Indians Use Google Earth and GPS To Protect Amazon

Damien1972 writes "Deep in the most remote jungles of South America, Amazon Indians are using Google Earth, GPS, and other technologies to protect their fast-dwindling home. Tribes in Suriname, Brazil, and Colombia are combining their traditional knowledge of the rainforest with Western technology to conserve forests and maintain ties to their history and cultural traditions. Indians use Google Earth to remotely monitor their lands by checking for signs of miners and GPS to map their lands. "Google Earth is used primarily for vigilance," says Vasco van Roosmalen, program director of a nonprofit involved in the project."

Comments

Data age a problem.

[DerekLyons]

I doubt scanning GE provides much more than warm fuzzy feeling to the scanners - as the data is routinely anwhere from 1-5 years (or more) out of date. The article itself is little more than a fuzzy headed puff piece.

One Problem?

[UltraAyla]

From TFA:

With the newly updated, high-resolution images of the region, they can see river discoloration which could be the product of sedimentation and pollution from a nearby mine. They are able to use these images to find the smallest gold mine."

One thing I don't get is how Google Earth has the resolution or frequency of updates that you'd need to monitor anything.

I live in a major urban area in California, and while the resolution is easily up to snuff for IDing swimming pools, cars, and the occasional frisbee, the image data is easily over 3 years old (denoted by the fact that my neighbor still has his doughboy swimming pool in their pictures, which I personally helped him uninstall long ago). In addition, once you leave the urban areas on this map, the resolution goes to crap.

This seems odd to me, so my question is: does Google, for some odd reason update images of the Amazon more often than they update major metropolitan areas (or at least mine)? Is the resolution of their land good enough? If so, can somebody explain to me what sort of incentive they have for this sort of thing?

Re:One Problem?

[falconwolf]

I live in a major urban area in California, and while the resolution is easily up to snuff for IDing swimming pools, cars, and the occasional frisbee, the image data is easily over 3 years old (denoted by the fact that my neighbor still has his doughboy swimming pool in their pictures, which I personally helped him uninstall long ago). In addition, once you leave the urban areas on this map, the resolution goes to crap.

This seems odd to me, so my question is: does Google, for some odd reason update images of the Amazon more often than they update major metropolitan areas (or at least mine)? Is the resolution of their land good enough? If so, can somebody explain to me what sort of incentive they have for this sort of thing?

Maybe you missed it but tfa said Google was asked to update the photos, which they did early this year with higher resovultion photos. Now it woud be more helpful if Google Earth was frequently updated.

Falcon

Old images

[Dan East]

The Google Earth images of my town (population ~10,000 in Virginia, USA) are old - at least 5 years old. Not to mention really crappy low-res (I resort to terraserver's USGS black and white images for our area, because at least they are detailed).

So unless they only need to sample say twice a decade, I don't see how this could be useful for tracking really new encroachments.

Dan East

Re:Old images

[falconwolf]

So unless they only need to sample say twice a decade, I don't see how this could be useful for tracking really new encroachments.

TFA says Google was requested to update the photos of South American areas which they did with higher res photos early this year. I know this is /. but people may learn if they read articles.

Falcon

Google Earth isn't real-time

[KeelSpawn]

Google Earth wouldn't be of ANY help to what they're seeking for. The Google Earth map databases are updated every six months, so they could find the forest full and thriving one day and 6 months later check again - they might just find it a thriving new city. WHERE'S THE JUNGLE??? Too bad, we never said Google Earth is real-time. They're merely outdated images taken by satellites twice per year.

I think the writer is lost....

[shakeedoo]

"Tribes in Suriname, Brazil, and Colombia are combining their traditional knowledge of the rainforest with Western technology" Wait a minute.... where is South America now? The Far East? Last I checked Sutiname, Brazil, and Colombia are all in the Western Hemisphere, and if technology is divided only by hemisphere, Google maps and other Western technologies represent their technology. Just because you call them Indians, that doesn't mean that they aren't in the Western Hemisphere.

Nice Headline

[jagdish]

Indians Use Google Earth and GPS to Protect Amazon

One of the most weirdly surreal headline ever.

Shouldn't it be "The Amazon"? Much less confusing that way.

Google Earth

[falconwolf]

I doubt scanning GE provides much more than warm fuzzy feeling to the scanners - as the data is routinely anwhere from 1-5 years (or more) out of date. The article itself is little more than a fuzzy headed puff piece.

It seems you haven't read the article, otherwise you would of read where it says "When Google Earth updated these images earlier this year with higher resolution versions, we could find nearly all the disturbances in the forest. Our guys have been finding gold mines we didn't know about at all." Admittedly to be more useful Google Earth needs to be updated frequently.

Falcon