NACIS 2014

Personality, Aesthetics, and the Human Touch
Martin Elmer, MapHugger.com
Most guidelines on cartographic design emphasize minimalism and objectivity, encouraging a map aesthetic that appears clean, professional-looking, and authoritative. When these design values become over-emphasized, however, we may be left ill-equipped to appreciate (and design) maps with more personable and whimsical sensibilities.

This talk will examine the role of personality and the 'human touch' in cartography. It will discuss perspectives from the fields of identity design and emotional design, investigating how aesthetics and personality may be employed to communicate geographic information in more efficient, ethical, and engaging ways.

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Adapting Theories of Form, Style, and Meaning for Map Design
Ian Muehlenhaus, James Madison University
All visual communication has form. At its most basic, form is the system of relations among the elements of a communication or artistic expression. A communication's form drives its style and potential meaning by limiting and guiding a viewer's perception. Cartographers are aware that maps have form (e.g., map balance, visual hierarchy), but when designing and critiquing maps they often focus on the elements comprising the form (e.g., data richness, GUIs), an individual element's impact on interpretation (e.g., square versus circular symbol), and how objective the map appears (i.e., quantifiable accuracy). Here the author attempts to adapt more theoretical concepts of form - as expressed in literature, film, and graphics research - to map design. It is argued that these concepts may help us better address ongoing questions about map aesthetics, as well as guide narrative, argumentative, and expository map design.

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How Technological Changes Aesthetically Defined Pre-1900s Maps: A Stylistic Look at Woodblock, Copperplate & Lithograph Maps
Vanessa Knoppke-Wetzel, University of Wisconsin Madison
In art, stylistic means of identification that allow for defined and teachable reproduction methods exist for art styles that have occurred throughout history (such as Cubisim, Impressionism, etc). No such specific encompassing stylistic definitions of past  aesthetics in Cartography exist. My MS research hopes to begin a movement to define cartographic styles so that cartographers, whether learning or working, have stylistic references as sources for moments when they wish to reproduce a specific style they have seen. This research stylistically defines woodblock, copperplate, and lithograph print map styles based on the investigation of how  technological changes in production aesthetically affected map prints.

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The Cartographic Logo as a "Gateway Drug" to Illustrator
Kevin McManigal, University of Montana
So, you want to make a living as a cartographer. Do you have a logo? Logos don't matter? Well, I bet that you have hundreds of logos embedded in your head, and I can prove it. What will set you apart from all the other cartophiles out there? Besides, you need to learn Illustrator to be cartographers (we can debate this), and lucky for us, almost all logos are born there. Join me for an interactive presentation and discussion on logos, branding cartographic companies, and the unique Illustrator basics of logo fabrication that set would-be cartographers up for the life-long journey of mapmaking. You are here!

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How the Dutch created The Netherlands: A history lesson in maps
Hans van der Maarel, Red Geographics
Seeing a modern Dutch coastline on a map that's supposed to portray something set in the past is something that annoys me immensely. In this talk I will highlight some of the big, man-made, changes in Dutch geography.

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The Land Patents of Western Maryland: Keys to the Settlement Process
Paul D McDermott, Montgomery College
Phil Mobley, Federal Government (ret.)
Maryland had one of the most complex land settlement patterns of the original colonies. It was unique in that all patents were identified by name. For example, Sarahs Delight. Mapping each individual patent yields a different shape. Some were simple others very complex. By intergrating patent information with a alpha numeric location, one is able to reconstruct and mapsettlement patterns from decade to decade. Another variation is the ability to create line graph showing the settlement land acquisition from 1730-1830. To do all of this 2450 land patents were placed into a large data base consisting of 10,000 entrees.

Master Title Plats in ArcGIS: Mapping Federal Rights, Title and Interest Throughout History
Frank Lahm III, USDI Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office
For more than 229 years, the federal government has been mapping, surveying, disposing and acquiring lands.   Tracing its history back to the original General Land Office in Oregon City, OR, the Land Records Team for the Bureau of Land Management in Oregon State Office is charged with maintaining the Master Title Plat (MTP), Historical Index (HI), and official copies of the original land tenure documents for Oregon and Washington.    These records have found new life in a project converting the MTP to an ArcGIS format.   Along the way, we are tackling the difficult issues of mapping actions that can date back to the time of the Oregon Compromise of 1846. 

This presentation will discuss the development of the land record system and issues dealing with historical map standards using modern technology while improving quality and accuracy.   It will also cover how the team has dealt with mapping historical actions throughout Oregon history.

A New Series of Maps of the Oregon Country
Morgan Hite, Hesperus Arts
In 1846 the United States and Great Britain concluded a treaty to divide the last chunk of North America that was not already owned by a European power or the U.S.A.: the Oregon Country. But what was the Oregon Country? In this talk I'll present a series of nine new maps charting the history of what came to be known as the Oregon Country: how its extent came to be defined, popular conceptions and misconceptions of its boundaries (including the origin of the infamous 54°40' line), and the distribution of fur trade operations there. Designed for students and the general public, the maps begin with the first European exploration in 1792 and end with the settlement of the final border dispute between the US and Britain in 1872. I'll also discuss the techniques whereby these maps were produced using free software (QGIS and Inkscape) and free data.

Five Ways to enhance your Animated, Narrative Map
Richard Treves, Southampton University
With the rise of powerful, free tools such as Google Earth Tour Builder and ESRI Story Maps there is a rising interest in creating animated narrative maps or map tours.  The author has been performing user tests on map tours and has sucessfullly set them as student assignments in a cartography course since 2011.  Based on his experiences this talk will present five best practices for designing effective map tours: effective camera paths between tour locations in terms of speed and route; how to use layers; use of screen and mouse annotations; the importance of an audio narrative and the power of switching between thematic map and reality (photos/streetview).

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Storytelling within a Geographic Context
Jon Bowen, ESRI
David Asbury, ESRI
Over the last year, web-based, map-centric applications focused on expressing geographic narratives and telling a "story" have become ubiquitous. In order to help author these stories and to create well-designed maps, we've built several easy to use templates that offer smart UI/UX elements, beautiful basemaps and intuitive authoring interfaces. These templates allow the writer to combine maps, photos, video and text to create a captivating and fun experience.

We'll talk about our experience developing these applications and describe some of the design decisions we made that enable nascent cartographers to create attractive and engaging maps. Not only will we show you a representative sample of story maps created both by our team and the wider community, we'll show how to make your own, because as cartographer like yourself, who doesn't have a story tell?

Links:

Story Maps homepage »
Our apps fit into three buckets: http://storymaps.arcgis.com/en/app-list/

You can filter the gallery to discover different examples »
Map Tours: 1 ; 2
Map Journals »
Shortlists (1, 2) 
Playlists: 1 ; 2
Swipe »
Spyglass: 1 ; 2 ; 3
Time: 1 ; 2

Create a free, public ArcGIS Online account

Build a Map Journal »
Build a Map Tour »
Build a swipe »
Build a spyglass »

The Cartographic Essay: Introducing students to the practice of mapping through spatial narratives
Robert Gerard Pietrusko, Harvard University
The course "Mapping: Geographic Representation and Speculation," taught at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, introduces the fundamentals of mapping to design students with a specific focus on its communicative role within the design process. Over the duration of a semester, students are asked to produce a "Cartographic Essay", a two-minute, animated film. Each project tells a story that unfolds in time using geo-spatial data and cartographic conventions as its medium. By framing the project as an essay, students treat their work as highly-authored and potentially polemical. This paper explores several pedagogical goals of project: the use of narrative as a form of geo-spatial analysis; understanding the mutual constraints  that data and spatial inquires apply to each other, and the use of time in animation to construct explanations versus merely scaling historical time. Specific examples from the students' work will be used to further elaborate these goals.

