CGA Virtual Forum: Responding to The Covid-19 Pandemic with Geospatial Research and Applications As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves rapidly around the globe, the CGA is hosting a virtual forum focusing on time-sensitive geospatial research on COVID-19 related topics. The forum will be held on Friday May 1st, from 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Eastern time. Meeting URL will be sent to registered attendees via email. See this link for more information and registration.

Harvard Dataverse Resources for COVID-19 Study The COVID-19 virus presents unprecedented challenges, but also provides a rare opportunity for studying that, if seized, will help us understand future risks. Researchers from the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University, the Geo-computation Center for Social Sciences at Wuhan University, RMDS Lab, and the Chinese Data Institute have built a web based platform for sharing research data on COVID-19, hosted on Harvard's Dataverse. The publicly accessible data includes daily statistics on the virus cases, inter-region migration data, local health facilities, social media data, demographic, business, population, and economic data mapped to administrative units. View and download the data resources.

2020 CGA Conference: From Geospatial Research to Health Solutions As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves rapidly around the globe, many of our invited speakers are playing a key role at the forefront in combatting the disease. The organizing committee and sponsors recently reevaluated the situation, and decided to postpone the event until a later date, when we can hold it safely onsite. We hope this will ease the current stress on our speakers and participants alike, and allow us to have quality interaction and experience when we convene onsite later. Meanwhile, we are also gauging interest amount our speakers and registered attendees for a shorter (~2 hours) virtual session, focusing on time-sensitive COVID-19 topics only, at the original date (April 30th or May 1st). More updates will be sent to registered attendees via email. For more information and to register for the event.

Fisher Prize 2020 The Fisher Prize for excellence in GIS will be given to one graduate and one undergraduate student who must be enrolled in the academic year and in good standing to be considered for the award. Normally Fisher Prize poster submissions are showcased in the form of a poster session at the annual CGA conference.  However due to the conference's COVID-19 related postponement, the 2020 competition wll be judged and awarded online. Read more and submit your work for the award.

GIS Institute Summer 2020 The GIS Institute for Summer 2020 will be conducted virtually, without in-person attendance. Click here for more information

Mapping the Human Journey Maps are essential to National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek's Out of Eden Walk. The CGA's Jeff Blossom has been providing mapping services and education for the 7 year duration of the project. A recently released video by Nat Geo's Education Resource Library titled Mapping the Human Journey features this work. Additionally, this project has morphed into the Out of Eden Walk Coalition - an international storytelling initiative for cross-cultural engagement that links academic institutions, media professionals, and grassroots communities interested in promoting people-to-people connectivity via the tools of “slow journalism." View an introductory video summarizing accomplishments and outlining future goals of the coalition.

ArcGIS Pro Available Through ArcGIS Online ArcGIS Online users may now download the ArcGIS Pro installer directly from their ArcGIS Online profile. Read how to do this for Harvard ArcGIS users.

COVID-19 Mobility Data Network Led by Harvard researchers Caroline Buckee, Satchit Balsari, and Direct Relief's Andrew Schroeder, the COVID-19 Mobility Data Network aims to “provide daily updates to decision-makers at the state and local levels on how well social distancing interventions are working.” The team is made up of a network of infectious disease epidemiologists located at universities around the world, working in partnership with tech companies — including Facebook, Camber Analytics, and Cuebiq — to use aggregated mobility data in support of the COVID-19 response. Read more.

Harvard Map Collection Data Update The Harvard Map Collection recently acquired GIS data for 1) The 2011 ward level census of South Africa containing over 900 variables and 2) 2010 Dominican Republic census data at the barrios with almost 100 variables. Both datasets are licensed for Harvard affiliates only, available in the Harvard Geospatial Library. Additionally, the Harvard Library has subscribed to Fire Insurance Maps Online. FIMO provides access to a digital collection of historical color fire insurance maps, real estate atlases, and similar land use maps for North America. High definition, color and gray-scale images display important historical details not visible on black and white map scans. Included are map research tools and search tips to make finding maps for a specific location easy. Maps include publications by Sanborn, Perris, Hexamer, Whipple, Baist, Bromley, Hopkins and others. Harvard Key authentication is required to use this database. Go here to use it, and click the "View It" link.