Millenials in landscape architecture

Ryan Deane has a great post about how Millenials are changing landscape architectural firms. "The beauty of our generation is that we all know at least two languages; our native tongue, and some capacity of a digital vernacular." There is more to it than that, but that begins to capture what is happening.

How bad can it get?

We just finished a semester talking about how the built environment can shape the health of those who live within it. Serious evidence of that is presented in this story from the Washington Post which says arecent study found, "The proportion of infants and children with above-average levels of lead in their blood has nearly doubled since the city switched from the Detroit water system to using the Flint River as its water source, in 2014."

The mayor's response has been to declare a State of Emergency in the city whose health is being threatened by its own damaged environment.

Amazing photo from China

The soon to be complete Qingshui River Bridge.

Panama and ports

Places has a fascinating look at the new changes to the Panama Canal. The construction on the isthmus are having a ripple effect as cities around along the American coasts are responding with rapid changes to their ports.

Landscape photography

The landscape photography of Daniel Jones probably got more expensive this week when it was featured on CBS Sunday Morning. But it deserves a close look since it really captures landscapes nicely.

Backyard Habitat

Ecology & Evolution
Graduate Program Seminar

Dr. Susannah Lerman, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

"Beyond benefits for people: How backyard habitats support ecosystem services for wildlife"

Thursday, December 3, 2015
4:00 p.m.
Alampi Room, Marine and Coastal Sciences

Mapping Global Migration

Esri has posted a very cool interactive tool for exploring global patterns of migration.

Team thinking

In class we recently talked about teamwork and the importance of understanding different approaches of team members. The Harvard Business Review just published an interesting piece about 8 different workplace thinking styles. The diagram is helpful and worth looking at for a few minutes.

Statewide GIS meeeting

The quarterly meetings of the NJ Geospatial Forum are a great place to meet local GIS professionals and hear about some of the issues on their minds.

The NJ Geospatial Forum will meet Thursday, December 3rd at 10 a.m.
All are welcome to attend the meeting in the ITC room at OIT 300 Riverview Plaza, Trenton NJ 08611

Happy GIS Day

Once again, GIS Day is here. May all your geospatial dreams come true. To celebrate, we have brought back a few of the graphic reminders of the early years:

A special thanks to Caroline Phillipuk, whose GIS Day posters outlived the celebrations.

GIS Day is almost here

Join us in celebrating our 5th Annual GIS Awareness Day event at Rutgers
University! Learn how maps, GPS and satellite imagery are used for
things like: community mapping, invasive species spread, watershed
management, road networks and more!  Speakers will represent a variety
of national and regional organizations focusing on geospatial analysis.

The evening will consist of a series of lightning talks, followed by
refreshments/poster session, then a panel discussion on careers in GIS,
and a dessert social to round out the event.

Food + networking + free giveaways!

Nov 18th, 6-9 pm
Rutgers University, Marine Sciences Building (71 Dudley Road, New
Brunswick, NJ)
Free parking in lots: 97, 98A and 98B

Our Facebook site:
https://www.facebook.com/Rutgers-GIS-Day-434169550105881/timeline/

Everyone is welcome to attend!

Organized by RU Intermediate Environmental Geomatics students.
Sponsored by the Department of Landscape Architecture.

Bias in remote sensing

Ever wonder why drones are an increasingly popular way to capture imagery? There are lots of reasons. But as Aaron Rothman points out in Places, "the apparently open visual access to the world afforded by satellite image systems is limited by vested government and corporate powers."

It is something worth pondering during this most special week, the week of GIS Day.

Friday Fotos: Cordoba

Millenials hunger for better food

When we hear reporting about the Millennials, it usually focuses on them as a generation of tech-savvy individualistic single adults, enjoying the best of urban living and reinventing modern culture. But a substantial portion of the millennials have come of age at a time when jobs are scarce and times are tough. This piece from Refinery29 takes a look at a group of young adults struggling, even with government assistance, to feed their families and get their lives on track. As it points out, "While food culture across the United States explodes, hunger rates have simultaneously risen."

Kate Orff

Kate Orff is becoming one of the best known landscape architects in the U.S., as shown by a Times profile of her at home.

National Parks

Today is the last day in the Byrne Seminar on National Parks and Parklands. The conversation will include a very brief discussion about International National Parks. One of the places that will get mentioned is Virunga National Park in the Congo. Virunga is the subject of a recent documentary available on Netflix that is powerful and important but also highlights how different their national parks are from ours. We contrasted it with the recent Ken Burns series on PBS about the U.S. National Parks: America's Best Idea. 

The links above are to YouTube-hosted previews for each. Compare and contrast.

Less driving is a problem

After years of encouraging people to drive less and take the train or bike, or at least drive a hybrid, it turns out that someone finally listened. Standard and Poor's reports that gas tax revenues are dropping because millennials are living more sustainably and healthier. And the problem is that we were counting on those revenues for road construction and maintenance.

The Star-Ledger reports that New Jersey isn't the only state struggling with this. But it isn't clear which states will be the first to recognize that this change in America's car culture is based on a dramatic generational change (not just a behavioral change) that might require some creative thinking about community priorities.

That's a good sign

@WalkUKY posted these photos of signs that encourage walking in Lexington, Kentucky.
 

Presumably this is linked to the effort back in 2012 by Walk Raleigh. The QR codes link to simple instructions but I don't see a map. Where is the map?