Why Are Timelines Maps?
Ren Vasiliev, SUNY College at Geneseo
Timelines, those charts/diagrams/conveyors of historical information, are sometimes called "maps of time." I have always wondered why this is so. Some of them do indeed include the kind of spatial information that maps (the kind that are defined as representations of spatial information) do. Others show historical information, but without obvious spatial coherence. I am interested in parsing the difference between these with the intent of deciding what it is that makes some of these timelines maps and others something else.

Beyond MappingCenter: Learning Mapping and GIS through Problem Solving
Aileen Buckley, Esri
MappingCenter was a web site dedicated to helping people learn how to use ArcGIS for mapping. Learn ArcGIS is a new web site that has an even bigger goal -- teaching people how to solve spatial problems and build geographic knowledge with GIS. Real-world examples are used to illustrate how to make, and more importantly how to use maps, and they demonstrate how GIS is used to conceptualize, organize, analyze, and visualize geographic information. The examples come to life when learners try it themselves in an interactive and engaging social learning environment. With the ArcGIS platform, all the maps, data, and tools are online, so anyone can learn by doing at anytime, anywhere, as long as they have Internet access.  Through interactive story-telling, hands-on applications, and real problem solving, learners build a progressive understanding of the entire GIS platform.

Managing Water Resources with Time Enabled Image Services
Caitlin Scopel, ESRI
Daniel Siegel, ESRI
Climate change is affecting the way we manage our water resources, especially in the western United States, where many states have been suffering from drought. To help policy makers at all levels of government make vital decisions about water resources allocations, we have created analysis-ready image services that show how hydrologic conditions change over time. Precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, and runoff are all necessary pieces of the water budget, and when time-enabled, allow for historical and future views into water resources management. How does drought affect soil moisture over time? How does precipitation affect runoff over time? These are important questions that policy makers will need to answer in order to provide a stable future for the citizens of planet earth.

Spatial-Temporal Displays of Daily Climate Data
Christopher League, Long Island University-Brooklyn
Pat Kennelly, Long Island University-CW Post
Maps of climate change abound, but often display a small amount of data for each discrete location. Other graphs or displays show voluminous climate data for a particular location, but are often not specifically developed for geographic display. We have designed a three-dimensional cartographic display method for daily temperature data at particular locations that drapes a surface over a helix of variable radius. The length of the radius varies with temperature, and each turn of the helix represents one year. Using techniques common to terrain representation, we apply hue and saturation to the surface based on temperature, and value based on relief shading. Multiple helical surfaces can be displayed in one geographic scene, and the viewing direction corresponds with views of the same seasons for all helical displays. We see this method as effective in displaying high-resolution temporal data within a geographic framework.

Change Detection Research for the US Topo
Kristin Fishburn, USGS
Andrew Stauffer, USGS
The National Geospatial Technical Operations Center of the U. S. Geological Survey is currently researching an automated or semi-automated vector change detection process to support streamlined maintenance of data, products, and services in The National Map (TNM) (http://nationalmap.gov/). The use of change detection tools to identify change in five of the eight TNM data themes (Hydrography, Transportation, Boundaries, Structures and Geographic Names) has great potential for streamlining maintenance resource expenditures for the US Topo, the USGS 1:24,000-scale digital topographic map series. This presentation will focus on the US Topo product, providing a general overview of these maps and their production schedule. Our change detection research will be discussed briefly, to include methodological workflows and data storage strategies to help identify database changes. We will conclude by discussing how the results of vector change detection could directly impact US Topo map production and maintenance.

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Modeling and mapping sand dunes encroachment risk using satellite data in the United Arab Emirates
Abdelgadir Abuelgasim, United Arab Emirates University
Naeema Alhosani, United Arab Emirates University
Sand dunes encroachment into urban areas and transportation networks is a frequently occurring phenomenon in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is located in one the world's largest arid region with strong prevalence of sand dunes movement and encroachment into urban areas, particularly in the last few years. The primary purpose of this study is to develop a land surface process model that models the sand dunes movements and further generate an index hazard map of potential encroachment risk areas in the UAE.  For this task we use land cover maps generated from Landsat TM and Landsat OLI data coupled with meteorological information of wind direction, wind speed and precipitation. Using the developed sand dunes movement model a sand dunes encroachment risk map is generated to help decision makers in making informer decision that mitigate the effects of sand dunes encroachments in the UAE.

Examining novice misconceptions of satellite imaging
Raechel Bianchetti, Michigan State University
Remote sensing images are available to the general public through media outlets, navigational tools, and other tools. Novice users are asked to complete increasingly complex tasks with images.  User conceptions have implications for their ability to understand scenes, both in isolation and as base maps. After the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, novices began voicing their opinions regarding the use of satellite imagery in the search. Novices also assisted in the search of wreckage by TomNod, a well-established program for crowd-sourcing image analysis tasks. The conceptions that TomNod users, and novice users in general, have has important implications on their analysis results. To assess current novice understanding of remote sensing two methods were used. First, a survey was conducted of novices concerning their understanding of remote sensing. Second, news site comments, regarding MH370, were also mined.  Here we present results from these sources and framework for a larger study.

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How do 'Six Americas' of Sarasota Students See Sea Level Rise Uncertainty? Preliminary Results from a Survey of Map Users
David Retchless, Penn State University
When mapping highly uncertain hazards such as sea level rise (SLR), cartographers often consider both whether and how to show uncertainty. While several studies have suggested that including uncertainty can improve decision outcomes, few have considered how uncertainty interacts with audience characteristics to affect the decision process. To address this gap, I use surveys of college students to assess how the depiction of uncertainty on an online SLR mapping tool for the Sarasota, Florida area interacts with map users' individual differences to affect their perceptions of the hazard, interaction with the map, and subsequent decision making. Individual differences considered include an audience segmentation analysis performed using the "Global Warming's Six Americas" framework. It is hoped that the preliminary results presented here will help cartographers create hazard maps that are better tailored to their audience, more engaging, and more likely to encourage thoughtful decision making.

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Considering the Map User...
George McCleary, University of Kansas
Though generally unstated, the goal of the cartographer has been maps that are appropriate, comprehensible, and effective. For concept organization, data gathering, development processes and final production, the design perspective employed has been that of the cartographer. For maps developed to support those users needing precise environmental descriptions (e.g., nautical charts), common understanding of the map use task and design is not a problem. Thematic maps, however, present a problem: the map (generally a graphic numerical abstraction) has to be created so that it is understood by users who might not understand the map design used by the cartographer. It took almost a century for cartographers to recognize that some things did not "look right."

The starting point for "user-centered design" appears to lie with psychophysics, a fundamental, versatile, and adaptable concept in experimental psychology, a foundation for understanding the "human information processing system."

Presentation available soon...


