Malaga (2)

There is a completely different perception from above a city. At street level there are few landmarks, the sun does not permeate to that level and working out one's position in relation to the rest of the city can be tricky.

But it is easy to climb to the Gibralfaro, the citadel on the hill overlooking Malaga. From here one can see the streets, work out their position in relation to the sea or the hills or the river.

This picture shows the Plaza Merced which is close to our apartment in the Calle Pena.

And here we see the Teatro Cervantes, and the H-shaped roof in the middle of the right edge of the photo is in fact the roof of our apartment block. It is interesting to look down on one's home and of course Google Earth gives a very similar picture of the area although the picture there was taken before out apartment was built whereas this was taken today.

Mapas de Malaga

I am currently sitting in an internet cafe on the Plaza Merced in the old Centro Historico of Malaga. As I walked around the narrow streets in the Centro Historico, I reflected on how useful a map of the district is. The streets in the area are very narrow, and the buidings very tall. Sunlight rarely permeates down to street level. So unless one has an inate sense of direction, which I very certainly do not, it can be really difficult to know whether one is going north, south, east or west.

I remember when I lived in Teheran all those years ago, getting one´s bearings was easy because the whole city sloped gradually from north to south.

But although Malaga has high mountains behind it and, obviously, the sea at its other edge, the city itself is relatively flat. So by the time I have turned left, right, left and right again, I have no idea whether I am going in the same direction or in the opposite direction. If I am lucky, I might get back to the place from where I stated.

But of course a map allows me to continue to where I am headed and get there in a reasonably straight line. Provided of course I am on foot.

In a car, with directions made even more difficulat by one way streets, I often take a huge unplanned detour. But now satnav will prevent such difficulties. All I need to do is learn Spanish. Now is ´izquierda´ left or right?

Fit for purpose

'The INfrastructure for SPatial InfoRmation in Europe initiative (INSPIRE) aims at making available relevant, harmonised and quality geographic information for the purpose of formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of Community policy-making.'

Sounds logical to me. There must be some kind of data standard throughout Europe to allow harmonisation of this data across borders. The principles in INSPIRe also appear to be logical and sensible, namely -
'Data should be collected once and maintained at the level where this can be done most effectively
It should be possible to combine seamlessly spatial data from different sources and share it between many users and applications
Spatial data should be collected at one level of government and shared between all levels
Spatial data needed for good governance should be available on conditions that are not restricting its extensive use
It should be easy to discover which spatial data is available, to evaluate its fitness for purpose and to know which conditions apply for its use. '

And now there is an agreed text which will now go for ratification to the Parliament and Council of Ministers.

The ramifications are beyond me at present. Others will no doubt comment on this and I shall bring you their thoughts in due course. But if the Directive makes geographical data fit for purpose, then this is to be welcomed.

The Father of Geography

Apparently Eratosthenes could be described as the first geographer. He was born in 276 BC in Cyrene (now Libya) and died at the pretty good age of 82 in Alexandria. He was a mathematician and philosopher (weren't they all in those days) and was the first person to measure the circumference of the earth.

He was accused of being a jack of all trades but master of none. Apparently his mates called him 'Beta' because he never came first at anything! Certainly he had a wide range of interests, including Geography. He sketched, quite accurately, the route of the Nile to Khartoum, showing the two Ethiopian tributaries. He also suggested that lakes were the source of the river. A study of the Nile had been made by many scholars before Eratosthenes and they had attempted to explain the rather strange behaviour of the river, but most like Thales were quite wrong in their explanations. Eratosthenes was the first to give what is essentially the correct answer when he suggested that heavy rains sometimes fell in regions near the source of the river and that these would explain the flooding lower down the river. Another contribution that Eratosthenes made to geography was his description of the region "Eudaimon Arabia", now the Yemen, as inhabited by four different races. The situation was somewhat more complicated than that proposed by Eratosthenes, but today the names for the races proposed by Eratosthenes, namely Minaeans, Sabaeans, Qatabanians, and Hadramites, are still used.

Somehow he also found time to write. His writings include the poem Hermes, inspired by astronomy, as well as literary works on the theatre and on ethics which was a favourite topic of the Greeks. Eratosthenes is said to have became blind in old age and it has been claimed that he committed suicide by starvation. Not something for modern day Geographers to emulate, though I guess blindness in those days must have really stopped all his interests.

