Every Map Tells a Story | John Tombarge

EVERY MAP TELLS A STORY

John Tombarge explains.

Place-based technologies permeate our lives, from the location services on our smartphones to the spatial-decision support systems that guide applications in areas such as disaster management, health care and public health, digital humanities, resource and water management, urban and regional planning, sustainability, and business analytics. The class “Every Map Tells a Story”, taught by Prof. John Tombarge, investigates the power of maps and spatial data to document and illustrate local and global issues. Students learn how to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to explore the world and share ideas, and apply GIS principles and tools to create their own maps and tell their own stories. Voting and election results provide an excellent example. We’ve all seen electoral maps presenting the election results at the state level over the whole country, which, given our electoral college, makes sense (map at top). Yet we see a different story when we look at these same results at the local level: we may find a broader range of political opinions across individual states. We would also get a different picture if the map showed the percentage of the share of votes shaded by color (map at bottom). In this case, the polarization between the rural areas and the urban areas of the country is much more obvious. By exploring the data through mapping technology, even familiar data, new insights and understandings emerge, opening up the opportunity to communicate findings in much greater depth. n

folios

editors

Jacci Falls KT Vaughan

contributors

KT Vaughan Emily K. Cook Laura Hewett Paula Kiser Mackenzie Brooks Elizabeth Teaff John Tombarage

designers

Jamie Lipps Wendy Redfern Billy Chase Emmaline Nelsen

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Washington and Lee University Library 204 W. Washington Street Lexington, VA 24450

coordinator

Jacci Falls

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540-458-8642 library@wlu.edu

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