Interactive mapping: Moving maps forward for backwards people
Iain Crawford, US Department of State
A challenge facing many cartographers in organizations, private or public, is the structural inertia surrounding "how things are done." The last decade has seen an incredible explosion in both the power and general use of interactive cartographic products. Unfortunately this growth has not always translated into new ways that customers at the top of the chain consume cartographic products - many of these "senior" clients still think of maps as static products designed to be printed out or inserted in a slide deck. This presentation will highlight some of the methods that the State Department Office of the Geographer has implemented to help nudge the technologically adverse into the world of interactivity.

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Before and After - Skytruthing the Impact of Human Activity on the Environment
David Manthos, SkyTruth
SkyTruth brings together people, remote sensing, and big data to promote conservation and to inform decisionmakers about pressing environmental issues. Effectively communicating the impact of extractive industries such as mining, drilling, and logging often requires more than a static look at one place and time, but rather showing change over time. SkyTruth uses satellite and aerial imagery to track the impact of oil and gas drilling across the country, was among the first to report that BP was severely underreporting the size of the Gulf Oil Spill from the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and used Landsat imagery to map the footprint of mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mines in Appalachia since 1976. Learn how SkyTruth is building the skytruthing movement to engage the public with satellite images and temporal data to map environmental issues and illustrate how we are impacting the world around us.

Iron, Steam and Speed: The Coast Survey and the Cartography from the Inland Seaport of Pittsburgh
John Cloud, NOAA Central Library
Some ships of the Coast Survey/NOAA have been custom-built, but most have come from other government agencies.  When the Industrial Revolution first went to sea, in iron ships powered by iron steam engines, they could be built in only a few specialized sites where coal, water, iron and skilled workers converged, which is how Pittsburgh became an important ship-building inland seaport before the Civil War.  A class of Revenue Marine cutters made there later became legendary Coast Survey ships.  The scientific work from the decks of the George Bibb and the Robert Walker was foundational to modern oceanography, and their cartography was critical in the Civil War, even though the Walker was sunk in 1860.  Its cartography continues to the present, as NOAA discovered the ancestral wreck in 2013 using geo-positioned multi-beam sonar. This presentation will return the cartography of the Walker to the city where it was forged.

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Mapping Unconventional Oil and Gas Activity on FrackTracker.org
Matt Kelso, FracTracker Alliance
Samantha Malone, FracTracker Alliance
Unconventional gas and oil (O&G) extraction - often referred to as 'fracking' - has increased significantly in the United States in recent years. The associated environmental and public health concerns have created a desire to track where drilling and its impacts are occurring. Mapping such activity enables citizens to better understand the complex nature of the industry. FracTracker.org is a free system that tracks and visualizes data related to O&G operations via a customized Esri mapping tool. Unconventional O&G activity - such as the location of permits, operators, well sites, violations, where available - has already been mapped by the FracTracker Alliance in over 25 states. This session will highlight the insightful maps, tools, and findings of FracTracker's work. After attending the session, participants will be able to utilize the various features incorporated into FracTracker's maps, such as measuring how close activity is occurring to waterways.

Flashes on the Map: Forgotten or Short-Lived Places
Leo Dillon, US Department of State
It is said that as soon as a map is published, it's obsolete, and certainly change is a constant in the world of cartography.  In the lifetime of some still among us, dozens of republics, enclaves, colonial outposts, puppet states, and dubious islands appearing on reputable maps have come and gone.  Join the presenter as he takes you across the world over more than a century to have a look at these footnotes in the history of cartography.

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A Pocket Anthology of 20th Century Map Poems in the United States
Adele Haft, Hunter College of the City University of New York
This paper offers a selection of notable American map-poems and considers their place in a century unique for the number, range, and quality of such poems. It looks at the "map" poems preceding Elizabeth Bishop's groundbreaking "The Map" (1934), then turns to John Holmes's "Map of My Country" (1943), which argued that a poem maps a person's identity better than its graphic cousins. Other poets found inspiration and an analogue of their experience in a particular map, cartographer, or painter of maps. Since the 1960s, visual poets have shaped poems into maps of American locales, thus complementing more "conventional" uses of maps to trigger poetic memoirs of place. Influenced by Donne and Louise Bogan's "Cartography" (1938), the sexual revolution has popularized the body as map metaphor. And since 1980, map-fixated collections have been on the rise, inspiring this century's poets to consider what maps say about history, culture, ourselves.

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Mapping Narratives: The Spatiotemporal in Digital Literary Cartographies
Leah Thomas
This presentation will provide a working definition of digital literary cartographies and discuss how these cartographies present spatiotemporal elements of literary narratives. I will explore examples of successful projects such as The Grub Street Project and the Early Modern Map of London that map literary narratives and examine what these projects reveal about these narratives. I will highlight my own digital literary cartography using Mary Prince's slave narrative The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, Related by Herself (1831). I define this work also as a literary text because of its use of sensibility popular in contemporaneous novels. Additionally, including this work demonstrates literary and historical intersections. This project will incorporate digital images of contemporaneous maps to contextualize the geographic imagination. Comparing this project to existent digital literary cartographies will illumine the spatiotemporal mapping of literary texts.

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A Pragmatic Approach to Criticism, Critical Theory, and Critique
Mark Denil, US National Ice Center
Critique is a method of disciplined, systematic analysis of a discourse. In its strong manifestations, cartographic critique involves critical examination of both the artifact and its foundational assumptions, and of the interrelationships between the two. At times, it also involves challenges to accounts of legitimacy. Strong critique is not widely practiced in the cartographic community.

This is unfortunate, because critique is a significant tool for evaluation, analysis, planning, design, and problem solving.

The application, however, of faulty theoretic postulates, or of weak critical analysis, usually leads to unsatisfactory results. Utility demands adoption a pragmatic approach to cartographic critique. Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that contends that the value of an analysis is best judged in terms of the practical use of the results.

This talk will elaborate a usable framework for pragmatic cartographic critique, and to show the value of adopting it.

Spatio-Temporal Data Visualization with Interactive Maps in Visual Analytics Applications
Alice Rühl, Penn State University
Scott Pezanowski, Penn State University
Frank Hardisty, Penn State University
The increasing importance of Visual Analytics, particularly in response to the advent of 'big data', calls for greater attention to maps in analytic tools and applications. While maps provide a familiar, understandable interface to underlying data, not enough has been done in the field of Visual Analytics to advance the design and usage of maps.

This study explores the development of map components within multi-view applications using multivariate and zoom-level dependent representations of news event data. Integrated in the system with a timeline, a word cloud and other view components, we consider the traditional 'rules' of cartography as well as aspects of human-computer interaction and interactive design research. This allows users to efficiently explore complex spatio-temporal data. Our approach was validated by re-developing the mapping component inside STempo, a project developed at the GeoVISTA Center, Pennsylvania State University.

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Mapping the Intersection between Social Media and Open Spaces
Alan McConchie, Stamen Design
Earlier this year, Stamen launched parks.stamen.com, a project that collects geotagged social media content within parks and other open spaces in California. We harvest data from four major social media services (Twitter, Foursquare, Flickr, and Instagram), each of which provides a unique view into the different facets of each park, and the diverse communities who enjoy these parks.

We also found that each social network service's public API imposes different constraints on our queries, producing their own intricate geographic patterns. Thus, the quirks of how each API was written results in distinct geometries in digital space that mirror the park users' human geographies in embodied physical space.

