Geography Education
Geography Education
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Global news with a spatial perspective: Interesting, current supplemental materials for geography students and teachers. http://geographyeducation.org
Curated by Seth Dixon
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Google Search reveals religious biases/ stereotypes

Google Search reveals religious biases/ stereotypes | Geography Education | Scoop.it

Not saying that Google Search itself is biased, but that it can reveal the bias of internet users and all of the "information" posted online.  Within the proper context, seeing potential searches can be very informative about cultural perceptions, online communities and prejudices.   Be cautious and judicious in how (or if) you use this within a classroom setting.   See comments for additional results of additional "religious" searches. 

Seth Dixon's comment, November 13, 2011 2:48 PM
For the search "why are mormons so..." the results were 1) nice 2) happy and 3)rich.
Seth Dixon's comment, November 13, 2011 3:40 PM
For the search "Why are atheists so..." the results were 1) angry 2) hated and 3) mean.
Seth Dixon's comment, November 13, 2011 3:43 PM
For the search "Why are Hindus so..." the results were 1) afraid of Muslims 2) angry with Avatar 3) cheap and 4) smart.
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Erosion in Action

News 8 chief photojournalist Kevyn Fowler captured a road collapsing in Freeport, Maine during a storm.
Seth Dixon's insight:

The forces of erosion are usually slow and gradual, wearing away at landforms over the course of years.  This video show the quick and dynamic factor that erosion can be...this is easily the most compelling 3-minute video about a single patch of road that I've ever seen. 

 

Tags: physical, water, disasters, geomorphology, erosion.

Emily Ross Cook's curator insight, May 6, 7:56 AM

Another reason why you shouldn't drive on flooded roads.  Amazing how quickly this road went from looking fine to having a gaping hole in it.  

Leslie G Perry's curator insight, May 8, 4:58 PM

Very interesting view of the forces of erosion. This would make a good addition to any science discussion that covers erosion and the forces of nature on the land.

Francisco Javier 's curator insight, May 12, 8:53 PM

Erosion in Action | @scoopit via @APHumanGeog http://sco.lt/...

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2 Cars Swallowed By Sinkhole

2 Cars Swallowed By Sinkhole | Geography Education | Scoop.it
A 150-yard-long chunk of State Highway 89 collapsed about 5 a.m. roughly 25 miles south of Page
Seth Dixon's insight:

Just a reminder that the Earth beneath our feet (and roads and buildings) are a part of a dynamic system that changes. 

chris tobin's comment, February 21, 1:12 PM
Located on the cliffs, surprisingly there were no landslides
Louis Culotta's comment, February 21, 2:49 PM
it looks like some of the pictures of the roads I took after the earthquake in new Zealand .
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Boston's unnatural shoreline

Boston's unnatural shoreline | Geography Education | Scoop.it
Today's 100-year storm surge could be tomorrow's high tide.
Seth Dixon's insight:

This set of maps and articles help to explain why sea level rise is such an issue for many major metropolitan areas.  In coastal cities with substantial economic development, much of the current coastal areas where once underwater until landfill projects filled in the bay.  During storm surges (or if and when sea levels rise) these will be the first places to flood.  


Tags: disasters, water, physical, Boston, weather and climate.

Charlotte Hoarau's curator insight, February 6, 5:57 AM

Surging sea represented on an imagery background layer.

Color ramp should be graduated.

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Visualizing Seismic Waves

Movie showing ground motion of four earthquakes propagating across a high density seismic array in Long Beach, California. Data was recorded by NodalSeismic,...
Seth Dixon's insight:

Seismic activity is to be expected in the Los Angeles region as the major hazard threat in the area.  This area has a great number of sensors which now allows us to visualize seismic waves better than ever before.  This video show 4 earthquakes (starting at 0:45, 2:20, 6:00, and 8:35).  For more information on the science behind this clip, read the adptly named blog, The Trembling Earth.


Tags: visualization, disasters, physical, Los Angeles.

