Personal reflections on Geocart

This year at the Geocart conference I was elected to the New Zealand Cartographic Society committee.  Geoff Aitken, the editor of Cartogram, asked me to write a piece for the society's newsletter.

Click through to read the full article: http://cartography.org.nz/images/files/cartogram/NZCS_Cartogram-077_Dec2014.pdf

I raised two key challenges for the conference and cartographic industry in New Zealand - the lack of student and female involvement in the conference (despite high attendance by women).  Let me know what you think!

Population cartogram with elevation

A neat cartogram of world population with elevation.

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the book!

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2014/07/play/mapping-creativity

MapGyver

MacGyver and Maps: What's not to like?

Well, fine, be picky!  Love that the map is a standard one of the US - just think of the cartographic genius behind those plans! :P

New Zealand Oil Spill Map

This rather neat visualization was produced by a Wellington based data science and data visualization company - Dumpark.

The map based data visualization produced for Greenpeace shows the potential spread of oil after a deep sea oil drilling well blow out.

[via Andrew Parnell]

Game of Thrones Geology Map

http://www.stanford.edu/group/anthropocene/cgi-bin/wordpress/game-of-thrones-geology/

A rather wonderful representation of the geology of Westeros

How should cartographers map Crimea?

The internet acts a new dimension to the authoritative nature of maps in situations of contested boundaries.  How does Google map these areas?  How should we as a community of cartographers and disseminators of geographic information treat this information sensitively and appropriately?

Good article with examples here: http://geoawesomeness.com/cartographers-map-crimea/

Free Historic Online Maps

Over 20,000 historic maps put online by the New York Library.  Some stunning examples of cartography here.

http://www.openculture.com/2014/03/new-york-public-library-puts-20000-hi-res-maps-online.html

Lord of the Rings - Story map

A few more of these examples and I might just be convinced that story maps are a good idea...

http://lotrproject.com/map/?path=1#path=1&zoom=3&lat=-1334&lon=1500&layers=B

Wind

Beautiful graphic displaying the world's winds - definitely need to click through on this one ;)  Also click on the earth button to display different variables.

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/equirectangular=-189.57,-47.73,1108

Post Apocalyptic OS Map

Great map theme (comes in a close second to the watercolour theme by Stamen) displaying the earth using post apocalyptic textures and reimagining markers.  More detail on the map available at: http://www.wired.com/2014/02/map-box-space-theme/#more-577301

The True Size of Africa

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2010/11/cartography?fsrc=scn%2Ftw_ec%2Fthe_true_true_size_of_africa

This might come in very useful in explaining how Greenland is not the same size as Africa...

40 Maps They Didn’t Teach You In School

Some nice cartographic topics (though some of the cartographic techniques could be better!).

http://www.boredpanda.com/fun-maps-they-didnt-teach-you-in-school/

Map of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks

http://www.cfr.org/interactives/GH_Vaccine_Map/#map

An interactive map which visually plots global outbreaks of measles, mumps, whooping cough, polio, rubella, and other diseases that are easily preventable by inexpensive and effective vaccines.

Global Health Program at the Council for Foreign Relations

Food maps of the world

Beautiful series of maps comprised of foods associated with that country. 

http://m.neatorama.com/2014/03/12/Food-Maps-of-the-World/#!zAVVi 

mapping update

http://www.humanosphere.org/2013/08/a-history-of-protests-mapped-1979-to-today/

Great use of animation - Where have there been protests since 1979?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/27/the-one-map-that-shows-why-syria-is-so-complicated/

The one map that shows why Syria is so complicated - Not great to look at but interesting subject

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-08/05/slum-mapping-google-maps-cartography
Interesting article on google's stance for a perfect world map - nice to see agendas questioned

A random round up of geo-news

Mapping children's chances
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22688596
Some interesting patterns here from the BBC on world adoption of parental leave and education for children with disabilities, etc.

ESRI story map on endangered languages
http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2013/endangered-languages/
Not a great map, but a wonderful idea

Ecologists map the benefit of our eco-systems
http://www.sensorsandsystems.com/news/top-stories/ecosystem-services/30874-ecologists-map-the-benefits-of-our-ecosystems.html
This isn't a surprize for the VUW peeps developing LUCI

Growing importance of citizen science in map making
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23808-citizen-cartographers-fill-the-gaps-in-maps.html#.UexgytJT6So

72 hours of earthquakes for Wellington (until Sunday 21 July)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktnn8Ii9cFU

Not strictly speaking Geo-news, but usability issues are common
http://mashable.com/2012/12/16/google-analytics-real-life/

Great use of Lidar to discover more details about Cambodia's ancient city of Angkor Wat
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10891465

Making Sense of Spatial Data - a public lecture by moi

Enquiries: L.Singh@paradise.net.nz

Hand drawn maps

I've always loved hand drawn maps and there are some wonderful examples at:

http://www.handmaps.org/index.php

http://www.mollymaps.com/Mollymaps/Gallery/Gallery.html

http://www.subk.net/maps.html

Worth a look ...

Maps, maps and more maps

Looking for something to fill a bit of time?
Here's a few maps, I've been impressed by lately - some are just cool, others do things in interesting ways (but need a little more work!), but all are worth a look

Real time geo-located twitter feeds (tweets).  
Says a lot about time and resource dependent use of tech.

http://pure-waterfall-1016.herokuapp.com/


Print your own 3D model of part of the Earth
I CAN.NOT.WAIT to do this

http://www.landprint.com/

Geovisualization of time
Such an interesting example of how to map time and distance rather than space and distance.  Shows how far you can get from Amsterdam Central and makes use of train timetables.  Great job.

http://app.timemaps.nl/map


Interactive online ESRI/ArcGIS map
Shows whether current crop production can meet future demand.
The slider is a nice touch but not sure if it fully functions here - must remember for future though!

http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/feedingtheworld/

Thinking about Type

Manipulating spatial data and visual variables, such as colour and spacing, tend to take up most of my time when I make a map.  But increasingly I've been exploring typeface and using type to convey more information about the data or map that you are creating.  Traditional cartography uses italics to name natural features such as rivers while man made features are in normal font.

This video talks about the use of typeface to convey messages in logos and signage.  Presented from a design perspective, it should spark some cartographic ideas...