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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2013-10-22
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V_Mz7NDy3o
I %HESITATION this iconic image taken in nineteen seventy two forever altered our consciousness about the earth and our inter connectedness in the fourteen years since this image was taken we have collected a vast archive of data about the your and developed a number wrapping technologies I'd like to share with you some of the ways in which today's match far altering the way that we perceive our
world the way that we interact with it and also the way that we engage in challenges and opportunities tree this composite image of North America and Asia at night reveals some interesting patterns our prodigious consumption of energy is probably the most obvious one keeping in mind that the populations of India China combined or seven times that of North America you can also see some patterns of
population distribution the sparser populations that are found in the high latitudes of Canada and Central Asia and also in the western half of the United States with the exception of the west coast I can see the location of reading and also know the location of Borneo as we will visit there shortly while many of us may think of reading is being isolated we are in fact
along a north south axis that connects Vancouver Seattle Portland San Francisco Los Angeles and San Diego all major at the centers of culture our economy and technology we're connected across the Pacific of course bye airports and airlines shipping lanes and also by communication lines they were connected with in by our system of highways rail lines and telecommunication towers and so forth the ancient routes of me
walk MODOK and when two are now applied by big rigs and freight trains that are feeding the world economy the arc of civilization can be traced through maps they communicate the opportunities and the risks of place in space and they have evolved over time as human societies have become more complex this ancient Polynesian stick map show them how to locate islands in the vast Pacific it
was later superseded by maps created during the age of exploration that enabled European colonial conquest note on this map by the way the island of California today's maps are largely delivered via computers and digital devices we simply request a destination and we are zoom through a three D. landscape complete with imagery and place marks directions in a geo coded geotagged tweeted virtualized reality of the place
these capabilities have come about not simply through software or devices but instead a real revolution in the way that we can you know take social media has enabled us not only to share pictures of our families but has also enabled a revolutions in %HESITATION places like Egypt and Libya during the Arab spring uprisings and has also enabled us to %HESITATION communicate similar events here at home
such as the occupy movement we also use this information to get real time information on traffic and road conditions and also to use it for things like %HESITATION game such as ingress which allows to connect with our community and our %HESITATION plates that were living in disaster such as the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan recently revealed the value and importance of location the crowd map application
allowed for a citizen mapping of important resources that saved lives during these tragedies and it's increasingly a vital way in which we respond to these types of situations these capabilities have a rooted in geographic information systems this diagram illustrates how the input of information about place which can come in the form of maps and satellite imagery and other sorts of sources of data allows us to
produce visualisations including maps animations charts and other sorts of of graphical illustrations and of course their peripheral connections and peripheral technology developments that really demonstrate this as being the foundation of today's mapping revolution like to share with you a little bit of personal history by way of illustrating the potential of maps when I was a young boy and the little guy in that picture %HESITATION my
father's career in Asian affairs took us to live in Malaysia this is our favorite swimming hole and while I was too young to consciously remember the place there was something about it the call to me over the years it became a siren call for me to return and eventually I did in nineteen ninety four following the completion of my geography degree and in spite of fears
about my personal safety you're about tropical diseases there soon overshadowed by the beauty of Borneo and by the warmth and good nature of my die at close if you ever traveled to this place you will also do the hornbill dance but fear not you'll be given plenty of fermented borax which makes it all quite a bit easier to %HESITATION to do the Dayaks have the intricate
mental map of the forest that allows them to navigate by rivers in game trails and allows them to find food and medicine which it seems to be at every turn they also have a healthy respect for the spirits of the forest embodied here by the around the town the man of the forest which demonstrates and illustrates the astounding biodiversity of Borneo's rain forests the Dayaks were
largely isolated in many parts of Borneo until the past few decades but the twenty first century has brought about the rapid acceleration in deforestation the global gears of globalization have ground deep into the once in presidential impenetrable interior and this is illustrated in this %HESITATION slide which is showing some recent research based on satellite imagery the areas in purple being those areas that have been cleared
or %HESITATION degraded eighty percent of the island of Borneo which is the size of Texas is now %HESITATION degraded or cleared in an attempt to try to confront the economic and political forces that are threatening Dayaks survival I teamed up with the Borneo projects and we brought the community based participatory mapping program to Borneo and initially the started with sketch map and you can see in
