5 replies to this topic

[gregsd]

A striking view of England in the traffic light colours of red, green and amber is being launched today to highlight where the country's remaining areas of peace and quiet are to be found.

The Guardian & Campaign to Protect Rural England.

 england_web_330x373.gif   45K   131 downloads

PDF version of map

[Hans van der Maarel]

Interesting map.

This is a bit unrelated (or not...), but coming back from NACIS, I flew over downtown Liverpool in the wee hours of the local morning (5 am-ish) and was amazed by the sheer volume of light given off by the city.

[gregsd]

This is a bit unrelated (or not...), but coming back from NACIS, I flew over downtown Liverpool in the wee hours of the local morning (5 am-ish) and was amazed by the sheer volume of light given off by the city.

Probably not Hans, given this story - Energy-wasting Britons rank top for failing to see the light . Looks like the people of Liverpool just forgot to switch all their lights off before going to bed!!

Greg.

[frax]

Reminds me of a 4th of July, enroute to San Diego (for an ESRI UC), a couple of years ago. My flight out of Denver got delayed, so I flew over rural areas watching occasional firewords (nothing too big though, so it wasn't overly cool, just small flashes).

[bchubb]

........

I flew over rural areas watching occasional firewords

...were they because the flight was delayed?

[MapMedia]

I worked on a similar project with the Wilderness Society mapping remaining 'wild places' in the CONUS - the model was designed to be scale-relative, so depending on what scale you mapped at, the wildness was relative. Which makes sense, as I've been to a 'canyon' just off the busy streets of Los Angeles and it was silent and tranquil - no sight or sound of urban noise. So there are places just outside Liverpool or London that would also make ideal retreats. That said, I think the terminology used in the article plus the map's scale of analysis can be misleading and coarse "There are only a few really large areas of tranquillity left in England. " (i.e. tranquility is relative). Plus, mapping buffered roads as a surrogate for (you name it) can overestimate, especially when mapping 'tranquility' - if they had traffic volume (AAT) data - that would be better. Overall - glad to see the application to GIS in bringing attention to England's remaining open spaces. Another thing to consider (stop me now) is the cultural differences - in Italy, tranquility may be found in the regional park for most people - so an important pre-step is determining what defines 'tranquilty' and 'wildness'.