Understanding Our World

At the dawn of humankind, people made crude sketches of geography on cave walls and rocks. These early maps documented and communicated important geographic knowledge our ancestors needed to survive: What is the best way to get from here to there? Where is the water at this time of year? Where is the best place to hunt animals? Our ancestors faced critical choices that determined their survival or demise, and they used information stored in map form to help them make better decisions.

Fast-forward to the 1960s. The world had become significantly more complex than it was for our early ancestors, and computers had arrived on the scene to help us solve increasingly complex problems. The 1960s were the dawn of environmental awareness, and it seemed a natural fit to apply this powerful new computer technology to the serious environmental and geographic problems we were facing. And so the geographic information system (GIS) was born.
Today, GIS has evolved into a crucial tool for science-based problem solving and decision making. People who use GIS examine geographic knowledge in ways that would be extremely time-consuming and expensive when done manually. The map metaphor remains the dominant medium for sharing our collective geographic intelligence, and development of a GIS-based global dashboard will lead to a revolution in how we understand our world and plan for the future.

Geographic Knowledge Leads to Geographic Intelligence

Geographic knowledge is information describing the natural and human environment on earth. For our ancestors, geographic knowledge was crucial for survival. For our own survival, geographic knowledge plays an equally fundamental role. The biggest differences between then and now are that our problems are much more complex, and the sheer volume of data—of geographic knowledge—at our disposal is daunting. And whereas passing down geographic knowledge in the past was limited to a few cave paintings or rock drawings, GIS technology now enables a collective geographic intelligence that knows no spatial or temporal bounds.
Today we have more geographic data available than ever before. Satellite imagery is commonplace. Scientists are producing mountains of modeled data. And an ever-increasing stream of data from social media, crowdsourcing, and the sensor web are threatening to overwhelm us. Gathering all this information—this geographic knowledge—and synthesizing it into something actionable is the domain of GIS. More data does not necessarily equate with more understanding, but GIS is already helping us make sense of it, turning this avalanche of raw data into actionable information.

Human-Made Ecosystems

Our traditional understanding of ecosystems as natural landscapes is changing. Anthropogenic factors are now the dominant contributor to changing ecosystems. Human beings have not only reshaped the physical aspects of the planet by literally moving mountains but also profoundly reshaped its ecology.
And it's not just landscape-scale geographies that can be considered human-made ecosystems. In modern society, buildings are where we spend the vast majority of our waking and sleeping hours. Our facilities are themselves man-made ecosystems—vast assemblages of interdependent living and nonliving components. Facilities have become the primary habitat for the human species, and this is changing the way we think about collecting, storing, and using information describing our environment.
A key aspect of our social evolution is to recognize the effects we have already had on ecosystems, as well as to predict what future impacts will result from our actions. Once we achieve this level of understanding, we can direct our actions in a more responsible manner. This type of long-term thinking and planning is one of the things that make humans human.
Recognition of the overwhelming dominance of man-made ecosystems also makes us cognizant of the tremendous responsibility we have—the responsibility to understand, manage, and steward these ecosystems.

"Only when people know will they care.
Only when they care will they act.
Only when they act can the world change."
—Dr. Jane Goodall

Designing Geography

We humans are no longer simply passive observers of geography; for better or worse, we are now actively changing geography. Some of this change may be intentional and planned, but much of it is unintentional—"accidental geography." As we grow more knowledgeable, become better stewards, and obtain a greater understanding of our world and how humankind affects it, we need to move away from this "accidental geography" and toward what Carl Steinitz calls "changing geography by design." As GIS professionals, we can accomplish this through the integration of design into the GIS workflow.
The GIS workflow starts with a decision that needs to be made. We first gather background information about the geography of that decision and organize it on a digital map. We then use the map to evaluate the decision. Once we fully understand the geographic consequences of the decision, we can act.

When an idea is proposed with geographic consequences—a housing development, a shopping center, a road, a wildlife preserve, a farm—it first goes through a design process. After it is initially designed, a project is vetted against geography using this approach.
A typical project will go through many iterations of design and evaluation. As the constraints of geography on the project—and the impacts of the project on geography—are revealed, the design is continually refined. Because design and evaluation have traditionally been separate disciplines, this phase of a project can be time-consuming, inefficient, and tedious.
What if we could reduce the time and tedium of these iterations by integrating design directly into the GIS workflow?

