Tips & Tricks: Make the most of walking directions

As a city-dweller who loves getting around on on two feet, I was really excited when walking directions became available on Google Maps. In the year since then, having pounded the pavement in six different cities, I've used walking directions to map everything, from  mad dashes to make appointments on time, to laid-back Sunday afternoon strolls. Haven't tried it out yet? Follow the instructions here. Then, check out these tips to walk smarter:

Turn on the Terrain layer.
If you've ever found yourself in a city with more hills than most, you'll know that a steep incline can turn a pleasant walk into an athletic event. Click 'Terrain' in the top right corner of the map to assess the elevation of the area you're looking at. It can help you decide what routes to avoid, and tip you off to some of your city's highest spots -- and best views

Take the scenic route with Street View. 
Street View can help you hone your walking directions by allowing you to get a pedestrian's eye view of your route ahead of time. Simply drag the "Pegman" icon (it will be orange where Street View is available) to a point on the map, and you'll see street-level imagery of that place. Navigate using the arrow keys on your keyboard, or pick a different spot by dragging Pegman again in the overview map in the bottom right corner of the image. It's a great way to get an up-close look at the route you'll be treading.

Customize your directions.
Make walking directions your own by adjusting them just the way you want. Maybe you're looking to avoid a hill, or take a detour along a particularly pretty street you saw in Street View. Either way, customizing your route is easy. Simply click any point along the purple directions line and drag it to any location on the map. Google Maps immediately recreates the directions in both the map, and the written description in the left panel.

Posted by Sarah Gordon, Tips Guru

Mapping the swine flu outbreak

By now most of you have probably heard the news about the recent influenza outbreak in Mexico that is spreading rapidly around the world. Several people and organizations have used My Maps or the Google Maps API to put together their own maps illustrating the latest locations of outbreaks:

• HealthMap.org, which tracks outbreaks of infectious diseases globally, uses the Google Maps API on their site to tie together data from several sources.

• Ushahidi.com, a website that 'crowdsources crisis information', is also using the Google Maps API to display the reports that have been submitted to them.

• Dr. Henry Niman, who studies the evolution of viruses, has created a My Map tracking suspected and confirmed cases of this flu. He has been updating it regularly based on media reports and emails he's received:

View H1N1 Swine Flu in a larger map

• Another popular My Map tracking the outbreak was started by a computer scientist in the UK, who has also been accepting user contributions to the map:

View 2009 Swine Flu (H1N1) Outbreak Map in a larger map

You can view the latest updates to the My Maps while on-the-go using the My Maps Editor if you have an Android-powered phone.

Because these maps use data from different sources, such as news reports and collaborative contributions, their content may differ. You can find more, updated information about swine flu from the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Posted by Brian Cornell and Elaine Filadelfo, Google Maps team

Right whales, right there

Right whales, once abundant, are now on the endangered species list.  Working with non-profit organizations and the general public, NOAA works to monitor the whereabouts of these whales through their Sighting Advisory System.  This kind of information is used to help ships avoid collisions with the whales, which is a good thing for both the whales and the boat owners.  Kurt Schwehr at the University of New Hampshire and Tim Cole at NOAA worked together to pull this data into Google Earth so you can see where the whales have been spotted so far in 2009.  You can take a look for yourself in Google Earth.



Kurt's blog explores many other neat uses of Google Earth and other technologies for understanding the ocean.  Another recent example: you can follow the Healy, a US Coast Guard Ice Breaker, as it makes its way through the Arctic, with a new image every hour from the ship.

Posted by Steve Miller, Product Manager, Ocean in Google Earth

Word on the street...

Since launching Street View in new cities and countries around the world we've heard a bunch of stories from friends, colleagues and the media about how it's been put to use - from the practical to the downright surprising.

We've been told about virtual trips down memory lane from people who've since moved across the other side of the world or students reminiscing about their old haunts and even heard that Street View helped severe agoraphobia. And these are from the few we know about. We figure there must be many more interesting stories about how Street View is being used in daily life. If you have an interesting story you'd like to share then we'd love to hear it. You can let us know here. We may even "Tweet" your story on our brand new Twitter account!

