In praise of insets

Sky News reports on the Scottish politician Tavish Scott (real name) as he proposes a ban on maps that use an inset to show Shetland. Utter nonsense.

His reasoning is that the 'islands should be in the right place on the map' and 'to ensure that in future that government publications and documents do reflect the reality of Scotland in terms of its geography, and not something that fits neatly on an A4 sheet of paper.'

Well let's just break down (sorry, I mean utterly destroy) his preposterous statements. Shetland (The Shetland Isles) is a part of Scotland. It's also part of Great Britain...and the British Isles... and the United Kingdom (and at the time of writing at least, Europe). The following usefully clarifies the terminology:

So in that sense it has a rightful place on any map of which any of those jurisdictions is the focus.

If you're not aware of where Shetland is in the world then this should help (map to scale, UK National Grid):

In simple geographical terms Shetland is approximately 130 miles from mainland Scotland though it's also on the same line of latitude as Bergen on the west coast of Norway at a distance of 200 miles. That's where it sits. At a nice northerly 60° 9' 11" N and 1° 8' 58" W. We can argue all you like whether it should be part of Scotland or, perhaps, a bit of waste left over from Slartibartfast's design of the Norwegian coastline but for now, it gets put on maps of Scotland and any other that includes Scotland. And that makes it a pain in the arse for cartographers.

By the way, did anyone spot I deleted France from the map above? Guess that'd annoy the French too but whatever, I doubt the scots or Scott cares much about that little cartographic editorial decision.

Anyway, as the scot, Scott, says, many maps are made on A4 (or any A series piece of paper where the length and width are in the same proportion). So here's the above map proportioned as A4:

The area outside the yellow line is superfluous to the map as the Republic of Ireland is irrelevant on many maps that show thematic data for Great Britain and Northern Ireland (or UK etc). So as a rough estimate the page only uses approximately 60% of its overall space to show the mapped content.

Put another way, we need a fifth of the entire page (above the green line) just to get Shetland on. That's Shetland, population 22,000. Or, in geographical terms, an island that is 566 sq miles which is 8x larger than the City of Glasgow but which has 27x fewer people. So you're making a decision to allow geography to not only influence the design but take an inordinately exaggerated status simply by virtue of position.

Now, admittedly there's lots of lovely space for titles and legends and all the other crap we put on a map but, nevertheless, it's wasteful. But that's what you'd have to do if you want Shetland on the map, on that proportion of paper, in its correct geographical position. Alternatively, as Scott bemoans, cartographers will often use an inset and you'd end up with a map like this:

This fits the map to the paper (not the paper to the map). And there's far less wasteful space. Far less prominence to unpopulated swathes of water. And yet Shetland gets its own little special place on the map, with the addition of a neat border that clearly demarcates it. Often, Shetland is even exaggerated in scale to make the inset worthwhile. I bet you didn't notice but in the example above Shetland is about 25% bigger than it really is. So, if Scott wants Shetland back in its proper geographical location then he can have it reduced back to its real size too.

Insets are a neat solution and one that has served print mapping well for centuries. It's also a solution that people understand. You could add a small arrow and distance marker to point to where the inset exists in reality. Many even use a marked graticule to show clearly the lines of latitude and longitude that apply to the inset to make it clear that it differs from that of the main map. Even the Sky News article showed an historical example that clearly uses this technique (and note how exaggerated in size Shetland is on this too):

There's other considerations...

Returning to the City of Glasgow. In fact, any relatively populous place. They suffer horrendously on any maps of thematic data because large areas, perhaps relatively uninhabited or sparsely populated take visual prominence. Scotland is a great example. Its total population is around 5.3 million yet 1 million of them live in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Their population densities are far more than the far greater share of Scottish land, including Shetland. So why give such visual prominence to sparsely populated areas?

Insets are not just used to move geographically awkward places. They are commonly used to create larger scale versions of the map for smaller, yet more densely populated places. Often they are positioned over sparsely populated land to use space wisely. I'm guessing Scott would have an objection to an inset that, to his mind, would exaggerate the geographical importance of Glasgow compared to Shetland. Yet...in population terms it's a place of massively greater importance so one could argue it deserves greater relative visual prominence on the map. Many maps are about people, not geography.

In addition to moving Shetland south to make better use of map space, you could very well argue that you should use a cartogram to give far better relative visual prominence to the places where more people live and work. Now that will utterly delight Scott as it completely distorts geography. Not only could you have Shetland moved, but squished to an almost unrecognisable shape. Here you go Tavish...enjoy this beauty of population totals morphing geography (courtesy: worldmapper.org):

Whatever your view of insets (and Scott's is incorrect), there's so many valuable uses for them that counter the problems of geography making it awkward to make maps. Generations of cartographers have come up with novel solutions to many, if not all, of these dilemmas about what to show, where and how. And if the map has an overarching location map showing everything in its correct position then there can be absolutely no confusion whatsoever.

I would guess Scott would equally be horrified if Shetland was seen poking outside the graticule or neatline on an atlas page too - another common way in which maps break the rules of either geography or design in a creative way to simplify and communicate. He'd be delighted by this classic Times Atlas of the World page showing Shetland in its correct position as part of The British Isles but horrors of horrors...Rockall (also a part of Scotland so has equal rights on a map based on Scott's nonsense...but ignore the more northerly Faroe Islands, not part of Scotland) slips off the left edge:

And what of digital maps? Scott seems to be stuck in the age of print cartography because insets are rarely, if ever, a requirement in digital cartography. Everywhere exists where it is. The map is slippy and you can pan and zoom to your heart's content. Want to see a densely populated area? Zoom right on in. In fact, whisper it quietly in case Scott is listening but...if he uses the standard Web Mercator web map he not only gets Shetland in its rightful position AND it's also exaggerated in size compared to the southerly latitudes of mainland England by virtue of the projection. Now isn't that the map he really wants?

