Data Is The New Oil - 26.04.2021 Update
Canopy height, Vehicle emissions, Vaccine hesitancy, Global fires and Coastal erosion.
đ°ď¸ Canopy height. NASA recently released estimates of forest canopy and ground height thanks to a laser system called GEDI mounted on the International Space Station. Three lasers illuminate 25-metre footprints on the earth surface in a criss-cross pattern, enabling detailed mapping but leaving out important parts of the planet. A more complete dataset that includes modelled values will be released later this year. In addition, the global Leaf Area Index provides consistent long-term vegetation cover data between 1981 and 2020, but at a much coarser level (1 pixel = 8 kilometres). It is based on historical data from the NOAAâs polar orbiting environmental satellites, now defunct, and NASAâs MODIS programme.
đ Vehicle emissions. French environment agency Ademe released detailed energy consumption, CO2 emissions and price data for more than 6k vehicle models on sale in the country as of March 2021. European fuel regulations tightened significantly at the start of 2020, leading to rising electric vehicle sales.
đ Vaccine hesitancy. The US Department of Health and Human Services developed state, county, and sub-state level predictions of Covid vaccine hesitancy using recent survey data. The states of Wyoming and North Dakota have the highest number of sceptics, with nearly a third of the population hesitant to get a vaccine. By contrast, the lowest rates are seen on the West and East Coasts, home to the majority of the American population.
đĽ Global fires. Researcher Dominik Traxl put together an algorithm called FireTracks that is able to estimate the extent of past fires from NASAâs MODIS satellite programme, with spatial resolution of 1 kilometre (1 pixel = 1 kilometre). The largest detected fire burned for 48 days in California and covered 1,900 square kilometres. A different but related dataset was recently uploaded on Google Earth Engine.
đ Coastal erosion. Australia published an interactive map of coastal erosion over the last 30 years. Long stretches of coast in the north of the country have retreated by between 1 and 2.5 metres. Such maps are likely to become key planning tools with the expected rise in sea levels.
Other Data Updates
đ Residential electric vehicle charging datasets.
đ The International Monetary Fund published its annual dataset of historical and future GDP growth.
đ Wildlife trafficking seizures in East Africa.
đŚ Yandex search queries and Covid cases/deaths in Russia.
đ´ Global map of palm oil plantations.
đ Turkish vehicle stock between 1994 and 2018.