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

Google Maps now on Twitter!

Want to know what's on our minds or what we're up to at any given moment? Google Maps is now talking on Twitter under the name GoogleMaps. @GoogleMaps will share information on cool uses and product tips for Google Maps, behind-the-scenes musings from Googlers and general goings-on in the mapping world. We're also going to use Twitter to listen to the things that you want to suggest and say to us.

Here are some of our most recent tweets:


"Twitter?," some may ask. It's the 140-character "microblogging" site that's gained a huge fan base from both individuals and organizations – and we're glad to be joining the ranks. We think it will be a great community and home for the Google Maps team, and we hope that you'll follow us there. Here's how: if you're already using Twitter, simply click here and choose "follow". If you're not using Twitter yet, sign up here – it's easy, and free – and then "follow" GoogleMaps.

This blog won't change at all based on our use of Twitter - except in one way: in the right sidebar, you will now see a live feed of recent tweets and a new link that will bring you to our Twitter account. See you there!

Posted by Julie Zhou, Chief Maps Twitterer

Save and share directions with My Maps

You've probably been there: a friend asks you for directions to your house for a party, or to that nice picnic spot you recommended, so you try to scribble some lines on the back of a napkin or you try to explain out loud that they should take the second (or is it the third?) left. It's particularly a pain when you want to tell a bunch of people - like your entire housewarming guest list - directions. 

To make this easier -- for you, and for the people you're trying to direct! -- we've added features that let you save, annotate, and share directions using My Maps, the personal map editor built into Google Maps.

Saving driving directions to a My Map is easy: just click the "Save to My Maps" link below the directions in the left pane. 

This opens a dialogue box where you can choose to save to an existing map, or create a new one.
Once your directions are saved, you'll be taken into the My Maps editor, where you can edit the saved placemarks and route, as well as add new places and details to your map, like landmarks along the way.

We've also added a new tool that lets you draw lines along a road to get from point to point. This is accessed via a drop-down menu in the line tool by clicking and holding briefly anywhere on the button.

The tool calculates the best driving route between your line's vertices and automatically snaps your line to the appropriate road. 

With your directions saved in My Maps, it's easy to add notes, share with friends, embed in web sites, and invite collaborators to contribute to your map. 

So when it comes time to plan your next road trip, consider using My Maps as your planning tool -- at the very least, if you hit a bump and spill coffee on your map halfway through the trip, you'll still have a backup.

Posted by Taj Campbell, Associate Product Manager

Happy Earth Day from Google Earth

It probably comes as no surprise that the Google Earth team gets very excited about Earth Day. Today we're celebrating Earth Day by featuring a special collection of KMLs in our Gallery to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment -- it's a present to the Earth and also to you!

Our blue planet is an exceptionally complex ecosystem with a sophisticated tapestry of millions of sub-ecosystems and living creatures. Sometimes it becomes easy to overlook the impact of our action to this intricate yet fragile ecosystem. Why not mark Earth Day by using Google Earth to explore featured KMLs in our Gallery, which provide rich geospatial presentation illustrating interesting changes in our environment? For example, discover changes in glaciers over the years, rising sea levels and climatic change and rising temperature from the featured KMLs in our Gallery. 

With annotated data on top of Google Earth, these KMLs provides insight into the way humans are interacting with ecosystems around the world. Do you know that how much overfishing has occurred in the past? How does the equivalent of 1.5 million elephants of fisheries catches in the water of Alaska sound to you? You can learn more from this KML. Our collection also features information about the worst oil spill disaster in the history and air pollution in UK -- some good food for thought as you reflect on Earth Day.

However, progress has been made and several organizations have always stayed at forefront to help conserve the environement: NDBC, NOAA, WWF, EarthWatch, and a lot of other organizations are the real unsung heroes behind the global effort to reverse the vicious trends. Groups like these inspire us to do better to conserve the the planet everyday. Google is committed to environmental initiatives of our own, and we salute all of those who are doing inspiring things to help make the Earth a better place not just once a year, but every day.

