The MapScaping Podcast - GIS, Geospatial, Remote Sensing, earth observation and digital geography

Personally, I don't feel like aerial imagery gets the attention it deserves! So I invited Michael Bewley - Senior Director of AI Systems at Nearmap back on the podcast to help bring us up to speed on the state of the art of capturing, processing, and building a business around aerial imagery. If you don’t care about aerial imagery, think of this as a story about turning unstructured data into stru...

This episode covers a wide range of topics from the role of geospatial in systems thinking - representing natural systems in location systems and how we can apply the technology behind virtual worlds to the real world. During this conversation, it became clear to me that technology should be used in service of culture and not the other way around. I think in terms of geospatial we have an interest...

My guest on the show today is Mike. Today Mike is the founder of a software startup called ChroneChards, but he started as a cartographer for an adventure race and Patagonia. So he has come a long way. A couple of other really interesting points about Mike. He is a self-taught software developer and he is a self-taught businessman. The reason why I mentioned this means that if he can teach himself...

If 80% of all data has a spatial component why do we need to approach mature and emerging markets differently?  With everyone racing to democratize location technology why is GIS still a valuable skill?  What are consultancies looking for when they hire geospatial consultants?   Answers to these questions and much more in this episode where we focus on geospatial consulting, as a business and care...

FROM THE ARCHIVE!   Calculating the location of your mobile device ( the blue dot ) is not as straightforward as you might imagine. It involves databases of wifi hotspots, 3D city models, IMU's, GNSS, your proximity to cell towers, and maybe something called visual positioning. Ed Parsons - Googles Geospatial Technologist explains    previous podcast episode that you might enjoy! SATELLITE-BASED A...

Tropical forests are large sources of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, due to deforestation. They could instead be a big part of the climate solution.  Through Norway’s International Climate & Forests Initiative (NICFI), users can now access high-resolution, analysis-ready mosaics of the world’s tropics in order to help reduce and reverse the loss of tropical forests, combat climate change, conserv...

Cloud Optimized Point Clouds ( COPC) allow you to stream point cloud data!  Cloud Optimized Geotiffs made raster data streamable and now its time for Point Clouds to be just as accessible!    https://weeklyosm.eu/   weeklyOSM updates the community, on a weekly basis, about what is going on in the OSM Universe.   Thanks, OpenCage!  https://opencagedata.com/   Related Podcast Episodes   PDAL - Point...

We cover a lot of ground in this episode but some of the key takes are:   A key difference between visualizing non-spatial data and spatial data is that non-spatial data gives you the freedom to choose the locations of different objects.  Design is not a process, a way of thinking, and the outcome of not necessarily something visual We are getting closer to the promise of custom maps for everyone,...

For some time, there was hype around AI and data science and that they would solve all of our problems. If you think AI solves every problem, then you’re overestimating its utility and where we’re at. However, on the other side, if you’re a business of any size, operating at least some type of technology, and you think AI can solve none of your problems — you’re also mistaken. We’re somewhere in t...

Grow your career — or reimagine it entirely, what do you do if find yourself wanting to make a change halfway through your career? This episode with Thierry Gregorius from https://truehorizoncoaching.com/ is more of a discussion than an interview and if you are thinking about making a change in your career it might help you answer the question "what do I do next"    Recommended Podcast episodes fo...

This is a story about a peer-to-peer mapping technology that is enabling people to "fight maps with maps"   https://www.digital-democracy.org/ You can find Mapeo here https://www.digital-democracy.org/mapeo/   Promoting OSM projects OpenCage and Mapscaping are working together to help projects based on OpenStreetMap reach a wider audience. Projects will be selected to be featured on upcoming Mapsc...

Applications of thermal imaging from space include monitoring wildfires, urban heat islands, economic activity, and the built environment.  But it's not easy ;)    Connect with Robin Cole at https://robmarkcole.com/   Check out the Earth Observation Hub! https://geoawesomeness.com/eo-hub/ More Geospatial Podcasts episodes    Recommended Podcast Earth Observation Podcasts   Fake Satellite Imagery ...

After 12 years of working as a GIS specialist / Consultant, I quit and I am ready to move on.    Looking back at the last 12 years if I could go back in time and give myself some advice I would tell myself these 8 things.   Boring Work won’t necessarily lead to interesting work Getting good at something typical leads to doing more of that thing Have more empathy for the professionals that you work...

