The MapScaping Podcast - GIS, Geospatial, Remote Sensing, earth observation and digital geography

Hugo Powell, from immap.org shares his expert insights on how GIS technologies are leveraged to analyze data, visualize scenarios, and facilitate rapid decision-making during emergencies. Here are the key tools mentioned: 1. **Kobo Toolbox**: An open-source tool used for data collection in humanitarian contexts. Kobo Toolbox allows for both quantitative and qualitative data collection and is operational offline, which is crucial in areas with limited internet connectivity. It supports geospatial data collection and can be used for needs assessments in settings like refugee camps. 2. **ODK Collect**: Similar to Kobo Toolbox, ODK Collect is an open-source mobile application used for field data collection. It is widely used in humanitarian efforts for its ease of use and the capability to work offline. 3. **QGIS**: A free and open-source geographic information system used for viewing, editing, and analyzing geospatial data. Hugo notes that QGIS is core for mapping and data analysis in humanitarian operations. 4. **Tableau and Power BI**: Business intelligence tools mentioned for their use in analyzing and visualizing data. These tools help in making data-driven decisions during humanitarian operations. 5. **Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX)**: An open platform for sharing data across crises and organizations, which helps in avoiding duplication of efforts and enhances coordination among humanitarian actors. 6. **Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)**: Provides crowdsourced geospatial data which is extremely valuable in humanitarian settings for its accuracy and timeliness. 7. **Esri’s Living Atlas and other Esri tools**: While not open-source, Esri’s tools are sometimes used for their comprehensive geospatial data, particularly in natural disaster contexts like earthquakes. 8. **Humanitarian Spatial Data Center**: Managed by IMAP, this tool aggregates and processes data, providing access to data, analytics, and visualization tools all in one place. It has been particularly successful in deployments like Afghanistan. This episode was sponsored by scribblemaps.com https://youtu.be/CDkG9eS6H2M Recommended Listening Geospatial Support For Humanitarian Emergencies A Self-Contained Environment For Open-Source Geospatial Tools GGIS Offline And In The Field The Business Of Web Maps Peer to Peer Mapping And Digital Democracy I am working on a new project over at QuickMapTools.com and any feedback is really appreciated!

AI Autocomplete for QGIS Brendan Ashworth the CTO and co-founder of https://buntinglabs.com/ focuses on integrating AI with QGIS, and today on the podcast we are talking about Autocomplete for vectorization. Along the way Brendan will share with us why Bunting Labs chose to build this on top of QGIS, the Challenges in Map Digitization, what the development process was like and how this is different from tools like Segment Anything ( from meta ) Here's what we discussed: Introduction to Bunting Labs: Get to know more about Brendan and Bunting Labs, whose mission revolves around enhancing QGIS with AI, especially focusing on automating vectorization processes. AI Autocomplete for Vectorization: We explored the AI autocomplete feature developed by Bunting Labs that simplifies the vectorization of maps in QGIS, streamlining the digitization process for better efficiency. Brendan’s Background and Motivation: Brendan shared his journey from a software engineer to a pivotal player in the geospatial sector, spurred by a project that showcased the potential of merging geospatial data with machine learning. Why Choose QGIS?: Discover why Bunting Labs opted for QGIS over other GIS platforms, with an emphasis on its open-source nature and vibrant community ecosystem. Challenges in Map Digitization: Our conversation covered the technical challenges involved in developing AI capable of accurately understanding and digitizing maps. Iterative Development and Learning: Brendan highlighted the evolutionary process of their AI model, which has significantly improved from its early versions. AI vs. Segment Anything: Brendan explained how their AI autocomplete tool differs from existing solutions like Segment Anything, particularly in handling specific digitizing challenges. The Future of AI in Geospatial Data Analysis: We discussed potential future applications of AI in geospatial data, including automatic georeferencing and metadata extraction. Privacy Considerations: We also touched on the importance of privacy in the development and deployment of AI technologies in geospatial data analysis. Changing the Geospatial Landscape: Brendan shared his vision for using geospatial data not just to map the current world but to plan and improve future landscapes. Sponsored by https://www.scribblemaps.com/ Recommended Listening https://mapscaping.com/podcast/the-business-of-web-maps/ https://mapscaping.com/podcast/the-business-of-qgis-development/ https://mapscaping.com/podcast/qgis-offline-and-in-the-field/ https://mapscaping.com/podcast/computer-vision-and-geoai/ https://quickmaptools.com/ - MapTools to save your time processing GIS data

