Full Width [alt+shift+f] Shortcuts [alt+shift+k]
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]

Adventures In Mapping

Adventures In...
Close Encounters of the Cartographic Kind I was watching the Steven Spielberg 1977 classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with the...
9 months ago
116
9 months ago
I was watching the Steven Spielberg 1977 classic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with the family last night and nerded out when I saw a character that claimed to be a cartographer. I always do. It was the cartographer who recognized that the signals the aliens sent were...
Adventures In...
Puget Sound 3D block diagram Here’s a map of the Puget Sound area that I made a couple years ago for presentations to folks in...
a year ago
110
a year ago
Here’s a map of the Puget Sound area that I made a couple years ago for presentations to folks in the US northwest. Recently I wanted to work some more at labeling in a 3D environment and found this to be a handy target. Additionally, I thought it would be fun to make more use …
Adventures In...
Find and download vintage USGS topo maps The new Historical Topo Map Explorer is out of beta and ready for you to dive into a collection of...
8 months ago
102
8 months ago
The new Historical Topo Map Explorer is out of beta and ready for you to dive into a collection of over 180,000 beautiful vintage USGS topo maps! Use this updated Living Atlas app to geographically browse, download, export, and even animate, these cartographic objects of joy....
Adventures In...
Illumination Cartography Here are a few flavors of a technique, illumination cartography, that uses data to shed light on its...
10 months ago
101
10 months ago
Here are a few flavors of a technique, illumination cartography, that uses data to shed light on its underlying basemap. There’s something satisfying about presenting a phenomenon as revealing geography rather than obscuring it. Love, John
Adventures In...
How to Make a Hexagonal Cartogram in ArcGIS Pro Of course maps are just the most fascinating and information dense graphical information products...
11 months ago
97
11 months ago
Of course maps are just the most fascinating and information dense graphical information products around…in my unbiased opinion. I can, and do, go on and on about the deep and pervasive benefits of spatial representations. But…well…sometimes a map, strictly speaking, can have...
Adventures In...
How to make a “peeled edge” area of interest effect Sure, everyone loves a good raised area-of-interest effect. But what about a peeled edge area of...
6 months ago
94
6 months ago
Sure, everyone loves a good raised area-of-interest effect. But what about a peeled edge area of interest? It’s a snazzy trick and maybe just the sort of flair that your map needs! And it’s simpler than maybe you’d guess. To give your area of interest a peeled edge effect, you...
Adventures In...
Make this 3D printed globe please Ah, it’s that time of year when we geographers pour ourselves a steaming mug of hot coffee and place...
a year ago
94
a year ago
Ah, it’s that time of year when we geographers pour ourselves a steaming mug of hot coffee and place a stroopwafel over it until the caramel is nice and gooey and take the hand of other nearby geographers and sing O Denneboom together. Say, what’s with all the Dutch references?...
Adventures In...
On-the-Fly Generalization Hack for ArcGIS Pro Generalization is one of the most important tools in a map maker’s tool kit. Sometimes the...
a year ago
94
a year ago
Generalization is one of the most important tools in a map maker’s tool kit. Sometimes the complexity of our geometry needs to be smoothed out to best visually represent a place or appear best at various scales. Here is a way (complete hack, but surprisingly effective) to...
Adventures In...
How to make this thematic map, and stuff One of the great joys of working here at Esri is the opportunity to collaborate with amazing people....
6 months ago
92
6 months ago
One of the great joys of working here at Esri is the opportunity to collaborate with amazing people. Recently I had the opportunity to present at the User Conference about thematic mapping, with Sarah Bell and Kenneth Field. It was a lot of fun and we all surprised each other...
Adventures In...
Make this AI-inspired topo landscape please Many weeks ago I saw an achingly beautiful bit of AI-generated terrain art shared by Esri’s glorious...
a year ago
92
a year ago
Many weeks ago I saw an achingly beautiful bit of AI-generated terrain art shared by Esri’s glorious instagram account. Initially I was a bit intimidated by the robots; it was so charming and tactile and wondrous and dreamlike and sinuous. But also…inspiring. I wondered if I...