Update  4th October 2018

As BBC News reports Mr Scott has got his way and a bill has been passed that includes a 'mapping requirement' that Shetland not be placed in a box. Fortunately there's a clause allowing cartographers to use an inset if they have a case to do so...so that's OK then because there's always a case to do so UNLESS you're making a navigational chart where distance, direction and bearings are obviously the paramount need for the map's properties and design to support. But all this really means is time wasted and taxes used up as map-makers submit their case to use an inset for Shetland.

So, where do we go from here? If Alaska and Hawaii find out about this nonsense then it's going to make future US maps rather interesting. And please don't get the Falkland Islands worked up and starting to assert their right to be included on maps of the UK. As a British Overseas Territory, they, along with the rest, may very well start insisting they should be on the map, in the correct location. So, here's your updated map Mr Scott. Shetland is in the right place but you can't see it any more because we've had to include all the British Overseas Terretories as well. Sorry about that but they all have an equal right. I do hope you appreciate it's a useless map for showing important geographies of the UK though. That's what the new 'mapping requirement' law promotes - bloody ridiculous mapping.

Bend it like Mercator

After their win in the Champions League final yesterday, the 101 Great Goals blog published a piece on the relative location of FC Barcelona's triumvirate of South American strikers. They picked up a map from Reddit that showed their birthplaces as being positioned in such a way that you can draw a perfectly straight line between them on Google Maps.

Here's the map:

A headline writer's dream...arguably the three best strikers in the world all born in formation as well as playing in formation for the world's best team. An easy map to make...take a pen and draw a line across the map to link three red symbols, each of which is about 50 miles in diameter in real world units. Job done.

Except the map is incorrect...which makes the headline potentially incorrect too. A straight line between two places on the globe becomes a curved line when projected using Web Mercator (which the Google Map used by the author is in this case). You cannot simply draw a straight line on the map and infer that it represents a straight line on the curved surface of the globe - because it doesn't.

Here's what the line looks like on a virtual globe as if looking from Messi's birthplace to Neymar's birthplace:

And when we place that line back onto a projected flat map, here's the outcome:

The line now has a slight curve to it but with symbols about 10 miles in diameter it still just nicks the edge of the town where Suarez was born. If I'd used smaller symbols I could have shown the line doesn't pass through Salto, Uruguay. If I'd used big red blobs like the original then of course the line would pass through Salto. Built correctly, we not only get an accurate map...but one that supports the story even better!

OK, we're talking small margins here but the author of the original map got very lucky simply because of the quirk of geography relating to the three players he chose to link on the map. Because the three locations are relatively close to one another (in global terms) and they are also only 30 degrees or so south of the equator we don't see a massive distortion in the line. It has a curve, yes...but only a slight one.

But what if we look at three other footballers? Wayne Rooney was born in Croxteth, Liverpool. Harry Kewell in a Sydney suburb in Australia; and C. V. Pappachan, the famous (?) former Indian footballer born in Thrissur. Here's their map:

As far as I know there is nothing at all to link these three footballers but if we'd taken the mapping approach used to link Barcelona's strikers we'd also get a perfect straight line passing from Liverpool in the UK, all the way to Sydney, Australia via Thrissur on the southern tip of India.

If you got in a plane and flew the straight line route between the UK and Sydney the closest you get to Thrissur is about 2,500 miles. The red line shows the planar version of a straight line projected on Web Mercator. I included the Barcelona striker's line for scale which shows that smaller distances, particularly near the equator, 'appear' less curvier.

News aggregators, blogs and, well, pretty much anyone should question maps. They lie. They are terrible at telling porkies. Worse. Most map readers don't know they're being fed a lie because they look authoritative; and they don't know that the maker of the map they're looking at didn't know the pitfalls of their approach either.

As it turns out, Barça's strikers do happen to have been born close enough to almost lie in a straight line on the globe and on the map. The curve on the projected map tells the accurate story. Try telling the story using three other footballers who appear to have been born along a straight line on a map and chances are, they weren't.

Hat Tip to Brian Timoney for the tweet about this map.

Favourite maps from 2014

I'll get to my favourite maps from 2014 in a moment but first a few thoughts...

My impression of much of what we've seen in 2014 is that web mapping is maturing. Neo is not so neo any more. There are still plenty of ghastly mashups, nonsensical efforts and collections of '40 maps that will change your mind on something you never cared about anyway' but there's better quality too. While 2013 seemed to be the year when everyone was simply trying to out-score each other with different map styles, 2014 has seen less of that trend. Perhaps we're getting a little bored of the fact you can colour in your map a million different ways. Maybe we're moving a little away from the preoccupation with form (nice to look at) and beginning to see function reappear as a key reason for a map to be made.

The trend of mapping data from social media does, however, seem to be continuing unabated. Most commentators agree that Twitter data, for instance, is just plain dreadful with so much error, bias and uncertainty as to make it practically useless for teasing out meaningful trends. I've yet to see a well made map of Twitter data though technologically we're seeing some impressive data processing efforts to get the data on the map. It's a start but finding more nuanced ways of revealing something useful needs to be the next step.

