Category: GIS

Spring will soon be upon us and gardeners of all stripes will begin pruning landscapes and planting vegetables. The National Gardening Association reports that gardeners spent nearly $3 billion in 2011 on food gardening alone. With this much money being spent (not to mention the amount of time) to grow produce or create beautiful landscapes, it stands to …

Read more “Gardengraphic Information Systems – How Maps and Data Help Gardens Succeed”

   With all of the visualization technology we have available, why do we still find itnecessary to print maps? With desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets, it would seem that paper map production should be all but extinct. This does not seem to be the case though.  Technology has broadened our access to maps we previously could …

Read more “Are Paper Maps Dying?”

GIS data is everywhere. Some you have to pay for but much of it is free and widely available like at the sites below. Doing a search for free GIS data will yield some of the data sources I mention here. Locating other sources just takes a little digging. Almost all of these sites are …

Read more “Free GIS Data – Ten Favorite Sources”

What is Pinterest?Cartographers and GIS users are often visual by nature. Pinterest is a tool that allows the visually minded to capitalize on images posted throughout the web. In a nutshell, Pinterest allows a user to “pin” images, found on the web, to virtual pin boards. These pin boards are organized by topic and the …

Read more “Using Pinterest to Catalog Online Maps”

**This post references ESRI ArcGIS Desktop 10.0. While the steps listed might work in previous or future versions of ArcMap, it is not guaranteed. There is an updated version of this post here.**   When you have a continuous raster such as a DEM in ArcGIS, you will likely want to adjust its color ramp to better …

Read more “Add Custom Color Ramps To ArcGIS From The ESRI Mapping Center”

A new GIS centered web site called GISnation.com launched yesterday. According to the site’s mission statement its purpose is simply to promote “geospatial solutions” and provide a multi-use platform to showcasing GIS projects. The site tries to pack a lot into its pages. It attempts to provide tools and services such as social networks, job boards, …

Read more “GISnation.com, Social Networking for the Geospatial Community?”

I am a geospatial analyst. I typically work with traditional GIS software like ESRI’s ArcGIS. However, Autodesk products are also heavily utilized in the office where I work. More and more, GIS and CAD are being integrated and it often falls upon me to work with our CAD analyst to explore interoperability between the two …

Read more “Going With the Flow at AU 2011”