Resources

This page provides a partially-annotated bibliography of mapping resources. It includes map-related software tools/environments, data sources and archives, online learning resources, and finally other mapping classes you can take here at Columbia. It is by no means exhaustive but hopefully it might help each of you identify some new territory for exploration as you continue your journey with critical mapping.

Software Tools and Environments

Desktop GIS Software

• QGIS - Used in the tutorials!
• ArcGIS - Commercial GIS software you’re likely to find in corporate settings & government agencies. Licenses are very expensive so generally not recommended for personal use.

Javascript Libraries for Web Mapping and Data Visualization

• GitHub Pages - Not a javascript library but one of the easiest ways to publish a static website. (Used in Tutorials)
• Mapbox GL - From the Tutorials!
• OpenLayers - Yet another open-source map library. Support for many different raster and vector data sources.
• Tangram - Another WebGL-based map library which lets you define custom styles directly rather than depending on vector tiles like Mapbox.
• Leaflet - Open-Source javascript library for easy web maps, somewhat similar in functionality to Mapbox GL but not as good-looking.
• D3 - Slightly complicated but very flexible library for interactive data visualization.

Jupyter Notebooks

These are beyond the scope of our 6-week class but provide a third category of environment for spatial data analysis. Here your workspace is a ‘notebook’ that combines blocks of text with code snippets (usually in Python or R) that share a common computational environment. Using different libraries, code snippets can also generate interactive, data-driven visualizations. Mostly these are used in more quantitative/programming-heavy workflows that deal with large datasets or complex computational requirements. If you’re interested in working with census data or machine learning, this is a good space to explore.

Data Sources & Archives

• NYC Open Data - Look at other cities’ open data collections as well.
• Census Bureau Data - The American Community Survey and Decennial Census provide detailed demographic information at a wide range of geographic scales.
• IPUMS - Aggregated census and survey data from around the world and across time.
• EarthExplorer - Provides access to whole-earth raster data from the Landsat missions.
• Columbia Geodata Portal
• Columbia Lehman Library Map Collection
• NYPL Map Division
• David Rumsey Historical Map Collection

Learning Resources

Columbia/Barnard

• Empirical Reasoning Center at Barnard
• Studio@Butler
• GSAPP Skill Trails
• Columbia Center for Spatial Research Tutorials

General Resources/Introductions

• Programming Historian
• Baruch College Newman Library GIS Guides
• GIS StackExchange - StackExchange and related sites (StackOverflow for code/programming topics) are a great resource, especially for open-source GIS tools like QGIS which tend to be less rigorously documented than their commercial counterparts. However, you need to be careful that specific solutions you find here are relevant to the version of the software you’re using - comments and threads here are usually more useful at a broader conceptual level than as a way to find viable examples and instructions. Look to the official documentation for these kinds of things as they’ll almost always be more up-to-date.

Projections

• Projections Explanation from USGS

Remote Sensing

• NASA ARSET Fundamentals of Remote Sensing Tutorials
• NASA ARSET Landsat Classificiation Tutorials
• NASA ARSET Introduction to NASA’s “Black Marble” Night Lights Data

Mapping Online/Webmaps

• Web Developer Roadmap - As this will show you, web development is a huge topic with many different areas of specialization. This is a good structured overview of what’s out there when/if you choose to go beyond the simple static site setup we used in the tutorials.

Blogs, Inspiration

• Atlas of Places
• Urban Omnibus
• BLDGBLOG
• Geoawesomeness
• There’s also plenty of map-related content on are.na, Twitter, Instagram…

Other Columbia/Barnard Classes

• Introduction to GIS (Barnard)
• GIS, Resiliency, Environment, Infrastructure Management (Earth Institute)
• Geographic Information Systems (GSAPP)
• Advanced Spatial Analysis (GSAPP)
• Mapping for Architecture Urbanism and Humanities (GSAPP)
• European Urban Cartography (GSAPP)
• Points Unknown: Cartographic Narratives (GSAPP)
• Spatial History and Historical GIS (GSAS, History)
• GIS and Spatial Analysis for Social Science (QMSS)
• GIS for Sustainable Development(Earth Institute)

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Resources compiled by Dare Brawley, Nadine Fattaleh, Carsten Rodin, Spring 2020-21.