Friedrich Müller

> "The application of GIS is limited only by the imagination of those
> who use it". \~ [Jack
> Dangermond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Dangermond) , ESRI

Just because you have some geographical data doesn't mean you should
always map it but often the usage of data visualization with an
interactive web map application can bring benefits to your project.

Map visualization helps to reduce the degree of abstraction and supports
communication and sense-making (a.k.a. data analysis) of your data.
Furthermore, an interactive map with functionality like geometry search,
layer control, displaying additional information related to geometries,
etc. makes the search process and data access more efficient and eases
data exploration. An interactive map would also allow vіеwіng,
questioning, undеrѕtаndіng, visualizing аnd іntеrрrеtіng the dаtа into
numbеr оf wауѕ. Integrated spatio-temporal analysis functionality can
support this possibility of data interpretation.

Unfortunately we are not yet in a technological age where it is common
that you can look at textual coordinate data and your Augmented Reality
contact lenses automatically display the according map visualization to
you.

**So, we are responsible that the geographic information, we want to
present to our users, is adequate to human perception, and it should be
a goal of every project that data exploration and analysis is eased as
much as possible.**

Luckily there are a bunch of web mapping libraries and services
available that supports us in this mission. The libraries can be
integrated into our different kinds of applications and can be adapted
to our specific project needs.

Examples:

- [ArcGIS Online](https://www.arcgis.com/home/index.html)
- [Google Maps](https://developers.google.com/maps/?hl=de)
- [Leaflet](https://leafletjs.com/)
- [Mapbox](https://www.mapbox.com/)
- [OpenLayers](https://openlayers.org/)
- ...

Which one is the "best" framework to choose for your project depends on
the provided geodata as well as the specific application and project
requirements. The choice of an adequate type of map visualization is
also in big parts purpose-driven. Each map type has its own strengths.
The different types can be combined with each other and developed
further to produce new types of maps.

Examples:

- [Choropleth map](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choropleth_map)
- [Dot map](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot_distribution_map)
- [Flow map](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_map)
- [Heatmap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_map)
- [Storymap](https://storymaps.arcgis.com/de/)
- ...

To illustrate how an interactive map visualization can be a benefit for
the representation of geodata, I want to point to a current project
development at SUB:

The [FID GEO](https://www.fidgeo.de/) provides a [list of geological
maps (1:25000) -- online availability listed (present and
potential)](http://www.fidgeo.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/GK25-list-onlinepd.pdf)
as a PDF.

This list contains over 900 map sheets of the Prussian geological map 1
: 25 000 that can be found online (free download), as well as more than
600 map sheets that can be digitized by FID GEO free of charge, once a
notice of demand is received.

![package settings view](assets/images/fidgeopdf.png)

OK, you can use the text search and try to find a location by name and
you can visit the provided links of the maps that are already digitized.
But e.g. if you search for a region that is part of a map, but not
directly named, it can be cumbersome to find the right map.
Additionally, the map extent can only be checked visually by visiting
the link to the digital copy. Besides this approach is time-consuming,
the isolated view of a map can be also not the best solution for you if
the region of your interest is located in the transition area of
different maps. If you are interested into a map that isn't already
digitized you only have coordinates provided without visualization.

In this case an interactive map application improves the data
representation and eases data access:

![package settings view](assets/images/fidgeogis.png)

Current features of the application:

- Dynamic info box
- Enlarged view mode via button
- Selection of the map extent with hover highlighting
- Display of the attributes with links to the digital copies or the FID
  GEO order form by clicking on the map geometry
- Selected visualization of background map and geological map categories
- Search via button with magnifying glass symbol (supports location name
  e.g. "Göttingen" and map No. like "4425")

The solution is implemented with [Leaflet](https://leafletjs.com/) and
additional plugins like
[leaflet-search](https://github.com/stefanocudini/leaflet-search) that
were adapted for this use case. The geological map data is underlying as
[GeoJSON](https://geojson.org/).

The application is available: <https://e-docs.geo-leo.de/map>


Just because you have some geographical data doesn’t mean you should always map it but often the usage of data visualization with an interactive web map application can bring benefits to your project. Map visualization helps to reduce the degree of abstraction and supports communication and sense-making (a.k.a. data analysis) of your data.

Be kind to your users-use a map application

University of Glasgow

Roderic Page

More zoom viewer experiments (see [previous
post](http://iphylo.blogspot.com/2011/03/zooming-large-tree-now-with-thumbnails.html)),
this time with a linked map that updates as you browse the tree
(SVG-capable browser required). As you browse the frog classification
the map updates to show the location of georeferenced sequences in
GenBank from the taxa in the part of the tree you are looking at. The
map is limited to not more than 200 localities, and many frog sequences
aren\'t georeferenced, but it\'s a fun way to combine classification and
geography. You can try it at:  
  
<http://iphylo.org/~rpage/deeptree/7.html>  
  
or watch the video:  
  

::: {style="text-align:center"}
::: {.iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/20917959?color=ffffff"}
:::

[Zoomable tree with linked map](http://vimeo.com/20917959) from [Roderic
Page](http://vimeo.com/rdmpage) on [Vimeo](http://vimeo.com).
:::


More zoom viewer experiments (see previous post), this time with a linked map that updates as you browse the tree (SVG-capable browser required). As you browse the frog classification the map updates to show the location of georeferenced sequences in GenBank from the taxa in the part of the tree you are looking at. The map is limited to not more than 200 localities, and many frog sequences aren't georeferenced, but it's a fun way to combine

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

Be kind to your users-use a map application

Geography and genes: zoomable view of frog NCBI classification with linked map