Big data is still a buzzword but so often used inappropriately. As one of my colleagues said earlier in the year "if it fits on a portable drive it isn't big data so #$%* off". Maps are not exempt from the trend to simply map more and larger datasets and a key challenge is to re-think ways of representing millions of features on a map so as to make the map readable and to encode some message or meaning into the map. It's simply not good enough throwing a whole heap of data onto a map and expecting it to work, just because it's technically feasible to do so. Without cartography it's just a visual data dump even if you've coloured it in.

That brings me onto cartography in general. We're still seeing a marginalisation of cartography and cartographers by the avant-garde, the so-called new mapmakers. They seem, generally, to be more comfortable and less combative in the mapping space than a year or so ago (maturity again) but recognising so much of what has gone before still seems to elude many and they're still fond of reinvention. On the other hand, it's also true that cartographers still fail in reaching out and explaining their craft more widely. We are experts in our art and science and have a duty to share that with a society hungry for maps and mapping but I still see far too many who just sit back and watch from the sidelines. How many blogs do you see from real, proper cartographers? Why do we still hide good quality cartographic research in academic journals? This latter point may seem somewhat ironic given I just stepped down from editing one such journal but I've become increasingly uncomfortable with the journal as a sole means of disseminating research. If you've got something to say - say it to the people who need to know; and they're likely not the ones reading that academic journal. That said it's been pleasing to see some recent changes to how news-related blog sites report on cartographic work. There's less of the hysterical reporting of some latest greatest map (that likely isn't) and some good reporting of real cartographic work. Citylab have been doing this well recently.

2015 should see more development in the 3D space with improvements in the way in which data can be visualized more easily and responsively in web browsers. This being the case, it's incumbent on us to properly harness the potential of 3D and not simply use it for the sake of using it. In the same way that I've yet to see a real use for Torque animations (flashing lights showing where people tweet being the biggest culprit...stop press, actually this use showing Alcatraz escapee survival chances begins to use it meaningfully) it's also true that 3D is often used for no good reason. If data is truly temporal and has important characteristics that a temporal depiction can show then design to show that. If there is value in delivering the data to make some additional and purposeful use of the third-dimension then great - but there's more pitfalls to mapping both the temporal and third dimensions that need to be assessed to make the map work.

I'd also like 2015 to be a year in which cartography becomes just a little more recognised for its worth as a discipline and a profession. It seems we've been trying to get  everyone to think and work like cartographers for years but I'm not convinced this is the right approach. They're all busy trying to be professionals in their own areas. It also seems that for this to work, it would require a very rigid rules-based approach to allow people to follow to get to the end map (literally mapping by numbers). While many cartographic rules (I prefer to call them guidelines) exist to lead people down the right path, experimentation is playing a big part in modern cartography. It always has if truth be told. Some of this is in the academic space; some in the hacking space; but both modes of design and production are useful. Cartography is a profession and cartographic professionals are knowledgeable and practiced. They have a lot to offer. I firmly believe collaboration is key and I've long said that there's an important distinction between a professional and an amateur in any discipline or profession. I don't use the word amateur in a derogatory sense either - it's used to differentiate someone who is not formally trained, educated or practiced in a particular realm. We're all professionals at something and we're all amateurs at far more besides. Recognising that and collaborating with professionals from another area is likely to yield results that are greater than the sum of the parts. It might also save you time and frustration!

In a personal sense I made a frivolous map this year (the Proclaimers 500 miles nonsense) that got more hits to my blog (12,000) than virtually everything else I have ever done put together. It's possibly the worst piece of work I've ever done. It's not even a proper map. That's how frustrating and disappointing the internet can be.

So with that mini-review/rant out of the way, let me run through a few of my favourite maps from 2014. I was politely waiting for others to post their own lists but I got bored waiting so thought I'd rustle up my choices. They're an eclectic set but as I've spent the year writing a daily blog on the ICA Map Design Commission blog it's been a relatively easy process to narrow down my favourites this year.

In Flight by Kiln (click image for web map)

The idea of telling stories with maps is not new. The re-emergence of this genre through the medium of the web with the compilation of related multimedia to create a narrative has been a big story itself in 2014. This effort in The Guardian's web site remains one of the best framed I've seen. Simple idea. Good content. Not over-produced.

Barclays Cycle Hire by Ollie O'Brien

Ollie's been doing some great work with the London Bicycle hire data, particularly with some online mapping. I really like this static representation which BMJ used the map as their cover art to highlight a paper that explored the health benefits of the bikeshare scheme compared to other forms of transport. It's a simple flow map but simple often works very well and the saturated red of the routes is a clear metaphor for a blood capillary network and resonates well as cover art. Ollie even chose to exclude all other detail except for the iconic River Thames in the style of Beck's underground map.

Tokyo by Benjamin Sack

A black and white, printed map. There's still space in a list like this for a terrific perspective drawing of Tokyo that when viewed close-up shows incredible detail. No fancy web controls here...just beautiful cartography that builds off a fine legacy of illustrative bird's eye views.

Breathing City by Joey Cherdarchuk

A simple concept that does manage to use animation to good effect to show how New York City's population structure changes over a 24 hour period. There's a lot of data in here but it's represented with clarity and the animation brings to life the ebb and flow. the moving graph helps to contextualize the work.

One dot for every Starbucks by David Yanofsky

Mapping cities at the same scale is important to support the cognitive process of visual comparison. It's as simple as using the right projection...or using small multiples and mapping the same phenomena at the same scale. I like the way small multiples supports the process of visual comparison in this map. It helps that there are so many Starbucks outlets that the structure of each city is well defined.

