In our series “Maps and mappers of the 2016 calendar” we will present throughout 2016 the mapmakers who submitted their creations for inclusion in the 2016 GeoHipster calendar.
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Jacqueline Kovarik
Q: Tell us about yourself.
A: I currently work as a GIS Developer at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), creating interactive web maps and data collection apps that assist with natural resource management. My BA in Environmental Studies and MS in Geographic Information Science are put to good use every day in a job that I truly enjoy.
Q: Tell us the story behind your map (what inspired you to make it, what did you learn while making it, or any other aspects of the map or its creation you would like people to know).
A: This past year I had the opportunity to work with several amazing bee experts at the DNR, looking for an efficient way to collect data on native bees in Minnesota. There has been a shocking decline in bee population across the country, which prompted the DNR to research native bees and their habitat. After creating a data collection app for our bee researchers, we spent a day testing it in the field where I was amazed to learn there are over 400 native bee species in our state. Many of these species gather pollen from plants in only one plant family (known as “specialist” bees), but there has been little research completed on their habitat characteristics or range.
Through this data collection application development process I was inspired to investigate a few of Minnesota’s specialist bees, and wanted to create a map that would draw attention to the diversity of bees in our state while bringing awareness to bee population decline. I also wanted to highlight the need for increased data and analysis, which is an integral component of bee population preservation.
Over the past few years I’ve created a handful of watercolor maps based on personal areas of curiosity, including illegal animal trade, UFO sightings, modern day pirate attacks, etc. I have a passion for painting as well as map making, so it was only natural to combine my two interests. It’s been a great way to maintain my cartographic skills which I find little time for now as a developer.
Q: Tell us about the tools, data, etc., you used to make the map.
A: Data collected from the mobile app I created was compiled along with plant specimen data from the Minnesota DNR and specialist bee location data from the University of Minnesota’s Bee Lab. After mining and cleaning the datasets, I brought them into ArcGIS to identify areas of range overlap between 8 specialist bees and their 6 native host plants, and then used a hexagon tessellation tool to create generalized overlap zones. A plotted map of the state was transferred to watercolor paper using a graphite transfer method, then hand-painted with watercolors. Bee and plant species were hand-painted at an enlarged scale to show the unique differences in appearance.
Last month GeoHipster put out a call for maps for the 2016 GeoHipster calendar. The response was overwhelming, with nearly two dozen maps being submitted. The submissions represented a cross-section of the cartographic talent and imagination of the geospatial industry. The GeoHipster advisory board certainly had its work cut out for it.
We would have loved to have simply used all of the maps we received, but Pope Gregory XIII gave us a calendar that only had room for twelve. So we are happy to announce the authors whose work you will be seeing throughout 2016 (in no particular order): Meg Miller, Asger Petersen, Jacqueline Kovarik, Terence Stigers, Katie Kowalsky, Rosemary Wardley, Ralph Straumann, Gretchen Peterson, Jonah Adkins, Stephen Smith, Mario Nowak, and Andrew Zolnai. Congratulations to each of you, and thank you for your support of GeoHipster and your dedication to the craft of mapmaking.
GeoHipster has adopted a mission of exploring the state of the geospatial industry from the eyes of those working in it, and the response from the community has been humbling. Part of that mission is celebrating the great work and creativity resident in the community. As part of that celebration, GeoHipster will be publishing a feature on each map throughout 2016 so our readers can learn a bit more about how and why each map was created. We will be doing this not only for the 12 maps selected for the calendar, but for all of the maps submitted this year, in recognition of the support and creativity shown by all who participated. We are excited to expand GeoHipster to include the art of our community.
Finally, we’d like to give a shout out to Mapbox for their continued support of GeoHipster’s independent content, this time by sponsoring the 2016 calendar. Their support will help expand the types of content we offer next year, including reprising the “young professionals” showcase of up-and-coming talent that was debuted this month.
The calendar is currently being designed, and will be ready to order by the US Thanksgiving holiday. It makes a great gift, and is a super way to answer the inevitable question we all field from our family during the holidays: “So what is it that you do?”