 

This integration—what we refer to as GeoDesign—is a promising alternative to traditional processes. It allows designers and evaluators to work closely together to significantly lessen the time it takes to produce and evaluate design iterations.
Bringing science into the design process without compromising the art of design will require new tools and enhanced workflows. Most of all, it will require a new way of thinking about design. And it will allow us to more easily move from designing around geography to actively designing with geography.
We must manage our actions in ways that maximize benefits to society while minimizing both short- and long-term impacts on the natural environment. GeoDesign leverages a deep geographic understanding of our world to help us make more logical, scientific, sustainable, and future-friendly decisions. GeoDesign is our best hope for designing a better world.

Toward a Global Dashboard

An important tool for understanding our dynamic planet is a global dashboard. This tool would operate as a framework for taking many different pieces of past, present, and future data from a variety of sources, merging them together, and displaying them in an easy-to-read-and-interpret format that indicates where action needs to be taken. That such a dashboard would use the map metaphor seems obvious; our long history with map representations means that people intuitively understand maps.
GIS helps provide this framework by allowing users to inventory and display large, complex spatial datasets. When people see all this geographic knowledge on a map, and they see environmental problems or economic issues in the context of their neighborhood, their street, or their house, this leads to a new level of understanding. They get it right away. The ability to take all this data and put it in context on a dynamic, personalized map is very powerful.
GIS can also be used to analyze the potential interplay between various factors, getting us closer to a true understanding of how our dynamic planet may change in the coming decades and centuries.
A better world is the common goal all of us—geographers, planners, scientists, and others—have been striving for. Although we've made a lot of progress in building the technological infrastructure to help us accomplish this monumental task, we're still not quite there yet.
I'm a firm believer that we have the intelligence and the technology—the ability—to change the world. We can make it better. We must make it better. But we first need a firm and complete understanding of our world before we act to design our future.

source : http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer11articles/understanding-our-world.html

From Maps to GeoDesign

Conserving Great Ape Landscapes in Africa

By Lilian Pintea, Africa Programs, The Jane Goodall Institute

Non-Governmental Organization logoThe Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) has been very interested in the evolution of the new field of GeoDesign, which offers the vision and the infrastructure to bring people, disciplines, data, and technology together to not only better describe landscapes but also develop more successful conservation strategies and actions.

One practical application of GeoDesign has been the successful use of geospatial and conservation sciences to inform decisions in the Greater Gombe Ecosystem in Tanzania. JGI greatly improved village land use in this very sociopolitically difficult and historic setting. We were successful not only because of the technology we employed but also because the JGI staff understood human values and decision-making processes that influence landscape change in that particular region. We learned that helping develop the region (e.g., through working together to provide clean water sources, among many projects) opened the door to communities and motivated them to "buy in" to our efforts, creating a window of opportunity to apply conservation science to threatened ecological systems. Some of these programs are discussed in detail below.

At the core of JGI's applied conservation science program is using geography as a common framework to support our projects in Africa by connecting people, their values and activities, and conservation data and developing a shared understanding and vision of landscapes and how they should be changed. This in turn enables us to implement, monitor, and measure the success of those changes for both human and chimpanzee livelihoods.
We Need to Make More Enlightened Decisions
photo of Jane Goodall with Freud

Jane Goodall with Freud (courtesy The Jane Goodall Institute).

Time is running out for many endangered species, including our closest living relatives, chimpanzees. Chimpanzee and human populations are part of the same life support system, embedded in ecological systems that are intimately linked and dependent upon ecosystem services to survive. Unsustainable uses of natural resources by humans result in loss of those ecosystem services, with negative consequences for both chimpanzee and human livelihoods. The fundamental problem is that, despite advances in science and technology, we have not yet developed the methodologies to apply these to conservation and make more enlightened decisions about how to achieve a better balance between environmental and economic results.

