Research Communication for GIS, Space Sustainability, and Innovation

UN New World Map: Legal Effect of the Equal Earth Resolution - Edmarverson A. Santos

2026-09-07T22:42:35.924-05:00

UN New World Map: Legal Effect of the Equal Earth Resolution

Writer: Edmarverson A. Santos

Introduction

On 4 September 2026, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the “Correct the Map” resolution by 164 votes to one, with six abstentions. The measure had been submitted as draft resolution A/80/L.104 and promoted by Togo on behalf of the African Group. Describing the decision as a UN new world map captures the public interest surrounding the vote, but not its legal effect. The resolution does not redraw international borders, redistribute territory, or impose a binding world map on UN member states (United Nations General Assembly, 2026; African Union Commission, 2026).

The initiative responds to the distortion of relative area produced by the Mercator projection when it is used as a general-purpose world map. Mercator is a conformal projection that preserves local angles and renders constant-bearing routes as straight lines, properties that explain its historic value for navigation. Its scale distortion, however, increases toward the poles, making high-latitude regions appear disproportionately large compared with land areas closer to the Equator.

Equal Earth was developed as an equal-area projection for world maps and preserves the relative size of geographic areas rather than Mercator’s conformal properties (Šavrič, Patterson and Jenny, 2019). Its adoption does not eliminate cartographic distortion altogether. Every flat representation of the globe involves compromises among area, shape, distance, direction, and scale.

For international law, the distinction between projection and territory is fundamental. Changing the mathematical method used to represent the Earth on a flat surface does not alter sovereignty, territorial title, internationally recognized borders, or maritime delimitation. The European Union’s explanation of the vote expressly stated that the resolution does not affect sovereignty, territorial status, delimitation, or internationally recognized borders, and that implementation does not imply recognition, support, or acquiescence concerning disputed territorial claims (European Union, 2026).

The overwhelming majority in the General Assembly also does not make Equal Earth legally compulsory. Article 10 of the UN Charter empowers the Assembly to discuss matters within the scope of the Charter and to make recommendations to member states or the Security Council. A resolution of this character does not, by itself, create a treaty obligation requiring states to adopt a particular cartographic projection (United Nations, 1945).

Maps can acquire legal significance in other circumstances, particularly when they form part of an agreement, reflect state consent, or are used as evidence in territorial disputes. That is a separate legal question from the choice of a world-map projection. The “Correct the Map” resolution concerns how geographic area is represented; it does not change the legal geography of the world. Public International Law study guide book beside a navy promo panel reading Study This Topic in Depth and View the Guide.

1. What the UN New World Map Resolution Actually Did

On 4 September 2026, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the text circulated as draft resolution A/80/L.104, entitled “Correct the Map: Rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa.” The measure passed by 164 votes to one, with six abstentions. Togo introduced the initiative on behalf of the African Group, giving the campaign a clear institutional link to African concerns about the visual representation of the continent (United Nations General Assembly, 2026).

The resolution addresses cartographic representation rather than territorial organization. Its central objective is to encourage greater use of projections that represent the relative area of the world’s regions more faithfully, particularly where maps are used for education, public communication, and geographic literacy. The initiative responds to the widespread use of the Mercator projection in contexts for which accurate comparison of land area is important.

The vote did not abolish Mercator. Nor did the General Assembly enact a single political map that states and institutions are legally required to adopt. A map projection determines how the curved surface of the Earth is displayed on a plane; it does not determine which international boundaries, territorial claims, or political labels appear on that map.

Equal Earth has become closely associated with the campaign because it is an equal-area projection designed for world maps. Its prominence does not mean that every Equal Earth map has acquired official UN status, or that the projection has become compulsory for governments, schools, publishers, digital platforms, or international organizations.

The decision is more accurately understood as a strong international endorsement of equal-area cartographic representation where relative geographic size is relevant. Its immediate effect is institutional and political rather than territorial or legislative.

2. Mercator, Equal Earth, and the Problem of Area

Mercator should not be described simply as an inaccurate map. Developed by Gerardus Mercator in 1569, it is a conformal projection that preserves local angles and renders rhumb lines, or routes of constant compass bearing, as straight lines. Those properties explain its historical importance for marine navigation.

The difficulty arises from what Mercator does not preserve. Because the Earth cannot be transferred to a flat surface without distortion, the projection sacrifices accurate representation of area. Scale increases with latitude, progressively enlarging territories as they approach the poles.

On a world map, the effect is substantial. Greenland, Canada, Russia, and northern Europe appear disproportionately large when compared with Africa and other regions closer to the Equator. Africa is not literally reduced by the projection; rather, higher-latitude territories are enlarged far more dramatically. For readers comparing continental size, the resulting visual impression can be seriously misleading.

Equal Earth was developed in 2018 by Bojan Šavrič, Tom Patterson, and Bernhard Jenny as an equal-area world map projection. It preserves the proportional area of geographic regions, so territories occupy the same relative share of the map that they occupy on the Earth’s surface (Šavrič, Patterson and Jenny, 2019).

That does not make Equal Earth distortion-free. Shape, direction, distance, and scale cannot all be preserved simultaneously on a flat world map. The relevant distinction is one of cartographic purpose: Mercator preserves conformal properties, while Equal Earth is designed for situations in which accurate comparison of area takes priority.

3. The Resolution’s Legal Effect Under the UN Charter

The legal effect of the decision follows from the powers exercised by the General Assembly. Article 10 of the UN Charter authorizes the Assembly to discuss matters within the scope of the Charter and to make recommendations to member states or to the Security Council, subject to the Charter’s other provisions (United Nations, 1945).

The “Correct the Map” resolution does not constitute a treaty and does not create an international legislative rule requiring states to adopt Equal Earth. Its adoption cannot, by itself, impose a new cartographic obligation on UN members. The legal status of the text must be distinguished from the scale of political support it received.

A vote of 164 states nevertheless gives the initiative considerable diplomatic and institutional weight. Governments, international organizations, educational institutions, publishers, and mapping services may respond to the resolution even in the absence of a binding duty. General Assembly recommendations can influence standards of conduct and institutional practice without becoming legally compulsory.

A further question is whether the resolution could contribute to the development of customary international law. The International Court of Justice has recognized that General Assembly resolutions may, in appropriate circumstances, provide evidence relevant to the existence of a customary rule or to opinio juris. Their significance depends on their content, the conditions of adoption, and whether they reveal a belief that the conduct concerned is required by law (ICJ, 1996).

That evidentiary threshold has not been met here. Broad support for equitable cartographic representation does not establish a general practice accepted as law requiring states to use Equal Earth or another equal-area projection. The resolution may encourage future practice, but no customary international-law rule presently obliges states to adopt a particular world-map projection.

4. Why Borders and Maritime Zones Do Not Change

A cartographic projection cannot alter territorial sovereignty. Projection concerns the mathematical representation of geographic space, whereas territorial title and international boundaries depend on applicable legal instruments, established title, state consent, legally relevant conduct, and, where disputes arise, authoritative processes for determining the parties’ rights.

A state may appear wider, narrower, larger, or differently shaped when the same territory is displayed through Mercator, Equal Earth, or another projection. Those visual differences do not alter the geographic location of the territory or the legal boundary separating one state from another.

The same principle applies to disputed territories. Using an Equal Earth projection does not itself recognize a territorial claim, accept a disputed boundary, or change the legal status of contested territory. The European Union expressly stated in its explanation of the vote that implementation of the resolution does not imply recognition, support, or acquiescence concerning territorial claims or changes in territorial status (European Union, 2026).

Maritime entitlements are also independent of the projection used to display them. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a coastal state may establish a territorial sea of up to 12 nautical miles from the applicable baselines, while the exclusive economic zone may extend up to 200 nautical miles from those baselines, subject to the Convention’s rules and to delimitation where states have overlapping entitlements (UNCLOS, 1982).

Continental shelf entitlement is governed by a different legal framework. Article 76 of UNCLOS provides that the continental shelf extends to the outer edge of the continental margin where that margin reaches beyond 200 nautical miles, subject to the Convention’s detailed rules on outer limits; where it does not, the coastal state is entitled to a continental shelf extending to 200 nautical miles from the relevant baselines (UNCLOS, 1982).

Maritime boundaries may be established by agreement or determined through judicial or arbitral settlement where the relevant jurisdiction exists. Their legal position depends on the applicable law, geographic facts, and the instruments or decisions governing the particular boundary. Reprojecting the same geographic coordinates changes only their appearance on a flat map. It does not enlarge an exclusive economic zone, reduce a territorial sea, relocate a continental shelf limit, or resolve a disputed maritime claim.

5. Does the UN Now Have a New Official World Map?

The General Assembly vote does not establish that the United Nations has replaced all of its existing cartography with a single mandatory Equal Earth world map. The UN Secretariat already maintains procedures for the preparation, review, and dissemination of cartographic material, including rules concerning political boundaries, territorial status, disclaimers, and map clearance. These functions are currently supported by the UN Geospatial Information Section (United Nations, 2026).

Administrative Instruction ST/AI/189/Add.25/Rev.1 forms part of that institutional framework. It requires cartographic material issued under Secretariat responsibility to undergo appropriate review and to carry disclaimers where necessary (United Nations Secretariat, 1997). Current UN geospatial guidance continues to distinguish technical cartographic production from questions concerning the representation of international boundaries and disputed territories.

Those Secretariat procedures should not be treated as a single clearance regime automatically binding every specialized agency or entity across the entire UN system. Different organizations operate under their own mandates and administrative arrangements, although they may rely on UN geospatial services and authorized cartographic references where applicable.

Equal Earth itself does not contain a predetermined political map. It is a mathematical projection for representing the Earth’s surface. The same projection can be used to display different boundary lines, territorial claims, place names, disputed areas, and political labels, depending on the cartographer and the institutional rules governing the map.

This distinction was preserved during consideration of the “Correct the Map” resolution. The European Union stated that existing UN policies and authorized cartographic references concerning international boundaries and territorial status remain applicable. It also made clear that support for the resolution did not amount to endorsement of every political map published through platforms using the Equal Earth projection (European Union, 2026).

The more precise conclusion is that the General Assembly endorsed greater use of cartographic representations that preserve relative area. Implementation within particular UN bodies, departments, publications, or services remains an administrative matter governed by the relevant institutional rules. The resolution itself did not create one universally binding official UN political map.

6. When Maps Have Legal Weight in Territorial Disputes

International courts do not ordinarily treat maps as territorial title in themselves. In Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso/Republic of Mali), the International Court of Justice characterized maps as extrinsic evidence whose value depends on their reliability and on the circumstances in which they were produced. A boundary drawn on a map does not acquire legal force merely because it appears in cartographic form (ICJ, 1986).

The evidentiary weight of a map may depend on its technical accuracy, authorship, date, official status, neutrality, relationship to other materials, and acceptance by the states concerned. A map produced by an independent technical body may have substantial evidentiary value, while a unilateral political map may carry little weight in establishing title.

The Court applied similar caution in Kasikili/Sedudu Island (Botswana/Namibia). Numerous maps depicted the disputed boundary differently, but none was shown to constitute an official expression of the intentions of Germany and Great Britain under the 1890 Treaty. The inconsistencies among the maps prevented them from displacing the interpretation derived from the treaty and other relevant evidence (ICJ, 1999).

In Sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan (Indonesia/Malaysia), most of the cartographic material likewise failed to establish the meaning of the 1891 Convention conclusively. The Court ultimately awarded sovereignty to Malaysia on the basis of effectivités after rejecting the competing claims of conventional title. The maps formed part of the evidentiary record, but they did not independently determine sovereignty (ICJ, 2002).

A map can occupy a different legal position when states themselves have endowed it with authority. In Frontier Dispute, the Court recognized that cartographic material may acquire legal force where it constitutes a physical expression of the will of the states concerned, including when a map forms an integral part of an official agreement (ICJ, 1986). Article 31(2) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties likewise includes a treaty’s annexes within the context relevant to interpretation (VCLT, 1969).

The decisive factor is state consent rather than projection. A boundary map annexed to a treaty may carry legal significance because the parties accepted it as part of their agreement. Equal Earth, Mercator, or any other projection can serve as the visual framework for such a map; the legal authority derives from the instrument and the parties’ acceptance of its content.

