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Google Earth Offers Footage of Refugee Camps
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Google Earth, a free application offering satellite coverage of the planet's surface, will now map worldwide refugee movement and humanitarian efforts
30-Second Summary
"All of the things that we do for refugees in the refugee camps around the world will become more visible," said U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees L. Craig Johnstone at the Geneva launch of Google Earth’s new software. Users will have access to images of refugees in areas such as Iraq, Darfur and Colombia.
Although not all areas of the world are available in high resolution, users can zoom in on refugee camps to get accurate images of the challenges and day-to-day struggles in these locations.
Originally created for use in video games, Google Earth has developed various partnerships with humanitarian and nonprofit organizations. The U.S Holocaust Memorial museum used Google Earth to display images of Darfur and the Jane Goodall Institute tracks chimps on its blog using the mapping software.
During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Google Earth made the destruction in New Orleans visible to the public. Google was criticized when it replaced post-Katrina images with older ones that showed the city unharmed.
Police have also used the program to catch criminals, and the software was used (unsuccessfully, unfortunately) to look for missing explorer Steve Fosset.
Although not all areas of the world are available in high resolution, users can zoom in on refugee camps to get accurate images of the challenges and day-to-day struggles in these locations.
Originally created for use in video games, Google Earth has developed various partnerships with humanitarian and nonprofit organizations. The U.S Holocaust Memorial museum used Google Earth to display images of Darfur and the Jane Goodall Institute tracks chimps on its blog using the mapping software.
During the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Google Earth made the destruction in New Orleans visible to the public. Google was criticized when it replaced post-Katrina images with older ones that showed the city unharmed.
Police have also used the program to catch criminals, and the software was used (unsuccessfully, unfortunately) to look for missing explorer Steve Fosset.
Headline Link: 'Google Maps to Help Refugees'
Users of the new Google Earth feature will be able to see “individual tents clustered together amid a sparse landscape, and learn about the difficulty of providing water to some 15,000 people.” Users can zoom in for high-resolution images of refugee camps and become more informed about worldwide U.N. refugee relief efforts. The satellite images will focus on camps in Darfur, Iraq and Colombia; the United Nations will provide supplemental information about the refugees.
Source: Time magazine
Background: Google Earth a humanitarian and environmental tool
The Museum Mapping Initiative, a collaboration between the U.S. Holocaust Museum and Google Earth, provides users with “compelling visual evidence of the destruction in Darfur.” Maps, photos and videos allow users to witness the damage and track displaced persons.
Source: US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Google Earth partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute to implement “geographically tagged blog entries” for the Institute’s Gombe Chimp Blog. Visitors to the blog can view satellite images of chimps’ territory and movement in addition to reading scientists’ entries.
Source: Gombe Chimp Blog
Related Topics: Other uses of Google Earth
Google Earth is a boon to “cash-strapped police departments,” writes Daniel Terdiman for USA Today. The paper reports how Wisconsin police traced a marijuana field using the free application. Apparently there are also numerous instances of tax investigators discovering illegal house additions using Google Earth. The limitations of such use will be obvious to anyone familiar with the software: “The satellite photography in Google Earth is not live….In most cases, it varies widely from as recent as a few months old to a few years old.”
Source: USA Today
Less than a week after explorer Steve Fossett disappeared in the Nevada wilderness on September 3, 2007, members of the public were involved in the search via Google Earth and Amazon’s application the Mechanical Turk. Google released up-to-date satellite images of Nevada, and Amazon organized a collaborative search system using a strategy called “crowd-sourcing.” Unfortunately, the searchers never located Fossett and he was declared dead in February, 2008.
Source: The BBC
British IT magazine The Register displays Google Earth maps of New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina, “which demonstrate pretty effectively why the Big Easy will be out of action for some time.” A variety of images portray the damage to the city.
Source: The Register
Although post-Katrina images were available, as evidenced by the Register, Google replaced New Orleans images with pre-Katrina photos. But Google received negative attention for the swap, including a letter from Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., who wrote, “Google's use of old imagery appears to be doing the victims of Hurricane Katrina a great injustice by airbrushing history." Google immediately updated the images, but not before conspiracy theorists speculated Google was part of a plan to give the impression that New Orleans was further along in the recovery process.
Source: Technology News
Reference: Google Earth
The basic Google Earth application is available free online. The designers describe Google Earth as “a globe that sits inside your PC.” By pointing at any place on the planet, a user can zoom in as if focusing on an area from a telescope mounted in space.
Source: Google Earth
The Google Earth blog hosts discussions on how to get the most from the application and covers the expanding number of ways it is used.
Source: Google Earth Blog
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