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What do we do?

Our goal is to encourage GIS users to employ the same concepts when using GIS software that professional cartographers do when making maps. To that end, we have developed and delivered content to users for more than four years, and we have learned to teach mapmaking to GIS users with some measure of success. This Web site is a compendium of that information and a place where we can post new resources in response to the demands and desires of our users.

Who's on the Mapping Center Team?

The Mapping Center Team is part of the Cartographic Projects Group. We are a group of ESRI employees whose job is to find better ways of using ArcGIS to make maps, which involves multi-scale/multi-purpose data modeling, cartographic geoprocessing research, and the development of best practices. Our focus is the use of ArcGIS software in the graphic delivery of geographic information. The team members include ESRI employees working in conjunction with academic researchers who are actively engaged in cartographic research. The Mapping Center and Cartographic Projects Group, under the direction of Clint Brown, is led by Charlie Frye and includes, in order of appearance:

Charlie Frye

Charlie Frye is the chief cartographer and manager of the Mapping Center and Cartographic Projects Group. He has worked at ESRI in the Software Products department since 1994, starting as a quality assurance analyst on the ArcView 2.0 team. He became the cartography product specialist for ArcView soon thereafter. He then became lead product specialist for the ArcView IMS extension and returned to cartography for the ArcView 3.1 release. He was the lead product specialist for ArcMap and managed the ArcMap/cartography products team from 2000 through 2005.

Aileen Buckley

Aileen Buckley came to ESRI in 2003 from University of Oregon where she was a professor of geography teaching cartography, GIS, GPS, and other mapping sciences. She holds an adjunct associate professor appointment at the University of Redlands in their Masters of Science in GIS program. Her PhD is from Oregon State University. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked at an engineering firm as a project manager on projects converting cadastral paper maps to GIS data layers. And before that she worked in the Cartography Division of the National Geographic Society on the seventh edition of their Atlas of the World. She has written a number of articles and book chapters on various aspects of GIS and cartography, and she is an editor of the Encyclopedia of Geographic Information Science by Sage Publications. At UO, she also helped author the Atlas of Oregon, Second Edition (2001). She is second author of the forthcoming book Map Use: Reading and Analysis, Sixth Edition by ESRI Press. She was the 2007-2009 president of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS).

Jaynya Richards

Jaynya Richards has been working at ESRI since 1997 as ArcGIS cartography product engineer. Her initial work involved designing fonts and symbology for all ESRI's products. She continues to work in this area, most recently managing the representations database assets. This, in part, involves the development of a comprehensive and exhaustive set of symbols for online geologic mapping. She holds both a B.A. and M.F.A. in design from San Diego State University. She has worked in field of computer aided design (including industrial design, fine art media, and engineering design) since 1979 and in GIS since 1995. Jaynya has worked for city governments in many capacities including planning, engineering, conservation, public works, and public safety, where she established procedures and practices for migrating data from paper to digital format. Jaynya has coordinated GIS work with individuals and international agencies such as Parks Canada, as well as domestic government agencies such as the FGDC and USGS. Jaynya has authored articles for Cartographic Perspectives and the San Diego Computer User Group.

Janel Day

Janel joined ESRI in the summer of 2008 as a cartographic product engineer. She is currently working with Jaynya on developing the geology symbol set. Janel comes to ESRI from the University of Colorado-Boulder, where she first majored in Environmental Studies and then Geography with a focus on Cartography and GIS. During her studies, Janel assisted Dr. Barbara Buttenfield in the university's GIS lab. She also interned with the USGS and an international telecommunications company. The scope and scale of her projects varied greatly, providing Janel with a comprehensive background in the integration of GIS and cartographic principles.

Mamata Akella

Mamata joined ESRI in October of 2008. She is working with Charlie Frye on an online topographic map as well as a variety of city level base map designs. Mamata completed her MS in Geography at the Pennsylvania State University and her BA in Geography at the University of California–Santa Barbara. During her graduate studies at Penn State, Mamata was a teaching assistant for cartography and remote sensing, as well as a research assistant. Her research projects included work with Dr. Alan MacEachren on the Pennsylvania Cancer Atlas and with her adviser, Dr. Cynthia Brewer, on a redesign of the USGS topographic map. Her thesis research focused on testing the comprehension of emergency map symbols by first responders.

Kenny Ling

Kenny joined the Mapping Center team in February 2009. Since then, he has worked on developing online maps and mapping applications. Kenny is originally from Malaysia but obtained his BA in Geography from the University of Minnesota, and his MA in Geography from Ohio University. Kenny found his calling in cartography in graduate school where he served as a teaching assistant for GIS and also won several awards for his map creations. Prior to working for ESRI, he was an Intern at the National Geographic Society and was subsequently hired to work for National Geographic Magazine.

Rajinder Nagi

Rajinder started working at ESRI in June 2007 as a Database Analyst on the Database Services Team where he was involved in Local government projects and ArcWeb Services operations. He moved to the Mapping Center Team in June 2009 to assist with various geoprocessing and data processing activities. He has worked on creating tools for bump mapping and tools for DEM hillshading for multi-scale online maps. Rajinder has worked on various data capturing, analysis, conversion and migration projects since 2002. He holds a Mastere of Science degree in Geoinformatics from the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), in The Netherlands, and he has a Bachelor of Science degree in Urban & Regional Planning from GND University in Amritsar, India. His thesis research at ITC was focused on investigating the limitations and possibilities of map design for mobile applications resulting in design recommendations.

