during the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Trent shares his extensive background in the geospatial industry, focusing on 3D geospatial for defense and aviation. His career includes experience with Esri, Hexagon, and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), where he developed a passion for interoperability and open standards. The discussion touches upon Cesium's history, having spun out of AGI and advancing their vision with Bentley. A key announcement is Cesium's upcoming first-ever developer conference in Philadelphia from June 23rd to 25th.Highlights• Trent Tinker leads the Federal Business Development team at Cesium.• Trent has a long career in 3D geospatial software, focusing on the defense and aviation domains.• His background includes working with Esri, Hexagon, and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), highlighting his passion for interoperability and open standards.•...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
This clip features Carter Christopher discussing Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. He highlights ORNL's core mission of doing science for the government. Carter emphasizes that ORNL's work is particularly centered on computing and AI. He suggests that this focus differentiates ORNL within the geospatial community and contributes to advancing the field for everyone.Highlights• Clip featuring Carter Christopher from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).• ORNL focuses on doing science for the government.• Work is centered on computing and AI.• This focus differentiates ORNL and helps advance the community.
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Mike DeLaFleur from TekSynap, with over 34 years in the community, discusses his role in BD, capture, and geospatial solutions. He introduces TekSynap as a mid-size government contractor providing IT services and solutions for the DoD, Fed Civ, and IC, which has grown organically since 2008. TekSynap works with various agencies and is expanding into the geospatial world with R&D investments in AI and analyst tools. DeLaFleur highlights TekSynap's distinction as one of the few companies globally with CMMI Level 5 in Services, Development, and Security. He shares recent examples of applying AI in IT networking (Marvis AI) and document management (Megatron). Their core geospatial offering for the IC is ARTA (AI recommendation-driven analytics). TekSynap recently contributed to a project at NGA focusing on disaster response using UI/UX, data fabric, and integrating the unclassified data lake. DeLaFleur reflects on his extensive experience attending GEOINT symposiums and praises TekSynap's...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Adam Simmons of Project Geospatial interviews Sean Walsh, Managing Partner of Turnberry Labs (part of Turnberry Solutions), at the GEOINT 2025 Symposium. Sean, with over 30 years in tech, discusses Turnberry Solutions' work, including geospatial custom development for both private sector clients (like Bayer Crop Science) and national geospatial agencies (like NGA). He highlights their approach as a commercial company that moves at commercial speed and their trademarked methodology: Human Centered Design Agile (HCD Agile). This method prioritizes understanding user needs before developing technology. Sean shares details of their work with NGA on the AIM 2 (Aeronautical Information Management System 20) project, where they migrated a system to AWS, focusing heavily on user engagement to ensure the new cloud-based application worked seamlessly for users without requiring training. He emphasizes that their HCD Agile approach allows them to quickly start solving problems and deliver value...
Podcast Archive - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Bill Conroy discusses his diverse background, which includes serving in the Coast Guard on an Arctic icebreaker, studying GIS, and working for NGA on nautical charts. He introduces his company, Semaphore Maritime Solutions, which he started about a year ago. Conroy explains his primary work involves providing maritime analysis for the US Space Force TAC SRT program, handling unclassified data requests. Drawing on his extensive maritime experience and licenses, he analyzes data like AIS, contextualizing it with factors like weather and regulations to identify suspicious activities. He focuses on taking existing data sets and providing deeper insights through activities-based analysis. Conroy notes that his location in landlocked St. Louis is not a barrier to this work. He mentions utilizing NGA's Port Index data set in his platform. He highlights networking at events like GEOINT as part of his growth strategy and positions himself as a maritime subject matter expert valuable for...
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Today marks the final, quiet farewell to Landsat 7, a satellite that has
tirelessly served as humanity's eye on Earth for over a quarter-century.
Its incredible 2.5 million images have not only documented our planet's
vital pulse – from receding glaciers to changing forests – but have also
empowered countless discoveries and deepened our understanding of our
world. As it drifts into its final, silent orbit, we honor its unparalleled
service and the dedication of the countless individuals who guided its
mission, ensuring its legacy of environmental insight endures.
As drones become a staple in modern industries—from infrastructure inspection and agriculture to public safety and energy—the demand for skilled drone professionals is growing rapidly. But while the technology continues to soar, a major challenge has emerged: finding qualified drone talent. Why the Demand is Exploding Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are no longer […]
Chris Holmes giving the opening keynote at CNG Conference
Well, we did it.
The Cloud-Native Geospatial Forum (CNG) community came together on April 30-May 2 for our first in-person conference in Snowbird, Utah–and honestly? It was something special.
For 2.5 packed days, we welcomed around 250 attendees from over 100 organizations, spanning cloud service providers, government and nonprofit agencies, academic institutions, and private sector companies. People flew in from across the globe, with participants joining from countries including Australia, Argentina, Japan, South Korea, Germany, France, and more – all ready to learn and share what it takes to build geospatial workflows for the cloud.
Who showed up?
Our attendees largely consisted of highly technical, skilled data practitioners, including software engineers, data scientists, and geospatial developers. Here’s a breakdown of who was in the room:
45%: Senior...
Last week, Switzerland’s Birchgletscher collapsed and caused a major rock avalanches, altering the landscape and burying the village of Blatten. With the data of the federal Rapid Mapping service and the help of individual experts, a first open post-event elevation model was made available. I used the model to create pre- and post-event visualizations and prints at a local scale.
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
Artificial intelligence is rapidly redrawing the boundaries of the
geospatial industry, unlocking powerful new insights and efficiencies at an
unprecedented scale. Yet, beneath the veneer of technological marvel and
the often-touted narrative of 'AI augmentation,' a more profound and
unsettling transformation is underway for its workforce. This investigation
delves into the stark realities of how AI and machine learning are not just
reshaping, but in many cases, actively replacing traditional geospatial
roles, forcing a critical reevaluation of skills, careers, and the very
future of human expertise in mapping and understanding our world. As the AI
wave crests, the line between assistant and successor is becoming
increasingly, and for some, alarmingly, clear.
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Mapidea Location Intelligence
•
Explore how homophily—our tendency to bond with similar others—shapes
customer behavior and risk. Discover how geospatial analysis of homophily
patterns reveals opportunities in marketing, sales, and fraud detection
across industries.
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Mapidea Location Intelligence
•
Discover how our partnership with IQGEO and Mapidea's geospatial
intelligence can help telecom operators find growth opportunities, improve
operational efficiency, and drive innovation. Dive into data-driven
business cases for network planning, marketing, and more!
Tell Us About YourselfMy name is Antonia Blankenberg. Alongside being a drummer with the fantastic TBL8 Brass, I’m a Lead Consultant in Utilities with Esri Ireland and I’ve been working in GIS for 6 years now. I’ve always been interested in geography, but I only first came across GIS during my undergraduate degree. I was […]
The post Maps and Mappers of the 2025 Calendar – May – Antonia Blankenberg appeared first on GeoHipster.
The current version of GIS can be seen as a 1.0 model—built in an era when computers were in their infancy, and storage and processing power were both limited and prohibitively expensive.
Above the Arctic Circle, Point Barrow is the northernmost point in the United States.
The post Northernmost Point in the United States appeared first on Geography Realm.
NLT Blog - New Light Technologies
• By Mario Field
•
Reflecting on Another Event Facilitating Regional Collaboration, Share, and Advancement of Geospatial Innovation in the DMV
The DMV GIS Day 2025: Midpoint Meetup, held on April 30, 2025, served as an engaging follow-up to the successful DMV GIS Day 2024. This virtual event convened a vibrant geospatial community to highlight the significant impact of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and the innovative advancements shaping progress throughout the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) region.
Geospatial systems are rapidly evolving from isolated data silos into dynamic, interoperable ecosystems. This shift enhances resilience, decision-making, and national development. Learn how standards, semantics, and sovereignty are redefining geospatial infrastructure and why this matters now more than ever.
The post The Shift That’s Reshaping Geospatial—and Why It Matters Now appeared first on Open Geospatial Consortium.
If you're technically inclined, consider using Borg, Vorta, and rsync.net for encrypted remote backups. If that feels a bit too complex, Arq Backup might be a simpler option for you.
Yes, yes, maps are spatial communication devices and we can obsess over precision and clarity. But it all depends on your map’s purpose. Maps are also designed objects so they can carry within them the power of sentiment. Memory, joy, nostalgia. Or just plain old wonder and curiosity. Here’s how you can create a charming …
Let’s examine an oft-heard question from students and even from GIS colleagues, “Is my map right”? Let’s explore some valid responses to this question that encourages people to think about what “right” actually means, and also what might be better questions to ask. The responses are listed in text form below and in this video on […]
Topoprint has introduced three significant updates to its service for creating 3D mini-reliefs, or Topodiscs, of Swiss locations: bridges with arches, an easy-to-use Topodisc designer and an automated printing-as-a-service option.
Wie wir für den Kanton Graubünden komplexe Daten nutzerfreundlich aufbereiteten – und dabei auf das richtige Tool setzten. Im Auftrag des Kantons Graubünden analysierten wir, wie sich der Tourismus auf die regionale Wertschöpfung und Beschäftigung auswirkt – kantonsweit sowie in einzelnen Regionen. Grundlage bildeten drei Befragungen mit über 30’000 Personen, Daten des Bundesamtes für Statistik …
NLT Blog - New Light Technologies
• By Ran Goldblatt
•
New Light Technologies Inc. (NLT) is honored to serve as a Platinum Sponsor of the 10th annual Innovation Summit for Preparedness & Resilience (InSPIRE), taking place May 28–29, 2025, at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Organized by the National Alliance for Public Safety GIS (NAPSG) Foundation, InSPIRE brings together leaders from across the public and private sectors to advance the role of geospatial technology in public safety and disaster resilience.This year’s summit is especially significant as it looks back at the 20 years since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, recognizing the transformative role these devastating events played in shaping today’s emergency management practices. Many of the professionals attending and organizing InSPIRE 2025 were directly involved in the response to those historic storms.
Immer wieder wird im Geschäftskontext über Datenqualität gesprochen. Leider oft genug ziemlich unscharf. Nachdem ich im ersten Blogpost dieser informellen Serie auf den Begriff der Datenqualität generell eingegangen bin, möchte ich nun etwas hineinzoomen auf die Beschreibung der Datenqualität. Ich tue das anhand eines breit etablierten Standards. Aber erst ein Kürzest-Recap von Teil 1: Wieso …
TLDR; After 10²¹ FLOPs and 500 B patches, IBM’s TerraMind beats a supervised U‑Net by just +2 mIoU on PANGAEA; losing on 5/9 tasks, most other GFMs do worse.
Gentle readers, I have just wrapped up a fun side project that will be of great interest to a very small number of you. The result of one of the most technically demanding efforts of my career, I am very pleased to share it with you. Most of you will wonder what this place is, … Continue reading Planetfall →
Oslandia is pleased to invite you to a webinar dedicated to open source 3D on Thursday, July 3, 2025 at 5pm (Paris time). [in English] Program: 3D challenges in 2025:...
The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 3.6.0alpha1!
Best Served with PostgreSQL 18 Beta1
and GEOS 3.13.1.
This version requires PostgreSQL 12 - 18beta1, GEOS 3.8 or higher, and Proj 6.1+.
To take advantage of all features, GEOS 3.12+ is needed.
To take advantage of all SFCGAL features, SFCGAL 2.1.0+ is needed.
3.6.0alpha1
source download md5
NEWS
HTML Online en ja fr zh_Hans
PDF docs: en ja, zh_Hans, fr
Cheat Sheets:
postgis: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_raster: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_topology: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_sfcgal: en ja fr zh_Hans
address standardizer, postgis_tiger_geocoder: en ja fr zh_Hans
This release is an alpha of a major release, it includes bug fixes since PostGIS 3.5.3 and new features.
