EPA Regional Administrator Curt Spalding Discusses Sustainability at UConn

Curt Spalding, Regional Administrator for the EPA in the New England region, gave a guest lecture today in the UConn School of Engineering. During his talk, entitled A Sustainable Future, Mr. Spalding touched upon a variety of projects that the EPA is currently working on including zero-emission water treatment facilities and green chemistry. The portion that I found most interesting, however, was a discussion of a Boston-based project that saw the EPA, HUD and DOT work together with local government to create transit oriented developments for communities that have been under served by commuter rail. This holistic approach breaks the "silo" mentality for government planning and could be a good sign of future things to come. For more check out the video below!

Irene Heading For Densely Populated Northeast

As of Thursday morning, Hurricane Irene was heading towards the Northeast's population centers.

Communities in the Northeast are preparing for the impact of Hurricane Irene. Mayor Bloomberg is urging citizens to prepare themselves in New York City, and reports are that the city of Boston is investigating potential shelter locations. If Irene comes to shore in the Northeast, there will be large numbers of people affected, which is why some are weary of a potential disaster in the making. Today, I created the population density map above with ArcGIS to show this. On the map, you will find the projected path and cone in addition to population; each dot on the map represents 5,000 people. I have posted a tutorial on where to find the applicable data and how to generate a similar product in ArcMap on Outside the Neatline.