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Pre- and Post-Storm 3D Lidar Topography

Pre- and Post-Storm 3D Lidar Topography | Geography Education | Scoop.it
This project investigates the coastal impacts of hurricanes and extreme storms.


Here is some more post-Sandy geo-spatial imagery. LIDAR (think sonar and radar but with light and lasers) is Light Detection And Ranging that can produce some amazing data. 

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Climate Change, Disaster Mitigation and City Planning

TED Talks As Vicki Arroyo says, it's time to prepare our homes and cities for our changing climate, with its increased risk of flooding, drought and uncertainty.


Our major cities are suceptible to environmental catastrophes for a whole host of reasons.  Cities depend on a smooth of goods, money and services provided by infrastructure that we take for granted and assume will always work 24/7.  Presented in the video are some ideas about how we should rethink our cities with a different ecological paradigm to protect our cities more in the future. 


Tags: planning, urban ecology, environment adapt, sustainability.

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Obama visits storm disaster zone

Obama visits storm disaster zone | Geography Education | Scoop.it

KT: Obama has visited New Jersey to observe the damages sustained from hurricane Sandy. New Jersey got hit harder than most and has been severely flooded and damaged in several regions.

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Mammoth Storm Plunges NYC into Darkness

Mammoth Storm Plunges NYC into Darkness | Geography Education | Scoop.it
Subway tunnels and parts of the Financial District have been flooded...


The flooding has been as devastating as expected given the height of the storm surge, but this image of Ground Zero still is chilling. 

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Compare Irene to Sandy

Compare Irene to Sandy | Geography Education | Scoop.it
Experts say Hurricane Sandy is wider and stronger than Hurricane Irene, which caused more than $15 billion in damage in 2011, and could rival the worst East Coast storm on record.


This is a quick visual comparison of remote sensing images that lets you slide to compare the superimposed images. 

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Monitoring the Storm Surge

Monitoring the Storm Surge | Geography Education | Scoop.it
National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service...


When the Pawtuxet River flooded in Rhode Island, I was watching this site to get a sense of how bad the flooding was and to put it in historic context (the National Weather Service has links to live data at many locations).  This particular station in NYC at the Battery is important to keep an eye on with Hurricane Sandy because if the strom surge is over 10 feet, the subway system could flood and the issues confronting New York would be devastating.  As meterologist Andy Lesage noted, "During Irene it got to 9.5ft, 8-12 inches shy of flooding the subway system so if the Battery gets to something like 10.25+ ft, it will indicate massive damage to the cities' infrastructure."  For more see, the Weather Underground and Jeff Masters' analysis.


Tags: disasters,water, physical, NYC, transportation, weather and climate.

Gary Robertson's comment, November 2, 2012 9:57 AM
This chart shows graphically how time-of-day (high tide), time-of-month (high lunar tide), and time of landfall all coincided to help create this disaster. it just wasn't a wind-driven event, but a coincidental alignment of several factors resulting in a worst-case result.
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Image Analysis

Image Analysis | Geography Education | Scoop.it
One of a number of large wildfires that have affected northern California in 2012, the Chips fire burned more than 75,000 acres by the time firefighters had contained it.


2012 is going to go down in United States history as the year with the most acres burned in a single year (statistics only go back to 1960).  The two featured images were taken earlier this month to display a Northern California wildfire; both with the same spatial resolution and acquired for the same instrument (Advanced Land Imager on EO-1 satellite), yet they are quite distinct.  One shows an aerial photograph, displaying exactly what standard visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum (showing us what our eyes would normally see).  The other image displays a false color (near infrared) image. 


Questions to ponder: what advantages does each image have for analyzing the fire damage?  Drawbacks?  How does the data from both images work together to create a more complete picture of the situation?     


