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GIS at UCD and on the Web: For Impact Show Your Data on a Map

UCD Library GIS Guide

Training Sessions

Do you have a class of students that you would like to organise a training session for? 

Please contact me to arrange a class for any of these products: StoryMap JS, Timeline JS, Google MyMaps, a Datawrapper Choropleth map or a Datawrapper Symbol map.

                                                           I'd be delighted to hear from you at jane.nolan@ucd.ie

How to Create an Online Story using StoryMap JS

StoryMap JS is a free tool to help you tell stories on the web that highlight the locations of a series of events.

Here are some examples of other StoryMap JS stories :

Are you creating maps for your research?

The use of maps enables the visualisation of data and helps to make an argument easier to understand.  As well as making a lasting impression they provide an eye-catching way to make data coherent, to see patterns emerge and to communicate research findings.
 
To encourage the use of maps in a wide variety of disciplines and to inspire our own PhD students and researchers to create maps without requiring a big learning curve we run workshops on some of the mapping tools as shown on this page.

Show Your Data on a Map : Google My Maps

Follow the step-by-step guide in the PDF below to see how to display your data on a map.

The zipped folder contains the spreadsheets and jpgs which you need to use to complete the exercises.

 

Click here to link to the map

Further examples of Google My Maps
Librarians across Mississippi have teamed up to create a map of parking lot WiFi access points.
A public map of all the defibrillators in County Leitrim has been created by local organisations
One book publisher in Canada has created a map of indie booksellers in Canada who are offering delivery or curbside pick-up.
In the Philippines, the Department of Transportation is using My Maps to map free-up hospital shuttle service routes for COVID-19 medical frontliners.
The National Transit Agency of Ecuador is using My Maps to help truck drivers moving food across the country find disinfection points, gas stations, mechanics and other resources to help them on their journey.
A Google My Map created of Civil War battles in the USA

Show your Data on a Map : Creating a Datawrapper Symbol Map

With Datawrapper's free service you can create different types of maps. This guide shows you how to create a symbol map which you can either use interactively on a website or blog, or save as an image to include in a thesis or report. With this type of map you can show numerical / quantitative data for specific places. For example:

  • Show locations of earthquakes and size the symbol by their magnitude
  • View the top twenty busiest airports in the world by numbers of passengers
  • See all cities with urban populations of more than 2 million people
  • Visualise levels of ammonia emission measurements in each EU country

How to Create an Online Timeline using Timeline JS

Click on this image below to open the TimeLine created with Timeline JS

45 Years of Referendums in Europe 1972-2017 [Scroll down page and click on Load Content to see the TimeLine]

Social and Employment Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic The European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) created this busy timeline - filled with data and events

Mapping a World of Cities is another example of a Knight Lab Timeline  'Covering four centuries, these maps show how world cities changed alongside the changing art and science of cartography' This is a timeline of historical and vintage maps of cities around the world. 

The New York Academy of Medicine Library  A timeline of major events and activities in the history of the Library from 1847 to 2012

Discovering Galapagos : a Journey through the History of the Islands 

Diversity in the Women Air Force Service Pilots of WWII

Show your Data on a Map : Creating a Datawrapper Choropleth Map

With Datawrapper's free service you can create different types of maps. This guide shows you how to create a choropleth map which you can either use interactively on a website or blog, or save as an image to include in a thesis or report.

Choropleth Maps – these are thematic maps where you can use colours to display statistical data by colour or pattern for geographic areas, e.g. countries, constituencies, counties, provinces, administrative areas, etc. Choropleth maps use different shades of colour or different colours to display the quantity, value or category in the selected areas. 

For example, by using a darker or lighter shade of colour or different colours you can:

  • show the population density for each Irish county 
  • depict highest / lowest literacy levels in each country around the world (as shown in this UNESCO report)
  • visualise USA states by Democratic / Republican governors
  • see hectares of forestry by each state in Brazil
  • represent on a map African countries which have / have not eradicated TB

Click on this graphic to see other examples in PDF format:

How to Import a CSV file into ArcMap and Convert the Data to a Shapefile