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 2, Mountains “I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains. And then find somewhere where I can rest.” In...
a year ago
92
a year ago
“I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains. And then find somewhere where I can rest.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the reckoning of a Lord of the Rings style fantasy map, right in ArcGIS Pro. We map-makers get to breathe honest to goodness geographic life...
Adventures In...
Add Multiple Maps to One Layout Of course Alaska and Hawaii are glorious places, beloved by all for their lovely inhabitants and...
5 months ago
88
5 months ago
Of course Alaska and Hawaii are glorious places, beloved by all for their lovely inhabitants and majestic natural environs. It would be an error of omission should they not appear in a map of the United States, but it would also be a shame to shoe-horn them in looking sad with an...
Adventures In...
5 Minutes to Make a Map! We’ve all been there. A request comes in and you don’t have a lot of time. Like 5 or 10 minutes....
a year ago
86
a year ago
We’ve all been there. A request comes in and you don’t have a lot of time. Like 5 or 10 minutes. What! Ok, ok, be cool, this is going to be ok. Just breathe…and think. Think. Yes, we’ve got this. We’ve got the tools and the resources to crank out a serviceable map in the amount …
Adventures In...
Imagery basemap ready for data Imagery is the most detailed, most literal of basemaps. You are actually seeing a picture of what...
a year ago
82
a year ago
Imagery is the most detailed, most literal of basemaps. You are actually seeing a picture of what the ground looks like at any location. And while this sort of context can be incredibly useful, it can also wreck the way we see and understand thematic data that is draped over it....
Adventures In...
Detect and measure wildfires with Sentinel-1 Explorer Our human visual systems collect light from a pretty narrow slice of the electromagnetic spectrum....
6 months ago
82
6 months ago
Our human visual systems collect light from a pretty narrow slice of the electromagnetic spectrum. But there is so much more light to see. Radar systems use photons with much longer wavelengths that can break through clouds and smoke, and because the energy is sent from the...
Adventures In...
Vintage Retro Old-School 1890s Basemap for ArcGIS Pro Here’s how to stack up some tile layers and blend them up to concoct a basemap that wouldn’t look...
6 months ago
79
6 months ago
Here’s how to stack up some tile layers and blend them up to concoct a basemap that wouldn’t look out of place in 1890. Except that you wouldn’t have anywhere to plug in your monitor so it would be hard to show it to people back then. Ok bring a small generator. Wait, all these …
Adventures In...
How to make this map of a melting glacier I’ve been to Columbia Glacier, just west of Valdez, Alaska, three times. The first was as a...
a year ago
77
a year ago
I’ve been to Columbia Glacier, just west of Valdez, Alaska, three times. The first was as a youngster in 1984, the second in 1987, and the final time in 2000. Each time, the ride by boat to the terminal edge of the ice where it calves into Prince William Sound, took a bit longer....
Adventures In...
Cartography Workshop in Utrecht, April 2024 I’m going to be in the Netherlands April 23, 2024, to spend a day nerding out on map making. I’ll be...
a year ago
77
a year ago
I’m going to be in the Netherlands April 23, 2024, to spend a day nerding out on map making. I’ll be a guest of Esri Netherlands, and will lead this workshop day, called “Mapping Magic with John Nelson” (no pressure). It’s a kickoff to their Esri Connect 2024 event. Here’s a...
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 1, Forests “Most of the trees are just trees, of course; but many are half awake.” In this 4-part series we’ll...
a year ago
75
a year ago
“Most of the trees are just trees, of course; but many are half awake.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the reckoning of a Lord of the Rings style fantasy map, right in ArcGIS Pro. We map-makers get to breathe honest to goodness geographic life into the seminal aesthetic...
Adventures In...
Historical Topo Map Explorer (beta) The USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer is getting an update, and you can try out this new beta...
a year ago
74
a year ago
The USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer is getting an update, and you can try out this new beta version, here: LivingAtlas.ArcGIS.com/TopoMapExplorer The United States Geological Survey has a rich history of creating exquisite topographic quadrangle maps. These topo maps are...
Adventures In...
How to Make a Historical Animation with Landsat Here’s how to whip up a three decade animation of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest,...