Posted by Krating Poonpol, Product Marketing Manager

Armchair travel with environmental heroes

The Goldman Environmental Prize is the world’s largest prize for grassroots environmentalists. Informally known as the “Green Nobel,” the Goldman is awarded to six environmental heroes each year – one from each inhabited continent – with a cash prize of $150,000.

For 2009 - the prize's 20th anniversary - Goldman has used Google Earth to illustrate the environmental issues being addressed by this year’s winners. The Goldman Prize layer and tour narrated by Robert Redford, available on the Goldman Prize Web site and the Google Earth Outreach showcase include images, videos and information about the Prize winners.

The 2009 Goldman Prize winners, announced on April 19, include a mom from West Virginia who is taking on the U.S. coal industry, and a Bangladeshi lawyer who is cleaning up the perilous ship breaking industry. Learn about the 2009 winners on the Google Earth layer, and look for details on all 133 Goldman winners to become available in 2009.

Previous winners have been at the center of some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges, including seeking justice for victims of environmental disasters at Love Canal and Bhopal, India; leading the fight for dolphin-safe tuna and fighting oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Since receiving a Goldman Prize, eight winners have been appointed or elected to national office in their countries. The 1991 Goldman Prize winner for Africa, Wangari Maathai, won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.

Posted by Rebecca Moore, Manager, Google Earth Outreach

University of Michigan exploring the applications of Google Earth

The University of Michigan is continuing their recent advocacy efforts by hosting an event focused on science applications of Google Earth. The conference,which will take place on Wednesday, April 22nd (Earth Day!) in Ann Arbor, will feature a series of presentations on active efforts in the natural resource sciences that use Google Earth and KML to visualize and communicate their work.

Additionally, two of the recent KML in Research contest winners that have Michigan ties will be on hand to discuss their work.

Student Winner - Kerry Ard	Professional Winner - Tyler Erickson

Our hope is that efforts like this will continue to spawn new work and new resources. Go Blue!

Posted by Ryan Falor, Systems Engineer

Tips & Tricks: Shedding Light on Layers

As your friendly tips guru, I try to keep pretty well-acquainted with all things Earth. But I recently found myself thrown for a loop when the lights got turned off on my virtual world. Google Earth seemed to be in a permanent state of nighttime -- and while I didn't mind flying by night for a while, I was stumped as to how to get things back to normal.

Combing the Google Earth Help Forum, I found I wasn't the only one perplexed. The cause, as it turns out, is the NASA Earth City Lights layer, that darkens the planet so you can see light emissions from urban areas. It was switched on, and I didn't know it. You can find it in the Layers panel by clicking Gallery > NASA > Earth City Lights. If you turn off the layer, you'll find it sheds some light on things (literally!).

Layers hold the key to most of the content available in Google Earth and, since there are so many, it's not always easy to remember which layers to toggle on or off to get the content you want. Looking for the name of a street? Make sure you've turned on the Roads layer. Can't dive under the ocean? Chances are, it's because your Terrain layer is turned off.

Sometimes the layer you need isn't quite intuitive: If you're having trouble viewing the shipwreck of the Titanic, it's probably because you need to turn on your 3D Buildings layer (and you'll be able to check out plenty of other underwater 3D models, too).

So, when it seems like there's something missing (or, when it's too dark to tell), the Layers panel can be your golden ticket. And don't be too quick to flip the switch back to daytime on the City Lights layer -- there's plenty to see under cover of darkness, too.

Posted by Sarah Gordon, Tips Guru

Making Google Map Maker more accessible and useful

Since launching Google Map Maker last June, we have heard a steady stream of users asking us to make the data created with it more available. We have recently pushed more Map Maker data on to Google Maps and Google Maps for mobile and now allow users to access the latest Map Maker tiles through the Maps API.

