Warsaw in 3D

This is actually pretty cool: Warsaw in 3D

Nothing too special here - we have seen these kind of 3D cities before. What is cool is to play around with the dates & times & see how the shadows change with changing sun angles over the course of the day or year.

Sealevel Rise & Lower

This one is actually pretty cool: https://slidingshores.com/

Now, the amount of rise & lower is getting pretty crazy & is way more than anything that could happen on Earth, but a) it's fun and b) this is the only 'animation' that I know of where you can actually lower sealevel to demonstrate conditions say during the LGM.

For a more 'realistic' sea level rise visualization: consider the Coastal Risk Finder.

AI & UHI

We all know the connection between AI, energy use, and global warming. But there is another angle: local heating, in-essence a version of the well-understood UHI. More here:

• AI Data Centers Release Heat, Posing New Problems for Cities
• Sailor et al. (2026): Data Center Waste Heat as an Emerging Urban Thermal Hazard: First Field Measurements of Neighborhood-Scale Air Temperature Impacts 

Best Travel Weather

Here are some tools to help you decide when to travel & where as a function of the 'best' weather & climate:

• https://pack-lightly.com/tool/best-travel-time-worldmap/
• https://seasonmap.app/map

SLR Map

Nothing new here, but a nice interface & an option for an image export - nice! The steps are 2 m, 10 m, 30 m, and 70 m - would be nice to offer more options such as 1/3/5 meters and/or specific ones, especially for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Explore here: Simulate Coastlines After Sea Level Rise

An American Mosaic

Coool interactive web map by the NYT: An American Mosaic

There is an article to go along, but that's behind the NYT paywall.

Urban Plannning & Washington DC

Great scrolly map from the NYT for our history & urban planning nerds: Washington Has Been Carefully Planned for Two Centuries

The 3-30-300 'Rule'

Cool stuff over on Maps Mania: The 3-30-300 Rule for urban trees & interactive mapping tool. Read more about this rule or goal @ https://www.330300rule.com/.

True Orthos vs Trad Orthos & ArcGIS Reality

First, what is ArcGIS Reality?

I'm not entirely sure, here's what Esri says: ArcGIS Reality is a suite of photogrammetry software products designed to enable reality capture workflows for sites, cities, and countries.

One main feature seems to be the abilaity to create & use so-capped True Orthophotos as opposed to Traditional Orthophotos.

• True Orthophotos vs. Traditional Orthophotos: Why do pixels matter in the age of AI?
• The Different Types of Ortho Images Created in ArcGIS

The animated GIF below demonsrates the main difference between true orthos & trad orthos. 

Jerry's Map

Read more about it here: https://www.jerrysmap.com/the-map

The map is an imaginary city comprised of over 4,000 8 x 10 inch panels. The static image is below and here's an interactive version: https://marcmajcher.github.io/jerrysmap/

Extreme Heat = The Undermeasured Natural Disaster

 

Ozone Pollution From Space

Air Pollution’s Daily Pulse Over the Northeast is a cool example of how we can now monitor air pollutions from space & how it changes over the course of the day! You start with the NO2 plumes from car exhaust & how they dissipate over the course of the day. Then you can look at the plumes of ground-level ozone created from the NO2 & their spatial patterns which are impacted by wind patters.

Recent Land Use Changes: USA

This is interesting: A Shift in What’s Shaping U.S. Landscapes

The three main types of land use changes are urban sprawl, logging, and agriculture & here the New England has remained pretty stable over the last 40+ years or so. Why? The main land use changes had already occurred by 1988.

Urban AI

Interesting article: Datacenters as core infrastructure of urban AI

He basically argues that the so-called 'cloud' comes with serious environmental impacts and externalities. Sure, we all want smart cities (aka data-driven urbanism) managed by Urban AIand love to talk about the cool edge-computing devices, but there is a hidden infrastructure (often in the suburbs & beyond) that make all this possible and that raises serious questions related to ownership. governance, and operation.

Here, physical distance or proximity often becomes irrelevant and with that many of our existing regulatory system fail.

Cloud providers want a) cheap electricity, b) low taxes, c) lax regulations, and d) proximity to high-speed connecticity. Thus, clusters develop along metropolitan corridors and once again regions farther away are left behind. Furthermore, AI providers obviously prefer to serve profitable sectors of the economy as opposed to common good public functions.

For cities this also means an increasing dependence on a small number of vendors who control the infrastructure & access to it. We are 'locked-into' whatever we choose.

In summary: Urban AI or any AI for that matter means infrastructure & calling it 'the cloud' hides the fact that this infrastructure and access to it creates power & privilege.

Food Deserts / Grocery Deserts

Great web map: Mapping Food Deserts and Grocery Store Consolidation

Now...if they would only offer a way to download the data!

The Global Building Atlas Downloader

The Global Building Atlas is cool, but most people (and especially my students) cannot handle a GitHub respository. But, thanks to Maps Mania, we now have a convenient downloader into GeoJSON: The Global Building Atlas Downloader. Thanks!

Urban Mobility: CAVs

Good article here about how CAVs (connected autonmous vehicles) can be integrated into new urban mobility systems within 'smart' cities. Yes, a lot of techo buzzwords here, but worth a read.

The Cost Of Living

Excellent data set & web map from the Economic Policy Institute: The Family Budget Map. This map shows (by county) the cost-of-living for a 'normal' two-parent, two-child family broken down into housing, food, child care, transportation, health care, taxes, and other necessities.

Even better: the data are accessible as MS Excel!

Our Demographic Future

In the 20 century: the demographic transition theory.

Here, countries transitioned from high fertility/mortality to low fertility/mortality due to modernization and development such as female empowerment, access to health care, and more.

Today: most countries are past this transition and in many countries fertility has fallen below replacement levels (which is about two children / woman). This applies to about 5.8 billion people and include countries such as Brazil, India, China, and more - these countries are already experiencing population decline. Fertility is still very high in sub-Saharan Africa & this will drive global population growth for many more decades.

Now, the main factors in population dynamics are a) migration and b) longevity. This means that in high-income countries immigration is and will be the main driver of population growth & that is ultimately what is behind the rise of MAGA & other types of nationalism / populism that we see.

Plus the so-called second demographic transition that is playing out in wealthy countries: fewer children = lower fertility due to rising individualism, new models of partnerships, and gender equality.

More details @ https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aed1652

Climate Trace

Incredible data & visualization from Climate TRACE!

• Track Global Emission of air pollution.
• Pollution Plumes shows how they disperse from point sources.