In this presentation I will describe the algorithms we use to collect the social media data, and show the cartographic techniques we have been experimenting with to show how parks are used by the public, and how they are represented digitally.

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SPoTvis: A Geovisual Analytics Tool for Discovering Multi-Scale Spatial Patterns in Tweets Surrounding the 2013 US Government Shutdown
Jonathan Nelson, Penn State University
Sterling Quinn, Penn State University
Brian Swedberg, Penn State University
Wanghuan Chu, Penn State University
Maggie Houchen, Penn State University
Todd Bodnar, Penn State University
Alan M. MacEachren, Penn State University
In October 2013, the US Congressional debate over allocation of funds to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly known as the ACA or 'Obamacare') culminated in a 16-day government shutdown. Meanwhile the online health insurance marketplace related to the ACA was making a public debut hampered by performance and functionality problems. Messages on Twitter during this time period included sharply divided opinions about these events, with many people angry about the shutdown and others supporting the delay of the ACA implementation. We introduce SPoTvis, a web-based geovisual analytics tool for exploring Twitter messages (or 'tweets') collected about the shutdown. Using an interactive map connected to a term polarity plot, users can compare the dominant subthemes of tweets in any two states or congressional districts. Demographic attributes and political information on the display, coupled with functionality to show (dis)similar features, enrich users' understandings of the units being compared.

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VisMatch: A Web Tool for Selecting Effective Space-Time Visualization Techniques - Tool Design and User Study Results
Joanna Merson, Arizona State University
Successful visualizations can reveal patterns and relationships that would be concealed in traditional maps. However, researchers often choose a visualization technique just because they are familiar with it, regardless of what other visualization techniques might better communicate their data. A researcher that decides search out the best technique from the vast body of visualization literature will be faced with the slow and difficult task of wading through the nuances of very specific implementations. Therefore, I have developed VisMatch, a streamlined, web-based tool designed to help researchers choose which visualization techniques are best suited to the spatial-temporal data they want to communicate. In this presentation, I will present 1) the design behind the tool, which suggests optimal visualization techniques by considering data composition and audience needs; and 2) the results from a user-survey evaluating researcher interaction with VisMatch.

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Mapping the Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route
Casey Greene, Adventure Cycling
The Idaho Hot Springs Mountain Bike Route is Adventure Cycling Association's newest bicycle touring route, and it's first which includes optional technical singeltrack sections. The route guides riders over and through the breathtaking landscape of central Idaho. From blue ribbon trout streams to sub-alpine terrain and cozy mountain towns, riders pass through some of the most spectacular country the West has to offer, with the opportunity to indulge in over 50 hot springs. Join Casey Greene - the designer, researcher, and cartographer of this route - as he talks about the many challenges faced with the 700+ miles of routing, and about the subtle, but innovative, design features that the final maps present.

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Mapping and Analysis using GTFS Data
Daniel McGlone, Azavea
General Transit Feed Specification, or GTFS, is a standard format for public transportation schedules and associated geographic information. It allows transportation agencies to publish their data and developers to to write applications that consume their data in an interoperable way. On a recent project for the Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation, Azavea was tasked with modeling level of service for the state's park system. Azavea converted the public transit agency's GTFS data into a shapefile while preserving the travel time estimation of each route. This presentation will provide an overview of and best practices for working with GTFS data. In addition; the workflow, techniques and drawbacks of the conversion process Azavea used will be discussed. Finally, a new tool to incorporate GTFS data into ArcGIS network analysis will be introduced.

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Untangling Pittsburgh (by Deconstructing the Road Map)
Robert Firth, Informing Design
Twenty-five years ago, Pittsburgh finished a new highway into the City, completing a pentagon of expressways around its Downtown.  Chaos ensued.  Even nuclear engineers at Westinghouse were getting lost along eight lane highways.  How was this possible?

Pittsburgh is notoriously complicated.  Ramps connect in one direction but not in the other, or take you right to go left.  Bridges cross a river and then do not let you off on the other side.  Local streets often don't go where they look like they are heading. 

Treating this complexity like a geometry puzzle, it turns out that it is possible to remap the roadway network as “untangled”, while keeping true to geography without distortion or loss of detail (except for the usual scale-dependent generalizing).  The network is broken down into layers consisting of “atoms” of simple travel patterns, which when superimposed result in a seamless “natural-looking” road map, except it’s one that can make a place as tough as Pittsburgh comprehensible. 

Drawing on print, web and app projects, this talk will demonstrate what such untangling visualizations can do for driving, walking, biking and bus-transit maps.  (Free Pittsburgh maps will be distributed.)

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Rethinking the Urban Bike Map
Nate Wessel, University of Cincinnati
Michael Widener, University of Cincinnati
'Bike maps', commonly produced by city departments of transportation to promote bicycling, tend to speak as though to an audience which engages only in casual recreational riding. In cities which don't have extensive segregated bicycle infrastructure, these maps have relied primarily on the subjective identification of 'bike routes' or 'good' vs. 'bad' streets for bicycling. Such maps are inappropriate for the diverse audience they're typically aimed at. More objective information must be mapped before subjective route-maps can be helpful for specified types of cyclists. Cincinnati is taken as a case study and a largely objective bike map is developed for a broad range of actual and potential bicyclists in it's hilly, urban area with little specialized bicycle infrastructure.

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Updating the Rogue River Float Guide: Standards, Processes and Products
Paul Fyfield, USDI Bureau of Land Management
Mattye Walsworth, USDI Bureau of Land Management Oregon State Office
Jim Rounds, USDI Bureau of Land Management Oregon State Office
Flowing 215 miles from its headwaters near Crater Lake to the Pacific Ocean, the Rogue River in southwestern Oregon was one of the original eight rivers included in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. Extremely popular for its challenging whitewater rapids, the Rogue is used by up to 120 rafters and kayakers each day during the peak summer season.

The Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service are in the process of updating their 2004 float guide aimed towards these recreational users. This presentation will discuss approaches to mapping standards and processes being taken to improve the quality and usability of this guide, as well as alternative, digital products designed for use on mobile devices.  The goal is to provide map products that accommodate the needs and enhance the experience of those floating the Rogue River.

Disconnected Cities: Mapping Personal Mobilities
Nicholas Perdue, University of Oregon
Amy Lobben, University of Oregon
Increasingly, people rely on mobile navigation applications to aid in pedestrian movement through urban spaces. These application return a suggested route calculated with a combination of distance and network based metrics, assuming a singular mobility of the user. This assumption, however, is problematic when the user is a person with physical or perceptual disabilities. We argue the intimate interactions between the body, social structures, and material spaces produce individualized and uneven mobilites within an urban transportation network. This work aims to characterize the various interactions of health condition and environmental features that facilitate and hinder mobility for people with disabilities and develop a mobile application to identify optimal routes through urban environments. The project integrates survey data on demographic variables, personal health conditions, and perceptions of environmental features with municipal geospatial data to create a personalized mobile navigation application to assist in safe and efficient movement of people with disabilities.