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings
• By underdark
•
The latest releases of MovingPandas and Trajectools come with many “under the hood” changes that aim to make your movement analytics faster: Let’s have a look at some example performance measurements! Example 1: MovingPandas ValueChangeSplitter The ValueChangeSplitter splits trajectories when it detects a value change in the specified column. This is useful, for example, to …Read More
The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 3.5.3.
This version requires PostgreSQL 12 - 18beta1, GEOS 3.8 or higher, and Proj 6.1+.
To take advantage of all features, GEOS 3.12+ is needed.
SFCGAL 1.4+ is needed to enable postgis_sfcgal support.
To take advantage of all SFCGAL features, SFCGAL 1.5+ is needed.
3.5.3
source download md5
NEWS
PDF docs: en
HTML Online en ja fr zh_Hans
Cheat Sheets:
postgis: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_raster: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_topology: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_sfcgal: en ja fr zh_Hans
address standardizer, postgis_tiger_geocoder: en ja fr zh_Hans
This release is a bug fix release that includes bug fixes since PostGIS 3.5.1.
What is it? pgPointcloud is a PostgreSQL extension that allows storing point clouds in a PostgreSQL database. This article presents its various features, trade-offs, and main use cases. The Problem...
Introduction In this post, we’ll explore an experimental project — not something built for practical use, rather for exploring some technology and techniques. The goal is to create an immersive, cube-shaped map visualization using web tools and Python backend services. Specifically, we’ll use: Imagine standing inside a cube where every wall is a piece of […]
The post Building a Virtual Map Cube with FastAPI and Marzipano appeared first on Sparkgeo.
Geospatial | Towards Data Science
• By Remko de Lange
•
A step closer to spatial AI with geospatial processing with Fabric
The post The Geospatial Capabilities of Microsoft Fabric and ESRI GeoAnalytics, Demonstrated appeared first on Towards Data Science.
Today marks my first day at Fotokite, a Zurich-based company that designs and manufactures actively tethered UAVs forpublic safety and emergency response. I’ll be leading the application engineering team and am excited to help build a great company with an innovative product.
As the man said, “Life moves pretty fast.” At the start of the year, I had a planned eye surgery that sidelined me for a couple of weeks and then kept me somewhat limited after that. During that recovery, I was further sidelined by a respiratory illness. Five days after getting the all-clear from my … Continue reading Happy New Year to Me →
Oslandia and partners ( e.g. OPENGIS.ch) publicly launch the “Security Project for QGIS” : a mutualized funding effort to increase QGIS cybersecurity. Oslandia is pleased to invite you to a...
SFCGAL 2.1.0 : New Features and Improvements The upcoming version 2.1.0 of SFCGAL will soon be available, bringing with it a host of new features and improvements for this library...
Friends, you might remember that, last year, I wrote to you about how I was finally able to see a dream I’d had for many years come true: bringing together a bunch of map creators onto a single website. I had hoped that this would only be the beginning of our cooperation with each other. … Continue reading Map of the Month: An Experiment →
A month ago, a news headline about a landslide near Kelowna caught our attention, not just for its tragic impact, but for the question it raised: Was this slope destabilized by last season’s wildfires? We’ve since had a chance to explore the event more closely. Our satellite-based analysis suggests that wildfire-related landscape changes likely played […]
The post When Fire Sets the Stage for Landslides: Understanding Through Satellite Risk Analysis appeared first on Sparkgeo.
One of our goals at CNG is to create a larger and more diverse community of geospatial data practitioners. While tremendous progress is being made to make geospatial data easier to access and use in the cloud, we know that there are many people in need of training and educational opportunities to benefit from this progress.
To this end, we are starting to experiment with issuing badges to recognize individuals who have completed cloud-native geospatial trainings. We have started by partnering with thriveGEO, a training and technical consulting company based in Germany. In April 2025, thriveGEO gave its first Cloud-Native Geospatial 101 training course and we have issued CNG Badges to course participants.
CNG Badges use the Open Badges Specification which allows us to give people a verifiable digital credential that asserts they have completed a CNG-approved training course. By maintaining a vendor-neutral view of the geospatial technology landscape, we seek to...
In the past we have explored how social media can be used to delineate earthquakes, study human-wildlife interactions, understand urban morphology, urban smells or locating wildfires among many other things. Keeping with the last topic (i.e., locating things), in a new paper published in GeoJournal entitled "Crowdsourcing dust storms in the United States utilizing social media data," Stuart Evans, Festus Adegbola and myself explore how we can use X (formerly Twitter) and Flickr to source observations of windblown dust. As such the paper demonstrates how social media data can act as supplementary source for dust events monitoring and captures the seasonal trends of such events. Furthermore, the paper highlights the potential of using crowdsourced data for the often overlooked field of dust monitoring that has substantial health and economic impacts. If this sounds of interest, below we provide the abstract to the paper along with some figures which showcase our methodology and...
Location intelligence is becoming increasingly central to enterprise analytics, with organizations in sectors such as retail, logistics, and financial services integrating geospatial data into decision-making systems. A 2016 McKinsey report projected that data-driven decision-making could generate trillions in economic value, with location data playing a key role in operational and strategic improvements (Manyika et al., […]
Tell Us About Yourself I’m a cartographer, geospatial scientist and educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. I work on the mapping team at the California Coastal Commision. On the side, I teach GIS courses at the University of San Francisco and help run BayGeo, a local non-profit organization focused on GIS education and training. My past […]
The post Maps and Mappers of the 2025 Calendar – April – Cameron Denny appeared first on GeoHipster.
Every year, around 1.3 billion tons of food – nearly a third of total global food production – goes to waste (FAO). At the same time, 733 million people faced hunger in 2023, with one in five affected in Africa (WHO). It’s a painful paradox: tons of food are thrown away while millions go without.
The post Food Systems Have Complicated Problems. Where Can Geospatial Help? appeared first on Taylor Geospatial Institute.
Geospatial | Towards Data Science
• By Iñigo Pallardo-Fernández
•
Identify spatial gaps in the urban pharmacy network suitable for the installation of new pharmacies, while adhering to legal requirements on minimum distance between establishments, using geospatial tools such as OSMnx and NetworkX.
The post Pharmacy Placement in Urban Spain appeared first on Towards Data Science.
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Mapidea Location Intelligence
•
Geospatial Intelligence is quickly becoming a game-changer in Pharma. As
more companies adopt spatial analytics to optimize sales, marketing, and
territory planning, those who delay risk falling behind. This article
explores how geography adds critical context to business data — and why now
is the time to make it part of your data strategy.
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
A stark vision for America's fiscal future now casts an ominous shadow, as
the proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget threatens a veritable demolition of
non-defense federal capabilities, launching an unprecedented assault on the
agencies underpinning our nation's world-leading geospatial infrastructure
with a staggering $163 billion targeted for removal from base non-defense
spending . This plan strikes at the heart of essential government
functions, and even as it calls for "unprecedented increases for defense" ,
the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) faces a deep paradox: its
direct appropriations may rise, but devastating cuts to civilian partners
like NOAA, NASA, and USGS threaten to hamstring its operational
effectiveness, potentially forcing NGA to divert its own increased budget
to backfill widening data gaps and maintain "GEOINT Supremacy" with a
critically weakened foundational support system. The reverberations are
already palpable, and as the...
At the "Calgary 11," Tee referenced "spatial thinking" as a key future workforce attribute. In an age of AI, why is simply being able to think so important?
When most people hear “geospatial,” they immediately think of maps. But in many advanced applications, maps never enter the picture at all. Instead, geospatial data becomes a powerful input to machine learning workflows, unlocking insights and automation in ways that don’t require a single visual. At its core, geospatial data is structured around location—coordinates, areas, […]
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
FedGeoDay 2025, held April 22nd in Washington D.C., was a packed and
energized convergence of over 200 geospatial experts dedicated to a vital
mission: building resilience through open source tools and data. Project
Geospatial's coverage of the event revealed a community deeply committed to
collaboration, showcasing everything from NASA's critical Earth observation
data applications and foundational government datasets like USGS's 3DAP to
the complexities of AI reliability, the dynamics of open data initiatives
like OpenStreetMap and Overture Maps, and the necessity of robust
cybersecurity. The day underscored the immense potential of open geospatial
solutions in facing increasing challenges and the collective effort
required to harness their power for societal benefit. The palpable energy
and high turnout signaled a community ready to tackle complex problems
together, leveraging open platforms for a more resilient future.
In today’s AI-driven and geospatially enabled world, data is an organization’s most valuable asset — yet it is often treated as an afterthought until issues arise. Poor data quality, incomplete metadata, and inconsistent governance can quickly derail even the most sophisticated projects. At Cercana, we believe that data stewardship must be intentional, continuous, strategic, and […]
It’s all hot air until AI takes your job. In the geospatial community of practice, AI tools are making an increasingly big impact. We can choose to flip the table, or take the win. Three weeks ago I was introduced to Lovable by Sparkgeo’s UK Lead, Dan Ormsby. The next week I messed around with it, and was deeply […]
The post Prompt disruption, geoAI took my job. appeared first on Sparkgeo.
Immer wieder wird im Geschäftskontext über Datenqualität gesprochen. Aktuell wird Datenqualität in Diskussionen häufig mit anderen Themen verwoben: Autorität im Sinn von «authoritativeness», Offizialität, Entstehungskontext, Governance-Modelle, Rechtssicherheit, «foi publique» etc. Das sind wichtige weitere Themen rund um Daten. Und diese können im Einzelnen die Erkenntnistiefe erhöhen, aber es lohnt sich meines Erachtens, zuerst die Begrifflichkeiten …
What is FedGeoDay? FedGeoDay is a single-track conference dedicated to federal use-cases of open geospatial ecosystems. The open ecosystems have a wide variety of uses and forms, but largely include anything designed around open data, open source software, and open standards. The main event is a one day commitment and is followed by a day […]
OK I will admit it took me longer than I had planned to finish this up. Life got in the way. But now I think is a good time to finish up the series and move on to another. In … Continue reading →
It’s all hot air until AI takes your job. In the geospatial community of practice, AI tools are making an increasingly big impact. We can choose to flip the table, or take the win.
Here’s how to use compositing to tint flowing wind patterns by underlying terrain colors. Why? Because rather than a basemap providing some context around a layer that inherently blocks your view of it, you can leverage the amazing compositing blend modes of the ArcGIS Online Map Viewer to make the phenomenon reveal context rather than …
We are extremely pleased to announce the six funded proposals for our 2025 QGIS.ORG grant programme. Funding for the programme… Read more QGIS Grant Programme 2025 Results
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Mapidea Location Intelligence
•
Telcos are sitting on a goldmine of spatial data—but most of it is locked
behind technical tools and inaccessible to the majority of the
organization. Operational GIS is critical but not enough. To win, telcos
must democratize Geospatial Intelligence across departments, empowering
thousands of users to make smarter decisions, faster.
Web Mapping, Meets Generative AI AI is reshaping how we build the web, from how we write code to how we visualize data. While tools like ChatGPT and Copilot have turned heads in software development, a new wave of tools like Lovable claim to make entire front ends with just a prompt. No coding. No […]
The post Exploring Lovable UI for AI-Powered Web Map Creation appeared first on Sparkgeo.