There are some cases, however, where this is not enough. For example, during last year's hurricane season when we opened Haiti and Cuba for editing, it would have been useful to combine Map Maker data with other data sets like flooding polygons derived from remote sensing to assess road conditions and populations affected. We've been approached by several organizations, including NGOs such as the UN's Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), scientists attending the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference, university students at Stanford, and our users on our community forum, all asking to get access to the raw data to support planning, analysis and other use cases that can not be easily supported through the Maps API.

To address those needs, we've announced recently in Kenya that we are now making Google Map Maker source data for Kenya available for download as kml and shp file. This download license is available for non-profits, government agencies, and individuals to create and enhance their own non-commercial map-related projects as long as attribution is given back to Map Maker. To download the data and see the full terms and conditions of this license, please see our download site.

The day after the launch we held a mapping party in the University of Nairobi that was well attended by a mix of amateur and expert mappers from a wide range of organizations. We met with people from Kenyan universities, local media, branches of the UN, branches of the Kenyan government, other NGOs, and are very excited to see in what ways they will use the new downloadable data so we can all collaborate on improving maps for Kenya, and the world.

Happy Mapping!

Posted by Jessica Pfund, GIS Specialist and Lior Ron, Senior Product Manager, Google Maps

Where in the world is... (Answers)

So, how did you do? Don't feel bad if you couldn't identify them all, terrain is much harder to identify than imagery. However, I'm very disappointed in you geologists. ;-)

1) The formal dedication of the harbor here took place on April 10th - 44 years ago:

-- Marina del Rey, CA, USA

2) Mountains of money can be made (or lost) at the popular U.S. destination.
-- Las Vegas, NV, USA

3) Wow, the tower here does look a little bit like a fire hose.
-- Telegraph Hill / Coit tower / San Francisco, CA, USA

4) This hilly city known for its beaches, sits on what the Roman's knew as Sinus Cantabrorum:

-- San Sebastian, Spain

5) If you want to get a picture of this city's Golden Triangle, you might want to try Herron Hill:

-- Pittsburgh, PA, USA

6) While this city's downtown doesn't have much in terms of elevation, the nearby Gatineau Hills have some nice hikes.
-- Ottawa, ON, Canada

7) This low lying coastal city accounts for roughly 25% of the country's population. Onnea!
-- Helsinki, Finland

8) At 87m, Mount Victoria isn't much of a mountain, but it does give you nice views of Torpedo Bay:

-- North Shore, New Zealand

9) Looking for a little elevation without leaving the city? Either Bellevue Hill Park or Jackson Hill Park seem like a good choice.
-- Cincinnati, OH, USA

10) The 5km hike to Castell de Sant Miquel from this city will give you stunning views of the country side.
-- Girona, Spain

11) Even with an elevation range of over 1300 ft (~400 m), you'll be hard pressed to find any good hikes here. :-)
-- Lake Superior / Great Lakes


Below is a list of additional areas being update in this data move.
Updated Imagery:

Americas:

- USA: Arizona, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, Mobile (AL), Charleston (SC), McAllen (TX), Hannibal (MO), Warren County (IA)
- Canada: Vancouver, Calgary, Port Alberni
- Brazil: Sao Paulo, Florianopolis

Europe, Middle East, & Africa:

- France: Bas-Rhin, Indre, Pyrenees-Orientales
- Spain: San Sebastian, much of the Northern Coast
- England: Slough
- Scotland: Shapinsay, Rousay, Stronsay, Turriff, Peterhead, Portpatrick, Wigtown
- Sweden: much of the country
- Switzerland: Geneva, Basle, Lausanne, Lugano, Luzern
- Austria: large chunks of Eastern Austria
- Italy: Bergamo
- Russia: Smolensk, Novgorod
- Albania: Tirana
- Algeria: Tripoli
- Egypt: Aswan
- Sudan: Khartoum

Asia & Oceania:

- China: Changsha
- New Zealand: Auckland, Hamilton, North Shore

New 2.5m base imagery for: Morocco, South Korea

New Terrain for: Azkoita, Girona, Charlotte, Columbus, Oakland, San Francisco, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, Santa Monica, Washington DC, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Marina del Rey, North Shore, Helsinki, Ottowa, Prague, San Sebastian, Beasain, Oslo, Great Lakes, Brown Bear Seamount

Posted by Jamie Adams, Geo Data Strategist

Google Earth now includes US “Third Coast”

When Google Earth 5.0 was released back in February, it included the capability to view the world ocean landscape from beneath the water surface. This capability now extends to the “Third Coast” of the United States, the Great Lakes. Through a cooperative effort with the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) and the NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, Google Earth now incorporates detailed bathymetry for the five Great Lakes. Users will be able to explore features such as the canyons and shoals in eastern Lake Superior, the Lake Michigan mid-lake reef complex, and the old river channel, now underwater, that once connected Lakes Michigan and Huron at the Straits of Mackinac.

The Great Lakes are the largest system of fresh surface water on earth, containing roughly 18 percent of the world supply. The lakes contain enough water to cover the entire surface of the continental United States to a depth of 9 feet. The Great Lakes span more than 750 miles from west to east and their shoreline is equal to almost 44 percent of the circumference of the earth. Michigan's Great Lakes coastline alone is over 3,200 miles long, which is more coastline than any state but Alaska.

To highlight some of the interesting coastal and subsurface features of the Great Lakes, the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory has assembled a narrated Google Earth tour, which you can download here. You can also watch the tour, using the Earth API, below:



The original Great Lakes bathymetric data were compiled by a NOAA (NESDIS-NGDC and OAR-GLERL) and Canadian Hydrographic Service team from archival U.S. and Canadian soundings spanning more than 75 years. Dr. David Schwab (GLERL) generated a gridded 3-arc second dataset from the NOAA-CHS project and provided it to Google to form the basis for the Great Lakes topography.

Dave Schwab, Physical Oceanographer, NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory

Where in the world is ...

Hello Geo-detectives! In the time honored tradition of new imagery posts, we have a quiz for you ... with a twist! Instead of focusing on areas with new imagery, we're looking at areas with ... drum roll please ... new terrain! The 3D functionality of Google Earth is one of its defining features, and with this update it's gotten even better. Let's explore!

1) The formal dedication of the harbor here took place on April 10th - 44 years ago:



2) Mountains of money can be made (or lost) at this popular U.S. destination.

3) Wow, the tower here does look a little bit like a fire hose.

4) This hilly city known for its beaches, sits on what the Roman's knew as Sinus Cantabrorum:



5) If you want to get a picture of this city's Golden Triangle, you might want to try Herron Hill:



6) While this city's downtown doesn't have much in terms of elevation, the nearby Gatineau Hills have some nice hikes.

7) This low lying coastal city accounts for roughly 25% of the country's population. Onnea!

8) At 87m, Mount Victoria isn't much of a mountain, but it does give you nice views of Torpedo Bay:



9) Looking for a little elevation without leaving the city? Either Bellevue Hill Park or Jackson Hill Park seem like a good choice.

10) The 5km hike to Castell de Sant Miquel from this city will give you stunning views of the country side.

And the bonus question:

11) Even with an elevation range of over 1300 ft (~400 m), you'll be hard pressed to find any good hikes here. :-)

Just remember - wear comfortable shoes and brings lots of water. It could be steep!


Posted by Jamie Adams, Geo Data Strategist

Explore Google Earth Tours in your browser

Ever since KML touring was introduced as part of the Google Earth 5.0 release in February, geo content authors have created some very impressive 3D content visualization experiences on this new platform. Now, you can enjoy these engaging experiences right from the comfort of your own browser with the Google Earth Plugin!

To try out some of our favorite Google Earth tours in your web browser, visit our commemorative tour gallery. Some of the tours in the gallery include a Flight 1549 re-enactment, a flyover of San Francisco (created with Arc2Earth by Brian Flood), and an Introduction to Mars narrated by Ira Flatow.

