NACIS 2024

Atlas in a Day: Imagining a Black Counter-Atlas of Abolition
Kela Caldwell, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Building on critical cartographies of African American freedom struggles (Alderman et al, 2001), I explore the political potentials of producing a Black counter-atlas of racial violence in an effort to challenge and re-historicize how anti-black violence is defined and categorized. In this paper, I draw on participant surveys, mapping creations, and my reflections from a Design Challenge workshop hosted by the UW–Madison Cartography Lab to explore visualizing and re-historicizing anti-black violence through atlas co-creation. Here, I share lessons from the Design Challenge as an opportunity to imagine what futurities might emerge from producing and placing cartographic visualizations of abolition in relationship with each other.

Mapping the Future of Food in Climate Change With VACS Earth Genome
Caroline Carter & Kelsey Taylor, Stamen Design
In support of the US Department of State’s Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) initiative, Stamen Design teamed up with Earth Genome to create VACS Explorer, an interactive cartographic tool that allows users to compare the modeled viability of different crops in Africa in 2050 depending on which UN climate change scenario unfolds. Climate change will test agriculture practices across the globe in ways humans can’t fully predict. We built the VACS Explorer in attempts to make these agricultural decisions more data-driven. Hear how we use features like small multiples, supplementary sand & soil and nutrition data, a navigable minimap, and more to build out this experience for all users.

In the Hot Seat: Acquiring Kernel Density Heat Map Design Guidance Through Delphi and Survey Methods
Lauren McKinney-Wise, Portland State University
Kernel density heat maps have emerged as a new, popular thematic map type. Yet, unlike other thematic map types, little if any published guidance exists for effective heat map design. This is significant because maps are highly persuasive objects that are often utilized to communicate important information. To address this literature gap, I conducted a Delphi experiment with cartographic experts to gather heat map design guidance and then tested the effectiveness of the expert-informed heat map design guidance among public reference librarians in the US using an online survey. This is a shortened version of my master's thesis presentation.

Cheap and Pricey: NPR Leveraged Free Tools To Build and Host Our Own Slippy Maps. Was It Worth It?
Daniel Wood, NPR
This year, NPR published an extremely detailed tool to help gardeners around the country understand the updated USDA plant hardiness zone map. To do this, we built our own slippy maps, utilizing all free and open-source tools: Maplibre GL JS, Protomaps, OpenMapTiles, Tilezen, OSM data, and more. The final product was so cool. It is extremely cheap (in $) and extremely costly (in time, if you're a n00b like me). Come and weigh the costs and benefits together. You will learn about the recent (re)explosion of open source tools for making detailed, performant, and pretty maps online, how ChatGPT helped me understand documentation I didn't want to read, and what I'd do differently next time.

Creating a 3D Map of the Haleakalā Volcano on Mauii
Jim Eynard, U.S. National Park Service
The summit in Haleakalā National Park, at 10,023 feet (3,055m) , is the tallest peak on the island of Maui in Hawaii. This map uses high resolution aerial imagery and elevation data in a 3D perspective view to show the the dramatic summit area including the road to the top, the visitor centers, viewpoints, and the many trails in the nearly 7 mile wide steep sided depression, often referred to as a crater.

Bringing Transparency to Freelance Mapmaking
Daniel Huffman, somethingaboutmaps
Freelancing mapping can be a lonely business. Without regular insight into our peers, we're left wondering if we're making the right business decisions. Should I make everyone sign a contract? Should I charge a flat rate or hourly? And the biggest one: how much should I charge my clients? It's easy to be uncertain about what we're doing if we don't know what's typical for our peers. Since 2018, Daniel Huffman & Aly Ollivierre have been conducting a biennial survey of freelance cartographers in order to bring transparency to the business, and help all of us thrive. In this presentation, we'll have a look at some of the results of the last several years, both the expected and the surprising.

Discussing Current Limits and Future Opportunities in Mobile Map Design
Lily Houtman, Penn State University
Designing maps for mobile devices is increasingly important in our modern work. Following a preliminary study focused on mobile thematic maps in the context of data journalism, I highlight a few key limitations in this area of research: types of interactivity, time constraints, simultaneous design, and ability to conduct user testing. In addition to presenting conclusions from my previous work, I describe potential avenues for future work on the same subject. I plan to make audience engagement a significant portion of my talk, gaining knowledge from currently practicing data journalists and others who work on mobile thematic maps to help inform my future research questions.

