Surveying, Mapping and GIS: stewardship

Showing posts with label stewardship. Show all posts

EPA GIS Workgroup

Posted by Dave Smith On 5/12/2008 09:37:00 AM 0 comments

While everyone else is off to Where, et cetera - I'm going off to the EPA GIS Workgroup meeting in New York City...

Always great to see what's going on in terms of GIS and remote sensing for visualization, modeling and analysis in the realm of environmental protection - usually most EPA regions and program offices are represented, along with other organizations and agencies... Lots of geo friends in attendance.

Looking forward to it.

Sustainable Transportation

Posted by Dave Smith On 1/14/2008 07:24:00 PM 0 comments

Seems cars and transportation have been a hot topic this week... Some big items in the news were the Tata Motors Nano car, targeted to make family transportation affordable in India at $2,500, and the AFS Trinity, a hybrid SUV capable of 150 miles per gallon.

The first of these, the Tata Nano, notable as it was cited as bridging the affordability gap between a motorcycle and an automobile. For families, passenger capability on a motorcycle is an issue... However, while a boon, this is bound to increase petro demand, emissions impact, and come bundled with a host of other environmental tradeoffs in India and other parts of the world with similar economies. It would be interesting to see development of affordable, yet safe and efficient mass transit to go concurrent with this, however tradeoffs between urban and regional transportation demand create other wrinkles. Hopefully the developing world does not fall into the trap of pedestrian-unfriendly, mass-transit-unfriendly, highway-oriented development models, as the United States has.

The second of these, the AFS Trinity is announced as an "extreme hybrid" - it essentially gets much of its power via overnight charging, while also having gasoline-powered hybrid capability. It tremendously reduces dependency on gasoline, and also allows alternative electric sources to be utilized via the grid - whether solar, wind, hydro or more conventional power sources. The size (similar to a smaller SUV), range (400 miles), acceleration (0-60 in 6.9 secs in full hybrid mode), top speed (87 MPH) and low operating cost ($15.49 for combined electric and gasoline cost for 340 miles a week, vs. $47.60 for comparable vehicles in gasoline cost) make it quite respectable on the road. The company also suggested they are planning to target a 250MPG sedan in the future.

Finally, some interesting approaches toward sustainability and transportation have been featured on the Science Channel's Invention Nation series. Here, the show's three young hosts travel cross-country in a bus, which they initially powered with processed biodiesel, then converted it over to a dual-fuel system which also accomodates scavenged vegetable oil from restaurants via a heated tank and fuel line, along with a filtration bank to capture impurities. They also installed a solar panel and a garden on the roof of the bus. In the show, the team visit various inventors, including an individual making house-scale wind generators, a guy building human-powered cars, as well as company making bicycle frames from bamboo and hemp fiber as an alternative to high-tech carbon fiber. Truly, a great series showing innovative approaches toward conservation, stewardship and sustainability.

Treasured Maps of New York City

Posted by Dave Smith On 1/14/2008 12:41:00 PM 0 comments

The New York Post has an article today, titled "Treasured Maps" - highlighting the work of Scott Stringer, who is charged with preserving historic maps of New York City - among them, the Randel Farm map, which laid out the grid of Manhattan Island from Houston to 155th St.

These historic maps show many features of streams, wetlands, lakes and other things which have since been reshaped through development - a timeline of the good, bad, and the ugly contained in a map repository going back to 1748.

The world needs more Scott Stringers - he is steward for New York County's maps - I unfortunately hear periodically of plenty of other instances where maps lie crumbling, for lack of proper preservation.

Earth Day 2007

Posted by Dave Smith On 4/21/2007 06:00:00 PM 0 comments

Tomorrow, Sunday 22nd, 2007 marks the annual celebration of Earth Day.

I regard this as an excellent opportunity to give homage and thanks to our planet for all that it has provided us, particularly this rich life that we enjoy.

Regardless of any controversy over Climate Change, certain truths are self-evident. We should, we must be good stewards of our planet. We must accept responsibility for our impact on this planet. We must live our lives in a sustainable fashion. No political argument, no economic argument will ever remove the moral and ethical responsibility to minimize and mitigate our adverse impacts on our environment.

Toward these aims, we must promote good science and technology - we must continue to pursue cleaner, more efficient technologies. We must continue to pursue clean, sustainable energy sources. We must continue to find ways to conserve resources. We must find a proper balance in our existence, to reduce suburban sprawl development, reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled, to preserve forests and farmland, to restore watersheds, and improve air quality.

Will we leave this planet as we found it, in worse, or better condition?

We owe it to this planet, which gave us life and which has sustained us, to in return preserve her life and sustain her.

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )

Surveying, Mapping and GIS

Exploring all aspects of mapping and geography, from field data collection, to mapping and analysis, to integration, applications development and enterprise architecture...

Geospatial Technology, End to End...

EPA GIS Workgroup

Sustainable Transportation

Treasured Maps of New York City

Earth Day 2007

Search

About Me

Blog Archive

Labels

Followers