7. Africa, Decolonization, and Cartographic Representation

The African Union has linked the “Correct the Map” campaign to concerns about how Mercator affects perceptions of Africa’s relative geographic size. Because Mercator enlarges territories at higher latitudes, its widespread use as a general-purpose world map can make Africa appear smaller in relation to Europe, North America, and northern Eurasia than it does on an equal-area projection (African Union, 2026).

At its 39th Ordinary Session in February 2026, the Assembly of the African Union adopted the Equal Earth projection and encouraged member states to revise national curricula accordingly. The decision framed the initiative through concepts including equitable representation, cognitive justice, reparations, and the legacy of colonial cartography (African Union, 2026).

These arguments belong primarily to the political, educational, and decolonial rationale of the campaign. They do not establish new territorial rights, modify the rules governing international boundaries, or create an independent legal obligation to use Equal Earth. Their significance lies in explaining why cartographic representation has become an issue of diplomatic concern for African states.

Historical precision is especially important. Gerardus Mercator developed his projection in 1569 for purposes closely associated with navigation. The mathematical distortion of area is indisputable, but this does not establish that Mercator designed the projection with the intention of diminishing Africa.

The contemporary criticism is stronger when directed at the later use of Mercator as a general representation of the world. A projection created for navigational purposes can shape perceptions differently when it becomes a familiar educational, political, or institutional image. The African Union’s campaign challenges that inherited convention rather than relying on an unverified claim about Mercator’s personal motives.

8. What the Resolution Could Change in Practice

The resolution may have substantial practical effects even without binding force. Governments, international organizations, educational institutions, publishers, media organizations, and digital mapping services may increasingly choose Equal Earth or other equal-area projections when proportional geographic representation is important.

The African Union has already pursued engagement with technology companies, mapping providers, publishers, educational institutions, and international organizations to encourage broader adoption of equal-area cartography (African Union Commission, 2026). If those efforts succeed, the most visible change may occur in classrooms, atlases, news graphics, institutional publications, and digital platforms rather than in legal instruments.

Such practice can become influential without acquiring the status of international law. A broadly accepted technical or educational convention may shape institutional expectations while remaining legally voluntary.

The longer-term significance of “Correct the Map” is consequently likely to concern the representation of international space. It may alter which projections institutions regard as appropriate for general world maps and how audiences perceive the relative geographic scale of Africa and other regions. The legal geography of sovereignty, however, remains governed by separate rules.

Also read

Territorial Disputes and International Law: Principles, Cases, and Resolutions ·

Customary International Law: How It Forms and Works ·

Law of the Sea Explained ·

International Law and Colonialism ·

Principle of Territorial Integrity in International Law ·

The Sources Of International Law ·

History of International Law ·

South China Sea Arbitration and Its Legal Impact

Conclusion

The UN new world map debate concerns a significant change in international cartographic policy, but not a redrawing of the world in law. The General Assembly’s “Correct the Map” resolution gives substantial political support to equal-area representation and strengthens efforts to reduce the distortions produced when Mercator is used to compare the relative size of continents.

International law assigns maps different weight according to their legal context. Ordinary cartographic depictions usually function as evidence, while maps incorporated into agreements or otherwise accepted by states may carry greater authority because of the consent attached to them. The projection itself does not determine territorial title.

Equal Earth changes the visual representation of geographic area. International borders, sovereignty, maritime entitlements, and disputed territorial claims continue to depend on treaties, applicable rules of international law, state consent, legally relevant conduct, and authoritative adjudication where jurisdiction exists. The principal effect of the resolution is likely to be seen in education, institutional practice, and the politics of geographic representation rather than in any alteration of the legal map of the world. Dark legal-themed banner with globe, books, and open law book; headline says Support Diplomacy & Law with a support button.

References

African Union (2026) Decision on “Correcting the Map of Africa on the Globe” (Item Proposed by the Republic of Togo), Assembly/AU/Dec.959(XXXIX), Doc. EX.CL/1680(XLVIII), 14–15 February 2026, Addis Ababa.

African Union Commission (2026a) AU leaders adopt historic initiative to correct the Map of Africa, advancing implementation and global repositioning of the Continent [online]. Available at: https://au.int/en/node/46520 (Accessed: 5 September 2026).

African Union Commission (2026b) Communiqué of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on the Adoption of the “Correct The Map” Resolution [online]. Available at: https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20260904/communique-auc-chairperson-adoption-correct-map-resolution (Accessed: 5 September 2026).

Associated Press (2026) ‘UN General Assembly endorses a new world map that shows more accurately Africa’s size’ [online]. Available at: https://apnews.com/article/un-africa-map-mercator-equal-earth-projection-b138fe9f76d7ff54cc7d5c9b1ddfa983 (Accessed: 5 September 2026).

Charter of the United Nations (1945) signed 26 June 1945, entered into force 24 October 1945, 1 UNTS XVI.

European Union (2026) EU Explanation of Vote – UN General Assembly: Resolution on “Correct the map”: rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa [online]. Available at: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/un-new-york/eu-explanation-vote-un-general-assembly-resolution-correct-map-rebalancing-global-cartographic_en (Accessed: 5 September 2026).

International Court of Justice (1986) Frontier Dispute (Burkina Faso/Republic of Mali), Judgment, 22 December 1986, I.C.J. Reports 1986, p. 554. International Court of Justice (1996) Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion, 8 July 1996, I.C.J. Reports 1996, p. 226.

International Court of Justice (1999) Kasikili/Sedudu Island (Botswana/Namibia), Judgment, 13 December 1999, I.C.J. Reports 1999, p. 1045.

International Court of Justice (2002) Sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan (Indonesia/Malaysia), Judgment, 17 December 2002, I.C.J. Reports 2002, p. 625. PROJ contributors (n.d.) Mercator [online]. Available at: https://proj.org/en/stable/operations/projections/merc.html (Accessed: 5 September 2026). Šavrič, B., Patterson, T. and Jenny, B. (2019) ‘The Equal Earth map projection’, International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 33(3), pp. 454–465. doi: 10.1080/13658816.2018.1504949.

United Nations (n.d.) Leadership: Geospatial, location data for a better world [online]. Available at: https://www.un.org/geospatial/mandates/leadership (Accessed: 5 September 2026).

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) adopted 10 December 1982, entered into force 16 November 1994, 1833 UNTS 3.

United Nations General Assembly (2026) “Correct the map”: Rebalancing global cartographic representation and promoting equitable representation of the world’s regions, particularly Africa, A/80/L.104, 4 August 2026.

United Nations Secretariat (1997) Regulations for the Control and Limitation of Documentation: Guidelines for the Publication of Maps, ST/AI/189/Add.25/Rev.1, 20 January 1997. Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969) adopted 22 May 1969, opened for signature 23 May 1969, entered into force 27 January 1980, 1155 UNTS 331. International Law Analysis

BLACK SOOT: Why Port Harcourt’s air matters—and what can be done

2026-08-18T21:17:27.688-05:00

BLACK SOOT
Why Port Harcourt’s air matters—and what can be done

Figure 1. Early-morning haze over Port Harcourt: the visible face of a complex air-pollution problem. Source: Eniola Ore (2022), ArcGIS StoryMap. Original image credit is not specified in the StoryMap.

THE BIG IDEA Soot is more than dirt on a surface. Fine combustion particles can enter deep into the lungs. The pollution has several possible sources, so lasting solutions require measurement, enforcement, cleaner energy, safer livelihoods, and public accountability.

StoryMap author: Eniola Ore • December 4, 2022

Academic supervision: Prof. Gervais Wafo Tabopda, Georgia Institute of Technology

Citizen-paper adaptation: August 2026

A city waking up under black dust

Since late 2016, residents of Port Harcourt and nearby communities have reported black particles settling on floors, windows, cars, plants, bed linen—and sometimes on children’s hands and feet. The deposits are especially noticeable in the morning. What looks like ordinary dust may contain particles produced by incomplete combustion of petroleum and other fuels.

Figure 2. Soot deposition on a resident’s hand makes the exposure visible, but what cannot be seen may be even more important. Source: Eniola Ore (2022), ArcGIS StoryMap. Original image credit is not specified in the StoryMap.

What does “soot” mean?

Three terms are often mixed together. They are related, but they are not identical:

Term	Plain-language meaning
PM₂.₅	Particles no wider than 2.5 micrometres. They can travel deep into the lungs and are the main health indicator used in many air-quality studies.
Soot	A dark mixture formed by incomplete burning. Its composition changes with the fuel and combustion conditions.
Black carbon	A light-absorbing carbon component of soot. It affects health and also warms the climate.
WHY PRECISION MATTERS A map of PM₂.₅ is not automatically a map of black carbon. Scientists need to identify exactly what was measured, how it was measured, and over what period.

Where is the problem?

Port Harcourt sits in the oil-producing Niger Delta. The city is linked to creeks, pipelines, industrial areas, roads, settlements, and flare sites. Wind and the height of the atmospheric mixing layer determine where pollutants travel and where they accumulate. Calm, stable early-morning air can keep pollution closer to the ground.

Figure 3. Gas flares and footprint locations in the Niger Delta. The pattern is useful for identifying possible source areas, but proximity alone does not prove causation. Source: Eniola Ore (2022), ArcGIS StoryMap. Original image credit is not specified in the StoryMap.

Figure 4. A closer view of flare locations and footprints near Port Harcourt. Wind direction, flare performance, and other emission sources must be considered when interpreting the map. Source: Eniola Ore (2022), ArcGIS StoryMap. Original image credit is not specified in the StoryMap.

READING A MAP CAREFULLY Maps reveal patterns and help ask better questions. To prove which source caused pollution at a neighborhood, scientists also need ground monitors, chemical fingerprints, weather data, and atmospheric models.

Where can the soot come from?

Figure 5. An artisanal or illegal crude-oil refining operation. Incomplete combustion can release thick smoke and fine particles. Source: Eniola Ore (2022), ArcGIS StoryMap. Original image credit is not specified in the StoryMap.

The StoryMap points to artisanal refining and activity near waterways. Scientific studies agree that petroleum combustion is an important concern, but Port Harcourt’s air is affected by several overlapping sources:

· artisanal refining and open burning of petroleum products;

· gas flaring, refineries, petrochemical plants, asphalt works, and other industry;

· diesel and petrol generators used during unreliable electricity supply;

· cars, minibuses, trucks, and poorly maintained engines;

· burning of tyres, waste, biomass, and materials used in some abattoirs; and

· open destruction of seized crude oil, tankers, or makeshift refining equipment.

What research tells us

A 2017 atmospheric study modeled pollution moving from areas south and southwest of Port Harcourt and found episode concentrations reaching 180 µg/m³ under selected conditions. A 2019 study of gas flaring showed that flare size, combustion efficiency, wind, and atmospheric stability strongly influence ground-level black carbon. These studies support action—but they also show why no single map can explain every pollution episode.

What can soot do to health?

Figure 6. A public-awareness collage used in the StoryMap to communicate possible health effects. Source: Eniola Ore (2022), ArcGIS StoryMap. Original image credit is not specified in the StoryMap.

Fine particles can irritate the airways and worsen asthma. Long-term exposure to PM₂.₅ is linked internationally with heart and lung disease, stroke, lung cancer, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and premature death. People with asthma, heart disease, or chronic lung disease are more vulnerable. Children, older adults, pregnant people, outdoor workers, and people without access to filtration may face greater risk.

HEALTH BENCHMARK The World Health Organization’s 2021 guideline for PM₂.₅ is 5 µg/m³ as an annual average and 15 µg/m³ as a 24-hour average. These are health-protection goals, not a dividing line between “safe” and “dangerous.” Comparisons must use the same averaging period.

What is known locally?

Port Harcourt studies have reported high particulate levels, morning peaks, and metals—including nickel, chromium, cadmium, and lead—in collected soot. A 2026 systematic review of 21 Niger Delta observational studies found possible links between oil- and gas-related pollution and respiratory symptoms, asthma, reduced lung function, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and hypertension. The authors judged the certainty as low to moderate because studies measured exposure and health outcomes in different ways.