Wesley Jones

Wesley Jones started with ESRI in the summer of 2009. He hails from Canada where he earned a Geography Degree / History Minor from the University of Calgary, and a Cartography Diploma from the Centre of Geographic Sciences (COGS) in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia. During his tenure at COGS, Wesley earned several mapping accolades from the Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CAGIS), and the British Cartographic Society (BCS). Prior to coming to ESRI, Wesley worked for a GIS support company, and with a planning department providing Cartographic and GIS expertise.

Andrew Skinner

Andrew Skinner joined ESRI in the summer of 2009 as a cartographic product engineer. Previously he was Manager of Cartographic Design at Rand McNally, where he worked on many of that company's products, including the Road Atlas, the Street Guides, Goode's Atlas, retail and educational wall maps, and online and GPS mapping bases. Prior to Rand McNally he was with GeoSystems/MapQuest, where he was one of the team that developed the National Geographic and MapQuest Road Atlases. He also worked on other National Geographic products, including the World Atlas (7th edition) and the Destination Map series. Andy studied cartography at Oxford Polytechnic in the UK (where he was born), and moved to the United States in 1991.

Who do we collaborate with?

Our research colleagues include Dr. Cynthia Brewer of The Pennsylvania State University and Dr. Barbara Buttenfield at University of Colorado-Boulder. During his sabbatical, we worked intensively with Dr. A Jon Kimerling of Oregon State University on a number of cartographic research projects and publications. We also consult as needed with other academic colleagues such as Dr. Robert McMaster from the University to Minnesota.

Cynthia Brewer

Dr. Brewer teaches classes in cartography and geographic research at Penn State. Her research focuses on map design, color theory applications in cartography, multi-scale and multi-representation cartography, hypothesis generation in visualization, choropleth classification for maps in series, and atlas mapping. She is known for her extensive research on color as it relates to cartography and perhaps best known outside the academy for her Web site ColorBrewer.org which helps mapmakers pick appropriate colors for their maps. She has held many professional offices, received numerous awards and written many articles. She is also the author of the two book sfrom ESRI Press: Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users released in 2005, and Designed Maps: A Sourcebook for GIS Users released in 2008.

Barbara Buttenfield

Dr. Buttenfield teaches courses at UC-Boulder in Geographic Information Science, Computer Cartography, and Geographic Information Design. Babs, as she calls herself, is well known for her work on map generalization, data delivery on the Internet, visualization tools for environmental modeling, and interface usability testing. She was an original co-principal investigator for the NSF-funded National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA), leading research initiatives on "Multiple Representations," "Formalizing Cartographic Knowledge," and "Visualizing Spatial Data Quality". She has written scores of articles and book chapters and received many professional awards, including the inaugural University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) GIScience Educator of the Year in 2001. She currently serves on the board of the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS).

A. Jon Kimerling

A. Jon Kimerling is Professor of Geography at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. He has studied at the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and has taught cartography and map use at the University of Wisconsin and Curtin University in Perth, Australia. Professor Kimerling has published widely on topics of cartography, remote sensing, and geographic information systems. He has served as President of the American Cartographic Association, head U.S. Delegate to the International Cartographic Association, and editor of the American Cartographer (now Cartography and Geographic Information Science). He is lead author of the forthcoming book Map Use: Reading and Analysis, Sixth Edition by ESRI Press.

What research projects are we involved in?

We continue to develop the ESRI Basemap Data Model, as well as the development of best practices for mapmaking with ArcGIS software. Some of this work also leads to directed research on specific topics, such as generalization and data capture. Current research projects include those listed below.

Cartographic data modeling

This work relates to the development of GIS databases to support map making and map production workflows. See our Presentations and Publications and the ESRI Basemap Data Model Web page for more information.

Informed data capture

This research involves product- and process- (i.e., software) driven development of specification for the capture of data to be used for mapmaking. In addition to supporting analysis and inventory, GIS data should be able to support all mapping requirements. This additional requirement of GIS data has not traditionally been emphasized. We are learning what some of the challenges and solutions are for compiling and digitizing data for mapmaking purposes.

Software enhancements

We work with ESRI software development teams to incorporate cartographic enhancements to the software. For example, we are working with the Spatial Analyst Team on cartographic conventions for contour lines, and the Maplex Team for better automatic labeling of polygon features used in mapping (such as marine water bodies and physiographic features), and the 3D Team on metrics used to symbolize and label trails on trail maps.

Best practices for map making with ArcGIS

This work involves a number of case studies that explore the use of ArcGIS software for making maps of all kinds. To see some of our examples, visit the Maps section of this Web site.

Best practices for cartographic data modeling for ArcGIS

This research involves developing and defining the requirements for modeling data that will be used in mapping with ArcGIS software. A guiding principle for us is, "If it's not in the data, it can't be on the map." Guidelines, best practices, data models and more can be found on the ESRI Basemap Data Model Web page.

When to bail

This earlier research with our academic colleagues explores the reasons that cartographers leave the GIS environment to enter a graphics environment to complete the map-finishing work. It is desirable to stay in a single environment for as long as possible, so what are the impediments to working solely in a GIS for mapmaking? What are the tricks that allow us to overcome the seeming impediments, and what are the real obstacles to mapmaking within a single GIS environment? See our Presentations and Publications for more details.