© nazka, 2013
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Posted on 01-06-2017, B-LiFE. Tweet
Visualizing geo-located datasets and maps in real-time for fast emergency response
B-LiFE is a highly sophisticated mobile lab that brings diagnostic capability as close as possible to crisis areas, providing an essential element of fast emergency response. The B-LiFE lab is equipped with a customized software system which handles the different data streams during deployment. Since 2015, nazka mapps has been developing geospatial components for B-LiFE with the support of the European Space Agency (ESA).
Recently, the Belgian B-LiFE capacity has participated in a full scale exercise in Sweden. During this exercise, the integration and combination of newly acquired satellite imagery and UAV (drone) data was succesfully tested. This integration will allow the mobile lab to access near-real time satellite and drone information through their own mapping platform.
B-LiFE is certified by the EU Civil Protection Mechanism as an integrated module in the European Medical Corps. This means that B-LiFE can be mobilised for any type of emergency with health consequences, at short notice, when needed. This was the case during the ebola crisis in April 2015, where it was succesfully deployed at an Ebola treatment centre in N’Zerekore, Guinea.
nazka mapps wishes everybody the best for 2017. To be mentioned as "one of the most successful start-ups of Belgium" in the magazine Discover Benelux, was an excellent start of 2017. You probably know this (free) Business & Inflight Magazine, which is distributed at Brussels Airlines, KLM, British Airways, Hilton, Eurostar, ... So, if you have planned a flight, train or business-trip within January, do not forget to check the magazine on page 39 and 42. The article explains the main activities of nazka in a nutshell
If you can't wait, have a look at the digital version of the Discover Benelux magazine (January - p42)
Recently also Irakli joined the team. He is a creative full stack webdeveloper with big interest in math, video games and music. He is a self-taught guitar-player and excels in karaoke... (not). Below the nazka team (from left to right, from top to bottom: Irakli, Olivia, Nicolas, Han, Ides, Danut)
nazka is growing. This summer, two new enthusiastic forces joined nazka. Olivia is a motivated data scientist who likes to immerse herself in data analysis and modelling. This way Olivia can easily explain you the difference between R and R2, but she also knows to enthuse you for acroyoga and cohousing. Danut is an expert in karate movies from the 90s and running tours around in the parc Cinquantenaire in Brussels, but is above all a passionate full stack web developer with a wide knowledge of various programming languages and frameworks. Check certainly the renewed "about" page for more info on Olivia, Danut and the other people of nazka mapps.
Posted on 10-06-2016, RPkaart. Tweet
Interactive map shows spatial planning projects for the Province of Oost-Vlaanderen
On the interactive Spatial Planning map of the Provincie of Oost-Vlaanderen, you find information on a selection of the actual running spatial planning processes for which the province is participating partner. The map supports you in detecting projects in your neighbourhoud and informs on the status with links to more information.
nazka mapps succeeded in delivering the interactive map up-and-ready in only 1 month: from mockup, wireframing, over development, beta-testing to launch. The provincie of Oost-Vlaanderen was during the relative short process strongly involved in several feedback sessions to adapt the map to their specific requirements.
Posted on 23-02-2016, naarjobsindehaven. Tweet
Webmapping application shows job vacancies and transport facilities for jobseekers in the Port of Antwerp
Although there is a firm offer of vacancies in the Port of Antwerp, many people in the surroundings seem not to have access, especially those without a car and those far removed from the labor market. A public webmap application "naarjobsindehaven.be" brings together the location of all companies, their realtime vacancies, transport facilities and mobility offer for employees. Primary target audience is the (social) employment sector.
Naarjobsindehaven was developed by nazka mapps in cooperation with Mobiel21 for the City of Antwerp. VDAB and Port of Antwerp are important partners and data-sharers in the project.
nazka mapps just finished its project VæSSA. In VæSSA nazka mapps, together with a German partner (RSS), supports the World Bank and Sri Lankan authorities through satellite based EO products in the context of climate risk mitigation. The produced historical flood maps, land use classifications and height models are the input for the validation and calibration of flood models and the evaluation of the results.
On request of the European Space Agency the nice project results were presented in Rome (Italy) on an international climate conference on the use of satellite data. Special attention was paid to the interactive map and the map story of VæSSA. The latter combines 2 powerful communication tools: “maps” and “storytelling”.
Posted on 09-06-2015, AdoptaSensor. Tweet
AdoptaSensor | Purchase together environmental sensors for your neighbourhood.
In follow-up of the iMinds experimental project "Cityzen" around air quality, nazka mapps started the feasibility study AdoptaSensor.
The project is funded by ESA (European Space Agency) and fits into the Integrated Applications Promotions Programme (IAP - ARTES element 20) in which innovative geo-applications are examined for their feasibility. A major focus is on the use of open data and crowdsourcing.
