Is Big Data near the top of the S curve?

Is Big Data still a growing topic or is it about to top out? Wish we could know.

New executive director at the US Botanic Garden

Rutgers graduate Ari Novy has been named the new executive director of the US Botanic Garden. Many of our more recent alumni learned their plants from Dr. Novy. But now visitor's to the Capitol can learn from his work too.

They know you so well

Esri has opened the doors to make their Tapestry Segmentation more accessible with some interesting online maps and data presentations. The College Towns and Enterprising Individuals who read Places and Spaces may find their description of them eerily correct. The Diners and Miners seems less problematic than Shotguns and Pickups.

With the tagline of, "We are a nation of ZIP Codes and neighborhoods," I don't think that Esri has made Tapestry Segmentation any less creepy than the Claritas Prizm groups.

Maybe they should just go with, "We know what you'll buy before you do." or, "You are from

But will planners use this? Will they trust the data and make decisions at this level? Or do they already have better micro-knowledge internalized?

Interchanges is back!

In response to the overwhelming popular demand, Interchanges will return for the month of August with 31 different vacation interchanges. Can you figure out the vacation destination at this exit?  Keep checking Interchanges to get the answer.

Nemophilas

Some people aren't taking their summers off. ASLA's The Dirt has a beautiful photoset of landscapes filled with flowers from the genus of nemophila. No summer doldrums on The Dirt.

Mapping out ITINs

A different way to look at the immigrant landscape is to map out where Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs)  have been issued. Think of these as an alternative to a Social Security number that allows a non-citizen to still file taxes.

Mapped in isolation the pattern of ITINs already says plenty about the distribution across New Jersey. While the Northeast corridor seems like a predictable area for a higher density of ITINs, casual observers may be surprised to see the areas in Salem and Cumberland County. But the map shows that the farming communities around Hammonton, Vineland and Bridgeton are all labor markets popular with migrant workers.

Over time, the growth of ITINs shows a very dynamic landscape (click on map to view it up close).

Campus landscape architect

Rutgers is looking for some to fill the position of University Landscape Architect.

EPA Launches Third Annual Campus RainWorks Challenge

EPA Launches Third Annual Campus RainWorks Challenge, Registration Begins Sept. 2
EPA has launched the third annual Campus RainWorks Challenge, a green infrastructure design challenge for college and university students. Student teams, working with a faculty advisor, will submit design boards, a project narrative, and a letter of support describing a proposed green infrastructure project for a location on their campus. Registration opens Sept. 2 and ends Oct. 3. Registrants must submit their entries by Dec. 19. Winning teams will earn a student prize of $1,000-$2,000 to be divided evenly among student team members, and a faculty prize of $2,000-$3,000 to support green infrastructure research or training. More information: www.epa.gov/campusrainworks.

The posts include videos from the winning teams,  like this one from Florida


And another from Michigan State

Immigration in New Jersey

Immigration is back in the news, again. With that in mind, over the next few days, Places and Spaces will be posting some old maps from our work on the RIIM project. Many our from the final report, Meet the Neighbors. This first one shows levels of limited English proficiency reported by NJ school districts from two different years. It is a measure closely associated with immigrants, particularly young ones. As such, it can be seen as a first glance at the overall pattern of immigration in NJ. But it will be different than some others we'll share and, as you can see, it changes some each year.

Fine, J., A. Mann, D. Tulloch, F. S. Bentley. 2014. Meet the Neighbors: Organizational and Spatial Dynamics in Immigrant New Jersey. Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics.

Friday Fotos: Swiss City Form and Space

The first three are from Bern, then two from Lucerne, two from Zurich and one from Murten.

Banned drones

Drones are rapidly changing the way we see ordinary things, from surfing to fireworks. But not far from Rutgers there are large areas where they are banned. Mapbox has posted an interactive map of where you can NOT fly a drone.

Has pre-fab architecture turned a corner?

Lately I have seen more stories on pre-fab architecture as a means for making new and innovative architecture more accessible. But the stories tend to show very stylish homes, sometimes leaning towards vacation homes, like this story on more factory options in Ozy online magazine.

But a subset are closer to the Design Like You Give a Damn school of social innovation, using the increasingly cheaper techniques for lower income alternatives. The new issue of Metropolis looks at how the Chinese are trying to apply the pre-fab innovations from their megacities to building new African urban communities that are safe, solid and more carefully planned than current urban housing. But, it potentially costs African jobs.