Challenges in Representing Spatio-Temporal Wildlife Migration Data
Lauren Tierney, InfoGraphics Lab, Department of Geography, University of Oregon
James E. Meacham, InfoGraphics Lab, Department of Geography, University of Oregon
Alethea Y. Steingisser, InfoGraphics Lab, Department of Geography, University of Oregon
Emily L. Nyholm, InfoGraphics Lab, Department of Geography, University of Oregon
New GPS-collar technology is providing wildlife ecologists the opportunity to collect an immense amount of location and time-stamped data, giving new insight into animal migration and ecology that was not possible before. Mapping and visualizing the wildlife migration data in meaningful ways poses many design challenges. This presentation focuses on the temporal data and cartographic design challenges encountered in the creation of thematic maps and data graphics for the in-production Atlas of Wildlife Migration: Wyoming's Ungulates, as well as associated scientific and conservation reports. The recent discovery of the longest land mammal migration in the lower 48 states, the 150-mile "Red Desert to Hoback" mule deer seasonal migration, will be featured in this presentation.

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Applied GIS Global Earth to the Prayer Circles and Prayer Direction Circles
Ahmad Massasati, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
Virtual digital globe of Earth with its internet applications has proven to be an effective tool of geographic education. With GIS, displaying ideas and information on the globe rather than on a flat surface is becoming more feasible. 

Finding the direction to Makah is essential for Muslim around the world to perform the daily five time prayer.  The challenge to solve such a problem is a classical example of map projection on flat surface where distortion may give the wrong impression on directions. The prayer direction circles/prayer circles (PDC/PC) research did show the correct directions on projected flat surface. Still some map users doubt the results.

This paper assumes that displaying the PDC/PC on a virtual globe should eliminate any confusion on the direction to Makah.

The Zaira problem: mapping past events on an island of California
Jeff Howarth, Middlebury College
Calvino suggested that a city consists "of relationships between the measurements of its space and the events of its past." Lying off the coast of Southern California, Santa Cruz Island contains far fewer of these relationships than a city, which makes the island a useful laboratory to experiment with methods to map these kinds of relationships and how they change over time. In this talk, I present some preliminary efforts to map recurring events to the spaces on the island that were adapted to support them in the past. I also discuss attempts to reveal changes in these adapted spaces over time. I suggest that the concept of a "plan" provides a helpful frame for mapping relationships between events and space, and contrast this with approaches that map discrete events of the past.

1 Minute to 100,000 Years: Mapping The Out of Eden Walk Project
Jeff Blossom, Center for Geographic Analysis, Harvard University
The Out of Eden Walk Project involves writer Paul Salopek walking from Africa to Tierra Del Fuego, South America, following the  path of human migration, and writing stories along the way.  Assisting this project in the form of map production is Jeff Blossom of the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University.  Creating compelling visualizations for temporal scales that span a one minute walk along a street to the 60,000 year long journey of human migration to an international online audience is the cartographic challenge of this project.  Map design considerations, cartographic techniques used, successes, and lessons learned from the first year of this seven year project will be presented.

The Chesapeake Bay - Time is of the Essence
John Wolf, USGS
The Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is a unique regional partnership that leads and directs Chesapeake Bay restoration and protection.  Time plays an important and multifaceted role in many of the Chesapeake Bay initiatives.  The ability to communicate phenomena that vary over many different geographies and time steps (daily to seasonal to annual to decadal and more) is key to educating both technical and non-technical audiences.  Fortunately, as one of the most studied ecosystems in the world, the Chesapeake has a wealth of environmental and socioeconomic data from which to work.  

To support a new Chesapeake Watershed Agreement we have been developing a variety of time-enabled story maps to help communicate change in ecological and socioeconomic factors.  This presentation will highlight a few of those time-based communication products focusing on both technical and non-technical concepts, including cooperative geovisualization projects with both Stamen and ESRI.

The Zeon Files Mapped: Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign
Eric Theise
What did Eddie's Inferno Cocktail Lounge, Doc Fuller the Loan Man, the Roadrunner Coffee Shop, Bowlette, Steak in the Rough, Thelma Lu's Candy Shoppe, and too many Route 66 drive in theaters to list have in common? Fanciful roadside signs designed and installed by Electrical Products of New Mexico, a.k.a. Zeon Signs, of Albuquerque.

Through a series of fortuitous near-disasters, close to 2,000 of Zeon's job envelopes from the 1950s & 60s--often containing stunning working drawings for their designs--recently transferred into the holdings of the Center for Southwest Research at the University of New Mexico. This talk will discuss an ongoing project to map these signs in space and time; on paper, for an upcoming book by architect/planner/urban designer Mark C. Childs and sculptor/social practitioner Ellen Babcock, and online, for a CSWR finding guide having sandboxed crowdsourced elements.

Curating the terrain
Travis White, University of Kansas
Aaron Taveras, University of Kansas
The authors have been invited to develop an exhibit on cartographic terrain representation for the University of Kansas Art & Design Gallery in the fall of 2014. Our goals for this exhibit are twofold: first, we wish to engage our audience in the processes used to transform "real" physical environments into cartographic depictions of those environments; second, we wish to challenge conventional notions about how the physical environment "should" appear on maps by comparing a variety of quantitative and artistic techniques for displaying topographic features. This talk follows the development of this exhibit from conception to actualization, drawing upon our own work and our key inspirations.

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Small Scale Historical Landscape Reconstruction Using Vue
Erik Steiner, Stanford University
Before Hetch Hetchy Dam, there was Searsville Reservoir. Built in 1892 to supply the burgeoning city of San Francisco, the lake was never used as a water supply. Instead, the lake became recreation destination and eventually a part of a biological preserve where it sits today as a controversial source of habitat for dozens of species of bats and birds, but is 90% filled with sediment and blocks spawning opportunities for local salmonids.

This presentation reports on the cartographic effort (using Vue) to develop a small scale historical ecology (vegetation reconstruction) of the area around Searsville Reservoir as it existed before it was settled by Europeans and before the construction of the dam. Reminiscent of the Manahatta Project (on a much smaller scale), our goal is to help visually untangle the delicate restoration decisions that will determine the long term future of this watershed.



The Technology Evolution of Raised-Relief Maps
Michael Higgins, Summit Terragraphics Inc.
This paper traces the evolution of the raised-relief maps and terrain physical modeling from its earliest forms to today’s use of modern technology, including CNC routing and 3D printing. The first half of the paper reviews the beginning of 3D maps using primitive materials and then progresses through more elaborate and durable materials and forms such as hand painted and sculpted clay models. The newest production forms are then also reviewed – CNC milling/routing with digital printed surfaces, 3D color printing, and precision thermoform molding of plastic sheets.



Visual illusions in Cartography
Arzu Çöltekin, University of Zürich
Some visual illusions are exteremely important for the legibility and interpretation of cartographic products; such as the terrain reversal effect in shaded relief maps (in which we perceive convex shapes as concave and vica versa), or change blindness (in which we can't detect the change from one scene to another). Some others, such as Müller-Lyer illusion or Ebbinghaus illusion may also be relevant in estimating distances and areas. This talk provides a brief overview of illusions in Cartography and presents results from an empirical study on terrain reversal effect.

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Digital to Analog: Explorations in non-traditional media
Matt Dooley, University of Wisconsin-River Falls
Using non-traditional media in cartography provides exciting possibilities for engaging map readers. In this presentation, I explore the use of alternative media, namely clay and gun powder, to portray river systems in parts of the Great Plains and Upper Midwest. While not a replacement for standard cartography, I argue that the physicality of tangible media offers unique possibilities that cannot be achieved in the digital realm. These techniques might also provide new opportunities to engage a different kind of map reader, and perhaps, challenge them to see the world differently.

