News

Odean Serrano and Meredith Gore will be presenting “Systemic Artificial Intelligence Architecture for Wildlife Trafficking and the Links to Transnational Crimes” at the next GeoBytes webinar on Friday, February 26th at 12:00 pm EST. The webinar is FREE for all ASPRS and CaGIS members and $25 for non-members.

Please see the CaGIS GeoBytes page for more information on registering.

Abstract

Presently machine learning and Artificial Intelligence offer a suite of novel solutions for understanding and resolving complex societal problems. “AI for Social Good” provides tools for understanding, predicting, forecasting challenges such as wildlife trafficking, a globally distributed transnational crime generating billions of USD annually. Bringing the suite of AI possibilities to bear on the problem on wildlife trafficking requires we understand each variable and the interactions among the variables across all geographies of the crime. Specifically, understanding the supply chain reach, function, the commodities, the level actors, the networks, the physical infrastructures and transport modes, the markets, and the fabricated demand, and the convergence of wildlife trafficking with other transnational crimes.

This presentation will discuss the rudimentary building blocks that comprise the wildlife trafficking supply chain across space and time. Each node along the supply chain is a crime ecosystem in it of itself and thus requires associated disciplines along the continuum to address the critical nodes along the continuum.

Within a wildlife trafficking AI model, it is necessary to plot: 1) the entities that derive data and analysis within and across each of the model nodes; 2) the authoritative Law Enforcement stakeholders that will be using individual segments of the AI model; 3) each level and scale of the operational and strategic entities that will be applying the knowledge attained from an aggregated Transnational Crimes model depiction. Using a common ontology for measuring and defining these variables can help advance that mission. The result is that multiple stakeholders will be the audience and recipient to augment their missions and operations from the knowledge of the nodes and node interactions. The aim of this work is the multi-disciplinary application for economic stability and societal good.

Dr. Odean Serrano worked for the U.S. Government for 26 years. At NASA Kennedy Space Center she was shuttle operations engineer overseeing the collaboration of engineering teams readying space shuttles for launch and landing. At NASA Headquarters she led inter-agency partnerships and was a co-author on 3 Presidential Executive Orders. In 2005, Odean joined the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency as an intelligence officer. She designed and led an Intelligence Community (IC) environmental security mission addressing climate, water, food, and ecosystems in alignment with national security priorities and led a series of interagency fora to address each of the environmental security themes. In 2015, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper designated Odean as the first IC lead for Combatting Wildlife Trafficking (CWT), representing all IC agencies on the CWT Presidential Task Force and spearheaded the first InterAgency CWT Symposium. She served as an IC/University liaison forging partnerships and student pathwaysfor the next generation of geospatial professionals. Odean retired from the USG in 2018 and founded the Countering Wildlife Trafficking Institute to provide GEOINT for the interdiction and disruption of transnational criminal networks. Dr. Serrano is a Saint Louis University Adjunct Professor and leads the GeoSLU CWT Working Group. In 2020, Odean joined the Earth League International, the First Intelligence Agency for Earth, leadig GEOINT for mission operations. Degrees: Ph.D. Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University; MS in Environmental Science and Policy, Johns Hopkins; BS Mathematics, University of S. Florida, Tampa.

Dr. Meredith Gore is a conservation social scientist exploring relationships between human behavior and the environment, an Associate Professor in the Department Geographical Sciences at University of Maryland, and lead PI for the NSF. Prior, Dr. Gore was an Associate Professor in the Department of Fisheries & Wildlife in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University (MSU). She also serves as a senior science advisor at the State Department Office of the Geographer and Global Issues. She assists the leadership on the Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking and other efforts under the US Strategy to Combat Wildlife Trafficking. Dr. Gore writes analysis and intelligence assessments for senior Department and US Government officials on environment, science, technology and health issues, including wildlife trafficking, illegal fishing, illegal logging, climate change, health security, and other scientific and technical issues that influence foreign policy and national security. Dr. Gore is currently a PI on two National Science Foundation awards: Detecting and Interdicting Illicit Wildlife Trafficking Supply Chains and Disrupting Wildlife Trafficking Networks and CoInvestigator on Network Exploring Wildlife Trade. Degrees: PhD in Natural Resource Policy and Management, Cornell University, MA in Environment and Resource Policy, George Washington University, and BA in Anthropology and Environmental Studies, Brandeis University.

The newest edition of ICA News has been released, and includes an excellent summary of the AutoCarto 2020 Conference organized by Aileen Buckley with May Yuan as program chair. Aileen’s summary provides some context about this year’s conference and illustrates how the keynotes, programs, and workshops connected to the conference theme of WhereNext.

CaGIS is happy to announce that Terry Slocum (University of Kansas) and Kari Craun (USGS) have been awarded the Distinguished Career Award this year. The CaGIS Distinguished Career Award honors the accomplishments of senior professionals who have contributed substantially to the advancements of the fields of cartography, GIS or GIScience, or the interface between cartography and GIScience.

