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.