John Kostelnick, Associate Editor for Geographic Information Systems

John Kostelnick, Geographic Information Systems Editor

John Kostelnick is the Geographic Information Systems Editor for Earthzine. He is also an assistant professor in the Department of Geography-Geology and Director of the Institute for Geospatial Analysis and Mapping (GEOMAP) at Illinois State University, Normal, IL, U.S.A. He formerly served as an instructor at Haskell Indians Nations University where he assisted in the development of the GIS program. His primary research interests are in the broad area of Geographic Information Science (GIScience), including geovisualization, GIS applications in science and society, cartographic symbolization, and map design. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas (Geography), a Master of Arts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Geography), and a Bachelor of Arts (History) from Iowa State University. He currently serves as a corresponding member for the Commission on Education and Training for the International Cartographic Association and a member of the Executive Board of the Illinois GIS Association.

John views Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as a revolutionary means for analyzing and visualizing critical geospatial data for Earth observation. He greatly enjoys the opportunities that GIS affords for viewing our world from new, holistic perspectives and for fostering awareness and understanding of key global issues. John has worked with project teams on diverse research projects in GIScience over the course of his career, including the development of a new cartographic symbolization standard for humanitarian demining, approaches for analyzing and visualizing global impacts of sea level rise, and methods for assessing anthropogenic change in remote regions of the world.

Editor’s Picks

New Technologies Uncover an Ancient World

What do Indiana Jones and NASA scientists have in common? Both are linked with the discovery of long-hidden, legendary artifacts of ancient civilizations. NASA researchers are now using remote sensing and GIS technologies to explore sites along the ancient Angkor Road in Cambodia and Thailand.

Lisa Rudy, posted on May 5th, 2011
Earth Observation, Earthly Updates, Technology

18 Reasons for Open Publication of Geoscience Data

In this essay, Lance McKee presents his argument (18 reasons) why Earth location-referenced data should be widely available and shared. This essay is the first of three that explore aspects of this topic.

Lance McKee, posted on August 4th, 2010
Articles, GEOSS/ICEO News, OpEd, Sustainability, Technology

Earth Information Systems/Capacity Building – Geo-Wiki.org: Harnessing the power of volunteers, the internet and Google Earth to collect and validate global spatial information

Do you want to participate in a really big project? Geo-Wiki.org is looking for volunteers in the global Earth observation community to validate, augment and even disagree with existing spatial information and to aid in the collection of new information through the powerful resource of crowd sourcing. In recent years the ability to collect spatial information from volunteers has greatly expanded through the combination of Google Earth, geo-tagged photos and the Internet. So whether you are a confluence hunter, a geographer, or simply a Very Observant Person (VOP), you may be able to contribute important in-situ data about global land cover to GEO-Wiki.org.

McCallum et al., posted on February 1st, 2010
Articles, Earth Observation, Technology

Landsat: Earth Observations for a Changing World

On July 23, 1972, NASA launched the ERTS-1 - later to be named Landsat - the first of a series of satellites, which set out to offer scientists, educators, resource managers, and the general public an important 'photo album' of decades of Earth observations. Now, almost forty years later, Landsat continues to provide a remarkable record of observations, measuring data in wavelengths of energy ranging from the visible to the thermal portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Let Dr. Bruce Quirk of the USGS provide a glimpse of the uses, value and future of data gathered from the invaluable Landsat program.

Bruce Quirk, posted on January 4th, 2010
Articles, Earth Observation, Technology

Sharpening the Focus on Drought – New Monitoring and Assessment Tools at the National Drought Mitigation Center

Drought is turning food-producing land into wasteland and desert in many parts of the world. In this article, four new tools in the evolution of drought monitoring are presented.

Brian D. Wardlow, posted on March 30th, 2009
Agriculture, Articles, Climate, Water

‘When the Lights Stay On’ – A Novel Approach to Assessing Human Impact on the Environment

A consequence of the explosive expansion of human civilization has been the global loss of biodiversity and changes to life-sustaining geophysical processes of Earth. The footprint of human occupation is uniquely visible from space in the form of artificial night lighting - ranging from the burning of the rainforest to massive offshore fisheries to omnipresent lights of cities, towns, and villages.

Aubrecht et al., posted on December 31st, 2008
Articles, Biodiversity, Earth Observation