GNSS receivers - why precise positioning will not be coming to your phone any time soon Igor is the CEO and cofounder of Emlid.com a company that started out making high-precision GNSS receivers in his kitchen and crowd-funded the first batch on Kickstarter. But that was over ten years ago so today on the podcast Igor is going to tell us about the innovations that made this possible, give a great explanation of RTK and PPP and explain why we should expect to see high precision positioning on your phone any time soon. Connect with Igor here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/igor-vereninov-52a73ab0/ Or visit https://emlid.com/ In this episode, we cover: More GNSS-related podcast episodes! From GNSS to VPS Reimaging GPS How Google Knows Your Location Past, Present and Future of GNSS SBAS - A base station in the sky

Refactoring the Way you Talk About your geospatial skills: It is Costing you Money Some of the key topics in this episode 1.Our Geospatial Skills and Marketability: There's a realization that while our traditional geospatial skills are valuable, they might not always be marketed effectively to match the broader IT and data analysis job markets. We discuss the benefit of framing our skills in terms that are more widely recognized outside the niche of geospatial technology, such as data science or IT. 2.The Spatial Discount: We explore the concept of the spatial discount, which refers to the observation that geospatial professionals might face a disparity in compensation compared to their counterparts in more generalized IT roles, despite having highly transferable and valuable data manipulation skills. 3. Skill Development and Adaptation: The importance of continually developing skills that are not only advanced within the geospatial domain but also marketable across various sectors is emphasized. Learning and mastering technologies that have broad applications, such as SQL for spatial data manipulation, can enhance our versatility and marketability. 4. Communication and Marketing Skills: Our ability to effectively communicate and market our skills is highlighted as crucial for career advancement. We are encouraged to adopt the language and terminology that resonate with broader industries and potential employers, moving beyond the jargon of the geospatial field. 5. Finding Value in Our Geospatial Work: The discussion also touches on the importance of identifying and articulating the real-world value of our geospatial work. We should focus on how our skills can solve practical problems and address the needs of businesses and organizations, rather than solely on the technical complexity of our tasks. 6. Professional Development: Lastly, the conversation advocates for a proactive approach to our professional development, suggesting that we should seek out opportunities to learn new skills and technologies that align with market demands and personal interests. These points collectively suggest a strategy for us, as geospatial professionals, to enhance our career prospects: by broadening our skill sets, effectively marketing our capabilities, and aligning our work with the needs and language of the wider IT and data analysis fields. Connect with Brain Timoney on LinkedIn Thank you to our sponsors https://www.scribblemaps.com/ https://merginmaps.com/ Recommended Listening Modern Geospatial Rebranding Gis and Geospatial Getting Where You Want To Go In Your Geospatial Career Mid-Career Change

Modern geospatial - not the bleeding edge of geospatial but modern geospatial - what is it? Well my guest Will Cadell, the CEO of SparkGeo describes modern geospatial as the intersection of the cloud, smart space, open source data/standards, AI and smart devices - that's modern geospatial And as you will hear during the discussion it's important to understand the difference between modernisation and innovation when we think about moving people from where they are now to where they want to be with regards to their geospatial capabilities. You might be wondering - what does any of this have to do with me? I just want to make better things, I just want to help people use all this awesome geospatial stuff … but you don’t get to do that without first understanding what “better” looks like for them - what is their version of awesome geo stuff … and that is why you should listen to this episode! Connect with Will Cadell Twitter https://twitter.com/geo_will LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/willcadell/ SparkGeo https://sparkgeo.com/ https://www.strategicgeospatial.com/ This episode is sponsored by https://www.scribblemaps.com/ Recommended Listening The Business of Web Maps https://mapscaping.com/podcast/the-business-of-web-maps/ Modern GIS https://mapscaping.com/podcast/what-is-modern-gis/