What this means for citizens

The health concern is credible and prevention is justified. At the same time, scientists should avoid claiming that a particular illness was caused by a particular soot source without appropriate exposure and medical evidence.

The environment also carries the burden

Figure 7. Soot deposited on vegetation. Surface deposition is visible evidence that pollutants move from air to land and water. Source: Eniola Ore (2022), ArcGIS StoryMap. Original image credit is not specified in the StoryMap.

Particles can settle on leaves, roofs, soils, creeks, rainwater collection systems, and household surfaces. Soot can reduce visibility and block some sunlight from reaching leaves. Chemical components may enter soil, sediment, and water. The StoryMap also reports “black rain,” crop damage, and declines in fish and crabs.

A SCIENTIFIC CAUTION Those ecological observations deserve investigation, but soot is not the only pressure on the Niger Delta. Oil spills, wastewater, habitat loss, dredging, salinity changes, and other contamination can also affect fish, crops, and waterways. Good studies compare polluted and reference sites over time.

Figure 8. Images of smoke, haze, and black rain illustrate how the pollution is experienced in everyday life. Source: Eniola Ore (2022), ArcGIS StoryMap. Original image credit is not specified in the StoryMap.

What government and industry should do

1. Measure and publish

· Operate a quality-assured network with at least one reference-grade monitor and well-calibrated lower-cost sensors.

· Publish validated hourly readings, health advisories, missing-data flags, methods, and annual trends.

· Sample PM₂.₅ filters for black carbon, metals, ions, and petroleum-related organic compounds to identify sources.

2. Stop pollution at the source

· End open burning of seized crude oil and equipment; use secure recovery and controlled treatment.

· Meter gas flaring, verify flare efficiency, enforce deadlines, detect leaks, and capture or use associated gas.

· Control industrial stacks, tyre and waste burning, smoky vehicles, and high-emitting generators.

· Improve reliable electricity and clean transport so families and businesses do not depend on dirty combustion.

3. Protect health now

· Issue clear alerts for high-pollution days and prepare clinics, schools, and workplaces.

· Create clean-air rooms using correctly sized HEPA filtration and prioritize vulnerable households and institutions.

· Provide well-fitting N95/FFP2 masks during severe episodes; ordinary cloth masks do not reliably filter fine particles.

· Track asthma attacks, respiratory visits, cardiovascular events, pregnancy outcomes, and school absences while protecting privacy.

4. Make enforcement fair and durable

· Target organizers, financing, stolen-oil supply chains, and dangerous facilities—not only low-income workers.

· Pair enforcement with safe livelihoods, remediation jobs, skills training, and reliable legal energy supplies.

· Include waterfront communities in sensor placement, reporting, enforcement priorities, and evaluation.

What residents can do

FIRST PRIORITY Reduce exposure when pollution is visibly severe or official readings are high. Personal action cannot replace government and industrial responsibility, but it can lower short-term risk.

Helpful actions

Actions to avoid

· Follow trusted air-quality alerts.

· Keep windows closed during intense smoke episodes when feasible.

· Use a HEPA air cleaner or a correctly fitted filter system; replace filters as recommended.

· Wear a well-fitting N95/FFP2 when outdoor exposure cannot be avoided.

· Seek medical care for severe breathlessness, chest pain, blue lips, confusion, or worsening asthma.

· Document repeated pollution events with date, time, location, weather, and photographs.

· Do not burn collected soot, rubbish, tyres, or petroleum waste.

· Do not use ozone-producing air cleaners.

· Do not assume a surgical or cloth mask provides the same protection as a respirator.

· Do not rely on smell or visibility alone—fine particles may remain high when the air looks clearer.

· Do not stop prescribed asthma or heart medicines without clinical advice.

Questions citizens can ask

· Where is the nearest monitor, and when was it last calibrated?

· Which pollutant is being reported—PM₂.₅, PM₁₀, AQI, or black carbon—and for what averaging period?

· Which sources were tested, and what chemical or meteorological evidence supports the conclusion?

· Are results, enforcement actions, and emission reductions publicly available?

· Are the most exposed communities represented in decisions and receiving health protection?

From a powerful StoryMap to public action

Eniola Ore’s StoryMap, created under the supervision of Prof. Gervais Wafo Tabopda at the Georgia Institute of Technology, gives Port Harcourt’s soot crisis a human and geographic form. Its images show the burden residents describe; its maps help identify where investigation is needed; and its narrative connects air quality with health, ecosystems, energy, livelihoods, and governance.

The next step is to make the evidence more reproducible. Every map should state its source, date, unit, averaging period, resolution, and uncertainty. PM₂.₅, soot, black carbon, and AQI should be clearly distinguished. Live web readings should be archived with dates. Source claims should be tested with chemical analysis, wind data, and atmospheric modeling. Health and ecological claims should be linked to studies designed to test them.

BOTTOM LINE Port Harcourt does not need to wait for perfect certainty before reducing harmful combustion. The best response combines immediate health protection with transparent monitoring, source control, cleaner energy, safe enforcement, health surveillance, livelihood transition, and community oversight.

A short reading list

Ede, P. N., & Edokpa, D. O. (2017). Satellite determination of particulate load over Port Harcourt during black soot incidents. Journal of Atmospheric Pollution, 5(2), 55–61. https://doi.org/10.12691/jap-5-2-3

Fawole, O. G., Cai, X., Abiye, O. E., & MacKenzie, A. R. (2019). Dispersion of gas flaring emissions in the Niger Delta. Environmental Pollution, 246, 284–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2018.12.021

Kalagbor, I. A., Dibofori-Orji, A. N., & Ekpete, O. A. (2019). Exposure to heavy metals in soot samples and cancer risk assessment in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Journal of Health & Pollution, 9(24), 191211. https://doi.org/10.5696/2156-9614-9.24.191211

Obute, O. P., et al. (2026). Cardiopulmonary health effects of oil- and gas-related environmental pollution in the Niger Delta, Nigeria: A systematic review. Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, 19, Article 105. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-026-01989-4

Ore, E. (2022, December 4). Black Soot in Port Harcourt, Rivers State [ArcGIS StoryMap]. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/2b196407e3124aa18f85e1fb5477c57b

World Health Organization. (2021). WHO global air quality guidelines. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240034228

Yakubu, O. H. (2018). Particle (soot) pollution in Port Harcourt Rivers State, Nigeria—Double air pollution burden? Environments, 5(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/environments5010002

Image-use note. Figures reproduced from the reviewed StoryMap for scholarly criticism, public education, and discussion. The StoryMap identifies its author but does not provide original creator credits for every embedded photograph. Further republication should verify the underlying image rights and add complete creator/licence information.

Soccer, Nativism, and the Geography of Belonging: How Atlanta complicates the claim that political polarization limits the American game. By Gervais W Tabopda

2026-08-09T22:04:33.825-05:00

A three-lens assessment of Paige Meierhofer’s 2019 ArcGIS StoryMap, “Trumpism vs. Soccer,” prepared for scientific readers, city planners, civic leaders, and public policymakers.

Opening map. MLS team locations and 2016 presidential election results.
Source: Paige Meierhofer, “Trumpism vs. Soccer” ArcGIS StoryMap (2019). The map is reproduced from the supplied project files and reflects the league and election geography available at that time.

Original student research: Paige Meierhofer, Georgia Tech City and Regional Planning, 2019
Report prepared by: Gervais W. Tabopda
Date: July 2026

StoryMap: Trumpism vs. Soccer

SOCCER, NATIVISM, AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF BELONGING

Executive summary

In 2019, planning student Paige Meierhofer posed a provocative question: could the nativist and counter-cosmopolitan politics associated with Trumpism obstruct soccer’s long-term growth in the United States? Her StoryMap connected the location of Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs, the 2016 presidential map, and Atlanta’s rapidly changing demographic geography. The central insight was that soccer’s American future would be negotiated not only through stadium economics and team performance, but also through contested ideas of nationhood, immigration, and cultural belonging.

The project remains unusually strong as public scholarship. Its national-to-local map sequence makes an abstract argument visible: a club can sit in a Republican-leaning state while drawing its core audience from a diverse, younger, and more Democratic metropolitan coalition. Atlanta is the exemplary case. The metropolitan area’s Hispanic/Latino population more than doubled between 2000 and 2010, and it continued to grow by 31 percent across the Atlanta Regional Commission’s 11-county region between 2010 and 2020. In parallel, Atlanta United became one of the world’s best-attended clubs; MLS reported 65,520 spectators at its 2025 home opener. In 2026, Atlanta hosted eight FIFA World Cup matches, including a semifinal. These later developments do not invalidate the StoryMap. They show that political culture is a constraint, not destiny, and that metropolitan institutions can create bridges across ideological boundaries (ARC, 2018, 2021; MLS, 2025; FIFA, 2026).

Bottom line

The StoryMap’s strongest finding is not that “red America rejects soccer.” It is that the relevant political geography is metropolitan and multiscalar. Statewide election maps conceal the urban, suburban, and demographic coalitions that actually sustain clubs. The project becomes publication-ready when it reframes nativism as one explanatory factor among several and tests it with individual-level fan data, travel-time analysis, and comparative city evidence.

Key findings for policymakers

• A red state is not a red market. State-level election results are too coarse to explain the audience of a metropolitan sports institution.

• Atlanta’s soccer success is geographically plausible because the region combines a large younger population, substantial racial and ethnic diversity, and strong growth in suburban Latino communities.

• Nativist discourse may shape symbolic acceptance of soccer, but the StoryMap does not directly measure fan attitudes, attendance, viewership, or causal effects.

• City governments should treat major soccer institutions as civic infrastructure: mobility, public space, youth access, multilingual communication, safety, local procurement, and immigrant-community partnerships all influence who belongs.

• The next research step is a multilevel geospatial design linking anonymized fan origins, stadium travel times, neighborhood demographics, election returns, survey attitudes, and club performance over time.

The three analytical lenses

1	Electoral geography: scale is the argument The national map suggests a partisan divide, but the Atlanta and Georgia maps reveal a more important pattern: metropolitan political coalitions differ sharply from statewide majorities. The analytical unit must match the behavior being explained.

Urban political economy: institutions create markets

Atlanta United’s success cannot be reduced to demography. Ownership, stadium design, team performance, branding, transit access, ticket strategy, media distribution, and community partnerships help convert a potential audience into an active public.

3	Civic policy: sport can build belonging, but not automatically Soccer can offer shared rituals across language and nationality, yet it can also reproduce exclusion, commercialization, and unequal access. Public value depends on deliberate policies, not on the sport’s global symbolism alone.

A global game meets an American culture war.

Soccer has always carried more political meaning in the United States than its rules require. To supporters, it is the world’s common sporting language: a low-equipment game, a transnational media product, and an arena in which immigrant identities and local loyalties can coexist. To some critics, precisely those qualities have made it appear foreign, insufficiently “American,” or emblematic of globalization. Markovits and Rensmann describe the tension between globally circulating sports cultures and national sporting traditions. Waalkes similarly argues that soccer both reflects globalization and creates a hybrid “glocal” culture in which global forms acquire local meanings (Markovits & Rensmann, 2010; Waalkes, 2017).

Meierhofer’s StoryMap brought this literature into the political moment after the 2016 election. Drawing on the cultural-backlash framework associated with Inglehart and Norris, it treated Trumpism as a politics of threatened status, anti-immigrant sentiment, and resistance to cosmopolitan social change. This was a plausible theoretical move. Lindner and Hawkins had already found that attitudes toward cultural globalization were stronger predictors of soccer sentiment than conventional ideology or class in their survey of Nebraskans. The StoryMap’s innovation was to ask whether that cultural divide had a visible spatial expression in MLS geography (Inglehart & Norris, 2016; Lindner & Hawkins, 2012).

The resulting argument was deliberately sharp: because soccer depends heavily on younger, urban, and Latino audiences, a political movement that stigmatizes immigration and imported culture could narrow the sport’s path into the American mainstream. That proposition is analytically valuable because it moves beyond the usual explanation that soccer competes against the “Big Four” professional leagues. It asks whether the deeper competition is over national identity itself.

