the bologna process

Since EDGE is a somewhat slow-moving process, I am going to start posting some of my work that I have compiled in the cartography lab.

Yesterday I was given a quick project for human geography Professor Kris Olds in the geography department. I have had professor Olds in a couple classes throughout Madison and really enjoy his connection between the global world and the socio-economic aspects of culture and community. He came to the lab in need of a simple map that showed membership addition of the Bologna Process that began in 1999. Bear with me, since most of my knowledge of this comes from Wikipedia (but this is a blog, so you can't complain). Basically, the Bologna process is the creation of the European Higher Education Area, which establishes a consistent and compatible education standards program throughout Europe and surrounding countries. This enables the fluid movement of students throughout Europe's higher education universities.

Members of the Bologna Process

I don't have much to say about the map, since it hopefully speaks for itself along with my quite abbreviated explanation. The map is a choropleth with ordinal (qualitative but orderable) data. The color scheme had to be compatible with some of Olds' other maps the lab has made, so my choices were somewhat limited, but for relative purposes not much at all. I chose a multi-hue scheme from an online color schemer, Color Brewer that was developed partially by my past introduction to Cartography professor, Mark Harrower. This program has been very useful in my search for appropriate color schemes on for choropleth maps that require multi hues and saturations of color. It creates color schemes depending on tons of variables including, number of classes, color scheme (CMYK, RGB or HEX), printer-friendly, colorblind-friendly, multi-hue, single-huge, etc. Other programs created by the same people include a tool, Type Brewer, for help in selecting typography.



All in all, I really like this map since it reminds me of how enjoyable simplicity can be. It took me the afternoon to create it and only some edits this morning to finish it. The map doesn't need to be fancy with tons of flare, it can simply just show a simple trend. I used as little labeling as possible with a very simplified light Gill Sans typeface.

Though I knew it, I hadn't really realized why I enjoy maps and map making so much. I just assumed I had found a hobby that for some odd reason had a well established professional world. But after making this map and many others I understand myself and why these two-dimensional fabrications completely fascinate me. I simply enjoy learning new things about the world. Albiet quite random things most of the time, I feel more informed with the maps I create and am always aware of the insane amount of information that is available at our fingertips. My job involves learning about something in the world, and making it visually relatable for people. I get to learn about culture, politics, travel, trade, people, places, and things while being as creative as a I want with the multitudes of information that I have. I have never looked at a map the same way after my first cartography class with Mark.

turning reality into a map

After working with the EDGE project for about a year and a half, it was still difficult to envision the island in a global, geographic perspective. I envisioned a map of Lingira. Simple but relatable. I knew that making a map of the island would require quite a bit of research and cooperation from the ladies who have travelled there in the past. Fortunately, they are awesome and have really helped me get all of the spatial topography together so people can see where SHIM actually is in relation to the other villages and where the primary school is in relation to the secondary school. Even more important, new members coming into EDGE will have an idea of Lingira's location within Uganda and Lake Victoria. As well as new members, interested donors and collaborators will have a simple idea of the island since it is going into our brochure that will be handed out by a couple EDGies at the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGIU) conference in San Diego, April 1st-3rd.

I have always found it difficult to understand everything about the EDGE project. It is sometimes quite frustrating to try and work on a project without knowing the place where you plan in implementing it. This is a major reason why traveling to the island will help me out with my research for the environment team. The map will hopefully help people relate to the island in a geographic manner.

To my surprise and appreciation, Google Maps had recently updated some of their satellite topological images of the earth and Lingira happened to be in this update. Now you can literally see the space between homes and the paths people walk on the island. This incredibly detailed image of the island has really helped with the production process. I began with a simple outline of the island and then created another data layer for different types of land-type on the island. I chose four "easily" definable categories: urban/village, agriculture, forest, and infertile/rocky. This part of the map is highly subjective and really just depends on my evaluation of what is forest and what isn't forest. If I spent the time, I could get every single tree onto the map but that would require too much time for an unnecessary amount of detail. Agriculture is what I perceived to be fertile land. It very well could be old plots that aren't productive any longer. Again, this map is a general look at Lingira for a simple purpose: so people can relate to the island in a perspective necessary for understanding its environment and global place.

I'm starting to sound like a soundboard for my geography department's mission statement.

Screen shot of Lingira from Google Maps

Thanks to the help of Abby Beissinger I was able to get information about the socio-cultural part of the island. We spent some time just looking at the image and she pointed out places on the map that were worth labeling. Most are buildings but there are even some highly subjective, perceptive areas such as "the rocks" that represent a rugged pathway from the Kyoya village to Lingira village. This is the part of Lingira that the map is truly about. It is nice to know where the forest is and where people's cropland is but more importantly, knowing the relationship between cultural and political aspects of the island are what people really relate to. As a non-traveler, you wouldn't know the route across "the rocks" children from Lingira village have to take to get to the secondary school by looking at a satellite image. This is a map of information that only a person can get by living and experiencing life on Lingira.