Motion sensitive site furnishings

Technology is beginning to make radical changes to the urban experience. Imagine how street crossings might change when computer-driven vehicles are the majority. And now, in Israel, we can stop imagining what an urban space might be like when the site furnishings respond to visitors' presence.


 
Warde from HQ Architects on Vimeo.

372 is 573

For Rutgers students struggling to find the 372 classes in the schedule online, please note that they have been changed to 573. They have the same names as before and fulfill the same requirements, but they are now listed as 573!

Navigating a post-GPS world

Slate has a piece linked to the announcement that the US Naval Academy is reinstating the teaching of celestial navigation as part of its curriculum. Because, as Lily Hay Newman writes, "someone in the Navy knows how to navigate without GPS if the lights ever go out."

Parks of Northeast Middlesex County

As part of our current studio, I made a quick tour of some parks in Northeast Middlesex County. The diversity was pretty amazing. Check it out below.

Not a surprise?

Real world drones are moving quickly into the world of virtual reality. I bet that it gets some attention next month at the Drone World Expo.

GIS Day 2015 is coming

Join us in celebrating our 5th annual GIS Awareness Day event at Rutgers
University! Learn how maps, GPS and satellite imagery are used for
things like: community mapping, invasive species spread, watershed
management, road networks and more!  Speakers will represent a variety
of national and regional organizations focusing on geospatial analysis.

The evening will consist of a series of lightning talks, followed by
refreshments/poster session, then a panel discussion on careers in GIS,
and a dessert social to round out the event.

Food + networking + free giveaways!

Nov 18th, 6-9 pm
Rutgers University, Marine Sciences Building (71 Dudley Road, New
Brunswick, NJ)
Free parking in lots: 97, 98A and 98B

Our Facebook site:
https://www.facebook.com/Rutgers-GIS-Day-434169550105881/timeline/

Everyone is welcome to attend!

Organized by RU Intermediate Environmental Geomatics students.
Sponsored by the Department of Landscape Architecture.

Feel free to forward.

http://archidose.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-end-of-7-line.html

EDA Notes

Some random notes from today's EDA lecture:

• New Jersey's Multiple Municipal Madness 
• Tavistock has 5 residents and a gold course, Pine Valley has 12 residents and a gold course, Teterboro has 65 residents and an airport (Top 10 list of NJ small towns)
• "Home Rule's Exclusive, Costly Kingdoms" - NY Times 1994
• The award-winning map of the Stony Brook Watershed 
• CRSSA's landscape change program 
• How to Lie With Maps by Monmonier

Hope you enjoyed it.

The changing food landscapes of NJ

NJ.com has great vintage photos showing the changing food landscapes of New Jersey.

Rutgers LA Alumni

Hey all you Rutgers alum! 

Please let Gail (mckenzie@SEBS.Rutgers.edu) know if you are planning to attend the ASLA Annual Meeting in Chicago.  We are eager to celebrate the awards received by Kate John-Alder and her students, as well as Steven Handel and his team at Restoration Ecology.  To see their awards, visit our website: http://landarch.rutgers.edu/aslaawards.html.  If enough of us are going to Chicago, we will want to plan a special Rutgers event. 

And, as always, Rutgers faculty, students, and alumni will join together at the alumni reception/tailgate event.  Thank you!

Loal Government Links

Some relevant documents for this week's classes...

Middlesex County Open Space and Recreation Plan 2003

Middlesex County Master Plan 1966

Perth Amboy Master Plan Recreation Element 2013

Woodbridge Township Redevelopment Plans

Edison Township Master Plan 2003

A report on Carteret

Carteret Parks Guide and the photo for their splash page

Metuchen Master Plan

Middlesex Greenway (or theTrailLink version)

East Coast Greenway in NJ (not local govt)

A Middlesex County problem with some open space (news)

The most photogenic spot in New Jersey?

According to Lifehacker, Island Beach State Park is the most photographed site in NJ (on Instagram). For some other states the site is more iconic -- Kentucky had Churchill Downs and Louisiana had Bourbon Street. But other states probably lack clear landmark -- Rhode Island had the Roger Williams Park Zoo and Kansas had Kansas State University. It shows how remarkably different these states really are.

Shore flooding

You heard lots about Hurricane Joaquin, but did you realize that the Jersey Shore had flooding today? Down in Ocean County, some streets were filling with water.  Down in Cape May the coastal areas had some high water too.

DC Parks RX

“We don’t prescribe a park to every patient, but when they are ready we will.”

Do you really need me to say more to get you to read about the DC Parks RX program where doctors write scripts sending patients to parks?

BTW, this story is written by LSU MLA student Liz Camuti who has developed an impressive record of writing over the short time of her internship at ASLA. Geaux Tigers.

Hurricane Joaquin

With Hurricane Joaquin targeting the Chesapeake and Washington DC, I highly recommend keeping an eye on a blog that I have long enjoyed, the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang. They often have a nice mix of forecasts (raw material and general public info) and science that makes it worth the trip, even if they are a few hours away.

Noam Chomsky

THIS FRIDAY! 8:00 PM Friday October 2. Voorhees Chapel, Douglass Campus. Prof. Noam Chomsky of MIT­ Philosopher, linguist, social justice activist­ will be delivering a lecture entitled American Exceptionalism: Some Current Case Studies.

Byrne Seminar trip