NYC Taxis: A day in the life by Chris Whong (click image for web map)

A large dataset brought to life by focusing on a single entity at a time. This moving map takes you on a journey of a single New York City taxi cab. It shows a range of useful information including fares and a timeline. A lovely piece of work that works well, marries form and function and shows us what web mapping can be.

The United States: Her natural & industrial resources by Stephen Smith

Stephen based his modern version of the U.S. on a mid-century map of the United Kingdom. He did so with a keen eye and shows that modern maps don't have to constantly reinvent to be eye-catching and purposeful. He perfected a beautiful aesthetic and gave life to his data.

Skintland by The Economist

You can't beat a bit of satire in cartography and the shapes of maps gives artists a perfect canvas upon which to create something new and provocative. The Scottish vote for independence was too good an opportunity to miss and The Economist did a great job in creating this satirical map for their front cover.

The Milford Track by Roger Smith/Geographx

Pseudo-natural looking depiction supports this map's primary function for wayfinding. It's a map for walkers. The fact it's printed on rock (yes, rock!) makes it practically indestructable as well. The hill-shading and deep, rich colours gives this map a somewhat unique visual appeal but different is good in this case. Fine, detailed contour lines and expertly designed and positioned typographic elements makes it work well as well as looking great.

Canyonlands National Park by Tom Patterson

Tom Patterson's beautiful cartography once again shines in this exquisite depiction of the terrain morphology and colours of the landscape. Realistic rendering of the terrain captures not only the vertical component but also something of the horizontal structure and bedding to give an impression of rock texturing synonymous of historic, manually drawn relief and rock shading. There's a lot going on in the creation of this map but the devil is in the detail and it's the detail that makes this so easy on the eye.

London: The Information Capital by James Cheshire and Oliver Uberti

Not a map...but a book of maps. This really is a stunning collection of beautiful maps about all manner of different aspects of London and its populus. Each map has been carefully crafted to make the best use of the data and to speak to the theme of the map itself. Picking out one or two maps doesn't do it justice so here's a tip - go buy it. This is modern thematic cartography at its absolute best.

This is a top ten of sorts but honourable mentions to the following which on another day I might have easily put in this list:

Plan oblique relief Europe by Jonas Buddeberg, Bernhard Jenny & Johannes Liem
Space Station Earth by Eleanor Lutz
Columbia River watershed by Jake Coolidge
Lake Wakatipu by Simon Bardsley

All of these maps have got a fuller write-up on the ICA Map Design Commission blog this year. They contain large images and links where appropriate.

That's it for 2014, unless someone publishes something fantastic in the next 15 days. I'm also looking forward to everyone else's lists. They're bound to be different which is part of the subjective beauty of cartography. I'm also likely to have missed some.

Web Mercator and Comparisons II

[this post has been updated]

Not a week has gone by since I posted about the problems of comparing areas between places using Web Mercator. Here's a 'simple map' (author's phrase) that allows you to compare Gaza with other places on the globe. The interactive version is here [map now corrected].

Terrific idea...take the outline of Gaza and allow people to enter a place they are familiar with in order to better understand the size of the place in comparison with somewhere they know.

Except the basemap is Google's Web Mercator (other Web Mercator basemaps do exist) and the shape has been drawn across the map. 

Only places directly on the equator contain no areal distortion on Web Mercator. Gaza lies at approximately 30 degrees North so there's already considerable distortion in the area of Gaza on Web Mercator.

If you then pan and zoom the map, the Gaza shape remains the same size and shape (at each scale) wherever you go to on the globe. It does not get reprojected as you move across the map and that's a huge cartofail fail regardless of the projection. As we saw in my previous post by looking at Tissot's Indicatrix the size of areas gets massively distorted across Web Mercator. The shape of Gaza would be no different.

Unfortunately this is not accounted for in this map. A classic case of ignoring the impact of map projections. Unless you compare Gaza with somewhere else that is exactly 30 degrees North (or South) then you're comparing one distortion with another and the relative scales of the overlay graphic and the basemap are out of sync with one another. The map, then, is utterly useless and, worse, people look at it and believe that it accurately portrays the stated aim. It doesn't.

A lot of people say to me that the science of cartography has little relevance anymore and it's all about form over function, or function over form and that rapid hackups that buck cartographic convention are healthy. If those that (a) build this sort of cartofail and (b) those that unwittingly consume it are happy then there's no hope. Unfortunately experience shows people tend to be happy in their ignorance and prefer their own facts over fact itself. If you make maps, learn some basics...it's really not that difficult but no amount of clever coding allows you to ignore the basic science of the very thing you're coding. Use your coding skills wisely and learn some domain knowledge to give those skills real power and substance.

ht to Ryan Cooper for alerting me to this map and for correctly identifying the problem.

UPDATE: Something unexpected happened after Ryan Cooper, Ralph Straumann and I tweeted and blogged about the problems of this map. The author Ahmad Nassri got in touch. I was primed for the usual volley of abuse but unlike the majority of people who seem to take offence at having a critique of their work plastered online pointing out major faults, Ahmad took the opposite view. An online conversation took place in which he was grateful for someone identifying a shortcoming and eager to learn of the cartographic 'problem', he sought help in figuring out a way to overcome it. His reaction was refreshing and a credit to his desire to get his work 'right'. Within a couple of hours he had figured out a way to control the shape of Gaza using the Google Maps API geodesic parameter so that it would draw geodesically as you pan and zoom around the globe. It doesn't get over the problems of Web Mercator but it does make his Gaza shape scaleable across the globe to work in sync with the projection. Both the map and the shape of Gaza are now distorted in the same way which is as much as can be hoped for if Web Mercator is the basemap. The map now does what it claims, it gives people the correct basis for visual comparison but most of all Ahmad illustrated a willingness to take on board our comments and correct his work. He should be hugely commended for his reaction. Win win!