What the original project gets right

Sport markets are cultural institutions, not merely collections of consumers. The meaning attached to a sport can affect media coverage, public investment, family participation, sponsorship, and the willingness of political leaders to treat it as part of the civic mainstream.

The national map is a hypothesis, not a verdict.

The StoryMap’s national figure overlays 2016 presidential results by state with MLS team locations. Visually, many clubs appear in states won by the Democratic presidential candidate. In contrast, clubs in Republican-won states are concentrated in major cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, and Salt Lake City. The map succeeds as an invitation to investigate. It does not, by itself, demonstrate that partisan ideology determines soccer demand.

The main reason is scale. MLS clubs are metropolitan institutions, while the election layer is statewide. A state can vote Republican while its largest urban counties vote Democratic, its inner suburbs diversify, and its outer suburbs remain competitive. The geographic pattern relevant to attendance is therefore not “red state versus blue state.” It is the distribution of population, income, age, ethnicity, transportation access, and political culture within each club’s realistic travel shed.

This is a classic ecological-inference problem. Individuals who live in a Republican-won state cannot be assumed to share the state majority’s vote, and Trump voters cannot be assumed to dislike soccer. The problem is intensified by the modifiable areal unit problem: the apparent relationship changes when analysts move from states to counties, tracts, ZIP codes, or drive-time catchments. A scientifically stronger article should therefore present the state map as a first-stage visualization and immediately test the same proposition at smaller geographic scales.

Figure 2. Georgia’s 2016 county election geography with the Atlanta club location marked.
Source: Paige Meierhofer, “Trumpism vs. Soccer” ArcGIS StoryMap (2019). Red counties indicate Trump pluralities; blue counties indicate Clinton pluralities. The figure illustrates the contrast between statewide outcomes and metropolitan voting clusters.

Atlanta reveals the metropolitan coalition behind soccer.

Atlanta is the StoryMap’s most persuasive section because it changes the scale of analysis. Instead of treating Georgia as a single political unit, it maps demographic change across the metropolitan region. The non-White population-change map and the population-age map show a broad, uneven field of potential supporters extending far beyond the city limits. The Hispanic population maps add an especially important dimension: the strongest concentrations are not confined to downtown Atlanta but appear in suburban corridors and municipalities across Gwinnett, Cobb, north Fulton, and DeKalb.

The demographic evidence is substantial. The Atlanta Regional Commission reported that the metropolitan Hispanic/Latino population grew from 268,851 in 2000 to 547,400 in 2010, an increase of 102 percent, and that the group’s median age was only 26 in the late 2010s. The 2020 Census then showed continued growth: the Hispanic population increased by 31 percent between 2010 and 2020 in the ARC’s 11-county region, with double-digit growth in every county. Gwinnett alone had more than 220,000 Hispanic residents in 2020, and dense concentrations remained visible along the Buford Highway corridor (ARC, 2018, 2021).

These patterns matter because stadium attendance is a regional mobility behavior. A fan base is assembled through transportation networks, household schedules, social ties, youth clubs, workplaces, media habits, and the symbolic appeal of the team. The StoryMap correctly recognizes suburban diversity as central to Atlanta United’s market. A downtown stadium can be regionally embedded when it is reachable, when the team’s identity feels inclusive, and when supporters see the club as representing the entire metropolitan area rather than only the central city.

The later evidence: political constraint did not prevent institutional success

The seven years since the StoryMap was published offer a natural stress test. If nativist politics were an overriding barrier, Atlanta should have struggled to sustain a major soccer institution in a Republican-leaning state. Instead, Atlanta United remained an attendance leader. MLS reported that 65,520 spectators attended the club’s 2025 home opener, the third-largest soccer crowd anywhere in the world that day. Atlanta also became one of the central US stages of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, hosting eight matches, including a semifinal (MLS, 2025; FIFA, 2026).

This does not prove that the cultural-backlash thesis was false. It suggests that its effect is conditional. Nativist rhetoric may influence the symbolic status of soccer. Still, strong metropolitan demand, effective ownership, high-capacity infrastructure, competitive teams, media access, and civic branding can outweigh or transform that constraint. The institution does not simply wait for a preexisting culture of acceptance; it helps produce one.

Atlanta therefore changes the article’s central claim. The most defensible conclusion is not that Trumpism prevents soccer’s growth. It is that soccer’s growth depends on how metropolitan institutions navigate a politically fragmented territory. Clubs succeed when they build a coalition broad enough to cross municipal, racial, linguistic, and partisan boundaries without pretending those differences have disappeared.

A more publishable thesis

Nativist politics can make soccer a contested symbol of globalization, but metropolitan demographic change and institution-building determine whether that symbolic conflict becomes a material barrier. Atlanta demonstrates that the barrier can be crossed.

Policy agenda: turn a sports event into civic capacity

For planners and public officials, the relevant question is not simply whether soccer grows. It is whether the institutions built around the sport widen access, strengthen public space, and create durable relationships across the metropolitan region. The following actions translate the StoryMap’s cultural insight into a practical urban-policy agenda.

1. Build a regional sports-data compact

Cities, transit agencies, clubs, universities, and community organizations should establish privacy-protective agreements for aggregated ticket origin, travel mode, and attendance data. Public subsidies and major-event partnerships should include transparent evaluation provisions.

2. Make mobility part of inclusion

Event access depends on late-night transit, safe pedestrian routes, affordable fares, multilingual wayfinding, accessible shuttles, and coordination across county lines. A downtown stadium is not regionally inclusive if only car-owning households can reach it reliably.

3. Invest beyond the stadium

World Cup and MLS legacies should include neighborhood fields, school partnerships, coaching pipelines, heat-resilient play spaces, and low-cost programs for girls, immigrant youth, and lower-income families.

4. Practice year-round cultural partnership

Engagement with Latino, African, Caribbean, Asian, refugee, and international communities should not be confined to heritage nights. Clubs and cities should co-design programming with trusted organizations and compensate them for their expertise.

5. Protect pluralism in the public realm

Fan codes of conduct, anti-harassment enforcement, language access, inclusive security training, and visible reporting channels are essential. Soccer’s global identity does not automatically prevent racism, xenophobia, or exclusion.

6. Measure the civic legacy

Success metrics should include transit mode share, geographic diversity of attendance, youth participation, local and minority-owned procurement, neighborhood field access, resident satisfaction, and the distribution of public costs and benefits.

Conclusion: the politics of soccer are local, regional, and national at once

“Trumpism vs. Soccer” was an ambitious student project because it treated a sports league as a window into the politics of globalization. Its most memorable maps place Atlanta inside overlapping geographies: a Republican-leaning state, a Democratic urban core, diversifying suburbs, rapidly growing Latino communities, and a national sports market still negotiating soccer’s place in American identity.

The evidence available in 2026 supports a more nuanced conclusion than the original title implies. Soccer’s growth has not been halted by nativist politics. Atlanta’s attendance records and World Cup role demonstrate remarkable institutional success. Yet the project’s deeper concern remains relevant: belonging is unevenly distributed, and public culture is contested. The same metropolitan region can celebrate a global game while remaining polarized over immigration, race, and national identity.

That tension is precisely why the StoryMap deserves further development. Its cartography should be updated, its causal claims narrowed, and its research design expanded. With those revisions, the work can become a high-quality citizen-journal article and a serious agenda for urban political research: not a story about soccer defeating politics, but about how cities build institutions capable of living with political difference.

References and source notes

Atlanta Regional Commission. (2018, July 24). Data Dive: Metro Atlanta’s Latino Population Fast-growing, Young, and Diverse.

Atlanta Regional Commission. (2021, October 4). Hispanic population shows strong growth across metro ATL.

Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). (2026). Atlanta: FIFA World Cup 2026 host city and match schedule.

Inglehart, R., & Norris, P. (2016). Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of Populism: Economic Have-Nots and Cultural Backlash. Harvard Kennedy School Faculty Research Working Paper RWP16-026. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2818659

Lindner, A. M., & Hawkins, D. N. (2012). Globalization, culture wars, and attitudes toward soccer in America: An empirical assessment of how soccer explains the world. The Sociological Quarterly, 53(1), 68–91.

Major League Soccer. (2025, February 24). MLS is Back: Atlanta United host third-largest soccer crowd in the world.

Markovits, A. S., & Rensmann, L. (2010). Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture. Princeton University Press.

Meierhofer, P. (2019, July 18). Trumpism vs. Soccer: Explaining how nativism and counter-cosmopolitanism in the US hinder soccer’s potential to grow. ArcGIS StoryMaps. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/d9a9b718becf42f289d88dc17dea3e53

Openshaw, S. (1984). The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem. Geo Books.

Robinson, W. S. (1950). Ecological correlations and the behavior of individuals. American Sociological Review, 15(3), 351–357.

Waalkes, S. (2017). Does soccer explain the world or does the world explain soccer? Soccer and globalization. Soccer & Society, 18(2–3), 166–180.

Figure source note

All maps reproduced in this report were supplied by the user from Paige Meierhofer’s 2019 ArcGIS StoryMap. They are retained as historical evidence of the original analysis. A publication submission should regenerate the maps from documented source data, add complete legends and metadata, and update the political, demographic, and MLS layers to a common date.

Mapping Orbital Debris Risk: How a Student Esri Story Map Reveals the Hidden Traffic Jam Above Earth

2026-05-22T20:20:02.747-05:00

Mapping Orbital Debris Risk

How a Student Esri Story Map Reveals the Hidden Traffic Jam Above Earth

By Gervais W. Tabopda | Georgia Institute of Technology | For tabopda.blogspot.com

Figure 1. Near-Earth orbit is increasingly an operating environment, not an empty frontier.

We cannot manage what we cannot see. Mapping orbital debris is the first step toward explaining, regulating, insuring, and sustaining the orbital commons.

My Aerospace student Lauren Forcey, under my supervision, performed an Esri StoryMap GIS project on one of the most urgent but least visible challenges of the modern space age: orbital debris. Her project, “Invisible Orbits, Visible Consequences,” explores how thousands of satellites, retired spacecraft, rocket bodies, and fragments of human-made material are transforming Earth’s orbital environment into a crowded and increasingly fragile infrastructure zone.

What began as a GIS class project quickly revealed a much larger research and communication opportunity: how can we make the invisible risks of orbital debris visible to scientists, policymakers, investors, students, and the public?

This blog article presents that idea through the lens of geospatial science, aerospace sustainability, public communication, and innovation.

Space Is Not Empty Anymore

From the ground, space appears silent and empty. We look up and see a dark sky, stars, and perhaps the occasional satellite crossing overhead. But near-Earth orbit is no longer an empty frontier. It has become a working environment filled with satellites, spacecraft, rocket bodies, and debris fragments moving around the planet at extremely high speeds.

Satellites now support almost every part of modern life. They help us forecast weather, navigate with GPS, monitor wildfires, observe climate change, support agriculture, connect remote communities, guide aircraft and ships, secure national defense, and synchronize financial transactions. This orbital infrastructure is essential, but it is also vulnerable.

The European Space Agency reported in its 2025 Space Environment Report that about 40,000 objects are currently tracked by space surveillance networks, including about 11,000 active payloads. ESA also estimates that the real number of debris objects larger than 1 centimeter is more than 1.2 million, large enough to cause serious damage in orbit.

NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office gives a similar warning: more than 25,000 objects larger than 10 centimeters are known to exist, around 500,000 particles between 1 and 10 centimeters are estimated, and the number of particles larger than 1 millimeter exceeds 100 million.

Why Small Pieces Can Cause Big Damage

On Earth, a small metal fragment might seem harmless. In orbit, the same fragment can become dangerous because objects travel at very high relative velocities. Even a tiny piece of debris can damage solar panels, sensors, spacecraft windows, thermal systems, or other critical satellite components.

A larger object can be catastrophic. A collision between two satellites, or between a satellite and an abandoned rocket body, can create thousands of new fragments. Those fragments can then threaten other spacecraft, creating a chain reaction of debris generation.

This is the concern often associated with the Kessler Syndrome, a scenario in which collisions create more debris, which then creates more collisions. The danger is not that all of space becomes unusable overnight. The more realistic concern is that some valuable orbital regions could become increasingly risky, expensive, and difficult to operate in.