Real talk: I love geo. After 15 years or so in this field, I’m constantly amazed at the work being accomplished by my colleagues. I’m especially inspired by the new class of talent that comes along every few years. Whether it be a thought-provoking tweet, a fresh take on cartography, or niche app that re-defines a previous concept, young professionals are continually improving our field.
In taking a break from our usual long-form interview format, i’d like to introduce you to eight young professionals who inspire me on a regular basis. Each of them brings a unique perspective to geo, and all of them are dedicated to making a difference by having a positive impact on our world.
I recently asked each of them to tell me about what they love about geo right now, and invited them to share something “cool”. Some you may already know, some you may not, so here’s a virtual handshake to help introduce them to you.
Eight young professionals doing awesome things in geo | Left to right: Top row: Kitty Hurley, Kelvin Abrokwa-Johnson, Allison Smith; Middle row: Courtney Claessens, Katie Kowalsky; Bottom row: Alex Kappel, Kara Mahoney, Jacqueline Kovarik
A front-end GIS Developer at the State of Minnesota, Kitty is focused on UI/UX, cartographic design, mobile environments, and web accessibility. She helps organize Maptime MSP, and is finishing her three-year term on the Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium’s Board of Directors. In her free time, Kitty hits the ice to play hockey, hikes/snowshoes (depending on the season), loves a good book, and likes to travel the globe.
Cool shareable: Map for the annual Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium’s conference showcasing hotels, key attractions, and establishments. The 2015 conference was the 25th annual conference held in the beautiful city of Duluth. http://geospatialem.github.io/conference-map/
Kitty says: “There’s so much to learn in the geography and geospatial industries, and so many extremely talented professionals to tap and work with! Broadly speaking, I am trying to be a better cartographer, and I’ve found that working offline has been the best method for me — doodling, coloring, baking, traveling, and even hiking…”
Currently a junior at the College of William & Mary, where he studies Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. Kelvin is from Northern Virginia, and before that Accra, Ghana.
Cool shareable: I wrote my first real lines of code just over a year ago, and now I hack on all sorts of cool and complex projects! One of them is a scraper for data.openaddresses.io that makes it prettier and searcheable by source name and by country.
Kelvin says: “The geospatial field is a great environment for budding software engineers. The open source community in geo is so vibrant and vocal. Everyone is always up to something cool and creative. This is especially true at Mapbox where brilliant minds are pushing the envelope on the state of the art in geospatial technology all the time.”
Cartographic Technician at Virginia Economic Development Partnership
Allison is a May 2015 graduate from James Madison University and a former intern at the National Parks Service. She spends her free time hiking and trying to figure out how to “adult” (401K? Health Insurance? Taxes???).
Cool shareable: For my Senior Capstone at James Madison University, I created this map that tells the story of a growing industry in the Commonwealth that dates back to the colonial age. It was built using a multitude of different tools: the map itself was built in QGIS and ArcMap, all of the charts were originally built using R, and the stylization and construction of the graphics all took place in Adobe Illustrator.
Allison says: “I love putting interactive GIS in the hands of the user and making geographic data accessible and understandable for everyone to explore. I have started teaching myself the basics of web design in the hope of building some interactive maps and charts of my own someday.”
Product Engineer on ArcGIS Open Data at Esri DC R&D Center
Courtney works at Esri where she’s a Product Engineer on ArcGIS Open Data. She works closely with product management, designers, and customers to help guide the product and make sure they’re building something awesome. Before Esri, she studied in Canada at McGill University, where she was introduced to open data through GIS classes and the professors there who are studying how new geospatial tech is altering government – citizen interactions. Courtney is also a co-organizer for Maptime DC, and a co-organizer for HackShopDC.
Courtney says: “I’m really excited about my awesome coworker Brendan’s map editor, Mundi, and all the potential that comes from it. You sign in with your GitHub account and can search through all the open datasets from ArcGIS, do your simple-but-flexible map styling, and get an output as a gist and an automagically created bl.ock. It also gives you the map styling CSS or JSON, so it’s sweet if you just want to play with styling and plug the bit of code into your own map.”