As an invention becomes innovation, there is often a moment when it changes social responses and practices. If pre-fab urbanism changes the informal settlement patterns of the urban poor, this trend will have seriously turned a corner.

More from San Diego

Last week's User Conference also produced an interesting tidbit from the Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker. Addressing the plenary session she announced that the Commerce Department (home to the US Census and NOAA) would finally acknowledge their central role in data production and distribution by adding a chief data officer.

"Unleashing the full force of our data will be a source of innovation, a cornerstone of economic opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs, and a foundation for greater prosperity for millions of families," she said.

Beetles versus Beatles

Beetles killed the George Harrison Memorial Tree in LA.

"For the forests to be green, each tree must be green." - George Harrison

Bike paths improve health

Road.cc reports that a new study finds that people living close to bike paths get more exercise each week. It sounds intuitive, but each little piece of evidence makes it easier to convince decision makers that these small investments are worth it.

Esri UC 2014

Last week, a massive horde of GIS experts, technicians, fans and "users" descended on San Diego for a week of GIS feeding frenzy at the Esri User Conference. If you missed the world's largest GIS event, here are a few highlights:

A summary of the plenary in which Jack said Geodesign is the thing
The US Commerce Secretary addressed the audience
Scientific data meetings at the US
Esri's new ArGIS OpenData
Minneapolis' ArcGIS site

Friday fotos

The Swiss Alps 

Most ambitious transit proposal ever?

Helsinki is proposing a system that, in 10 years, would result in a car-free city. the Helsinki TImes quotes a research as saying that "A car is no longer a status symbol for young people."  The Guardian details the plan explaining how mobile devices will help residents order transportation services.

Worth the drive?

Grand-Metis has another summer art/garden festival that looks amazing. Unfortunately, it is a 4 hour drive past Quebec and 12 hours from Rutgers. So I'll just have to enjoy the photos online.

Planning job in NYC

New York City is looking for a Zoning Division City Planner II with a couple years of experience and GIS competency. 

Better subway cars

Sophisticated new Russian trains use USB 3.0! (See photo 35)

When will the NY Subways upgrade to USB 3.0? Doesn't even seem like it is on their radar.

Free global environmental data

When asked for free geospatial data, much of the time I am being asked about local data or something near New Jersey. However, more and more of our students are looking at national and international issues, particularly larger patterns or urbanization, climate change, and global food supply issues.

For those thinking big, I want to recommend the outstanding data resources at the University of Wisconsin's Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (Disclaimer: I am an alum of the Nelson Institute). This is a great place to get FREE maps, data and models on a variety of environmental issues. It includes geospatial data for irrigated lands, a global land use dataset, and urban extent data for some of the fastest growing areas in the world in SE Asia. It also has maps that are part of the Atlas of the Biosphere.

It is a great resource and yet another reason to keep an eye on our B1G colleagues.

Jens Jensen radio

Chicago's WBEZ took a quick look at Jens Jensen's role in saving the Indiana Dunes as a new documentary is being released.

A shadow transit system for NYC

Buses and subways and trams and streetcars make mobility in cities possible. But in many cities there is a second level of  transit lurking quietly in the background. In New Jersey and New York City, that is the dollar-vans industry. The latest New Yorker maps out this shadow transit system in an article by Adam Reiss. Do planners actively take this into account? Or do they ignore this often illegal system that frequently changes to fill the gaps in the official transit landscape?

“You hear about the vans by word of mouth,” Patrice Gibson, a thirty-year-old teaching fellow at Long Island University, said. “A friend told me, ‘Why are you taking the subway for two fifty when you can take the two-dollar van?’ But also, I’m Guyanese, and we have vans like this back in Guyana, so when I saw the van on the street I knew what it was.”

Is geoempowerment a word?

Apparently. The latest issue of ArcNews has a great article on Kongjian Yu called "Geoempowering Design." As a landscape architect, Yu finds himself looking at the profession and trying to lead it towards more defensible design solutions that are societally relevant.

Turenscape used geodesign to develop the Shuicheng River and Minhu Wetland Park project. Concrete embankments along the river were removed, and natural vegetation was planted and allowed to thrive. Storm water is no longer diverted away from the river. Water no longer goes to waste. A once polluted waterway is fishable again. People stroll along walkways that wind around terraced ponds. Beautiful orange flowers flourish around the wetland's perimeter.

"Now, it's become a beautiful place," Yu said. "People love it. The biodiversity has increased. It has now become a national wetland."

