Dynamic KML

The latest in the Google GeoDeveloper Series...

This installment outlines how to query and extract records from a MySQL database and create a KML on the fly to view in Google Earty/Maps or any other client. Mano Marks shows two different applications, one using PHP scripting and another using the python language.

A second demontration by Brian Hamlyn shows a demonstration using PostGIS/PostgreSQL and the GDAL/OGR libraries to create KMLs on the fly.

A useful addition to the video would be a link to download the scripts and syntax used in the demonstrations like was done in the previous workshop by John Coryat.

Enjoy!

EDEN Data Portal: A resource for publically available European environmental data:

This is "one of our" data portal sites we manage for a European research project Emerging Diseases in a changing European eNvironment (EDEN). It is designed as a data repository and resource primarily for the project members, however we have made all the data that is publically available elsewhere on the web available to anyone who takes a minute to register. This data includes satellite imagery, cleaned gazeteers, land cover, DEM, and climate data to name a few.

Link to the EDEN Data Archive here.

All the data is clipped to the EDEN extent which includes Europe and parts of the North coast of Africa.. We have even cleaned some of the data up for you or added value in other ways, for instance in the NGA Gazeteer dataset we have removed any place names that are labelled in one country but are georeferenced to another.

Even though most of the data will be available from elsewhere on the web, the fact the EDEN Data portal has so many datasets in one place it is a fantastic place to start looking for what data is available.

The datasite has also one of the most extensive list of GIS links around, over 1000 in all and has a number of tutorials for a variety of GIS software. The site is well worth a look!

FYI: The site was designed and is managed by Euro-AEGIS a partnership of ERGO (my employer) and Avia-GIS for the EDEN Project.

The Malaria Atlas Project

The Malaria Atlas Project published the first global risk map for malaria for 40 years earlier this month. It is possible to download the maps as either KMZs, flat image files or PDFs. there are also some 3D representations as PDFs and some animations.

Malaria Risk Map: Check out the Data and find out more for yourself here.

There was a small piece in The Times on the manager of the project Dr Simon Hay to mark the release of these maps which you can view here.

The Malaria Atlas Project is a Wellcome Trust funded joint project between the Malaria Public Health & Epidemiology Group, Centre for Geographic Medicine, Kenya and the Spatial Ecology & Epidemiology Group, University of Oxford, UK with collaborating nodes in America and Asia Pacific region.

Creating Custom Google Maps

The latest from Google Geo Developer series, John Coryat (of maps.huge.info and usnaviguide.com) gives a great talk on how to go about creating custom maps with the Google maps API. I can forgive him for dwelling a little too long on US Specific data sources, as he gave a very good presentation on how to go about posting data using the Google Maps API.

You can view the video here on YouTube and download his presentation as a PDF.

John described a number of different ways of adding data to maps using the Maps API, highlighting the pros, cons and trade-offs of each method. I list the main points I took from the presentation below, if they are of interest take the time to watch the video:

• Max number points and lines successfully displayed by the maps API in one map window: 50-150 in a view depending on user browser & system.

• Image Overlays: Whole image overlays & tile overlays.
• Whole image overlays.
• Unprojected.
• Projected.
• Tile image overlays.
• Description of structure
• Tiles cut from single images
• Static data tiles (can be different images for different zooms)
• Dynamic data tiles
• Simulated markers

This weeks presentation was a little more advanced than the previous one and assumed a little more previous knowledge. If you felt left behind a little and would like some getting started tutorials and other useful information the Google Maps API FAQ page is a good place to start. Check out their Articles and Tutorials. If you have further questions sign up to the Discussion Group and Blog.

Digital Geography in a Web 2.0 World - Presentations Online

I attended this seminar a fortnight ago hosted by CASA and the National Centre for E-Social Science (NCeSS) at the Barbican Theatre in London. An excellent event which highlighted how Web 2.0 technology can and is being used with digital geography in the research community, enabling new approaches in modelling as well as in the presentation of results for analysis.

There were some great youtube-tastic presentations which made even the not so relevant topics (to me) fly by. There were two highlights of the day for me. The first was a presentation entitled Geographical Statistics and the Grid (see it here) by Richard Harris & Chris Brunsden. It outlined how they had used the R open source statistics package in combination with a distributed computing network (The UKs National Grid Service) to run a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) analysis. ...A little dry I know but of relevance to my current work ;-)

The second highlight was the final presentation by Andrew Hudson-Smith on what the future has to offer entitled Web 2.0, Neogeography and Virtual Worlds. GIS and Second Life anyone? Check it out here.

Also worth a mention, Richard Milton launched a new site called MapTube: A place to put maps. Not sure how long it will be able to keep the name, but it is basically a youtube for maps. As I understand it you use their free software GMapCreator to prepare your data. Stick it on your webserver and register the location on MapTube along with anything you want to say about it. Other people can then pick and choose your data and others to mash up onto a single map. See what Richard said about it himself and view his presentation here.

All the presentations are available for download here.