NYT Baseball Nation

I'm a Brit. I don't get baseball as a sport. I've been to two games but it's just not cricket. So I hope that makes me an impartial viewer of the New York Times map of Baseball Nation recently published. Unfortunately I know a thing or two about maps so although I inevitably bring some subjectivity to any assessment of a map I try and look at them objectively. So to the map.

I'm a huge fan of The New York Times graphics work. They sit at the pinnacle of quality journalistic map-making and information graphics. Their Baseball Nation map has at least gone one better than the somewhat tedious current trend of creating voronoi maps of various themes - including one of baseball territories recently produced by the Washington Post (below). It's like all of a sudden people have found out about Delaunay triangulation and Thiessen polygons. Whatever next? Hexagons again?

Anyway, I digress. Having said I'm a fan of NYT Graphics work, I'm just not so sure they haven't gone a little too far on this one...

Ignoring the clumsy use of Web Mercator, the obvious problems of Alaska being so remote and enlarged (as are the territories of the teams in the northern states), and the difficulty in seeing some of the overprinted text then let's look at the map which is a weird patchwork of 'territories' of support.

Data. It's made with data from Facebook, specifically Facebook fans by zipcode. The State with the highest penetration of Facebook use is Kansas at 61%. the lowest is new Mexico with 35%. 71% of online adults, more women than men and those younger rather than older use Facebook (Pew Factsheets). So as a data source it's perhaps more representative than Twitter but it's still seriously flawed. At best it reveals some interesting aspects of Facebook use but cannot be necessarily extrapolated to represent all baseball fans. Sure, there is perhaps no other way of getting data that can give us a sense of territories and this at least gives us a picture...but as with so many of these sorts of social media related maps I'd like a little less of the map being promoted as definitive. Any map is only as good as the data. Most social media based maps should come with an extremely prominent health warning about the potential flaws before people go off interpreting the map as irrefutable fact.

Colours. The map shows the predominant support using colours broadly associated with the teams. There's an attempt to show the edge effects of dwindling/overlapped and mixed support the farther away from a team by using lighter values of colour. This works quite well but can be confusing. Reds bordering reds? Greys across the map where bordering teams are different colours? Closer inspection reveals that this represents national patterns of support for teams that are quite remote (for Yankees, read Manchester United). Some of the colours create extremely hard boundaries that perhaps are more mixed than they at first appear. When you look at the data there is often more of an even mix than any use of a single hue can represent.

Interaction. The map is simple to navigate. What works well is the hover-over tooltip that gives us some percentages of support. At least that clarifies the mix of support but the county level summary often doesn't seem to reflect the zipcode level patterns the map shows - particularly when the pattern shows a range of colours/shades. I was sometimes left scratching my head trying to figure out the relationship between percentages of support and colours on the map as they don't always seem to correspond.

I like the boundaries being named in honour of players and historic rivalries and grudges....that gives us a sense of meaning and why there are boundaries at all. A nice discussion of these is in the accompanying report. However, there are areas where current likes seem to overcome historical patterns of support. I picked up a discussion between Craig Williams and Brian Timoney on the apparent cleansing of Mets support from New Jersey. Of course, Craig pointed out that they may, of course, use MySpace and hence the data problem, though this example is tongue-in-cheek, is perfectly illustrated.

Finally...like I said, I'm no baseball fan and I don't really follow it but I was under the impression that the Toronto Blue Jays played in the league. Toronto are a Canadian team and while I wouldn't expect to see much (if any) support on the US side of the north eastern border...why is the team and Canadian data excluded altogether? Maybe on Web Mercator that would have just looked too much?

Old atlas, new projection

Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright's Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, first published in 1932, is an award winning work of art. A magnificent historical atlas published ahead of its time and including innovative thematic representations. Each one of the nearly 700 maps makes it a truly fantastic cartographic work deserving of a new audience.

The Digital Scholarship lab of University of Richmond have gone to great lengths (and no doubt great expense) to bring this atlas into the 21st century by creating a digital version. It's described as an enhanced edition, a composite work of the combined efforts of students and staff with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Please do go take a look because if you've never seen the original the new version opens it up to new eyes and a significantly wider audience. That's a huge positive.

The digital version effectively takes the scanned content from the atlas and places it atop a digital map so the atlas is reincarnated in an online form. Text panels are included, legends are thoughtfully added as insets on the page and there are some really sensible, intuitive and simple controls to help navigate the work, include textual context panes and provide interactivity.

In addition to general enhancements, there are three main improvements over the original that the new online edition claims in terms of functionality. Firstly, the maps are now clickable. Great! Now we can access the data to go with the maps and mine the information for specific places. This is one of the main benefits of any online map of course. Second, many of the maps in the original formed a series which were represented using side-by-side small(ish) multiples but now they are animated (effectively flicking between the overlayed small multiples). Again, web mapping supports animation very well and it's been used to good effect here. Rollovers are also used well, for instance to hover over the isochrones on the rates of travel maps and reveal location specific details. 

Third...the new edition contains "Georectified maps...warped so they can be placed consistently on top of a digital map".

<rubs eyes in disbelief> Come again?

While placing the maps into a consistent projection to support some of the other objectives (like animation) is cited as a reason for the georectification I'm completely bemused.