12 months ago
73
12 months ago
Here’s how to whip up a three decade animation of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest, using Landsat Explorer. And it only takes a few minutes. … 0:00 Intro0:20 Assembling the animation1:47 Checking the result2:14 Saving an animation as an MP42:44 More animation examples3:33...
Adventures In...
Thoughts on the Cartographer’s Role in an AI Future A few moments ago I was asked by a student about the “development of cartography over the next 10...
12 months ago
71
12 months ago
A few moments ago I was asked by a student about the “development of cartography over the next 10 years.” Here’s my somewhat off-the-cuff response, though my thoughts have been steeping in this for the past year or so. In the next 10 years artificial intelligence, and probably...
Adventures In...
How to emboss an imagery basemap Ah the simple pleasures of the World Imagery basemap. So much earth. So much imagery. So many...
a year ago
71
a year ago
Ah the simple pleasures of the World Imagery basemap. So much earth. So much imagery. So many corners of this world to explore. How can we take something so verdant and charming and just ratchet it up to eleven? We’ll use a water mask and some layer effects, that’s how! 0:00...
Adventures In...
In a Slump, But Not Forever
a year ago
Adventures In...
The Bounding Box Podcast The one where I chat with Rene Rubalcava about the importance of unstructured data-play, the risk of...
over a year ago
70
over a year ago
The one where I chat with Rene Rubalcava about the importance of unstructured data-play, the risk of metrics becoming the goal, where to find inspiration, brewing chaos into professional development, and loving our neighbors!
Adventures In...
Boost the Human Footprint in Imagery The World Imagery Basemap is a lovely resource spanning the Earth in all directions at all scales....
5 months ago
67
5 months ago
The World Imagery Basemap is a lovely resource spanning the Earth in all directions at all scales. If you want to add a level of context you can always add a reference overlay. But what about baking a reference overlay into the imagery in a way that makes it look, like, sort of...
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 4, Assembly “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” In this 4-part series...
a year ago
66
a year ago
“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the reckoning of a Lord of the Rings style fantasy map, right in ArcGIS Pro. We map-makers get to breathe honest to goodness geographic life into the seminal...
Adventures In...
Three Maps & the Truth You may have heard that “all maps lie” and that’s right (also, here’s some required reading). Each...
2 months ago
65
2 months ago
You may have heard that “all maps lie” and that’s right (also, here’s some required reading). Each map is a collection of compromises, whether they’re geomatic (your projection and scale choices), editorial (your choice of subject and what you’ve chosen to show and not show), and...
Adventures In...
Storybook Cartography ArcGIS Pro is a serious tool for serious GIS analysis. Are you ready for some seriously charming...
over a year ago
63
over a year ago
ArcGIS Pro is a serious tool for serious GIS analysis. Are you ready for some seriously charming illustration style cartography? Ok! . . Children’s maps are a valuable thing. They are often the first impressions the world of geography has on every single one of us. What an...
Adventures In...
Throwing Shade In Wild Color I once heard someone say that standard hillshade (one-direction light source) ignores half of the...
a year ago
63
a year ago
I once heard someone say that standard hillshade (one-direction light source) ignores half of the terrain. While this is an exaggeration, it makes a good point. Earth has an atmosphere and light diffuses, bounces, and wraps around a terrain in a manner that a single light...
Adventures In...
How to make tapered rivers in ArcGIS Pro Cartographers will often exaggerate the natural scale of a mapped feature to help it communicate...
over a year ago
63
over a year ago
Cartographers will often exaggerate the natural scale of a mapped feature to help it communicate something of its nature. Some examples are vertical exaggeration of terrain or the very existence of point symbols (cities aren’t actually that big). We embellish for effect. Making a...
Adventures In...
North Arrow Necessity Can a map still be considered a map if it doesn’t have a north arrow? Yes. A north arrow is an...
6 months ago
60
6 months ago
Can a map still be considered a map if it doesn’t have a north arrow? Yes. A north arrow is an optional map accompaniment and you should think critically about your map to determine for yourself if it needs a north arrow or not. For what it’s worth, often a map should not have a...
Adventures In...
