Maps, Maps, and More Maps!

Hi!

Hope you had a lovely Cinco de Mayo. Today I would like to present a few different maps, explain how I made them, and what they're of. So let's get to it!

Map #1 - Elevation of Olympic National Park, WA

Data source: USGS (2011). https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/products/aster_products_table/astgtm and LAGIC (2006). http://lagic.lsu.edu/data/losco/national_parks_boundaries_bts_2006_faq.html.

The Olympic National Park is one of my favorite national parks. See that thin strip of the park that is on the coast. That's where I go camping almost every year! Lots of tide pools and rocks to climb. Definitely visit if you have a chance!


By using EarthExplorer, I was able to find this data collected by USGS. The elevation data is from the ASTER GDEM data. ASTER stands for Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer. GDEM stands for Global Digital Elevation Model. Lots of big words. The pictures, which are captured from a satellite, were taken in 1 arc-second. An arc-second is a form of measurement of degrees. Degrees are broken down into 60 arc-minutes and an arc-minute is broken down into 60 arc-seconds. The ASTER data was complied by both NASA and Japan's METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry). By combining data from the National Park shape file downloaded from LAGIC and this elevation data, I was able to create this map.

This map provides information about the elevation of the Olympic National Park in Washington state. It is quite clearly a fairly rocky and elevated area. The coast line, as to be expected, has a low elevation, but the middle of the park has a significantly higher elevation.  

Map #2 - Night-time in Africa (2000 and 2010)

Data source: NOAA (2000 and 2010). http://ngdc.noaa.gov/eog/dmsp/downloadV4composites.html.

I know that might be a bit hard to see, so click here to see a bigger picture of it!

This map was created using data from the NOAA and NGDC. Satellites captured these images during night. The pictures are in 30 arc-seconds grids, so these pictures are very good quality. For the "Night-time in Africa 2000," the DMSP satellite number F15 took the picture. For the "Night-time in Africa 2010," the DMSP satellite number F18 took the picture. The lights consist of light from "cities, towns, and other sites with persistent lighting, including gas flares." I made the maps separately, then created a GIF of them. I decided to focus on Africa because I figured there would be a lot of urbanization, but it seems that after creating it, both India and Europe light up significantly more in 2000 than they did in 2010. As is expected, many countries, especially ones with cities on the coast, had more lights. This is probably because over time, more and more countries have urbanized, and more light likely means more cities. 

Map #3 - Land Cover of King County, WA

Data source: USGS (2006). http://www.mrlc.gov/nlcd2006.php.

This lovely image is of my own King County in Washington State. Might be a bit hard to see on the map, but there is a small black dot near the water which shows my hometown, Bellevue. This data was created using data from the NLCD, or National Land Cover Database. This data is a "a 16-class land cover classification scheme that has been applied consistently across the conterminous United States at a spatial resolution of 30 meters." It basically shows the different types of land of the United States. I made the map by compiling both the land cover data and combining data from UCLA mapshare of US counties. 

I find this map particularly interesting because it shows the variety of the type of land in King County. Lots of forest and lots of (somewhat) dense city-like areas. The peninsula is full of red, meaning that a lot of people live and it is developed. And we do truly live up to the title of "The Evergreen State." Lots of evergreen forests on the right of the county!

Hope you enjoyed this week's post and let me know what you think of these super fun maps!

-The Green Sasquatch

Land Grabbing in Africa

Hujambo!

That is Swahili for hello. I hope you had a lovely Easter filled with lots of chocolate! Today I want to talk about an issue very prevalent in Africa at the moment: land grabs. I'll give a small intro on the subject, but feel free to click the link to get a Wikipedia briefing on this complex issue. 

Land grabbing involves a company or wealthier nation, like Japan, leasing or purchasing land from developing countries, such as Sudan. The food that is produced on this land is then exported back to the country who bought the land. The land can also be used to produce biofuels, which has become quite popular as of recently. Countries that have become food-insecure are often the ones to purchase or lease this land. 

Doesn't sound too terrible, right? The wealthy nation gets its food and the developing nation gets some money in exchange for land?

Well, I don't think that is quite the case. Although this issue is somewhat controversial, I do think there is some injustice going on.

Sadly, the land that is bought or leased isn't always unoccupied. People live on this land. Can you imagine that? I would be quite destroyed and horrified if I were forced to leave my home because some nation bought it from the government. Not only that, but food security for locals becomes an issue. The land that they previously lived on and grew food on is no longer available for their use. Often, the families that live on this land are completely unaware that their land is owned by the government and they may not have proper documentation. In 2009, a Libyan company "leased 386 square miles of land from Mali without consulting local communities that had long used it." The land that gets bought or leased can be inhabited by people who have had that plot of land for generations. 

Land grabbing not only takes land and food sources away for the local community, but the jobs it creates are often short-lived and under-paid. Furthermore, many companies use their own labor force and not the local labor. 

Here's a nifty little info graphic I made with the help of Piktochart.com. Might not be the easiest to read, so click here to see a bigger picture of it. 

As you can see from the info graphic, several African countries have sold or leased thousands of hectares of land. Communities in Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Morocco have suffered as government land has been sold to far-off nations. Many family owned farms have been destroyed as result of these land grabs. This is both unjust and greedy. 

It is understandable that a nation might lease or sell government-owned land to foreign investors to increase the wealth of their nation or provide more food for their people, but these large land purchases often have very negative effects. And in my opinion, the negative effects of this land grabbing outweigh the positive effects. Purchasing or leasing government land is not a terrible concept, but it must be done with care for the local community. The locals cannot be shoved under the rug and ignored. These land deals need to be carefully investigated as well. The nation or company purchasing the land should not simply assume that the land is unoccupied. But perhaps the best approach would be not to invest in large portions of land and build a new farm, but rather the local, pre-existing farms. This would give wealth to the community and take care of food-security issues. 

 -The Green Sasquatch


Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/world/africa/22mali.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/opinion/the-global-farmland-rush.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-17099348
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_grabbing
http://www.grain.org