National Mapping Expertise Exchange

The Gould Center's National Mapping Expertise Exchange program promotes innovation and excellence in national mapping by building connections among mapmakers, educators, researchers, and software developers at academic, commercial, and governmental organizations.

We emphasize advanced cartographic design and production using GIS software. Many federal mapping projects seek advice and collaboration on best practices for map labeling, generalization, multi-scale mapping, symbol design, color use, cartographic data modeling, data classification, page layout, cross-agency data use, and other cartographic challenges.

Non-federal organizations also seek efficient use of federal geospatial data for mapping, and we connect them with both federal and commercial mapmakers, software experts, and data providers to aid in making decisions that advance projects.

Contact Dr. Cynthia Brewer, Director of the Gould Center, to discuss funding a National Mapping Expertise Exchange on your topic.

Current NMEE Projects in the Gould Center

United States Geological Survey

Cynthia Brewer, Director of the Gould Center, is a USGS Affiliate Faculty with the Center of Excellence for Geospatial Information Science (CEGIS).

Funded Projects

• "Symbol and Label Design Solutions for Electronic Topographic Mapping for The National Map of the United States," 2008-2013
• "Cartographic Enhancement for New Generation Topographic Map Graphics," 2008.
• "ESRI Project on Multi-scale Map Design and Data Modeling," 2006-2007.

ScaleMaster Resources

ScaleMaster.org is an online resource that offers a collection of presentations, publications, and interactive resources produced by Barbara Buttenfield and Cynthia Brewer.

Related Publications

• Brewer and Buttenfield, 2009, "Mastering Map Scale: Balancing Workloads Using Display and Geometry Change in Multi-scale Mapping," Geoinformatica.
• Brewer and Buttenfield, 2007, "Framing Guidelines for Multi-Scale Map Design Using Databases at Multiple Resolutions," Cartography and Geographic Information Science.


• National Research Council, 2007, "A Research Agenda for Geographic Information Science at the United States Geological Survey," The National Academies Press.

Previous Mapping Projects with Federal Agencies

National Park Service

Funded projects

• "Development of a Socioeconomic Indicator Monitoring Protocol for the Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network," 2006-2008.
  
• "NPS SocioEconomic Atlas Project," 2003-2004.

Publications
A series of ten socioeconomic atlases was produced by Jean McKendry and Cynthia Brewer, with Steven Gardner, Joel Staub, and Jonathon Harahush. Each atlas was prepared as a booklet and CD-ROM pair for the National Park Service and intended for use by each park for regional planning communication and collaboration:

• Flight 93 National Memorial and its Region
• National Capital Parks Region
• Chicamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park and its Region
• Big Thicket National Preserve and its Region
• Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park and its Region
• Canyon de Chelly National Monument and its Region
• Kings Mountain National Military Park and its Region
• New River Gorge National River and its Region
• John Day Fossil Beds National Monument and its Region
• Saguaro National Park and its Region

Cynthia Brewer, Gould Center Director, is an author of the award winning Census Atlas of the United States. The atlas received an ICC2009 International Cartographic Exhibition jury award, 2009; AAG Globe Award, 2008; and Best of Show, CaGIS/ACSM Map Design Competition, 2008.

Census Bureau Atlases are Online and in Print::

• Suchan, Perry, Fitzsimmons, Juhn, Tait, and Brewer, 2007, Census Atlas of the United States, U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Report, Series CENSR-29, 302 pp, (ISBN 1-58-769010-5).
• Brewer and Suchan, 2001, Mapping Census 2000: The Geography of U.S. Diversity, Census 2000 Special Report, Series CENSR/01-1, 108 pp. (Reprinted by ESRI Press, 2001, ISBN 1-58948-014-7.)

Related Publication:

• Brewer, 2001, "Reflections on Mapping Census 2000," Cartography and Geographic Information Science.

National Center for Health Statistics

Early collaboration on the NCHS Atlas of United States Mortality is a precursor to the NMEE program of research related to national atlases and mapmaking for the Gould Center Director. Here are highlights of that early work:

NCHS Atlas is Online and in Print:

• Pickle, Mungiole, Jones, and White, 1996, Atlas of United States Mortality, DHHS Pub. No. (PHS) 97-1015, 209 pp. Winner of the Blue Pencil Award.

Funded Projects

• Quality Graphics for Federal Statistical Summaries, NSF, 2000-2003.
• Comparison of choropleth classifications for maps in series, NCHS, 1998.
• Design of color maps for the NCHS mortality atlas, NCHS, 1994.

Related Publications:

• Brewer and Pickle, 2002, "Evaluation of Methods for Classifying Epidemiological Data on Choropleth Maps in Series," Annals of the Association of American Geographers.
• MacEachren, Brewer, and Pickle, 1998, "Visualizing Georeferenced Data: Representing Reliability of Health Statistics" Environment & Planning A.
• Brewer, MacEachren, Pickle, and Herrmann, 1997, "Mapping Mortality: Evaluating Color Schemes for Choropleth Maps," Annals of the Association of American Geographers
• MacEachren, Brewer, and Pickle, 1995, "Mapping Health Statistics: Representing Data Reliability" and "Evaluation of Map Color Schemes for the NCHS Mortality Atlas." Proceedings papers reprinted in Cognitive Aspects of Statistical Mapping," Cognitive Methods Staff Working Paper Series, No. 18, edited by Pickle and Herrmann, NCHS Office of Research and Methodology.