Readers might of noticed that recently we have been exploring the use of street view images to explore cities or how we can utilize geosocial media to understand the form of function of cities, but one thing we have not explored is the role of smell and how it shapes peoples perceptions of urban spaces. However, in a new paper recently published in the Annals of the American Association of Geographers with Qingqing Chen, Ate Poorthuis we do just that. The paper is entitled "Mapping the Invisible: Decoding Perceived Urban Smells Through Geosocial Media in New York City" In the paper we use text mining techniques to tease out smell related information from over 56 million geolocated tweets which are then assigned to specific small categories (e.g., nature, food, waste) resulting in a new smellscape map for New York city. If this sounds of interest, below you can read the abstract to our paper, see our workflow and resulting smellscape map. While the the analysis steps, along with the...
Wussten Sie, dass Daten zu Naturereignissen wie Überschwemmungen, Lawinen oder Bergstürzen systematisch erfasst werden? Die Webapplikation StorMe ist die schweizweit zentrale Datenbank des Bundesamtes für Umwelt (BAFU) für die Erfassung und Verwaltung von Naturereignissen. Sie zählt mehr als 70’000 Einträge, welche laufend vom Bund und den Kantonen ergänzt und ausgewertet werden. Aber auch andere Organisationen, …
Cercana Systems is excited to share that our entire team will be in attendance at FedGeoDay 2025! This is a great opportunity to meet with us face-to-face and learn more about our capabilities and the work we do. The event is happening April 22, 2025 at the Department of Interior’s Yates Auditorium in Washington, D.C. […]
Exciting times are ahead for the QGIS project! We’re thrilled to share some major updates coming to the QGIS platform over the next few months. These changes are part of a long-planned technical migration that will bring new possibilities and ensure QGIS stays modern, fast, and future-ready.
In today’s fast-paced professional world, it’s easy for young professionals to assume that hard work alone will get them ahead. While grinding at the desk and delivering results matters, relying solely on your work to speak for itself may leave you overlooked in a competitive field. Getting out of the office and into local conferences, […]
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Adam Simmons
•
The United States is facing a looming crisis in its geodesy workforce,
threatening the nation's capacity to maintain and advance this essential
science. Our research delves into the definition, applications, and history
of geodesy in the US, examining the workforce challenges and potential
consequences if this crisis remains unaddressed.
Though it’s been about a week since we sent it out there, I just recalled that I haven’t alerted all of you to the 2025 edition of the freelance cartographer survey that Aly Ollivierre and I conduct. Due to popular demand, we are going to try conducting it annually, rather than biennially. This survey is … Continue reading 2025 AFC Freelancer Survey →
Friends, I’m excited to share that I have just completed a world physical map, in my new asymmetric monstrosity projection. It’s free to download, or if you want to buy a 30″ × 20″ print, you can also do that (and I will be pleasantly surprised). If you download it and print it yourself, I … Continue reading A Usefully Useless Projection →
It’s amazing what you can find when you plug in an old external hard drive. I recently rearranged my desk and realized that one of the external drives on top of my desktop Linux machine had apparently been unplugged for a while. I plugged it in to see what it held, and there were a … Continue reading A Geospatial Time Capsule →
In the last couple of months a total of 57 new plugins were published in the QGIS plugin repository. Highlights… Read more Plugin Update – February to March, 2025
Depending on your point of view, “vibe coding” – using generative AI to iteratively develop code by using natural language to describe desired functionality – is either revolutionary or the slippery slope to deploying poor, irresponsible software. While both viewpoints have merit, I fall somewhere in the middle. As a programmer who is approaching 50 … Continue reading “Vibe Coding” a Mock API →
Geospatial Frontiers - Project Geospatial
• By Keith Barber
•
The high cost of commercial remote sensing data is a major obstacle to
widespread adoption. As Keith Barber notes, 'Right now, the price point is
such that it's still cheaper to go hire 150 guys to walk that field than it
is to use the technology.' By refactoring the executability of the
commercial and government markets from a macro-economic perspective and
moving to a Defense-wide budget, the price per image or access would
decline, amortizing the value and creating a price point where commercial
adoption would rapidly increase, essentially baselining the cost.
NLT Blog - New Light Technologies
• By NLT Staff
•
We’re excited to announce that New Light Technologies (NLT) is once again a proud sponsor of FedGeoDay, happening April 22, 2025, in Washington, D.C. at the American Red Cross Building – DOI Yates Auditorium.
You know how you can crank up the sense of drama and studio photography professionalism by switching over to portrait mode on your phone’s camera? It just looks…cool. The subject is in focus and the peripheral background content is blurry. It’s actually how our eyes and brains work, so it’s pleasing to see in photography. …
I’m happy to once again be participating in a DMV GIS Day event. GIS Day is still months away, but Cercana Systems is partnering again with New Light Technologies on a “Midpoint Meetup.” Like the inaugural event, it is a free virtual event. The midyear event will be about two hours long and serves as … Continue reading DMV GIS Midpoint Meetup 2025 →
CapMetro's recent feature in an Esri case study highlights their development of a cloud-based geospatial infrastructure. Key efforts include automating data pipelines and migrating to Azure, aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and providing real-time spatial data for better decision-making in transit services.
NLT Blog - New Light Technologies
• By NLT Staff
•
We are excited to announce the DMV GIS Day 2025: Midpoint Meetup, a follow up to the inaugural DMV GIS Day 2024. This is where the dynamic geospatial community of the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) region comes together to showcase the history, latest innovations, applications, and trends in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This half-day event highlights the diverse ecosystem of GIS professionals, organizations, and enthusiasts working to solve real-world challenges using cutting-edge geospatial technologies in our community.
TGE hosted a workshop to begin the second phase of our collaboration on AI for Earth Observation and Field Boundaries. Learn how to get involved.
The post AI for Satellite Imagery: Fields of the World Phase 2 Begins appeared first on Taylor Geospatial Engine.
NLT Blog - New Light Technologies
• By NLT Staff
•
NLT at the 2025 North Carolina GIS Conference
From March 18-21, 2025, Winston-Salem, North Carolina held its annual NC GIS conference, a dynamic gathering of state, local government, academic, and industry professionals dedicated to leveraging GIS for real-world solutions. New Light Technologies (NLT) proudly participated as a platinum exhibitor and Herb Stout award sponsor, making their first appearance and engaging deeply with the incredible North Carolina GIS community, demonstrating their latest geospatial innovations and strengthening collaborative partnerships for mission success.
For the past two years, have been working with a fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) provider supporting various data architecture and geospatial activities. This is a classic infrastructure business that cycles through phases of design, construction, and maintenance as the built environment changes. This leads to a lot classic GIS editing over time – which can mean the … Continue reading GeoParquet Backup and Restore →
NLT Blog - New Light Technologies
• By NLT Staff
•
Unveiling the Drive Behind New Light Technologies' Bold Move
New Light Technologies (NLT) has long been a beacon of innovation in the realms of technology, geospatial science, and data solutions. However, the company is now poised to illuminate a new path by venturing into the lighting industry. This strategic pivot seems both unexpected and ingenious, rooted in the convergence of brand perception and market demand. Over the years, NLT has been inundated with inquiries about lighting solutions, from LED retrofits to smart lighting systems, and even decorative fixtures. This surge in interest highlighted an intriguing opportunity: the potential to expand their brand into an industry closely aligned with their name and ethos.
As the AAG has just wrapped up I thought I would write brief (well actually quite long) post on the talks that I was involved with at the conference. These talks would not have been possible without the many great students and colleagues who I have been collaborating with over time. Below you will find a brief summary of the talks and if any sound interesting, please reach out and we can give you more details. First up (in order in which they were presented) was "Utilizing Streetview Images for Mapping Building Attributes with ChatGPT" with Qingqing Chen and Linda See. In this talk we discussed how multimodal Large Language Models are giving us a new way to study cities, in the sense, lowering the boundary for information extraction. Using ChatGPT and street view images from Mapillary as an example, we showed how one can extract building age, usage (e.g., commercial, mixed use, residential) and estimate building height which could all be used to inform urban climate models which...
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings
• By underdark
•
At the end of yesterday’s TimeGPT for mobility post, we concluded that TimeGPT’s trainingset probably included a copy of the popular BikeNYC timeseries dataset and that, therefore, we were not looking at a fair comparison. Naturally, it’s hard to find mobility timeseries datasets online that haven’t been widely disseminated and therefore may have slipped past …Read More
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings
• By underdark
•
tldr; Maybe. Preliminary results certainly are impressive. Introduction Crowd and flow predictions have been very popular topics in mobility data science. Traditional forecasting methods rely on classic machine learning models like ARIMA, later followed by deep learning approaches such as ST-ResNet. More recently, foundation models for timeseries forecasting, such as TimeGPT, Chronos, and LagLlama have …Read More
I recently gave a careers talk to students at Solent University, and through that I got to know a MSc student there who had previous GIS experience and was now doing a Data Analytics and AI MSc course. Her GIS experience was mostly in the ESRI stack (ArcGIS and related tools) and she was keen […]
Tell Us About Yourself I’m Bernie Connors, a Geomatics Engineer from Fredericton, New Brunswick in Atlantic Canada. I have been working in GIS since 1993 and I have worked for the Province of New Brunswick since 1997. I manage an ArcGIS Server architecture that is used to share the province’s rich GIS resources as online […]
The post Maps and Mappers 2025 – March – Bernie Conners appeared first on GeoHipster.
Tell us About Yourself: I’m a cartographer at Woodwell Climate Research Center where I make maps that communicate climate science to address the climate crisis. Previously I was a graphics editor at National Geographic magazine where I made maps on topics ranging from climate change to conservation and biodiversity. My background is in physical geography, […]
The post Maps and Mappers of 2025 – February – Christina Shintani appeared first on GeoHipster.
The “Security project for QGIS” is now public ! Pledge now ! The goal of this project is to mutualize funding to improve QGIS security to the highest levels. Oslandia...
Mapidea Location Analytics Blog
• By Mapidea Location Intelligence
•
Data drives decisions, but where that data comes from—or converges—can be
the key differentiator. By weaving geospatial analytics into your everyday
workflows, you unlock the ability to detect trends, spot opportunities, and
handle obstacles more proactively.
Last year we put out a call for abstracts for presentations for our sessions Geosimulations for Addressing Societal Challenges. The session description is as follows: There is an urgent need for research that promotes sustainability in an era of societal challenges ranging from climate change, population growth, aging and wellbeing to that of pandemics. These need to be directly fed into policy. We, as a Geosimulation community, have the skills and knowledge to use the latest theory, models and evidence to make a positive and disruptive impact. These include agent-based modeling, microsimulation and increasingly, machine learning methods. However, there are several key questions that we need to address which we seek to cover in this session. For example, What do we need to be able to contribute to policy in a more direct and timely manner? What new or existing research approaches are needed? How can we make sure they are robust enough to be used in decision making? How can...
NLT Blog - New Light Technologies
• By NLT Staff
•
Introduction
New Light Technologies team member, Douglas Rose, recently attended the annual Earthquake Summit, a premier event that brings together hundreds of professionals to explore the latest insights on earthquake risks, preparedness strategies, and recovery planning in the Midwest. Featuring expert-led sessions on best practices in earthquake response, transportation resilience, healthcare readiness, communication strategies, and utility impacts, the summit provided invaluable knowledge for communities and organizations striving to enhance their disaster preparedness. With a diverse lineup of speakers and sessions, this free event also offered professional development opportunities, reinforcing its role as a crucial gathering for those dedicated to seismic resilience.