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Past Practices, Contemporary Applications
Jake Coolidge, Jake Coolidge Cartography
This talk will reflect upon recent experiences drawing large, geographically complex regions by hand, a practice that brings into sharp relief the many decisions at the core of the cartographer's craft--generalization and abstraction, label placement, the symbolization of features, among others--in an era where geographic information systems can automate many of these tasks and obscure the process from the map designer. I use hand-drawn map-making to reconnect with these processes in a tangible way, while invoking pre-digital maps made in the mid-20th century. I argue that reclaiming these practices in a contemporary context allows us to augment how we imagine places and to rediscover a broader set of tools for graphically expressing geographic phenomena.

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A (heartbreaking/heartwarming) story of our overwhelming (success/failure) using Kickstarter to fund a cartographic project
Nicholas Martinelli, Upper Left Maps
What happens when a cartographer, a screen printer, and a typographer walk into a Kickstarter campaign to produce an art print and production map? I wasn't sure either, until we tried it. Our presentation will either be about success and encouraging or  it will be a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of crowd funding.

Our campaign is offering production offset print maps at basic reward levels, and limited run screen and letterpress printed maps at the higher reward levels.

We will share the process we went through with Kickstarter including calculating a funding target, designing 'rewards', and getting the word out, and hopefully fulfillment.

We will also present the process of designing and producing the cartographic art prints printed on a 1908 letterpress machine.

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Auditory Symbology for a GIS
Megen Brittell, University of Oregon
Amy Lobben, University of Oregon
Michal Young, University of Oregon -- yes, the hands do appear!
Working toward a GIS that is accessible to people who are blind, we have designed and implemented a minimal geographic information system (mGIS) that presents classed thematic data through an auditory display. The mGIS dynamically generates non-speech audio to represent the map data based on the location of a cursor. Two substantial challenges in the design are the mismatch of the dimensionality of the geospatial data compared to that of the auditory display, and the suitability of the symbology for the specific tasks under consideration (e.g., locating and selecting a border of an enumeration unit). To address these challenges, we leveraged proprioceptive feedback and modified symbol design based on user feedback. The presentation will narrate the evolution of our auditory symbology using the mGIS as a case study, and discuss our experience developing an auditory display that is independent of any visual feedback.

A Manual Approach to Cartogram Construction using Triangular Lattice Transformation
Barry Kronenfeld, Eastern Illinois University
Automated algorithms are limited in their ability to produce aesthetically pleasing cartograms, while currently available methods for manual cartogram construction (i.e. block cartograms) do not define a continuous spatial transformation. I propose an alternative framework for cartogram construction using triangular lattice transformation. In the proposed framework, a regular lattice is transformed by repositioning vertices until vertex density approximates population density, forming a dot-density map. The original and transformed lattices define a continuous transformation from geographic space to cartogram space. The transformation is reusable and can be applied to any geographic dataset, acting as a type of map projection. Sample tools for constructing and applying cartograms are demonstrated, and the approach is illustrated with a population cartogram of Illinois, USA. By separating the task of defining a cartogram from the map design process, the proposed framework aims to facilitate more widespread application of cartograms to the analysis of population-dependent variables.

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Exploring interoperability: Using Python to Reverse Engineer Exported Graphics
Mike Foster, MIT
Cartographers, Designers, and Planners spend countless hours in graphic design software illustrating maps, charts, and graphics to create rich stories. The software, including Adobe Ilustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Inkscape, and GIMP, allows for rich illustration and complex graphic work that are beyond the scope and goal of traditional analytical GIS, but design tasks often require access to the same datasets. Most GIS support exporting of features to graphics format, but without the help of expensive licenses or tedious referencing, the process can be decidely one directional and there is no direct route to bring the datasets back into GIS. This session details the coding and creation of a Python-based tool that reverse engineers the export process, establishing a workflow that serves to read an Adobe Illustrator file, extract geographic features, and create referenced shapefiles that can be propagated forward in GIS.

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Dimensions of Uncertainty Visualization Research
Jennifer Mason, Penn State University
David Retchless, Penn State University
Alexander Klippel, Penn State University
In recent years, uncertainty visualization techniques have taken a larger role in research as users have begun to adopt geospatial uncertainty visualization as an efficient mode of communication. This research surveys the literature on geospatial uncertainty visualization and classifies research in this subfield into different dimensions. These dimensions were borne through a systematic review of uncertainty visualization literature, iteratively identifying major topics and grouping them into similar categories, resulting in a classification of the field. Finally, a graphic was designed reflecting this classification to both organize and conceptualize the entire research field in a new way and to efficiently assist readers in quickly grasping the topics within an uncertainty visualization research paper at a glance. This research will help people develop a more thorough understanding of uncertainty visualization research while finding gaps that researchers should attend to in the future.

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Thematic mapping with free software PhilCarto
Kazimierz Zaniewski, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
In addition to ArcGIS and other major mapping software packages, there are several less known but fairly powerful programs designed for generating high quality thematic maps. One of them is PhilCarto, a free software developed and maintained by a French geographer at the University of Bordeaux. This mapping software is capable of producing all major types of thematic maps, including choropleth, proportional symbol, bar graph, pie chart, dot density, flow, 3-D surface, and gravity maps. It also has a set of statistical tools for mapping the results of exploratory data analysis, including ternary diagrams and regression, factor, and cluster analyses. The PhilCarto cartographic output is of very high quality and can be exported to illustration software for final touches. A companion to PhilCarto is PhilDigit, a boundary creation (digitization) and manipulation software. It can import and export ArcGIS (shapefiles) and MapInfo (mif/mid) boundary files.

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Space and time with cubes and coxcombs
Kenneth Field, ESRI
Mapping multivariate data over time is a challenge for cartography. In this presentation I review two techniques that perhaps haven't seen as much love as they deserve and show how we might dust them off for a new generation of map-makers.

Florence Nightingale worked to improve sanitary conditions in military hospitals. Her reports included rose diagrams (colloquially referred to as a coxcomb). Here, we explore the structure of the coxcomb and introduce a tool to create data-driven, spatially located coxcombs using ArcGIS. Swedish geographer Torsten Hägerstrand proposed the space-time cube (STC) as a framework for studying interaction and movement of individuals in space and time in 1970. Here, we show how to construct a STC in ArcGIS and publish directly to a 3D interactive web scene in a way that overcomes many of the difficulties..

Now that technology is catching up with these techniques it's time that we, as cartographers, put them to work.

Live presentation only...

Times Change: Out of the classroom, into the MOOC
Trudy Suchan, US Census Bureau
Jennifer Hamelman Milyko, Adventure Cycling Association
Jenny Marie Johnson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
As happens with career advancement, we have become consumers rather than users of latest geospatial technologies. Still, as seasoned cartographers, it is assumed we know and are solid on some topics that we are not. We resolved to refresh our GIS skills and enrolled in Maps and the Geospatial Revolution, Penn State's MOOC (massive open online course) in April-June 2014. We report together on our experience using ArcGIS Online and on our interactions through discussion forums with the thousands of other participants, many engaging with cartography and geography for the first time. The class ends with a map design project and critique in the form of peer assessment. How will we be critiqued? How might our critiques make a difference to others?