How to add mist to terrain in ArcGIS Online There are lots of reasons to cloak your terrain in a fluffy ephemeral layer of mist. It gives an...
over a year ago
60
over a year ago
There are lots of reasons to cloak your terrain in a fluffy ephemeral layer of mist. It gives an overall sense of the slope and elevation trends in your view, it showcases meandering river valleys in a charming realism, hilltops peak through with clarity and drama…and it just...
Adventures In...
How to make this drought map in ArcGIS Online Here’s how to make the drought map used in the Drought Aware app. This video covers creating a...
2 months ago
60
2 months ago
Here’s how to make the drought map used in the Drought Aware app. This video covers creating a custom imagery basemap, modified to best support thematic data, and a styling method for the overlain drought polygons so they tint the imagery a color based on severity and have a...
Adventures In...
Stories Here are some StoryMap stories that I’ve written over the years… Piracy & Time Travel How Deep is...
a year ago
59
a year ago
Here are some StoryMap stories that I’ve written over the years… Piracy & Time Travel How Deep is Challenger Deep? Julie’s Improbable Flight How to Write a Story, starring sharks and hurricanes Gap, Pass, Notch, & Saddle College Football Air Mile Index Rivers of Plastic Smoking,...
Adventures In...
The Geoholics Podcast I got to join The Geoholics podcast this week and had a fun conversation with Kent Groh, Ryan Kelly,...
over a year ago
59
over a year ago
I got to join The Geoholics podcast this week and had a fun conversation with Kent Groh, Ryan Kelly, and Nik Smilovsky Here is a link to the episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0sHBwsGyfAoZE3ra5RaeVB?si=f1f3bdf9ab3b4695 Here’s the episode’s description: Raised by two...
Adventures In...
John Snow’s Cholera Map Reimagined John Snow’s map of the 1854 London cholera outbreak was revolutionary in that it clearly drew a...
a year ago
59
a year ago
John Snow’s map of the 1854 London cholera outbreak was revolutionary in that it clearly drew a visual connection between deaths and the locations of well pumps. It helped contribute to the idea that cholera was a water-borne disease and effectively marks the creation of the...
Adventures In...
GIS Day 2024 They say it’s the mappiest day of the year, but here’s a short video we made for GIS Day way back at...
3 months ago
58
3 months ago
They say it’s the mappiest day of the year, but here’s a short video we made for GIS Day way back at the mappiest place on earth (aka the Esri User Conference) back in July! November felt like forever away, but you know how all that goes. Thanks to Jo Ann Prichniewski for...
Adventures In...
Blend Mode Helper Blend modes can be a complex thing to wrap one’s head around. Experimentation is the best teacher,...
a year ago
58
a year ago
Blend modes can be a complex thing to wrap one’s head around. Experimentation is the best teacher, but even then there are lots of variabilities involved, depending on the layer you use to experiment. The Blend Mode Helper Map (and its constituent Blend Mode Helper layer) reduces...
Adventures In...
Vignettes for the Win! A vignette is a darkening (or lightening) of the edges of a composition, to subtly frame it and draw...
3 months ago
56
3 months ago
A vignette is a darkening (or lightening) of the edges of a composition, to subtly frame it and draw the eye in to the middle. It’s an old photographer’s darkroom trick. Lucky for us, I’ve spent many hours in the darkroom and have grown to appreciate the charm and effectiveness...
Adventures In...
Dashing Maps There are lots of reasons why cartographers use dashed lines in their maps. Sometimes there are a...
3 months ago
56
3 months ago
There are lots of reasons why cartographers use dashed lines in their maps. Sometimes there are a lot of different sorts of lines going around and it’s the best way to differentiate between different categories of things. Or we can embed meaning into them, like a dashed line...
Adventures In...
How to find (and style!) detailed water polygons for your map I often struggle to find high resolution polygons for things that tend to change, like water, urban,...
a year ago
55
a year ago
I often struggle to find high resolution polygons for things that tend to change, like water, urban, ice, whatever. Here’s how you can wrangle some up-to-date, detailed, water polygons for your small or medium scale maps (plus five different ways you can style them up)… Here’s...
Adventures In...
Women in GIS Workshop If you aren’t doing anything else on the allotted 2.5 hours of January 24, 2025, then consider...