Tags: remote sensing, images, environment, land use, disasters, biogeography

m burr's comment, September 17, 2012 10:16 AM
These images are very similar and different one you can see the smoke but you cant really see much of the damage on the land. where as the infrared image shows the areas that have been damaged but also makes the areas more easily able to depict the different features.
Lisa Fonseca's comment, September 17, 2012 10:22 AM
The first image displays a better visual of exactly where the fire damaged the land, the second image doesn't provide a clear visual to someone, the land effected is foggy. If I was going to visit this specific area in Northern California I would much rather use the first aerial image.
Jesse Gauthier's comment, September 17, 2012 10:31 AM
The first image gives a good spatial shot of where the exact hot spots are located that cannot be seen by the naked eye. The second photo will give you a spatial view of what you can actually see. Both are needed to put out the hot spot because they each will provide two different solutions to stop the burning acres.
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Man-Made Cities and Natural Disasters

Man-Made Cities and Natural Disasters | Geography Education | Scoop.it
Patrick assesses the future of world order, state sovereignty, and multilateral cooperation.

 

The 21st century is the dawn of a new era in human history: more people on Earth live in cities than in the countryside.  The impacts of this new basic fact are far-reaching.  One of those is that cities that are in particular environments are more prone to certain natural disasters and will be increasingly vulnerable as their populations increase (especially megacities in the developing world).

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Real-time Earthquake Map

Real-time Earthquake Map | Geography Education | Scoop.it
USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, responsible for monitoring, reporting, and researching earthquakes and earthquake hazards...

 

This map represents the 1079 earthquakes with magnitudes higher than 2.5 that have occured in the last 30 days.  You can customize the map to display different data at any scale.  There is detailed information about each earthquake in this great dataset. 

Trisha Klancar's comment, August 18, 2012 8:33 AM
I've used this often and kids love it. It is visual and allows them to realize what is happening at that very moment and PERHAPS gets them to see the world doesn't revolve around them! hee,hee
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Volcanic Forces, Human Impacts

Rogério Rocha's comment, March 28, 11:30 AM
Thanks for the post.
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Smartphones as geospatial tools

The disastrous earthquake in Haiti taught humanitarian groups an unexpected lesson: the power of mobile devices to coordinate, inform, and guide relief efforts.


Tags: technology, disasters, Haiti, TED.

Seth Dixon's insight:

We are only beginning to see the applications of smart phones to improve peoples lives.  In this TED talk, Paul Conneally explores some of the possibilities (citizen mapping, crowd-sourced disaster recovery, etc.) that is just sitting in the palm of our collective hands. 

Tony Hall's curator insight, February 18, 6:43 AM

This is why ICT is important. No. Vital! Our students need to see things like this so that they understand the positive aspects of technology. They need to see that SMS, Facebook & Twitter are so much more than just a way sharing silly photos of themselves. This technology has the power to affect real, positive change. 

techsavvygirl's curator insight, February 18, 8:21 AM

Augmenting human potential with smartphones

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Emergency and Disaster Information Service

Emergency and Disaster Information Service | Geography Education | Scoop.it

Map of the World, in real time with natural disaster information.

"This is a Emergency and Disasters Information and monitoring services. Hosted by National Association of Radio-distress signalling and Infocommunications.

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What Could Disappear?

What Could Disappear? | Geography Education | Scoop.it
Coastal and low-lying areas that would be permanently flooded in three levels of higher seas.


This interactive feature is designed to answer a simple, yet profound set of questions.  What areas (in over 20 cities around the U.S.) would be under water if the ocean levels rose 5 feet?  12 feet?  25 feet?  The following set of maps show "coastal and low-lying areas that would be permanently flooded without engineered protection." 

Mary Rack's comment, November 26, 2012 8:03 AM
especially good!
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In 2009, Engineers Detailed Storm Surge Threat to NYC

In 2009, Engineers Detailed Storm Surge Threat to NYC | Geography Education | Scoop.it
One of the nation’s most influential groups of engineers said it presented detailed warnings that a devastating storm surge in the region was all but inevitable and proposed ways to prepare.