the upper left hand corner there just laying out a big piece of paper and grabbing pans and and allowing people to draw and write the things of value I recommend you try this at home it's it's find an interesting exercise but eventually we graduated into higher tech methods like GPS Angie I ask that we produced map such as the one that you see in this slide
which have been used successfully in the courts actually created %HESITATION a backlash from the courtroom the state government of sera walked created a law outlawing maps created by people that were not surveyor switch was initiated because they didn't like the fact that these folks were starting to make maps of their lands but they have been successfully used in the courts to defend land rights and also
as a way to plan out for their %HESITATION use of their land and their future so community based maps in Borneo and also satellite image based research has created a situation that has part because the state to reassess its its are how it communicates with its most marginalized populations and is also created an opportunity to chart a new future for Borneo so closer to home here
we have native Americans that are also trying to reassert their place and their culture in places like the medicine lake highlands and in countless other sensitive sites around the north state and by doing so they're attempting to re claim place names and reclaim a opportunity for traditional land use next I'd like to share with you some of the interesting and I think cool projects that we
have going on here in the north state and I'm gonna start off with a couple of student projects and this particular project was mapping out the location of wineries vineyards and all of oil producer in the north state and this is an interactive map so you just see a sample click on this and you see the kind of information that's available so if you're driving around
northern California on a Saturday and you're wondering what kind of places you might stop for a little break you can bring this up on a mobile device and see the hours and if there is a tasting room close to where you're located this is an opportunity to connect producers with consumers and support local economic development this particular map on reading community service organizations was inspired by
shouts the college's center for community engagement and we sat down with these leaders of these community service organizations and said how could we help you guys what what would help you to do what you do better and they said you know we've got so many organizations in this town we have so much needed every time somebody comes in off the street and says you know I
mean dental care or you know whatever the case is that a rifle through these binders may look and all these different websites may need one go to place so we produce this and and I can't remember the the number of data points that that they were included just within the city but I believe it was %HESITATION %HESITATION several hundred and you can click on the point
that you can see on the left hand side there classified and it allows you to identify by type and it's a way to connect the services with of the vote most vulnerable parts of our local community here conservation of our plant and animal diversity is being pursued in a number of creative ways in this example students went out and now stream conditions along a conservation easement
held by the local shops the land trust in the interest of improving fish habitat students like this too because I got to walk around the creek trails in our area are just one of the great resources that I know many of you in this community share of interest in a value and it promotes healthy lifestyles and also a connection with nature and are growing system of
trails is another place that we have an opportunity to be able to convey more information not only to people in reading but to out of towners as well about the trail conditions %HESITATION both off road trails and also %HESITATION the bike lanes around our community and so this is an area of of personal interest in and one that I think is really one of the great
assets for a rough for our community transportation of course it is an issue of concern all over the state of California and elsewhere are here and reading we have a regional %HESITATION agencies that are working with GIS professionals to plan for how transportation will be developed in the future and this particular map a happy he map of reading shows those areas of of transportation concentration and
it's a way to inform decision making and policy making and also to improve efficiency and liveability of our community how the city of reading up is piloting an application to allow citizens to be able to come and report on service needs so if you have a disruption in this case a water problem you can go in your location indicates and it's a way to improve the
services so you can now check out all of these applications out on for far nor cal GIS dot org this is a place where you can connect with %HESITATION different folks that are interested you don't need to be a professional there's lots of resources to learn about how to do this on your own %HESITATION and also how to connect with some of the professionals and students
as well today's maps have created a change in the way that we perceive the world the way that we interact with each other and the state and the economy they have also created a change in the way that we're able to represent our own priorities and our own knowledge no longer or map simply held by those in positions of power but rather a canvas upon which
all of us can convey and claim our own future and our own sense of place they can still be used for resource exploitation for economic emitted equality for the perpetuation of violence for %HESITATION violations of privacy but they can also be used to democratize to organize to advocate to design and to dream thank you
