by Matt Ball on February 6, 2012
Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland is again hosting a resident week-long summer learning experience for kids in grades 7-12 from June 24 through 30. The program has three different tracks with a focus on marine exploration, 3D visualization and virtual worlds, and CSI crime analysis and predictive modeling. Youth will also come away from the [...]
by Matt Ball on February 5, 2012
As growing season approaches, I’ve been doing some online research into how I can better manage my garden this year. I stumbled across videos from Bigelow Brook Farm, and want to share the inspiring engineering of this automated hydroponic system. It’s a great example of a finely tuned sensored system, with an automated hydroponic system [...]
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 31, 2012
The U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) have announced that the WhereCon 2012 will be renamed and rescheduled. I wondered about the naming after the Where 2.0 event had simplified their name to the Where Conference this year, and how the two names were too similar to the point of [...]
by Matt Ball on January 31, 2012
A high-level United Nations panel on global sustainability has just come out with a report outlining a far-reaching sustainable development strategy. Titled “Resilient People, Resilient Planet: A Future Worth Choosing“, the report is being described as “a new blueprint for sustainable development and low-carbon prosperity.” Central to the report is a call for a science [...]
by Matt Ball on January 31, 2012
The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) has released an online atlas that shows the potential for renewable energy across the country. The atlas allows users to display the types of resources that are of interest to them, including hydro, geothermal, biomass, concentrated solar power, solar photovoltaic, wind offshore, wind onshore, and wave power density. The [...]
by Matt Ball on January 30, 2012
The Islands Trust, which focuses on preserving island communities in British Columbia, have just launched MapIT as a means to explore island properties and ecosystems for better land-use planning and resource management. The Islands Trust Area covers the islands and waters between the British Columbia mainland and southern Vancouver Island, including Howe Sound and as [...]
by Matt Ball on January 25, 2012
The Copenhagen Post reports that the Environment Ministry is set to lay off 115 positions from three different agencies, including 25 from their Mapping and Surveying Agency. The cuts come as the ministry works toward a 2.5 percent reduction in their budget that will double to 5 percent in 2015. The entire Environment Ministry is [...]
by Matt Ball on January 22, 2012
Environmentalist Ma Jun of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, giving a speech recently in the Mary Robinson Speaker Series, discusses the data-driven advocacy he pioneered to hold China’s government and businesses accountable for air and water pollution. In this presentation Jun outlines water pollution, increased coal burning, and the inevitable health impacts that [...]
by Matt Ball on January 19, 2012
The Federal Biodiversity Fund was approved in December with funds to reimburse landowners for improved vegetation and diversity management on their properties. The six-year program has $946 million in funds that are aimed at reforestation, tackling invasive species, and also close management of lands of high conservation value. This biodiversity fund is part of a [...]