Katie is a cartographer, glasses-wearer, and amateur cheese enthusiast who currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin. She’s finishing her cartography/GIS degree at UW-Madison while working at the Cartography Lab and co-organizing Maptime Madison. She’s a social media nut who helps run several professional map twitters (such as @NACIS & @MaptimeHQ) and loves the cartographic Twitter community.
Cool shareable: This was my first intense D3 map, with a supported graphic and temporal component — so it was a bit daunting given our time constraint, but we made it work! The hardest part of this map was the research required. I didn’t realize how much legal jargon I’d have to learn about in order to assemble all of our data. If it had just been looking at each abortion restriction without a temporal component, that would have been a lot easier, but why would we want that?
Katie says: “I’ve become quite the tileset evangelist. I think there’s only going to be more growth in people choosing better tilesets or designing their own — which I think is great. I’ve also loved seeing cartographers use this as a sandbox for crazy map ideas and as an exploratory tool. We don’t nearly talk [enough] about the other components to web mapping besides the JavaScript — data and tiles are also important to think deeply and teach about!”
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Alex Kappel [@alex_kappel] GIS Analyst, the Data Team at @AidData
Alex discovered geo at Clark University while studying Environmental Science. After learning some Python in school, he got the opportunity to intern at Development Seed. Currently he works at AidData, using mainly FOSS geotools producing geocoded data sets (which hopefully have a positive impact). Based out of the William & Mary office, Alex also gets to work with a lot of students, and is a co-organizer for Maptime Hampton Roads.
Cool shareable: Accessibility is one of the key attributes of ‘open’ data. With this in mind, AidData provides geocoded datasetsthat lower barriers of entry for end users who want to see who is funding what, and where they are siting their investments. Collectively, this suite of improvements is known as a “Level 1A” data product. All of AidData’s Level 1 geocoded datasets are now accompanied by a Level 1A data product.
http://aiddata.org/blog/making-geocoded-data-more-accessible-introducing-level-1a … Alex says: “I’m most excited by the imagery tools that DevSeed is building. I had the privilege of working on the first release of landsat-util, and it’s been incredibly exciting to see all of the new tools that the team has put out since: Libra, OpenAerialMap, and new iterations of landsat-util.
GIS Developer at Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Jacqueline is an outdoor enthusiast who’s paired her love of nature and geography in her career as a GIS professional with the MN Department of Natural Resources. While she has recently moved into a GIS developer role, she gets her cartography and design fix by creating hand-made maps. When Jacqueline is not mapping, she is usually hiking, fly-fishing, or kayaking.
Cool Shareable: After creating a mobile data collection app for the MN DNR’s entomologists to track bee species and habitat characteristics in Minnesota, I was inspired to learn about native bees. This map was generated from an evolving dataset of specialist bees and native host plant ranges, courtesy of the University of Minnesota and the MN DNR. The intent of the map is to bring awareness to bee population decline and population diversity, as well as highlight the need for increased data and analysis to facilitate population preservation.
Jacqueline says: “I’m excited that cartography, design, and user experience are playing an increasingly important role in web map development. Sharpening my front end development skills to create efficient yet attractive interactive maps is something I’m working hard at right now. Being part of such a creative community of GIS experts is inspiring!”
Kara graduated from George Mason University in 2014, studied geography, though somewhere along the way she managed to earn most of the computer science and geology degrees as well (foraminiferal oxygen isotopes are super cool and academic specialization is hard). Currently she works for a small geospatial analytics startup based outside of Washington DC, and her tasks at the moment range from throwing Bash and Python at large unruly datasets, cartographic design, web development, search and rescue related behavioral modeling, ops, keeping their local PostgreSQL OSM database alive, and attempting to bend the Node GDAL bindings to her will for raster processing and modeling in Electron.
Cool shareable: Search & Rescue topographic maps for Washington and Virginia are a sample of trying to improve on USGS maps with OpenStreetMap and supplemental data. Methodology for the SAR map creation can be found at the following link:
Kara says: “I’m having a lot of fun with designing for WebGL based map rendering, using TileStache for managing and hosting custom tilesets, and Pandas for data wrangling.”
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Whom should we profile in our next “Young professionals doing awesome things in geo”? Send us an email.
