New Jersey Geospatial Users Group

GeoEye-1, an Earth-imaging satellite that’s been in the news recently due to its agreement with Google to provide the company with half-meter imagery, has sent back its first pictures. The satellite will provide images for Google to use in its Maps and Earth applications, as well as for resale. The first image sent back was of Kutztown University. When in panchromatic mode, the satellite captures an area equivalent to the size of Texas within a day.

Point locations for public schools in New Jersey is now available in personal geodatabase form. The dataset, created by the Office of GIS with information from the Department of Education, is available for download through NJGIN.

ESRI recently unveiled MapMPG, a demostration site using BusinessMap and ArcGIS Server with a Flex front end. It allows you to choose a point and visualize the range two different car makes could travel on one gallon of gas. It’s fun to compare your car to a gas-guzzler like a Hummer or Bentley, or to a dainty sipper like the smart fortwo or the Honda Insight.

The application should be beefed up with additional information on the technology behind it. I assume that if you’re reading this blog, you have an understanding of how the various components come together to give you the map and gallon ranges. The average person, however, doesn’t understand how much more involved this application is compared to something mapped using Google’s My Maps. ESRI needs to capitalize on the fact that they’ve got an attractive - and more importantly, relevant - example of the importance of GIS in daily life.

I’ve been mining Google’s “My Maps” data for some base datasets. Some users have plotted some useful data; one created sets of all the rest stops and toll plazas on the State’s limited access highways. In looking for NJ Transit data, I was surprised to find that a search in Google for “NJ Transit” returns a residential neighborhood in Mercer County. It’s not even a TOD!

With the recent signing of the Permit Extension Act, permits and smart growth designations have been extended through to July 2010. However, certain areas will be exempted from the extension. This will have an effect on State Plan Centers and Smart Growth Areas. Once the effects of this legislation are updated in the GIS data, the HMFA Locator, Location Assessment Tool and NJ State Atlas will be updated.

With all the recent news about cattle orienting themselves in cardinal directions (and the debate on the story’s veracity) I found it more interesting that the researchers used Google Earth to find oriented photography, instead of say, going out and observing cattle.

“The Last Guy” introduces an even more esoteric use of aerial photography. This zombie/survival action game for the Playstation 3 uses high-res aerials of cities as the playing field.

Virtual Earth is looking to partner with state and local governments to share geospatial data, specifically aerial photography.

From their announcement:

Why should we publish our imagery in VE?

GoVE supports the data sharing goals of many public sector organizations by providing a free publishing service. Through GoVE, your taxpayer-funded information will be provided on a free, open access web site that benefits taxpayers, government officials, your corporate tax base, state and local governments, etc.

You can read more about it at the Virtual Earth blog.