Rhett Butler
What harm can a road do? Plenty. Once built, illegal roads let loggers, miners, poachers and landgrabbers into the jungle, and the felling begins.
Shutterstock
Our new maps show coral reefs are more extensive than we thought.
Many commercial fishing boats do not report their positions at sea or are not required to do so.
Alex Walker via Getty Images
A new study reveals that 75% of the world’s industrial fishing vessels are hidden from public view.
Alan Jamieson
The idea we know more about the Moon than the deep sea is seductive – but it’s 70 years out of date.
New satellite mapping techniques can quickly locate washed out and damaged areas.
Ricardo Arduengo / AFP via Getty Images
Artificial intelligence can spot differences in images from before and after a storm over wide areas in almost real time. It showed Hurricane Ian’s vast damage in Florida.
Maps contain useful information, but that means leaving out other information that is also useful.
Associated Press
Geographers often talk about the ‘silences’ of maps – what’s missing and unseen. Those silences can be as meaningful as what’s shown.
Mountain glaciers are under threat from global warming.
Phunjo Lama/AFP via Getty Images
Glaciers in North America, Europe and the Andes, in particular, have significantly less ice than people realized.
Drones are increasingly being used in disaster management.
(Shutterstock)
A new study highlights disparities and proposes research priorities for advancing the use of small aerial drones in disaster management.
National Library of Australia: 31258061
In many cases, colonial maps would portray conquered land as having been ‘empty’ and available when settlers arrived — even if it wasn’t.
Understanding how different bodies of water connect across South Africa may drive improved conservation and awareness.
Jaco van Rensburg/Shutterstock
A greater understanding of interconnectedness created by river maps could influence people to become more engaged with conserving river systems.
Gene-based vaccines had never been approved for humans before the coronavirus pandemic.
Juan Gaertner/Science Photo Library via Getty Images
The coronavirus pandemic has driven a lot of scientific progress in the past year. But just as some of the social changes are likely here to stay, so are some medical innovations.
Hannah Wallace Bowman/EPA-EFE
An algorithm driven world is dehumanising – but by understanding this we can call for a more equitable and human use of data.
Tharp with an undersea map at her desk. Rolled sonar profiles of the ocean floor are on the shelf behind her.
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the estate of Marie Tharp
Born on July 30, 1920, geologist and cartographer Tharp changed scientific thinking about what lay at the bottom of the ocean – not a featureless flat, but rugged and varied terrain.
A mylar balloon at Presqu'ile Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.
Lara O'Brien
Releasing balloons at weddings and other celebrations is festive, until they break into pieces and become plastic pollution. A citizen science project is spotlighting the problem.
NASA’s Worldview software gives you a satellite view of Earth right now, and can help track the spread of fires.
Nasa Worldview
By understanding how bushfire maps are created, and what their features represent, you can get better at spotting fake ones.
A section of Beijing Daxing International Airport from the first 3D images released by China National Space Administration using data from the recently launched Gaofen-7 Earth observation satellite, which can resolve objects less than a metre wide.
China National Space Administration/Xinhua
China has embraced the concept of Digital Earth – the use of data from satellites to create a visual map of what’s happening at every point on the planet – and is now a key player in making it happen.
One nine-year-old chose his local supermarket as a place he valued because he could “spend time with mum and help decide what goes in our trolley”.
Shutterstock
When primary school children in a disadvantaged part of Sydney were asked to map what they valued in the area, their choices were revealing and sometimes surprising.
Where has your produce been?
CoolR/Shutterstock.com
Take a look at the first high-resolution map of the US food supply chain.
Peter Longstaff, one of the participants in the study.
© Peter Longstaff
Ultra-clear maps of individual toes were found in the brains of two foot painters – these are not found in typically developed humans.
A map showing Northern Canada and the Arctic Ocean.
Government of Canada
In May 2019, Canada made a partial submission to the United Nations on the limits of its extended continental shelf in the Arctic.