Here are my 9 production projects from my Spring 2023 WebGIS course!
In this first production, I created a webapp that allows you to find vineyards and wineries in New Hampshire and Vermont based on your location. I updated the dataset by attaching links for each spot's website, if they had one, or noting if the location had been permanently closed, as several had been. As I worked on this production, I imagined a couple leisurely road-tripping and passing through these northern New England states, and how the passenger could use an app like this to find a delicious, grapey treat - or at least I presume wine is delicious and grapey, I tend not to drink it - nearby based on whatever town they were passing through, or the location of their hotel for the night.
For my second production, I was very excited to use a giant dataset I found of UFO sightings from around the world. I reduced the size of the data by focusing on sightings from within the United States. The timeline allows users to watch reports of UFO sightings appear across the country over the last 100 years. Users can click on any of the green dots to read stories of UFO sightings from the selected area and timespan.
This production felt like my magnum opus, as I spent many hours working with the data and the maps and the analytical tools, accidentally spending almost all of my ArcGIS credits just testing out different tools, whoops. I made this storymap based on my interest in paranormal things and my dream of going camping in a dark sky location. I really don't want to encounter Bigfoot as part of such a camping trip - I'm more concerned with finding a campground with running water and a modern restroom - but if you're into that, this is the storymap for you.
I worked on several HOTOSM projects for this production, marking small, hard-to-see buildings and bodies of water in Nepal and Central America. On regular OSM, I also took a few local walks and marked a few of the cute Little Free Library locations as well as benches. I am particularly interested in maps displaying benches and details about them (such as whether or not the bench has arms), as it makes the outdoors more accessible.
I got very into a "garden color scheme" theme for this version of my resume, which I've partially replicated on this portfolio page with the same background color.
This production has been ornery regarding whether or not the google map actual displays in a live view, although it shows up just fine in preview modes and when I copy the full code into jsfiddle. But I was proud of this production over all, because I am a huge nerd (and former English major) and I secretly want to be a tour guide for all the literary house museums and National Park locations in Concord.
This production proved a little bit challenging because I tested out a half-dozen different data sets and could not get any of them to agree with my goal of creating a choropleth until I uploaded the data set on Massachusetts voting districts & precincts with popular data.
I had a good time going through Twitter and finding different mapmakers and GIS/mappy organizations to follow. I really liked when I found accounts for mapmakers who showed personal maps, like their path on a road trip between an event and a visit to one of their partners, or a map of loved places.
Unsurprisingly, when given the task to create a survey that prompted respondents to share geographic data, all I wanted to ask people was, "Where is happiness for you?" When I thought about the places where I felt happiness, I thought of beautiful public green spaces where I have felt free and inspired and spiritually expansive, but I also thought of how happy I am when I get to just be in a beloved friend's house with them, sitting on their couch and drinking lemonade, or standing in their kitchen as they made a loaf of soda bread. This Map of Good Memories offers respondents the opportunity to share the little treasures of their heart, and tell us where it happened.