GeoWeb2009 presentation: Long Island Index & OASIS

Leveraging Interactive AJAX Web Tools for Online Maps

1

Presentation at GeoWeb 2009 – Academic Track

Steven RomalewskiCUNY Mapping ServiceThe Graduate Center / City University of New York

July 2009

The Challenge

GeoWeb 2009 – CUNY Mapping Service 2

1. Transit connections between where people live and where they work across Nassau and Suffolk counties;

2. Long Island’s downtowns in relation to multi-family housing density plus access to parks and open space;

3. The communities with the highest proportion of multi-family units compare with regional views of age of housing stock;

4. Income attributes of any given community plus its concentration of rental units;

5. Brownfield locations compared with population patterns by race/ethnicity;

6. All of this and more with aerial photography …

… on a map,

all at once,

interactively,

online.

The Long Island Index wants to show (among other things):

Mapping Multivariate Data


• Multiple symbol types

Some traditional cartographictechniques …

• Small multiples

http://junkcharts.typepad.com/junk_charts/2009/06/reading-comprehension.html

• Multivariate dot density maps

• Different textures

http://makingmaps.net/

• Transparency (eg., color coded DEM “draped” over hillshade)

htt

p://

map

pin

gce

nte

r.e

sri.c

om/in

dex.

cfm

?fa

=m

ap

s.cr

ate

rLak

e&

effe

ct=

Vie

w%

20P

DF

http://junkcharts.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341e992c53ef01156ff81d99970c-pi

Map display on the desktop


Integrates many of the multivariate approaches



Also can leverage emerging geostatistical software packages with multi-framed display of integrated data

http://www.geovistastudio.psu.edu/tutorials/Data_Mining_in_GeoVISTA_Studio.pdf

http://www.geovistastudio.psu.edu/tutorials/

http://www.geovistastudio.psu.edu/tutorials/



But…How does this

translate online?

http://stats.oecd.org/OECDregionalstatistics/

Online map display


PROs• Interactive• Zoom in very close or out very far with ease• Add or remove “layers” of data from the map• “Slippy” maps easy to navigate

CONs

• Single frame generally rules out small multiples• Multiple symbol types (including dot density and texture) generally don’t

translate well for thematic/analytical mapso but they can work well overlaying roads with choropleths, for example

• Transparencies would work, but until recently the cumbersome nature of webpage redraws makes this clunky

• Also, challenge of keeping it simple while making GIS analytic tools accessible

• Open Source movement rapidly making new tools more accessible, encouraging experimentation and early deployment

o Geoserver & Mapserver, OpenLayers, etc

• ESRI also enhancing their toolkito New ArcGIS Server tools – caching, etc

• Some early adopters of innovative approaches:o www.DataPlace.org www.PolicyMap.org www.MapTube.com

Enter AJAX, applied to online maps

GeoWeb 2009 – CUNY Mapping Service

8

• Online mapping in a post-Google Maps worldo Ease of use and intuitive displayo Relatively easy integration of multiple data sets from disparate sources (ie, mashups)o No need to click on a “i” tool to access attributes, or click a “hand” tool to pan the

map, for example

http://sanbernardino.ca.crimeviewcommunity.com/

New York-area examples


Early 2006, CUNY Mapping Service established with broad mandate – help CUNY researchers and others leverage the power of GIS in their work, and continue developing cutting-edge interactive online mapping systems

1. Long Island Index project asked us to develop interactive mapping feature for www.longislandindex.orgo Index background – needed to make complex issues more understandable to public

(esp. to visualize inter-relationships and multi-level spatial patterns) and to engage people via the Web

2. A second project is a complete overhaul of the Open Accessible Space Information System (OASIS) website (www.oasisnyc.net), first created in early 2000 using ArcIMS in collaboration with ESRI, USDA Forest Service, and more than 40 local NGOs, public agencies, businesses, and individuals.

A hybrid “geo stack”


Technology choice: combination of ESRI/Microsoft with open source JavaScript frameworks

• ArcGIS Desktop and ArcSDE/SQL Server to manage the data sources.• ArcGIS Server to generate web map services from MXDs and generate cached

tiles for selected map layers.• OpenLayers consumes WMS resources, manages and displays the map layers,

and provides map navigation tools.• Dynamic data feeds are also provided via REST web services.• Ext JS provides the overall web framework and enables us to relatively easily

integrate AJAX-style tools such as dynamic transparencies.

With the exception of the satellite/aerial photos, we host all map layers• Simply too much data to simply mash it up with a basemap from Google Maps

or Microsoft and we wanted cartographic control.

When you select a village:When you select a village:1.It’s highlighted in orange;2.Local statistics and charts are displayed; and3.The overview map shows where on LI you’ve zoomed to.

1

2

3

The Long Island Index interactive map – visualize your community in new and powerful ways

Map your villageMap your village

See population or housing patterns in and around your community

Map education statistics district-by-district – NEW for 2009!

Add transportation routes, schools, environmental sites, special districts, and more

The transparency slider

0% transparent

50% transparent

100% transparent

reveals what’s underneath

Compare aerial photos with Census and land use patterns

0% transparent

70% transparent

100% transparent

Click on theClick on thered markerred markerfor a bird’sfor a bird’seye vieweye view

Explore regional views of key demographic indicators

You can zoom out to see the entire You can zoom out to see the entire island, and then double-click on island, and then double-click on the list to zoom back in and seethe list to zoom back in and see

community-level detail.community-level detail.

For more info, contact:


Steven Romalewski, DirectorPhone: [email protected]

CUNY Mapping Service at the Center for Urban ResearchThe Graduate Center / CUNY

365 Fifth Ave., Room 6202New York, NY 10016

www.urbanresearch.org

David Burgoon, Application ArchitectPhone: [email protected]

Documents

GeoWeb2009 presentation: Long Island Index & OASIS