Imagine 350 million people looking at the Spokane River – marveling at the wonder of a beautiful river flowing through a metropolitan area, wondering how such a magnificent resource could be so flawed. Well, it’s possible and the Center for Justice is making it happen – and even those who have seen the Spokane River a hundred times will enjoy this new way of looking at it.
Ron Hall, a former golf course designer and contractor, Google Earth guru and environmental advocate has designed, “a new Google Earth-launched, interactive virtual tour of the river and the sources and forces that affect its aesthetics and ecological health.”
Being interested in Google Earth and understanding the enormous potential to use it as a tool as opposed as a good way to waste an hour was only part of the reason that drew Hall to approach the Center for Justice with the pilot project. The other being a 2004 story he read in The Spokesman-Review about an alarming number of instances of raw sewage overflowing into the river. From that he drew two conclusions as he told the Center for Justice “The first is that the value of the river is, as he puts it, ‘in the river, not on the bank.’ ‘The way I look at it is the actual quality of the water in the river, if that is improved to the point where people could swim in it safely, eat the fish out of it safely, and we could brag about that, that to me would drive property values more than any kind of thing that’s on the bank. The value of the river is in the river, it’s not on the bank.”
On a purely technological level, it’s amazing what Hall’s work is capable of. To be able to tour the Spokane River, and not just via Google Earth imagery but with pop-up educational beta, still photos, videos and geographical information at your fingertips, is an absolute wonder in ingenuity and significance. And on an awareness level, it’s immeasurable how far reaching this eye on the river is and what sort of impact it could have on river consciousness and understanding.
All you need (if you don’t already have it) is to download Google Earth – easily found, how else, but Googling “Google Earth” and then you need to download the Spokane River application, click here. From there, just sit back and enjoy the tour.
The DTE blog is committed to reporting and sharing environmental news and sustainability information from across the Inland Northwest.
Imagine 350 million people looking at the Spokane River – marveling at the wonder of a beautiful river flowing through a metropolitan area, wondering how such a magnificent resource could be so flawed. Well, it’s possible and the Center for Justice is making it happen – and even those who have seen the Spokane River a hundred times will enjoy this new way of looking at it.
Ron Hall, a former golf course designer and contractor, Google Earth guru and environmental advocate has designed, “a new Google Earth-launched, interactive virtual tour of the river and the sources and forces that affect its aesthetics and ecological health.”
Being interested in Google Earth and understanding the enormous potential to use it as a tool as opposed as a good way to waste an hour was only part of the reason that drew Hall to approach the Center for Justice with the pilot project. The other being a 2004 story he read in The Spokesman-Review about an alarming number of instances of raw sewage overflowing into the river. From that he drew two conclusions as he told the Center for Justice “The first is that the value of the river is, as he puts it, ‘in the river, not on the bank.’ ‘The way I look at it is the actual quality of the water in the river, if that is improved to the point where people could swim in it safely, eat the fish out of it safely, and we could brag about that, that to me would drive property values more than any kind of thing that’s on the bank. The value of the river is in the river, it’s not on the bank.”
On a purely technological level, it’s amazing what Hall’s work is capable of. To be able to tour the Spokane River, and not just via Google Earth imagery but with pop-up educational beta, still photos, videos and geographical information at your fingertips, is an absolute wonder in ingenuity and significance. And on an awareness level, it’s immeasurable how far reaching this eye on the river is and what sort of impact it could have on river consciousness and understanding.
All you need (if you don’t already have it) is to download Google Earth – easily found, how else, but Googling “Google Earth” and then you need to download the Spokane River application, click here. From there, just sit back and enjoy the tour.
