Role of Sketching in Map Design Layouts
Hand-drawn sketching plays an important role in the digital arts. The larger a project is, and the more concepts a client will need to see, the more sketching will prove its worth in your design process. Consider using rough sketches for composition or layout options in your next project. Or push yourself to do a handful of thumbnail sketches before firing up your cartography software of choice. Create ten well thought out map design options (not seven to make three look good). Select three and refine each. Select one for final design.
In Role of Sketching in the Design Process, Sean Hodge discusses sketching for rapid concept development in traditional design. This same process should be considered in cartography.
ScapeToad Cartogram Software
ScapeToad is an interesting, free, stand-alone cartogram software for Mac, Windows (and available platform independent). ScapeToad 1.1 is available for download under a GPL license.
Classical thematic mapping displays spatial patterns of theme or series data depicted on familiar reference maps of standard land-area polygons, which are typically distorted only by the selected projection. A cartogram is a map in which some thematic mapping variable – such as travel time or Gross National Product – is substituted for land area. The geometry or space of the map is distorted in order to convey the information of this alternate variable. There are two main types of cartograms: area and distance cartograms. To see examples, WorldMapper.org provides a nice collection of cartograms.
(from the ScapeToad website) “The visualization of social phenomena through classical thematic mapping often leads to unsatisfying representations… Cartograms are a well-known technique used to compensate for this inconvenience by breaking the link between statistical regions and their topographical areas. Consequently, this liberates one visual variable (that of polygon size) for a more relevant use, such as the representation of the relative social importance of these regions (usually measured by the size of their populations), while leaving intact their topological relations.”
The Organic City
The Organic City is an interesting and successful application of community blogging (using WordPress) and flash-based mapping (Worldkit). Created in 2006 by the combined efforts of Seamus Byrne and Sarah Mattern, students in CSU East Bay’s Multimedia Graduate Program.
Organic City is a collaborative digital storyworld centered on the downtown Oakland areas surrounding Lake Merritt. The interactive map is a gateway to location-based stories told by local community members. The map is annotated with storypoints. Roll your mouse over a storypoint to display the title and author of a story. Click on a point to read a story. You can navigate the map using the in (+) and out (-) magnifying glasses and the directional arrows.
Using Storybase Filters
You can also access stories in the storybase by using the filters on this page. You can view stories by genre, title, author, or date. You can also use the search form in the menu bar above to filter the storybase by keywords.
Thematic Mapping Engine
Thematic Mapping Engine (TME) enables you to visualise global statistics on Google Earth. The primary data source is UNdata.
The engine returns a KMZ file that you can open in Google Earth or download to your computer.
UCL’s Map Tube
MapTube Big Mac Index
MapTube is a free resource for viewing, sharing, mixing and mashing maps online. Created by UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, users can select any number of maps to overlay and view.
Flex Projector for Interactive Creation of Map Projections
Flex Projector is an interesting new program for anyone who has ever been interested in map projections. The program provides a great hands-on interface for understanding more about how map projections work as well as to create your very own. Alpha 0.32 was released 1 April 2008 for Linux, Mac and Windows by Bernhard Jenny, Institute of Cartography, ETH Zurich and Tom Patterson, US National Park Service. According to their website (http://www.flexprojector.com) Flex Projector is a freeware, cross-platform application for creating custom world map projections. The intuitive interface allows users to easily modify dozens of popular world map projections—the possibilities range from slight adjustments to making completely new projections. Flex Projector is intended as a tool for practicing mapmakers and students of cartography. It took a couple tries to get the shape files to show up in the map window, but once they did I was off and running. Very ingenious application. I think this will become standard material for every introduction to cartography class out there. Its well worth a look for all professionals.
Scribbles is Simply Elegant
Intuitive and priced right ($19.95), Scribbles is a fun drawing package for the Mac. I am inspired by the simplicity of the design and sophistication of the tools. Don’t expect a full suite of drawing tools with a complicated interface. Scribbles isn’t designed to do it all. In fact, there is quite a lot of though about what not to include. For what it does do, it is a simply elegant and refreshing approach.
Portfolio
Selected Projects
IndianaMap Return on Investment Study
Role: Project conceptualization, funding, research and analysis, presentation development. Click here to download the complete report.