Fifty years ago, on July 14, 1960, Jane Goodall stepped for the first time onto the shores of Lake Tanganyika and, through her groundbreaking discoveries about chimpanzees in what is now Gombe National Park in Tanzania, opened a new window to the natural world and to ourselves. This unique long-term research continues today with daily chimpanzee data collected by the JGI Gombe Stream Research Center and digitized, stored, and analyzed at the Jane Goodall Center at Duke University.
GIS and Imagery for Clearer Understanding

GIS has been used to georeference and digitize hundreds of thousands of chimpanzee behavior locations and analyze ranging and feeding patterns and relations with habitat characteristics as detected by remote-sensing and field surveys. The use of geospatial data for chimpanzee research was straightforward. Spatial tools and variables derived from GIS and remote sensing were directly used as part of research collaborations to test hypotheses. For example, a vegetation map derived from 4-meter IKONOS imagery helped demonstrate that chimpanzee hunts on colobus monkeys are more likely to occur and succeed in woodland and semideciduous forest than in evergreen forest, emphasizing the importance of visibility and prey mobility. JGI also worked with the Tanzania National Parks to improve the management of the park by using geospatial technology to visualize habitat change, map the park boundary, and support the development of the Gombe National Park Management Plan.

In addition to continuing Jane Goodall's pioneering research, JGI has been accumulating decades of experience and practical knowledge outside protected areas on how to successfully engage local communities and decision makers in the sustainable use of their natural resources. While the technology to map land cover inside and outside Gombe National Park was mostly the same, the way geospatial information was used to inform decisions was very different.

The use of geospatial information to inform decisions outside the park has been more complex. Gombe National Park was created in 1968. The park inherited a history of conflict with the local communities that started in 1943 when the colonial government established for the first time Gombe Stream Game Reserve. In 1994, JGI began working with the local communities outside Gombe through the Lake Tanganyika Catchment Reforestation and Education (TACARE, pronounced "take care") project to seek ways of arresting the rapid degradation of natural resources. TACARE project staff quickly learned that community buy-in was essential for success. Therefore, the TACARE project added agriculture, health, social infrastructure, community development, and clean water components to the range of interventions it employed. These interventions initially focused mostly on areas close to village centers.
articipatory village land-use plans, see enlargement

Participatory village land-use plans were prepared by the communities according to Tanzanian laws (courtesy The Jane Goodall Institute).

However, forest change detection using Landsat imagery from 1972 and 1999 showed that most chimpanzee habitats outside the park had been in areas away from the village centers and almost 80 percent of it converted to farmland and oil palm plantations. Remote-sensing and GIS analysis led to a landscape approach by focusing conservation efforts geographically on areas away from village centers and on forest patches with the most benefits to chimpanzees. In 2005, adopting the recommendations obtained through analysis of satellite imagery and with funds from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other donors, JGI and its partners embarked on a five-year Greater Gombe Ecosystem (GGE) project.

A Conservation Action Plan approach was developed to identify and prioritize conservation strategies. Village land-use planning was identified as one of the top strategies. GIS was used to overlay deforestation layers, historic distribution of chimpanzees and habitats, slope, footpaths, roads, streams, watersheds, density of human structures, and 60-centimeter QuickBird imagery to prioritize a conservation area that, if protected, would substantially increase the viability of chimpanzees inside and outside the park and stabilize the watersheds to support human livelihoods.

Participatory village land-use plans were prepared by the communities according to Tanzanian laws and with full involvement of government and community stakeholders. JGI facilitated the process and provided technical support, including maps and geospatial tools to record and manage spatial data. The planning process followed seven steps and required villagers to settle any existing land disagreements and agree on village boundaries and how land resources located within the villages should be used to meet specific human livelihood needs and environmental objectives.

At the end of the project in 2009, 13 villages within GGE completed their participatory village land-use plans, which became ratified by the Tanzanian government. Local communities voluntarily assigned 9,690 hectares, or 26 percent, of their village lands as Village Forest Reserves. These reserves are interconnected across village boundaries to minimize fragmentation and cover 68 percent of the priority conservation area identified by the GGE Conservation Action Plan.