CaGIS hopes to honor both Terry and Kari for their outstanding accomplishments in-person at our next opportunity! In the meantime, we thank them profoundly for both their service to the organization and for their impact on the discipline.

The CaGIS 2021 Elections are under way and are open until Feb 18, 2021! For this election there is one open board member seat and one vice president seat. 

We have one (1) candidate for Vice President: Xiaobai Angela Yao (Professor, Department of Geography, University of Georgia)

We have a one (1) candidate for one (1) Board of Directors position: Gaurav Sinha (Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Ohio University Athens)

To cast your vote, please visit the election page. Only CaGIS members are able to vote per CaGIS bylaws.

Children ages 15 and under are encouraged to submit a hand made map for the 2021 Barbara Petchenik Children’s Map Competition. First, second, and third place winners are selected in four age categories: under 6 years old, 6 to 8 years old, 9 to 12 years old, and 13 to 15 years old. Six entries will be chosen to represent the United States in the international Barbara Petchenik Children’s World Map Drawing Competition.

This year’s theme, “A Map of My Future World!”, may be illustrated in any way, using pictures, drawings, words, objects, or other graphical elements, but the illustration must include (somewhere) a map of all or a large portion of the world, with recognizable continents, age-appropriate features, and/or representations. The maps should tell a story or convey a message about the world—in this case, the world of the future. This future maybe interpreted as tomorrow, or the world in 50 years, or centuries beyond!

Postmark entries by April 10 to meet the April 15, 2021, deadline!

For more information, please visit cartogis.org/awards/children.

Eric Delmelle will be presenting “Geocomputational Approaches for the Visualization and Detection of Outbreaks of Vector-Borne Diseases in Urban Environments” at the next GeoBytes webinar on Friday, January 29th at 12:00 pm EST. The webinar is FREE for all ASPRS and CaGIS members and $25 for non-members.

Please see the CaGIS GeoBytes page for more information on registering.

Abstract

Infectious diseases have complex transmission cycles, and effective public health responses require the ability to monitor outbreaks in a timely manner. Space-time statistics facilitate the discovery of disease dynamics including rate of spread and seasonal cyclic patterns, but are computationally demanding, especially for datasets of increasing size, diversity and availability. In this presentation, I will discuss high-performance computation techniques for the rapid detection of space-time patterns of vector-borne diseases in urban areas, with an application to Cali, Colombia. Three-dimensional visualization techniques will be presented to gain insight in the shape of these space-time patterns.

Eric M. Delmelle, is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with experience in the development of new, robust geocomputational approaches to deepen the understanding of the dynamics of infectious and non-infectious diseases in space, time and at different scales. His current research includes (1) modeling the co-occurrence of vector-borne diseases (Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya) in developing countries; (2) evaluating the impact of residential mobility on health care access in Florida and (3) space-time variation in the concentration of contamination from private wells in rural North Carolina. His research is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute.

The National Landslide Preparedness Act (H.R. 8810) was signed into law on 1/5/21.  The Act establishes a new National Landslide Hazards Reduction Program and statutorily establishes the 3D Elevation Program, both within USGS.  The text of the Act is here: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8810/text.

The 3DEP Program includes the following elements: 

  • Establishment of a 3D Elevation Federal Interagency Coordinating Committee. 
  • Establishment of a new Subcommittee of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee. 
  • Establishment of a Grants and Cooperative Agreements process 
  • Authorization of funding: “For each of fiscal years 2021 through 2024, there is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary $40,000,000 to carry out this section.” 

Bandana Kar will be presenting “Geoinformatics for Infrastructure Resilience” at the next GeoBytes webinar on Friday, October 16th at 12:00 pm EST. The webinar is FREE for all CaGIS members. See attached abstract for more information about the presentation.

Please register for the webinar prior to 12:00 pm (noon) EST on Wednesday, October 14th. To register:

1)     Visit https://my.asprs.org/ASPRSMember/Events/GeoByte_Webinars.aspx.

2)     Click on the link to the GeoBytes webinar of interest.

3)     Login to your ASPRS account or create a new account. (Creating a new account does not require you to become a member of ASPRS.)

4)     Click the Register Myself button.

5)     Click Proceed to Checkout.

6)     Enter the Coupon Code “CaGIS2020” to reduce the price to $0. Please note that CaGIS will verify the list of registrants using the CaGIS2020 coupon code to confirm CaGIS membership. Only active CaGIS members using the CaGIS2020 coupon code will be given access to the webinar.

7)    You will receive a separate email asking you to register with zoom. After that registration, you will receive an email from Webinar Host with a personalized link for you to join the webinar.

Due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the AutoCarto Organizing Committee has decided to reformat the 2020 conference as an online proceedings with associated recorded presentations and opportunities for discussions with the authors. Check the AutoCarto 2020 page for updates.

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