This is why orbital debris is not simply “space junk.” It is an environmental, technological, economic, and governance problem.

The GIS Question: How Do We Map an Invisible Risk?

Lauren Forcey’s StoryMap matters because it approaches orbital debris as a geographic problem.

GIS is usually associated with maps of cities, rivers, roads, forests, land use, or climate risk. But geography is not limited to Earth’s surface. Near-Earth orbit also has spatial patterns. Objects are distributed by altitude, inclination, orbit type, density, speed, and proximity to operational satellites.

In other words, orbital debris has a geography.

The StoryMap helps make that geography visible. It translates a highly technical aerospace issue into an interactive spatial narrative that students, researchers, policymakers, and the broader public can understand. This is the power of GIS communication: it does not merely store data; it helps people see relationships, patterns, and consequences.

If orbital debris remains invisible to the public and abstract to decision-makers, it will remain difficult to communicate, regulate, insure, and mitigate. But when we map it, we begin to understand it as a shared environment requiring shared responsibility.

From StoryMap to Research Innovation

Lauren’s project inspired a broader framework that I call GEO-ORBIS: Geospatial Orbital Risk and Business Intelligence System.

GEO-ORBIS is a proposed decision-support framework that connects orbital-debris science with GIS, risk analysis, economics, policy, and public communication.

1. The Geospatial Layer

This layer answers the question: where is the risk? It maps orbital objects, debris density, active satellites, abandoned spacecraft, rocket bodies, and high-risk orbital zones.

2. The Risk Layer

This layer asks: what can be damaged or disrupted? It interprets collision exposure, conjunction risks, debris hotspots, and orbital congestion.

3. The Economic Layer

This layer asks: what is financially at stake? Orbital debris increases mission risk, shortens satellite lifetimes, raises insurance concerns, forces avoidance maneuvers, and complicates future launches.

4. The Policy Layer

This layer asks: what rules guide responsible behavior? As orbital congestion increases, regulators are beginning to respond through deorbit, mitigation, licensing, and sustainability requirements.

5. The Communication Layer

This layer asks: how do we make people understand and act? StoryMaps, dashboards, reports, data visualizations, and public-facing maps become essential tools for translating science into decisions.

Why This Matters for Investors and Incubators

Orbital debris is a risk, but it is also a market signal. As the number of satellites grows, demand will increase for orbital-risk dashboards, collision-awareness tools, geospatial risk scoring, insurance analytics, regulatory compliance support, satellite-fleet exposure reports, public education platforms, university training modules, and space-sustainability intelligence.

A platform such as GEO-ORBIS could serve satellite operators, insurers, investors, regulators, research laboratories, universities, and incubators. Its value is not in replacing existing space-surveillance systems. Its value is in translating complex orbital information into decision-ready intelligence.

Many decision-makers do not need raw orbital mechanics data. They need to know where risk is concentrated, what assets are exposed, what regulations apply, and what decisions should be made next. This is where GIS and business intelligence can work together.

A New Kind of Environmental Geography

We often think of environmental problems as issues affecting forests, rivers, oceans, cities, or the atmosphere. Orbital debris asks us to expand that thinking. Earth orbit is also an environment.

It is not natural in the traditional sense, but it is shared. It is limited. It is increasingly crowded. And it supports essential services for people on Earth.

This makes orbital debris similar to other global commons problems. Like ocean plastic, air pollution, or climate change, orbital debris is created by many actors, accumulates over time, crosses national boundaries, and requires cooperation to manage.

The difference is that most people cannot see it. That is why Lauren’s StoryMap is powerful. It gives visual form to a hidden risk and helps students and the public understand that the space around Earth is not an unlimited dumping ground.

The Role of Students in Scientific Innovation

One of the most inspiring aspects of this project is that it began with a student. Students often bring fresh eyes to complex problems. In this case, Lauren Forcey used GIS and Esri StoryMaps not just to present information, but to ask a deeper question: how can spatial storytelling help society understand the future of orbital sustainability?

That question has scientific value. It has educational value. It has business value. And it has public value.

As educators, we often evaluate student projects as class assignments. But sometimes a class project opens a door to something larger. This project does exactly that. It shows how aerospace thinking, GIS methods, and public communication can come together to address a real global challenge.

Why a StoryMap Is the Right Medium

A StoryMap is not simply a map. It is a narrative environment. It combines text, maps, images, data, and interaction. For a topic like orbital debris, this is especially useful because the problem is difficult to imagine.

Most people have never seen orbital debris. They may not realize how many objects are above Earth, how fast they travel, or how much modern society depends on satellites. A StoryMap helps solve that problem by guiding the reader through evidence and interpretation.

It can show where debris is concentrated, why small objects matter, how satellites are exposed, why orbital congestion is increasing, how policy is changing, and why space sustainability affects life on Earth.

From Classroom Project to Public Science

The next step is to develop this work into a broader public-science and research platform. A future version of the project could include updated orbital-debris datasets, interactive debris-density maps, a risk index by orbital zone, a policy dashboard, a business-intelligence layer for investors and insurers, educational modules, and a public StoryMap series explaining space sustainability in accessible language.

The Larger Message

The larger message is clear: space sustainability is Earth sustainability.

When satellites are threatened, Earth-based systems are threatened too. Weather forecasting, navigation, disaster response, climate monitoring, agriculture, communications, and security all depend on orbital infrastructure.

Orbital debris may be above us, but its consequences are around us. Lauren Forcey’s StoryMap helps reveal this connection. It shows that GIS can play an important role in aerospace communication. It also shows that students can produce work that matters beyond the classroom.

Conclusion: Making the Invisible Visible

My aerospace student Lauren Forcey’s Esri StoryMap project demonstrates the power of geospatial storytelling to illuminate one of the most important hidden challenges of the modern space age.

Orbital debris is invisible to most people, but it is not harmless. It is a growing risk to satellites, space missions, the space economy, and the services we rely on every day.

By mapping orbital debris risk, we make the problem visible. By making it visible, we make it understandable. And by making it understandable, we make better decisions possible.

That is the promise of this project. It is not only about space debris. It is about how we use GIS to communicate science, how we prepare students to solve emerging problems, and how we protect the shared orbital environment that now supports life on Earth.

Suggested Blog Tags

GIS, Esri StoryMaps, Orbital Debris, Space Sustainability, Aerospace, GeoAI, Space Economy, Environmental Risk, Georgia Tech, Science Communication

References

· European Space Agency. ESA Space Environment Report 2025. https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/ESA_Space_Environment_Report_2025

· NASA Orbital Debris Program Office. Frequently Asked Questions. https://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/faq/

· Federal Communications Commission. FCC Adopts New 5-Year Rule for Deorbiting Satellites. https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-adopts-new-5-year-rule-deorbiting-satellites

· Space Foundation. The Space Report 2025 Q2: Global Space Economy Reaches $613B in 2024. https://www.spacefoundation.org/2025/07/22/the-space-report-2025-q2/

· Forcey, Lauren, and Gervais W. Tabopda. Invisible Orbits, Visible Consequences: A Global Map of Orbital Debris. Esri ArcGIS StoryMaps. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b52ed33782424941ae633dc910045c8e

Identification of Potential Vulnarable Population and COVID-19 Contamination in the state of Georgia-USA: A Preliminary Results

2020-04-26T15:46:00.001-05:00

I present here an exciting research project conducted by my Graduated Student, Sydney-Alyce Bourget, under my supervision at the School of City and Regional Planning, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA.

You can visualize the interactive and operational web mapping, that was developed in these preliminary results.

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=b848d690e3244898aa53058e3251b5e8.

Gervais W Tabopda

Jair Bolsonaro et la nouvelle géopolitique du Brésil – Interview de Christophe Ramon

2019-08-09T20:42:00.000-05:00

Jair Bolsonaro et la nouvelle géopolitique du Brésil – Interview de Christophe Ramon

3 jours ago admin

Interview réalisée le 05 Aout 2019

Centre Algérien de Diplomatie Économique : Pourriez-vous vous présenter ?

Christophe Ramon : Après une licence en Histoire à la Sorbonne, je me suis spécialisé sur la géopolitique du Brésil et tout particulièrement sur la relation frontalière de l’Oyapock. Mes recherches m’ont amené à séjourner longuement au Brésil et notamment en Amapá (Etat fédéral d’Amazonie brésilienne, jouxtant la Guyane Française). Après deux années d’études doctorales, j’ai décidé de faire un MBA dans la prestigieuse Ecole de Guerre Economique, pour me former dans un domaine tout aussi passionnant, l’intelligence économique. Mon parcours universitaire et professionnel m’ont conduit à me centrer sur les aires culturelles lusophones et hispanophones, en Europe du Sud mais aussi en Amérique latine. Parlant couramment l’espagnol, le portugais et l’anglais, je reste convaincu que le multiculturalisme et l’ouverture sur le monde restent les meilleures clés pour appréhender la complexité de notre époque.
CADE : Dans quel contexte politique s’inscrit l’élection du nouveau président Jair Bolsonaro ?

Christophe Ramon : Le 1^er janvier 2019, avec la prise de fonction du nouveau président Jair Bolsonaro, le géant latino-‐américain entame un nouveau tournant dans son histoire. Le Brésil a subi de lourdes perturbations depuis la destitution de Dilma Rousseff en 2016. La révélation des multiples scandales de corruptions (mensalão, Lava Jato) additionnés à l’aggravation de la conjoncture économique et la profonde crise sociétale brésilienne, attestent d’un affaiblissement du pouvoir exécutif. C’est dans un système politique divisé et à bout de souffle que l’élection de Bolsonaro s’inscrit. S’ajoute à cela un contexte d’inégalités socio-‐économiques et d’insécurité qui jusqu’à présent contraste fortement avec l’image d’un Brésil progressiste et « émergé ». Rappelons que le Brésil reste dans le Top 20 des pays les plus violents de la planète avec le triste record mondial d’homicides (64 000 homicides enregistrés officiellement en 2017).
Malgré les fortes critiques médiatiques exprimées contre l’actuel président Bolsonaro, celui-‐ ci a été élu démocratiquement et a su tenir un discours séduisant. L’ancien militaire de 64 ans a su convaincre grâce à une communication efficace centrée sur les questions de sûretés, de liberté et de patriotisme. Il n’hésite pas non plus à revendiquer l’importance du divin en affichant sa foi, contentant de ce fait une grande majorité de brésiliens influencés par un fort contexte de religiosité ainsi que par les courants évangéliques, dont le président est lui-‐même très proche. Souvent qualifié de « Trump tropical », le nouvel homme d’Etat mène une politique imprévisible et difficilement classifiable. L’homme politique manie des idées très contrastées, oscillant entre libéralisme économique, volonté souverainiste, conservatisme et progressisme social. En dépit d’une étiquette de « fasciste » et de nombreuses maladresses, tel que son discours devant le club Hébraïque de Rio de Janeiro, Bolsonaro a néanmoins démontré par son élection, sa grande connaissance du peuple brésilien.
La tâche qui attend le nouveau président est ardue, on peut distinguer trois défis majeurs : redresser l’économie, combattre la corruption et faire reculer la violence qui ensanglante le pays. Comme l’a dit un jour le célèbre musicien et « père » de la bossa-‐nova, Tom Jobim, « O Brasil não é para principiantes » (le Brésil n’est pas un pays pour débutants). Bolsonaro va devoir confirmer aux 55% de brésiliens qui ont voté pour lui, que ce choix est à la hauteur des urgences socio-‐économiques et des ambitions géopolitiques.
CADE : Qu’en est-‐il de la nouvelle trajectoire du Brésil sur la scène internationale ?

