Mapping Habit

I came of age as a geographer just as digital mapping technologies were gaining ground. One of my undergraduate professors invented MapQuest -- a couple of years after I had barely passed his fully analog cartography course. During my master's program, I learned about computers in general and computer mapping in particular during many hours as an assistant in our new digital cartography lab. During my doctoral program, I taught a rudimentary computer cartography course because I knew more about the subject than any of the professors -- a situation that began to change dramatically with a brilliant faculty hire that took place at the end of my second year. 

All of which is to say that I was poised to become a GIS hotshot. I even took some online courses with ESRI in my "spare time" as a professor. But gradually, other interests squeezed out my GIS pursuits, and I am a rank amateur at this point. 

See Google MyMaps for annotated links to many of these maps.

Enter Google Maps. Flawed as it is in some important ways, it is a convenient way for me to make and share maps, so I use it a lot -- one could even say compulsively. I use it to make cartographic "life lists" of many places that have mattered to me, as a planning tool for personal or professional travel, or even as a supplement to articles or stories I encounter -- even a song can sometimes need a map!

At this point, I have created almost 100 Google Maps. I can see them all at once by typing "mymaps.google.com" but the resultant list is visible only to me. Above is a snapshot of the top of the list at the moment. If some reader knows a way to make such a list shareable, please let me know. Until then, I have created an annotated list of just a couple dozen. maps -- including some very new ones. Spoiler alert: the newest one as of this writing is Todas las Casas -- a life list of every place I have resided. 

Cabo Verde e Sua Geografía: HERITOR

 

I am very pleased that several of my university colleagues have received a grant for an ambitious environmental project in Cape Verde. The HERITOR project will involve more than a dozen undergraduate students over the next three years. 

They will conduct field-based research on important questions of coastal water quality AND assist in science outreach with youth in the study area. The HERITOR project is a collaboration among the Biology Department, the CASE program, and the Pedro Pires Institute -- plus many non-BSU collaborators and the National Science Foundation. 

I am not officially part of this project, but my broader experience in Cape Verde enables me to contribute to the preparation of the team. This will begin with my  CAPE VERDE GEOGRAPHY   presentation for the opening class session. I share it here as an easy way to make all of its illustrations and its many links available to the HERITOR participants.