The main topics discussed during this episode include: Connect with Nejc Dougan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nejcdougan/ or at https://www.flai.ai/ Recommended listening Cloud Optimized Point Clouds https://mapscaping.com/podcast/cloud-optimized-point-clouds/ PDAL - the point data abstraction library https://mapscaping.com/podcast/pdal-point-data-abstraction-library/ Lidar from drones https://mapscaping.com/podcast/lidar-from-drones/ Bathymetric Lidar https://mapscaping.com/podcast/bathymetric-lidar-and-blue-carbon/

Alex Leith is a Digital Earth Architect and in this episode, you will learn what Infrastructure as code is - hint it is the opposite of the "clicky-clicky" and so much more! Connect with Alex here https://auspatious.com/ Recommended Listening Cloud-Optimized Point CLounds https://mapscaping.com/podcast/cloud-optimized-point-clouds/ Cloud Native Geospatial https://mapscaping.com/podcast/cloud-native-geospatial/ Planet Scale Tiled Maps without a Server https://mapscaping.com/podcast/planet-scale-tiled-maps-without-a-server/ What is Modern GIS https://mapscaping.com/podcast/what-is-modern-gis/

GeeMap is an open-source Python library that provides tools for interactive mapping with Google Earth Engine (GEE), which is a platform for earth science data and analysis ... and today you are going to hear from the creator of GeeMap! Connect with Qiusheng Wu here: https://wetlands.io/ This episode is sponsored by Planet learn more at https://www.planet.com/gis/ Recommended Listening Introduction to Google Earth Engine https://mapscaping.com/podcast/introducing-google-earth-engine/ Introduction to Sentinel Hub https://mapscaping.com/podcast/sentinel-hub/ Planet - Imaging everything every day ( almost ) https://mapscaping.com/podcast/planet-imaging-everything-every-day-almost/ Introduction to Microsoft's Planetary Computer https://mapscaping.com/podcast/the-planetary-computer/

GPS reimagined? Why do we need to reimagine GPS? ... Is it broken? Recommended Podcast Episodes How Google Calculates Your Location https://mapscaping.com/podcast/how-google-calculates-your-location/ From GNSS To VPS https://mapscaping.com/podcast/from-gnss-to-vps/ Navigating The Past Present and Future of GNSS https://mapscaping.com/podcast/navigating-the-past-present-and-future-of-gnss/ SatelliteBased Augmentation System - A Base Station In The Sky https://mapscaping.com/podcast/satellite-based-augmentation-system-a-base-station-in-the-sky/

Nyall Dawson is a QGIS developer, cartographer, and owner and founder of North Road, a company specializing in open-source geospatial software. His journey into geospatial began with personal interests in mapping and cartography, which later evolved into a business called North Road. But that's not why I wanted to make this episode for you, I wanted to share this story with you because it could be your story too. You could decide to have a story that starts with contributing to something you care about, which leads to you becoming a known expert within a community that cares about the same thing and evolves into paid opportunities. That could be your story too! You can connect with Nyall here: https://twitter.com/nyalldawson https://www.linkedin.com/in/nyall-dawson-18b6016a/ Sponsored by Planet Learn more at www.planet.com/gis Recommended Podcast Episodes Planet https://mapscaping.com/podcast/planet-imaging-everything-every-day-almost/ Monetizing an open-source geospatial project https://mapscaping.com/podcast/monetizing-an-open-source-geospatial-project/ Being self-employed in Earth Observation https://mapscaping.com/podcast/being-self-employed-in-the-earth-observation-sector/ Geospatial Side Hustles https://mapscaping.com/podcast/geospatial-side-hustles/ Self Employment in the GIS Industry https://mapscaping.com/podcast/self-employment-in-the-gis-geospatial-industry/ A Business built on Open Source GIS https://mapscaping.com/podcast/a-business-built-on-open-source-gis/