It turns out that monitoring atmospheric pollution from space is really hard! But if you can do it will help you understand air quality, solar energy, ozone Layer and UV radiation, emissions and surfaces fluxes, and climate forcing    Contact Mark on Twitter https://twitter.com/m_parrington   Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/ https://twitter.com/Copernicus...

The problem of unification: Spatial data comes in many different sizes, shapes, and formats making it a difficult and time-consuming process to join data for visualization, exploration, and analysis. Enter the Hex Tile system! Contact Foursquare:   connect.foursquare.com/mapscaping Check out Unfolded https://foursquare.com/products/unfolded/   https://www.unfolded.ai/   Introducing Hex Tiles: http...

This is a story about a hobby project called Scribble Maps that grew into business… but it's also a story about the opportunities and challenges of creating geospatial tools for non-geospatial professionals. Jonathan Wagner “Its easy to get people to make a map today, but how do you get them to come back and make a map tomorrow?” Special Offer for Listeners The MapScaping Audience ScibbleMaps.com/...

This is a story about finding water on Mars and adapting the technology to look for leaking pipes underground here on earth ... but in this story, we don't just solve the problem, we build a business around it!    Lauren Guy From  https://asterra.io/     Sponsored By https://geoawesomeness.com/eo-hub/    Recommended Podcast episodes  Introduction To Synthetic Aperture Radar ( SAR) Flood Monitoring...

It turns out that satellites are not as passive as you might think, and in the case of earth observation satellites it's not easy to keep them pointing at earth!   But if you have a map of the stars, a sun tracker, and are able to keep an eye on the earth's horizon ... it's possible    Jack Reid https://twitter.com/Jack_B_Reid MIT Media Lab   Sponsored By Lightbox https://www.lightboxre.com/   Mor...

This is a story about bathymetric Lidar... and how geo-tagged sharks led to the discovery of a huge nature-based carbon sink in the Bahamas.   More on this case study here: https://r-evolution.com/r-initiatives/oceans   The Ocean of Things  https://www.darpa.mil/program/ocean-of-things   Recommended Podcast episodes  Mapping The Ocean Floor Mapping Oceans With Sound And Mapping The Sound In The Oc...

Republishing this episode because of the audio issues with the original episode!     Mergin Maps lets you create QGIS projects that can be used to collect and edit data in the field. You see updates in near real-time, even from the field. Works offline. Edits are merged automatically. View and edit geodata in the field. Integrate with existing GIS infrastructure using open formats.   https://mergi...

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) is an international consortium of more than 500 businesses, government agencies, research organizations, and universities ... but why should you care?    Maybe because this community is defining the future of geospatial infrastructure across all verticals!   Maybe because they are determining a set of "the best practices" when it comes to solving big problems l...

WhiteBox Contains over 500 geospatial analysis tools. Many of these tools have novel functionality that you won’t find in other software and it's FREE to use! But is it possible to monetize an open-source geospatial project? and if so how would you do this?   This episode is a follow-on from last week's episode so consider listening to that first. Last week's episode was a technical overview of wh...

WhiteBox Contains over 500 geospatial analysis tools. Many of these tools have novel functionality that you won’t find in other software and it's FREE to use!  https://www.whiteboxgeo.com/   Sponsored By Lightbox https://www.lightboxre.com/   More podcast episodes on GIS and GIS careers can be found on our website https://mapscaping.com/podcasts/   Consider supporting this podcast on Patreon  http...

Mergin Maps lets you create QGIS projects that can be used to collect and edit data in the field. You see updates in near real-time, even from the field. Works offline. Edits are merged automatically. View and edit geodata in the field. Integrate with existing GIS infrastructure using open formats.   https://merginmaps.com/   http://merginmaps.com/community/join .  slack channel https://twitter.co...

Sentinel Hub makes satellite data easily accessible for you to be browsed or analyzed within your own environment. Imagine something between The Microsoft Planetry Computer and Google Earth Engine and you are probably thinking about Sentinel Hub! https://www.sentinel-hub.com/  https://www.sentinel-hub.com/explore/eobrowser/   Sponsored By Lightbox https://www.lightboxre.com/   Consider supporting...