This is the eleventh in our series showcasing the Google Earth plugin and its various uses. Today we are looking at Geo-Wiki, a site that uses crowd-sourcing to do environmental monitoring of the earth.
Although the site has an option to try it out as a guest we couldn’t get that to work, but registration is free so we went ahead and did that. Once registered, the site uses the Google Earth plugin to display a variety of maps, mostly relating to global agriculture patterns. There is a wealth of information, such as where various crops are grown and livestock production patterns. The Google Earth plugin is also used as a means to gather feedback from users, who can select an area and submit comments relating to the maps.
An interesting map of cropland field sizes.
The site includes a game called cropland capture, which shows you a series of satellite images or photos and asks you to identify whether the image includes crop land. The results are then used to create a global map of land under cultivation. There is also a more advanced version that enables you to give more detailed information about land use using the Google Earth plugin, but it seems they only make it available during competitions. To get an idea of how it works see the YouTube video below:
About Timothy Whitehead
Timothy has been using Google Earth since 2004 when it was still called Keyhole before it was renamed Google Earth in 2005 and has been a huge fan ever since. He is a programmer working for Red Wing Aerobatx and lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
Pro downloads, but will not Open! Must you eliminate Google Earth First?
It is not necessary to uninstall Google Earth. Try the direct installer from here:
https://support.google.com/earth/answer/168344