Explore 279 miles of the Colorado River in Google Maps Street View
Scientists have techniques for tracking megafauna—wolves, say, or moose. They catch ’em, sedate ’em, slap on a special collar, and wait for the data from GPS satellites to flow in. But what about birds? Or dragonflies? Tracking devices big enough to ping satellites are too bulky for such wee creatures. They’re expensive too. United Air- lines will soon swoop to the rescue, mounting radio receiver antennas on its planes to pick up signals from smaller, cheaper animal tags.
“The idea is to create a new, low-altitude network,” says Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. His project, Partners in the Sky, is working to get the tags— which rely on trusty VHF radio technology—down to a weight of just 0.15 gram. Then some of United’s 5,300 daily flights will help gather massive amounts of data as they cruise the lower atmosphere, tracking previously untrackable vanishing species like the American Wood Thrush or monarch butterfly. “The first step in stopping a decline is to figure out when and where animals are dying,” Marra says. “I can’t mitigate it if I can’t identify it.”
The program benefits bigger critters too: The low cost makes it possible to tag more animals. Plus, it’s convenient. In the old days, researchers had to make dedicated flights and trips into the wild with receivers to see what pings they could pick up. But the airplane network will mean “I can sit at my computer drinking beer,” Marra says. The receiver’s design is still in process, but United is on board, tray tables up, ready for takeoff.
Open Water: Exploring Open Source Water Quality Monitoring
August 21st, 2014
Via MIT’s Center for Civic Media, details on an interesting project that
Over the last several months, Civic has been working on the Open Water Project, which aims to develop and curate a set of low-cost, open-source tools enabling communities to collect, interpret, and share their water quality data. Open Water is an initiative of Public Lab, a community that uses inexpensive DIY techniques to change how people see the world in environmental, social, and political terms (read more about Public Lab and the Open Water initiative here). The motivation behind Open Water derives partly from the fact that most water quality monitoring uses expensive, proprietary technology, limiting the accessibility of water quality data. Inexpensive, open-source approaches to water quality monitoring could enable groups ranging from watershed managers to homeowners to more easily collect and share water quality data.
As part of the Open Water Project, we’ve looked at other open-source water quality monitoring tools and initiatives (you can read more about those initiatives on this Public Lab research note, “What’s Going on In Water Monitoring”) and we’ve had meetups to talk about water quality and monitoring strategies (here’s a summary of an awesome water quality primer with Jeff Walker). We’ve also been working on development of the Riffle — the “Remote, Independent, and Friendly Field Logger Electronics”. The Riffle is a low-cost, open-source hardware device that will measure some of the most common water quality parameters using a design that makes it possible for anyone to build, modify, and deploy water quality sensors in their own neighborhood. Specifically, the Riffle will measure conductivity, temperature, and depth, which can serve as indicators for potential pollutants. Eventually the Riffle will be able to fit in a plastic water bottle.
A few weeks ago, Public Lab received generous support from Rackspace for an Open Water event in July, and Catherine D’Ignazio, Don Blair, and I decided we’d host a workshop focused on exploring conductivity as an important and widely-used water quality parameter. In addition to facilitating a group discussion on the topic, we hoped we could work together on prototyping simple, inexpensive and creative ways of measuring conductivity.
We started the workshop with a discussion around water quality monitoring and community support structures, including what a distributed water quality monitoring effort might look like (and some of the associated challenges) and strategies for developing community support (e.g. ‘tool libraries’ that include water quality monitoring tools). We also talked about the ways in which inexpensive, non-proprietary sensors might allow for new and important questions to be asked and answered in water quality, and how we might calibrate open hardware sensors.
Next, we had a mini lecture on conductivity measurements from Craig Versek and dove into creating a resistance-dependent oscillation circuit using the 555 timer (a fairly simple circuit). The idea behind the circuit is that oscillation frequency of the output will increase as the resistance value decreases (as a result, an LED will blink at different rates or a piezo buzzer will click at different rates). In our case, the resistance value derives from the water source connected to the circuit; thus, the LED blinking (or piezo buzzing) corresponds with conductivity (inversely, resistance) of the water.
Participants breadboard the conductivity circuit.Before the workshop, Craig Versek had measured out various amounts of table salt in order for us to be able to prepare water samples whose salinity matched some real world examples (here’s a table of salinity values for common water sources). After building the circuits, we explored how solutions of varying salinity affected the rate of oscillation in our circuits, by watching the LED blink rate change as we dipped the probe into the various samples. We then tried replacing the LED with a piezo buzzer and listening to the results. Some folks in the workshop even went so far as to connect the circuit via audio jack to a computer, and then use an open-source, browser-based pitch detector to associate specific pitches with water samples.