AdoptaSensor wants to set up a crowdsourcing network of high quality local environmental sensors through a model of co-leasing. These sensors measure all kinds of parameters, such as meteorological data, air quality, ... AdoptaSensor brings the solution by expanding the network of sensors greatly. The generated data are integrated and linked to other data (earth observation, open data) for all kinds of useful and innovative applications and services (education and awareness, health index for the neighbourhood, local renewable energy potential, modelling of air quality and wind) in different sectors and customer groups.
The project is launched in June 2015 and the city of Antwerp, Ghent and Open Knowledge Belgium have confirmed their collaboration officially. The feasibility of the idea will now be further examined in depth.
If you have a good comment or idea, please let us know.
Posted on 30-03-2015, VaeSSA. Tweet
The VaeSSA interactive map gives an attractive overview on the main project results
nazka mapps launches the interactive web map of VaeSSA. This map gives you a nice overview of the main results of VaeSSA. You can check the flood signature for some historical floods or zoom into the details of the Land Use / Land Cover map. Click the different ‘Point of Interests’ markers to get more contextual information or remarkable results. nazka mapps chooses maximally for open source/data. Also in VaeSSA the products and the interactive map are developed open source (resp. GRASS GIS & Leaflet).
VaeSSA or “VAE for Sri Lanka: a Satellite-based flood Analysis” supports the World Bank and Sri Lankan authorities through satellite based EO products in the context of climate risk mitigation. It is carried out by nazka mapps and RSS in the frame of the eoworld2 programme, funded by the European Space Agency, in support of the World Bank's "Climate Resilience Improvement Project for Sri Lanka".
nazka mapps is part of the NEWA project which aims to develop a new European Wind Atlas with a seamless characterization of the wind resources across the whole EU area. The new atlas will provide a unified high resolution and freely available data-set of wind energy resource in Europe. The statistics in the atlas will cover Europe with a resolution 20-30 meters in at least 10 wind turbine relevant heights. The European project is lead by Technical University of Denmark (DTU Wind Energy). nazka will do research on the use of improved surface roughness layers based on satellite data and provide access to the wind atlas database through interactive maps.
On Monday 6th of January 2015, nazka mapps entered the ESA Business Incubation Centre Flanders. At the premises of INNOTEK in Geel, Luc Peeters & Erik Degroof, resp. CEO and Technology Manager at INNOTEK and Nicolas of nazka signed a contract for 1.5 years. Through its interactive map applications, nazka mapps strives to be a catalyser for the integration of space application in the everyday world.
Posted on 19-12-2014, B-Life. Tweet
B-Life will be deployed in the Ebola Treatment Centre in N'zérékoré, Guinee
The Biological Light Fieldable Laboratory for Emergencies (B-Life) is a mutual project by the European Space Agency, Belgian Defense and the Université catholique de Louvain.
The laboratory enables analysis of blood samples based on DNA, allowing the identification of infected samples with 100% certainty. Belgium is participating the mission with 2 teams of 4 persons,
who will be deployed in N'zérékoré in Guinee. Follow the mission results here.
nazka is part of the B-Life consortium and supports the geographical framework of the B-Life missions through spatial analysis based on satellite imagery and mapping the epidemy.
Please check www.vaessa.nazka.be. It also contains an interactive map, where soon the first results of the project will be shown! VæSSA or “VAE for Sri Lanka: a Satellite-based flood Analysis” supports the World Bank and Sri Lankan authorities through satellite based EO products in the context of climate risk mitigation.
Posted on 23-06-2014, VæSSA. Tweet
nazka mapps wins the ESA project VæSSA and helps the World Bank to map historical floods in Sri Lanka.
VæSSA or “VAE for Sri Lanka: a Satellite-based flood Analysis” supports the World Bank and Sri Lankan authorities through satellite based EO products in the context of climate risk mitigation. VæSSA is a project of nazka mapps and RSS and is carried out under the VAE programme of, and funded by, the European Space Agency. Click the image for the VæSSA 'service prospectus'.
Posted on 23-04-2014, climate map Flemish-Brabant Tweet
Together with nazka mapps, the province Flemish-Brabant puts climate-neutral projects on the map!
nazka mapps created for the Province Flemish-Brabant (Belgium) an interactive climate map. This way, the Province highlights these projects that contribute to the ambition of the Province to become climate-neutral. For each project, the interactive map shows the information available on the production capacity and the CO2 reduction.
Posted on 22-04-2014, nostalgeo wins Apps for Europe Tweet
nostalgeo wins the audience award at Apps For Europe
After winning AppsforGeo and AppsforFlanders, the nazka initiative nostalgeo was selected for the European final: Apps for Europe. Together with nine other finalists nostalgeo was presented at the 'Future Everything' exhibition in Manchester, UK. The first price of the jury went to the sympathic BikeCityGuide team. nostalgeo was appreciated by the public and won the audience award!
