Miscellaneous Monday: Holiday Closure

The GIS/Data Center will be closed December 24 through January 1.  Regular hours will resume on Monday, January 4, 2010.  The blogging staff will also be taking a break and this will be the last post until mid-January.  In the meantime, enjoy this story about how religious institutions around the country are using GPS to catch those notorious Nativity scene thieves.

Happy holidays!

Fun Friday: The Map of Springfield

The Simpsons, one of the most well-known families in America, live in the town of Springfield.  As anyone who has ever watched the show knows, this town has bloomed and blossomed into an extremely complex television town since its creation in 1989. Just check out this interactive map adapted by Adrien Noterdaem from the original made by Jerry Lerma and Terry Hogan.  Here you can find out more than you ever wanted to know about the Simpson’s hometown.  This detailed map shows the location of what seems like very shop, prison, gorge, apartment, park, and mountain ever mentioned, and includes pop-up images of dozens of locations around the town as they would appear on the show (see the screenshot below of Springfield Elementary School). Explore the world of the Simpsons for yourself through Lerma and Hogan's Guide to Springfield USA.

Thursday Data: 2009 TIGER/Line Shapefiles

The updated TIGER/Line shapefiles for 2009 have been released by the U.S. Census Bureau.  TIGER/Line shapefiles are most commonly used as geographic boundaries for corresponding tabular data from the U.S. Census Bureau; however, they also include features such as roads, rivers, and landmarks.  The 2009 release includes boundaries for the 111th Congressional Districts along with 15 new state-based shapefiles including Metropolitan/Micropolitan Statistical Areas and 3-Digit and 5-Digit ZIP Code Tabulation Areas.  Be aware that different shapefiles are available at the national, state, and county levels.

Web Wednesday: UK CrimeMapper

The National Policing Improvement Agency and the UK Home Office have collaborated to create an interactive online map that is available to the public and offers detailed crime statistics in England and Wales. The map allows users to see where and when crime has occurred (some down to the street level), make comparisons with other areas, and learn how crime is being tackled by their local neighborhood policing team.

The map was launched on October 20, 2009. This national map comes after 43 police forces in the UK successfully launched regional crime maps. The regional maps drew a lot of attention, and the national map was even more popular than expected. In fact, the server crashed on the morning of October 20th due to high demand.

Giving the public access to this information is viewed in a positive light by many.  It engages communities in the police force's crime prevention process and it can even encourage people to set up neighborhood watch schemes. However, representatives from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) consider the publication of crime statistics as "sensationalist" and warn that the publishing of this information may have adverse effects on real estate values in high crime areas.

  Map of Recent Crime Activity in England's Shropshire Division

The interactive map is available online and allows you to search for crime statistics by entering a village, town, or postcode, by selecting a police force, or by choosing a district on the map. The map gives you access to information about the trends of crime activity over the past year, and also allows you to see the types of crimes that have been committed in a certain area (crime types include burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, and antisocial behavior). Within a selected area, the map will be divided into sub sections with a light grey representing low crime levels and darker greys indicating higher crime levels. This allows for comparison of crime activity between neighborhoods.  Selecting a police force also gives you access to information about policing priorities.

In addition to highlighting high crime areas and perhaps lowering the real estate value of homes within those areas, some argue that this map also exposes areas of relatively low policing. Giving the public access to policing information could possibly assist criminals in developing more evasive strategies. 

Tuesday Tools: TypeBrewer

In a past blog post, we explored the use of the ColorBrewer tool, and how color selection affects the overall look and feel of a map made in ArcMap.  Selecting appropriate typographic features, such as font size and style, is also very important when practicing good cartography. The map design tool called TypeBrewer allows a user to explore different typographic options in a map environment.  Using this tool, you can select different type styles so you can observe the visual impact of font size, style, density, and tracking on the overall appearance of your map. This simple tool uses principles of cartography and  is a quick way to apply different typographic alternatives and see which fits best for your map.

TypeBrewer is a flash-based interface tool that can be found here. Version 8 or higher of Adobe Flash Player is required to interface with TypeBrewer. Font schemes that are arranged online can be exported as a template in Adobe Illustrator or a specification sheet that lists all the data onscreen can be printed. Then, your selected font scheme can be applied to your map in ArcGIS. The TypeBrewer tool is best utilized in the beginning phases of your project so you can set design specifications before creating your map.

One of the limitations of TypeBrewer is that you can not manually add or substitute your own fonts into the schemes. However, you can select between different classic, formal, informal, and contemporary style labeling groups that are provided. You can select these styles based on on how elegant, professional, historical, or modern you want your map to look.

Miscellaneous Monday: Visualizing the U.S. Electric Grid

You're likely familiar with commercials and debates about the inefficiency of the current U.S. electric grid.  It's been part of a larger discussion about energy conservation and greener methods of energy production.  The idea some have had is that the U.S. wouldn't need to produce so much electricity if less power were lost in the power grid.

NPR has tracked this debate in its series "Power Hungry: Reinventing the U.S. Electric Grid."  One feature in this coverage has been the "Visualizing the U.S. Electric Grid" series of maps.

These maps feature numerous layers that can be turned on and off and which depict such information as current and proposed major power lines, which states depend more on which sources of power, where power plants using different power sources can be found, solar power potential, wind power potential, etc.

Fun Friday: Middle East Geography Quiz

Test your geographic knowledge of the Middle East with this interactive Geography Quiz developed by Rethinking Schools.