To me, this represents a transformation in practice. Rapid changes in technology and the exponential growth in available land information have created a new opportunity for GIS to empower landscape architecture to address increasingly important societal problems, from climate change to food supply, while providing design solutions that are more defensible that the intuitive approaches of the past.

Turenscape is one of the most relevant firms out there. Geodesign is a big part of the reason.

Is it a trend, innovation, or fad?

Bloomberg reports that the fastest growing area in the US has no kids or crime. The place they are talking about is The Villages in Florida near Ocala.

This isn't a new trend. In 2008, Andrew Blechman's Leisureville looked at the phenomena of retirement communities with a particularly close examination of The Villages. The NYTimes review of his book suggested that he had some less than kind words about the community-building interests of participants in this trend:

Blechman, the father of a young child, descends with a point of view. Retirement utopias, which first appeared in Arizona in the 1950s, are made possible by court decisions allowing segregation by age, where comparable segregation by race or religion would shock the conscience. Retirees like the Andersons leave towns that spend 55 percent of their budgets on the school system for subdivisions where the money goes to adult self-indulgence. As Blechman says, the resulting so-called life can’t “hide the fact that these communities are based on a selfish and fraudulent premise” and that Americans pay “the high societal price of this exclusionary lifestyle.”

But is this a just a fad? As the baby boomers start reaching their retirement years, they are discovering that it might be difficult to jump on this bandwagon. Last year Emily Badger wondered whether Boomers will be able to sell their houses and move to golfistans. She quotes Arthur C. Nelson who said that 77% of the demand for new construction of suburban single-family homes was driven by white baby boomers. But as they reach an age where driving is dangerous, mowing is a hassle, and where urban minorities are the new majority, the market might be different. She quotes him saying:

“My suspicion,” Nelson says, “is that many hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of those households in the 2020s to 2030 and beyond will simply give up the house and walk away.”

And now we are seeing that crushing student debt and a love for cities are reinforcing the trend with the Millenials delaying home ownership and trending towards living in downtowns and urban hubs where they live with friends and rent longer than the Boomers were expecting.

The next decade could be very interesting. Especially if there is another housing collapse looming in the distance.

Olmsted on TV

It is a great time for landscape architecture on TV for those in the NYC area.

Tonight (or tomorrow morning) at 1am, PBS 13 will be re-airing the Susan Sarandon narrated Great Museums episode on the High Line. Later tomorrow (Thursday) morning, PBS 13 is re-airing the 1 hour documentary, Olmsted and America's Urban Parks.

Then, on June 20th PBS everywhere will be airing a new special, Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America, which emphasizes his central role in shaping America and its identity.

Get some popcorn or set the DVR (or both).

Olmsted's plea for scientific agriculture

Watching science improve farming in other places, particularly England, Frederick Law Olmsted wanted his fellow farmers to see these same improvements. He plead for a better exchange of information that would help them all improve their yields and keep up with these standard bearers. Having detailed the great outcomes that were being elsewhere ("the average crop of all England has increased eight bushels per acre") he made this plea:

Farmers of Staten Island! it is the application of Science, of THOUGHT TO AGRICULTURE, that does this! What results might we anticipate if the Thought, the Skill, the Enterprise, the Energy, should be brought to bear upon our noble employment, which have given to the world the Steam Engine, the Cotton Gin, the Steamboat, the Railroad, the Electric Telegraph! And why shall we not ask it? No man expects the Merchant, the Mechanic, the Manufacturer of the present day to succeed in his calling while stupidly shutting his eyes to the light of Science, or scornfully pushing aside the proffered aid of the student. They readily avail themselves of aid from all sources. It is time the Farmer did so too. They have no patent right to improvement. Progress is no half-hardy plant that must be trained to the walls of cities. Why is it, then, that in all the pursuits of Human Industry we see such rapid achievement, while in our Art, the art on which all other arts depend, the wheels of progress move so strangely slow?

From the Appeal to the citizens of Staten Island by the Board of Managers of the Richmond County Agricultural Society, by Frederick Law Olmsted as corresponding secretary of the newly formed Richmond County Agricultural Society - December 1849.

King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia

While New Brunswick and New York are trying to figure out where to wedge in a new development or what buildings to replace with highrises, there are a few parts of the world where entire cities are being designed and built in just a a few years - China and the Middle East, most notably.