Satellite Earth observation is at a crossroads, balancing national defense priorities, environmental monitoring, and commercial innovation. As competition intensifies and AI-driven analytics reshape the industry, the sector faces key challenges: pricing models, regulatory shifts, and the push for actionable intelligence over raw imagery. With market consolidation on the horizon, the future of Earth observation lies in the ability to extract value from data while navigating geopolitical and technological disruptions. 🚀
Sure, there’s a glorious drop shadow effect in the ever-more-capable ArcGIS Online Map Viewer to give features a sweet glow, BUT there’s no inner glow effect. How do we cast that beautiful glow inward? I’ll admit that I’ve been stumped by this one for longer than I care to admit, but then it just hit …
..and everything is changing geospatial. If I were to characterize the last five years, I would use the word complex. We have a changing climate, with seemingly more extreme events every day. We are seeing increasing international tensions break out into kinetic conflict. The pillars of entrenched economic systems are creaking under the weight of fragile […]
The post Geospatial is Changing Everything appeared first on Sparkgeo.
I did a post a while back which was just a lot of links to things I found interesting, mostly in the geospatial/data/programming sphere. Since then I’ve collected a lot more links – so here are some of them. The theme, such as there is, seems to be ‘this would have really helped me about […]
As always, this post is very delayed – apologies. In fact, I was encouraged to write this by a friend who I see at PyData Southampton (Hi, if you’re reading this!). I mentioned my talk in passing to her, and she asked if I’d blogged about it yet. I admitted that I hadn’t, and promised […]
Geospatial technology is the modern expression of geography, encompassing geographic information systems, remote sensing, and surveying technology. “Geospatial technology” is a convenient catch-all term for anything with a location component. The problem is that geography is quite literally everywhere, and modern geospatial technology is, in fact, changing everything.
Whether you are a parent who happens to be a geospatial veteran or want to help educate the next generation, check out these ideas to help the next generation develop integral geospatial skills and understanding.
Here’s how you can make a map inspired by the glorious collaboration of geologist Marie Tharp and landscape painter Heinrich Berann. We’ll use ArcGIS Pro (injected with a special terrain toolbox provided by cartographer, author, and public figure Ken Field), its amazing raster functions and blend modes, and luscious bathymetry data from GEBCO. Let’s dive in! 0:00 a brief …
Maps, Tattoos, & Geospatial Views
• By Brian Monheiser
•
A few weeks ago, I posed a simple yet thought-provoking question to the geospatial community on LinkedIn, one that many found difficult to answer, including myself:
In the past I have blogged about disasters, but mainly from a social media or agent-based modeling perspective. However, after the devastating wildfires that impacted parts of Los Angeles County earlier this year led me to wonder how resilient are cities to such events? Or more generally, what role could urban analytics play on the various stages of disaster management (i.e., preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation), or how can data, models, and methods at the disposal of researchers be leveraged to better prepare us for future disasters and be linked to policy?If these questions sound of interest, I encourage you to go and read a short editorial that I recently published in Environment and Planning B entitled "Cities and Disasters: What can Urban Analytics Do?"Full referece: Crooks, A.T. (2024), Cities and Disasters: What can Urban Analytics Do?, Environment and Planning B, 52(3): 523-526. (pdf)
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings
• By underdark
•
In today’s post, we (that is, Gaspard Merten from Universite Libre de Bruxelles and yours truly) are going to dive deep into how to analyze public transport data, using both schedule and real time information. This collaboration has been made possible by the EMERALDS project. Previously, I already shared news about GTFS algorithms for Trajectools that …Read More
OK, it has been a while since the last time I published this data, but I have a valid excuse.
The most striking feature of the 2024 chart is the zero’ing out of IBM’s piece of the pie. Big Blue, which once billed the government $107M in a year, has been reduced to a billing rate of less than $5M per year over the last two years.
Everything else feels more or less the same. After seven years of NDP government, the overall trajectory of outsourcing growth has beeen flattened, but in no way reversed. It is a smaller proportion of overall spend, but the substantial change wrought by the Campbell Liberal government starting around 2005 has been durable – BC IT has a huge outsourced component still.
The initial surge in smaller local companies after 2017 stalled out by 2021 and had been flat since.
The most consistent grower is now CGI, which entered the Victoria market around 2005 and has grown to $60M/year in billings with consistent year-over-year increases.
Back to entry 1
I recently “celebrated” my “cancerversary”, the one-year mark since my GI doctor phoned me up and said the fateful words – “you have cancer”.
At that moment, my universe shrank down immensely. All the external stuff, job, professional relationships, volunteerism, just kind of fell away, I had no mental space for it. It was just me and my immediate family and the many, many unknowns.
My experience since then has included two major physical insults. The “curative” surgery that removed most of my rectum, and the associated c.difficle infection that brutally wrecked my GI tract.
The insults really knocked me back. Moving around the house involved effort. Meals would lead to stomach pain and long sessions on the toilet. Runs were replaced with walks and then shorter walks. A trip to the cafe became my gold standard for “getting out”.
Now, I am immensely “better” than I was this summer. But I am still a very long way from the physical condition I was before (which was...
Every year, around 1.3 billion tons of food – nearly a third of total global food production – goes to waste (FAO). At the same time, 733 million people faced hunger in 2023, with one in five affected in Africa (WHO). It’s a painful paradox: tons of food are thrown away while millions go without.
The post How Geospatial Innovation Can Reduce Food Waste and Improve Access to Nutrition appeared first on Taylor Geospatial Institute.
The GRASS GIS 8.4.1 release provides more than 80 improvements and fixes with respect to the release 8.4.0. Enjoy!
The post GRASS GIS 8.4.1 released appeared first on Markus Neteler Consulting.
We are pleased to announce that the minutes from the QGIS.ORG Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2024 are now available for… Read more QGIS.ORG Annual General Meeting 2024 – Minutes Now Available
Despite the world’s agricultural systems producing enough food to feed the current population, global food insecurity remains a critical challenge. The scale of the gap remains significant, with approximately 733 million people worldwide experiencing hunger in 2023.
The post How Can Geospatial Innovation Promote Sustainable Agricultural Land Management? appeared first on Taylor Geospatial Institute.
We are delighted to announce a special track on “Integrating Large-Language Models and Geospatial Foundation Models to Enhance Spatial Reasoning in ABMs” as part of the Social Simulation Conference 2025, 25th to 29th August 2025 at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. Full conference details can be found at the end of this email.Abstract for the Special Track: Recent developments in the use of large language models (LLMs) offer exciting opportunities to control agent behaviour in potentially more realistic and nuanced ways than has previously been possible. However, an LLM-backed agent can only interface with their surroundings through text prompts, which is severely limiting. The integration of large language models (LLMs) and geospatial foundation models (GFMs) presents an exciting opportunity to use AI techniques to advance agent-based modelling for spatial applications, potentially allowing for agents with more comprehensive behavioural realism, as well as an improved...
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings
• By underdark
•
The Trajectools repository is migrating from GitHub to Codeberg. The new home for Trajectools is: ➡️ https://codeberg.org/movingpandas/trajectools The GitHub repo remains as a writable mirror, for now, but the issue tracking is only active on Codeberg. Why the move? I am working on moving my projects to European infrastructure that better aligns with my values. …Read More
FOSS4G:BG: Open GIS conference is coming early in March as a local FOSS4G event in Bulgaria organized by the QGIS.bg community. The event will span in two days, having a day with workshops with deep dive in different topics and a second day with conference presentations.
Introduction Geospatial data volumes and complexity are growing due to diverse sources, such as GPS, satellite imagery, and sensor data. Traditional geospatial processing methods face challenges, including scalability, handling various formats, and ensuring data consistency. The medallion architecture offers a layered approach to data management, improving data processing, reliability, and scalability. While the medallion architecture […]
Maps, Tattoos, & Geospatial Views
• By Brian Monheiser
•
Around this time last year, we made a pivotal decision, GEO261 needed a true headquarters, a space that reflected not just where we worked, but who we were evolving.
Giro3D is a geospatial data visualization library for the Web. Free and open-source, it is compatible with many geospatial data sources (rasters, vectors, point clouds, etc.). 👉 See the full...
The post explores an SQL query using DuckDB and OvertureMaps data to
extract, filter, and visualize pizza places in Switzerland. All these steps
can be done in one line, and the generated map of Swiss pizza places can be
viewed immediately using PMTiles.
We are pleased to announce the release of QGIS 3.42 Münster! Installers for Windows, Linux, and Mac are already out.… Read more QGIS 3.42 Münster is released!
Dear QGIS Community, We are very pleased to announce that this year’s round of grants is now available. The call… Read more QGIS Grants #10: Call for Grant Proposals 2025
A funny thing happened when I wrote up my 2025 book list – a lot of the books were parts of pairings. And I started wondering what other pairings I had read that were memorable.
So here’s another list!
Wicked, Gregory Maguire and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
You wouldn’t know it to look at me (or would you?) but I am a person who has read all 14 books of the original L. Frank Baum Oz series. From “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” to “Glinda of Oz” and all in between.
As… that kind of person, I was truly tickled to pick up “Wicked” a couple years ago and take in not only the invented back-story of the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba), but also all the references to the Oz world that Maguire builds into his narrative. “Wicked” is the best kind of reimagining, one that manages a completely fresh story, but without tearing down the original source material on the way. Maguire clearly is also… that kind of person, and he treats Oz with respect while building a totally fresh...
Introduction When combining open-source GIS tools with the ArcGIS ecosystem, there are a handful of challenges one can encounter. The compatibility of data formats, issues with interoperability, tool chain fragmentation, and performance at scale come to mind quickly. However, the use of the open-source Python library GeoPandas can be an effective way of working around […]
I recently had a project requirement to export the contents of a delta table in Databricks to several formats, including shapefile and file geodatabase, with the output being placed in object storage mounted to DBFS. I set up the logic in a notebook, with the intent to use geopandas, which provides an easy wrapper around … Continue reading Exporting Data with GeoPandas in Databricks →
Safe Software highlighted CapMetro's Geospatial Program in a success story, showcasing the integration of FME and ArcGIS to enhance transit operations, planning, and performance management. Their comprehensive GIS platform automates workflows and utilizes real-time data, ensuring decision-makers have access to vital information.
The Swiss Rooftop Explorer is a cloud-native web app that retrieves
Swiss building roof heights without a GIS server. Using PMTiles,
Geoparquet, and DuckDB-WASM, it enables fast, low-maintenance geospatial
queries. This post explores the data pipeline and its benefits of cloud-optimized
formats, and how static files can replace traditional GIS infrastructure.
Literacy skills, are essential for enabling students to develop their geographical understanding and being able to communicate this, both in writing and verbally. In order for students to be able to develop their literacy skills and become confident with reading, writing, speaking and listening, to enable communication and geographical understanding, vocabulary plays a key role.Continue reading "The Importance of Vocabulary Learning in the Geography Classroom"
Use Tailscale to build your own gated community (a.k.a. VPN) within the public
internet: bypass geo-blocking, remotely control your smart home, and quickly
provide services as a developer.
I can’t remember the exact time that I met Paul Ramsey in person and had a conversation with him – it was either at the 2011 FOSS4G in Denver or the inaugural FOSS4GNA in DC the following year – but I clearly remember what he said to me. By then, I had been writing this … Continue reading Long-Form Spatial Writing →
Time should be a first-class citizen in geospatial. In many ways, measuring change might always have been geospatial's killer app. But are we giving time enough structured attention?
UPDATE: This post has been edited to provide the new, user-friendly URL. I’ve missed Planet Geospatial. I’ve missed it so much that I messaged James the other day and said we should get it going again. He wholeheartedly agreed and then started going on about perfectly valid stuff like not wanting to wrestle with 15-year-old … Continue reading GeoFeeds Is Online →
Learn about our plan for Phase 2 of the AI for Earth Observation and Field Boundaries Initiative and how to get involved.
The post Join TGE in Phase 2 of AI for Earth Observation and Field Boundaries appeared first on Taylor Geospatial Engine.