“… Perhaps the best marketing for 1) coordination, 2) public domain information, and 3) GIS/mapping in general I’ve seen anywhere. In no small part because people actually read them.”
Steve Aichele, USGS Geospatial Liaison to Michigan
“It was one of the most interesting and informative final reports I have seen.”
Gita Urban-Mathieux, Federal Geographic Data Committee
National GIS Inventory Tool
The Ramona GIS Inventory is produced by the National States’ Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) as a tool for states and their partners. Its primary purpose is to track the status of GIS in US state and local government to aid the planning and building of Spatial Data Infrastructures. Ramona is designed to work in concert with Geospatial One Stop (www.geodata.gov).
Role: Project conceptualization, needs assessment, technical project management, training, documentation (in cooperation with BurGIS, LLC and Runskip, LLC).
“When emergencies strike, I go to the GIS Inventory first to find other GIS experts in the area of the event. It helps me connect with them to perform my support role for state and local government.”
Christina McCullough, Geospatial Analyst, B.A., Joint Forces Headquarters of Indiana
“This increased the opportunity to have the imagery products be in line with existing county products.”
Chris Kannan, former USGS NSDI Liaison for North Carolina
IndianaMap Statewide Orthophotography Project
In 2005, Indiana completed a first of its kind high-resolution statewide single-season aerial photography project to support Indiana’s most pressing homeland security, economic development, and environmental issues. The public domain imagery is available at www.indianamap.org and on GoogleMaps.
Role: Project coordination, requirements definition, development of funding partners, overall project management (in cooperation with multiple collaborating partners).
Huck Finn Project
Youth groups across Indiana were invited to participate in the Huck Finn Project by producing large outdoor works of art to be captured by the IndianaMap orthophotography. In the process, kids tracked the planes and learned about geography, geospatial technology, scale and resolution, and more. Lesson plans were developed by the Indiana Geographic Educators’ Network, and GPS units were provided to participating youth groups.
Role: Project conceptulization, web site development, content, coordination.
GIS Issue Briefing
A series of subject area issue briefs authored by project steering committee members and other contributors who have been engaged to support the Information for Indiana project work through activities such as conducting case studies and assisting in pilot project initiation and implementation.
Role: Author.
GIS for the Mac – gvSIG
Thanks Marcel St-Germain for turning me on to gvSIG v1.1. This relatively new open-source GIS software was reviewed by Adena Schutzberg All Points Blog on October 1, 2007 (and at its startup in 2005) and provides a quick review on the status of the project and major features. What I missed was the ability to run gvSIG on the Mac OSX operating system (Intel only) as well as Windows. Since I am now a MacBook Pro user (and lovin’ it), I am always on the prowl for good GIS applications that are low cost and robust. I mentioned in my review of My World GIS that most open source GIS for Mac (that are easy enough for me to have installed) are currently heavy on viewing capabilities but low on analysis. I am pleased to see that gvSIG is another GIS platform that runs on the Mac and includes a suite of analysis/geoprocessing capabilities.
Data File Types
This no-cost GIS platform seems well positioned for enterprise implementations due to its impressive ability to use vector (shp, dgn, dxf, dwg, gml, etc.), raster (ecw, mrsid, tiff, img, jpg2000, etc.), and it’s ability to connect with remote services like WMS, WFS, WCS, JDBC (geodatabases), catalogue, and gazetteer services (though maybe with a bit more development; there are some known problems that may merit holding off) . This likely stems from its government sponsorship by the “Conselleria de Infraestructuras y Transporte” (Council of Infrastructure and Transportation) of the “Generalitat Valenciana” (Regional Government of the Comunidad Valenciana in Spain) and its strong orientation to manage geographic information and towards Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI).
Adding Your Own Data
Installation was easy. Even though a standard install file wasn’t available, it was easily created and I was up and running within about 60 seconds.
I’m one of those who dive right into a piece of software and then follow-up with the instructions if I can’t figure it out. While I didn’t find the interface immediately intuitive, MicroImages provides a good quick-start guide (January 2007 on version 1.0.1) that I found quite helpful for adding a WMS. Adding shapefiles and ArcIMS worked in much the same way. The gvSIG website states that most users of ArcView should find the interface intuitive. Unfortunately, its been a while since I’ve been on that platform.