Christophe Ramon : Il est clair que le Brésil de Bolsonaro semble emprunter une trajectoire radicalement différente de celle qu’a connu le pays depuis le début du XXIème siècle.
Dans les années 1990 sous le mandat du président Fernando Henrique Cardoso, le géant latino-‐américain a initié un mouvement d’ouverture et d’affirmation de sa position sur la scène mondiale. Cette période a aussi apporté une stabilisation économique du pays grâce au Plan Real, donnant au Brésil un équilibre et une attractivité pour les capitaux étrangers. Ces efforts ont été poursuivi avec énergie dans les gouvernements suivants. En effet, c’est avec le très charismatique président Luiz Ignacio Lula Da Silva, que la Politique Extérieure Brésilienne (PEB) atteint son plus haut niveau de développement. Cependant, cette affirmation du Brésil dans le système international, n’a pas trouvé de réelle continuité avec le deuxième gouvernement de Dilma Rousseff, ni celui de Michel Temer.
Depuis l’élection de Bolsonaro, une grande incertitude pèse sur l’avenir de la PEB. Pour Bolsonaro la politique étrangère brésilienne doit être « désintoxiquée » d’une idéologie socialiste néfaste pour le pays. La perception de la place du Brésil dans le monde pour le président se caractérise par la nécessité de s’aligner avec les USA. Ce positionnement, bouleverse l’échiquier géopolitique mondial et dévoile un nouvel axe : Bolsonaro-‐Trump. Une stratégie politique à l’opposé des précédents gouvernements de gauche -‐ à l’exception de celui de Michel Temer -‐ qui œuvraient pour inscrire le Brésil dans un monde multipolaire indépendant de l’influence des Etats-‐Unis. Parmi les faits marquants de son début à la tête du pays, Bolsonaro exprime la volonté de se rapprocher d’Israël et de transférer l’ambassade du Brésil de Tel Aviv à Jérusalem. Les pays arabes ont quant à eux peu apprécié la manœuvre. En novembre 2018 la délégation égyptienne a annulé la visite officielle du ministre des Affaires étrangères du Brésil, Aloysio Nunes. D’importants effets négatifs pourraient se faire ressentir sur les exportations brésiliennes de viande Hallal, un secteur où le Brésil est actuellement leader. Convaincu de l’importance stratégique de son voisin américain, Bolsonaro a ouvert l’accès de la base de lancement de satellites d’Alcantara, de même qu’il a accepté de perdre le statut de pays émergent à l’OMC. Un choix qui conforte la vision libérale du gouvernement brésilien. De son côté, Trump a désigné le Brésil comme allié majeur des Etats-‐Unis hors-‐ OTAN, ce qui renforce la relation Brasilia -‐ Washington et la coopération dans le domaine de la défense.
Dans un autre registre, le Brésil a indiqué qu’il pourrait se retirer de l’Accord de Paris (2015) ainsi que du Pacte mondial sur les migrations, signé en 2018 par Michel Temer. Pour Ernesto Araújo, le ministre des Affaires étrangères, il est urgent de déconstruire le multilatéralisme qui selon lui, répond à une idéologie « marxiste » contraire aux intérêts de l’Occident chrétien. L’opinion du chancelier sur le cas du climat révèle fort bien la position du pouvoir exécutif brésilien. S’exprimant sur son blog, Araújo déclare que le « climatisme – idéologie du changement climatique -‐ n’est qu’une tactique globaliste pour instituer la peur et obtenir plus de pouvoir »¹. L’Accord de Paris est par ailleurs un élément clé dans la poursuite des négociations entre le Mercosud et l’Union européenne. Le président français Emmanuel Macron a annoncé qu’il renoncerait à toute adhésion si le Brésil ne prenait pas ses responsabilités vis-‐à-‐vis de l’environnement ainsi que des normes sanitaires. Sans tirer de conclusions hâtives, on constate que Bolsonaro ne semble pas beaucoup s’intéresser à l’Europe, malgré la présence sur son sol d’un grand nombre d’investisseurs, notamment français.
Du côté des relations sino-‐brésiliennes, tout n’est pas au beau fixe non plus. Alors que les USA et la Chine sont au cœur d’une profonde crise géopolitique, Bolsonaro multiplie les commentaires agressifs en direction de l’Empire du Milieu, dont il se méfie de l’appétit conquérant. Pour autant, la Chine reste à ce jour le premier partenaire commercial du Brésil mais aussi un investisseur important dans les mines, les infrastructures, l’agrobusiness, l’énergie et la banque (55 milliards de dollars entre 2003 et 2018, selon une source brésilienne). Il y a fort à parier que Bolsonaro se montre beaucoup moins conciliant que Lula dans ses relations avec le géant asiatique, dont la pression commerciale avait déclenché une
« reprimarisation » de l’économie brésilienne, affaiblissant l’industrialisation. Face aux besoins de son marché intérieur, la Chine développe des accords de libre-‐échange avec d’autres pays de la région, devenant ainsi le premier concurrent du Brésil en Amérique latine. Autant d’indices, qui laissent à penser que la Chine n’hésitera pas à changer d’allié si le Brésil n’arrive plus à faire face à sa demande.
Dans une ambiance plus régionale mais ô combien urgente, vient la crise du Venezuela. A ce propos Bolsonaro a exprimé son soutien en février dernier à Juan Guaidó, l’opposant de Nicolás Maduro. Par cette déclaration, Bolsonaro affaiblit la médiation de la diplomatie brésilienne qui cherche avant tout à éviter un conflit de type « Guerre froide ». La Chine, la Turquie et surtout la Russie (du côté de Maduro) ne voient pas d’un bon œil le soutien de Guaidó par le Brésil, tandis que Trump menace le Venezuela d’un embargo. En outre, la situation est d’autant plus critique pour le Brésil qui partage une frontière de 2.200 km avec le Venezuela. A ce jour, plus de 100.000 vénézuéliens se sont réfugiés dans l’Etat voisin du Roraima, où la cohabitation est particulièrement difficile avec la population locale.
Devant l’actuelle orientation de la PEB, beaucoup s’inquiètent de ne pas percevoir de ligne stratégique cohérente. Pour autant, il est nécessaire de nuancer ce sombre tableau et de ne pas envisager l’avenir du Brésil par le seul prisme des propos du président. Rappelons que Bolsonaro se revendique comme l’héritier du « pragmatisme responsable » du Général Ernesto Geisel dont la doctrine politique a permis l’émergence d’un grand nombre de secteurs industriels stratégiques brésiliens. C’est le cas de l’industrie d’armement, de l’aéronautique avec Embraer ou encore de l’énergie avec les bio-‐carburants et l’hydroélectricité. De surcroit, parmi les axes de la doctrine de Geisel, figurait la fin de la subordination politique du Brésil envers les USA. Contrairement aux idées reçues, le rôle des militaires dans l’histoire et la construction du Brésil a aussi été un important facteur de développement.
C’est pourquoi, sans occulter les maladresses diplomatiques et l’inexpérience de Bolsonaro en matière de politique étrangère, attendons de voir le bilan de son mandat et laissons aussi une chance à l’influence de l’entourage militaire du président. On peut citer à cet égard, l’ancien général quatre étoiles et actuel vice-‐président, Hamilton Mourão. Face aux excès médiatiques du président, Mourão semble s’être construit un rôle de diplomate en modérant les diatribes de Bolsonaro. L’homme de dialogue travaille sans relâche à l’apaisement des tensions avec la Chine, Israël ou encore le Venezuela.
CADE : Comment s’inscrit le Brésil au sein d’une perspective de développement régional sud-‐américain et quid de la coopération Sud-‐Sud ?

Christophe Ramon : La politique de Bolsonaro semble entrainer le Brésil dans virage à 180 degrés. Tout le processus d’intégration régional sud-‐américain ainsi que la coopération Sud-‐Sud peuvent être amenés à changer en fonction des prochaines actions du Brésil.
Il faut bien prendre conscience que nous sommes face à deux conceptions du monde qui s’opposent. Les gouvernements de Lula et de Dilma Rousseff défendent un Brésil leader et intégré au sein de sa région, en accord avec une rhétorique de solidarité. Cette dernière constitue le fondement moral à partir duquel émerge la dynamique de coopération entre les pays du Sud et l’articulation avec les organisations internationales. Des pratiques dont l’intérêt stratégique a déjà été démontré lors de la présidence du Parti des Travailleurs (PT). Lula a su créer, temporairement du moins, un axe Sud-‐Sud entre l’Amérique latine, le Moyen-‐ Orient et l’Afrique où il a notamment ouvert 19 ambassades. On lui doit le renforcement d’une autonomie régionale avec la CELAC (Communauté d’Etats latino-‐américains et Caraïbes) mais aussi l’UNASUR (Union des nations sud-‐américaines) regroupant le Mercosud et la CAN (Communauté andine). Le bilan de la politique de l’ex président de gauche est aujourd’hui certes discutable, mais il est le seul à avoir porté le Brésil à un tel niveau de rayonnement international et d’intégration régionale. La dextérité de sa diplomatie, a permis au Brésil d’expérimenter un équilibre subtil entre les différentes forces politiques socialistes latino-‐ américaines et les Etats-‐Unis.
Bolsonaro quant à lui, défend une vision tout à fait différente de la situation. Pour lui, le Brésil doit poursuivre une logique ultra-‐libérale, initiée par son prédécesseur, Michel Temer et s’aligner avec les puissances du « Nord » d’où cette volonté de se rapprocher des USA et d’intégrer l’OCDE, dont Trump a promis l’appui. L’actuel président brésilien est tout à fait conscient de l’importance de la dimension régionale mais pas de la même manière que ses prédécesseurs. Sa première visite officielle a d’ailleurs été l’Argentine, pour s’entretenir avec son homologue argentin, Mauricio Macri. Bolsonaro désire redonner au Mercosud son esprit commercial et souhaite dépolitiser cet instrument, qui selon lui a été détourné de sa fonction économique première en se transformant en outil de coopération politique. C’est dans cet élan libéral que Paulo Guedes, ministre de l’Economie, souhaite réformer le Marché commun sud-‐américain. Surnommé le « Chicago boy », en héritage de sa formation néolibérale américaine, Paulo Guedes préfère que le Brésil renforce son rôle d’exportateur de commodities (vers la Chine et les USA, par exemple) plutôt que de produire des biens manufacturés à destination de ses voisins. Son intention est de réduire les coûts et d’assouplir le cadre règlementaire du Mercosud pour permettre plus de négociation d’accords commerciaux. En déstructurant l’organisation du Mercosud, c’est l’ensemble du bloc économique qui risque d’être affaibli. Le Mercosud réalise en décembre 2018, la somme non négligeable de 34 milliards de dollars, juste avec ses quatre partenaires principaux (Brésil, Argentine, Paraguay, Uruguay). Ce montant équivaut à 45% de ce que négocie le Brésil avec les 28 pays européens. L’importance du Mercosud apparaît comme un enjeu économique évident pour le corps diplomatique brésilien, à en juger par les récentes déclarations en faveur de la poursuite de l’intégration régionale. Une inquiétude moins partagée par l’exécutif brésilien, qui semble se focaliser sur sa stratégie globale.
Dans un tel contexte, il est possible d’anticiper un recul du leadership brésilien au sein de la région ainsi qu’un long désert politique pour ce qui est de la coopération Sud-‐Sud. De même qu’il est fort probable de voir émerger dans le continent sud-‐américain, un nouveau rapprochement entre pays conservateurs tels que la Colombie de Iván Duque, le Chili de Sebastián Piñera ou encore le Paraguay de Mario Abdo. Des affinités qui devraient réaffirmer le rôle des pays de l’Alliance Pacifique (Mexique, Colombie, Pérou, Chili), qui -‐ à l’exception du Mexique -‐ ont une proximité idéologique avec les USA. Le vent est donc en train de tourner à droite et de nouvelles lignes de forces vont redessiner le visage de l’Amérique latine en 2019.
Interview réalisée par l’équipe du Centre Algérien de Diplomatie Économique

Douala : l’enfer ou le paradis

2019-08-09T20:40:00.001-05:00

Editos et Chroniques • L'éditoral de Michel Lobé Ewané

Douala : l’enfer ou le paradis

8 août 2019

par Michel LOBE EWANE

Douala, la capitale économique du Cameroun, n’est plus vraiment une métropole d’affaires. La ville pourrait même aujourd’hui être déclassée. Elle ne peut accueillir ni forums, ni conférences, ni congrès internationaux. Elle ne compte aucun hôtel 5 étoiles ni aucune enseigne digne de ce nom qui soit aux normes. Elle n’a pas de palais des congrès, pas de palais des sports, pas de parc d’exposition ou d’esplanade adaptée pour des événements tels que des foires, des symposiums ou des kermesses.