50+ Female Product Manager/Senior GIS Analyst at North Road, Program Chair FOSS4G Oceania 2022-2024, QGIS AU Committee Q. Emma, Where in the world are you and what do you do? In sunny South East Queensland where the winter temperatures are in the 20° (Celsius degrees), but I am more of a -1° Celsius gal. I […]
The post When I was 15 years old, I proclaimed I would be a cartographer appeared first on GeoHipster.
Seven months ago, we issued A Call to Action for the Data Community to break down geospatial data silos and make GIS a core part of analytics. Today, we’re thrilled to announce two major developments that bring this vision closer to reality:
The Parquet specification has officially adopted geospatial guidance, enabling native storage of GEOMETRY and GEOGRAPHY types
Iceberg 3 now includes GEOMETRY and GEOGRAPHY as part of its official specification
Now both Parquet and Iceberg support columns of type GEOMETRY or GEOGRAPHY just like INT32, INT64, FLOAT32, etc. columns! Yay! This is a landmark achievement for geospatial data! 🎉
A Community Achievement
First, a heartfelt thank you to everyone who contributed to this effort—engineers, early adopters, and advocates who pushed for geospatial data to be treated as a first-class citizen. This milestone wasn’t achieved overnight; it took years of collaboration across organizations and...
The GRASS GIS 8.4.1RC1 release provides more than 70 improvements and fixes with respect to the release 8.4.0. Please support us in testing this release candidate.
The post GRASS GIS 8.4.1RC1 released appeared first on Markus Neteler Consulting.
January, the first month of 2025, brought us 36 new plugins, published in the QGIS plugin repository. Here follows the… Read more Plugin Update – January, 2025
Installing the most widely used open-source GIS software on the most popular Linux distribution should be straightforward, yet it often raises questions and even problems. This guide walks you through the process so you can refer back to it whenever needed.
The post Innovation Bridge 2024 Wrapped: A collaboration to build a global dataset using AI and satellite imagery appeared first on Taylor Geospatial Engine.
For PostGIS Day this year I researched a little into one of my favourite topics, the history of relational databases. I feel like in general we do not pay a lot of attention to history in software development. To quote Yoda, “All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing.”
Anyways, this year I took on the topic of the early history of spatial databases in particular. There was a lot going on in the ’90s in the field, and in many ways PostGIS was a late entrant, even though it gobbled up a lot of the user base eventually.
This blog post was first published on Chris’ personal blog on February 9, 2025 and is being cross posted here.
Have you benefitted from Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF’s? SpatioTemporal Asset Catalogs? Zarr, COPC or GeoParquet? Not just the formats, but the whole ecosystem of tools and data around it? Well I’d like to present you with an incredibly easy opportunity to ‘pay it forward’ and help build and expand the movement. And all you have to do is attend a conference! One that should be a totally awesome experience, the first in-person CNG Conference, from April 30th to May 2nd.
I have big dreams for this conference, as my hope is that it can expand in the next few years to become a truly vendor-neutral gathering for anyone working in and around geospatial data. To be one of those conferences that has the critical mass where you know ‘everyone’ you want to talk to will be there. In North America there’s really only two options for this: Esri...
We are thrilled to announce that QGIS has been officially recognized as a Digital Public Good (DPG) by the Digital… Read more QGIS recognized as Digital Public Good
Tell Us About Yourself My name is Kseniia. Right now, I am a student in the International Cartography Master program, but before starting my studies, I worked for many years as an analyst in the field of urban and transport planning. I think it’s because this field often involves working with different barriers (physical, social […]
The post Maps and Mappers 2025 – January – Kseniia Nifontova appeared first on GeoHipster.
Paul shows you how to access raster data stored in the cloud or object storage for PostGIS using cloud optimized GeoTIFF (aka COG) files. He also includes some functions for working with raster elevation.
Due to some issues I’m running behind just a bit – so enjoy this map from December of 2024. Tell Us About Yourself I am a Senior Cartographer at National Geographic Maps, own my own freelance business, Tombolo Maps & Design, and have been making maps professionally for 15 years. My maps have been in more […]
The post Maps and Mappers 2024 – December – Aly DeGraff Ollivierre appeared first on GeoHipster.
In previous posts we have noted how one can explore urban issues through newspapers, while at the same time we have used social media to explore trends in vaccinations. In a recently published paper in PLOS Digital Health entitled "From print to perspective: A mixed-method analysis of the convergence and divergence of COVID-19 topics in newspapers and interviews" with Qingqing Chen, Adam Sullivan, Jennifer Surtees, Laurene Tumiel-Berhalter and myself, we thought we would explore how COVID-19 was reported in newspapers and how this varied from interviews. The rationale behind this was that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to diverse experiences influenced by public health measures like lockdowns and social distancing. To explore these dynamics, we introduce a novel ’big-thick’ data approach that integrates extensive U.S. newspaper data with detailed interviews. By employing natural language processing (NLP) and geoparsing techniques, we identify key topics related to the pandemic and...
Introduction The geospatial industry has seen significant transformation with the rise of open-source solutions. Tools like QGIS, PostGIS, OpenLayers, and GDAL have provided alternatives to proprietary GIS software, providing cost-effective, customizable, and community-driven mapping and spatial analysis capabilities. While open-source GIS thrives on collaboration and accessibility, it still operates within a competitive landscape influenced by […]
Cloud-Native Geospatial represents a significant shift in how geospatial data is processed, stored, and analyzed. This approach offers GIS Professionals greater scalability, allowing them to handle massive datasets without relying on traditional and often limited on-premise infrastructure. Additionally, the cloud-native approach enhances collaboration by enabling multiple users to access and work on shared datasets in real-time, regardless of their physical location, helping to eliminate data silos. This level of accessibility and flexibility empowers GIS professionals to deliver faster results, streamline workflows, and adapt to the growing demands of modern geospatial applications.
What is Cloud-Native Geospatial?
Cloud-native geospatial refers to the practice of leveraging cloud-based technologies and architectures to handle geospatial data in the cloud, ideally without migrating it between heavy/purpose-built storage and file formats. This approach focuses on...
Following up on my last post, I wanted to share some more details about the experience of using AI tools to code a plugin for QGIS, one that has seen some reasonable success, with over 2000 downloads in the past couple of months. My hope is to inspire others to make their own QGIS plugins and other geospatial tools, as I think more people doing AI-assisted coding has the potential to accelerate the momentum of the open source ecosystem.
Cursor & QGIS — awesome together :)
Can you really code a QGIS plug-in just using AI tools?
Before we dig in I want to give everyone who is not a coder some encouragement to jump in and try things out. The quick answer is yes! You can code a QGIS plug-in even if you’re not a software developer. I’m sure you’ve seen the videos of people building cool things with AI tools, but it can still be hard to actually dive into it. For me the most important thing is to have a real problem you’re...
The post discusses AI hallucination - when AI generates incorrect
information. It explores two main problems: user frustration with incorrect
outputs and uncertainty about managing these errors long-term. Using a
geodetic network analogy, it explains how AI errors can propagate like
measurement errors in surveying, suggesting we need better frameworks for
detecting and managing hallucinations.
I have been watching the codification of spatial data types into GeoParquet and now GeoIceberg with some interest, since the work is near and dear to my heart.
Writing a disk serialization for PostGIS is basically an act of format standardization – albeit a standard with only one consumer – and many of the same issues that the Parquet and Iceberg implementations are thinking about are ones I dealt with too.
Here is an easy one: if you are going to use well-known binary for your serialiation (as GeoPackage, and GeoParquet do) you have to wrestle with the fact that the ISO/OGC standard for WKB does not describe a standard way to represent empty geometries.
Empty geometries come up frequently in the OGC/ISO standards, and they are simple to generate in real operations – just subtract a big thing from a small thing.
SELECT ST_AsText(ST_Difference(
'POLYGON((0 0, 1 0, 1 1, 0 1, 0 0))',
'POLYGON((-1 -1, 3 -1, 3 3, -1 3, -1 -1))'
))
If you have a data set and are running...
Last month I released my first QGIS plug-in, and promised I’d write an in-depth post about it. I’ll give an overview and dig into some of the motivations, and then I’ll put the details of my experience of coding with AI in its own follow up post.
Background
I’ve been a long time QGIS user, though am very far from an expert — I mostly open different files and visualize them. I’ve never been able to afford an Esri license, so it’s QGIS all the way for me. And I’ve always loved the plugin ecosystem: the fact that many people worldwide are adding all kinds of functionality so that anyone can customize it to their needs is just awesome, and a testament to the power of open source. There’s still things Esri can do better, but we’re now at the point where there’s a lot of things QGIS can do better.
I also recently have ‘become a coder’ again, thanks to the power of AI tools. I’ll dive into more of the experience in my next post, but it meant...
The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into geospatial technology is fundamentally reshaping industries, from urban development and environmental conservation to logistics and disaster relief. With businesses increasingly adopting AI-powered geospatial solutions, the need for professionals who can harness these tools is higher than ever. To stay ahead, hiring teams must grasp the evolving landscape and […]
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings
• By underdark
•
Today, I’m super excited to share with you the announcement that our open source textbook “Geocomputation with Python” has finally arrived in print and is now available for purchase from Routledge.com, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and other booksellers. “Geocomputation with Python” (or geocompy for short) covers the entire range of standard GIS operations for both vector and …Read More
What is Strategic Planning and Why Does it Matter? Strategic planning is one of the most important things you can do for your organization. It helps you not only paint the picture of where you want your organization to be in the future, but also draws the roadmap for how you’re going to get there. […]
In previous posts, we have written how large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT can be used in various urban analytical applications. We have kept exploring this potential especially with respect to citizen science applications. To this end we have just published a new paper in iScience, entitled "New Directions in Mapping the Earth’s Surface with Citizen Science and Generative AI". In the paper, lead by Linda See, we discuss how multi-modal LLMs (MLLMs) which are like LMMs but can take different forms of inputs (e.g., text, images, video) and output multi-modal information (e.g., take an image and output a description) could be leveraged to enhance citizen science land cover/land use mapping campaigns. If this sounds of interest, below you can read the abstract to the paper, see some of the figures we use to build our argument, while at the bottom of the post you can see the full reference and a link to the actual paper.Abstract: As more satellite imagery has become openly...
I know it’s short notice, but I wanted to let you all know that I’m doing a livestream tomorrow. It’s been well over 2½ years since my last one. I’ll be covering a few monochrome maps I made for an upcoming book. Please come on by to ask questions, offer feedback, and share your thoughts … Continue reading Going Live →
A goal for me this year is to ‘ship more’, so in the spirit of releasing early and often I wanted to share a little new project I got going this past weekend. See https://github.com/cholmes/geoparquet-tools.
It’s a collection of utilities for things I often want to do but that aren’t trivial out of the box with DuckDB. It started focused on just checking GeoParquet files for ‘best practices’, which I’ve been working on writing up in this pull request, as I realized that lots of people are publishing awesome data as GeoParquet but don’t always pick the best options (and the tools don’t always set the best defaults). So it can check compression, if there’s a bbox column, and row group size. It also attempts to check if a file is spatially ordered, but I’m not sure if it works across different types of approaches. It does seem to work with Hilbert curves generated from DuckDB.
I do need to refine the row group...
DuckDB continues to be my go to tool for geospatial processing, after I discovered it over a year ago. Since that time its functionality has continued to expand, and as of version 1.1 it reads and writes GeoParquet natively, as long as you have the spatial extension installed.
