Geography on your PC – internet and GIS tools

1. Geography on your PC – internet and GIS tools Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Thursday 12th October 2006 Presenter: David Rayner

2. I am currently fighting a national campaign on behalf of all Geographers to ‘Give Geography its Place’ – one of the key aims of this action is to try and persuade the media, particularly the BBC and major newspapers to give explicit recognition to the important role played by Geography in educating young people and preparing them for life in the world outside of school or college. On a daily basis, the TV news bulletins and the newspaper headlines are full of Geography – you cannot escape it – and yet, inexplicably, the word is rarely if ever mentioned in the context of these news articles.

3. News Headlines Electricity beyond reach for millions A television and an iron are the first domestic appliances that poor black South African families buy when they first receive electricity. Fridges are deemed a luxury in a country where many cannot afford the 65 rand (£5) that it costs to connect a shantytown house to the national grid. Many killed in tropical storm At least 63 people have died and hundreds are missing in India and Bangladesh after storms in the Bay of Bengal, officials say. Australia plans immigrant tests Australia is planning a radical strengthening of immigration laws that would require prospective citizens to take tough English language tests as well as a quiz on history and culture. The cultural capital still blighted by racial divide WITH ten million inhabitants, and nearly ten million more in its satellite cities, São Paulo is South America’s megalopolis and the biggest city in the southern hemisphere.

4. Sources of news ? • Using your PC, you can these days tap into virtually any news source online: • TV stations – BBC, ITV, C4, CNN • Search engines – Google News, Yahoo News, etc • Newspapers – Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Washington Post, etc. • Specialist– Geography in The News, PhysicsWeb, etc. • Once you have identified these sources, you need to start asking some questions: • do they focus on a particular country or countries? • do they offer global news? • is there a particular bias in the news stories? • what is the depth of coverage like on individual news stories? • how readable are the news stories?

5. Advantages…… • A major advantage of using online news sources (compared to traditional paper sources) is that being online allows the various organisations to provide a media-rich product. So in an online source, we have: • traditional text-based news • photo galleries • video libraries • podcasts and vidcasts • The distinction, therefore, between newspaper sources and TV sources of news is becoming blurred…. • An additional benefit is that many sources archive their news allowing you to research topics and follow news stories over time. • Sadly, some of these archives do require a subscription to access them.

6. BBC News

7. BBC News via e-mail

8. ITV News

9. URL: http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/ The Newseum!!

10. Yahoo News

11. Google News

12. Photo Gallery – Times Online: Floods in India

15. B

16. Source of satellite images ? http://www.geoeye.com/default.htm

17. Video Gallery Reuters News Agency : Brazil Crime

18. Video news…..yes, it’s global warming again!

20. Podcasts from the BBC (mp3 format) ARCHIVE LISTINGS Adventures in the Tourist Trade Brazil: The Gentle Giant Awakes Building Beijing Fault lines From Dictatorship to Democracy Fuelling the Future Give Me Land Inside the EU Making Cities Work The New Africa The Changing Face of Global Power The Congo The Aid Trap The New Arab World Urban Planet World Without Waste The Aid Trap

21. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/downloadtrial/podcast.shtml

22. Flash Animations – locational knowledge ?

23. Flash Animations – physical geography http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/navigation/visualization.cfm http://www.geo.wvu.edu/%7Edonovan/geol101/animationindex-mh.htm

24. URL: http://earthtrends.wri.org/

25. URL: http://www.swisseduc.ch/glaciers/ Glaciers Online

26. Weather sources:

27. URL: http://www.polarorbiter.co.uk/Bracknell.htm

28. URL: http://www.coolweather.co.uk/htdocs/index.html

29. URL: http://tools.google.com/gapminder/

30. Data sources – Census 2001 England

31. Data sources – Census 2001 Interactive maps

32. Data sources – Census 2001 Interactive pyramids

33. Statistics – what do they mean?

34. URL: http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/worldmapper/index.html

35. WorldMapper maps… Land area International immigrants Rail freight Exports of medicines Forests

36. Online GIS resources MultiMap

37. Environment Agency Flood Maps URL: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/

38. British Geological Society URL: http://www.bgs.ac.uk/mineralsuk/digital_maps/maps/home.html

39. City of Nottingham GIS URL: http://webgis.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/website/nomad/index.asp?app=www_nomad

40. And a little bit of fun to finish….. it’s time for a harsh environments lesson!

41. Geography on your PC – internet and GIS tools THANK YOU AND GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR AS/A2 COURSE……… Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Thursday 12th October 2006 Presenter: David Rayner