By the end of the workshop, we had:
- built simple, cheap 555 conductivity meters on a breadboard
- demonstrated that we could distinguish solutions of varying salinity from one another using this circuit
- added an audio component to the circuit via a piezo buzzer, allowing one to ‘hear’ the conductivity of solutions
- wired up an audio jack to the circuit, so that the resultant audio could be recorded on a smartphone or laptop
- tested out browser-based pitch detection software — different levels of conductivity can now be assessed using only the browser!
There’s much more to explore in conductivity measurements and in water quality monitoring in general, and we’ll be hosting more Open Water workshops to explore open-source water quality monitoring techniques. To learn more about the project, visit Public Lab’s Open Water project page.
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Read More »How Google Earth Is Busting Persian Gulf Nations For Overfishing
August 21st, 2014
Via Quartz, an interesting look at the use of Google Earth in the battle against overfishing:
Weapons-grade uranium isn’t the only thing Iran may be hiding. The country does not report its fishing catch to the United Nations, which is problematic given that the Persian Gulf, like other areas of the world, suffers from overfishing. But thanks to Google Earth, scientists now know that Iran hauls in more than 12,000 tonnes a year from 728 weirs, large structures built in intertidal zones to trap fish.
In a first of its kind study released today, scientists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver used Google Earth images to calculate how much fish was actually caught by Persian Gulf nations compared to what they reported. The result: The official numbers are nothing but one big fish tale. Researchers Dalal Al-Abdulrazzak and Daniel Pauly estimated the fish catch in 2005, for instance, was 31,433 tonnes, six times what nations bordering the Persian Gulf reported. “Our results document the unreliability of catch data from the Persian Gulf, a small part of a global misreporting problem,” the authors write in the study funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and published in the ICES Journal of Marine Science.
“Underreporting fish catches can jeopardize a country’s food security, economy, not to mention impact entire marine ecosystems,” Al-Abdulrazzak told Quartz in an email. “This is particularly important in the case of the Persian Gulf, where fisheries are the second most important natural resource after oil.”
A Persian Gulf weir.It’s just the latest use of Google Earth satellite images to monitor environmental destruction, such as illegal logging in remote locations. Similarly, the researchers say Google Earth can be used to detect illegal fishing and underreporting of fish catches. To give some “ground truth” to the Persian Gulf’s fisheries take, Al-Abdulrazzak and Pauly studied Google Earth images from 2005 to 2010. Unlike fishing boats, weirs are big structures—as long as 321 meters (1,053 feet)—that remain anchored in place and are easily detected by satellites. The researchers spotted 1,656 weirs in 2005. But after running an algorithm to correct for poor visibility, they estimated there were actually around 1,900 weirs.
Locations of Persian Gulf weirs.The scientists used a Google ruler tool to measure the size of each weir’s traps and then calculated daily fish catch based on historical records, the length of the fishing season and composition of fish species, such as mackerel, crab, lobster and sardines, at each location.
Half the weirs belonged to Bahrain, giving that nation 54% of the Persian Gulf’s estimated catch. Bahrain’s actual catch was 142% higher than what it reported to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, according to the study. Iran accounted for 37% of weirs and 39% of the region’s fish catch.
At least one nation was more or less honest. The researchers found that the estimated catch for Kuwait was within 300 tonness of what it reported to the UN.
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Read More »American Rivers And Google Maps Launch Colorado River Street View To Spotlight Endangered River
August 21st, 2014
Courtesy of American Rivers, a report on a new initiative to spotlight the Colorado River:
The Colorado River is the focus of a new Google Maps Street View project launched today in partnership with American Rivers. The imagery features the iconic Grand Canyon and marks the first time Google Maps has used the Street View technology on a major whitewater river in the U.S.
The project brings renewed attention to the wonder and beauty of the Grand Canyon, as well as the challenges facing the Colorado River’s health. American Rivers named the Colorado River America’s Most Endangered River in 2013 because of the threat of outdated water management, over-allocation and persistent drought.
Supported by the outfitter Arizona River Runners, American Rivers staff joined Google Maps on an eight-day float through the Grand Canyon in August 2013 to capture the river imagery. The Street View camera, on a special mount built for the raft, captured a full 360-degree photo sphere every few seconds. This allows users to “join the raft” and explore 286 miles of the river, from Lee’s Ferry to Pearce Ferry. Members of the team also wore the Street View Trekker camera to capture five popular side hikes, including the trail to the Nankoweap Granaries with a dramatic view overlooking the river.