Paullin and Wright chose their projection perfectly. Albers is an equal area projection. It is absolutely the right choice to represent thematic information because it maintains area across the map meaning that no one part has its visual importance in our perception exaggerated.  This is crucial if we're to accurately compare the values on the thematic maps and not have those impressions modified by a projection before they even hit our eyes. Yet here, they've taken the original plates and manipulated them into Web Mercator. In so doing, not only have they changed the originals in terms of their dimensions, they've warped the message the maps communicate because they've distorted area. The unnecessarily curved text is really just an inconvenience of the process...there are bigger implications though it does show clearly the impact of changing projections on a map. Northern latitudes suffer most from the warping so they now appear larger in relation to southern latitudes.

Take the following as comparison. There is more yellow on the georectified top map than the original shown beneath. Your first impression is slightly different depending on which map you look at. The way your brain assimilates the image is based entirely on the area that each colour fills. This impact is subtle on some maps, profound on others.

And what of the impact on those nice round proportional symbols?

Not round any more so our ability to assess relative size is impeded.

At least you can toggle between the georectified maps and the original plates but here's my very simple beef with this work...why not use an Albers digital basemap? Why go to all that effort of making the old maps fit a completely inappropriate projection when the original authors had already chosen the right projection? Why let the tail of the default web map projection dictate the needs of the new digital version? There was nothing about the digital version that demanded Web Mercator. Just reconfigure your map app to use Albers and you not only save a considerable amount of work processing all those maps to nicely fit Web Mercator, you actually preserve the use of the correct projection.

What a shame...a terrific project with so many good elements but one utterly incomprehensible cartographic howler. They're not the first to fall into this trap though. Plenty of other large, highly lauded projects have also taken the Web Mercator route rather than tackle the issue of projections properly.

Favourite maps from 2013

Everyone and their dog tends to publish their own 'best maps of...'. Given I spend most of my time on this blog haranguing bad maps during the year I thought I might try it myself this year so here goes, in no particular order...my favourite 10 maps of 2013. For those that are counting, there's 11 but here goes...

NYCHenge by Andrew Hill

The Manhattan Solstice occurs twice a year when the setting sun aligns perfectly with the east-west street grid in New York City. This map could not be any simpler but it captures the phenomena perfectly. Intuitive, interactive controls and a great use of colour allow viewers to explore the way in which the sun splashes across the city throughout the year. Temporal data, perfectly represented with expert use of colour and contrast.

Population Lines by James Cheshire

Global population density drawn as horizontal lines...almost like a cardiograph of the pulse of the world's populus. Not the first map of population that's ever been made but a compelling, alternative and fresh approach. A map that is also a piece of art and the beauty of it's design lies in its simplicity with colour used sparingly and for emphasis. There's an attention to detail that most will overlook that makes this so pleasing to view. Design is implicit.

Tornado Days by Brenden Heberton

2013 saw any number of maps made using NOAA's historical tornado data but this example did a fantastic job of going beyond the map by combining a wide range of multimedia in an innovative way.  The reader scrolls down to reveal new facts, new maps and a new layout. This heightens the interest and keeps people immersed in the rich story being told. Maps as a component of a story...expertly collated and combined with related material.

PLUTO is Free! by Andrew Hill

A selection of maps that celebrate the release of New York City's PLUTO dataset. As you cycle through, the range of maps is well matched to each dataset and illustrated with simple, effective and eye-catching approaches. The maps were initially prepared to provide images for projection at a party but as a linear gallery, they work here to highlight not only the data but high quality cartography, professionally applied in a clean UI.

Scents of Glasgow by Kate McLean

Putting the art in Cartography; a visual art installation that combines a map of perceived smells from Glasgow during the winter of 2012 with bottled scents. The idea is to use the map, combined with 9 bottled scents to inform the culture, history, planning and climate of the city. Soap, Bovril, damp moss, sausage all represent synonymous places. The map shows the centre of the smell and how it dissipates using proportional symbols. It's art. It's c'art. It's done beautifully.

Cloudless Atlas by Mapbox

A fresh approach to making a mosaic of NASA's LANCE-MODIS data. Rather than taking the best image of a particular place and then quilting them together, Mapbox stacked images and processed them, pixel by pixel to get the average of the least cloudy pixel before stitching it all back together to create a seamless cloud-free atlas. Completely synthetic but a great example of using generalisation techniques to create a product that is greater than the sum of its parts (literally). Beautiful imagery.

Global Wind Map by Cameron Beccario

Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg's Wind Map of the USA was one of the best maps of 2012. Here, a similar approach is applied globally for near real-time data. A mesmerizing, beautiful depiction of global weather patterns though the serene nature of the map belies the potential power and savagery of the mapped theme. Intuitive UI and some simple and useful ways to modify the view. Neat.

Collins Crossworld Puzzle by Kenneth Gibson and Kathryn Kelly (Collins Bartholomew)

The world map...as a crossword. That makes it a crossworld. Geddit? Such a simple idea and a well crafted design with clues that broadly fit the locations of their position on the map. Sometimes the simplest of ideas can turn into the most effective of maps. Interaction is implicit. The classic black and white print crossword depiction is favoured and thankfully the temptation to colour continents was ignored. Great work.

The Next Big Spill by Lauri Vanhala

Beautiful production on this video of marine traffic in The Baltic Sea gives the map a cinematic quality. The map is the main actor but the supporting cast of captions makes it easy to understand. The map provokes a questioning approach to what you're seeing. The zooming, panning and soft-focus gives the map a strong aesthetic and the use of a sensible soundscape adds to the atmospheric approach.