2 months ago
51
2 months ago
If you aren’t doing anything else on the allotted 2.5 hours of January 24, 2025, then consider tuning in to this Women in GIS workshop where I’ll share the process (and all the data and documents) for making this migration map. The cost is free, unless you count the 2.5 hours of...
Adventures In...
How to Reattach Land that Spills Over the International Dateline If you’ve ever made a world map before, you may have noticed that bit of Siberia that spills over...
a year ago
50
a year ago
If you’ve ever made a world map before, you may have noticed that bit of Siberia that spills over the International Dateline only to magically appear on the left edge of the world. When it comes to projecting our not-2D world onto a 2D surface, we have to draw the line somewhere....
Adventures In...
Make these ornaments please It’s that time of year when geographers the world over gather together in, let’s be honest, just...
2 months ago
47
2 months ago
It’s that time of year when geographers the world over gather together in, let’s be honest, just slightly awkward office holiday parties. We dedicate 82-86% of our mental capacities to socializing with our colleagues over deserts and drinks, while the remaining 14-16% remain...
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 3, Water “The world has changed. I see it in the water.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the...
a year ago
46
a year ago
“The world has changed. I see it in the water.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the reckoning of a Lord of the Rings style fantasy map, right in ArcGIS Pro. We map-makers get to breathe honest to goodness geographic life into the seminal aesthetic found in the LOTR...
Adventures In...
Reimagining a classic Cheysson thematic map There is no one right way to make a map. Especially data-heavy thematic maps. In that spirit my...
a year ago
39
a year ago
There is no one right way to make a map. Especially data-heavy thematic maps. In that spirit my friend and colleague Ken Field recently challenged Sarah Bell and I to each re-imagine a few wonderful classic maps. This is a tall order, but I found some comfort and encouragement...
Adventures In...
How to Make this Animated Map of Blue Whale Migration I have a deep admiration for the stirrings inside animals that drive them to undertake...
a year ago
33
a year ago
I have a deep admiration for the stirrings inside animals that drive them to undertake thousands-of-miles journeys to far flung locations, and back, in concert with the passage of the our earth around its sun. I’ve reflected on it in writing what became a surprisingly...
Adventures In...
Analysis in the Browser Here is a two-pack with some small adventures with data in ArcGIS Online. The first is a smashing of...
a year ago
32
a year ago
Here is a two-pack with some small adventures with data in ArcGIS Online. The first is a smashing of two fields into a new frankenfield ready for mapping, and the second shows how to create entirely new map layers and cram them with meaningful attributes. … Sometimes you have all...
Adventures In...
Layout sandwich Here’s how to make an ArcGIS Pro layout where certain elements of the map step over the neatline and...
a year ago
30
a year ago
Here’s how to make an ArcGIS Pro layout where certain elements of the map step over the neatline and the graticule is relegated only to the oceans. Because that looks cool! Mapping has a long and handsome history of neatlines that are interrupted by bits of land spilling over it,...
Adventures In...
How to Make Features Illuminate an Underlying Basemap Sure, we can make features look like they are glowing. But how can we make them look like they are...
a year ago
27
a year ago
Sure, we can make features look like they are glowing. But how can we make them look like they are casting light on the basemap below? Here’s a silly little trick using crafty symbology and blend modes in ArcGIS Pro. In this case we’ll use glorious stork migration paths,...
Adventures In...
Draw complex polygons in ArcGIS Pro, super fast Sometimes I realize that in the amount of time I’ve spent looking for detailed data, I could have...
2 weeks ago
12
2 weeks ago
Sometimes I realize that in the amount of time I’ve spent looking for detailed data, I could have just created it. Often, water polygons at the scale you need for your mega-detailed map just aren’t available. Here’s how to draw a complex polygon in ArcGIS Pro super easily. And,...
Adventures In...
Easy map data downloads for graphic designers Graphic designers! Here’s an easy way to grab beautiful accurate open map data for your design work....
2 weeks ago
11
2 weeks ago
Graphic designers! Here’s an easy way to grab beautiful accurate open map data for your design work. Real data. No tracing. Download vector map data as points, lines, and polygons, all styled and ready for your work in Illustrator or whatever program you use. Maps rule, and it’s...