This episode is all about making beautiful maps ... I am not a cartographer but my guest Mamata Akella is a professional cartographer at Felt! So today on the podcast we are talking about Essential Elements of Map Design: Which of course starts with questions like - who is it for, what is it for and how do we get it to them? And then moves on to Visual Hierarchy, Zoom-Based Styling, Color Palettes, and Interpretation We discuss a few practical examples during the conversation and you can find links to those in the show notes Recommended Listening https://mapscaping.com/podcast/felt-upload-anything/ https://mapscaping.com/podcast/communicating-with-maps-the-art-of-cartography/ https://mapscaping.com/podcast/full-stack-cartography/

Planet manufactures and manages the world’s largest constellation of earth observation satellites! Imaging “Just about everywhere on earth just about every day – Making change visible, accessible, and actionable” … and the hope of this episode is to help you understand how they do that – along the way For more information go to https://www.planet.com/gis/ Recommended Podcast Episodes Hyperspectral vs. Multispectral https://mapscaping.com/podcast/hyperspectral-vs-multispectral/ NICFI Program https://mapscaping.com/podcast/reduce-and-reverse-tropical-forest-loss-with-nicfi/ Synthetic Data https://mapscaping.com/podcast/synthetic-data-for-real-problems/ Labels Matter https://mapscaping.com/podcast/labels-matter/

This episode is a story about wide-angle imaging for fire mapping and maritime search but it's also a story about changing the culture and getting people to trust a new way of doing things. My guest today is Alison Harrod - mission success manager at a start-up called Overwatch imaging Whenever I work with a company like Overwatch Imaging it is hard to know which story to tell, we could just as easily have made an episode about AI and object detection or about smart sensors because they do those things too. The decision depends on the guest and their background so after meeting Alison we decided to make this episode for you and try to give you a broad overview of what wide-angle imaging is and how it's used in the context of fire mapping and maritime search. ...but It's one thing to have a technology and it is another thing entirely to get people to use it … as you will hear fire mapping is not “a move fast and break things kind of situation” Connect with Alison here! https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonharrod/ https://www.overwatchimaging.com/ Other relevant podcast episodes that you might enjoy Thermal Imagery From Space https://mapscaping.com/podcast/thermal-imagery-from-space/ Finding Water Leaks From Space https://mapscaping.com/podcast/finding-water-leaks-from-space/ Cube Satellites Of The Stratosphere https://mapscaping.com/podcast/cube-satellites-of-the-stratosphere/

It's not about becoming an influencer it's about creating opportunities for yourself In this episode, we tackle the common misconception that personal branding is solely for influencers, revealing how it's actually about creating the right visibility and opportunities in your professional sphere. Helena Merschdorf shares her unique insights, drawing from her rich background in GIS and marketing, and discusses: This episode is not just about building a personal brand; it's about leveraging that brand to carve a unique path in the geospatial industry. Connect with Helena here https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenamerschdorf/ https://www.tales.co.nz/ Other relevant podcast episodes Rebranding GIS and Geospatial https://mapscaping.com/podcast/rebranding-gis-geospatial/ Python Maps https://mapscaping.com/podcast/python-maps/ Getting Your Dream Job In Earth Observation https://mapscaping.com/podcast/getting-your-dream-job-in-earth-observation/