Cartographic Features
Editing the symbology of layers was pretty straight forward. While the symbol sets are limited (small group of points and hatching), there appeared to be an option to add your own point graphics. Standard color ramps (swatches) and RGB menu ware available, as well as transparencies. Cartographic rendering options include display of unique values, intervals, and labeling with a similar interface to ArcGIS.
I probably missed it, but I didn’t see a print menu. Nonetheless, under VIEW>EXPORT users can export the map image to the following formats: JPG, BMP and PNG files.
Analysis
I was able to use the geoprocessing tools, but found them a bit buggy and slightly clunky (for example, I changed the map and measurement units before preforming a buffer operation, but they didn’t seem to stick). The following analysis functions are available, complete with graphic depiction and description (in English) of the function:
Proximity
-Buffer
-Spatial Join
Overlay
-Clip
-Difference
-Intersect
-Union
Computational Geometry
-Convex Hull
Aggregation
-Dissolve
Data Conversion
-Merge
-XY Shift
-Re-project
To support SDIs, future development would definitely benefit from the ability to re-project map data “on the fly.”
Overall I found the system impressive, though there may be a way to go on development and usability. It seems the team is well on its way and has the right support to make this a great open-source option for desktop and enterprise GIS.
Editing
While I haven’t tested it out yet, the system appears to have a full range of vector editing tools. Users can also create new layers. Users have the ability to export layers in shape, Oracle spatial, dxf, postGIS, GML raster and annotation.
Other Stuff
In addition to the MAC platform, at FOSS4G2007 the first migration of the gvSIG product (http://www.gvsig.gva.es) to mobile platforms was presented. This first launch is a brand-new open-source GIS client to be used in PDAs, with a good set of capabilities which fills a gap in the FOSS4G panorama, under a GPL license.
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The third gvSIG Conference will be celebrated the next November 14th, 15th, and 16th in the Valencia Conference Centre. Congrats to the entire gvSIG Team for the contributions they have made thus far. I’m looking forward to following its development.
My World GIS for the Mac
Earlier this summer I made the switch to a MacBook Pro OS-X. While I knew there was a dearth of GIS software for the Mac, I knew all the other reasons for a switch made good sense for me. I continue to use my PC only for GIS needs and every time I use it I hate to boot up the system at all. I have been searching for an easy, inexpensive GIS system to use on my Mac and have been continually disappointed – until now.
First, let me give a quick overview of what I have found… (a more comprehensive review of these systems is on cartographica.com). The tools I’ve downloaded so far are Quantum GIS (QGIS), UDig, SimpleDEMViewer, and OpenOX-Grass. The biggest disappointment is none of the really easy ones have any ANALYSIS capability — I personally don’t think it is a GIS if you can’t analyze the data. Viewing the data is great, but I definitely need more. Also, let me admit I am not sophisticated enough of a Mac user yet to do everything required to run OpenOX-Grass (it requires Apple X11) but I will try to work toward this because it does look very powerful http://openosx.com/grass/grass.html and the price (~$60 US) is right. Also, QGIS with Grass support looks very promising (if I can figure out how to implement it). My conclusion with these existing programs is that those that are easy enough to plug-and-play lack basic analysis capabilities, and those that show promise for being very powerful are limited by not being plug-and-play.
This brings me to a review of My World GIS (v4.1.1) for the Mac (it can also run on a PC). So far I have been pleasantly surprised.
My World GIS
Northwestern University has developed a GIS called My World, which engages ESRI’s MapObjects Java technology. My World is distributed by Pasco Scientific (http://www.pasco.com/myworld/). Built in Java, My World runs on Macintosh OSX and Windows environments. It provides a robust subset of capabilities from a professional GIS environment, including multiple projections, table and map view, hyperlinks, and a common language approach to conducting analyses. It is marketed to educators, but licensing is also available for non-educational use (for research or other non-educational uses) directly from Northwestern University (currently priced at $99 US per single license). There is a fully functional 45-day trial period available.
Data File Types
My World supports the following types of data files and/or folders for reading and writing shape data:
* ESRI Shapefile, Comma-Separated Values, Tab-Separated Values, and GPX Waypoint Files; plus a variety of Grid and Image file types, and WMS data feeds (more info here).