Adaptive Cartography for Situated Learning
Chelsea Nestel, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Carl Sack, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Adaptive Cartography is the process of designing digital maps that change to fit the use context, including the user's location, profile, activity, available information, and digital device. As part of a graduate seminar, we designed and built a map-based situated learning module using the principles of adaptive cartography. The module is designed to situate students' understanding of economic globalization in the "real world" through a device-guided tour of historic sites in Madison. The module is responsive across device sizes, allowing the tour to take place virtually through a desktop computer or in person using a mobile device. Trials were conducted of both the situated experience using Apple iPad tablets and the virtual tour using desktop computers to determine the overall usability of each version and which version resulted in better learning outcomes. Based on the results, we hope to demonstrate useful principles for adaptive map design in educational settings.

DesignLab: A New Way to Teach and Learn Design
Sarah Bennett, University of Wisconsin, Madison
DesignLab is like a writing center for design at UW-Madison.  We're the first of our kind.  We consult on posters, presentations, infographics, video, websites, and yes, you guessed it, maps!  DesignLab's mission is to democratize the ability to make digital media in a college setting.  I've worked with dozens of students in the past year, helping them brainstorm and picture how they'll respond to cutting edge assignments that ask them to make their point in comic form, or create a mash-up autobiography in Google Earth.  I also provide coaching and feedback in the basic tenants of good design and argumentation.  In this talk, I'll discuss our approach, the lessons we've learned, and the potential of the DesignLab model to teach good design.

Help and Learning Materials for Online Mapping: Understanding their Place
Rashauna Mead, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The general public, now more than ever, has the ability to produce and share their own maps.  Due to the complex nature of online mapping, these interfaces often provide help tools and learning materials to aid users as they navigate the process of creating their own maps. This presentation will discuss the breadth of learning materials and help tools currently being leveraged in the field, and will examine the relative advantages and drawbacks of each of these tools.

Using Interactive Maps in Teaching Geography in the UAE
Naaema Alhosani, United Arab Emirates University
Students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) schools are facing many difficulties with geographic skills. Skills such as geographic resource interpretation,  geographic resource construction, communication, social and fieldwork skills are seriously lacking due to the nature of the geography discipline that requires creative and critical thinking. Nowadays, with the information technology revolution, internet and the information boom that has been created, it is essential to use internet based tools for enhancing the teaching and learning process in the classroom and attract students to the geography discipline. The aim of this study is to investigate the geographic skills of students learning with interactive maps via the web versus students using printed static maps. Results indicated that students using interactive maps have better performance than students using printed maps. It is concluded that using internet based technologies in geographic education improves the wide understandings of geographical concepts and improves students' geographic skill.

Rethinking and researching scale for mobile device maps
Craig Dalton, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Scale, a core concept in cartography, is changing in both theory and practice. Mobile device map applications, such as Google Maps, can shift scale and emphasize a local focus for users located in the field. Moreover, scale is described as a "zoom level" rather than a representative fraction. Recent theorizations of scale as socially constructed in human geography are useful to understanding these changes. This paper proposes using focus groups to better understand how map users both conceptualize and practice scale using mobile device mapping applications. I hypothesize that a particular kind of scale is constructed through design of mobile web maps, the service's underlying purpose for parent companies such as Google, and the interaction of users. Through this construction, the concept of scale on maps on mobile devices is simple, fast, and hyperlocal, but not wholly effective for users trying to understand a place.


High quality custom interior cartography for mobile
Ken Kato, University of Oregon InfoGraphics Lab
Jacob Bartruff, University of Oregon InfoGraphics Lab
Brook Eastman, University of Oregon InfoGraphics Lab
Mapping indoor spaces isn't new but serving high quality, location-aware, interior maps to smartphones is an exciting new problem space. We're seeing a huge push from industry giants (Google, Apple, etc) to pursue indoor location services. The quality of the map beneath the blue dot will be as important for the user experience as it is for outdoor maps. The InfoGraphics Lab has developed several mobile and web applications that serve up current, accurate, user-friendly interior maps - pulling from a 26,000 room GIS.  We will show how we develop and manage our high-quality indoor cartography, using ArcMap and ArcGIS Server, as well as our own custom tile server. We will also demonstrate prototype apps that collect crowd-sourced, room-level, interior data to keep our indoor GIS current and accurate - as well as discuss the custom API's we've developed to enable others to build applications around our services.

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Cartographic design for mobile devices: A case study using the UW-Madison interactive campus map
Brian Davidson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Smartphones have become an integral part of the daily lives of citizens not only in the United States, but also around the world. It is estimated that by 2016, 80% of the United States population will be using a mobile phone and 50% will be using a tablet. This study investigates the default map scale and level of detail appropriate when designing for mobile maps using the University of Wisconsin-Madison interactive campus map as a case study. Participants were asked to complete wayfinding and identification tasks and were measured based on accuracy, response time, and emotion. Overall, the goal is to provide design considerations for mobile cartography and help open the possibilities for future research in the field of mobile.

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Mobile Vector Cartography: Designing for Infinite Scale Factors
Justin Miller, Mapbox
The Mapbox GL rendering engine is a technology for turning geographic data into living, breathing maps on mobile and web platforms, maps that are drawn as infinitely scaling vectors with on-the-fly styling capabilities. But design of such maps introduces challenges into the design process such as dynamic label placement when zooming the map in and out, specifying feature line width as a function of map scale instead of as static numbers, and other design aspects that become more about planning for presentation situations than about putting visual elements to static medium. This talk will demonstrate these challenges firsthand in a live, on-device demo and talk about the engineering challenges behind giving cartographers these sorts of tools.

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From Ruling Pen to GIS: Women Cartographers in the 20th Century
Judith Tyner, California State University, Long Beach
From an unsung female cartographer/map publisher in the nineteen-teens through the many women mapmakers of World War II to the early pioneers in GIS, the role of women in cartography in the 20th century has only recently begun to be explored.  While Marie Tharp is probably the most visible and honored woman, there were many others who not only furthered the role of women, but also the advancement of the field.  This paper looks at the history of women in cartography, their achievements and watershed moments through the activities and accomplishments of selected women in publishing, research, government, academia, and GIS.

Schiehallion's Legacy: Contours, Cross Sections and Cartographic Relief in the Age of Big Data
Andrea Hansen, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Data permeates our lives. Smartphones, the internet-of-things, and logistics have ensured that data about nearly anything is voluminous and easily accessible. However, the sheer volume of data produced on a daily basis can be overwhelming. How can we see the signal through the noise? How can we harness the power of big data while also remaining true to the founding principles of beautifully simple cartography?

Visualizing Systems is a project devoted to cataloguing maps and visualizations of urban, regional, and global systems ranging from watersheds to distribution chains to social networks. The project highlights cartographic time by drawing connections between historical precedents and contemporary cartography. This session focuses on Chapter One of Visualizing Systems, Geological Systems. By revisiting the invention of spot-elevations, contours, hachure, etc., I'll propose best practices for 3D, web, and interactive topography using case studies from MIT's Tangible Media Lab, Harvard's metaLAB, MapBox, etc.

