Mapping During Environmental Disasters…

Wildfires have ravaged much of Southern Australia and keeping residents and fire fighters up-to-date on the latest information can prove to be a difficult task.  However thanks to the digital age, this task has been easier to accomplish.  With the help of Google Maps, many people have now been providing valuable information on the spread of these wildfires and suggesting which areas are safe to find refuge in and which areas should be looking in evacuating soon.  Mapping has always been used as a tool for education and  now it is saving lives…

For more information, click here…

Kenneth E. Liwag, Rutgers University Planning Intern, VERTICES, LLC.

Mapping and the Middle East…

A small excerpt in the opinion section of the New York Times yesterday discusses how a community map was created from a leaked database managed by the Israeli government to keep track of important events that have occurred regarding the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.  The database was created to be able to keep the government up-to-date on the happenings of what is going on in the West Bank including violence against these settlements from Palestinians.  With this information, a citizen who took special interest in this database, spatially located the information from the database and put together an interactive map displaying the history and characteristics of each Jewish settlement.

To read more about this news story, click here…

Kenneth E. Liwag, Rutgers University Planning Intern, VERTICES, LLC.