Entity resolution is the process of matching and merging records from different sources that refer to the same entity. today's episode is about entity resolution for place data, why you might want to do that, and what any of this has to do with the dollar, Unix time and the idea that If data is really driving innovation, join keys are going to become more valuable. Today's guest is Auren Hoffman https://www.linkedin.com/in/auren/ https://twitter.com/auren https://www.youtube.com/@worldofdaas If you want to try Placekey for yourself go to https://www.placekey.io/ If you want to learn more about SafeGraph listen to this podcast episode https://mapscaping.com/podcast/building-geospatial-truth-sets/

Embracing Open-Source Geospatial Technology is easy as an individual but what if you want your organization to use FOSS4G How do you get strategic buy-in? It turns out that the software does not sell itself and that even in the age of AI we still have to convince a human if we want organizational change to to happen. I think the temptation is to say hey look at this long list of specifications and notice how FOSS4G is often better or equal to the close source equivalent. Or hey look at the price tag … it costs nothing which is way cheaper than this other thing which costs more than nothing. While this might be all the argumentation you need in some cases … in general, making change happen is hard, and it's going to require more than that. That's why I have invited Todd Barr back on the podcast to walk us through what it takes to get an organization to Embrace Open-Source Geospatial Technology. Here are a few of the key points The last time Todd was on the podcast we talked about Leadership and Mentorship in the Geospatial community https://mapscaping.com/podcast/skills-leadership-mentorship-and-the-geospatial-community/ If you are interested in FOSS4G you might enjoy these previous episodes A Business built on Open Source GIS https://mapscaping.com/podcast/a-business-built-on-open-source-gis/ Monetizing an open-source geospatial project https://mapscaping.com/podcast/monetizing-an-open-source-geospatial-project/ Or just scroll through the archive to find episodes about QGIS, PostGIS, Geoserver, Geonode, Python, and a bunch of other open-source projects I could use some support! please consider supporting this podcast on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/MapScaping Some more episodes you might enjoy ESRI, GIS careers, Geospatial Data Science QGIS, Geospatial Python, ArcGIS Pro Google Maps, Geomatics, Cartography Location Intelligence, Mapping

** Warning** Consuming this content may lead to educated opinions and or a better understanding of the future of location technology! ** Proceed with caution!! ** If are curious about any of the following topics this episode is for you! Evolution of Positioning Systems Terrestrial-based Positioning: The role of Wi-Fi positioning and the potential of 5G in positioning. Visual Positioning Systems (VPS) GNSS Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellites: The potential of LEO satellites in enhancing positioning and navigation. Future of Positioning: Predictions and expectations for the future of navigation and positioning technologies. Connect with Sandy on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-kennedy-569a6a4/ Recommended listening SBAS - Satellite-based augmentation system https://mapscaping.com/podcast/satellite-based-augmentation-system-a-base-station-in-the-sky/ GNSS - past present and future https://mapscaping.com/podcast/navigating-the-past-present-and-future-of-gnss/ Where does Goolge's blue dot come from https://mapscaping.com/podcast/how-google-calculates-your-location/ On the personal front, I have just moved back to New Zealand after 13 years in Denmark. It has been pretty busy the last couple of weeks, hence the lack of published podcast episodes. Some more episodes you might enjoy ESRI, GIS careers, Geospatial Data Science QGIS, Geospatial Python, ArcGIS Pro Google Maps, Geomatics, Cartography Location Intelligence, Mapping

In this podcast episode, Jennings Anderson, a research scientist at Meta, discusses the Overture Maps Foundation, a downstream product of OpenStreetMap. He explains his background in open map data and his interest in studying collaboration within the OpenStreetMap community. Jennings then dives into the Daylight Distribution, an open data product produced by Meta, and how it combines building data sets from various sources into one unified theme. Jennings emphasizes the importance of a stable ID system within the Overture Maps Foundation and the potential for easy conflation and integration of third-party data. Jennings also explains the relationship between OpenStreetMap and Overture Maps, highlighting how they complement each other. Relevant podcast episodes OpenStreetMap Is A Community Of Communities Cloud Native Geospatial Cloud Optimized Point Clouds The Rapid Editor With regards to accessing Overture Map data, you might find this YouTube video helpful https://youtu.be/fZj6kTwXN1U?feature=shared Just in case you are interested in the Google building footprints here is a link to that :) https://sites.research.google/open-buildings/ Some more episodes you might enjoy ESRI, GIS careers, Geospatial Data Science QGIS, Geospatial Python, ArcGIS Pro Google Maps, Geomatics, Cartography Location Intelligence, Mapping

