2nd November 2009 Vol 5 Issue 42   
 Top Stories  New Products Articles Headlines Pit Stop Events

   Editorial
If Mercator was born in Sri Lanka...

The standard outline map of the world available off the shelf and commonly used by school students to practice their geography, is in the Mercator projection. This projection has become ubiquitous with the way most non-geographers visualise the world. Even the in-flight entertainment systems use this projection to update passengers about their location in the air, which results in most first time flyers (and also veterans) wondering why they are being flown along a longer route when the straight route is the shortest. Unfortunately for the masses, this question is forgotten when they arrive at their destination.

The debate on the merits of different projections is totally academic and the masses have no say in the matter. The concept of the shape of the land they live on, has been subliminally and without an option, been conditioned by what the publishers of the 'atlases' deemed right. The 'right' being based on the personal geo-political ideologies of the publishers and the cartographers too. The very fact that we are 'all' comfortable with Belgium being depicted larger than Sri Lanka on the same map sheet, while the Peters Map invites frowns or at times stronger reactions, speaks volumes about the cognitive misers we are.

  Hrishikesh Samant
hrishikesh@gisdevelopment.net

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Top Stories
Introduced in 1974 by Arno Peters, put forth a world-view that featured accurate sizes and proportions of countries. Peters’ accompanying text declared his “equal area” map projection to be “the map for our time” which was “fair to all peoples." A new edition of this map has just been released...

Dump my standalone GPS navigation device? Well. Google has pulled the rug once again from under GPS manufacturers like Garmin and TomTom. For smartphones running on the Android 2.0 Google is offering the application free. The internet-connected system will allow navigation using voice search in English, provide live traffic updates, including satellite imagery from Google Maps and features "street view" -- real ground-level pictures of destinations...

  Articles
Modelling Landslide Susceptibility in Parts of Southeastern Nigeria with Medium Resolution Remotely Sensed Images


J. I. Igbokwe , K. U. Orisakwe, J. O. Akinyede, B. Dang and T. Alaga

Indah Water - Integrated GIS for better service


Ir. Dorai Narayana
Head of Planning Services, Indah Water Konsortium, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
   New Products, Launches and Releases
3-D maps help at difficult intersections
GeoEye-1 Multi-Site option available
TatukGIS releases Developer Kernel version 9.0
2d3 Launches AltiMap
Exprodat releases Team-GIS Directory
Vehicle Tracking by Data Nets and MDS
Solar map & dataset for Asia , Middle East and Oceania
  Pit Stop
IKONOS or QUICKBIRD imagery of Nigeria
The Geography Department of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria needs archived IKONOS or QUICKBIRD imagery.
Contact : Yusuf Momoh Jimoh

Landcover and Road map of Mumbai
The SJM School of Management, IIT Bombay, India needs high resolution base maps of Mumbai city depicting the landcover and road network.
Contact: Abhijat Abhyankar

NOTE: PIT STOP is a C2B bulletin board service which connects the geospatial business community with service providers and other professionals. We welcome your queries in this section. Kindly send your queries to info@gisdevelopment.net.
    Global Headlines
Asia
Contours to help in flood mitigation
GEC launches Gujarat's first GIS-based website
Twenty nine million Indonesians will enjoy LBS
China to complete land cover map of Antartica
Maps of Brunei and Philippines unveiled
Africa
Nigerian analogue maps converted digital
Americas
U.S. DOT uses GIS to report ARRA spending
USDA selects DMCii to provide satellite imagery
Goose Creek city to develop water system mapping solution
Europe
ARES precision farming project a success
Land folio data capture project for PRA of Ireland complete
Finland using GIS for forest management
Digital tech to assist Hydrographic and Geophysical survey
Appointments, Acquisitions and Contracts
DigitalGlobe, Microsoft sign agreement for Aerial Imagery
Samsung, TeleAtlas sign agreement for maps
1Spatial, PSMA Australia sign landmark agreement
Hemisphere GPS bags Cleantech 10 award
  Events
Workshop On GIS in H.P. Secttt. Shimla
Himachal Pradesh, India
6 November 2009

ESRI MEA User Conference
Manama, NA, Bahrain
10- 12 November 2009

WALIS International Forum 2009
Perth, Australia
11 - 13 November 2009


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