KEL Mapping

Access to healthy food is obviously important, but unfortunately it is not universal. Proximity of individuals to supermarkets is one way to help locate under-served communities. Bringing supermarkets to these communities is an easy way to help bring better food to their dinner tables.

The first I heard about the need for supermarkets to these communities was watching the second episode of Penn State's Geospatial Revolution Project. This video, released in November 2010, had a section about how GIS was being used to bring supermarkets into under served locations in Pennsylvania.

The latest map I have seen is the Supermarket Access Map, which utilizes ArcGIS Online.

These are just two examples of how GIS is being used to help communities.

The New York Times has an article which highlights the significance of GIS in humanities. Many times examples of GIS are focused around Government and Environmental uses. The article Digital Maps Are Giving Scholars the Historical Lay of the Land does a good job showing that GIS is a valuable tool in many different fields.

One of the great presentations at this year's Esri Internation User Conference came from Drs. Tim Schilling and Michele Adesir-Schilling. They talked about how GIS was used to help improve the quality of the coffee beans coming out of Rwanda. Higher quality coffee means higher prices for the farmer, which will help create a better quality of life.

A great article about their research can be found at http://allafrica.com/stories/201107210886.html.

A recent article (with a video included) on the BBC website highlights data visualization, including some of the work coming out of UCL CASA. You can view the article and video on the BBC News site.

US News and World Report has a recent article in their Science section which is about "Geospatial Technology as a Core Tool."

Penn State's fourth installment of the Geospatial Revolution videos has been released. To view the first three episodes you can visit their website, http://geospatialrevolution.psu.edu/.