Cartographic Views of Oregon
2023
Cartographer
Browse a sample of maps I produced visualizing Oregon for different purposes. Click to enlarge each map and read more about them below.
Cartographer’s Statement (Positionality & Reflexivity)
“Having grown up in Oregon, when making these maps I was familiar with the state’s geography and sociopolitical context. However, it is important to note that I am a white woman from a middle-class upbringing and am currently attending a university to pursue spatial data science and science journalism. My framing of the data depicted in these maps, from color choice to layout and legend design, is inherently affected by this background.”
— Eden McCall, Cartographer
Behind the GIS:
Map 1: Analyzing & Visualizing Housing Vacancies
Purpose: Convey differences in housing vacancy rates with a consistent legend to compare city to state and national levels.
Format: Print
Tools: ArcGIS
Data Analyzed: US Census Bureau
Map 2: Elevating Crater Lake
Purpose: Showcase the elevation changes of Crater Lake, Oregon, and compare differences in visualization techniques using different combinations of contours, hillshading, curvature and hypsometric tinting.
Format: Print
Tools: ArcGIS
Data Analyzed: USGS elevation data & NASA Landsat Imagery
Map 3: Zooming into Portland, Oregon
Purpose: Provide important reference information about Oregon at three different scales.
Format: Print
Tools: ArcGIS
Data Analyzed: Geonames Cities 500
Map 4: Mapping State Demographics
Purpose: Utilize different thematic mapping techniques, including proportional symbol, dot density, bar graph and pie chart, to convey the spatial relationships of demographic information.
Format: Print
Tools: ArcGIS
Data Analyzed: US Census Bureau*
There are several limitations of the data used in these maps. The pie chart map uses data from the US Census Bureau, but there is not a large amount of spatial variability in these variables across counties. The dot density map relies on a “mask” which is from OpenStreetMap’s Land Use Land Cover dataset, but that data does not have any “residential areas” in several counties, particularly in Eastern Oregon this prevents the rendering of any dots in these counties. The bar graph and proportional symbol maps also feature data from US Census which has extremely high outliers in Portland which makes differentiating between smaller values difficult to perceive.