Make gorgeous maps

Why let the GIS software have all the fun? These 4 videos show you how to make absolutely gorgeous maps the hard way.

Swap parklets for pavement parks

Josh Cohen has penned an opinion piece asking us to, "Stop Building Mediocre Parklets, Start Building Pavement Parks."

Loss of diversity in American cropland

Researchers at Kansas State and the USDA have documented a substantial drop in crop diversity across the US over the last 34 years. The data-intensive study required longitudinal data, across the entire US that allowed them to study changes at the county level.

Catalan independence

Could Catalan independence really happen? Here is a link to some explanations of likelihood and the implications.

Happy Parking Day!

Happy Parking Day!

The ASLA and NJASLA have helped grow this into an annual tradition of reclaiming a little asphalt for humans for a few hours. Keep an eye out in New Brunswick for our installation or watch online at #ASLAPD. Last year's was a big success and this year could be even bigger.

Landscape architecture as necessity

USC is hosting an interesting conference next year called Landscape Architecture as Necessity. It is a fascinating organizing committee with some great potential speakers. Considering the tremendously important drought conditions under which California is suffering, the role of LAs as masters of remediation and stewards of resources is truly necessary today.  Personally, I would also like to see more on their role in shaping the health of the public as we see continued growing recognition of the role of the built environment as a health factor.

Abstracts are due soon.

Ways of designing

How many different ways of designing are there? Carl Steinitz gives us a good start with the ones he details in this 35 minute geodesign video.

Networking opportunity

Fall Meeting Registration Grid to Ground for Mapping Professionals Let's talk about points, the grid, and the ground. Why not? As you are likely aware, progressively more high-precision GPS/GNSS (global positioning system/global satellite navigation system) based real-time-kinematic methods are being used in for project related mapping. Unless proper correction methods are used, horizontal distances between two locations determined by the GNSS method will differ from the measurements that are made by traditional survey methods. This difference between the two measurements is often referred to as the grid-to-ground problem. This meeting will provide methodologies to address this challenge, and assist the GIS community in gaining a better understanding of the process. When: Tuesday October 6, 2015 Where: New Jersey Institute of Technology- Newark, NJ Time: 8:00 am- 3:30 pm Parking will be provided in a campus garage. See registration page for details. A light breakfast and lunch is included in your $25 registration fee. Register now at http://www.macurisa.org/fall2015

The 606 Trail is open

Urban Land Blog takes you on a ride of the first open section of the 606 Trail. In case you don't know Chicago that well, the Tribune has mapped out this elevated park for you.

Random National Park Service Links

Katmai NP in the NY Times

Appalachian Trail Forums on WhiteBlaze.Net

Inside Big Bend (SLYT)

TripAdvisor on Pictured Rocks NL

MyYosemite Blog (which just posted pictures of a completely dry Yosemite Falls)

Badlands NP on Flickr

Tiny National Park lands

GIS Major or Certificate at Rutgers

If you are interested in majoring in GIS, check out the Environmental Geomatics Option. It is the closest thing Rutgers' has to a GIS undergraduate major. If you are already locked into a major, be sure you check out the Environmental Geomatics Certificate.

Welcome back!

Where has summer gone? If you had been on the department's Facebook page you would have seen my answer (hint: Spain).

As part of getting connected for the new school year, you can see glimpses of what we are doing on either the department's Facebook page or my own, on Twitter or on this very blog.

The end of the AT

The NY Times took a look at the controversy about ending the Appalachian Trail somewhere other than at Mount Katahdin. Aside the main points of the story, the fact that the Times gives this story prime real estate in Section A and a slideshow online is testimony to how much people care about the AT.

The Lower Ninth Ward

Photos of the Lower Ninth Ward taken a few years after Katrina.

Terry Brown

Landscape architecture has lost one of its great educators, Terry Brown of Michigan. In a remembrance posted on the University's website by is former colleagues, it was mentioned that he worked at Architects Collaborative and was an alum of the University of Wisconsin.

Remembering Mississippi

With all of the remembrances of Katrina this weekend, most of the attention is focused on New Orleans. But the impact on Coastal Mississippi of a 28 foot storm traveling more than 6 miles inland was, to me, unbelievable. The coverage this week in Sun Herald, complete with photos and videos and stories, shows devastation that was largely ignored in the shadow of New Orleans.

The photos below are all from Southern Mississippi following the storm. But they are not from 2 weeks after or 2 moths after the storm. The photos were all taken 14 months after the storm.

Mapping the oceans' debris

Sometimes students talk to me about mapping as if we've run out of spatial patterns to study. So I love seeing examples of new frontiers in mapping. What else is waiting to mapped?

A team from National Geographic has tackled questions about the debris (mostly plastic) floating around on the surface of the Earth's oceans. Their map reveals patterns previously unknown.

Heroin deaths mapped over time

The Star-Ledger posted a startling animated map that shows all of New Jersey's Heroin deaths since 2004.

Stories

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today. 

 - Robert McKee 

“If you don’t know the trees you may be lost in the forest, but if you don’t know the stories you may be lost in life.” 

- Siberian Elder

Finding our way

The BBC has some lovely photos of the designs of Adrian Fisher. They are captivating and confusing. Fisher explains, " Ideally, you need to get properly lost, but find your way out at the point just before you've had enough – during the period in which fun and disorientation are still operating hand in hand.”

Lose yourself in his work.