New York City is detailing the "lessons learned" after the visit from tropical storm Irene. Some of course relate to maps.
For example, the mayor’s office had predicted a surge in Web traffic on nyc.gov when it issued the evacuation order. But nobody expected five times the normal volume of traffic. By Friday afternoon, computer servers had become severely overloaded. The Web site sputtered and crashed for hours, when New Yorkers needed it most.
In the future, the city will try to modify the Web site so that it can be quickly stripped down to a few essential features — like an evacuation map, searchable by ZIP code — that are in highest demand during an emergency.
There were also some issues with evacuations zones, at least one of which should probably have been extended.
- NY Times
It has taken more than 10 years, but recent place name changes approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names has removed the final racial slurs from Maine maps.
The six locations, all in Aroostook County, are now named Scopan, Scopan Inlet, Scopan Knob, Scopan Lake, Scopan Mountain and Scopan Stream.
The old names included sounds that refer in native American dialects to "women of the evening."
- Bangor Daily News
Among the online services developed by IKM for Local Self Government (LSG) Department of Karala State, India is a Geographic Information System based Cadastral Maps (gis.lsgkerala.gov.in). There is no discalimer and the data is copyrighted.
- Kerala IT News
by Adena Schutzberg on 09/07 at 05:43 AM |
Comments |
emergency response,
evacuation zones,
hurricane,
india,
irene,
kerala,
maine,
native american,
nyc,
renaming,
state and local government,
website crashes
India
Illegal billboards are the issue in Bhubaneswar. The tool to fight them? GIS and satellite imagery.
[Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation] BMC's deputy commissioner Priyadarshi Mohapatra said, "We are planning to take the help of GIS (geographic information system) system to control the hoarding management in the city." Mohapatra added: "The images captured by satellites can help us to monitor advertising agencies so that they do not cheat us. Photographs generated through high-resolution satellite images will be fed into computers to know the exact size and location of the hoardings. After the images are obtained, we can do physical inspection to compare the data."
- Times of India
In Thane, the issue is private building on government owned land. Again, GIS to the rescue!
"Government has asked Thane Municipal Commissioner to submit a report on these illegal structures in a week's time by taking the help of Global Information System (GIS) platform to map out slum pocket locations and various other aspects," they [city officials] said. Based on the review of these encroachments, a policy will be formulated, they added.
- IBN Live News
Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has initiated work on multi-hazard vulnerability mapping of the country’s entire coastline to help authorities take up precautionary measures in the event of natural disasters.
The result will be a 3D map from which the most vulnerable areas can be identified.
- The Hindu
North Korea
In a report submitted to the parliamentary committee on defense, the ministry said North Korea has been developing the new Global Positioning System (GPS) jammer with a range of more than 100 kilometers, among other devices for electronic warfare.
North Korea had imported jammers from Russia, but they only jam 50-100km.
- Yonhap News
by Adena Schutzberg on 09/07 at 05:40 AM |
Comments |
The request is pretty vague since TfL can't disclose much detail due to its xx nature. The time frame is clear: the online app much be delivered in five months. The kick off meeting is at the end of September and the solution needs to be functional by February.
- The Guardian
by Adena Schutzberg on 09/07 at 03:00 AM |
Comments |
Depending on the show, anywhere between 13% and 33% of respondents to a nationwide survey by Hotels.com, beleive the made-up towns are real. Many even stated they'd like to a vacation at some of the destinations. I'm not sure what this says about Australians knowledge of geography, the shows or Hotels.com.
The killer quote from Hotels.com Australia and New Zealand marketing chief Katherine Birch: "It's always a good idea for travellers to use the internet or a good old-fashioned map to research which of the fantastic real-life holiday destinations across Australia they plan to visit."
Another recent Hotels.com survey ranks taxis worldwide.
- Warwick Daily News
by Adena Schutzberg on 09/07 at 03:00 AM |
Comments |