Posted on 07-10-2013, on path in town. Tweet
nazka develops a web application for a child-friendly city
Together with Mobiel21 nazka develops an online application for a child-friendly city. The initiative wants to highlight the nice places in the city. We focus on great playgrounds for children between 0-6 years, their parents and grand parents. Also secure, cosy and adventurous bicycle - and walking routes to these places will be mapped. Parents and children can themselves indicate or judge a playground or city route. Click the image below for more details.
nazka was assigned by SBE, a Belgian study bureau, to map past floods of the Irrawaddy river in Myanmar. Based on satellite data from the Landsat archive, an inventory of all major past floods of the last 20 years was created. NASA's Landsat program is there for many years and delivers useful imagery up to 15m resolution free of charge. The imagery is very well suited to map water bodies. In this case, a selection of Landsat 7 images was used to map the normal and maximum water level in the study area. A semi-automatic approach was used to map the water layers, making optimal use of the rich spectral information from the Landsat ETM bands. We used mapbox to show the example below. It shows the normal and maximum water level during the flood event of 2007. The Landsat 7 image is from 2009 and was used to map the reference water level.
Posted on 26-09-2013, Woodstoves. Tweet
What can our map applications mean for CO2-compensation initiatives?
For a customer specialised in CO2 compensation, nazka has investigated the possibilities for a "geo-based web service" in the context of CO2 reduction. An impression you can find here. Click the image for more details.
As winner at appsforgeo, nazka was selected to champion 'nostalgeo' at AppsforFlanders. The key parameter for the jury, was the economical value & business case of innovative open data apps. The competition was organized in parallel with the Open Data Day of the Flemish Government. After a 'Dragons Den' in front of a selection board of specialists, nazka won the first prize ! Below you can find Han's pitch on Nostalgeo | on slide & video
Posted on 05-06-2013, nazka runs 20km of Brussels. Tweet
Data bron: nazka smartphone GPS tracking & google maps. // Method: nazka code-edit on Google maps api v3 (html5, css3 & javascript) Mike Williams
nazka runs 20km of Brussels for the benefit of Cambodja
nazka ran the 20km of Brussels for the organisation ondernemers voor ondernemers and contributes to sustainable projects in Cambodja through sponsorship. While running, the track was recorded via GPS-tracking on a smartphone. Please, click the image to use the application.
"Beware: this application does not run on internet explorer. We advise you to choose another browser!"
Posted on 28-05-2013, nazka wins 'best app'award on AppsforGeo: nostalgeo. Tweet
nazka wins 'best app' award on AppsforGeo
AppsforGeo is a 5 hour hackaton, organised by Agoria and OKFN, where apps are developped with focus on open geodata. nazka teamed up with Ben Abelshausen of OpenStreetMap. With 'Nostalgeo | map the past with postcards |' nazka won the 'Best App' award. A summary of the concept can be found in the presentation below:
Posted on 07-03-2013, Geo-platform for Climate Adaptation: Cityzen. Tweet
nazka presents: Cityzen | a geo-platform for climate adaptation
nazka particpates to the iMinds iBoot-programme. 'Cityzen' was selected for the Superminds conference in Mechelen. Have a look at the poster presented by nazka below.
Posted on 14-02-2013, Info-map bird counting. TweetData source: Natuurpunt and Vogelbescherming Nederland, 2013. (table) // Method: Google fusion tables // Inspiration: Simon Rogers
First results bird counting Flanders and The Netherlands mapped
nazka merged results of the bird counting in Flanders en the Netherlands in a simple map. It shows among others that the Common Chaffinch is rather a Flemish bird, the Home Sparrow feels more at home in the North of The Netherlands and the Great and Blue Tit prefer living inland.
*number/total number of top 10 observations per province
More explanation about our smart mapps
A concrete example
Each year in February the annual bird counting takes place in Flanders and the Netherlands. 40.000 people commit themselves to observe and count the birds in their garden. Imagine what a smart mapp could do. Instead of pen and paper to note your observations, you can report your spotted birds through your smartphone or tablet. First you make a selection based on color, size,... and your device suggests several bird-species. By a simple 'tap' on your screen, your choice is archived in the cloud together with the time, location and weather conditions. More observations can be assimilated faster and the determination accuracy only improves. The organizer no longer needs to process the data. All results are easily made public and online available, together with statistics and maps. The information can be filtered based on location, species, time, number,.... At the end of the day you know the best birder in the neighbourhood. ;-) Following this example, we made a simple map of 2013 bird counting results.