Taking scale out of context, rarely do we get to see USGS 1:24,000 topo quads seamlessly stitched together. In one sense, this is impractical, as all text and roadways are illegible. But this map now allows us to get a generalized sense of California…the forested regions, the urban areas, Salton Sea and Lake Tahoe.
One of the abilities of land cover data is that it can be used to simplify a landscape on a large scale. Instead of seeing individual streets and buildings, we get a “developed area.” Each pixel in the image shows a generalization of real life, which is one of the primary reasons we use maps. Even without a legend, you can still understand the map, because of a thoughtful use of symbology. Although, I do think that this particular image gets a bit muddy. Westchester County has some great data available, which you can find here, and their full site is here.
When will Microsoft’s Virtual Earth or Google Earth do this? Is this useful? It is geospatial information, so Google and Microsoft should be looking to add it to their mapping services, but who would use these types of data visualizations?
With some data downloaded from the California Fire and Resource Assessment Program, I calculated acreages of overlapping fires in the 20th century above 3,000 feet and within wilderness, roadless areas, or National Park boundaries. Interestingly, there are seven acres of land (the darkest red) that burned nine different times in the Stanislaus National Forest.
