Archived GIS Snippets
Published in 2013
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10 things you didn't know about Google Maps and Google Earth
by mike bedford
Even if you're familiar with Google Maps and Google Earth, you might not realize how much these free mapping services offer. Here are 10 useful features you should know about.
Google Maps isn’t Google’s only mapping product. Google Earth isn’t as popular but if offers many features you won’t find in Google Maps. Although Google Earth accesses online data, you first need to download the Google Earth application from earth.google.co.uk.
2. Because it uses software on your own PC, Google Earth offers a more polished interface than Google Maps as you’ll quickly discover (you can, however switch to Goole Earth in your browser by clicking the Earth button at the top-right corner in Google Maps). The emphasis is on satellite imagery, as opposed to road maps but, unlike Google Maps, it allows you to explore the Earth’s polar regions, and even the Moon and Mars.
3. No doubt you’ve used Google Maps Street View feature but did you know it works in 3D? To turn on 3D, press 3 or T. Red and cyan fringes will appear on the image but if you put on a pair of red-cyan glasses (e.g. from www.assistpoint.co.uk), you’ll the scene in 3D. Note that you can't enable 3D if you're using the MapsGL mode. continued…
first published week of: 05/13/2013
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16 best free jquery map plugins
Query is one of the most popular javascript Libraries on the web, and almost every developer and designer are familiar with jquery’s functionality and features. jQuery resolves almost every issue and fits to your website requirements to make your website creative and innovative.
Nowadays most of the clients demand to integrate map plugin into their web applications. Most of the times, such plugins are only needed to integrate in to the contact page of a website, but these map plugins are useful for other functions as well that clients need such as gps tracker, navigation, etc.
To handle and resolve such situations, we are featuring 15 Best Free jQuery Google Maps Plugins, which are not only easy to implement into your websites but also offer a great deal of map functionality for site admins as well as for the end user interacting with them. continued…
first published week of: 06/10/2013
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3 Fast Ways to Build #ArcGISOnline Skills
by suzanneB
When it comes to ArcGIS Online, there’s been a lot of buzz. The reality is that using and doing GIS on the web is only going to become easier and more pervasive going forward because the benefits are enormous.
Maybe you’ve been meaning to get up to speed but just haven’t found the time. Well, no more excuses. There are lots of quick (not to mention free and low-cost) options to build up your personal knowledge base. In fact, in less than one day, you can make amazing progress. Here are three ways to make that happen.
6 and a half minutes: Watch how a GIS analysis that creates actionable information can be performed entirely on an organizational site. This demo is an out-take from last week’s live training seminar (Gain Geographic Insight with ArcGIS Online Analysis Tools). If you have 60 minutes to spare, watch the recording of the full seminar.
first published week of: 09/30/2013
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30 years of GRASS GIS development
The Free Software community celebrates the 30th birthday of GRASS GIS! GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) is a free and open source Geographic Information System software suite used for geospatial data management and analysis, image processing, graphics and map production, spatial modeling, and 3D visualization. GRASS GIS is currently used in academic and commercial settings around the world, as well as by many governmental agencies and environmental consulting companies. GRASS GIS can be used either as a stand-alone application or as backend for other software packages such as QGIS and R geostatistics. It is a founding member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) and can be freely downloaded at http://grass.osgeo.org/download/software/.
Brief history
In 1982, under the direction of Bill Goran at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL), two GIS development efforts were undertaken. First, Lloyd Van Warren, a University of Illinois engineering student, began development on a new computer program that allowed analysis of mapped data. Second, Jim Westervelt (CERL) developed a GIS package called "LAGRID – the Landscape Architecture Gridcell analysis system" as his master’s thesis. Thirty years ago, on 29 July 1983, the user manual for this new system titled "GIS Version 1 Reference Manual" was first published by J. Westervelt and M. O'Shea. With the technical guidance of Michael Shapiro (CERL), the software continued its development at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (USA/CERL) in Champaign, Illinois; and after further expansion version 1.0 was released in 1985 under the name Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS). The GRASS GIS community was established the same year with the first annual user meeting and the launch of GRASSnet, one of the internet's early mailing lists. The user community expanded to a larger audience in 1991 with the "Grasshopper" mailing list and the introduction of the World Wide Web. The users' and programmers' mailing lists archives for these early years are still available online.
In the mid 1990s the development transferred from USA/CERL to The Open GRASS Consortium (a group who would later generalize to become today's Open Geospatial Consortium -- the OGC). The project coordination eventually shifted to the international development team made up of governmental and academic researchers and university scientists. Reflecting this shift to a project run by the users, for the users, in 1999 GRASS GIS was released under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL). A detailed history of GRASS GIS can be found at http://grass.osgeo.org/history/.
first published week of: 08/05/2013
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3D Elevation Models using HTML5 and Bing Maps
by ricky brundritt
Recently we published a blog post on 3D Elevation Models with Bing Maps WPF. In this blog post we will show you how to create a tool for generating a 3D model of elevation data from the Bing Maps REST Elevation Service using HTML5 and Bing Maps. There are a couple of different ways to create 3D models in HTML5. The method we are going to use to is to project 3D data onto a 2D canvas. There are several JavaScript libraries available online that can do this. You can also find an in-depth article on how to do the math required for this projection here if you want to write your own library. For this blog post we will use the second method and make use of a JavaScript library called K3D.
In this blog post we will create a web page that uses Bing Maps to select an area on the map. We will then use the elevation service to get the elevation data for the selected area on the map. We will then generate a 3D model using the HTML5 canvas and the K3D library. We will also make use of sliders from the jQuery UI library and add functionality for rotating and translating the model. Note that by using a helper library called ExplorerCanvas you can add HTML5 canvas support to Internet Explorer 7 and 8 which represent 13.8% of the current web browser market share.
first published week of: 03/04/2013
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4-Step Process to Make a Simple Story Map
by suzanne b
Story maps are popular. Their visual, interactive nature makes them a great medium to share interesting information about a place or topic and spark discussion on real-world issues. To make a story map, you start with a web map. There are lots of ways to make a web map and just as many ways to make a story map.
The KISS principle is my preferred approach whenever possible; overcomplicating things makes it hard to get stuff done. I found a simple way to make a web map. Here’s a simple four-step process to craft a story map.
It goes like this:
- Determine your story topic.
- Plan and execute your data strategy.
- Create a web map.
- Share the web map as a story map.
first published week of: 04/15/2013