Adding Your Own Data
I did find adding my own shape files a bit confusing at first since My World doesn’t support the shape files in their native projection and requires them to be un-projected. That this wasn’t totally straight-forward was my only real disappointment with My World. But once I got past the hassle involved with importing my own data, I had a lot of fun with this program.
“My World accepts shape data only in Unprojected Latitude and Longitude in Decimal Degrees, and the longitude must be in the range -180 to +180 (rather than 0 to 360).
If your data uses another projection or different units, you can use My World to un-project and convert it to the proper units by selecting Un-Project Shapefile… from the File menu, or by clicking the Import Data From File… button in Construct mode.
My World accepts projected grid and image data, but you must know all the details of the projection used to project that data before you can use it in My World.”
How I added my own shape files… (some data does come pre-packaged)
I had to really experiment with this before being able to import my shape files and have them show correctly on the map. I was successful using the following steps:
1. I copied my existing data into a temporary folder before using the “Un-project” function (and DEFINITELY HAD A BACKUP OF MY ORIGINAL DATA ON AN EXTERNAL DRIVE).
2. I also created a new folder in the Data directory (in the My World application folder) to hold my data after I un-projected it.
3. When I used the “Un-Project” function, I saved the new files into the new directory folder (I got errors every time I just replaced the existing files).
4. I then deleted the temporary folder containing copies of my original data (My World gets confused if it finds 2 datasets with the same name).
5. Under the “Construct” tab, I added my data to the map by simply dragging and dropping the layer from the Library to the Layer list.
6. You can set the map projection later.
Now the fun part – seeing what My World can do.
Note, under the Visualize and Edit tabs, single click a layer to make it active and double click the layer to set parameters or edit.
Cartographic Features
I am pleasantly surprised by the cartographic capabilities of My World. You can outline and fill polygons with any standard or custom RGB value, easy create color ramps, categorize data, create dot density maps, transparencies, etc. If you’re familiar with commercial GIS platforms it should be pretty intuitive (and maybe even easier). There are about 20 shapes for point symbols, all of which you can control the size, color and transparency.
Labels (Annotation)
In My World you don’t label features per se, you create annotations. This wasn’t intuitive and was kind of buried in the documentation (especially since I was expecting labeling to be done in the same place as symbology), but it was really easy to do once I figured it out. Under the Edit tab, you have to click create new layer. One option you will be presented with for the new layer type is “Annotation.” You can then create an annotation layer from an existing layer, select the existing database field for the annotation, choose from a wide array for fonts, colors, sizes, style, alignment etc. While you can’t do a halo, you can do a background block color and make it transparent to help your text stand out. And since it is annotation, you can just select and move your text around to improve placement. Pretty sweet.
Analysis
This is by far my favorite part.
Not only is it robust, but the analysis menu is also super easy to use. Again, if you know GIS and how to do analysis it should be pretty intuitive. Otherwise, there is pretty good documentation available. For example, I was able to very easily “select by spatial relationship” all the building features (first layer) that were within 15 feet of all commercial properties (second layer)(see example). You have the option to save this as a new layer, or make it a selected subset of the existing layer. All the analysis capabilities for selecting by value, by comparing values, by spatial relationship; combining by intersect, union, subtract, and clip; adding fields by math operation, by copying values, reclassifying, computing distances, and selecting members; creating charts of the data, buffering data; dissolving, summarizing statistics, and converting data are all in one place, intuitive and easy to use, and come with a menu complete with graphic depiction of the operation. Wow.
Editing Data
From the edit tab, you can create new layers and/or edit the geometry and data for any of your existing layers, including grids. I easily moved vertices and created new polygons. A note of caution, it seems to automatically save your changes, but there is an undo button or ctrl-Z.
Other Stuff
Overall, the data were pretty zippy to load large files and Web Map Services (WMS). While this wont replace your enterprise GIS, it is a fine system for stand-alone GIS use on your Mac. Besides my own use, my kid’s school only has a Mac computer lab and I now have a good option for getting GIS into their curriculum. I personally am thrilled to have a functional GIS option for my Mac.
My World GIS – I put in the category of “robust low-cost GIS; professionals will be surprised.”
