by Matt Ball on February 2, 2012
A detailed map of block-by-block energy use has been created by the Columbia University Engineering School with data from the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability. The interactive map demonstrates the energy used to heat and cool buildings, which accounts for two-thirds of the energy used in the city. The research built a statistical [...]
by Matt Ball on January 5, 2012
Will McLintock marine scientist at the University of Santa Barbara spoke today at the GeoDesign Summit about marine conservation. The traditional approach for conservation is specialized scientists applying research and knowledge and telling government who draw policy, but stakeholders aren’t included and the approach leads to greater conflict. McClintock discussed the process of the creation [...]
by Matt Ball on December 26, 2011
The anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd has deployed a drone aircraft to track the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctic waters. The use of the drone gives the conservation group the advantage of persistent surveillance of the location and activities of the ships. Despite a worldwide ban on whaling in an international treaty in 1987, Japan has [...]
by Matt Ball on December 21, 2011
The Wildlife Conservation Society has just released a report that raises alarm bells regarding threats to great American wildlife migrations. The society credits new GPS collars and geolocators for providing a much greater understanding of animal movements, as well as the impediments to their migration. Under threat are five terrestrial animal migrations and three flight-based [...]
by Matt Ball on September 17, 2011
The UN Environmental Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP WCMC), with the mission of sourcing, collating and verifying information on biodiversity and ecosystems, have released 16 of their global environmental legacy datasets. These datasets have all been inputs to there many world atlases, including the World Atlas of Biodiversity, The World’s Protected Areas, The Conservation Atlas [...]
by Matt Ball on August 19, 2011
The U.S. Forest Service is investing $257,000 on an application that uses Google satellite imagery to help homeowners view their land and see the benefits of planting trees on their property. The iTreetools application has tools for users to look up their house, draw their building footprint, and assess the value of each tree on [...]
by Matt Ball on August 13, 2011
The Quebec Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks, Pierre Arcand, announced plans to conserve 600,000 square kilometers of Northern Quebec yesterday when discussing the conservation side of the Plan Nord project plan. Plan Nord was originally announced in May, with an economic development focus that will see the government investing $80 billion over 25 [...]
by Matt Ball on August 12, 2011
Last week, I spent a dream vacation in Alaska’s Inside Passage fishing for salmon and halibut. Recent changes to the fishing laws in Alaska provided a good deal of the dialogue with our fishing guides, who are always torn between client demands, regulations, and sustaining their living in balance with the commercial fishing industry. With [...]
by Matt Ball on August 1, 2011
The National Science Foundation has partnered with four universities on a five-year $18.5 million grant to develop sustainable ways to manage urban water. The Urban Water Engineering Research Centers (ERC) will be led by Stanford with additional labs at the University of California-Berkeley, Colorado School of Mines, and New Mexico State University. The Urban Water [...]
by Matt Ball on July 26, 2011
Do Corridors Work? is a landing page for ongoing research by a Northern Arizona University professor and researcher to determine the effectiveness of wildlife corridors to stem the loss and fragmentation of wildlife. The site is focused on the growing trend of conservation corridors that connect diverse habitat preserves to aid biodiversity, identifying the need [...]