OpenLayers : A great plug-in to display Google Maps (and others) in QGis

I just found a plug-in extension for QGis that would allow me to  add a number of image services to your map canvas :

Installing the Plugin

The OpenLayers plugin is installed like all other Python plugins. From the the Plugins menu in QGIS, choose Fetch Python Plugins. This brings up the plugin installer. To find the plugin, enter openlayers in the Filter box, then select OpenLayers Plugin from the list. Once it’s highlighted, click the Install plugin button. This will download the plugin from the repository, install it, and load it into QGIS.

 
Using the Plugin

The OpenLayers Plugin uses your view extent to fetch the data from the service you choose. For this reason you should load at least one of your own layers first. Since each of the services are expecting a request in latitude/longitude your layer either has to be geographic or you must enable on the fly projection.

To add one of the services you have two choices; you can pick the service from the Plugins->OpenLayers plugin menu or you can use the OpenLayers Overview. The Overview opens a new panel that allows you to choose a service from a drop-down list. Click the Enable map checkbox to enable the drop-down list and preview the service you want to add. If you are happy with what you see, you can add it to the map by clicking the Add map button.

Download :http://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/openlayers_plugin/

KML to Shape

The KML2Shape  tool is a superb and easy tool to convert KML file to a shape created bu Zonum solution

All we need to do is just create the KML or KMZ file on GoogleEarth then simply go to the Zonum’s web. Click New  then upload your KML/KMZ file using Upload KML/KMZ button. Wait until the dialogue box closed then click on Process KML. It will result just like below inside the box:

Entities found:

# Points: 0
# Paths: 1
# Inner Polygons: 0
# Outer Polygons: 0

Make sure you choose the appropriate Shapes to export. Then just simply click on Export SHP button. A new window will appear, click on Download, it is gonna download a zip file. Extract the file. You’ll find 4 files.

Website : KML2shape

World Digital Library !

The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world from 8000 BC to 2009 AD and DOWNLOAD them in TIF and other known formats !

Type of Data/Materials Available :

• Maps
• Prints, Photographs
• Books
• Manuscripts
• Motion Pictures
• Sound Recordings

The principal objectives of the WDL are to:

• Promote international and intercultural understanding;
• Expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet;
• Provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences;
• Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries.

Easy Drag & Navigable tool to locate the period, identify/select data and download

Topics

History & geography, Earth sciences & geology, Geography & travel, Geology, hydrology & meteorology, Landscape architecture, Historical, geographic & persons treatment, History of Europe, North America, Asia, Middle East & North Africa, Latin America & Caribbean, Africa, Oceania & Pacific, Atlases, maps, charts & plans, Social sciences, Arts & recreation, Religion, Technology, Social groups, Science, Other religions, Social problems & social services, Customs, etiquette & folklore, Agriculture, Architecture, Language, Christianity & Christian theology, Political science, Public administration & military science, Other languages, Plants (Botany), Medicine & health, Landscaping & area planning, Painting, Photography & computer art, Sports, games & entertainment, History of Europe, History of Africa, Creeds & catechisms, Religions of Indic origin, Islam, Babism & Bahai Faith, International relations, General considerations of public administration, Social welfare problems & services, Other social problems & services and many more !

The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures from around the world on one site, in a variety of ways. These cultural treasures include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings.

Items on the WDL may easily be browsed by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or can be located by an open-ended search, in several languages. Special features include interactive geographic clusters, a timeline, advanced image-viewing and interpretive capabilities. Item-level descriptions and interviews with curators about featured items provide additional information.

Navigation tools and content descriptions are provided in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Many more languages are represented in the actual books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and other primary materials, which are provided in their original languages.

The WDL was developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress, with contributions by partner institutions in many countries; the support of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the financial support of a number of companies and private foundations.

  Click here to ACCESS The World Digital Library !

Geospatial Analysis - 4th Edition - de Smith, Goodchild, Longley

• Title Geospatial Analysis: A Comprehensive Guide to Principles, Techniques and Software Tools
• Author(s) Michael J de Smith, Michael F Goodchild, Paul A Longley
• Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd; 2nd edition (Dec 19, 2007), eBook, 4th Edition (2013)
• Hardcover 516 pages
• eBook HTML 
• Language: English

Book Description:

This book addresses the full spectrum of analytical techniques that are provided within modern Geographic Information Systems and related geospatial software products. It covers the principal concepts of geospatial analysis and their origins and methodological context.

Includes a chapter on Geocomputational Methods.

Geospatial analysis concepts

Core components of geospatial analysis, including distance and directional analysis, geometrical processing, map algebra, and grid models

Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) and spatial statistics, including spatial autocorrelation and spatial regression

Surface analysis, including surface form analysis, gridding and interpolation methods

Network and locational analysis, including shortest path calculation, travelling salesman problems, facility location and arc routing

Geocomputational methods, including agent-based modelling, artifical neural networks and evolutionary computing

To see  the Book : http://www.spatialanalysisonline.com/HTML/index.html 

Interactive Visibility toolbar Add-In is available for download

Intresting  article from ESRI  Blog 

by Juan Laguna and Xuguang on April 18, 2013

With Spatial Analyst you can perform visibility analysis, but you may have found that altering the parameters of the operation can be a little tedious.  Well, we have a new solution for you!  Available for download is a new Interactive Visibility add-in toolbar.

Background
A viewshed identifies the cells in an input raster that can be seen from one or more observation locations. Traditionally, the Viewshed and Observer Points geoprocessing tools have been used for visibility analysis in ArcGIS for Desktop. These tools take two inputs, a raster elevation surface and a feature input identifying the observer locations. This means two things.  First, you had to have a feature dataset of points already prepared.  Second, while you could control the vertical and horizontal fields of view each observer, as well as the visibility distance limit, this had to be done through the attributes of the featureclass. Certainly capable, but not particularly easy to adjust and model different scenarios with.
Interactive Visibility toolbar Add-in

This toolbar provides a dynamic, interactive way to create viewsheds on a raster surface.

With this add-in you can:

• Add observation locations directly on the map with a cursor.
• See the combined viewsheds of all your observation locations update as you add more of them to your map display.
• Adjust the location of any existing observer point, and see the viewshed update based on the the new observer location.
• Change the field of view for each location dynamically.

While the default behaviour of the Add-in achieves good performance by using the screen resolution to determine visibility, you can also specify that calculations be performed at the full resolution of the data, trading off some performance for greater accuracy.
 Downloading and installing
The Interactive Visibility toolbar Add-in is available for download here:
http://esriurl.com/InteractiveVisibility