LOAD spatial; CREATE TABLE fields AS (SELECT * from 'https://data.source.coop/kerner-lab/fields-of-the-world-cambodia/boundaries_cambodia_2021.parquet'); COPY fields TO 'cambodia-fields.parquet';
Be sure to always run LOAD spatial; or the table won’t get a geometry column, it will just create blobs. If you see errors or your output data is just Parquet and not GeoParquet that’s likely the source of your problems. I often forget to add it at the beginning of my sessions — perhaps there is some nice way to configure DuckDB to always load it, but I don’t know it (yet).
I also do recommend that you always use zstd compression, as it generally results in at least 20% smaller files, and its speed is...
Wir haben etwas auf die letzten Monate zurückgeschaut. Was hat unsere Kunden und uns bewegt? Was haben wir als relevante und interessante Themen angeschaut und im Blog behandelt? Manchmal wird man sich dessen aufgrund der dynamischen Entwicklungen in manchen Tätigkeitsbereichen von EBP gar nicht in der ganzen Breite bewusst. Aus diesem Grund haben wir in …
Die GRASS GIS-Community würdigt die langjährigen Beiträge von Roger Bivand zur Entwicklung des rgrass-Pakets.
The post Großer Dank an Roger Bivand! appeared first on Markus Neteler Consulting.
We are thrilled to announce the development of the BNG Co-Pilot, an innovative platform for Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) assessment supported by the Taylor Geospatial Institute (TGI) and Amazon Web Service (AWS). This groundbreaking initiative applies Generative AI and advanced geospatial analytics to address the complexities of ensuring that land development projects in the UK […]
The post Introducing BNG Co-Pilot appeared first on Sparkgeo.
The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 3.5.2.
This version requires PostgreSQL 12 - 17, GEOS 3.8 or higher, and Proj 6.1+.
To take advantage of all features, GEOS 3.12+ is needed.
SFCGAL 1.4+ is needed to enable postgis_sfcgal support.
To take advantage of all SFCGAL features, SFCGAL 1.5+ is needed.
3.5.2
source download md5
NEWS
PDF docs: en ja, fr, zh_Hans
HTML Online en ja fr zh_Hans
Cheat Sheets:
postgis: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_raster: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_topology: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_sfcgal: en ja fr zh_Hans
address standardizer, postgis_tiger_geocoder: en ja fr zh_Hans
This release is a bug fix release that includes bug fixes since PostGIS 3.5.1.
In this experiment I used AI to automate architecture documentation by
testing Aider (an AI coding assistant). After just 5 minutes and 5 prompts,
I generated a decent C4 diagram for a Streamlit web application. While not
perfect, this experiment shows the promising future of AI-assisted
documentation.
Whether you're a student charting your career path or a professional looking to pivot into a new industry, there are numerous ways to gain the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in Geospatial.
"Playground" by Richard Powers explores the interplay of
technological ambition and environmental concerns, highlighting
tensions between progress and preservation through diverse characters
on a remote island.
Die BIM-Methodik und der damit verbundene BIM- und Daten-Lebenszyklus werden meist anhand des Ideals “Projekt auf der grünen Wiese” (z.B. Neubau einer Immobilie) dargestellt. Je länger die BIM-Methodik jedoch in (Pilot-)Projekten praktiziert wird, desto deutlicher wird, dass dieses theoretische Ideal des einfachen Lebenszyklus-Pfeils mit interagierenden Akteuren, den Anforderungen der Praxis und insbesondere des Infrastrukturbaus nicht …
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings
• By underdark
•
In this new release, you will find new algorithms, default output styles, and other usability improvements, in particular for working with public transport schedules in GTFS format, including: Note: To use this new version of Trajectools, please upgrade your installation of MovingPandas to >= 0.21.2, e.g. using import pip; pip.main(['install', '--upgrade', 'movingpandas']) or conda install …Read More
Spatial Data Science - Medium
• By Stephen Chege
•
Understanding your data’s coordinates is the first step to turning spatial information into actionable insights.Continue reading on Spatial Data Science »
In 2025, research on the web involves using ChatGPT for specific
technical queries while considering sources and environmental impact, as
Google's search has become less efficient.
Another post over break! This one also comes from a student’s suggestion on how to use Weather data in the form of gridded NetCDFs. This is a common format of the weather data provided by NOAA. The data are set up as a time-stacked set of rasters or spacetime cubes. The downloads have multiple years’ […]
This article describes "star-collector," a tool for automatically
publishing web favorites using GitHub Actions and AI-generated titles,
leveraging transformers for title creation from Mastodon posts.
I did a lot of reading last year, a lot, perhaps because I had a lot of down time. I tend to read before going to sleep, and recovery from surgery and other things means I go to bed early and then fill the time between bed and sleep with books. Books, books, and more books.
To be totally precise, I read books on a Kindle, which allows me to read in the middle of the night in the dark with the back light. Also to read from any position, since all books are the same, light weight when consumed via an e-reader. I am a full e-reader convert.
Anyway, I’ve had means, motive and opportunity, and I read a tonne. Some of it was bad, some of it was good, some of it was memorable, some not. Of the 50 or so books I read last year, here are ten that made me go “yes, that was good and memorable”.
Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver
I used to read Booker Prize winners, but I found the match to my taste was hit-and-miss. The Pullitzer Prize nominees list, on the other hand, has given me piles...
Managing geospatial data effectively is an important challenge for organizations that use location information for decision-making. Portfolio management for geospatial data involves organizing, evaluating, and prioritizing datasets to maximize their value while minimizing redundancy, inefficiency, and cost. However, such data carries a unique set of challenges that require deliberate strategies to address. Metadata management plays […]
Welcome to GeoAI Unpacked! I am Ali Ahmadalipour and in this newsletter, I share insights and deep dives in geospatial AI, focusing on business opportunities and industry challenges.
With many students graduating, I have had questions about how long will my ArcGIS Online account live and how can I move my work to another so I can keep a portfolio. Most schools only keep accounts open for a semester or two after graduation, and others right after graduation. So your best bet is […]
Introducing Topoprint.ch, a platform for creating personalized,
3D-printable topographic models of any location in Switzerland, accessible
through social media bots. This post explains the "what," the "why,"
and a bit of the "how.".
Geospatial | Towards Data Science
• By Tony Albanese
•
Making the bears play nice
The post Harnessing Polars and Geopandas to Generate Millions of Transects in Seconds appeared first on Towards Data Science.
Nearly five years ago, I completed a project that, to my mind, remains the most significant of my cartographic career: An Atlas of Great Lakes Islands, manually printed in cyanotype, with a hand-stitched binding. I wanted to share this project with all of you, but there were only a few copies. So, I decided to … Continue reading Journey’s End →
Many organizations rely on geospatial technology to derive insights based on location and spatial relationship. Whether they are mapping infrastructure, analyzing environmental changes, or optimizing logistics, managing geospatial investments effectively is imperative. Two strategies, IT portfolio management and IT rationalization, can help organizations maximize the value of their geospatial assets while reducing inefficiencies. Leveraging the […]
The GRASS GIS community recognises the long-term contributions of Roger Bivand for the development of the rgrass package.
The post A big thank you to Roger Bivand! appeared first on Markus Neteler Consulting.
The PostGIS development team is pleased to provide
bug fix releases for
3.5.1,
3.4.4,
3.3.8,
3.2.8,
3.1.12
Please refer to the links above for more information about the issues resolved by these releases.
At Cercana, we have worked with geospatial systems that have run the gamut—from all-in proprietary stacks to pure open-source toolchains. As the technology landscape evolves, many organizations are blending both proprietary and open-source solutions. These hybrid architectures aim to capitalize on the best of each world, providing flexibility in how users store data, serve maps, […]
As you create your 2025 budgets, we invite you to join us as a sponsor at CNG Conference 2025 in Snowbird, Utah from April 30 to May 2, 2025. Sponsorship amplifies your organization’s visibility and aligns you with the innovators and leaders driving the future of geospatial data.
CNG Conference 2025 is designed to foster collaboration, innovation, and growth within the geospatial community, with sessions organized around four main tracks: On-ramp to Cloud-Native Geospatial Data, The Bridge Between Science and Technology, Technically Advancing Cloud-Native Geospatial, and Enabling Interoperability. These tracks will guide attendees in exploring foundational skills, interdisciplinary collaboration, technical advancements, and best practices, ensuring a comprehensive experience for professionals across the geospatial field. Through keynotes, workshops, and networking opportunities, the conference aims to advance knowledge sharing, career development, and community...
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings
• By underdark
•
Today, I want to point out a blog post over at https://carto.com/blog/urban-mobility-insights-with-movingpandas-carto-in-snowflake written together with my fellow co-authors and EMERALDS project team member Argyrios Kyrgiazos. For the technically inclined, the highlight are the presented UDFs in Snowflake to process and transform the trajectory data. For example, here’s a TemporalSplitter UDF: You can find the full code …Read More
Geospatial | Towards Data Science
• By Lee Vaughan
•
A quick guide to prepping digital elevation data
The post USGS DEM Files: How to Load, Merge, and Crop with Python appeared first on Towards Data Science.
Last time we learned why English is a hard language, both for humans and especially for computers. For this time I think we will look at the past of NLP to understand the present. It actually has been an interesting … Continue reading →
As the holiday season wraps us in its warm embrace, we at T-Kartor can't help but reflect on a year filled with challenges, triumphs, and moments that made our hearts grow.
This past week we attended the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting in Washington DC. At the AGU we presented two abstracts. The first follows on our work with respect to using synthetic populations within agent-based models. This work was with Na Jiang, Fuzhen Yin and Boyu Wang and entitled "A Framework for Populating Urban Digital Twins with Agents." Or more specially why digital twins need agents. Below you can see our abstract and a couple of figures showing our synthetic population workflow and how we integrate these into agent-based models. Abstract:Over the last few years, considerable efforts have been placed in creating digital twins from diverse fields ranging from engineering to urban planning and many things in-between. These digital twins have benefited from the growth and availability of computational power and data. For example, in urban planning the growth of computational resources and the explosion of spatial data sources(e.g. remote sensing) has lead to...
Kyle Barron, Cloud Engineer at Development Seed.
You’ve spent years figuring out how to visualize large geospatial datasets in web browsers. Can you tell us a bit about your background and what initially drew you to this area?
I have a bit of a nontraditional background; I have virtually no official training in geography or computer science. In college, I was interested in urban and environmental economics, trying to understand how policies shape cities and the environment. I planned to pursue a PhD in economics and after college worked for a health economics professor at MIT for two years.
In that time I learned data analysis skills, but more importantly, I learned that I preferred data analysis and coding to academic research. I decided not to pursue a PhD and left that job to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, a 2,650-mile hiking trail from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington. Over five months...
The AGU Fall Meeting 2024, the largest gathering for Earth and space science, starts this morning, Monday December 9-13 in Washington, DC. This year, there are many papers on cloud-native geospatial technologies by CNG members and other experts. This blog post highlights some key talks and posters you won’t want to miss.
Monday Dec 9
Dynamic Tiling for Earth Data Visualization: This talk explores dynamic tiling, a method for generating map tiles on-the-fly, allowing for real-time modifications and eliminating the need for constant updates. Presented by Aimee Barciauskas from Development Seed. Learn more.
Wednesday Dec 11
VirtualiZarr - Create Virtual Zarr Stores Using Xarray Syntax: This paper presents VirtualiZarr, a tool that allows accessing old file formats (like netCDF) as if they were stored in cloud-optimized formats (like Zarr). The authors will demonstrate using the Worthy Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement Efficiency Map dataset, which consists of ~40TB of data...
Spatial finance is emerging as a significant component of the geospatial landscape. As I have suggested before, this change has been happening incrementally for the last decade. That change has reached a tipping point.
