The Map Room

A $1-million project to map the terrain of Portland, Oregon will take place over the next few weeks, the Oregonian reports. The aerial LIDAR survey is intended to create a hyper-accurate terrain map that will be particularly useful in predicting areas at risk of landslides, to which Portland is particularly prone.

Identifying landslides is only one of the uses for the new lidar images. Madin also is searching for any signs on the surface of the Portland Hills Fault and other faults. Other agencies are using the data to update flood plain maps, plan roads and highways, and for stream-restoration projects.

Previous LIDAR-based mapping of Portland is available at Oregon Geology’s Pilot LIDAR Project site. Thanks to Lon Lasher for the link.

In other Google News: Google Transit, which seems to be an in-house mashup of Google Maps and public transit data. It calculates costs and displays bus and rail routes and times; the examples give some idea of the parameters you can enter: not only addresses, but also leave-at/arrive-by times. Portland, Oregon only at the moment, with more presumably to follow. Not yet Safari compatible (sigh). Via Google Blog; see also WorldChanging.

Computer geeks are the ones hacking Google Maps. Computer geeks like WiFi. No surprise, then, that several of the map hacks using the Google Maps API involve wireless hotspot locations. Maps of free WiFi access points are available for New York, Chicago (click for a suburb; buggy when I tried it) and Portland, Oregon; this map shows EVDO access point congestion, but it’s apparently buggy. Via Google Maps Mania (1, 2, 3) and MAKE: Blog.

The Oregon Department of Transportation’s TripCheck site provides traffic information for the Portland area, including a neat speed map, which is a great way of visualizing congestion. Via Matt.