10 Maps in a Minute

Exploring the different uses and functionality of ArcGIS maps.

GIS data is either projected as Raster or Vector. Raster data is presented on a grid with individual cells representing spatial information. Vector data is made with lines and polygons which can be useful for being exact in representations of certain features.

the maps above are examples of vector and raster data being displayed over the state of Oregon. These maps tell different stories, for example the first raster data map shows the rainfall across the state. This could be useful for researching where certain plants might have the range to grow or where the muddiest hiking trails are located. The next two maps show vector imagery about population. this map easily tells the story of how crowded cities in Oregon are and combined these maps may both tell a story about how people are concentrated both by county and within counties themselves.

Volcanic activity

The below map shows the volcanic activity of Halemaumau crater in Hawai'i.

The map shows the activity from the Sentinal 2 satellites. At first this imagery didn't show me much, possibly because there was too heavy of cloud cover. I overlayed this with MODIS hotspot data to see more clearly the extent of the volcanic activity. Layer like MODIS can be added to provide more context.

Drought Mapping

The below map shows, in warm tones, the current drought conditions in the USA.

I added an additional maps that shows distribution of different types of trees that was provided by the US Forest Service. This layer was also able to be made more or less transparent so I could see both layers in enough detail. Using the legend in the properties tab it certainly looks like the pines and spruces of the west Coast could be effected by the current dry conditions!

Pipeline Mapping

Maps such as this one below show infrastructure.

This map shows the length of a certain pipeline owned by Colonial Pipeline. Owners of infrastructure can be filtered out of larger data sets via the properties and filter tabs. Using more properties edits I changed the style of this pipeline's representation by adjusting the color and store weight/design. You can use a custom color for this which I think would be useful when creating a presentation for a branded company

Snow Map

Weather map filtered to snow snow conditions.

i was curious how the weather is where my grandma lives in northern Minnesota. Using the US weather advisory data I filtered out terms that included "winter weather" and "blizzard" to show that this area has a winter weather warning in place currently. Data can be filtered by type as well as how it used in the content by searching "included/excluded" or "is/is not". Looks like there's a blizzard expected on the border.

Weather Systems

Authoritative sources have near constant data about the weather.

One of the most important things to note about weather is that it changes over time. Some data may allow you to see this change animated over time. By finding a map whose details included animation enabling I was able to see how a weather system moved and changed directions and severity north of Chicago during the lunch hour.

This feature includes important temporal elements combined with spatial ones.

Flood mapping

The below map includes metadata from several sources that contribute to a live Stream Gauge dataset on Esri.

I filtered the data to show values between only moderate to severe floods and zoomed in on the Gulf Coast region. As the picture shows I learned that individual data points could be selected to revel more information similar to map notes.

These notes contained information about location, time and who was taking the recordings.

Mapping Air Quality

Overlaying National Weather Service and Air Quality Monitor data shows how two factors; smoke and air quality, may be related.

I noticed that, maybe understandable, there is more data for cities. I wanted to look at the air quality of LA which is infamous for being of poor quality. When I zoomed in however the data icons became too big to see much. I fiddled with the content in the layer and was learned how to enable clustering of the points which created a much more simplified picture to the right.

Hurricane Mapping

Maps that track weather and storm along with demographic data can create apps. These apps can be used to keep people safe during natural disasters.

The Hurricane Aware app uses data that updates every 15 minutes to show the observed path and scale of hurricane and cyclone events. I used this app and checked in on the US. Looks like Florida and the Bahamas aren't expecting any dangerous weather events currently.

Fire Maps

I grew up in Colorado where wildfires were a common part of my childhood. In this map layer current fires and severity of these fires is updated every 15 minutes from Integrated Reporting of Wild-land Fire Informations sources.

I overlaid this layer with a satellite of global thermal activity. What this shows is that different data sets and layer won't always overlap completely. One set is global and the other is not so this image tells me more about the fires and their relation to thermal activity in the USA than it does about thermal activity in South and Central America.

Earthquake Mapping

The Esri Recent Earthquakes map shows earthquakes by location and also intensity. This is a global data set.

On the above map you can see that there are several earthquakes throughout Alaska which sits on the Ring of Fire, a particularly active tectonic zone. Similar to the flood map, individual events can be selected for more information including whether a tsunami warming has been issued.

Combining to create a custom map

The Indonesian government has plans to move its entire capitol from the urban center of Jakarta to the less densely populated region of Kalimantan. Their justification includes the fact that Jakarta is sinking due to a combination of too much infrastructure and heavy precipitation levels. The president claims another benefit to this move is that Kalimantan is further away from natural disasters like earthquakes which have plagued the capitol city.

I wanted to first show data that overlaid these two major issues; earthquakes and heavy rainfall. The below map does this with global data layers showing average precipitation as well as current earthquake activity. In order to slightly simplify I hid the layer that includes earthquake shake intensity.

As can be seen, Jakarta on the island of Java does have more rainfall and earthquake activity than coastal Kalimantan to the north.

However, the government wasn't interested in rainfall alone. They also cite overcrowding of the urban area as a factor that exacerbates the issues of crumbling infrastructure.

To show population density I tried out two different maps representing world population density. (Before this I selected one that was a raster file which I thought would overlay well visually but it turns out that data set was only for Belgium, oops!)

The data on the left is based on classification of density on a spectrum from rural to extreme urban. I realized this wasn't necessarily going to help me as, compared with the rest of the world, much of Indonesia's major cities are considered urban or extreme urban. I chose the data set on the right because it maps population density purely by people per square kilometer. I At this point however I felt that the population map layer was obscuring the layer that conveyed rainfall.

After adjusting the opacity of the population map layer in properties I was bale to create the map to the left. I think this map beautifully shows the overlay between population and rainfall while also easily highlighting major earthquake events.

Based on this map one can see that yes, the rainfall, population and earthquake activity are all greater on Java island than on Kalimantan to the north. Possible the Indonesian government is justified in according to this map about their decision to move locations. However, what this map doesn't show, and what the government is conveniently leaving out in its decision making process is the extent of deforestation and species loss that could occur in Kalimantan if it becomes urbanized.

A quick switch to the Global land cover by type map shows that there is much forest canopy habitat to be lost to the urbanization of Jakarta as shown in red in the map to the left.

I this this is an important lesson in the fact that certain maps serve certain purposes and what is included (or left out) should be considered by critical social science and policy makers.