Environment

Using Google Earth to prove a case of illegal waste dumping

March 26, 2014

For a few years now, the Sierra Club and Earthjustice had suspected that Louisville Gas & Electric had been illegally dumping chemicals into the Ohio river. They’ve been capturing ground-level images of the waste entering the river, and are coupling that with Google Earth imagery to prove their case.

PolicyMic has details, including some statements from Earthjustice attorney Thom Cmar:

“Coal ash contamination is rampant across the country, and the evidence gathered at Mill Creek is unequivocal. Coal ash has already polluted more than 200 lakes, rivers, streams and drinking waters. The problem continues to worsen, but no federal protections exist. Our household garbage is better regulated than this toxic waste.”

Armed with the imagery, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club are now filing a lawsuit against Louisville Gas & Electric on behalf of Kentucky residents.

We’ve seen Google Earth used to catch instances of illegal marijuana growing, illegal pools, illegal mining and illegal fishing, but I believe this is the first time that imagery from Google Earth will be used as part of a lawsuit for this kind of activity.

Read more about it over on the PolicyMic website.

Giving a “pulse” to the Colorado River

March 25, 2014

In the past 100 years, the Colorado River delta has gone from a very green area to quite brown and dead, thanks to huge demand on the water by the United States and Mexico. However, a plan is in place to generate an annual “pulse flow” from the Morelos dam in an effort to simulate a spring flood and help bring life back to the area.

The image above was captured back on March 8 of this year, showing Morelos dam and the surrounding area. You can view it in Google Earth by loading this KML file.

Researchers and water managers plan to track the changes using Landsat 8 and other satellite imagery to see how the area responds. Read more about this image and the “pulse” plan over on the NASA Earth Observatory site.

Using Google Earth to predict sea level rise

March 18, 2014

A new study released recently by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the University of Innsbruck includes some impactful visualizations of what sea level rise could mean to various historic sites over the next 2000 years. Using Andrew David Thaler’s Drown Your Town technique, they created images such as this:

The reason for going 2000 years into the future was because “projections for global sea level rise during the next century vary widely, to smooth out any uncertainties in long-term forecasts.” To compound the problem, the Google Earth overlay for this can be inaccurate as Andrew mentioned on his site:

These are not perfect models of sea level rise, they are just useful (and entertaining) visualization tools. The topology in Google Earth is not perfect (you will find places where the sea itself is higher than you sea level rise layer).

All of that said, it’s still an interesting look at our possible future, and some of the images are very thought-provoking. You can check out the full article here or read the full study here.

Explore the Colorado River in Google Earth

March 14, 2014

Over the years Google has taken Street View to some interesting places, including locations such as Venice and under the surface of the ocean. They’ve now added a trip down the Colorado River, and it looks amazing!

In showcasing the new imagery Google invited the Senior Vice President of Conservation at American River, Chris Williams, to share some of his thoughts on it, including the following:

While you admire its grandeur, remember that the river is also at risk. One of the United States’ most important resources, the Colorado River provides drinking water for 36 million people from Denver to Los Angeles, supports a $26 billion recreation industry, and irrigates nearly 4 million acres of land that grow 15 percent of our nation’s crops. But it’s also one of the most endangered, dammed, diverted and plumbed rivers in the world, thanks to a century of management policies and practices that have promoted the use of Colorado River water at an unsustainable rate. By the time it reaches the Gulf of California in Mexico, the river is barely a trickle—a ghost of its once magnificent self. You can see evidence of the river’s decline In Street View, like the high water mark (showing 1950s driftwood on top of the rock), or sedimentation along the river’s edge down by Lake Mead.

The imagery is amazing, but it gives a scary look into the future of rivers like that. For more about the river and this new imagery, you can read more on the Google Lat Long Blog or simply dive in and start exploring the new imagery here.

28 years makes a river look like a snake

March 11, 2014

Google’s “Earth Engine”, which we first told you about back in 2010, can allow for some pretty amazing visualizations. One of the neatest that I’ve seen is this simple visualization of the path of this river between 1984 and 2012 as it appears to move like a snake:

You can learn more about this animation by viewing the full page for it on the Google Earth Engine site. You can also explore the Earth Engine gallery to find many other amazing animations from around the world.

(via +Chris Hadfield)