100 billion Points Every Day 100 billion is a very large number, let's say that I gave you a spreadsheet with 100 billion rows in it, each row consisted of five columns Latitude, Longitude, Device ID, A Timestamp, and a column telling the name of the data provider What would you do with that? How would you clean it? Make sense of it? Extract value from it? What would people use it for? And how would you do this in a way that could be systematized? FourSquare does this every day with the help of something they call a movement engine. To help understand more about how they do this I have invited Gabriel Durkin the director of data science on the podcast. This is the last in a series of episodes I have worked on together with FourSquare and I have to say it's been really enjoyable working with them. If you are interested in hearing some of the previous episodes just check out the links below! From Pixels To Patterns AI In Spatial Analysis https://mapscaping.com/podcast/from-pixels-to-patterns-ai-in-spatial-analysis/ Big Data In The Browser https://mapscaping.com/podcast/big-data-in-the-browser/ Spatial Knowledge Graphs https://mapscaping.com/podcast/spatial-knowledge-graphs/ Designing For Location Privacy https://mapscaping.com/podcast/designing-for-location-privacy/ All Of The Places In The World https://mapscaping.com/podcast/all-of-the-places-in-the-world/ Geospatial Jobs There are a few new jobs on our Job Board! The most interesting one is the role of Social Media Manager at Felt - United States (Remote) ( If you want to apply for this one, it might be a good idea to listen to this episode first ;) https://mapscaping.com/podcast/felt-upload-anything/ ) See more at https://mapscaping.com/jobs/ As a bonus for reading all the way to the end :) If you are looking for free terrain data for anywhere in the world you might find this useful https://github.com/openterrain/openterrain/wiki/Terrain-Data Some more episodes you might enjoy ESRI, GIS careers, Geospatial Data Science QGIS, Geospatial Python, ArcGIS Pro Google Maps, Geomatics, Cartography Location Intelligence, Mapping

Computer vision is everywhere! But teaching an algorithm to identify objects requires a lot of data and this is definitely the case when we think about GeoAI But it is not enough to have a lot of data we also need data that is labeled If we are looking for cars in images we need a lot of images of cars and we need to know which pixels are the car! Of course, I am oversimplifying but I hope you get the idea, Now imagine that you can automatically generate a large labeled data set of realistic images of cars based on the specifications of a specific sensor. These data sets are often referred to as synthetic data or fake data and to help us understand more about this I have invited Chris Andrews from Rendered AI on the podcast. Here are a few previous episodes you might find interesting Computer Vision And GeoAI https://mapscaping.com/podcast/computer-vision-and-geoai/ In this episode, the discussion is aimed at an increased understanding of the differences between computer vision and the AI that is used in the Earth Observation world. Labels Matter https://mapscaping.com/podcast/labels-matter/ What it takes to create labeled training data manually. If you are new to the idea of labeled data sets this is a good place to start. Fake Satellite Imagery https://mapscaping.com/podcast/fake-satellite-imagery/ This is a good episode if you want to know more about Generative AI and Generative Adversarial Networks. Also, check out this website https://thisxdoesnotexist.com/ to get an idea of where and how these Generative Adversarial Networks can be used. Look for a website called This City Does Not Exist http://thiscitydoesnotexist.com/ On a silently similar note try uploading an image to https://bard.google.com/ … it's pretty interesting!