Mark Altaweel, Author at GIS Lounge

Plugshare is a crowdsourced app for finding charging stations for EV owners.

How GIS is Helping Electric Cars on the Road

GIS is playing an important role by helping drivers plan travel that factors in charging stations.

Map showing the mean NO2 concentration for the entire country of Belgium, for Thursday, October 8, 2015. Source: Dewulf et al., 2016.

GIS, Pollution, and Health

GIS has been used to assist in showing strong or weak links for given health conditions to different types of pollutants.

MeteoInfo, a open source tool that combines data visualization with spatial analysis.

GIS and Visualizing Atmospheric Science Data

by Mark Altaweel

The use of new data models has allowed more traditional GIS data models to be integrated with those used in atmospheric science.

How GIS Helps Small Ships Navigate

by Mark Altaweel

GIS has been utilized in sailing and other small craft to help navigate not just the location of other vessels but also land features and obstacles that may arise or even cause danger to boats.

Land cover of the area under study in the 1st Military Survey map in the lowland area of Nové Dvory and Zehusice, Czech Republic. Source: Skaloš et al., 2011.

GIS and Modern Research from Historical Maps

by Mark Altaweel

While GIS offers a way to digitize detailed historical records and maps, it can also provide a new way to understand history and trends over time.

Local spatial autocorrelation for percent Republican, presidential election 1976. Map of the Cincinnati metropolitan area from Kinsella et al., 2015.

GIS, Elections, and Politics

by Mark Altaweel

Political geography focuses on past election cycles in order to look at how voting patterns develop and why. Mark Altaweel discusses how GIS can be used to study those patterns.

QR code corresponding to the pane of a geosite. Source: Martínez-Grata, Goy, & Chimaera, 2013.

GIS and Quick Response Codes

by Mark Altaweel

As smart phones and Quick Response Codes (QR codes) have become ubiquitous, it perhaps should not be surprising we are beginning to see applications integrating QR code data with GIS.

Geographic pattern of illegal border crossings. Source: Rossmo, et al., 2008).

Using GIS to Fight Drug Trafficking

by Mark Altaweel

GIS has proven to be an immensely useful tool for police interdiction operations and crime prevention. One area, in particular, that has benefited from GIS is combating drug trafficking.

GIS and Small Business Planning

by Mark Altaweel

The use of GIS, through such spatial analyses as kernel density estimation or Monte Carlo simulation, is a growing strategy among small businesses looking to succeed.

A thematic map of an underground mine and ZigBee node positions in ArcGIS. Source: Moridi et al, 2015.

GIS and Underground Mining

by Mark Altaweel

GIS has been utilized to monitor tunnels and areas explored, as it provides both 3D visualization and abilities to integrate various sets of data for visual and quantitative analysis.

ArcGIS Spatial Analyst was used to generate a density surface from point data created by a single dancer's movements. Source: GIS to Understand Dance, and Vice Versa, 2009.

Using GIS to Choreograph Dance

by Mark Altaweel

Researchers at Ohio State University developed GIS software to help track the movement of dancers over time to see their patterns, which was also then used to choreograph new classical routines

Sailing times from Rhodes (Ialysos or Kameiros), derived using an anisotropic surface. From: Leidwanger, 2013.

How GIS is Used to Understand History

by Mark Altaweel

Historical geography is one area that has applied GIS to understand outcomes of battles, why cities were built in given locations, and using ancient technologies to understand length and difficulty of travel at different times of the year.