With renewed financial support from USAID, JGI and partners are now engaged in facilitating community-based organizations, developing bylaws and building local capacity to implement these village land-use plans and restore and manage newly established Village Forest Reserves. The plan is to use DigitalGlobe imagery continuously to provide detailed information on village land-cover change, such as increases in forest cover in Kigalye Village Forest Reserve, and monitor both new threats and conservation successes.

About the Author

Dr. Lilian Pintea brings more than 15 years of experience in applying remote sensing and GIS to the job of protecting chimpanzees and their vanishing habitats in Africa. As vice president of conservation science at JGI, Pintea directs the scientific department at the institute and conducts applied conservation research in Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the Congo.

For more information, contact Lilian Pintea (e-mail: lpintea@janegoodall.org).

See also "Harnessing the Power of Our GeoDesign Vision."

source : http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/summer11articles/from-maps-to-geodesign.html

Planning for a Polder in the Netherlands

Geodesign Project Integrates Water Management and Land-Use Planning

Highlights
    * Land tracts surrounded by dikes (polders) were modeled with quantitative and qualitative trade-offs regarding water and land-use plans.
    * With ArcGIS and CommunityViz design tools, land-use stakeholders work together on new plans, sketching ideas and receiving fast feedback.
    * The project combined GIS mapping and scenario planning tools, which allowed the team to integrate expert knowledge into the decision process.

The Dutch are familiar with polders—low tracts of land typically enclosed by dikes—and their characteristic hydrologic and land-use challenges. The Bodegraven polder, located in the province of South Holland, is a low-lying peat meadow area of some 4,672 hectares (11,545 acres) in the Netherlands, where water tables are controlled to enable multiple land uses. While Bodegraven has been predominantly used for commercial dairy farming, it is also important for its high natural, cultural, and historical value.
Bodegraven is currently facing a number of problems that will affect the sustainability of its land uses: ground subsidence, preservation of the peat meadow landscape, inefficient water management, poor water quality, and the changing economics of dairy farming. Multiple stakeholders are thus involved, including the local water board, the City of Bodegraven, the Province of South Holland, farmers' organizations, and nature conservation organizations, as well as individual farmers, residents, and recreational visitors. Consequently, the provincial authorities have started a planning process to review and adjust both water management practices and land uses in the area. The Spatial Analysis and Decision Support Department of the Institute of Environmental Studies worked with stakeholders to develop and test participatory tools to support integrated land-use planning and water management within this region despite conflicting objectives.

The project team structured the planning process for Bodegraven into a series of three interconnected stakeholder workshops: design, analysis, and negotiation. In the design workshop, the team defined three reference plan alternatives, stakeholder objectives, and evaluation criteria. For scenario planning, the team used ArcGIS and CommunityViz, an ArcGIS extension, extensively during the analysis and negotiation workshops to visualize maps and scenarios. The team was already familiar with Esri software, as it uses it for most of its mapping and cartography work, and it chose to continue using the software for this project. Additionally, the team chose to work with CommunityViz because of its compatibility with ArcGIS and its versatility for application to a wide range of planning studies. The software's calculation speed also made it suitable to support geodesign and conversations around an interactive device, such as a touch-enabled interface, or touch table. The combined solutions allowed "spatial discussions to be clearer and better supported," comments Aletta van der Zijden, regional coordinator of landscape management in South Holland.
The touch table supported stakeholder participation in the workshops and acted as the main map interface for the geodesign software. A separate screen was also set up to view additional information, such as charts and tables. In the analysis workshop, the project team used ArcGIS to present maps with thematic information about the region to increase the understanding of participants, who included both experts and stakeholders with varying backgrounds. Next, the project team used Scenario 360, a component of CommunityViz, to create scenarios. Each scenario consisted of a polygon-based suitability map in which the weights of each criterion were set according to participants' values. Participants could change the weights interactively using the touch table to adjust assumption settings in the software.

