EDEN

EDEN = Extension Disaster Education Network

Could be useful in case we as GPS go into this direction.

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

Outdoor Recreation Data

Great data, great data viz, great interactive maps, and all the data are free to download as CSV files: Outdoor Recreation Data

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!

No More GDP!

Great article in Nature by Constanza et al.: Beyond growth — why we need to agree on an alternative to GDP now

Here's the summary: GDP was never designed as a metric for human well-being. It kind of worked as a proxy for that for a couple of decades after WWII, but no more. Using GDP assumes substitutability between labor, technology, and natural resources in the context of production. But this obviously ignores ecological limits or planetary boundaries, or, in other words: it decouples economic activity from natural resource use.

We need instead to adopt a universal goal: sustainabilty & inclusive well-being. Not sure why inclusive well-being is separated from sustainabilty here, but ok. The question then is how do we a) measure that and b) how do we aggreate our metrics into some kind of index or proxy? Here are some of the metrics: Well-being components: these 19 core factors are common to most beyond-GDP indicators.

Human

• Life satisfaction
• Health
• Life expectancy at birth
• Education

Social

• Crime
• Civic engagement
• Governance
• Income equality
• Gender equality

Built

• Housing
• Infrastructure
• Financial security
• Employment
• Per capita consumption
• Business health

Natural

• Natural capital
• Water quality
• Air quality
• Greenhouse-gas emissions

Sounds a lot like donut economics to me!

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

The Nature-Positive Movement

This looks like a great book: Becoming Nature Positive: Transitioning to a Safe and Just Future and here's the review in Nature: How to build nature back better — read this manual

The idea is that it is insufficient to just reduce environmental harm or become sustainable, but rather to regenerate nature in an active way = become nature-positive. This would be the opposite to the standare greenwashing that we see all over.

Here's an interesting angle mentioned in the review:

• Purpose-led businesses (e.g. Patagonia, etc.) can pursue ambitious goals & lead by example.
• Smaller companies can be agile and influence their local communities.
• Large companies have a) the resources and b) the scale throughout their entire supply that even small improvements can have a large aggregate impact.

Related: Rengerative Agriculture. I'm not a farmer, but these all seems like no-brainers: plant cover crops, rotating crops, reduc tilling, and integrate trees all to a) prevent soil erosion and b) improve the soil. Read more about here: A revolution is sweeping Europe’s farms: can it save agriculture?

USA: Counties & Population

Very cool animated map of the basic problem of human geography in the USA and anywhere: most people live in small & densely-populated area while most of the country is pretty much empty.

https://walkerke-county-population.share.connect.posit.cloud/#3.85/38.98/-96.7

Air Tours & UpToWhere

Here are two cool apps for exploring the world:

1. Air Tours allows you to explore cities by combining Google Maps 3D, Street View and more. For example: here's Boston.
2. UpToWhere is a basic viewshed tool, but creates a great 3D visualization.

Census Dots

Finally updated for the 2020 Census: Census Dots (1 person = 1 dot)

The U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index

The U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index

From the website: Pulling in 184 sets of data to rank more than 70,000 U.S. Census tracts, the U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index helps you see which communities face the greatest challenges from the impacts of a changing climate. This tool shows what is driving the challenges, so policymakers and communities themselves can take action to build climate resilience where it is needed most.

Rail Transit Access vs Population Density

Rail Transit & Population Density compares and ranks 250 cities around the world - the side-by-side map and table comparison is great!

America's Drunkest and Driest Counties

Fun: America's Drunkest and Driest Counties - explain these spatial patterns!

The Street View Animator

The Street View Animator looks like great fun - more about it over @ Maps Mania.

My only concern is 'permanence' - these types of apps have a tendency to disappear after a while & then all your work disappears as well. This makes it a little risky to committ to it as a teaching tool.

Let's Eat!

America’s Chain and Independent Restaurants maps out all restaurents across the USA coded by their degree of 'chainness' from the 310,000 or so single-location restaurants to the 24,333 Subways. Now if they only would make the underlying restauranr address data available!

More @ https://friendlycities.gatech.edu/data-interactive/

Passenger rail services in 1980 and 2024

Nice, simple, and clear: https://walkitect.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/media/index.html?appid=49cce9647b164c43aa5c373f05290c78 

Overture Maps Explorer (Beta)

I really don't know much about it, but the Overture Maps Explorer (Beta) apparently lets you zoom-into any location on Earth & then download a bunch of map data.

More over @ Maps Mania: Free Map Data Grabbers

Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas

Mapping Historical New York: A Digital Atlas visualizes Manhattan’s and Brooklyn’s transformations during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Drawing on 1850, 1880, and 1910 census data, it shows how migration, residential, and occupational patterns shaped the city.

Awesome!