L’aéroport international de Douala est inadapté, vieillot, anarchique et archaïque. Ici, pas de wiﬁ qui vous connecte au monde. La business lounge, ou ce qui en tient lieu, est désaffectée, triste, dépenaillée, et les toilettes de l’aéroport sont d’une propreté douteuse. La piste d’atterrissage présentait encore il y a peu de réels problèmes de viabilité pour la sécurité des avions. Et l’année dernière, les responsables des compagnies aériennes connectant le Cameroun, dans une lettre collective adressée au directeur général de l’établissement, ont protesté contre ces conditions.
Vous quittez l’aéroport pour nous rendre en ville. Si vous avez le malheur d’être arrivé de nuit, vous allez emprunter un bout d’autoroute (on l’appelle ici «axe lourd») plongé dans le noir. C’est que, depuis belle lurette, la Communauté urbaine de Douala a renoncé à assurer l’éclairage urbain. Douala vous accueille ainsi dans l’obscurité, qu’il y ait ou non délestage.
Il n’y a pas meilleur symbole de la dégringolade d’une ville qui fut, il n’y a pas si longtemps, la vitrine du Cameroun. Ce pourrait être la descente aux enfers de Douala. Car difficile de ne pas tomber, ici ou là, sur des tas d’ordures ménagères abandonnées. Comme il est impossible d’éviter les chaussées défoncées qui sont le cauchemar des automobilistes pris en sandwich entre des taxis déglingués et des motos-taxis aussi envahissants que teigneux, déplaisants et agressifs et qui en plus créent des embouteillages interminables tout en polluant l’environnement.
Non décidément, Douala n’est pas une ville business friendly. Et pourtant, on continue d’y faire des affaires. Fautil y voir un rayon de soleil à l’horizon? On annonce des projets ambitieux avec d’importants ﬁnancements. La Banque mondiale va débloquer 130 milliards de francs CFA, précisément pour la construction d’infrastructures routières. Le consortium belgo-turc Iristone-ILCI devrait construire le futur tramway de la ville. Du moins si les bureaucrates de Yaoundé et ceux de la Communauté urbaine de Douala ne réussissent pas, comme souvent, à décourager ces investisseurs par leur appétit sans limites de commissions et rétrocommissions. Et puis, le fonds d’investissement britannique Actis, en partenariat avec la société camerounaise Craft Development, est en train d’édiﬁer le Douala Grand Mall, pour plus de 80 milliards de francs CFA. Ils ont également prévu d’ériger le Douala Business Park.
Quant au milliardaire camerounais Colin Mukete, il se bat comme un lion indomptable pour faire sortir de terre un hôtel Radisson 5 étoiles. Mais il doit batailler pour s’affranchir des mille et un obstacles fonciers et domaniaux qui constituent l’une des mines d’or de la corruption dans cette ville portuaire. Entre-temps, le Krystal Palace construit par un autre milliardaire, Samuel Foyou, qui est en phase de ﬁnition, pourrait ﬁnalement être le premier hôtel 5 étoiles de Douala.
En réalité, cette ville à la population dynamique, industrieuse, affairiste et affairée est jalouse de son indépendance et tient en respect la cité-capitale qu’est Yaoundé. Comme le Cameroun est l’Afrique en miniature, Douala est un concentré du Cameroun et en même temps son poumon. Lorsque la ville s’essouffle, le pouls du pays prend un coup. Si elle reprend son souffle, dans un nouvel élan, Douala va contribuer à faire repartir le Cameroun. Encore faut-il que le cœur du triangle national, Yaoundé, retrouve lui aussi un nouveau souffle, du sang nouveau et une énergie nouvelle.
POUR TOUS COMMENTAIRES ET REMARQUES, MERCI D’ADRESSER UN COURRIEL À MICHEL LOBÉ EWANÉ : MLOBE@FORBESAFRIQUE.COM

700.000 € requis pour construire le 1er Data Analyses Center du Cameroun

2019-07-25T15:44:00.000-05:00

700.000 € requis pour construire le 1er Data Analyses Center du Cameroun

24 juillet 2019

405

Spécialisée dans la collecte, le stockage, l’analyse et le reporting des données, la startup du camerounais Philippe Nkouaya (photo) lance une levée de fonds de 700.000 € soit 460 000 000 XAF et ouvre l’équivalent de 2000 parts de son capital, soit une valeur de 350€ par part au public pour « implémenter le premier Data Analyses Center du Cameroun » nous a rapporté le promoteur hier dans un communiqué.

(CIO Mag) – « Ces fonds permettront la mise en œuvre du projet d’expansion de la Start-up dans la sous-région d’Afrique Centrale », annonce le promoteur. Pour y parvenir, il envisage de « créer plus de 30 emplois directs et 200 indirects sur 3 ans, afin de répondre au besoin de la clientèle ».

Il prévoit également la mise en place d’un centre de formation d’excellence. Lequel s’articulera « principalement sur la formation des utilisateurs d’une entreprise et/ou à des étudiants sur des technologies de Data Management (BI & Big DATA) ».

L’objectif visé est la création « de la valeur compétencielle locale afin de pouvoir la vendre à l’international et aussi de réaliser au minima la formation de 500 personnes chaque année », précise Philippe Nkouaya.

Sa jeune firme se présente comme une entreprise de services numériques et d’ingénierie informatique développant des activités proposant une formule dite à «360°» aux entreprises clientes.

Sa valeur post évaluation est selon des experts financiers estimée à 3,5 millions d’euros soit 2,3 milliards de fcfa. « Une valeur qui d’après eux va connaitre une croissance de X5 à X10 dans les 5 prochaines années », rapporte t-il.

Particularités

L’entrepreneur camerounais est confiant quant à son positionnement sur le marché. Ses atouts, il ne les dissimule pas. Il s’agit, comme il le détaille, du caractère Low cost de son produit, les normes internationales intégrées par son entreprise telles que l’accélération du processus de certification ISO (ou KAIZEN) et la préparation d’une campagne de lancement majeure.

Pour la petite histoire, les racines de cette jeune pousse lancée en 2017 sont parties d ‘un constat. D’après le promoteur, « 80% des entreprises africaines n’ont pas de système d’information décisionnel. C’est un énorme déficit de réactivité, de productivité et d’efficacité dans le développement et la croissance d’une entreprise ».

Aussi a-t-il décidé « d’aller dans le domaine de la Business Intelligence / Big Data pour permettre aux responsables de prendre la bonne décision au bon moment avec la bonne information, car les conséquences et les risques sont devenus de plus en plus importants en fonction de la nature des données » .

Il s’agit d’une problématique qu’il compte résoudre à l’horizon 2029. Sur le long terme, en devenant « le leader de la gestion de données en Afrique en général et au Cameroun en particulier ».

Aurore Bonny, Cameroun

Quand le Big Data aide à mieux comprendre le développement émotionnel des jeunes

2019-07-25T15:42:00.001-05:00

Quand le Big Data aide à mieux comprendre le développement émotionnel des jeunes

Par Raphaëlle de Tappie

Une étude à très large échelle réalisée aux Etats-Unis a permis d'y voir plus clair sur les circuits cérébraux en action lors du développement émotionnel des enfants et adolescents.

NILIMAGE/ISTOCK

Publié 24.07.2019 à 10h30

La perception des émotions est indispensable pour le développement affectif et cognitif et les scientifiques pensent qu’elle implique des circuits cérébraux spécifiques. Toutefois, les mécanismes en marche dans son évolution au cours de l’enfance restent encore flous. D’après une large étude menée par des chercheurs de l’Ecole de médecine de l’Université de Stanford (Etats-Unis), plusieurs circuits cérébraux identifiant les émotions sont solidifiés tôt et incluent diverses régions bien au delà de l’amygdale dont on parle toujours. Les résultats de cette recherche ont été publiés lundi 22 juillet dans le journal JNeurosci.

Des études précédentes sur le développement émotionnel avaient abouti à des résultats contradictoires en raison du faible nombre de participants. Par ailleurs, les chercheurs avaient tendance à ne s’intéresser qu’à l’amygdale, ignorant le potentiel intérêt des autres régions cérébrales.

Pour remédier à cela, Vinod Menon et ses collègues ont analysé les données cérébrales issues de la Cohorte neurodéveloppementale de Philadelphie de 1 445 individus âgés de 8 à 21 ans. Au cours des scanners, les chercheurs avaient montré aux participants des images de visages et leur demandaient de décrire leur émotion. Se sentaient-ils effrayés, en colère, heureux ou neutres en les regardant?

L'avantage des études à grande échelle

Les chercheurs ont alors identifié des zones cérébrales et des circuits impliqués dans l'identification des émotions et ont distingué les aspects des circuits cérébraux liés aux émotions qui ne bougeaient pas quand l’enfant grandissait de ceux qui évoluaient. Ils ont également identifié plusieurs circuits cérébraux selon les catégories d'émotions mais ont remarqué que ces dernières ne changeaient pas avec l’âge.

Ces résultats révèlent l’avantage du Big Data dans l'étude du développement émotionnel, avancent les chercheurs. Cela aide à expliquer les incohérences constatées lors de recherches antérieures sur des petits échantillons de population et souligne en outre la nécessité d'examiner les régions et les circuits du cerveau au-delà de l'amygdale.

Une zone cérébrale fondamentale dans la gestion des émotions

Si de nombreuses études portent sur cette région (nous possédons deux amygdales situées près de l’hippocampe, dans la partie frontale du lobe temporal), c’est parce que l’amygdale est essentielle dans notre capacité à ressentir et percevoir chez les autres certaines émotions. Mais l’amygdale est principalement liée à la peur. Quand vous avez peur et sentez votre coeur palpiter, il est probable que votre amygdale s’active. Par ailleurs, les patients dont l’amygdale a été détruite, lors d’un AVC par exemple, reconnaissent toutes les expressions d’un visage sauf celle de la peur.

Dans le passé, de nombreuses recherches tentant de comprendre le cerveau des meurtriers ont notamment découvert une activité réduite dans plusieurs zones cérébrales de ces derniers. Ces altérations se trouvent surtout au niveau du cortext préfrontal, une zone importante pour, entre autres, modérer un comportement social, et dans l’amygdale, bien sûr.

