Geospatial Revolution: Episode Four Released

The fourth,  final episode of the Geospatial Revolution project, created by Penn State Public Broadcasting, has been released.

If you’ve missed any of the previous episodes, I strongly recommend that you check them out. Episode One covered a wide overview of “how” and “why” questions regarding geospatial technologies, and Episode Two dug into more specific examples including the City of Portland and the well-known shipping company UPS. Episode Three discussed how geospatial technologies are using in war and in keeping the peace.

Episode Four covers four main topics:

• Monitoring a Changing Climate

• Preventing Hunger

• Tracking Disease

• Mapping Power to the People

As with the previous episodes, you can choose to watch each segment individually or simply watch the full 17 minute video below.

Congratulations to PSPB on creating such an excellent series of videos!

Geospatial Revolution: Episode Three Released

Once again, right on time, Penn State Public Broadcasting has released Episode Three of their excellent “Geospatial Revolution” project.

If you’ve missed either of the first two episodes, I strongly suggest you go back and watch them. Episode One covered a wide overview of “how” and “why” questions regarding geospatial technologies, and Episode Two dug into more specific examples including the City of Portland and the well-known shipping company UPS.

Episode Three covers a variety of safety and war-related topics, such as:

• “Mapping the Road to Peace”

• “Waging Modern War”

• “Serving and Protecting”

• “Staying Safe”

You can watch each segment individually on their site, or watch the full 15 minute video below:

I hope you enjoy the video, and be watching for their fourth and final episode on May 3, 2011.

Geography Awareness Week

gaweek2010.jpgThis week is National Geographic’s “Geography Awareness Week”, which we’ve highlighted a few times in the past (2007, 2008).

This year’s theme is “Freshwater!”, highlighting the importance of our relationship with water. In particular, they emphasize that less than 1% of the world’s water is available for human use. Here’s a video that shows what this year’s week is all about:

While they didn’t create any Google Earth Tours as they have in the past, there are still a few resources that you may find interesting.

Where’s That Water? A quiz that features GeoEye imagery, asking you to identify the body of water based off of just a satellite image. Here is an example from last year.

The Geospatial Revoluation They’re highlighting the excellent videos being produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting, which we’ve also shown on our site (episode one, episode two). In addition, they encourage you to check out the educator resources that PSPB is offering.

Water – Our Thirsty World They’re offering a free interactive magazine that you can download. Included are some neat features such as animated maps and timelines.

While I’m a bit disappointed at the lack of Google Earth-specific resources, they really do have a lot of great content on their site. Check out www.GeographyAwarenessWeek.org to see everything they have to offer.