Not done with Cartographica, but a good visualization of the spill so far, the NY Times has put together a animated series of maps of the oil leak showing the extent and (to the right) the comparison with the Exxon Valdez and the "largest accidental oil leak into a body of water", also into the Gulf of Mexico, but lasting 10 months before it was stopped.

Building off of the last post I decided to incorporate Google Earth and some analysis to show where Al'Qaida and Taliban forces have been concentrating in Afghanistan. To determine the areas of operation of both of these terrorist organizations I compiled information from various sources to create a basic map of where these groups are operating and where the U.S ground forces are focusing their attention.

The war is Afghanistan is currently an important issue for many people. Many families have loved ones serving our country in an attempt to fight global terrorism. Generally, speaking most of us know very little about the landscape of Afghanistan, including topographical, infrastructural, and political, layout of the country. In an attempt to provide a little spatial information about Afghanistan I have put together a blog post highlighting some of these issues related to this war torn county.

The DC GIS department has teamed with the DC Department of Public Works, to do this animated map of snowplows. Despite the fact that the animation leaves tracks, it gets the point across, and it's kinda neat. Basically, it's recorded real-time plow data superimposed over the map of the District.

I recently came across an interesting New York Times article about crime in New York City. The article mentions that crime in NYC is highest during the summer months, which is a common finding among criminologists and others interested in crime trends. The article includes an interesting use of mapping by including an interactive map where victims, offenders, motive, and weapon can be viewed.

This post is an extension of the last Google Sketch Up/Google Earth example. In this post we are going to do a similar process except we are going to import a large structure on a larger plot of land. This posting is using an example that I developed after the city of Lexington, Kentucky announced that a new 40 story hotel would be built downtown. I used this opportunity to design what I thought would be an interesting building for the city.

We all remember when the economic stimulus package was announced earlier this year by President Obama. However, what we were unsure about was were all of the money was going. MSNBC has released a new mapping tool that allows users to see where and how much stimulus money has been spent.

I recently came across a great website called World Wind Central that has compiled a great source of orthophoto data. I decided to use data form the website to show how to download import and map orthophotos along with data collected from the census bureau.

Building off of Gaige's May 2009 post (Home town makes good (data)) regarding data available online from the city of Washington D.C. I decided to create a few interesting maps just to show some of the analytic capabilities of Cartographica. The city of Washington D.C. provides a large range of data regarding practically anything that can be spatially analyzed within the city. For this example I decided to collect several demographic, infrastructure, and other social data to create a few interesting maps. Compiling a large amount of data from an online source such as D.C. GIS is a valuable skill to learn because obtaining free data can work to benefit any research or professional endeavor using GIS. Taking advantage of free data can greatly offset the cost of large scale research projects, and being able to quickly add them into programs like Cartographica is extremely beneficial.

I came across an interesting article on GISuser.com about a new app for the iPhone that is designed to track outbreaks of infectious diseases like H1N1. The app "Outbreaks Near Me" provides users with real time information about the location of both the user and where the infectious disease was recorded.