GEOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS:

The integration of big data in real-time mapping is a new tool in the fight against wildlife poaching.  Here is one example from a recent National Geographic article:

"It’s searingly hot in Kenya’s Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, and the ceiling fan ticks above a wall-mounted touch screen displaying a map with icons of elephants and rhinos scattered throughout the area. Selvam Velmurugan presses a finger on one of the elephant icons, and an information window pops open above it. 'These are live animals roaming the reserve as we speak,' he says. If one of the animals wanders past a border and into a human settlement, he explains, Lewa's managers are sent an alert on their phone so they can react immediately. 'It’s like we have a virtual data fence surrounding the reserve. We’ll know exactly where and when the animal has crossed by taking one look at the screen.' ... In Lewa, the system brings together in a single interactive viewing map GPS readings of animal movements, radio and vehicle trackers to follow anti-poaching teams in real time, camera trap photos, surrounding human settlements where poachers are likely to originate, weather conditions, and more. In this way it gives managers an integrated view of pretty much everything they need to know, minute-by-minute, in what may be a sprawling protected area. ... [T]he tool also has the potential to anticipate poaching incidents before they happen. His team is now feeding data into the system from past poaching incidents in Lewa, such as time of day, day of week, season, vegetation at the time, and rainfall. By crunching all this information, DAS will come up with potential sites where poaching is more likely to take place on any given day."  news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/wildlife-watch-data-poaching-wildlife-trafficking