pcplantdb

[Stephanie Gerson <sgerson@stanfordalumni.org>]

Did you guys ever check this out?:

http://www.laspilitas.com/comhabit/zipcode.htm

more cents I found, this time under the couch
*Stephanie

------ Original Message ------
Received: 06:46 PM PST, 03/27/2005
From: Sean Maley <semaley@yahoo.com>
To: Permaculture Plant Database <pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [pcplantdb] Re: openGIS / locales

Zip codes come with latitude and longitude, but many
international postal codes don't.  However, the
formula calculating distance is fairly simple.  Even
better is if we can get GPS savvy users.  The GPS not
only gives better accuracy to lat/long than postal
codes, but also includes altitude.  Throw in some
weather gadgets and an accurate micro-climate picture
can be developed over time for any given locality.  On
the exreme end of sensor automation, we get pretty far
out of scope for PIW, which I'm still not sure where
the real scope ends anyway.


-Sean.

--- Bear Kaufmann <bear@ursine-design.com> wrote:
> > One of the things I'd like to add to the mix about
> locales is that
> > physical proximity may not always be what we want.
>  Being similar in
> > certain ways (climate, soil type, exposure) may
> actually be more
> > important than physical proximity in
> finding/filtering relevant
> > information.  I'd rather look for information
> based on experiences
> > from people that lived in an area with 35 inches
> of rainfall a year
> > (+/- 5 inches), -20F maximum winter temp, and
> heavy clay soil than a
> > 1-200 mile diameter circle.  In fact conditions
> vary enough 200 miles
> > south of here to be a significantly different
> locale but one could
> > continue 1000 miles north and east and find
> similar conditions as
> > here.  Think also how elevation changes things as
> well.
> >
> > Yes GIS stuff is neat, but is it really the
> information we want?
> This brings up a question rolling around in my head
> for a bit...
> It's probably out of current scope of the project
> right now, but I'd be 
> interested if there's any input...
> 
> Given the currently available satellite (GIS) data
> on precipitation, 
> temperature (average, range, chill hours),
> elevation, etc...could one 
> form a function that takes the values from 2 points
> and determines how 
> related they are in terms of conditions...find the
> degree of 
> correlation between the 2 points (I imagine finding
> the best function 
> for this would be rather hard)....this may be a more
> complex route to 
> finding relatedness instead of just using something
> like USDA zones 
> (though hopefully better)...ie testing what
> (shapefile) polygon a point 
> is in (I believe newer versions of mySQL can handle
> geometry, WITHIN, 
> etc, right?).
> 
> Sean, you've been working and looking at some of
> this too. Zip codes 
> would also work...
> Any news on the ecosystem data set?
> 
> Cheers,
> Bear
> 
> _______________________________________________
> pcplantdb mailing list
> pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/pcplantdb
> 


                
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+++++++++++++++
Stephanie Gerson
sgerson@stanfordalumni.org
(c) 415.871.5683


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