What I wonder would he have made of Google Earth?

Geography and war

You may have read at the weekend that British Army intelligence in Basra in Iraq have complained that terrorists attacking British bases have been using Google Earth in order to pinpoint their attacks. A raid on the homes of insurgents has uncovered print-outs from Google Earth. Apparently these show vulnerable areas inside army blocks such as tented accommodation, toilet blocks or vehicle parking areas.

Soldiers are threatening to sue Google if it transpires that one of their number is killed as a result of information gleaned from Google Earth.

It is certainly an interesting issue. Though I suppose that the British Army also finds commercially available satellite images useful for their purposes. I know that Russia during the cold war period used to produce maps which were deliberately not to scale in order to confuse an enemy who might get hold of those maps.

Should Google stop mapping sensitive military areas? Who would decide on which areas fall within that definition.

I guess this does show that geography now impacts on such a wide range of issues these days. I suspect this is something we must just live with and of course in most parts of the world such up-to-date detail is very much a benefit.

Weekend break

I can't keep up a geography blog seven days a week. Sometimes I, and you dear reader whoever you are, need a break. Particularly at weekends.

So today has nothing to do with geography. Well almost nothing, though I guess rainbows do have a geography connection. And geography probably has a rainbow connection.

I do spend some time browsing YouTube. And one of my favourite YouTubers is a photography studio called Stonewall Studios in Niagra, Canada. A few days ago I mentioned to them the fact that I loved the music of the late Eva Cassidy and particularly liked her version of 'Over the Rainbow'. The guys at Stonewall kindly added some visuals to the music and downloaded it to YouTube. And here it is. I hope you like it.

I like maps

I've always liked maps.

As a very young boy, I used to follow the map when we went for the weekend from Inverness to visit my grandparents in Craigellachie.

When we went on caravan holidays to Gairloch or Ullapool, I used to ask for a map in order to locate on a map the islands I could see from the caravan window.

I remember in primary school we did a school project on Takoradi in Ghana, and I was fascinated by maps of the area. I resolved to go there, but unfortunately that has not yet happened.

My first visit to Russia was in 1986. We were under the strict control of Intourist but in Tbilisi (not longer in Russia of course) I resolved to slip away from their clutches. A locally-purchased map showed a tram line going to a nearby lake. On evening, I slipped away from dinner and boarded that tram. The actual route did not seem to correspond to the map. At one point, well outside Tbilisi, the tram started to go through a cornfield. Time to get out I decided. No one else did. I then walked to the edge of the field and there a mile away was the lake I sought. I walked to a village on the shore. The villagers had never encountered a tourist and I was invited to share some tea with them all in the village square. Afterwards, as dusk was falling, I went back to the field. There I was, waist high in corn, beside a rail line waiting for what I fervently hoped would be a tram. And yes it turned up. A great evening that was not in the guide book, only on the map.

On another visit to Russia, I found, on a map, a church on the shore of the Volga. Two of us took a bus and visited the church. We opened the door. There was a wedding taking place. We shut the door. It was then thrown open. Our visit apparently was deemed to be good luck and we were invited to be guests in the front row. After the ceremony, we gave our Best Wishes to the couple and went off to the water's edge. It was a hot day. I decided to go for a swim. I had no swim shorts, but there was no-one around. So there I was splashing around naked in the River Volga when suddenly the bridal party and all their guests came down to the river for the wedding photos. I hope the viewers of those photos look only at the foreground and not the background.

I remember in India finding Kanyakumari on a map and wanting to go there. Not much of a town, but at dusk we sat on the roof of a hotel watching the sun setting in the west over the Arabian Sea and the full moon rising in the east over the Gulf of Mannar. Magical.

Guide books tell you to do what others are all doing. Maps let you decide for yourself. I like maps.

Reflection

Ten days in - and of course I am questioning the raison d'etre of this blog.

Firstly of course I am writing to myself. Is that one step worse than talking to myself? Probably.

And this is blog about Geography written by someone who knows nothing about the subject. How silly is that? It's a bit like Ann Widdecombe wring a good sex blog or Jade Goody doing a philosophy blog.

And then although I am writing from a personal capacity, I am aware that I work for the Association for Geographic Information, albeit as the finance guy. This is a members-based organisation and of course I cannot say anything that would upset, disadvantage or unduly favour any of our members. That caveat might become rather restricting.