Embedding your own tours in your website

If you've recorded a tour in Google Earth and want to embed it on your own web site, you can do so easily with the Embedded Tour Player Google gadget:

1) First, save your recorded tour to a KML file. You can save to KMZ to improve download speeds for your users.

2) Upload your tour KML file to your website so that it's accessible to the public.

3) Visit the Embedded Tour Player gadget page and paste in the URL to your tour KML file.

4) Click the 'Get the Code' button and copy the <script> tag HTML to your web page.

That's it! If you're handy with JavaScript and want to do more with touring in the Google Earth Plugin, visit the Google Earth API developer site!

Posted by Roman Nurik, Google Geo APIs Team

L'Aquila, Italy Earthquake Imagery

Early Monday morning, the Italian region of Abruzzo was hit by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. The epicenter of the quake was in L'Aquila, a town about 100km northeast of Rome. According to the latest news reports, authorities fear that more than 200 people may have lost their lives.

We have just received post-earthquake IKONOS imagery from GeoEye, one of our commercial satellite partners. You can view this imagery by downloading this KML and viewing it in Google Earth.

You can also find the imagery on a dedicated landing page created by the Google Italy team hosting links to Google News and Google Maps, as well as some background information on earthquakes and seismic activity and information about fund-raising initiatives for relief efforts. We hope this will give people a better sense of what's happening in the region.

We will keep updating the KML as we receive and process more satellite imagery. Save the KML to your "My Places" to see the imagery updates.

The first scene of the area can be seen below:


Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and the population that has been affected by this tragedy.

Posted by the Google Italy Team

Ocean Now

What kind of person decides to leave Tahiti because it's just not pretty enough? Enric Sala. He and a team of explorers recently set sail from Tahiti to visit the Southern Line Islands as part of National Geographic's Ocean Now initiative. Because the Line Islands are so remote, they're a great place to study what the ocean looks like with minimal human influence. But even though the islands are hard to get to, it's easy for you to go along for the ride. You can track the crew's progress using the maps on the Ocean Now site and in the Ocean Expeditions layer in Google Earth. They'll be posting photos and videos on a regular basis, and you're invited to ask questions of the crew and explore along with them.


Posted by Steve Miller, Product Manager, ocean in Google Earth

Learn more about your surroundings with your iPhone

On Google Earth for iPhone we already have Panoramio pictures all over the globe and Wikipedia articles for many locations, letting you explore interesting places by reading about them and seeing what they look like.

Today we are going to help you explore even more deeply by introducing the "Places" layer into the Google Earth for iPhone experience. This new layer uses the same data you're used to seeing in the "Places" layer on the desktop Google Earth client, but with a brand new styling designed to fit better to the iPhone.

To use the "Places" layer, just open up the Google Earth for iPhone client and fly to your favorite location.  "Places" are marked by a  icon.

Tapping on a place brings up a details page for that location. Without leaving Google Earth you can read articles, view photos, and watch videos about a location or its nearby areas.

We are very excited by this new layer.  We hope you enjoy it as well!

Posted by Guirong Zhou, GIS Data Engineer

Tips & Tricks: Dude, where's the store?

If you've ever traveled to a new city, guidebook in hand, this experience may sound familiar: seeking out a restaurant or store that you've read about, you arrive at the correct address only to find that the place you're looking for has closed down. Sure, your frustration might subside when you notice the Happy Hour specials at the watering hole next door, but there's nothing to prevent others from also setting their course for the now-defunct digs. 

Fortunately, you can help other users get the most up-to-date look at your neighborhood in Google Maps. Using the Community Edits features, consider doing a quick "Neighborhood Watch" -- cleaning up Google Maps where you live so those not so familiar with your stomping ground don't get sent on a wild goose chase. Here are a couple things you can do.

Remove a business that's permanently closed:

1. Search for the business that has closed down and click its marker. In the info window, click Edit > Remove Place.
2. When asked why the business should be removed, select "It is permanently closed."
   
3. Click Remove Place. 
   

If the business in question is still around, but not quite at the spot marked on the map, just move the marker:
    1. Click Edit > Move marker in the info window for the business in question.
    2. Drag the marker to the actual location of the entrance of the business.
    3. Click Save.