As industries increasingly rely on geographic information systems (GIS) to unlock actionable insights, the demand for skilled GIS professionals has reached unprecedented heights. Hiring managers and HR professionals often face a unique challenge in sourcing and retaining top GIS talent. While our comprehensive guide on hiring GIS professionals outlines the broader hiring process, this article […]
Tell Us About YourselfMy name is Antonia Blankenberg. Alongside being a drummer with the fantastic TBL8 Brass, I’m a Lead Consultant in Utilities with Esri Ireland and I’ve been working in GIS for 5 years now. I’ve always been interested in geography, but I only first came across GIS during my undergraduate degree. I took […]
The post Maps and Mappers 2024 – October – Antonia Blankenburg appeared first on GeoHipster.
We're excited to share the latest Iris updates, designed to deliver even more robust capabilities and a streamlined experience for our customers and partners.
Jira is a powerful tool for managing Geospatial Programs, especially when integrated with Confluence and Bitbucket. This combination enhances task organization, documentation, and collaboration. Features such as task linking, smart commits, and expansive writing capabilities streamline complex project management, making these tools essential for optimizing workflows and improving efficiency.
Crunchy Data hosted an online event for PostGIS on November 21st, 2024. Paul has a wrap up post discussing the highlights and themes throughout the day.
I just shared this approach with some friends, and thought I’d blog it here too. When I get a relatively small amount of monetary compensation for something, I take the ‘Feynman Approach’ to it and buy something fun with the money, giving me a sense of satisfaction from the compensation (which, presumably, was to compensate […]
Decision-Making Information Resources & Solutions
• By proximityone
•
.. small area data refer to geographic, demographic and economic data tabulated for census blocks, block groups and census tracts — all subdivisions of counties. While these data might be produced by anyone, perhaps the most useful data in examining … Continue reading →
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings
• By underdark
•
tldr; Tired of working with large CSV files? Give GeoParquet a try! “Parquet is a powerful column-oriented data format, built from the ground up to as a modern alternative to CSV files.” https://geoparquet.org/ (Geo)Parquet is both smaller and faster than CSV. Additionally, (Geo)Parquet columns are typed. Text, numeric values, dates, geometries retain their data types. …Read More
I know lately I’ve been in commercial mode, pointing you toward various projects of mine that you can support by giving me money. And I promise I’ll get back to less commercial musings as time goes on. But for now, I also want to alert you to a way you can give other people money, … Continue reading The Dream Lives →
Decision-Making Information Resources & Solutions
• By proximityone
•
.. using iVDA and Visual Data Analytics .. a Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer -based tool that allows users to store, analyze, visualize, and interpret geographic data. Geographic data, also known as spatial or geospatial data, identifies the … Continue reading →
We invite you to join us at CNG Conference 2025 in Snowbird, Utah from April 30 to May 2 2025.
Set against the beautiful backdrop of Snowbird, Utah, this inaugural event will convene the cloud-native geospatial community to learn from one another and collaborate to make geospatial data easier to access and use.
The event will include keynote speeches, panel discussions, hands-on workshops, networking opportunities, and showcases of open-source projects, all designed to enhance attendees’ skills and knowledge. Participants will explore the newest developments in cloud-native geospatial technology, data accessibility, and practical applications.
Save the date: April 30 - May 2, 2025
Where? Snowbird, Utah – about 40 minutes from Salt Lake City International Airport.
Sponsorships: We are developing sponsorship packages. If you are interested, email us at [email protected]
Interested in presenting? We will soon publish a call for proposals for presentations and...
Today, with the combined efforts of T-Kartor team members Dela Awadzi and Mercedes Fernandez, along with the support of T-Kartor, Theorose School is poised to reach new heights in digital learning.
Geospatial | Towards Data Science
• By Mahyar Aboutalebi, Ph.D. 🎓
•
Step-by-Step Tutorial on Applying Segment Anything Model Version 2 to Satellite Imagery for Detecting and Exporting Field Boundaries in...
The post Field Boundary Detection in Satellite Imagery Using the SAM2 Model appeared first on Towards Data Science.
For the past several years, I’ve enjoyed the process of cyanotype printing, and have released a number of projects based on this technique (including my favorite item I’ve ever made). Now, I’ve decided to take my recent work in developing terrain sketches, and turn it into a new series of prints. For this, though, I … Continue reading Kickstarter 3: The Return →
From emergency response to crime prevention and disaster management, GIS provides actionable insights, helping public safety agencies make informed decisions.
AI and ML aren't simple add-ons. They're powerful tools that call for responsive, adaptable workflows to thrive. It's a commitment to efficiency, to cost savings, and ultimately, to future-proofing our processes.
This week on Wednesday, November 13, the CNG Virtual Conference 2024 will gather data user practitioners, enthusiasts, and newcomers to explore the latest in cloud-native geospatial technology. Come hear keynotes from NASA, Carto, the University of Tennessee, and speakers from many other organizations sharing updates and insights on cloud-native geo. This online event is an inclusive space for anyone curious about cloud-native geospatial, whether you’re an industry expert, an innovator, or just starting to explore cloud-native concepts. We invite you to join us to learn, connect, and engage with a field that’s rapidly changing how we work with geospatial data.
Why You Should Attend
Engage with the Future of Geospatial
Cloud-native geospatial represents a transformative approach to handling data. At this conference, you’ll get an inside view into how cloud-native technology makes geospatial data faster, more flexible, and more scalable. And then discover how this...
In numerous posts, we have been discussing synthetic populations and their use in agent-based modeling. But there are many modeling styles that also utilize synthetic populations. In our own work we often spend significant amounts of time creating such synthetic populations, especially those grounded with data, due to the time needed to collect, preprocess and generate the final synthetic population. To alleviate this, we (Na (Richard) Jiang, Fuzhen Yin, Boyu Wang and myself) have a new paper published in Scientific Data, entitled "A Large-Scale Geographically Explicit Synthetic Population with Social Networks for the United States." Our aim of this paper is to build and provide a geographically explicit synthetic population along with its social networks using open data including that from the latest 2020 U.S. Census which can be used in a variety of geo-simulation models.Summary of the Resulting Datasets.Specially, in the paper we outline how we created the a synthetic population...
One of the major outputs of Taylor Geospatial Engine’s first Innovation Bridge is the recently released Fields of The World dataset, also known as FTW. We wanted to take some time for a deep dive into the core idea, the various parts of the effort, and where things could go from here.
The post Introducing Fields of The World appeared first on Taylor Geospatial Engine.
Geospatial | Towards Data Science
• By Milan Janosov
•
How to turn vector elevation lines into a grid - and build it from Lego
The post Rasterizing Vector Data in Python appeared first on Towards Data Science.
Summary: I’m involved in organising a hackathon, and I’d love you to take part. The open-source GeoTAM hackathon focuses on estimating turnover for individual business locations in the UK, from a variety of open datasets. Please checkout the hackathon page and sign up. There are prizes of up to £2,000! (Click image for a larger […]
These systems are not just about understanding our present but about anticipating our future—guiding us safely and sustainably through the challenges ahead.
While in the past we have written about how we can use agent-based models to capture basic patterns of life, and even developed a simulations, but until now we have never really demonstrated how we go about this. However, at the SIGSPATIAL 2024 conference we (Hossein Amiri, Will Kohn, Shiyang Ruan, Joon-Seok Kim, Hamdi Kavak, Dieter Pfoser, Carola Wenk, Andreas Zufle and myslf) have a demonstration paper entitled "The Pattern of Life Human Mobility Simulation." in which we show: How to run the Patterns of Life Simulation with the graphical user interface (GUI) to visually explore the mobility patterns of a region.How to run the Patterns of Life Simulation headless (without GUI) for large-scale data generation.How to adapt the simulation to any region in the world using OpenStreetMap data,Showcase how recent scalability improvements allow us to simulate hundreds of thousands of agents.If this sounds of interest, below we show the GUI to the model, along with the steps to generate a...
Friends, earlier this week I mentioned that I’d completed a whole bunch of terrain sketches using some novel techniques that allowed me to create a hachure drawing style from digital elevation data. If you’d like to see the whole set, I’ve now assembled them into a quick eBook for your perusing. Click the image below … Continue reading A Free eBook of Terrain Lines →
In the past we have written about the use of synthetic populations and their use in agent-based models. We are finding such synthetic populations to be extremely useful in the creation or initialization of agent-based models. To give you a sense of how we are utilizing such synthetic populations at the 7th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Geospatial Simulation (GeoSim 2024), Na (Richard) Jiang and myself have a new paper entitled "Studying Contagious Disease Spread Utilizing Synthetic Populations Inspired by COVID-19: An Agent-based Modeling Framework." In the paper we show how we can we utilize a method to create the geographically-explicit synthetic population along with capturing their social networks and how this can be used to study contagious disease spread (and various lineages of the disease) in Western New York. If this sounds of interest, below you can read the abstract from the paper, see some of the results and find the full reference and the link to the paper....
I thought I would switch topics and start to talk about things like Large Language Models and how they could be applied to things like Geographic Information System (GIS) data. To do this, I think first it would be good … Continue reading →
Just a quick post, In recently released Encyclopedia of Human Geography edited by Barney Warf we were asked to write a short chapter entitled "Agent-based Models and Geography" In the chapter we discuss how over the last several decades, agent-based modeling has gained widespread adoption in geography.and introduce the reader to what are agent-based models, how they have developed and types of geographical applications that can be explored with them, especially when linked to Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The chapter concludes with a brief summary along with a discussion of challenges and opportunities with agent-based modeling (ABM). If this sounds of interest, below you can find the full reference and link to the chapter. Example application domains for agent-based models over various spatial and temporal scales. For more examples and further details can be found at https://www.gisagents.org/Full Referece:Crooks, A.T. and Jiang, N. (2024), Agent-based Models and...
In the past we have explored how agent-based modeling can be used to study vaccine uptake and what is the mechanism underlying the diffusion of different vaccine opinions in hybrid spaces (e.g., physical, relational and cyber) can affect individuals’ vaccination decisions. But this prior work was limited to just one small area. However, we know that urban and rural communities have different levels of digital connectivity and we were wondering if our initial findings are applicable to other counties which are more urban or to a larger study area. To explore this, at the 7th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Geospatial Simulation (GeoSim 2024) we (Fuzhen Yin, Na Jiang, Lucie Laurian and myself) have a paper entitled "Agent-based Modeling of COVID-19 Vaccine uptake in New York State: Information Diffusion in Hybrid Spaces". This paper significantly extends our previous work in a number of ways. First we move from a single rural county to the entire state of New York which has...
Die Mailingliste grass-dev (GRASS GIS Development) wurde von Mailman auf die Discourse-Plattform von OSGeo umgestellt.
The post Umzug der Mailingliste grass-dev zu OSGeo Discourse appeared first on Markus Neteler Consulting.
How to contribute to GRASS GIS development: Guidance for new developers in the GRASS GIS Project.
The post How to contribute to GRASS GIS development appeared first on Markus Neteler Consulting.
The effects of educational attainment on individuals and society have been the subject of much research. However, there is still a need to study what factors matter the most, and what is worth investing more time and resources into, and how new methods of analysis can provide additional ways of looking into some of the challenges faced by higher education. To this end at the 2024 International Conference of the Computational Social Science Society of the Americas (CSSSA), Amira Al-Khulaidy Stine and myself had a paper entitled "Retention in Higher Education: An Agent-Based Model of Social Interactions and Motivated Agent Behavior." In the paper we introduce an agent-based model which explores retention where we focus on students and their levels of motivation (i.e., "grit"), their immediate connections (i.e., sense of belonging) and institutional support. At the same time we capture institutional locales (i.e., urban and rural) and their selectivity. Taken all together the model...
As part of our showcase of the seed grant awardees for the Field Boundaries for Agriculture initiative, Taylor Geospatial Engine is pleased to highlight Jed Sundwall and Radiant Earth.
