Every week here at Geo Week News, we have been highlighting some of our favorite stories from around the internet that cover the geospatial, 3D, and AEC industries. Whether it’s a fascinating case study, insights from an industry thought leader, or deep dives into new tools, there is never any shortage of great writing and storytelling in this industry. So, below you can find links to three stories that we loved this week.
Laser scanning reveals thousands of ancient structures hidden in the Amazon
Staff Writer | GIM International
Airborne lidar has pierced the Amazon rainforest canopy to reveal a previously unknown ancient civilization, now called the Aquiry civilization, that may have built between 24,000 and 30,000 monumental earthworks across what is now Brazil’s Acre state. The discovery, published in Nature, suggests this single region was once more densely populated than it is today, with researchers estimating between 1.25 and 3 million people lived there in the first centuries AD.
5,000 km of coastline assessed for flooding, erosion
jnally | Spatial Source
Engineering firm Hatch has completed a first-of-its-kind digital mapping assessment of 5,000 kilometres of Australian coastline for flooding and erosion risk, using statistical and process-based modelling to give a state government agency a consistent, region-wide picture of hazard exposure. With 1.4 million Australian properties already at risk of flooding and annual event costs approaching $400 million, the work makes the case that site-by-site studies using inconsistent methods are no longer enough, councils need a unified evidence base to make defensible decisions about development, infrastructure, and coastal adaptation.
Digital twins strengthen UK’s PNT resilience
Tracy Cozzens | GPS World
The UK’s UPDATE project, funded through ESA’s NAVISP program, has hit a key milestone in building a national digital twin that models the country’s dependence on positioning, navigation, and timing services, letting government planners stress-test what happens to power grids, financial systems, transportation networks, and defence operations when GPS goes down. The stakes are concrete: a 2023 government report estimated a week-long GNSS outage would cost the UK up to £7.64 billion, making the shift from reactive incident response to proactive resilience planning an urgent national priority.