Restless America by Chris Walker

Proving that a map doesn't need to take a conventional form, here a chord chart shows the inter-state migration of people in the US in 2012. Good use of size to conotate magnitude and colour to enable differentiation between the States. Simple mouseover interaction means viewers don't get RSI through having to click everywhere. Trying to put this information onto a map wouldn't work as it'd be too overcrowded. This woks. Simply.

Khumbu Himal by Institute of Cartography at TU Dresden

Classic mountain cartography gets a refresh. There's a new colour scheme to go alongside the additional topographic detail derived from new surveys and satellite imagery. The lineage of classic Imhof-inspired depiction of mountain terrain is evident but the colours have been tweaked to give even clearer lines. The detail is breathtaking and although the map is abstract (the earth doesn't actually look like that of course), the colours and symbology give you an unparalleled sense of place.

I've probably missed a few but these are the ones I remember so on that basis alone they obviously registered somewhere in my mapping subconscious. Agree? Disagree?

What can we expect from 2014? World Cup Maps....probably as cartograms.

What colo(u)r is your Crayola?

I'm bored of the "my CartoDB is better than your ArcThing; my MapBox is better than your d3; my map is better than your map..." ad nauseam debate.

There. I said it. It's just plain boring. Boring boring boring.

I'm old enough to have learnt much of my digital cartography through coding, using GIMMS. Then MacPaint, Freehand, CorelDraw, PC Arc/Info 3.4D, MapInfo (yes, I coded using MapBasic) ArcView 3.0, AML, Avenue, Illustrator, Arc/Info...ArcGIS et al., ArcIMS, QGIS, Processing. I've also had the privilege of teaching all of these at one point or another to successive waves of students all of whom grew up getting to grips with the tech of the moment. Now there are some other terrific new ways of doing your cartography with MapBox, TileMill, CartodB, d3 etc. But whether you use proprietary or open, GUI or code, in-browser or desktop...WHO CARES? Horses for courses.

Where is the value in having a debate about which is better? What you choose to use is driven by many factors. Your background might point you down a certain route (geography degree, computer science degree?). Your employment might mean you are more likely to use one approach over another. You might just like doing your map-making in a particular way. In truth, none of the above are perfect. They are all good at doing some things and poor at others. Yes, there's overlap and yes, there are aspects than none do particularly well. People seem to wear their preference like some sort of badge to the exclusion of all other possibilities. My job requires me to use one approach. Outside of that...I use all sorts of approaches.

I do feel strongly, though, that this whole nonsense is missing a more fundamental point. I've heard many claim that democratization of mapping is a win-win; that more mapping means more maps means more geo means more...more, more more... Is "more" a good thing in its own right though? I'm all for more "opportunity" but I am also for more "quality" and more maps in absolute terms does not necessarily equate to more quality. I entirely agree that if there is more opportunity then there is certainly the potential for more great maps but is that what we're seeing? I'm unconvinced. I think the time it once took to make a map is being bypassed and for many people this is simply a short-cut to make the map. But the process has been truncated so profoundly that a lot of the thought about the map is now lost. That used to be time spent thinking about how to represent your data; what choices were important for your map etc. This is often referred to as an "academic" approach to making a map. Nope...it's just about taking the time to think through your map before foisting it on the masses.

I'm not for one moment suggesting that democratization has been bad for cartography...it forces it to constantly adapt and change and there have been some absolutely spectacular examples of quality over the past few years.  The point here, though, is about balance and about quality vs. quantity. You'll likely find that the examples of quality cartography we can point to have been made by people who have taken their time. Thought about the map coupled with a mastery of their chosen tech and a smidgen of innovation or originality is the golden ticket. Long may that continue, whatever colo(u)r of Crayola you choose to make your map with. Geo-silos and map-monopolies have long gone but rather than perpetuating the belief that they live on through endless sniping, I'd prefer to see the debate move on to explore how we can encourage a greater proportion of map-makers to make great maps. It's not just about taking them to the water...it's about showing them how to drink it without spilling it all over the carpet.

Cartomyopia

I had a nice email discussion today about a map.  I'll save the blushes of the person(s) who made it but it was a little (ahem!) sub-par. Thing is, it won't be long before it's touted by marketeers as being the next greatest thing....then it struck me. The world is suffering from a hideous new affliction...cartomyopia.

I've been pondering for quite some time now how we can encourage people to make better maps.  As an ex-University lecturer I could do this in class and students would enter the workforce able to make their analysis look good on a map and communicate properly.  I'm very proud of a good number of my former students whose work makes me smile in the right way.  I'm also proud to have been involved in the British Cartographic Society's Better Mapping workshops as far back as 2006. But what about those that never received any formal training or go to a workshop? What about those who can't be bothered reading a few pages from a book or a web site that shows them some useful tips? What about those who are just plain too arrogant to receive constructive criticism?  Well, these people, my friends, are cartomyopic.  They suffer from the short-sighted delusion that their carto work works...that it is beyond reproach and that no amount of advice or critical comment could possibly improve it.  They suffer from a lack of awareness that cartography (and cartographers) might have something to offer to help them make their work better.

I don't know what it is about maps but for some reason everyone thinks they can make one. Why is it when faced with the need to do some statistical analysis most will run a mile, not even engage in the process and try and find someone else to do the work...but when it comes to the map, sure, pass me the crayola and I'll whip one up for ya!  It's partly because software makes it easier than ever and for those interested in making a map it's easy to see how it might be viewed in a similar light to writing a letter using Word or creating a photo album using Flickr. Cartography has gone mainstream....well, map-making has at the very least.  Those who hang on to the notion that there remains a cartographic "profession" might want to take a reality check.  They (we?) are now merely cartographic advisers.  The minority. We might think we make better maps (and the proof often supports that argument) but there's only one way that map-making is headed...more mainstream.

