How to map a noise? One approach would be to measure it using smartphone sensors. This would require development of an app and the community of users. Guys from real-estate website Trulia decided to map it based on already available data sources. They took data about location of noise complains in New York, Seattle, and San Francisco between 2010 and 2015 and visualized it on the map using CartoDB.
This data does have some limitations, as it only registers noise complaints made to police, and not actual decibel levels. That’s why places like Times Square doesn’t register as a noise hot spot, as there are no complaints. Still, it’s an interesting approach to mapping out the sounds of a city.
#Ideas
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How frustrating is it to convert GIS files to a new format… well I guess that everyone who played around less popular spatial formats knows that it can be a real pain in the neck…
Golden Software – the company behind couple of well-known GIS and geo-visualization applications like Surfer and MapViewer, has addressed this problem. Golden Software has just released a new online conversion tool that you’ve been waiting for.
It allows for simple convention between multiple GIS formats both vector, raster and grid. The list of supported formats is really long. In order to start you need to just drag and drop your files and select input and output formats.
The tool is available for free, it looks like it is prepared for billing though. In order to start you need to create a free account first.
Cool!
source: Geoforum