Thematic Mapping in Augmented Reality: Challenges and Opportunities
David Retchless, Texas A&M University at Galveston
Augmented reality (AR) platforms are increasingly popular in cartographic research and practice, especially for orientation and navigation. However, the potential of AR techniques for thematic mapping remains underexplored. AR tools: 1) share with thematic mapping an emphasis on making the invisible, visible; but 2) differ from thematic maps in design-relevant ways, including perspective and scale/extent. Drawing on my experience developing thematic maps and AR tools for coastal flooding, I consider challenges and opportunities associated with translating design principles for thematic mapping to the AR context, with a focus on abstraction and prominence of point symbols (but also encompassing other feature types, basemaps, and marginalia).

Defining a Brand of Cartography
Lee France, onX Maps
In late 2022, onX maps, a company focused on mapping recreational pursuits for millions of outdoor enthusiasts, decided to invest big into cartography. They formed a team dedicated to defining the look and feel of their foundational product: the map. In this talk we'll dive into that team's journey to discovering what it means to define a brand of cartography, and how to anchor around that brand to create beautiful map designs that are highly functional and tailored to the needs of specific user groups.

Time Travel with Cartography: Mapping Philadelphia’s Urban Landscape Evolution Across Two Centuries
Emily Zhou, University of Pennsylvania
In this presentation, I will delve into the process of reproducing old maps and rendering the early streetscapes of Philadelphia from an urban design project of mine focused on historic preservation. Drawing from historical land use maps, photographs, architectural data, and oral histories, we will compare the characteristics of maps and urban landscapes spanning three distinct eras in Philadelphia. Through this comparative analysis, I will discuss the various design decisions made at each stage of the project, which include choosing the texture, color, line-work, patterns, and typography. I will also outline the overall workflow from McNeel Rhino 3D to Adobe Software and share eight hands-on tips and tricks for designing historical maps in Illustrator as well as incorporating vintage effects into your work in Photoshop.

Are You Mappier than a 5th Grader?
Dave McLaughlin, Penn State University
Building on a Career Day presentation about the life of a Geospatial Data Visualization Software Engineer, I developed and facilitated a 90-minute mapping workshop for thirty-five fifth graders. Working with colored pencils and paper, and using Beescape (beescape.psu.edu) as the model, we started with some creative cartography, learned how to encode research data from biologists onto our maps, then investigated the landscape to determine the most beneficial areas for pollinators. See photos from the session, and hear about the process and lessons learned from putting together a reusable lesson plan to inspire the next generation of cartographers.

Evaluating Beescape NexGen
Anthony Robinson, Lily Houtman, Dave McLaughlin & Christina Grozinger, The Pennsylvania State University
Beescape NexGen makes it possible to visualize pollinator health metrics across landscapes. As part of an iterative user-centered design process, we evaluated a Beescape prototype and found many areas for improvement. This work led to a comprehensive re-design. In this talk we report results from a recent usability and utility evaluation with beekeepers and the re-designed Beescape NexGen. Our findings make clear that our iterative design process has benefited its usability and utility, and we have clear directions now for how to support its continued evolution.

Untangling Rhode Island’s Forest Habitat: Interactive Mapping at the Confluence of Art and Cartography
Quinn Cowing, Brown University
In designing a final project for my cartography course, I scoured journals and grew enamored with embroidered maps. Specifically, I was inspired by colcha embroidered maps from the San Luis Valley. These maps weave geography with cultural sights and rich history to make accurate representations of local areas. While these artworks heighten the cultural significance of maps, I wanted my embroidery to elevate map interactivity. Therefore, I embroidered the different layers of my map of Rhode Island forest types on separate sheets of tulle. The map viewer is thus able to interact with the map by selecting which layers they would like to view. This work ultimately melds art and cartography to provide an exciting aspect of user interaction.

Teaching Atlas Project Management: Lessons and Reflections
P. William Limpisathian & Alicia Adelle Iverson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
In the dynamic landscape of cartographic education and project management, how do we effectively prepare students for the multifaceted demands of modern map production? Beyond mastering cartographic techniques, students must also acquire the skills to take ownership, manage concurrent tasks, and collaborate seamlessly—a blend of competencies often overlooked in traditional cartographic curricula. This talk reflects on the challenges and insights from developing and teaching an exploratory atlas production and project management course. Drawing from our in-class experiences, we explore strategies that bridge the curricular gap between cartographic excellence and effective project management. Our discussion encompasses practical tips, pitfalls to avoid, and successful approaches to modeling and managing a complex atlas project in the confines of a classroom.