The post Innovation Bridge Community Spotlight: Jed Sundwall and Radiant Earth appeared first on Taylor Geospatial Engine.
Building upon last year’s successful sessions related to geosimulation, were various topics and issues from across the urban, social and environmental fields and the resulting application areas. More excitingly, we are witnessing the emergence of the integration of cutting-edge techniques (e.g., machine learning and generative AI) which is energizing the geosimulation community as they offer new approaches for advancing geosimulations. This year, the 2025 AAG Annual Meeting will take place in Detroit, Michigan from March 24 to March 28. We are continuing to organize sessions on "Geosimulations for Addressing Societal Challenges," and we encourage you to submit abstracts if this area aligns with your research interests.Session Description:There is an urgent need for research that promotes sustainability in an era of societal challenges ranging from climate change, population growth, aging and wellbeing to that of pandemics. These need to be directly fed into policy. We, as a...
Welcome to GeoAI Unpacked! I am Ali Ahmadalipour and in this newsletter, I’ll be sharing insights and deep dives in geospatial AI, focusing on business opportunities and industry challenges.
T-Kartor and DEMINE Foundation need your support—whether it's through sharing our story, donating resources, or simply spreading awareness and keeping Ukraine on the agenda.
We are excited to announce the founding CNG Editorial Board, a group of leaders in our community who have graciously volunteered to guide our work. The experience and good judgment of our board helps us identify new technologies on the horizon and what fads can we safely ignore as we create our events and content.
The editorial board is also designed to provide opportunities for visibility and leadership to our community members. Half of the CNG editorial board will be replaced every 12 months with new members selected by the existing editorial board. This will allow us to gain expertise from more people throughout our community and support emerging leaders.
We are immensely grateful to our board for their support as we build CNG together.
Ryan Abernathy
CEO
Earthmover
Dana Bauer
Geographer-at-large
Freelance
Tyler Erickson
Founder
VorGeo
...
Geospatial | Towards Data Science
• By Aleksei Rozanov
•
How to get clients, reviews and stable income
The post My Freelance Experience as a Geo Data Scientist on UpWork after 10 Months appeared first on Towards Data Science.
In today’s fast-paced, data-driven world, industries rely more than ever on geographic information systems (GIS) and geospatial technologies to streamline operations, make informed decisions, and foster growth. As an HR professional tasked with identifying top talent in this specialized field, understanding the value of GIS professionals and how they contribute to various sectors is paramount. […]
I thought I’d finally wrap this up so I can move on to other things. Since I’ve last posted, I replaced my Jankinator 1000 (nVidia Tesla P40 with a water cooler) and my nVidia RTX 2060 with an Intel Arc … Continue reading →
A quick post today to talk about a couple of PostGIS functions I learnt recently. I had a CSV file that contained well-known binary (WKB) representations of geometries, stored as hexadecimal strings. I imported the CSV into a PostGIS database, and wanted to convert these to be proper PostGIS geometries. I initially went for the […]
For a long time now I’ve maintained a version of the Public Domain Census Tiger Data converted from county-level to state-level. Over the years I’ve actually had a lot of those shape files downloaded so I’m glad they were useful … Continue reading →
Decision-Making Information Resources & Solutions
• By proximityone
•
The Four Corners, FL Urban Area experienced the highest percent population change (31.7% or 92,396 to 121,694), from 2020 to 2023, among the 431 Urban Areas having 2023 population of 65,000 or more. Urban Areas are a statistical geography defined … Continue reading →
At TGE, our guiding principle is to contribute purposefully by elevating research-grade innovation into user-friendly and accessible capabilities that have broad awareness and reach. Because we are a very small team, this means that we are heads down most of the time.
It’s important this week to take a minute to pop up and do a little celebrating! Two very different efforts, that are both critically important to us, have reached milestones.
The post Celebrating Our Community’s Success appeared first on Taylor Geospatial Engine.
Last year I ran into the always-incisive Will Cadell and we immediately started discussing a favorite hallway-track topic: how to effectively sell Geo. ME: “If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t even bother with the web but just sell PDF maps to the Oil & Gas industry with big red arrows that […]
Geospatial | Towards Data Science
• By Ruth Crasto
•
Understanding modern techniques for encoding geographic coordinates in a neural network
The post Geographic Position Encoders appeared first on Towards Data Science.
It’s been a while since I posted here – I kind of lost momentum over the summer (which is a busy time with a school-aged child) and never really picked it up again. Anyway, I wanted to write a quick post to tell people that I won two awards at the British Cartographic Society awards […]
Welcome to GeoAI Unpacked! I am Ali Ahmadalipour and in this newsletter, I’ll be sharing insights and deep dives in geospatial AI, focusing on business opportunities and industry challenges.
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I was glancing at the New York Times and saw that Catherine, the Princess of Wales, had released an update on her treatment. And I thought, “wow, I hope she’s doing well”. And then I thought, “wow, I bet she gets a lot of positive affirmation and support from all kinds of people”.
I mean, she’s a princess.
Even us non-princesses, we need support too, and I have to say that I have been blown away by how kind the people around me in my life have been. And also how kind the other folks who I have never really talked with before have been.
I try to thank my wife as often as I can. It is hard not to feel like a burden when I am, objectively, a burden, no matter how much she avers I am not. I am still not fully well (for reasons), and I really want to be the person she married, a helpful full partner. It is frustrating to still be taking more than I’m giving.
From writing about my experience here, I have heard from other cancer survivors, and other folks who have...
Lineage distribution of SARS-CoV-2 across geographic regions of Ontario, Canada, Western New York, and New York City over timeIn the past we have posted on using agent-based models for explore the spread of diseases. We have been keeping up with this work especially in light of COVID-19. To this end we are excited to introduce our new paper entitled "Genomic Profiling and Spatial SEIR Modeling of COVID-19 Transmission in Western New York" published in Frontiers in Microbiology" In this paper have been collaborating with other researchers at the University at Buffalo who focus on the genomic sequencing of various lineages distribution of SARS-CoV-2. What is special about this new paper is that we explore how such linages change over space and time and how this relates to movement patterns. If this sounds of interest, below you can read the abstract of the paper, see some the lineages in different regions which change over space and time, and our agent-based model which explores how...
The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 3.5.0!
Best Served with PostgreSQL 17 RC1
and GEOS 3.13.0.
This version requires PostgreSQL 12 - 17, GEOS 3.8 or higher, and Proj 6.1+.
To take advantage of all features, GEOS 3.12+ is needed.
SFCGAL 1.4+ is needed to enable postgis_sfcgal support.
To take advantage of all SFCGAL features, SFCGAL 1.5 is needed.
3.5.0
source download md5
NEWS
PDF docs: en ja, fr, zh_Hans
HTML Online en ja fr zh_Hans
Cheat Sheets:
postgis: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_raster: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_topology: en ja fr zh_Hans
postgis_sfcgal: en ja fr zh_Hans
address standardizer, postgis_tiger_geocoder: en ja fr zh_Hans
This release is a feature release that includes bug fixes since PostGIS 3.4.3, new features, and a few breaking changes.
The US government should build searchable indices (e.g. STAC) for their geospatial data, and it should devote resources (aka money) to helping open commercial satellite companies' archives.
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What happened there, I didn’t write for three months! Two words: “complications”, and “recovery”.
In a terrifying medical specialty like cancer treatment, one of the painful ironies is that patients spend a lot of time suffering from complications and side effects of the treatments, rather than the cancer. In my case and many others, the existence of the cancer isn’t even noticable without fancy diagnostic machines. The treatments on the other hand… those are very noticable!
A lot of this comes with the territory of major surgery and dangerous chemicals. My surgery included specific possible complications including, but not limited to: incontinence, sexual disfunction, urinary disfunction, and sepsis.
Fortunately, I avoided all the complications specific to my surgery.
What I did not avoid was a surprisingly common complication of spending some time in a hospital while taking broad spectrum antibiotics–I contracted the “superbug” clostridioides difficile, aka...
Last week I had the honor to give a keynote talk entitled "Exploring the World from the Bottom Up with GIS and Agent-based Models: Past, Present and Future" at the 19th annual Social Simulation Conference which is the European Social Simulation Association (ESSA) annual conference. Attending the conference was a great experience being exposed to various applications of social simulation, catching up with old friends and meeting many new people. For anyone interested below I have pasted the abstract from my talk and the slides from the talk can be found here. Abstract We have seen explosion in the availability of data along with utilizing such data in agent-based models. At the same time, we have seen a huge growth in computational power and the associating agent-based models to real world locations through the use of geographical information systems (GIS). This talk will explore how geographically explicit agent-based models have grown and evolved over the last 20 years taking...
Decision-Making Information Resources & Solutions
• By proximityone
•
.. the new 119th Congress Congressional Districts are those that will be used in the 2024 elections .. each state has one or more congressional districts whose boundaries are based on redistricting and the decennial census. Each of the U.S. … Continue reading →
As part of our showcase of the seed grant awardees for the Field Boundaries for Agriculture initiative, Taylor Geospatial Engine is pleased to highlight Dr Nathan Jabobs. Dr Jacobs is Director of the Multimodal Vision Research Laboratory (MVRL) and a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. His research centers on developing learning-based algorithms and systems for extracting information from large-scale image collections.
The post Innovation Bridge Community Spotlight: Dr. Nathan Jacobs appeared first on Taylor Geospatial Engine.
We’re excited to announce the Cloud-Native Geospatial Forum (CNG) membership program. We have changed our name, but not our commitment to making geospatial data easier to access and use.
As geospatial data becomes more important, so does the need for a vendor-agnostic, trusted platform to help people understand the true benefits and limitations of geospatial technology. CNG is stepping up to meet this need, providing a neutral forum where geospatial data users can come together and exchange ideas, share experiences, and learn from one another. Our membership program is designed to unite and empower a diverse community of geospatial professionals from across industries and specialties.
In the last few years, we’ve witnessed how the cloud ecosystem, fueled by open standards, has changed how we work with geospatial data online. Cloud-native technologies have created capabilities that have been rapidly adopted across the commercial and public sectors. Despite this, many...
In May last year, we announced the “Cloud-Native Geospatial Foundation” as an initiative to “help people adopt patterns and best practices for efficiently sharing Earth science data on the Internet using a cloud-native approach.”
Since then, we’ve done quite a bit.
We’ve published 29 blog posts and quickly attracted over 1,000 followers on X. We created a new Slack workspace which has over 400 members and 200 monthly active users. Combined with some of Radiant Earth’s previously created online channels, we now have a social media following of over 6,000 across X, LinkedIn, and Medium, and our quarterly newsletter has over 8,000 subscribers.
We have hosted in-person sprints for Zarr, STAC, and GeoParquet. We’ve been a part of the first SatCamp, the ESIP 2023 Summer and Winter Meeting Cloud Computing sessions, and convened a two-day workshop in Rwanda focused on improving access to air quality data throughout Africa. We’ve hosted a series of webinars to introduce...
The PostGIS Team is pleased to release PostGIS 3.5.0beta1!
Best Served with PostgreSQL 17 RC1
and GEOS 3.13.0.
This version requires PostgreSQL 12 - 17, GEOS 3.8 or higher, and Proj 6.1+.
To take advantage of all features, GEOS 3.12+ is needed.
SFCGAL 1.4+ is needed to enable postgis_sfcgal support.
To take advantage of all SFCGAL features, SFCGAL 1.5 is needed.
3.5.0beta1
source download md5
NEWS
PDF docs: en ja, zh_Hans, fr
This release is a beta of a major release, it includes bug fixes since PostGIS 3.4.3 and new features.