But the blog is a journey of understanding. Starting very much from square one. And already I have felt that the discipline of writing the blog had been helpful to me. I have no idea where this journey will take me. I will hit barriers of understanding I am sure. The jargon will be a problem, the acronyms also. But in order to meet my responsibilities to both the AGI and to our members, I believe that I really do need to gain further understanding of Geographic Information and all the concepts which are wrapped up within those two words.

So onwards and upwards. And please click here for a rather amusing lesson about the countries of the world.

Layers

I am beginning, I think, to understand the concept of layers when applied to maps. Initially a map appears to be a flat one-dimensional representation of a part of the world. But even the most basic map has a number of features - hills rivers, lakes, villages towns etc. And I guess it was when I first discovered Google Earth that I understood that you can take a digital map and then decide to overlay it, or not, with roads, points of interest, town names etc.

I remember listening to a talk at last year's AGI conference on fresh fruit deserts (as opposed to fresh fruit desserts) in Liverpool. In that instance a map of Liverpool was overlaid with those retail outlets which sold fresh fruit and vegetables. Because increasingly shopping is done at out of town supermarkets, many small shops in the inner city have stopped stocking fresh produce because they cannot guarantee to sell it before it deteriorates. So there are whole parts on the inner city where it is impossible to obtain fresh fruit and vegetables. Yet these are the poorest areas of the city and it is in these areas where many people do not have their own cars. So they cannot get to out of town supermarkets. So a whole swathe of the poorest people in Liverpool have no real access to fresh food. They are eating tinned food, not always by choice, by by necessity. That for me was an example of using mapping and combining it with data whose connection to maps was not immediately obvious, in order to highlight the problem in a way that raw data could not.

Local government has the opportunity to overlay maps of their area with a whole host of data, from bus routes to school catchment areas to health service provision to drainage etc. This video from YouTube shows this working in San Francisco.

So I presume that a lot of the GIS software being developed is allowing maps to be overlaid with useful data either for internal use of for proving information to the public. Add I can undertand that if this layered information is held digitally then it can be analysed and the spatial relationship of the data can be queried in a range of different ways for a range of different purposes.

Am I beginning to understand at least the basic concepts do you think? Let's hope so.

Map Action

There are many commercial members of the AGI who are involved in producing GIS software. But I confess that I am not sure exactly what each does and for whom.

At the 2005 annual conference I attended a talk by Roger Wedge of Map Action and suddenly I was introduced to a use of GIS which I has simply not envisaged.

Map Action are a mainly voluntary group who swing into action whenever there is a major natural disaster. They arrive with their laptops and remap the area so that aid agencies can get their relief to outlying areas quickly and safely. This is how they do it.



Recently they have been working in Kenya and previously they helped in Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. They do an amazing job and put geography in the forefront of aid deployment. I am pleased that we have given them honorary corporate membership of the AGI.

Too much information

Before Christmas I decided a needed a PDA. My needs were simple. I mainly wanted a reliable one with Microsoft Outlook which I could sync to my PCs at home and work, and thus have a master diary.

But reviews in the computer magazines and on-line gave me great detail about the technical aspects of each machine, about facilities I don't really need and about compatibilities, extra software, upgrades etc.

They are probably all capable of doing what I want. But because of the plethora of information, I simply have not been able to make up my mind. So I haven't bought one. I am confused by information which I recognise is not even relevant to me, yet that is hindering my decision-making.

At present I am finding Geography a bit like that. I simply want to understand the basic concepts of Geographic Information. But because I work for the AGI, I get inundated with newsletters, press releases, marketing pitches etc. And all of these are aimed at geographic professionals. So they are full of acronyms and jargon and assume a degree of knowledge which I do not have.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that. These are not pitched at the layman. The audience to which this information is pitched does presumably have the knowledge which can recognise the acronyms and understand the jargon.

But for me this represents a problem. How can I find somewhere which gives more basic information which I can latch on to? I want my learning curve to be gradual. Perhaps that simply is not possible. Onwards I search for the simplicity I need to allow me to move forwward at my pace up that learning curve.

What is GIS software used for?

This thought was prompted by an article in this week’s GISCafé newsletter. North Somerset Council have purchased software to help them ‘deliver services from the back office to the customer’.