“We are excited to work with Google Maps to highlight the Grand Canyon, one of our country’s crown jewels,” said Chris Williams, senior vice president for conservation at American Rivers, and a participant on the trip. “From the towering red rock walls to the thrilling rapids, the Street View project captures the magic of this special place. We hope this project inspires people to take action to protect and restore the Colorado River.”
“Making Street View imagery available of the Colorado River is a tremendous opportunity for us to drive interest for this historical and natural landmark,” said Karin Tuxen-Bettman, Project Lead for Colorado River Street View. “We hope this inspires viewers to take an active interest in preserving it.”
In conjunction with the release of the Colorado River Street View imagery on Google Maps, American Rivers called on President Obama and Congress to support federal programs that assist cities and farms in getting smarter about managing their water supplies.
Thirty-six million people from Denver to Los Angeles drink Colorado River water. The river irrigates nearly four million acres of land, which grows 15 percent of the nation’s crops. Over-allocation and drought have placed significant stress on water supplies and river health, and the basin is facing another drought this summer. Lower river flows threaten endangered fish and wildlife, along with the $26 billion dollar recreation economy that relies on the Colorado River.
he Colorado River is the focus of a new Google Maps Street View project launched today in partnership with American Rivers. The imagery features the iconic Grand Canyon and marks the first time Google Maps has used the Street View technology on a major whitewater river in the U.S.
The project brings renewed attention to the wonder and beauty of the Grand Canyon, as well as the challenges facing the Colorado River’s health. American Rivers named the Colorado River America’s Most Endangered River in 2013 because of the threat of outdated water management, over-allocation and persistent drought.
Supported by the outfitter Arizona River Runners, American Rivers staff joined Google Maps on an eight-day float through the Grand Canyon in August 2013 to capture the river imagery. The Street View camera, on a special mount built for the raft, captured a full 360-degree photo sphere every few seconds. This allows users to “join the raft” and explore 286 miles of the river, from Lee’s Ferry to Pearce Ferry. Members of the team also wore the Street View Trekker camera to capture five popular side hikes, including the trail to the Nankoweap Granaries with a dramatic view overlooking the river.
“We are excited to work with Google Maps to highlight the Grand Canyon, one of our country’s crown jewels,” said Chris Williams, senior vice president for conservation at American Rivers, and a participant on the trip. “From the towering red rock walls to the thrilling rapids, the Street View project captures the magic of this special place. We hope this project inspires people to take action to protect and restore the Colorado River.”
“Making Street View imagery available of the Colorado River is a tremendous opportunity for us to drive interest for this historical and natural landmark,” said Karin Tuxen-Bettman, Project Lead for Colorado River Street View. “We hope this inspires viewers to take an active interest in preserving it.”
In conjunction with the release of the Colorado River Street View imagery on Google Maps, American Rivers called on President Obama and Congress to support federal programs that assist cities and farms in getting smarter about managing their water supplies.
Thirty-six million people from Denver to Los Angeles drink Colorado River water. The river irrigates nearly four million acres of land, which grows 15 percent of the nation’s crops. Over-allocation and drought have placed significant stress on water supplies and river health, and the basin is facing another drought this summer. Lower river flows threaten endangered fish and wildlife, along with the $26 billion dollar recreation economy that relies on the Colorado River.
– See more at: http://www.americanrivers.org/newsroom/press-releases/american-rivers-and-google-maps-launch-colorado-river-street-view-to-spotlight-endangered-river/#sthash.rSOmuacv.dpuf
he Colorado River is the focus of a new Google Maps Street View project launched today in partnership with American Rivers. The imagery features the iconic Grand Canyon and marks the first time Google Maps has used the Street View technology on a major whitewater river in the U.S.
The project brings renewed attention to the wonder and beauty of the Grand Canyon, as well as the challenges facing the Colorado River’s health. American Rivers named the Colorado River America’s Most Endangered River in 2013 because of the threat of outdated water management, over-allocation and persistent drought.
Supported by the outfitter Arizona River Runners, American Rivers staff joined Google Maps on an eight-day float through the Grand Canyon in August 2013 to capture the river imagery. The Street View camera, on a special mount built for the raft, captured a full 360-degree photo sphere every few seconds. This allows users to “join the raft” and explore 286 miles of the river, from Lee’s Ferry to Pearce Ferry. Members of the team also wore the Street View Trekker camera to capture five popular side hikes, including the trail to the Nankoweap Granaries with a dramatic view overlooking the river.
“We are excited to work with Google Maps to highlight the Grand Canyon, one of our country’s crown jewels,” said Chris Williams, senior vice president for conservation at American Rivers, and a participant on the trip. “From the towering red rock walls to the thrilling rapids, the Street View project captures the magic of this special place. We hope this project inspires people to take action to protect and restore the Colorado River.”
