Have you ever done a map using a GIS (Geo-Information System) framework?
And if so, what would you tell someone who is contemplating such a thing with no prior practical experience of such systems?
Whole bunch cause it's my job.
Maps are super great and wonderful in all sorts of senses. ArcPro is sort of the gold standard, but really it's a monopoly. Esri, the company behind Arc, has software you can trial for free to check some things out and try it. Esri's website also has a TON of courses you can follow along with to understand the basics and then even more complex things.
That being said QGIS is FOSS and as far as I understand, very similarly capable as any Arc tool. I haven't done so myself, but it might very well be possible to have Q and follow along with the Esri tutorials.
Yeah, if I were to do this, I would use QGIS.
I would suggest the Artifexian YouTube channel and his Worldbuilder's log, specifically the gPlates serie.
I've done some maps in GNU R.
Here's a (cropped) choropleth map I did for a discussion thread about legislative representation in Europe:
https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/b6f28602-ab94-4901-b5e1-158061624c75.png
source
if (!require("pacman")) install.packages("pacman")
pacman::p_load_gh(c("ropenscilabs/rnaturalearth",
"ropenscilabs/rnaturalearthdata",
"ropenscilabs/rnaturalearthhires"))
pacman::p_load(
countrycode,
dplyr,
ggplot2,
readr,
rvest,
tmap,
tmaptools,
viridis
)
page <- read_html("https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_legislatures_by_number_of_members&oldid=1010580360")
df <- html_table(html_node(page, xpath = "/html/body/div[3]/div[3]/div[5]/div[1]/table"))
df$per_capita <- df$"Population/\nLower house seats" %>% parse_number()
df$name <- df$Country
europe <- df %>% mutate(continent = countrycode(Country, origin = "country.name", destination = "continent")) %>% filter(continent == "Europe")
shapes <- ne_countries(scale = "medium")
shapes_merged <- sp::merge(shapes, europe, by.x = "name", all.x = TRUE, by.y = "name")
map <- tm_shape(shapes_merged, projection = "epsg:3035", bbox = bb(c(-8, 34.5000, 43, 72))) +
tm_fill(col = "per_capita", palette = plasma(256), title = "persons", legend.reverse = TRUE) +
tm_borders(col = "black") +
tm_scale_bar() +
tm_layout(bg.color = "#e6f7fe", outer.margins = 0, legend.outside = TRUE,
legend.outside.position = "bottom",
legend.position = c(0,.9),
main.title = "Persons per Lower House Legislative Seat",
attr.outside = TRUE)
tmap_save(map, width = 1920, height = 1080, dpi = 96, "map.png")
And if so, what would you tell someone who is contemplating such a thing with no prior practical experience of such systems?
Depends pretty much entirely on what it is that you want to do and what software you're using.
The idea would be a custom fantasy world, starting with continental outlines and working my way inwards to focus regions.
And I would use QGIS.
@juergen_hubert you might want to add some #GIS tags there are quite a few map nerds on mastodon!
For the map enthused!
Rules:
post relevant content: interesting, informative, and/or pretty maps
be nice