Newsweek April 2, 2012 BIOLOGIST E.O. WILSON ON WHY HUMANS, LIKE ANTS, NEED A TRIBE BY E. O. WILSON

2019-07-25T15:21:00.000-05:00

Newsweek April 2, 2012
BIOLOGIST E.O. WILSON ON WHY HUMANS, LIKE ANTS, NEED A TRIBE
BY E. O. WILSON
Have you ever wondered why, in the ongoing presidential campaign, we so strongly hear the pipes calling us to arms? Why the religious among us bristle at any challenge to the creation story they believe? Or even why team sports evoke such intense loyalty, joy, and despair?
The answer is that everyone, no exception, must have a tribe, an alliance with which to jockey for power and territory, to demonize the enemy, to organize rallies and raise flags.
And so it has ever been. In ancient history and prehistory, tribes gave visceral comfort and pride from familiar fellowship, and a way to defend the group enthusiastically against rival groups. It gave people a name in addition to their own and social meaning in a chaotic world. It made the environment less disorienting and dangerous. Human nature has not changed. Modern groups are psychologically equivalent to the tribes of ancient history. As such, these groups are directly descended from the bands of primitive humans and prehumans.
The drive to join is deeply ingrained, a result of a complicated evolution that has led our species to a condition that biologists call eusociality. “Eu-,” of course, is a prefix meaning pleasant or good: euphony is something that sounds wonderful; eugenics is the attempt to improve the gene pool. And the eusocial group contains multiple generations whose members perform altruistic acts, sometimes against their own personal interests, to benefit their group. Eusociality is an outgrowth of a new way of understanding evolution, which blends traditionally popular individual selection (based on individuals competing against each other) with group selection (based on competition among groups). Individual selection tends to favor selfish behavior. Group selection favors altruistic behavior and is responsible for the origin of the most advanced level of social behavior, that attained by ants, bees, termites—and humans.
Among eusocial insects, the impulse to support the group at the expense of the individual is largely instinctual. But to play the game the human way required a complicated mix of closely calibrated altruism, cooperation, competition, domination, reciprocity, defection, and deceit. Humans had to feel empathy for others, to measure the emotions of friend and enemy alike, to judge the intentions of all of them, and to plan a strategy for personal social interactions.
As a result, the human brain became simultaneously highly intelligent and intensely social. It had to build mental scenarios of personal relationships rapidly, both short term and long term. Its memories had to travel far into the past to summon old scenarios and far into the future to imagine the consequences of every relationship. Ruling on the alternative plans of action were the amygdala and other emotion-controlling centers of the brain and autonomic nervous system. Thus was born the human condition, selfish at one time, selfless at another, and the two impulses often conflicted.
Today, the social world of each modern human is not a single tribe but rather a system of interlocking tribes, among which it is often difficult to find a single compass. People savor the company of like-minded friends, and they yearn to be in one of the best—a combat Marine regiment, perhaps, an elite college, the executive committee of a company, a religious sect, a fraternity, a garden club—any collectivity that can be compared favorably with other, competing groups of the same category.
Their thirst for group membership and superiority of their group can be satisfied even with symbolic victory by their warriors in clashes on ritualized battlefields: that is, in sports. Like the cheerful and well-dressed citizens of Washington, D.C., who came out to witness the First Battle of Bull Run during the Civil War, they anticipate the experience with relish. The fans are lifted by seeing the uniforms, symbols, and battle gear of the team, the championship cups and banners on display, the dancing seminude maidens appropriately called cheerleaders. When the Boston Celtics defeated the Los Angeles Lakers for the National Basketball Association championship on a June night in 1984, the mantra was “Celts Supreme!” The social psychologist Roger Brown, who witnessed the aftermath, commented, “The fans burst out of the Garden and nearby bars, practically break dancing in the air, stogies lit, arms uplifted, voices screaming. The hood of a car was flattened, about thirty people jubilantly piled aboard, and the driver—a fan—smiled happily ...It did not seem to me that those fans were just sympathizing or empathizing with their team. They personally were flying high. On that night each fan’s self-esteem felt supreme; a social identity did a lot for many personal identities.”
Experiments conducted over many years by social psychologists have revealed how swiftly and decisively people divide into groups and then discriminate in favor of the one to which they belong. Even when the experimenters created the groups arbitrarily, prejudice quickly established itself. Whether groups played for pennies or were divided by their preference for some abstract painter over another, the participants always ranked the out-group below the in-group. They judged their “opponents” to be less likable, less fair, less trustworthy, less competent. The prejudices asserted themselves even when the subjects were told the in-groups and out-groups had been chosen arbitrarily.
The tendency to form groups, and then to favor in-group members, has the earmarks of instinct. That may not be intuitive: some could argue that in-group bias is conditioned, not instinctual, that we affiliate with family members and play with neighboring children because we’re taught to. But the ease with which we fall into those affiliations points to the likelihood that we are already inclined that way—what psychologists call “prepared learning,” the inborn propensity to learn something swiftly and decisively. And indeed, cognitive psychologists have found that newborn infants are most sensitive to the first sounds they hear, to their mother’s face, and to the sounds of their native language. Later they look preferentially at persons who previously spoke their native language within their hearing. Similarly, preschool children tend to select native-language speakers as friends.
The elementary drive to form and take deep pleasure from in-group membership easily translates at a higher level into tribalism. People are prone to ethnocentrism. It is an uncomfortable fact that even when given a guilt-free choice, individuals prefer the company of others of the same race, nation, clan, and religion. They trust them more, relax with them better in business and social events, and prefer them more often than not as marriage partners. They are quicker to anger at evidence that an out-group is behaving unfairly or receiving undeserved rewards. And they grow hostile to any out-group encroaching upon the territory or resources of their in-group.
When in experiments black and white Americans were flashed pictures of the other race, their amygdalas, the brain’s center of fear and anger, were activated so quickly and subtly that the centers of the brain were unaware of the response. The subject, in effect, could not help himself. When, on the other hand, appropriate contexts were added—say, the approaching African-American was a doctor and the white his patient—two other sites of the brain integrated with the higher learning centers, the cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral preferential cortex, lit up, silencing input through the amygdala. Thus different parts of the brain have evolved by group selection to create groupishness, as well as to mediate this hardwired propensity.
When the amygdala rules the action, however, there is little or no guilt in the pleasure experienced from watching violent sporting events and war films in which the story unwinds to a satisfying destruction of the enemy. The horrors make the fascination. War is the strong life; it is life in extremis.
Literature and history are strewn with accounts of what happens at the extreme, as in the following from Judges 12: 5–6 in the Old Testament: the Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’?” If he said “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.
Research has shown that tribal aggressiveness goes well back beyond Neolithic times. And there is a good chance that it could be a much older heritage, dating beyond the split 6 million years ago between the lines leading to modern chimpanzees and to humans, respectively.
The patterns of collective violence in which young chimp males engage are remarkably similar to those of young human males. Aside from constantly vying for status, both for themselves and for their gangs, they tend to avoid open mass confrontations with rival troops, instead relying on surprise attacks. The purpose of raids made by the male gangs on neighboring communities is evidently to kill or drive out its members and acquire new territory. The entirety of such conquest under fully natural conditions has been witnessed by John Mitani and his collaborators in Uganda’s Kibale National Park. The chimp war, conducted over 10 years, was eerily humanlike. Every 10 to 14 days, patrols of up to 20 males penetrated enemy territory, moving quietly in single file, scanning the terrain from ground to the treetops, and halting cautiously at every surrounding noise. If they encountered a force larger than their own, the invaders broke rank and ran back to their own territory. When they encountered a lone male, however, they pummeled and bit him to death. When a female was encountered, they usually let her go. (This latter tolerance was not a display of gallantry. If she carried an infant, they took it from her and killed and ate it.) Finally, after such constant pressure for so long, the invading gangs simply annexed the enemy territory, adding 22 percent to the land owned by their own community.
Our bloody nature, it can now be argued in the context of modern biology, is ingrained because group-versus-group was a principal driving force that made us what we are. In prehistory, group selection lifted the hominids to heights of solidarity, to genius, to enterprise. And to fear. Each tribe knew with justification that if it was not armed and ready, its very existence was imperiled. Throughout history, the
escalation of a large part of technology has had combat as its central purpose. Today, public support is best fired up by appeal to the emotions of deadly combat, over which the amygdala is grandmaster. We find ourselves in the battle to stem an oil spill, the fight to tame inflation, the war against cancer. Wherever there is an enemy, animate or inanimate, there must be a victory.
Any excuse for a real war will do, so long as it is seen as necessary to protect the tribe. The remembrance of past horrors has no effect. It should not be thought that war, often accompanied by genocide, is a cultural artifact of a few societies. Nor has it been an aberration of history, a result of the growing pains of our species’ maturation. Wars and genocide have been universal and eternal, respecting no particular time or culture. Overall, big wars have been replaced around the world by small wars of the kind and magnitude more typical of hunter-gatherer and primitively agricultural societies. Civilized societies have tried to eliminate torture, execution, and the murder of civilians, but those fighting little wars do not comply.
Civilization appears to be the ultimate redeeming product of competition between groups. Because of it, we struggle on behalf of good and against evil, and reward generosity, compassion, and altruism while punishing or downplaying selfishness. But if group conflict created the best in us, it also created the deadliest. As humans, this is our greatest, and worst, genetic inheritance.

LES CHANGEMENTS CLIMATIQUES IMPACTERONT SUR L’AFRIQUE... NOUS DEVONS AGIR RAPIDEMENT

2019-03-23T14:18:00.001-05:00

Par Gervais Wafo Tabopda

La dynamique méridionale de la convergence intertropicale va progressivement déplacer l'itinéraire traditionnel des cyclones tropicaux. Ceci pourraient exposer plusieurs dizaines de millions de personnes sur le Continent Africain.

Il est impératif de mettre en place une Stratégie Durable d'Aménagement du Territoire dans les Métropoles Africaines.
Dans un contexte où l'urbanisation précède toujours l'aménagement, il faudra s'attendre à une exacerbation de la vulnérabilité des habitants des villes côtières.

Le développement urbain devrait par conséquent intégrer de manière systemique, toutes les structures et infrastructures indispensables à l'emergence d'une véritable justice sociale et environnementale en Afrique.

Titre de Loik Kodjay...

Integration of Machine Learning and Deep Learning with GIS – the new paradigm By Aditya Chaturvedi - 09/11/2018

2018-09-11T07:41:00.000-05:00

Machine Learning, Deep Learning and AI are increasingly being used along with GIS for a number of purposes. Integrating Machine Learning algorithms with ArcGIS provides better and more optimum results in less time.

Satellite images are of different resolution and implementing it successfully is not at all easy. Earlier it took months for reaching the final output. But now due to fast-paced innovations, it takes just one day. But for working with these solutions multiple libraries and project platforms are needed and not all of them support Machine Learning and Deep Learning algorithms and applications.

Esri platform allows a solution-centric approach. AI has seen considerable use in Computer vision and Language Processing. Esri cloud also provides the necessary infrastructure for Machine Learning and Deep Learning.

“Other than map data, there is also IoT. There are weather sensors and camera sensors. A lot of these challenges are solved by Machine Leaning. People nowadays are expecting unprecedented precision. All of this is converging towards GeoAI as location component is very smart”, said Abhay Swarup Mittal, CEO, Skymap Global, at Esri UC Delhi 2018.

In GeoAI, data capturing tool is enhanced by building footprint, road detection. Geospatial analysis and processing tools are enhanced by intelligent decision making support in presence of uncertainty and prediction models of sophisticated phenomenon.

“Pattern recognition is important as a lot of success would depend on it. So the focus should be on data recognition and Object Based Image Analysis which is also called Feature Extraction”, added Abhay Swarup Mittal.

Location is at the heart of merging GIS with Machine Learning and AI. The location component is indispensable and apps and services have to be customized factoring in location.

Cherie Muleh, Harris Geopatial, said, “Location expertise in Machine Learning includes visualization, location services, and movement optimization and location intelligence. Location services include geo-fencing and IoT. Movement optimization includes asset tracking, navigation, real-time movements.”

Daily datasets are available from multiple sources.

“Satellite images with deep learning help us in assessing the changes. Now that government of India has relaxed drone regulations, quality of data would improve”, said Cherie Muleh.

Nvidia and many other companies are doing a lot of research on processing of this data. And of course everything has to be processed using deep learning. More analytics on top of dashboards need to be done.

Deep Learning uses spectral data. Deep learning provides accuracy of more than 95%. With vast amounts of data, Deep Learning can search catalogues of data, which then populates GIS. Deep Learning overcomes the shortcoming with spectral data. It can be created using one dataset and applied to other with different spatial and spectral resolution. Spectral tools are usually pixel based while Deep Learning is object based.

Machine Learning and Deep Learning helps in efficient and faster decision making and better quality image extraction. These tools are available in ArcGIS pro and can be integrated smoothly.

Different demographics and require a particular model. There are multiple models that can be used. One size fit all approach definitely doesn’t work. Output that we have got should be properly structured.

Different modalities of data are used for finding more discrete features.

What is Geospatial AI or Geo.AI?

Les 27 Fédérations du Monde

2018-06-23T23:19:00.001-05:00

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Research Communication for GIS, Space Sustainability, and Innovation

UN New World Map: Legal Effect of the Equal Earth Resolution - Edmarverson A. Santos

BLACK SOOT: Why Port Harcourt’s air matters—and what can be done

A city waking up under black dust

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Where is the problem?

Where can the soot come from?

What research tells us

What can soot do to health?

What is known locally?

What this means for citizens

The environment also carries the burden

What government and industry should do

1. Measure and publish

2. Stop pollution at the source

3. Protect health now

4. Make enforcement fair and durable

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Soccer, Nativism, and the Geography of Belonging: How Atlanta complicates the claim that political polarization limits the American game. By Gervais W Tabopda

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