Now, using the previous definitions of Geographic Information, I can understand that local governments would be a user of GI. I can think of a number of instances where a local authority is involved with location – roads, housing, school catchment areas, refuse collection, council tax etc. We at the AGI have a number of local authorities among our membership, though it has to be said there are even more local authorities who are not members and a major task for us this year is to persuade all local authorities of the benefits of membership of the AGI.

But back to North Somerset Council, who are indeed members of the AGI. They state that they purchased WebMap software in order to ‘deliver back office functions using front office staff’. Now I don’t exactly know what this means. Their problem as I understand it was an inaccurate database with many duplications and no unique referencing system. The software purchased was, I believe, a gazetteer management system which would allow them to clean and match the gazetteer data. They used their in-house GIS team to do this with the software purchased.

Now I don’t begin to understand yet exactly what this software does, but if the end product is an accurate database which can match assets with council tax, waste services, planning etc. then I can see the advantage. And it appears that they have delivered this information to their front office staff via an intranet site and to the public via their internet site.
They claim they can deliver more integration, more functionality and better reporting. And finally they say that staff and public are beginning to realise the value of GIS.

Except that the layman does not presumably realise that it is GIS that is delivering these benefits. And this is still the concept that I am trying to understand. It will take me some time before I understand more about what GIS software actually does and how it does it. For now it is enough for me to know that GIS software can significantly improve the quality and availability of data.

And it is important for me to realise this because I suspect that for the take-up of the technology to increase within local authorities throughout the land, there will be a number of non-geographers, particularly finance guys, within those local authorities who will need to be persuaded that the benefits outweigh the costs.

G.I.

The organisation I work for is called the ‘Association for Geographic Information’. Not, you will note, ‘for Geography’ or ‘ for Geographers’, but ‘Geographic Information’.

So having identified that Geography relates to the location of items, what do I now make of Geographic Information (GI)? What sort of information is that? I guess this must be any information whatsoever which relates to location.

I have recently returned from Malaga. This is a city south of Nerja. Presumably that is a piece of Geographic Information. Someone else might tell you that Malaga is north of Marbella. Another piece of Geographic Information. Put the two pieces of information together, though, and there is no increase in clarity. Even less if you do not know where either Nerja or Marbella is located. I suppose that is because there is no unique reference point and no commonality in those pieces on information. Presumably this is similar to the debate going on regarding commonality in addressing data. But I am getting ahead of myself there.

Malaga is 36.43 north and 4.23 west. Now that is Geographic Information which can pinpoint Malaga exactly on any map of the world. Very precise, very useful. And in a format that can be applied to any location, anywhere.

The AGI website is full of information of all types. It also includes a definition of Geographic Information as follows - 'Information about objects or phenomena that are associated with a location relative to the surface of the Earth'. I can understand that without too much difficulty and can immediately see that latitude and longitude fulfill that definition totally.

Where I do start to have a problem is with the use of Geographic Information in areas which might not at first seem to have a direct relevance to geography. We at the AGI have a large group of members who are commercial companies. This means that they sell things. Presumably. And I would have thought that most of what they sell can loosely be termed as geographic Information. But the key question for me is who is willing to pay for that information and why do the buyers feel that this information is valuable to them. Who uses Geographic Information and for what purpose? Does it supply commercial benefits, social benefits, benefits to the citizen or all three?

And to answer that question, I guess I must look at the websites of a number of organizations who refer to Geographic Information. But that is for another day. For the moment I just start with the knowledge that there exists a pile of information regarding location and that this information is useful for a huge range of purposes. And again I can see that our organization, the Association for Geographic Information, is uniquely placed, not to create that information ourselves, but to make information about that information available to our members via the website, via seminars, via the annual conference etc.

Oops now I’ve introduced the concept of information about information. Which is the same I guess as data about data. And I know that is known as metadata. But now I really am getting ahead of myself and straying into concepts that I need to leave for another day.

What is Geography?

As I start on my learning curve, asking this fundamental question seems to be a good starting point. However the question is not as straightforward as it seems. Indeed if I was able to answer the question with a definitive answer, then presumably I can close this blog. Job done!

But I cannot give a definitive answer. I can I suppose begin by reaching into the far recesses of my mind to those days of Geography classes at the Inverness Royal Academy in the mid 60s. I remember learning about glacial features - especially relevant in Scotland. I seem to remember terminal moraines which were not apparently fatal headaches. I remember oxbow lakes. My favourite part of the Geography course was using graph paper to trace the heights of a line drawn through an Ordnance Survey map thus bringing into true perspective the altitudes shown there. For some reason the map we were given for this purpose was always of Clackmannanshire! From Alva over the Campsie Fells if my recollection is correct.