 

MH: Hey, you know what? A bunch of engineers accurately predicted the kinds of damage the East Coast would face from a strong storm surge. Maybe we should give that science stuff a little consideration in our future plans in designing our cities.

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Temporary Transit Map

This map "grays out" the inoperable subway lines in New York City that have been flooded or otherwise damaged during Hurricane Sandy.

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The Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

The Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy | Geography Education | Scoop.it
After cutting a destructive path through the Caribbean, Hurricane Sandy caused extensive damage along the East Coast this week.


While the damage wasn't as bad as many feared it could have been, place and spatial context are especially important in assessing the impacts of a natural disaster.  This is a excellent collection of the many devastating images as a result of Hurricane Sandy.  To see some more local images, Rhode Island Department of Transportation put this collection together.   

oyndrila's comment, November 4, 2012 2:08 AM
Thank you for the post. The images are moving and display the power of nature and our resilience
Lisa Fonseca's comment, November 6, 2012 10:18 PM
I am speechless, these images have just torn my heart. Here in Providence, Rhode Island listened to multiple people say "oh this storm was nothing" they apparently need to view these photos, to understand Sandy was a monster of a storm. Mother nature is powerful and she can do just about anything. I am so mind boggled by the images, roads completely torn apart I never knew this could happen from a hurricane. It really made me appreciate how safe I was but now seeing these images really makes me want to get out there and tell more people to look at what happened in NJ,CT,NYC, and other places around the coast. My next step now is to get a donation bin started to send over to those states in major need. This is sure another natural disaster to go down in history.
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Preparations for the Storm

This is a link from the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance which is now on Twitter.   UPDATE: This shows the number of power outages in the state

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Coastal Hazard Threat Map

Coastal Hazard Threat Map | Geography Education | Scoop.it

This interactive map of coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island shows some basic flooding data including: 1) where are the flood warnings (essential the entire coastline), 2) how high the storm surge is, and 3) how high the waves are.


Tags: Rhode Island, water, disasters, geospatial.

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Hurricane Sandy may be unprecedented in East Coast storm history

Hurricane Sandy may be unprecedented in East Coast storm history | Geography Education | Scoop.it
WEATHER GANG | With computer models locked in on the eventuality of a punishing blow for East Coast from Hurricane Sandy, analyses suggest this storm may be unlike anything the region has ever experienced.


This weekend's storm for the East coast is especially interesting.  I won't pretend to be a meteorologist, so I'll quote one: "The upper-air steering pattern that is part of the puzzle is not all that unheard of. It happens when the atmosphere gets blocked over the Atlantic and the flow over the U.S. doubles back on itself. Sometimes big winter storms are involved.  The freak part is that a hurricane happens to be in the right place in the world to get sucked into this doubled-back channel of air and pulled inland from the coast."  Stay safe everyone on the east coast.   


Tagsweather and climate, physical, disasters

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The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans Gives New Meaning to ‘Urban Growth’

The Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans Gives New Meaning to ‘Urban Growth’ | Geography Education | Scoop.it
Since Katrina, the cartoonish pace of vegetation growth in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans resembles something out of a Chia Pet commercial.


The ecosystem is reclaiming parts of New Orleans that have been physically or economically abandoned.  This is part elevation, climate and ecosystem; but it is also about urban land uses, disinvestment and socioeconomics.


Tags: urban ecology, environment, ecology, urban, unit 7 cities, disasters, land use

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Philippines floods: the aftermath

Philippines floods: the aftermath | Geography Education | Scoop.it
The torrential rains that caused widespread flooding in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, have left the city reeling...

 

This is a grim, but captivating photo gallery showing how people adapt to environmental disasters.  Human settlements are vulnerable to disasters based on their environmental situations but people still display an amazingly capacity to be resilient in the face of danger.  "The torrential rains that caused widespread flooding in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, have left the city reeling. Thousands of people remain in evacuation shelters, and those who stayed in their homes during the deluge face a major clean-up operation." 

Trisha Klancar's comment, August 20, 2012 9:23 AM
Thankyou for this link.