An interesting example is the King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia, which Nicolai Ouroussoff, the former NY Times Architecture Critic, said "aims to draw a range of Western corporations and their employees, as well as their expertise, to create a social mixing chamber." While this is a slower process, not intended for completion until 2030, KAEC is still being planned and built almost simultaneously. It is an effort to broaden the economic base of Saudi Arabia beyond just an oil economy,creating opportunities for work for the country's incredibly young population.

But what sorts of spaces do you create for such an instant metropolis? Ouroussoff wrote that while there were still fairly limited park spaces, public space was going in a less traditional direction:

The public spaces are closer in spirit to Las Vegas than to Riyadh. An elaborate pedestrian promenade will zigzag through the site, flanked by a narrow reflecting pool intended to conjure a traditional wadi, the mostly dry riverbed that runs through desert valleys. Branches of the “wadi” will connect to small public squares that the architects envision as social meeting places. 

SOM's Keith Besserud recently presented at the Geodesign Summit, showing how they used computer-mediated parametric design to create forms and spaces for the a massive model of the city. Their BlackBox software positioned them to rapidly produce a model that was designed consistent with the rest of the city. It is a new kind of urban design problem.

More Sandy victims

The Star-Ledger also reports that nearly 50 homes damaged by Superstorm Sandy have been bought out and will soon be demolished. 

World Environment Day

Happy World Environment Day. It is like Earth Day, but bigger.





Spread the news across the land, and just do the best you can,
All we've got is just the land; take a stand, save the land.

Sometimes I sit here thinking, but all the answers just don't appear.
I'm calling to my brothers and sisters, let's get together and kill this fear.
There ain't really gonna' be much to it. we can control the thing if we try.
With just a little more understanding, the whole world will get by.

One more victim of Sandy

Out on Sandy Hook the Sea Gulls' Nest is going to stay permanently closed, reports the Star-Ledger. But the Park Service, which owns the building, isn't in a rush to fix up the building just so it can get damaged again. Instead, the article suggests that resilience is their new watchword:

"We will continue to use food trucks because at this point it’s a more resilient way to deliver food services," she said.

Early aerial photographers

The Atlantic has an ongoing series presenting some amazing photos from WWI. One of the most recent entries features photos of planes, but also includes a few stunning air photos and photos of the earliest aerial photographers (#39 and 40). It is startling to realize how quickly the world move from not having airplanes to having war craft in the air with sophisticated abilities of both destruction (#41) and reconnaissance. Presumably the guys in aprons develop the film in the lab.

Bad weather, good news

The Bergen Record reports that this year's "bad weather" is good news in the fight against the emerald ash borer.

What CAN'T maps do?

The Star-Ledger has used maps to get us a step closer to understanding North Jersey's great Taylor Ham/Pork Roll divide.

Going temporality insane?

The last AAG included a big push on the budding research area of spatio-temporal research. Now I see it featured in a symposium in Ediburgh called, Temporal Design: An Interdisciplinary Workshop. Maybe it represents a convergences between the two fields, or maybe it is just another coincidence as the inescapable nature of time remains an inevitable topic for those seeking grand challenges and big issues. Either way, it makes for some fascinating reading.

GIS STEM software for schools

While I don't think that many people inside GIS doubt that GIScience is a central piece of the STEM fields, it is nice to have the White House on board with the idea.

Early census mapping

Disunion, the NY Times Civil War blog, has a fascinating blog post by UDenver's Susan Schulten spinning a Louisiana map of slave populations into a discussion of the early use of census mapping during the Civil War.

Rachel Carson birthday quotes

Today is Rachel Carson's 107th birthday. We can celebrate with quotes...

The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster.

or

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter. ― in Silent Spring

or

This is an era of specialists, each of whom sees his own problem and is unaware of or intolerant of the larger frame into which it fits.

or full passages from her writing.

Happy birthday reading.

Old becomes new again

As a former driver of a walking school bus, I am surprised to see it get rediscovered. But that is where we are.Providence, RI, Sioux City, IA, and Columbia, MO are all among the cities featured in this news story for rediscovering the walking school bus.

The WSB is a very popular trend to fight obesity, trim school budgets, make school a little more fun and keep kids safe. But, with roots going back (at least) to the early 1990s, it is far from new.


Of course, the entire idea of walking to school is just a new old idea too.

Endangered buildings and sites in NJ

Preservation New Jersey has released their 2014 list of endangered historic sites in New Jersey. The Star-Ledger reports that it includes a house owned by Rutgers and an entire small community in South Jersey. Check out the entire list.

