GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION

Neighborhoods that are perceived by outsiders as economically successful have created a cultural niche that draws in visitors with a mixture of shops and amenities that appeal to a particular demographic…

A vibrant cultural ambiance is not just a backdrop for selling commodities in shopping districts.  The feel of a neighborhood and a sense of place can be the commodity as Air BnB is artfully demonstrating.

Tags: neighborhood, place, culture, economic, planning.

See more on geographyeducation.org

Want to know where your Thanksgiving food comes from? 

This provides the geography of holiday food production with links to the data so you can map out the data with GIS (links produced by Western Illinois University).

See on ymlp.com

China is simply to important to ignore and this profile is a good primer for students unfamiliar with the East Asian country to get caught up to speed. 

See on www.bbc.co.uk

By 2025, the developing world will be home to 29 megacities.

See on www.guardian.co.uk

Through this interactive mapping feature with rich call-out boxes, the reader can explore the latest UN estimates and forecasts on the growth of megacities (urban areas with over 10 million residents).  These ‘cities on steroids’ have been growing tremendously since the 1950s and present a unique set of geographic challenges and opportunities for their residents.

Download the data yourself as a CSV file and your can import this into ArcGIS online and symbolize your map with any of the columns in the dataset.

Tags: urban, megacities.

The terms cooks enter into search engines can provide clues as to what dishes are being cooked around the nation.

Some fascinating (if not entirely scientific) maps that show the most common searches on www.allrecipes.com and regional differences in food preferences.  More importantly, it also is an interesting glimpse into the geography of language.  Some similar dishes are called by more regional names (e.g.-“Stuffing” in the Northeast and West, “Dressing” in the Midwest and South).  This set of maps also reinforces the concepts of regions.  This is a fun way to teach some actual content and enjoy the holiday.

Tags: language, food, diffusion, regions, seasonal.

See on www.nytimes.com

ESPN Video: With the FIFA World Cup two years away, will Brazil be ready to host soccers premiere event?

This short sports documentary (12 minutes) looks at some of the socioeconomic and urban planning issues that are a part of the logistics for a country to prepare for a sporting event on the magnitude of the World Cup.  The discussion of demolitions in the favelas (squatter settlements) is especially intriguing.  Major sporting events of this magnitude that last for two weeks can reshape local geographic patterns for decades.  

Tags: sport, Brazil, planning, squatter.

See on espn.go.com

This project investigates the coastal impacts of hurricanes and extreme storms.

Here is some more post-Sandy geo-spatial imagery. LIDAR (think sonar and radar but with light and lasers) is Light Detection And Ranging that can produce some amazing data. 

See on coastal.er.usgs.gov