As the weights were changed, the results were dynamically updated and presented both on the touch table as a map and on the separate screen as a bar chart showing aggregated scores for various criteria and objectives the participants had established. A set of weights and the corresponding set of value maps constituted the main product of this phase. Ton Verdoorn, a project manager from the Province of South Holland, remarks that the combination of GIS and planning tools made it "possible to quickly and clearly see both spatial and numerical consequences of changing variables on the map."
The negotiation workshop supported the process of collectively changing the current land-use pattern of the polder into a new, negotiated plan. Participants were the institutional stakeholders: the water board, the City of Bodegraven, the Province of South Holland, and nature conservation organizations. To support negotiation, the project team used multicriteria methods to show trade-offs among stakeholder objectives. Stakeholders used Scenario 360 to adjust two kinds of trade-offs: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative trade-offs were identified by selecting polygons that were "very suitable" or "very unsuitable" for each potential land-use type based on their summed area and ranked multicriteria analysis (MCA) value.

Quantitative trade-offs were identified by selecting polygons that would profit from a land-use swap based on their actual MCA value. The next step was to change the plan. Stakeholders used their hands with the software's sketch tools to change land-use patterns on the touch table as they discussed the changes. A land-use palette allowed participants to assign new land uses to target parcels. As soon as the participants agreed on changes, MCA results were updated and displayed as bar charts on a separate screen in real time.

This project ran for four years, from 2006 to 2010, and ended with a positive result that satisfied all the project stakeholders. The combined use of GIS mapping and scenario planning tools allowed the team to integrate expert knowledge with stakeholder perspectives into the decision process of Bodegraven.

source : http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/spring11articles/planning-for-a-polder-in-the-netherlands.html

Keindahan Masjid Al-Irsyad

Rabu, 3 Agustus 2011 | Tag: Masjid Al Irsyad, Ramadhan 1432H, 2011
KapanLagi.com - Sejak diresmikan 2010 lalu, bangunan ini sudah mencuri perhatian tidak hanya warga sekitar tetapi juga di dunia maya. Masjid yang terletak di Padalarang ini masuk 5 besar "Building Of The Year 2010" oleh National Frame Building Association. Acara akbar yang melibatkan para arsitek di seluruh dunia ini menempatkan Masjid Al Irsyad dalam kategori religious architecture. Menurut ArchDaily, situs publikasi arsitektur terpopuler, Masjid Al Irsyad cukup populer di antara tempat ibadah yang lain dan hanya dikalahkan oleh Gereja Tampa Covenant, Florida, Amerika serikat.

Jika umumnya masjid memiliki kubah atau menara, tidak dengan Masjid Al Irsyad. Masjid yang dirancang oleh Ridwan Kamil, arsitek kenamaan Indonesia ini didesain mirip Ka'bah, berbentuk kubus dengan warna abu-abu. Desainnya sederhana, tidak banyak ornamen namun tetap memiliki keindahan tersendiri.

Dinding masjid terbuat dari batu bata yang disusun sedemikian rupa sehingga membentuk celah yang terbaca sebagai dua kalimat syahadat. Selain memiliki fungsi artistik, lubang-lubang ini juga berfungsi sebagai ventilasi udara. Menjelang malam ketika lampu di dalam masjid mulai dinyalakan, sinar lampu akan menerobos celah ventilasi sehingga jika dilihat dari luar tampak seperti masjid yang memancarkan cahaya berbentuk kalimat syahadat. Sangat mengagumkan.

Keindahan tidak hanya tampak dari luar masjid. Di dalam masjid terdapat 99 lampu bulat berukir asmaul husna yang jika dinyalakan, cahayanya akan membentuk siluet nama-nama suci Allah SWT. Terasa sekali kemegahannya.

Masjid Al Irsyad juga seolah ingin mendekatkan kita pada alam. Lantai tepi mimbar dimanfaatkan untuk kolam di lantai. Suara gemericik air kolam memberikan suasana teduh yang dapat menambah ketenangan ketika beribadah. Dinding di belakang mimbar juga dibiarkan terbuka sehingga jama'ah dapat menikmati pemandangan Padalarang yang menyegarkan.

Didirikan di atas lahan seluas 1.100 meter persegi, masjid berkapasitas 1.500 jama'ah ini selain menjadi tempat ibadah juga menjadi tujuan wisata tak hanya bagi para sekitar Bandung dan Jakarta tetapi juga mancanegara.