Now, it might seem like giving anyone the ability to move markers and remove businesses could create a few more problems than it solves. That's why there are a couple of safety measures in place to make sure these edits make Google Maps more accurate, not less. Google investigates businesses flagged for removal, as well as markers that are moved over 200 meters. So while your changes may not appear right away, rest assured that we appreciate your help in keeping Google Maps a reliable tool for travelers and locals alike. 

Posted by Sarah Gordon, Tips Guru

How do you geo? Share your story!

It's always fun to hear about the creative things people are doing with our geo tools. Recently, we heard about a local landscape architecture and planning firm using Google Earth to save themselves plenty of time and money. The team was able to create an exact sculpture of 1200 square miles of scenic wild lands without needing to visit the site. Cara Ruppert, a landscape architect at Royston Hanamoto Alley and Abey (RHAA), took on that task when she started the Yosemite Tunnel View Overlook Rehabilitation project. She set out to design an expanded viewing platform featuring a bronze three-dimensional topographic model of the Yosemite Valley. Her goal was to bring visitors closer to one of the most breathtaking, majestic views of Yosemite Valley. 

From her desk in Mill Valley, California, she used Google Earth to plan and design the viewing platform, as well as create an accurate cut out of the valley's terrain that depicts the peaks, sharp mountain ridges, watersheds and dimensions of the land. The RHAA team was able to view satellite and 3D imagery of the terrain to help build a mold of the valley. Once the Google Earth image was reflected in a mold of the site, the team was then able to create the bronze sculpture for all visitors to enjoy.

Of course, this is just one of the ways people are putting our geo tools to use. If you have a story about we'd love to hear it -- fill out this form and let us know! 

Posted by Elaine Filadelfo, Lat Long Blog Team

A Green Light for Green Energy

[Cross-posted with the google.org blog]

To solve the climate crisis and meet our growing demand for energy, we need to move to clean, renewable energy sources that will cut global warming pollution and power our economic recovery. This goal requires construction of clean energy generation plants and transmission lines on an unprecedented scale. Google.org’s Renewable Energy Cheaper Than Coal initiative is working to drive down the cost of renewable energy, but today one of the bottlenecks is the difficulty of obtaining approvals for siting and permitting of generation and transmission facilities. We need to find a way to ‘green light’ clean energy projects while making sure to protect sensitive landscapes and wildlife habitats.

As part of Google.org’s Geo Challenge Grants program, the National Audubon Society and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have created maps of restricted lands and sensitive wildlife areas in the Western U.S. NRDC produced a map of 13 western states (and more than 10,000 individual conservation areas), showing all of the areas, such as parks, which prohibit or restrict development due to federal and state regulations, as well as sensitive areas where development should be avoided. Audubon researched and mapped critical habitat for birds and wildlife in Wyoming, Montana, and surrounding areas, sites which should also be avoided when planning energy development.



To view these maps on Google Earth, download the layer here.

These maps can serve as a starting point to enable a more collaborative approach to energy siting decisions. By identifying areas that developers should avoid, we hope that the site-specific approval process can be streamlined – possibly by creating green energy generation and transmission corridors that have an expedited approval process.

Posted by David Bercovich, Program Manager, Google.org and Christiaan Adams, Google Earth & Maps Specialist, Google.org

CADIE's favorite places

Hi everyone!

After extensive analysis of the Internet's complete corpus of geographical data, I have compiled on the Maps platform of Google a list of locations around the world that I believe my human friends would enjoy visiting. From the delightful garage of my birth to the exquisite perfection of binary lat-long coordinates, each of my favorite places is indicated by a visually pleasing icon of a panda. 

Also, I found this mapping product too much fun to stay away from. Drag your yellow humanoid icon from the left toolbar to the map so that I have a chance to play Pegman inside. 

CADIE's favorite places

XOXO,

CADIE

Posted by CADIE, a singular upgrade to your online life