1. Research in Cartography geospatial data visualization Sally Hermansen
Joey Lee & Andreas Christen
CO2 emissions
UBC Geography 2015
Research in Cartography geospatial data visualization
Sally Hermansen

2. What are we going to do today
Get us thinking about geospatial data vis – some cool web sites
Review cartographic communication as you have been exposed to in 270/372
From Cartography to Geospatial data Visualization:
Process
Tufte’s principles of visualization
Digital Transition
Politics
Review the course: web site; weekly schedule; assessment
Assignment 1

3. 1. Get us thinking about geospatial data vis – some cool web sites
New York Times: Irma maps Monday Sept 11/17

4. Person Project Name Software Link Co. Andy Woodruff Axis Maps
Geography of Jobs
Brian Jacobs
National Geographic
Tracking Ivory
Javascript/CSS, d3, Leaflet, Node, commandline
Aaron Koblin
Flight Paths
Processing
Gregor Aisch
New York Times ?
CARTO
Madrid subway complaints
CARTO +?
Pipelines
Yourish
et al
NYT
Syrian refugee
JavaScript +?
Periscopic
US Gun deaths
Javascript +?
Visually
Global Coral Reef Monitoring
Home Brew
D3?

5. What are we going to do today
Get us thinking about geospatial data vis – some cool web sites
Review cartographic communication as you have been exposed to in 270/372
From Cartography to Geospatial data Visualization:
Process
Tufte’s principles of visualization
Digital Transition
Politics
Review the course: web site; weekly schedule; assessment
Assignment 1

6. 2. Cartographic Communication System
real world
360.here.com
map user
GIS analyst/
cartographer’s
conception of
the real world
map
map
DECODING
472
ENCODING
270/372
visual noise

7. Map Design (270/372) Acquire data: check, review, edit, filter, parse
Classify, analyze, mine data: best method
Represent data:
map elements symbology
figure/ground balance
Ethics, audience, visual noise

10. What are we going to do today
Get us thinking about geospatial data vis – some cool web sites
Review cartographic communication as you have been exposed to in 270/372
From Cartography to Geospatial data Visualization:
Process
Tufte’s principles of visualization
Digital Transition
Politics
Review the course: web site; weekly schedule; assessment
Assignment 1

11. 3. From Cartography to Geospatial Data Visualization Lets get more creative… and this does not necessarily mean more complex
MIT sensible cities lab

12. Geospatial Data Visualization Introduction to Dodge, McDerby and Turner Geographic Visualization
Looking: Explanation
Presentation graphics, maps, charts
Static, dynamic, animation, 3D
Querying Exploration
Visual interfaces for info access
Data mining
Questioning Exploration
Probe and drill down from presentation graphics
Interaction: change projections, filtering, classification, linked displays, real-time response
BBC Gapminder (4 minutes)

13. a) Visualization Process Introduction to Dodge, McDerby and Turner Geographic Visualization
GOAL: helping people see the unseen
see complex relationships,
clear understanding of phenomenon,
reduce search time
reveal relationships
classics: London Tube and Minard’s Napoleon March map
Theoretical Process:
Cognitive process of learning through the active engagement with graphical signs.
A cognitive shorthand for places and processes
Technical Process…

14. b) Tufte’s Principles of Visualization
Visual Explanations
Envisioning Information
Beautiful Evidence

15. Goals of the Course = Goals of Tufte’s books:
Creativity in Envisioning Information
Representing knowledge with integrity through Visual Explanations
Leaving behind Beautiful Evidence

16. Envisioning Information Escaping flatland
image
number
word
art

17. Visual Explanations Develop methods to: Knowledge Describe Illustrate
Construct
Knowledge
Clarity and
Excellence in
Thinking
Clarity and
Excellence in
Data Display

18. The importance of Visual Explanations: cause and effect
Decision to Launch Space Challenger
Jan. 28, 1986
Perhaps Tufte’s greatest story
Page 38 VE

19. Tufte, BE, p 122-139 Minard’s Map: analysis
Tufte’s Principles:
Comparisons
Compared to what? 422 to 10 only 1 in 42 survived; 22,000 died in 2 days river
Causality, Mechanism, Structure, Explanation
Termperature (reaumur scale, like C) starts at 0 or freezing, and
Time: retreat Oct to Dec. 7th
Multivariate Analysis
6 variables: size, location (x and y), direction, temp, date
Integration of Evidence: words, numbers, images, diagrams: mixed methods
Documentation : titles, authors, data source info, scales
Content counts: quality, relevance, integrity of content
These principles are rooted in cognitive tasks – are relevant for Producing presentation and consuming presentations
Analytical thinking: 1. causality 2. comparison 3. multivariate complexity

20. c) Digital Transition Introduction to Dodge, McDerby and Turner Geographic Visualization
Since 90s: rapid development and diffusion of information and communication
Mapquest, google maps, openstreetmap
Cheap, powerful computer graphics
Web mapping; on-line GIS tools, interactive mapping
Visualizations seen increasingly as transitory info resources, created at the moment and discarded after use

21. Huge change in geospatial data:
from UBC geography Getdata to
open data captured by governments and industry to
citizen science data or Volunteer Geographic Information
Big Data: sensors can now capture massive amounts of data in real time

28. https://carto.com/integrations/twitter-maps/

29. Copy in GIC

30. Carlo Ratti Director MIT Sensible Cities lab
Big data on cities + technology + design = Making cities smarter greener healthier

31. Carlo Ratti Director MIT Sensible Cities lab
Underground project
MIT team: “economists, engineers, data scientists, biologists, mathematicians and data visualizers”

32. Carlo Ratti Director MIT Sensible Cities lab
“he has figured out how to line up
art and science,
to merge a visual repertoire with
one based on technology”
AZUREMAGAZINE, Sept 2017

33. d) Politics of Visualization Introduction to Dodge, McDerby and Turner Geographic Visualization
Methodology of data selection design process
Subjective process: decision to include, exclude, represent, message
Data integrity – with all this open data, software, hackathons, github, forking…. We are losing meta data – data lineage and data integrity.

35. Data integrity?
Versus

36. What are we going to do today
Get us thinking about geospatial data vis – some cool web sites
Review cartographic communication as you have been exposed to in 270/372
From Cartography to Geospatial data Visualization:
Process
Tufte’s principles of visualization
Digital Transition
Politics
Review the course: web site; weekly schedule; assessment
Assignment 1

37. https://ubcwellbeing.wordpress.com/
4. The Course

38. Goals of Course
Understand geospatial data visualization process from raw data to interactive web maps (encoding information)
Understanding of decoding geospatial information displays: visual system, perception, cognition
Exposure to geospatial data visualization created with open source tools which may involve some coding.
Create a portfolio blog site as a repository of your work
Work with a community partner on a visualization project

39. 5. Map Critique Assignment
Due at the beginning of next class
Presenters?