Understanding Lhasa through Declassified Spy Satellite Images
Tsering Shawa, Princeton University
Lhasa is the spiritual and political center of Tibet. It is believed that in around 633 AD Tibetan emperor Songtsen Gampo moved his capital from the Yarlung valley to Lhasa. Before it became the capital of Tibet, it was a desolate and swampy valley. Today Lhasa is one of the largest and most vibrant cities in Tibet. In this talk I will use declassified spy satellite images and maps to understand the extent of old Lhasa and identify important historical sites that do not exist now.

Where Did They Go? Mapping Out-Migration From Mammoth Cave National Park, 1920-1940
Collins Eke
The 52,830-acre Mammoth Cave National Park, located in the karst region of south-central Kentucky, was formally established in July of 1941, culminating a nearly three-decade process of park creation that displaced several thousands of residents of the proposed park area. Based on a sample taken from the 1920 U.S. Census, the residents’ migration destinations in the 1930 and 1940 censuses were mapped in a geographic information system. The data collected was represented through chloropleth maps and graduated circle maps. Maps were also constructed to identify destinations of specific sociodemographic subgroups of migrants — Black, White, homeowners, and renters.

Mapping Archaeology and Landscape in the Mongolian Altai Mountains: Transitions in Cartography from 1994 to 2010
James Meacham, University of Oregon
The high valleys of the Altai Mountains of Mongolia contain some of the richest concentrations of rock art and ancient monuments in North Asia. Starting in 1994, an international team assembled to study these complexes. During a 16-year period of annual field work, rapid advances in available geospatial base data and mapping technology allowed the team’s cartographers to radically improve the mapping of the region’s landscape and archaeology. This presentation covers the evolution of the maps and data visualizations from the research, which ultimately contributed to the complexes’ designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Mapping Vulnerabilities: Projected Extreme Heat Risk for Southern Mobile Home Residents
Laura Diaz-Villaquiran, Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance
Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related death in the United States, and Southern communities are particularly vulnerable to it. This research examines the geospatial relationship between projected heat increases in the U.S. South and the prevalence of mobile housing units. Preliminary findings indicate that counties in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi are highly vulnerable. Mobile home residents, who often face concentrated disadvantages such as high energy costs, low incomes, and rural isolation are particularly at risk. This research highlights the need for targeted interventions to leverage hazard resiliency and energy efficiency in these communities.

The Impact of WWII on Cartography
Judith Tyner, CSU Long Beach, emerita
Prior to WWII, cartography was a “mere tool” for geographers, not a discipline. There was only one American textbook, and few universities and colleges offered courses in cartography. There were also no courses in air photo interpretation and map reading. During and after the war, the number of universities that offered cartography classes increased dramatically and the subject had morphed from a tool to a discipline. This paper examines the impact of the war on the field over a short period of time.

Will-o’-the-Wisp, Map Collection Tours, Hauntology and Deep Time Spectres
Larry Laliberte, University of Alberta
In renewing ways to navigate institutional spaces of maps, and their containers, recent William C. Wonders map collection engagement workshops incorporated tactile ambience, aurals, and experiential movement to open up ways to re-read cartographic renderings as apparitions, situating their re-inscription, and retention in the spectres of deep time. By beckoning maps through hauntology – a praxis that disrupts the fabric of the normalized and operates in the fault lines of authorized histories, in-person tours construct terrains that interrogate and counter settler cartographies inhabiting a spatial corpus of colonial history. A history that continues to confer power, and haunt the landscape.

Mapping History Using Digital Tools
Eric Rodenbeck and Alan McConchie, Stamen
It's easy to think that our current maps represent a 1:1 relationship with the world as it is now; Google and others have given us tools to be able to navigate so effortlessly that the problem of mapping seems solved. Going back in time, though, presents a different set of challenges. Historical maps and spatial representations operate according to a different set of rules than our current maps do, and much can be lost in translation. Using examples from Stamen projects for the Alan Turing Institute, Columbia University, the Getty Institute, the University of Richmond, and Densho's maps of Japanese-American internment camps, among others, this talk will offer an overview of the problem space of historical mapping in a digital context, as well as provide examples of solutions arrived at through hard-won grapplings with sometimes difficult histories.

Join the fun in a longstanding NACIS tradition -- our own very mappy version of Jeopardy! Contestants can sign up for a team at the registration desk. Winners take home prizes and we all leave having learned more than when we arrived. If you prefer to watch from the sidelines, join the audience to cheer on (and heckle) the contestants in this highly entertaining show of geography trivia - with a special new twist in honor of Dennis McClendon.