California Friday: Amador County Wineries

I thought I would start a fun blog series called California Friday which focuses on underrated or unusual places to visit in California.  Sure, it’s not GIS related, but might make for interesting weekend trips or places to stop at while staring at your GPS as it recalculates your route!  We will see how this goes for a few months.  Let me know how you like it, or if you visited the place add a comment to tell us some insider stuff to do.

Our first stop is little Amador County, just southeast of Sacramento.  Here you can step back in time and visit wine country as it was with tiny, family owned wineries tasting vinos you would not find elsewhere.  Continue reading

The USGS Artistic Enterprise

At the close of the Second World War, the United States government embarked on an enormous artistic enterprise. It is estimated to have cost nearly $3 billion and, at its height, employed more than 2,000 people. I am talking about the topographic mapping program of the United States Geological Survey.

Read more on the New York Times Magazine website by clicking below.

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ASPRS Aerial Data Catalog

The American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) has a new tool and is provided as a free service to the communities that utilize aerial photography. The tool is called the ASPRS Aerial Data Catalog and is a means to locate aerial photography from private companies, universities, states, NGOs, and federal sources.  The catalog contains metadata allowing users to determine if coverage exists over an area of interest.  The acquisition date, film type, sensor type, and scale are also provided along with the supplier contact information. Continue reading

NextGen Brings More Aircraft Noise to SoCal

The Next-Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) will most likely bring more aircraft noise to Southern California.  Residents of Mar Vista, Culver City, Santa Monica, and Pacific Palisades already are noticing jets flying in and out at lower altitudes and more often.  This is because the NextGen system uses satellites instead of air traffic controllers for precision separation of aircraft, allowing them to fly at lower altitudes and much closer together for landings and departures.  Continue reading

New GIS Book Call For Chapters

Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite you to submit a chapter for the book “Volunteered Geographic Information and the Future of Geospatial Data”, scheduled for release in 2017.

For further information, please visit http://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/call-details/1945 .

Submission proposal deadline: May 14, 2016 (1-page proposal).

Please kindly help circulate this call among your colleagues and students who may be interested.

Dr. Claudio Campelo, UFCG, Brazil
Dr. Michela Bertolotto, UCD, Ireland
Dr. Padraig Corcoran, Cardiff University, UK

(Editors)