San Juan Capistrano (California) officials rejected a $11,000 proposal to put GPS devices in police cars. In addition to tracking location, the devices were also to be used to evaluate smog and in total save the city some $15,000. Said one official of the plan: “I have a real problem with this,” she said. “This is an HBO. I don’t think it’s something we really, really need.”
- OC Register
Lewis and Clark County, MT and Helena city officials are interested in details of a new transport district, not only to determine where new public transportation might be, but to determine how many people live within it, to ensure questions regarding the topic make it on the ballot.
The number of residents is important, because signatures from 20 percent of the affected voters will be needed to simply add the district to the Nov. 2 ballot. ...“GIS will find new financial information — as to what the mills would equal, the value, as well as the number of voters in the district,” [County Commissioner Andy] Hunthausen said. “And then the number we would need to get on a petition.”
- Helena IR
The Official Map of Temple Texas, a lithograph about 36 by 32 inches dated 1892 is the newest addition to the city’s GIS, but it may be a while before it’s made available. The map was donated by a collector and beside the regular challenges of scanning the old document, there is the challenge of converting the units of the day, the “vera” to feet, but local think they have it figured out.
- Houston Chronicle
by Adena Schutzberg on 02/05 at 07:55 AM |
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Spatial planning academics explored if spatial education is meeting the needs of practicing planners. The Centre for Education in the Built Environment, which provides UK-wide support for learning and teaching in planning and related disciplines, hosted the meeting last week. Among the outcomes is a survey, part of the Spatial Literacy in Teaching (SPLINT) project.
The questionnaire will provide a better understanding of the levels of spatial literacy in the profession as assessed by planning professionals themselves. It will also examine current approaches for providing continuing professional development in spatial literacy and allow the perceived differences between spatial literacy teaching and the actual needs of planning professionals to be mapped.
This sounds like an effort the GeoDesign folks should follow.
- Planning Resource
by Adena Schutzberg on 02/05 at 07:46 AM |
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Executive Editor Adena Schutzberg spoke with Dr. Diana Sinton of the University of Redlands, one of the organizers of January’s GeoDesign Summit about geodesign, the success of the summit and what interested geospatial practitioners and designers can expect going forward. This conversation is one in a continuing series of conversations with geospatial insiders and outsiders.
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by Adena Schutzberg on 02/05 at 07:38 AM |
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CubeSats are tiny satellites that can “tag along” on a rocket to enter earth orbit do specific tasks. Their size, and ability to tag along on planned flights, keeps costs down. But there are limitations: there’s no efficient way to move them around once they are in orbit, so most stay in their orbit and do jobs that don’t require too much accuracy. But that may change within a few years, says Paulo Lozano at MIT. He’s working on an electric propulsion system that could move the satellites around and even bring them back into the atmosphere to burn up, preventing space junk.
One of the implications, potentially: giving more countries access to space science due to the lower costs.
- MIT News
by Adena Schutzberg on 02/05 at 06:00 AM |
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