“Making Street View imagery available of the Colorado River is a tremendous opportunity for us to drive interest for this historical and natural landmark,” said Karin Tuxen-Bettman, Project Lead for Colorado River Street View. “We hope this inspires viewers to take an active interest in preserving it.”
In conjunction with the release of the Colorado River Street View imagery on Google Maps, American Rivers called on President Obama and Congress to support federal programs that assist cities and farms in getting smarter about managing their water supplies.
Thirty-six million people from Denver to Los Angeles drink Colorado River water. The river irrigates nearly four million acres of land, which grows 15 percent of the nation’s crops. Over-allocation and drought have placed significant stress on water supplies and river health, and the basin is facing another drought this summer. Lower river flows threaten endangered fish and wildlife, along with the $26 billion dollar recreation economy that relies on the Colorado River.
– See more at: http://www.americanrivers.org/newsroom/press-releases/american-rivers-and-google-maps-launch-colorado-river-street-view-to-spotlight-endangered-river/#sthash.rSOmuacv.dpuf
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Read More »Partners In The Sky: Why United Airlines Will Track Tiny Animals From Its Jets
August 21st, 2014
Via Wired, an interesting report on a new program – Partners in the Sky – that will use aviation and aerospace technology to help track the movement of thousands of animals, using technologies and programs similar to those used by aviation companies every day–whether in satellite navigation, communication, and surveillance, or in high-fidelity tracking:
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Read More »New Satellite data Will Help Farmers Facing Drought
August 21st, 2014
Via Science Daily, a look at how new satellite data will help farmers facing drought:
California has been experiencing one of its driest years on record.About 60 percent of California is experiencing “exceptional drought,” the U.S. Drought Monitor’s most dire classification. The agency issued the same warning to Texas and the southeastern United States in 2012. California’s last two winters have been among the driest since records began in 1879. Without enough water in the soil, seeds can’t sprout roots, leaves can’t perform photosynthesis, and agriculture can’t be sustained.
Currently, there is no ground- or satellite-based global network monitoring soil moisture at a local level. Farmers, scientists and resource managers can place sensors in the ground, but these only provide spot measurements and are rare across some critical agricultural areas in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The European Space Agency’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission measures soil moisture at a resolution of 31 miles (50 kilometers), but because soil moisture can vary on a much smaller scale, its data are most useful in broad forecasts.
Enter NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite. The mission, scheduled to launch this winter, will collect the kind of local data agricultural and water managers worldwide need.
SMAP uses two microwave instruments to monitor the top 2 inches (5 centimeters) of soil on Earth’s surface. Together, the instruments create soil moisture estimates with a resolution of about 6 miles (9 kilometers), mapping the entire globe every two or three days. Although this resolution cannot show how soil moisture might vary within a single field, it will give the most detailed maps yet made.
“Agricultural drought occurs when the demand for water for crop production exceeds available water supplies from precipitation, surface water and sustainable withdrawals from groundwater,” said Forrest Melton, a research scientist in the Ecological Forecasting Lab at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.
“Based on snowpack and precipitation data in California, by March we had a pretty good idea that by summer we’d be in a severe agricultural drought,” Melton added. “But irrigation in parts of India, the Middle East and other regions relies heavily on the pumping of groundwater during some or all of the year.” Underground water resources are hard to estimate, so farmers who rely on groundwater have fewer indicators of approaching shortfalls than those whose irrigation comes partially from rain or snowmelt. For these parts of the world where farmers have little data available to help them understand current conditions, SMAP’s measurements could fill a significant void.
Some farmers handle drought by changing irrigation patterns. Others delay planting or harvesting to give plants their best shot at success. Currently, schedule modifications are based mostly on growers’ observations and experience. SMAP’s data will provide an objective assessment of soil moisture to help with their management strategy.
“If farmers of rain-fed crops know soil moisture, they can schedule their planting to maximize crop yield,” said Narendra Das, a water and carbon cycle scientist on SMAP’s science team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “SMAP can assist in predicting how dramatic drought will be, and then its data can help farmers plan their recovery from drought.”
“Scientists see tremendous potential in SMAP,” Melton said. “It is not going to provide field-level information, but it will give very useful new regional observations of soil moisture conditions, which will be important for drought monitoring and a wide range of applications related to agriculture. Having the ability provided by SMAP to continuously map soil moisture conditions over large areas will be a major advance.”
For more information about SMAP, visit: http://smap.jpl.nasa.gov/
NASA monitors Earth’s vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.
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