“Invisible infrastructure is the most radical change.” – Steven Spielberg

Check this out:

The Boston Urban Mechanic Profiler (Street Bump) is the City of Boston’s newest mobile phone app designed to help Boston residents improve their neighborhoods.  The prototype app was developed in partnership with Fabio Carrera, a local professor who has partnered with the City on a variety of projects focused on collecting and using data to improve City operations.

Street Bump

When the Data Struts Its Stuff , The New York Times, April 2, 2011 (registration required)

“A research center at West Virginia University is providing important information on the ability of soil to mitigate nuclear contamination.

The Morgantown school’s Geospatial Research Unit is examining the soils of Pacific Coast states to determine their ability to trap airborne radiation in the event that it drifts from Japan to the U.S. They also are determining locations of soils that can transfer trapped radioactivity into vegetation.”

WVU mapping soils’ ability to absorb radiation March 23, 2011, Charleston Daily Mail

Because of the concern about the Japanese earthquake and tsunami catastrophe and the subsequent threat from the nuclear power plants, GISCafe will continue to collect information on organizations that are providing some form of technology to the relief or emergency response efforts in and around Japan.

Earthquake in Japan: Mapping the Diaster and Aftermath March 21, 2011, Center for Community Mapping – Several interactive maps available, including social media maps, Japan quake map, live footage of the devastation and nuclear impact map.

Everbridge, a leader in incident notification systems,  announced that the company delivered nearly 700 broadcasts to hundreds of thousands of people in the immediate aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami catastrophe, all while rolling out a major system upgrade. Everbridge’s globally redundant infrastructure was relied upon by a large roster of global clients throughout Asia, Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States to successfully deliver critical information.

Everbridge clients reacted quickly to the natural disaster that grew from a massive earthquake into a tsunami — and later a nuclear threat. Through the Everbridge Aware platform, numerous warnings and messages were sent using a variety of methods and communication devices. Within a matter of minutes, notifications had reached residents, employees, business continuity teams and emergency responders, empowering them to respond quickly to the unforeseen disaster.

Astrium GEO-Information Services is the sole distributor of the Formosat-2 satellite’s imagery. This high resolution satellite is the only satellite, due to its atypical orbit, capable of taking images of the same point every day. This unique ability enables the international community to follow the evolution of the Japanese earthquake disaster day by day. This is why Astrium is making its satellite imagery experts available to provide analysis reports regarding the affected areas.

These experts analyse the images from space on a daily basis, providing vital information to the emergency crews on the ground about the state of roads, bridges, buildings, nuclear and other plants. This interpreted data should assist the ground crews and emergency teams as they tackle the crisis, providing up to date information when undertaking rescue efforts, assessing the damage to infrastructure and coordinating potential evacuations.

A daily report will be produced and available for the next seven days after registering at  https://monitoring.spotimage.com

Maps and other resources for the Japanese earthquake and tsunami gathered March 11, 2011:

Pacific Tsunami Warning Center – NOAA

Japanese Quake Person Finder

Google Crisis Response Center

Videos for Japanese Earthquake YouTube

Japan Earthquake MAP: Epicenter, Most Impacted Areas From Massive Quake Huffington Post

Japanese Earthquake Maps Google MapsMania

Incredible Map Shows How Close The Japanese Earthquake Was To The Surface Business Insider

Magnitude 8.9 – NEAR THE EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN USGS

Wall Street Journal Facebook page – potential meltdown of nuclear power reactor

How Shifting Plates Caused the Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan The New York Times, interactive maps

Map of Japan Earthquake 2011-3-11: Siesmic Activity in the 7 days leading up to 2011-3-11 MapLarge