NJ Sandy recovery editorial

The NY Times has a short editorial on HUD's new review of NJ's Sandy recovery efforts. \

At a recent set of studio presentations, an interesting discussion came up about the scale of Rutgers Gardens compared with some other comparable landscapes. So, here are some embedded Google Maps of different landscapes all at the same scale. Notice how much gets jammed into one place and how happens in a similarly sized space elsewhere. 

Rutgers Gardens

View Larger Map

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NJ Landscape Project Training and Information Webinar Session

The NJDEP Division of Fish and Wildlife is inviting the public to attend a Webinar on the Landscape Project, an interactive ecosystem-based mapping tool that assists government agencies, planners, conservation groups, the public and others in making decisions that will protect imperiled and special concern wildlife.

The NJ Landscape Project Training and Information Webinar Session will take place on May 28, 2014, 9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. 

To register, visit: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/892245144

The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife's Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP) offers training and information sessions on the Landscape Project at locations throughout the state. This Webinar will provide a convenient and environmentally friendly way for attendees to participate remotely.

This session will include an overview of the Landscape Project mapping method and applications and cover the updates and enhancements to the project and will provide participants an opportunity to use GIS "hands-on" to access habitat maps for threatened and endangered wildlife species.

Please Note:

Access to ArcGIS software is required in order to complete the ArcGIS exercise included in this Webinar.

Participants with access to ArcGIS software will have to download the Landscape Project GIS files prior to the start of the Webinar in order to complete the ArcGIS exercise included in the Webinar.  Files can be downloaded from DEP's Bureau of GIS at http://www.state.nj.us/dep/gis/landscape.html#geodatabase

It is highly recommended that users download the File Geodatabase files.

Register for this session now:

Wednesday, May 28, 2014 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/892245144

Once registered you will receive an e-mail confirming your registration with information you need to join the Webinar.

System Requirements

PC-based attendees

Required: Windows(r) 8, 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Mac(r)-based attendees

Required: Mac OS(r) X 10.6 or newer

Bucky! Say it ain't so

The NY Times reports that the World's Fair dome at the Queens Zoo may not really be a  Buckminster Fuller design, or at least as much as we thought. What's next? Will the Fuller map projection turn out to be designed by a guy name Dymax?

What does the NJ DEP do?

Have you looked at the list of activities that keep the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP) busy?

Some Reading Days TV

PBS is running a repeat showing tonight of Secrets of the Dead: The Lost Gardens of Babylon tonight. It is a great mix of history and landscapes.

The annual NJ GIS show off day

Geotechnology Ideas, Innovations & Applications

The 7^th Annual Showcase of Lightning Talks At The New Jersey Geospatial Forum

 Friday, June 6^th 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

NJ Office of Information Technology, 1^st Floor ITC Room,

300 Riverview Plaza, Trenton, NJ 08611

Do you have an exciting project, application or use of Geospatial Technology?

 This is your opportunity to give a 6 minute talk on your latest geospatial idea and learn from other GIS professionals in the NJGF Community.  Potential topics include: Web & Mobile Applications, GIS Analysis, Modeling, LiDAR, Programming, Creative GIS Projects, or any Geospatial rant or idea you wish to discuss.

If you would like to give a talk, please contact:

 Chris McClain    cmcclain@brickmua.com or

Trish Long           trish.long@nj.usda.gov

 

You are receiving this email because you joined the Forum through your NJGIN profile.  To change your preferences, edit the relevant setting in your profile on our website: https://njgin.state.nj.us/NJ_NJGINExplorer/index.jsp

New urbanism links and photos

For those still curious about New Urbanism after today's brief discussion, a good place to start learning about New Urbanism is the website for the Congress of New Urbanism. It includes an Introduction to New Urbanism, images, award winning examples, and their integration into the LEED standards.

 Here are some photos of The Kentlands in Gaithersburg, MD.

  

A trio of Cook Scholars in the news

The campus is still abuzz with discussions of yesterday afternoon's GH Cook Scholar presentations  by 3 outstanding landscape architecture students, Rebecca Cook (no relation), Michelle Hartman, and Jessie Woods. So, it should come as no surprise that these three made the newspaper today with their research-backed visions for the campus.

Keep choppin'

Will this new axe cause Rutgers football to change its Keep Choppin' motto?

Watch the hydrographs spike

Wow. What a rainstorm! Has the river crested? You can watch yourself with these USGS hydrographs.


Way upstream in Bedminster:
  
 

A little upstream of Rutgers at Manville:

A little closer at Bound Brook:
 

And downstream a ways at South Amboy: