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Environment

Africa Map: Browse and Explore African Datasets

picture layer in Africa MapThe Africa Map project, currently in beta, is an online map and data viewer created by Harvard University.  The map combines data sets of numerous categories from a wide variety of sources, allowing thematic maps to be viewed and explored.  The purposes of the project, according to the project web site:

  1. Interact with the best available public data for Africa
  2. See the whole of Africa yet also zoom in to particular places
  3. Accumulate both contemporary and historical data supplied by researchers and make it permanently accessible online
  4. Work collaboratively across disciplines and organizations with spatial information about Africa in an online environment

URL: 
http://africamap.harvard.edu/

"Behind the Scenes" Of EDF's "Dirty Oil in NYC" Mapplication!

Submitted by jim on Mon, 2010-01-18 12:47

Last week, we added a new example to our resource library: the Environmental Defense Fund's interactive mapping application of "dirty" heating oil in New York City on a building-by-building level.  Because this is a great example of a nonprofit mapping application, I asked the EDF's Kira Marchenese to tell us a little bit more about the data sources, mapping tools, and processes that took place to create this project.

EDF Map of "Dirty" Heating Oil Usage in NYC

According to the Environmental Defense Fund, heating systems cause 50% more pollution in New York City than cars and trucks.  EDF obtained data from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection in early 2009 showing which buildings in the city use the "dirty" No. 4 or No. 6 heating oil, as opposed to the relatively cleaner-burning No. 2 oil or natural gas.  This Flash-based map, created from that data, shows a building-by-building status of heating oil in use, as well as pending applications for fuel changes.  In addition, this map features an address search widget so that you can look for a specific building directly.

URL: 
http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=49624

Crowd-sourced water quality map

Submitted by jim on Thu, 2009-09-10 09:00

WaterGoodness is a new site allowing users to share and find water quality reports across the United States.  The site combines water quality and pollution data from a variety of government sources with visitor reports of their local water quality.

GreenSpaceMap displays nearby environmental features

By searching the US Environmental Protection Agency's database, GreenSpaceMap offers visitors the ability to locate environmental threats in their neighborhood or region.  Locations like Superfund sites and brownfields are visible once you type in a starting address.  This is also an entry in the Sunlight Labs Apps for America contest.

URL: 
http://www.greenspacemap.com/

California Fires on Google Earth and Maps

Submitted by jim on Mon, 2009-08-31 14:18

The Google Earth blog today included several links to near-real-time maps of the California wildfires, visible in Google Maps and Google Earth:

For those of you without access to Google Maps or Google Earth, CALFIRE (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) has plenty of up-to-date information on the fires, including frequently-updated incident maps covering the entire state.