Hi guys,

Sorry it took me so long… Well first I want to introduce myself for those who don’t know me. My name is Alexis Monetti. I’m a Geography major at the University of Washington. I’m taking a full load of classes and working hard because I’m going to be studying abroad in Seoul and Tokyo!!! I’m pretty excited for this summer. I’m interested on getting to know all of you especially Zhu Are you also at the U.W.? We should get together sometime and work together. Let me know.

About the Refugee project … I just got the raw data and will be looking at it tonight. Hopefully I’ll be sharing something interesting about my project by the end of the week.

Alexis

We have posted in the past about Ushahidi.com, which tracks violence in Kenya after the disputed Presidential election late last year. Sokwanele is a similar mapping project using Google Maps to show violent acts across Zimbabwe since the elections on March 29. Sokwanele is documenting acts of violence most perpetrated by supporters of Robert Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since he lead a revolution to remove the British 28 years ago. The map is not participatory like Ushahidi’s map, but does use documented and verified incidents. You can read more about their data here.

You’ll have to bear with the speed of this map – it’s running slowly because of the large number of points that have to be rendered in the client. Even that is an awful statement on the situation in the country. There are so many acts of violence, that it’s slowing down the map.

NASA’s Earth Observatory released an analysis of MODIS imagery showing a large anomoly in ground surface temperatures across northern Europe in early June of 2008. Compared with the average ground surface temperatures from 2000-2007, much of Scandinavia is experiencing much higher ground surface temperatures, which could lead to widespread forest fires.  Contast this with southern Europe, which is experiencing much cooler surface temperatures than normal. If this trend holds thoughout the summer, we could see the type of problems that plauged central Europe in 2003.

Heatwave in Northern Europe – Earth Observatory

NASA’s Earth Observatory released these three MODIS images yesterday showing the extent and speed of the flooding in Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri this week. As you can see, the rivers were at normal levels on June 10, but by June 17, the entire system was swollen and levees had been breached in several places. By June 19, additional levees in Missouri and Illinois had been breached flooding enormous swaths of Mississippi river flood plain.

Floods in the U.S. Midwest – NASA’s Earth Observatory

U.S. News and World Report is running a story on post-Katrina recovery in New Orleans, and they’re showing this map, which depicts the amount of current activity for each city block compared to the activity pre-Katrina. Very clearly, areas that were hit the hardest have the least amount of current activity (Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans East), while areas that had little or no damage are as active as they were before the storm.

One quick piece of commentary: It’s a shame on America that one of our great cities and my hometown is still in the state it’s in nearly three years after Katrina. I understand the political realities on the ground in New Orleans, but it’s clear to me that no real investment has been made in the recovery, and we’ve had no inspirational leadership or vision for New Orleans beyond what it was before the storm. We still have the opportunity to remake the city and show the world what Americans can do when their leaders ask them to give back rather than go shopping. Right now New Orleans is a shame on this country, but we can change that tomorrow if we want to.

Who knew there was an United Nation cyber school bus? While it’s handy to use this to compare data between the UN member countries, there is preset five major categories: Health, population, technology, environment, and population. Within of those five categories, there are 5 to 9 preloaded statistics.

Through University of Washington Library, I found IndiaStat.com. Even though I logged in remotely to the library, I still can’t access the data. I’m going to the library on Friday when I’m not working and try to obtain some data.

This video is a “hallway chat” with Lela at the 2008 NetSquared conference talking about NiJeL, what she hoped to get out of the conference, and what her favorite project from the conference was. Enjoy!

The Des Moines Register has put together a mashup where people can post damage to their homes along with photos and videos and coverage from the newspaper. It looks like not many folks are participating – Iowa City has no content yet – but hopefully we’ll be seeing more people posting shortly.

2008 Iowa Floods – Show us what it’s like in your area – Des Moines Register

Dear NiJeL Blog readers,

First, thanks very much for following and contributing to our blog. Today, NiJeL is re-launching our blog at http://nijel.org/blog/ where we will be posting the latest on our projects, on interesting maps out there, and on new technologies that enhance our efforts among other things. We hope you’ll continue to follow what we’re up to either on the blog or through our rss feed (http://nijel.org/blog/?feed=rss2).

Thanks!

NiJeL

NASA’s Natural Hazard Observatory showed images form June 8 and 9 of Tangjiashan Lake, which was formed during the 12 May earthquake when a large landslide blocked the flow of the Jianjiang River. Chinese engineers are walking a tightrope by digging a small canal to drain the lake slowly.

The accompanying article explains the pradicament of Chinsese engineers quite well:

If they drain water too quickly, the flow could erode through the
landslide and the rapid flow would cause devastating floods downstream.
If they drain the water too slowly, the lake will grow at dangerous
levels, putting pressure on the possibly unstable natural dam. If the
dam bursts, a wall of water would barrel down the river. So engineers
dug a drainage channel to ease water from the dangerous lake. On June
7, 2008, water began to flow into the channel, reported Xinhua, China’s
official news agency.

These true-color, photo-like images show water draining through the
channel on June 8 and June 9, 2008. The stream of water flowing through
the channel widened between the two days. The water is murky brown, a
sign that it may be eroding the earthen channel as it flows over the
landslide. The lake also grew between June 8 and June 9, as evidenced
by the changing shape of the southern shoreline. Water was flowing into
the lake 4.6 times faster than it was draining out on June 9, reported
Xinhua.

1.3 million people live downstream from this landslide dam.

Earthquake Near Chengdu, China – Earth Observatory