Interactive mapping from Google Earth gives context to mapping infrastructure

| 04.21.2008 | 09:21:217631 |

April 21 '08: Wired reported on a new project partnership between Purdue University, the US Department of Energy and NASA called Project Vulcan which takes carbon emission data and overlays it onto a map of the country. The partnership, which uses the Google Earth and Google Maps technologies presents a way for infrastructure and energy industries to build real-time and situational awareness capabilities into mapping.

In a New York Times article, researchers said the overlaying of information onto a digital map of the US helped to present a view of the US' "industrial metabolism". "The initial analysis, limited to 2002, plumbed detailed hourly air-quality measurements and other data that indirectly allow the team to back track how much fuel was being burned," the Times reported. Other applications of Google Earth include a Homeland Security and Infrastructure solution which allows federal, state, local and private sector officials to share and focus on information using secure channels of communication in real time.

Currently, Google is the only company in the US which has aggregated "a national database of contiguous US imagery, geographic features, roads, and business listings," which are combined with integrated data such as the Project Vulcan. Other recent projects include power plant mapping, and a genocide awareness map built by the United State Holocaust Memorial Museum.

National Blueprint Tags: Intelligence & Situational Awareness, Economic & Infrastructure.