Maps for fun...


Due to the nature of the majority of my past and present career endeavors, I am unable to share any of my actual professional portfolio online, and so instead I present you all with a collection of sample work I've put together in my free time. See below for general maps and cartographic design, passion projects, and odd ball ideas I found interesting or inspiring enough to pursue just for funsies. I hope you enjoy!


Created with ArcGIS Pro

Mapping the Bare Earth


Inspired by the work of Dan Coe, this relative elevation model (REM) was created using USGS 3DEP LiDAR to highlight historical meanders of a section of the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park using ArcGIS Pro.

Drought & Watersheds


Using downscaled LOCA climate model ensembled from NOAA, this bivariate map shows the potential for drought conditions at a country scale and contained within each major watershed of the contiguous united states.

Inspired by AI


Simple fun graphic inspired by the work of John Nelson... who was inspired by a post ESRI shared using AI to create a fun, topographic design. An interesting exploration into using vertical offsets in cartography to give the illusion of a 3D image using 2D data (Esri Art)

Wildfire Frequency


Inspired by a stunning map created by Glenn Ingram, this map aims to illustrate the frequency of wildfires in the lower 48 using hexagonal bins to show how topography, region, and local climate are drivers of wildland fire behavior.

Population Density


This map examines trends in population density by race in the Oakland, California area. Each dot on the map represents one person, using data from the US Census Bureau.

Japan & Earthquakes


Another fun challenge representing frequency data using hexagon binning. In this map, 100 years of earthquake data provided by the USGS is examined spatially to show areas within the Japanese archipelago in which earthquakes are most frequently occurring. Details in the basemap were created by using blend modes on terrain and hillshade data for the local region.

Simple Watershed Modeling


This mock bulletin for the Coalition for the Poudre River was created using a number of hydrological modeling tools within ArcGIS pro to delineate watershed features such as boundaries, streams, and stream order.

Minimalistic Map of the Colorado Trail


In this map, I experimented with combining imagery base layers with custom blended hillshade and slope layers to create this dreamy map of Colorado.

"3D" Diorama Map


Is it relatively pointless? Yes. But this one was certainly fun to make and play around with manipulating a USGS DEM into 3D and adding in some fun effects for a little razzle dazzle.

Ecoregions


Using feature layer data provided by Esri and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, this map shows and labels all regions classified as a desert in North America. Hillshading and blending was added into the basemap for extra depth.

Suitability Analysis


With the upcoming reintroduction of wolves to Colorado, I thought it would be interesting to run my own suitability analysis and compare findings to the official proposal put forward to the public. This study used census data regarding population density, voter approval or disapproval rates, resource (i.e, elk, deer, and moose population) availability data from CPW, land use data, and some buffering of sites and state boundaries to determine the best location for wolves within the state.

Commuter Times


This choropleth map uses ACS commuter data from 2010-2014 queried to examine areas of the contiguous United States where significant numbers of the population have a commute time to work spanning 1.5 hours or more.

Building Use and Type


A thematic map aimed to display the various building types and uses across Boulder, Colorado.

Maps as Art


It's still a map! Kind of. Here's a fun mock poster I created for Bryce Canyon using the Plan Oblique function in the terrain tools toolbox created by Kenneth Field. Plan Oblique is based on algorithms created by Bernie Jenny which shear terrain in the y direction to give a 3D appearance to the map.

And more Plan Oblique...


A fun tutorial by John Nelson helped me to create this map and explore the terrain tools mentioned above. Local DEM files were manipulated to exaggerate terrain and "hack" a 3D viewpoint, and surface tools such as hillshade and slope were used to add depth to the terrain and elevation.

(Exaggerated) Elevation in Blender


Trying my hand here at something out of my comfort zone - 3D mapping in Blender! This was a fun project to test out some unfamiliar software, and uses the ESRI Terrain layer exported for New Zealand into Blender to extrude z-values for elevation and create this fun visualization. This would be interesting to revisit with more time to investigate population density, or another dataset warranting the *legitimate* use of proportionate scaling.

NDWI Rendering


An example use of Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) from composited multiband Landsat imagery to delineate and monitor content changes in surface water, computed with the NIR and green bands. This image showcases the high level of moisture inundation due to mangrove deforestation in Indonesia.

Mock SNOTEL Bulletin


After a pretty historical winter, I thought it would be interesting to create my own version of the NRCS daily SWE report. Peak SWE, or snow water equivalent, is typically surveyed on or around April 1 of each water year, and so I created this map to show how the current (at the time) conditions compared to the average snowpack for that date across the state.

Watercolor Contours


Simple graphic using contour intervals derived for bathymetric elevation data to show the depths of the Great Lakes. Stylized with "watercolor" fills to represent each contour interval.