Andy Woodruff recently wrote a good blog over at Axis Maps on the problem of aesthetics in cartography and I think he touched on some useful points.  If we go back 10 years, software provided the functionality to make a map. You pretty much had to make your fingers bleed to extract a decent map but the functions of the map were what drove the software's capabilities (class ranges, simple symbolisation, basic layouts).  They weren't beautiful but they were at least functional.  Those that needed to read them did so.  Now...everyone wants to make a pretty map because as Woodruff states..."eye candy sells". Form is now overtaking function and our new breed of cartomyopic map-makers want a pretty map, made quickly, consumed in seconds by a large audience and then tossed in the bin because it's a transient object with a short shelf-life.  The map is not meant to last. It matters only for a single event, sometimes in real-time and rarely meant to be lasting and the software now supports the ability to apply pretty effects to free data.  This is picto-bite map-making (bit like sound-bite but in pictorial form) where the search for the viral map that captures attention is more important than creating a well constructed, purposeful product. Maps made by consumers for consumers, designed to be glanced at, have some sort of instant interest but no lasting purpose or appeal.  Is this wrong? Well on one hand I'd say no...instantly appealing maps of events with a short life-span are fine (all those Olympics maps were only useful for a couple of weeks) but why should this mean they have to suffer from poor construction and function?

Woodruff again: "Cartographic expertise is, in essence, knowing the right way to represent geographic phenomena and data for analytical or various other purposes, and understanding of all stages of the mapping process, not simply knowing how to swoop in at the end and make a map pretty. Sure, we can make every map delicious by wrapping it in metaphorical (or real?) bacon, but it won’t be good for you."

This is cartomyopia...the short-sighted view that making a map look pretty will serve its purpose and not appreciating that it's fundamentally bad for you.  So the big question is not how do we make people make better maps, it's how do we arrest this modern carto-plague and make cartomyopic people who already think they know how to make maps... make better maps.  These people hate criticism and get most indignant if the error of their ways is pointed out; they hate being embarrassed by having mistakes pointed out...maybe that suggests deep down they do actually know? Working with them is the answer but here's the next big problem...they so rarely seek help or advice from a cartographer (possibly because they know it'll create more work) so the first time you get to see the work is often when it's published having gone through a marketing department that usually suffers from the even more chronic form of cartomyopia (application of modifications to make it even worse).  This inevitably leads to criticism, apoplectic observations by cartonerds like me and the cycle of annoyance and the plethora of cartofails continues.

So what's the prescription for cartomyopia?  Well the first step is to get them to a meeting where they can admit, in a friendly and non-threatening way that they are a cartomyopic. No one will laugh. No-one will belittle them for their admission. Quite the opposite...most cartographers I know are crying out to help and provide the medication.  We want to encourage better mapping and not just to make maps pretty. We want to help people see through their cartomyopia and learn that telling a good story with maps is not just about making any map-type object look good for an unassuming, uninitiated audience...its about making it work so they get the right message efficiently. In this sense, addressing the output is the wrong way to go about it.  We need to address the process.  We need to be seen as valuable at the outset of a project where maps are going to be made to encourage from within. We need to get marketing departments to value our opinions because ultimately a good map will 'sell' more. We need to be taken seriously for our expertise but in order for that to happen we need to overcome the scurge of cartomyopia.

By the way...don't think I'm for one minute suggesting all cartographers are immune to bouts of cartomyopia.  In its acute form we can all suffer....it comes in short bursts and usually ends with a close friend or colleague pointing out something so mind-numbingly obvious that we'd overlooked. Happens to me all the time...but what I try and do before unleashing a map on the world is address the issue before it gets out. That's all I'm encouraging others to do....manage their own cartomyopia and use the ready and willing support network of cartographers to do so.

Minard's Coal Exports as a Webmap

Recently, I was looking to make a simple but effective webmap on ArcGIS.com to illustrate the use of a new basemap. One of my former students, Chris Clarke did a great print version of Charles Minard's classic Coal Export map using ArcGIS and this seemed a good one to recreate. I had to do a bit of work on the data (amazing what a print map can hide eh Chris?) but here is my version, based on Chris' original data.

Widths of the figurative and approximate routes of coal movement represent approximately the amount of coal exports for that part of the route. The quantities are expressed in units of thousands of tons and are available via pop-ups for the figurative flow routes and destination ports.

The grand total for each segment of the route takes into account the amount of shipping days taken to reach the destination as the ships used to transport the coal are coal powered themselves. Thus, total quantities at the origin and destinations of a particular vessel will not match. The reduction in quantity may be as much as 700,000 tons. As such only exports of over 500,000 tons have been included in this map.

An excellent article describing the original 1890 map by Charles Minard can be found here.


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Valletta Cultural Walking trail

NOTE: NOT a proper blog post...just somewhere to post a webmap for forthcoming NACIS conference

The following webmap was built using ArcGIS.com, a free, online web mapping tool from Esri. It uses data collected by my former Kingston University students on a fieldcourse to Malta in 2010. Here, it's been added to an ArcGIS online webmap which can be simply embeded in a blog or website. You should zoom in or open the larger map to see the symbology appropriately. Alternatively, open this webmap app for an alternative way of exploring the data, to see the legend and the clickable contetn.


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