A Survey of World Map Projections Appearing in World Atlases: Rise of the Pseudocylindrics
Fritz Kessler, Frostburg State University
Daniel Strebe, Mapthematics LLC
We report on a survey that examined the type and frequency of map projections devoted to thematic world maps in world atlases. Our survey examined 256 world atlases from 28 countries resulting in data on 4,349 individual map projections. Primary findings suggest that hemispheric projections were chiefly used for world maps into the late 1800s at which time a slow adoption of cylindrics began replacing hemispheric projections. New pseudocylindric projections were introduced throughout the early 1900s. The 1950s and 2000s showed a spike in the variety of projections used. Overall, equivalent and compromise projections were more frequently used than projections with other properties. While the Mercator appeared often, by no means did it dominate world atlases. Other projections such as the Winkel Tripel, Robinson, and Gall's stereographic were commonly incorporated into world atlases. European world atlases tended to include a greater variety of map projections in world atlases than other countries.

Map making and geography in ancient Arabia
Amna Alzeyoudi, United Arab Emirates University
Naeema Alhosani, United Arab Emirates University
Abdelgadir Abuelgasim, United Arab Emirates University
The evolution of map making is linked to the development of geographic research starting from the first human map of the world to the modern digital, interactive and descriptive maps nowadays. The purpose of this research is to describe the map making science in ancient Arabia. With the expansion of Arab dominance in the post Islam era, it was a recognized necessity to excel in maps and develop accurate representation of the world. Arab geographers like Ibn Hawqel, put significant emphasis in geographically describing and mapping Dar-Al Islam and the world beyond. Further, he worked in correcting previous maps that lead to an extraordinary leap in geographic knowledge at the time. His geographic science went beyond physical boundaries to include a human geographic component. In his book "Earth Picture" he describes map making and geography as "It's a unique science to kings, politicians and the gentleman of all classes".

The importance of context: Using a participatory mapping approach to document indigenous landscapes in western Panama
Derek Smith, Carleton University
Indigenous communities have been using geospatial technologies to map their territories and manage their resources for many years.  However, while tremendous advances have been achieved in some regions, what about indigenous communities in developing countries where there are no computers, or even electricity?  This paper presents the case of a team of university researchers, indigenous university students, and local investigators who have been mapping community lands in western Panama. We used a combination of sketch mapping, GPS mapping, satellite imagery, and interviews to document local knowledge of the cultural landscape and map forest cover. Our experiences demonstrate that training in the use of mapping tools aimed at empowering indigenous communities must take into account broader social contexts.  Participatory mapping projects must at times adapt to the challenges imposed by the digital divide even when they are attempting to combat them.

Foodshed mapping for Calgary
Jeff Wielki, Mount Pleasant Maps
Calgary is surrounded by agriculture land and is in the heart of Alberta's cattle country in Canada. In reality, much of the food produced there is exported, but if that food production is assumed to flow into Calgary, how far out does a food boundary need to exist to meet consumption? Is that distance still considered local? Will that be true in the future? Dasymetric cartographic modelling techniques were used to disaggregate Statistics Canada's food production data for Alberta and BC. This, in combination with road network and land cover data, modelled the distribution of production of various food groups. The resulting foodshed was determined and mapped given a variety of scenarios and definitions of local food. Depending on the definition of local and what the food production goal is, the results show that it is possible for food production in Alberta to meet the food demand in Calgary.

Mapping the urban and agricultural changes in Al Ain City 1990-2013
Laila Alkhater, United Arab Emirates University
Tahani Almujurfi, United Arab Emirates University
Aisha Alhammadi, United Arab Emirates University
Moza Alqaydi, United Arab Emirates University
Abdelgadir Abuelgasim, United Arab Emirates University
Naeema Alhosani, United Arab Emirates University
The city of Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the fourth largest city in terms of population and economic growth. Al Ain has experienced a large scale urban growth in the period 1990-2013 and has changed from a small desert oasis to a thriving modern city. In this study we use archival and recent Landsat image data to identify and map the urban and agricultural growth in the city. A series of multitemporal Landsat data from 1990, 2003, and 2013 were used in a supervised classification approach to map the changes within the city. Land cover classes identified in the images were desert, urban areas, agricultural areas, and mountain ranges.  The results indicate about 40% increase in the urban areas due to population expansion and further 30% expansion in the agricultural areas, particularly palm farms, due to Al Ain fertile soil and large reserves of groundwater.

Building Digital Maps for the National Park Service
Mamata Akella, National Park Service
The NPMap team has an ambitious goal: Creating an accessible, custom, and dynamic ("real-time") map for each of the 400+ National Park Service sites that can be used in both web maps and mobile applications. To support this goal, the team has built a flexible geospatial platform on top of a number of open source software projects, including PostgreSQL/PostGIS, Node.js, Mapbox, CartoDB, OpenStreetMap, Leaflet, Twitter Bootstrap, and Maki. This platform eliminates the technical hurdles that have traditionally been associated with building digital maps. This talk will go into detail about the NPMap team's geospatial platform and how we are enabling Parks to build and maintain their own maps.

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Working with semi-public APIs: Adventures in the gathering and visualization of Kickstarter data
Jim Thatcher, University of Washington-Tacoma
Josh Gray, mapvocate.net
Well-documented public APIs, such as Foursquare, Twitter, and Flickr's have become a core means of gathering spatially-referenced information. The resulting visualizations are useful to both researchers and more popular presses. New tools, like D3 and Leaflet, help cartographers visualize heterogeneous sets of data in previously impossible interactive ways. However, many data sources come with publicly accessible, but non-documented APIs. Accessing the wealth of information stored in such systems can be difficult or impossible, often resulting in necessarily partial and incomplete solutions. In this talk, we present our experiences working with Kickstarter's API and the KickScraper tool we built to gather spatial information from it. After presenting the tool and our resulting visualizations, including a marker-clustering map of the locations of all projects, we discuss the dangers and limitations of semi-public and undocumented APIs for researchers. We conclude with the next steps for our open-source tool building project.

Whither the Wikimap?
Carl Sack, University of Wisconsin Madison
Crowdsourced and 'volunteered' geographic information are concepts that have become of great interest to cartographers and GIScience professionals. Maps that rely on user-contributed data, called wikimaps, are becoming more mainstream and represent a major player in the future of web cartography. The most cited example, OpenStreetMap, now has a community of over 1.6 million users. But many questions remain about how such maps should be designed: How should such data be symbolized? How can it be judged for quality? How should ethics be applied in light of privacy concerns? How small-d 'democratic' is the crowd really, and how are crowdsourced maps really being used? These are just a few. This talk will present my experience to date creating and using wikimaps, with a focus on preliminary conclusions and questions for further investigation.

Open Data and Tools for Better Visualization and Analysis
Sarah Cordivano, Avazea
Civic data published by government agencies serves as a valuable asset to citizens because it enables them to access information that may have been previously unobtainable or costly.  Most importantly for cartographers and spatial analysts, open data can encourage the improvement of data quality because it provides oversight in data maintenance and organization. Additionally, there has been a recent increase in the range of open source analytical and visualization tools that are simple to use and either free or very low cost.  Readily available and community supported, these tools provide an incredible wealth of resources to produce high quality and sophisticated spatial analysis and visualization to GIS professionals and hobbyists alike. This talk will explore how the combination of open data and open source analysis tools create new possibilities both within the cartographic community and more broadly for the analysis and visualization of data.

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