Chenxiao “Atlas” Guo developed a striking map showing the geographic range and frequency of natural disasters in the United States. The map beautifully communicates various risks that are more common in some areas than others. It also cleverly mimics the CMYK printing process, combining both art and insight to achieve cartographic success. In this installment of Behind the Map, we revisit this map with Atlas, a Ph.D. student in Cartography and GIS at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Maps.com: What was your inspiration for this map? Who is it intended for, and what do you hope they take away from your map?
Guo: Effectively visualizing multiple variables has always been a challenging task in thematic mapping, and many visually creative solutions have been developed to address it. With this map, I aim to contribute my own exploration, primarily through the use of color. Specifically, I am experimenting with an innovative approach that preserves both the overall spatial pattern, and the ability to retrieve individual attributes.
The direct inspiration of this map likely comes from pointillism paintings. Instead of blending colors on a palette before applying them, pointillism artists mix colors in the viewer’s mind by placing carefully calculated dots of pure colors side by side. In fact, that is quite similar to how modern inkjet printers work—using far more precise calculations to apply extremely fine CMYK dots.
As for the topic of natural disasters, I’ve always believed that public awareness can never be too high—and that maps can play an important role in promoting it. I hope viewers can gain a better understanding of the distribution of natural disasters in the US through their interaction with this map, whether by disaster type or geographic region. Disasters are often associated with negative emotions, but I hope to present this knowledge in a relatively positive light, allowing readers to find some joy in the color blending and graphic design as well.
Maps.com: Can you talk about the software, tools, and techniques you used for this map? How did you gather the data behind it?
Guo: The tools I used to create this map are Esri ArcGIS Pro and Adobe Illustrator, which also represent the standard workflow of static mapmaking in UW-Madison’s cartographic curriculum. In fact, most of my previous static map products were created using this workflow.
This map includes various types of natural disasters, with data sources listed at the bottom. I would particularly highlight the use of ArcGIS Online layers, which allow me to conveniently search for and add a wide range of online datasets directly within ArcGIS Pro. The next step involves proportionally aggregating data into pre-generated 1000-square-mile hexagon units, which are also created using ArcGIS Pro’s fishnet tool.
As for the multivariate symbols, they are created by blending multiple univariate layers of different colors in ArcGIS Pro, each with carefully set X and Y offsets. I spent considerable time refining the final symbol style, especially achieving a balanced degree of overlap: Without overlap, the overall pattern is unrecognizable. With too much overlap, individual attributes become indistinguishable.
Maps.com: Have you thought of making a similar map for the whole world, or any other countries in particular?
Maps.com: What project are you working on, or plan to work on, next?
Guo: I always have multiple mapping projects underway at the same time, most of which are purely for fun. While I may not be able to keep my website updated constantly, I frequently share these smaller, enjoyable projects on my social media platforms.
Among all my projects, I am especially proud to introduce a series of LEGO topographic maps. This is probably the most joyful project I have worked on, and it holds great potential for children’s geography education. As a medium, LEGO offers several unique advantages: 1) Children are naturally familiar with it; 2) It can be easily purchased with consistent quality worldwide; 3) It provides remarkable mapping flexibility in terms of region, map type, color, and styles; 4) It allows for 3D terrain representation, something most paper maps cannot offer; 5) Its lack of geographic precision aligns well with the simplicity required for educational use and creates a distinctive aesthetic.
In short, I am currently developing two types of products. One focuses on posters of digitally rendered map graphics in LEGO software (Studio), with added labels. The other is based on physically built 3D LEGO maps, accompanied with guided instructions. Both types are easy to replicate and share widely.
As for the direction of my ongoing exploration, I am working on two fronts. On the one hand, I am designing various styles of topographic and thematic maps using LEGO; on the other hand, I am expanding the geographic scope to cover more states, countries and regions.
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Atlas Guo
Atlas Guo is a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying geography (cartography and GIS), with a minor in computer science. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Guo is also a graduate student member of the Spatial Computing and Data Mining (SCDM) Lab and UW Cartography Lab (CartLab). His research focuses on spatiotemporal analytics, cartographic visualization, social media data mining, and natural disaster management. Prior to his doctoral work, Guo achieved an M.S. in Geography from the University of Georgia, and a B.S. in GIS from the Sun Yat-sen University.
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