But where can I go to learn what Geography is? Let's try our own AGI website -
'Geographic Information - Information about objects or phenomena that are associated with a location relative to the surface of the Earth'.
Hmmm. A start I guess. So it's all about location?

What has the Chief Executive of the Geographical Association got to say? -
"Successful study of geography brings a rounded understanding to events and processes, and to the way the world works. The subject has the power and potential to educate, through developing with people a way of thinking that keeps the world whole and connected: the physical and the human, the social and the economic, the near and the distant, the familiar and the strange. Geography helps us contemplate our place in the world."
Okay, I'm not sure I understand the first bit, but 'place' I understand.

Let's try the website of the Royal Geographical Society -
'Geography is the study of the earth’s landscapes, peoples, places and environments. It is, quite simply, about the world in which we live. '
There's that word 'place' again.

So I have a general understanding about Geography being about the location of something and about the landscape surrounding that something. So far so good.

But this answer now raises so many other questions for me. Particularly relating to the impact of Geography on the efficiency of our life and on our knowledge base. But that is for another day and that is where I fear that the jargon may get in the way.

For now, as a layman, I am happy to have made a start.

2007 The year Ahead

I work for the Association for Geographic Information known as the AGI.

Quoting from our website, this is who we are -
'The AGI exists to represent the interests of the UK's geographic information (GI) industry; a wide-ranging group of public and private sector organisations, suppliers of GI software, hardware, data and services, consultants, academics and interested individuals. The AGI, by way of its unique membership forum, brings together this previously disparate GI community to share ideas on best practice, experience and innovation, and offers access to unparalleled networking opportunities with significant business benefits.'

I really believe passionately about the relevance of the AGI especially in today's expanding world of GI. But because we are a membership-based organisation, we depend on membership subscriptions for our financial viability. We have to set subscriptions at a rate which is commensurate with the benefits that we offer.

As the Chief Financial Officer, it is my job to maintain our finances and to try to balance income and expenditure. That is quite a challenge for us. In past years we have increased our investment in membership services and benefits. We must now make ourselves known to all practitioners in the world of geography to ensure that we have a large and vibrant membership base. I believe that we are a unique and important resource for all in the world of Geography whether they are large commercial enterprises, government bodies, health authorities, mapping organisations or individuals.

2007 is a critical and exciting year for us. We will be moving into new premises in April, we have a new Director starting in February, we have a new format of Annual Conference in September and we have a talented and committed team of 7 staff in the Head Office.

If anyone who is reading this is interested in Geography, please look at our website. And if you are not a member already, please think about joining us. We offer courses, events, seminars, conferences, website benefits, information and professional development. And parties! The more members we have the more we can do together. Please come on board. You will be made very welcome.

And I hope you will follow this blog. This will be my take on the year as it unfolds, written from a personal point of view but hopefully of interest to others. It will not be a technical blog - my knowledge of Geography is not sufficient for that. It will be as honest as I can be. I dare say it will reveal frustrations as well,I hope, as achievements. I am learning about the world of geography and I look forward to sharing that learning process.

A non-geographer's perspective

Welcome to the blogsite of someone who rather unexpectedly finds himself working in the world of geography without having any particular knowledge of this world and who, even more surprisingly, is getting enthusiastic about geography and all that it offers.

This blog will hopefully record my day to day involvement in geography, the issues and the opportunities.

I am the Chief Financial Officer with the Association for Geographic Information (the AGI). Yes I'm an accountant. Not a geographer. But I am passionate about the importance of the AGI to both those already in the geographic domain and those who need and use geographic information (GI) even if they perhaps do not realise that they do use GI.

I hope that I can simply record my thoughts, my views and my perceptions as a non-geographer for whom the world of geography pays my salary and forms my working environment.

The AGI is an umbrella organisation for individuals, companies and organisations who use geography. It is I believe an important resource. It speaks for its members, and consequently this blog cannot, and will not, make personal remarks against any individual or organisation within our membership. But I hope I can give reactions which might be of interest to those on both the periphery and the centre of the world of geography.

Lets see what happens.