People, Planet & Technology #10
Ahoy folks 👋
🎉This is the 10th issue of my little newsletter... whoop whoop!
Over the last few weeks, I have mainly dealt with two topics, on the one hand, conservation with open technology and on the other side with natural disasters. I will briefly summarise my results:
But before we start, here's another recommendation: grist magazine has chosen the 50 greatest fixers for our planet.
🌳Open Technology for conservation and exploration
What's behind it? Basically nothing else but trying to develop Open Source hardware solutions to explore our planet. Why? Genuine scientific tools are very cost-intensive and therefore hardly usable for associations, citizen initiatives or also students. Low-cost DIY tools make it possible for anyone to do research, discover our planet and of course protect it. For those who are new to this topic, I would like to give the talk by Andrew Quitmeyer The Importance of DIY Electronics and Jungle Crafting for Field Biology (Recording: Tupper TUESDAY Seminar - April 9, 2019).
I also participated in the last Virtual Meetup of WildLabs. Three speakers presented their projects using low-cost, open-source hardware. It was fascinating and inspiring... the recording and a summary can be found on WildLabs.
And last but not least I have summarised all my results, links and resources in my blog.
The topic is fascinating for me because I'm working on a project where we're trying to optimise routing based on air pollution variables. But more about that later...
🌪Natural Hazards
The other topic that I have been more involved with over the last few weeks through my studies is risk assessment and reduction of natural disasters. I am an absolute novice in this field, but I find it extremely exciting how natural disasters can be predicted using technologies like remote sensing.
I have compiled the most interesting links for you here:
An interactive flood plan out of the USB flash drive (German talk on FOSSGIS)
Sensing Wildfire Smoke at the Street Level (Aclima)
Openrouteservice for Disaster Management: Response to Cyclone Idai (GIScience)
Crowdsourcing triggers rapid, reliable earthquake locations (Science Advances)
HEPEX developed a game to protect cities from floods (Hepex)
Soon I will also write an article in my blog about how to combine these two topics, Open Technology and Natural Hazards. Stay tuned...
👉Miscellaneous things:
REMAP uses machine learning and Landsat data to map ecosystem change (SpatialSource)
About cities without cars... (NationalGeographic)
Climate Smart Mining: Minerals for Climate Action (Visual Capitalist)
A Guide to Every Permitted Natural Gas Well in West Virginia (ProPublica)
What Happens to the Plastic We Throw Out (National Geographic)
Project Greenland is a story about how scientist exploring polar regions (Reuters)
AI for Earth observation and numerical weather prediction (Space News)
Mapping Animals Where They Wander (Directions Mag)
I hope you enjoy this issue. I want to encourage you to send me your feedback via mail (just reply), twitter or carrier pigeons 🐦.
We’ll read again next month. 🙌 Enjoy looking for the 🥚🐰...
Take care. -Niklas