GIS5007 Google Earth Lab

 This is our last lab of the class.  Our lecture, prior to the lab, covered the future of cartography including neo-cartographers (those with a non traditional cartography background), 3D mapping, VGI (Volunteered Graphic Information), PPGIS (public participation GIS) and GeoTargeting. VGI has become widespread and it was very interesting to look at all the example sites that fellow students submitted. I love how VGI has been used in the area of citizen scientists which get the public involved and informed on important subjects. There are also some fun 'sightings' type sites for Bigfoot and the like. It was also amazing to realize just how much cartography has become woven into our everyday lives. Even to a scary degree with things like GeoTargeting which takes marketing to a "Big Brother" level. GeoTargeting can track your location within a meter for specialized marketing or products.

Our lab assignment was to create and interactive map and tour of south Florida using Google Earth Pro. which is a 3D interactive mapping environment. We first created our surface water map using ArcGIS Pro.

After this we used out converted KML files to create an interactive Google map of South Florida. You can see that interactive aspect allows you to zoom and click for pop-up information:

Once this map was created we used the Google Earth Pro tools to create a tour of several South Florida locations. This is  like a mini movie and there are a lot of options you can use if you choose to. Note the 3D quality of the images.

Google Earth Pro is not my favorite application for mapping but I can see where it can be useful and with more practice easier to get around in.