Monthly theme - August 2024 - Geospatial Data

Published on August 2, 2024

This August's theme in The Data Lab Community is 'Geospatial Data'. Geospatial data is used everywhere, it's the driving force behind apps like Google Maps and it's incredibly useful when you order your favourite food on Deliveroo. It's used for delivery tracking, weather forecasting, fitness tracking and so much more. Sometimes called location-based data, it is a data collection tied to a specific geographic location. Throughout the month we'll be diving into this fast growing discipline, and shining a light on the great work of organisations and communities working within the geospatial ecosystem.

Get involved!
As always, we're keen to hear from members of the community who are working in this space - so please share any blogs, resources and/or interesting content that you have that are related to the theme! Make sure to join our Geospatial Data group in the community to keep up with the latest discussions, and if you'd like to chat to us about the theme, you can drop us an email at [email protected].

Geospatial Fringe
As part of our activities around our theme we're hosting a ‘Geospatial Fringe’, a programme of events organised by our community and wider network, aiming to raise awareness and understanding of geospatial data and those working within this ecosystem. Make sure to register for any of the events that you'd like to join via the links below! 

Our Geospatial Fringe kicks off with the next instalment of The Data Lab Community's ever-popular Data & AI Meetup series! Our meetup will explore some of the interesting and innovative work going on in the geospatial space, before a panel discussion and audience Q&A on the topic. 

Both Minecraft and the Edinburgh Fringe are world-famous, but have never come together until now. In 2014, Ordnance Survey created a Minecraft world based on the map of Great Britain. By converting and geocoding Fringe venue coordinates and using this Minecraft world, it is possible to create a Virtual Fringe and Fireworks in Edinburgh that is guaranteed to go with a bang!

Join us for an insightful exploration of cutting-edge Geospatial analytics powered by Jupyter notebooks. Hosted by the University of Edinburgh's Noteable service team in the centre for digital expertise EDINA, this online webinar will spotlight Geospatial projects on Ridge Map Analysis and Tracking Orbital Congestion.

Come to Geovation Scotland HQ for their monthly community breakfast. In this session we will be joined by two startups who have been through the Geovation Accelerator programme. They will each give a short presentation about their journeys into entrepreneurship and building geospatial technologies, followed by a Q&A.

The Big Biodiversity Layer (BBL) is a tool which is being developed at NatureScot to map biodiversity across Scotland, in order to identify the most highly biodiverse areas which need protection. The BBL is intended to be one tool which helps inform decision making around new 30x30 sites. We are developing this tool with a focus on identifying Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs), and are using the criteria for these as guidance. This webinar will give a bit of a background into 30x30 and OECMs, and will go into detail on the methodology and development of the BBL.

This event will explore the transformative power of geospatial data and its applications across various industries. The programme features a series of lightning talks showcasing innovative geospatial applications, an introduction to the work going on at Location Data Scotland, Scottish Government and AGI Scotland, and ample opportunities for networking. 

This special edition of the Dundee Data Meetup features two exciting presentations exploring the innovative use of geospatial data: '3D Urban Modelling with Drone Imagery' and 'Listed Buildings: An Analytical Perspective'.

Upcoming themes
Here's a peak at the next themes we have coming up in the community!

  • September - Politics & Media
  • October - Education
  • November - Data Visualisation

Drop us an email at [email protected] if you'd like to learn more or you'd like to participate in one of our upcoming themes!

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