Foto: properti.kompas.com

Sumber : http://cityguide.kapanlagi.com/artikel/wisata/425-keindahan-masjid-al-irsyad.html

Kelenteng Sam Poo Kong : Napak Tilas Sang Laksamana

Rabu, 1 Juni 2011 | Tag: Kelenteng Sam Poo Kong
KapanLagi.com - Sekitar abad ke 15, Laksamana Sam Poo Kong berlayar melintasi Laut Jawa. Mendapati anak buahnya sakit, sang Laksamana memutuskan untuk singgah di daerah Simongan, Semarang. Tempat persinggahan itu kini dikenal dengan nama Kelenteng Sam Poo Kong.

Beberapa orang menyebutnya Kelenteng Sam Poo Kong., Kelenteng Cheng Hoo atau Kelenteng Gua Batu. Disebut Gua Batu karena tempat ini memang berbentuk demikian. Beberapa sumber menambahkan ada juga yang menyebut kelenteng ini sebagai Kelenteng Kedung Batu karena awalnya tempat ini merupakan tumpukan batu-batu yang berfungsi untuk menahan aliran sungai Kaligarang.

Melihat riwayat Laksamana Cheng Hoo yang berasal dari keluarga muslim, ada pendapat yang menyatakan bahwa kelenteng ini dulunya adalah sebuah masjid. Sejarah mencatat, sejak dibangunnya tempat ini maka tempat ini menjadi pusat perkembangan umat China muslim di daratan Jawa.

Bangunan kelenteng ini sangat kental dengan perpaduan arsitektur China dan Jawa. Atapnya yang berbentuk limasan khas Jawa menaungi pilar-pilar dan interior dinding khas China klasik. Warna-warna khas China seperti warna merah, kuning, hijau dan emas tampak dominan menghiasi setiap bangunan.

Kelenteng ini terdiri dari beberapa kuil besar. Bangunan utamanya adalah sebuah Kelenteng Besar dan Gua Sam Poo Kong. Dalam gua ini terdapat mata air yang terus mengalir. Dalam bangunan ini terdapat altar pemujaan Sam Poo Kong dengan lilin yang terus menyala sepanjang tahun.

Di sisi kanan Kelenteng Besar terdapat Kelenteng Tho Tee Kong yang digunakan untuk tempat penghormatan para kyai yang merupakan orang kepercayaan Laksamana Cheng Hoo.

Di salah satu bagian pendoponya Anda dapat berfoto mengenakan pakaian ala prajurit China dengan membayar Rp 75.000. Pendopo ini banyak diminati pengunjung mulai dari anak kecil hingga dewasa. Di bagian lain pengunjung juga dapat meminta seorang biokong untuk melakukan chiamsi atau membaca peruntungan Anda di masa depan dengan menggunakan bambu bertuliskan angka yang sebelumnya telah dikocok lalu dicocokkan dengan secarik kertas. Dari secarik kertas tersebut kemudian diterjemahkan dengan keinginan atau pertanyaan yang diajukan pengunjung.

Setiap tahunnya di kelenteng ini diadakan perayaan untuk memperingati singgahnya Laksamana Cheng Hoo di tanah Jawa dan perannya dalam menyebarkan agama Islam. Biasanya perayaan tersebut jatuh pada tanggal 29 dan 30 bulan keenam dalam kalender China. Berbagai atraksi dan pertunjukan seni ditampilkan dalam acara ini seperti barongsai, pameran kebudayaan China, festival tari dan festival lampion.

Jika sedang merencanakan untuk berlibur ke Semarang, Anda dapat menambahkan Kelenteng Sam Poo Kong. ke dalam tujuan wisata Anda. Tidak hanya memiliki Kota Lama yang kental dengan suasana kolonial, Semarang juga memiliki pesona oriental dalam Kelenteng Sam Poo Kong yang tidak kalah cantiknya.

Sumber :http://cityguide.kapanlagi.com/artikel/wisata/356-kelenteng-sam-poo-kong-napak-tilas-sang-laksamana.html