Final Product

A close up

One of my favorite design aspects of this map is the ripple effect radiating from the coast. A simple offset path program with increasing polygon sizes of 1.5X_offset allows for the dissipating water look. I want to thank Daniel Huffman, originally my TA for introduction to cartography and now teacher for the class, for showing me this effect, amongst many other things that I now know about mapmaking. His portfolio, SomethingAboutMaps and blog, Cartastrophe are here for anyone interested in checking out his newest thoughts and creations.

Let me know what you think about the map, all comments are appreciated!

Toodles from your local shapefile junkie

the EDGE project

Empowerment through Development and Gender Equality

The EDGE Project
Wisconsin EDGE Project Blog
wisconsin.edge@gmail.com

EDGE is a student organization devoted to developing sustainable community practices on an island community in Uganda. Lingira, a small 5km circumference island located within the Buvuma island chain in Lake Victoria is a community that struggles to get children to school and provide continued sustenance for family. Some lovely ladies started this project a few years ago through a contact that got them connected to the island where SHIM (Shepherd's Heart International Ministry) is located. Though we stay primarily connected through Andy and Keeky (the head's of SHIM) the EDGE project remains a religiously unbiased and unrelated organization. It just happens to be a means of connection and lodging when staying on the island.

The semesters since the creation of the EDGE project have seen a quickly changing organization to better exemplify the needs of island inhabitants in Wisconsin. Our incredible access to information at the University of Wisconsin, Madison allows us to connect with many influential people and many organizations that can help us with our projects. After many changes and shifts around the organization, the current set up includes an executive committee that handles much of the paperwork and donor information. The co-directors, Kristina Krull and Alisha David make a great duo in keeping EDGE organized and in contact with our humbling donors.

The rest of EDGE is divided into four teams: Agriculture, Empowerment, Health & Nutrition, and Environment. These four teams comprise the base of EDGE and each have team leaders who coordinate research projects throughout the semesters for implementation on the island. For example the Empowerment team, led by Georgette Condos, is in contact with a professor in eastern Africa who has developed a type of women's sanitary pad that can be created simply through papyrus trees. The process has created sustainable livelihoods for many women making these pads, as well as provides many younger girls with the means of being able to attend school every day without worrying about the menstrual conflicting with their studies.

As the team leader for the environment section of EDGE, I have had the opportunity to use the knowledge I have gained from both my geography and conservation biology majors. When concerned with environmental problems in central Africa, many people will begin with Lake Victoria and it's watershed. The home to millions of people and the market for many fishermen and farmers, Lake Victoria provides an incredible amount of sustenance to its surrounding basin. The healthiness of the lake is drastically decreasing due to agricultural runoff. It has lost an irreplaceable portion of its biodiversity due to the introduction of species, most notably the Nile Perch. Because the lake is such an important resource to people's lives, the environment team has been working on a project to reduce runoff on Lingira.

Our primary project involves establishing an educational tree nursery for the primary school to give children the opportunity to have a hands-on experience with trees to teach them the importance of trees for more than extractive and unsustainable resources. The erosion control trees provide for the soil on the island is unmistakeable. Ideally, the children will grow to appreciate trees through an environmental lens by interacting with the nursery. With the priceless dedication the environment team members have shown these past semesters, we hope this project will be educationally sustainable and ideally, sustainable to tree life and lead to possible reforestation projects around the area.

a slight change

Much has happened in since leaving Cape Town almost a year ago. For a brief synopsis of it all:

I am a senior.
I continue my studies at UW-Madison.
I graduate in May. Surprisingly, I might know what I am doing for the next year.
I work in the UW-Madison Cartography Lab.
I still work at the Food and Beverage Department.
Much of my senior year has been consumed by hops and fermentation.
My family has become my backbone.
My friends are my lifestyle.
My computer still always seems to be low on battery.
Internet is now unlimited and free.
I am currently the Environment team leader in the EDGE Project.
I could very well be travelling to Uganda this summer for the EDGE project.
The EDGE project is still, without argument, the coolest student organization around.
The world seems to be falling apart.
Japan, my heart aches for you.
Libya, my fist clenches for you.
Scott Walker, my urine falls upon you.
I still sometimes say rude and over-the-top things.
None of this is really news to anybody.

This blog, since I am no longer studying abroad in Cape Town, is going to stand for pretty much anything. Ideally I would love to continue talking about travels but that involves having a lot of money to travel with. So primarily it will be a way for writing down my thoughts for the EDGE Environment team in the lead up to the travelling this summer. Since I am considering (highly) going on the trip to Lingira Island, I will want to keep my thoughts organized on this lovely little page (notice the new color scheme).

Thanks everyone who followed during my travels to Cape Town, I thoroughly enjoyed keeping a record of my travels and hope you all had a fun time reading them. For now, the blog will take a look at Lingira Island (don't worry, there will be a post about the EDGE project in full coming up) from the perspective of a researching student in Wisconsin. A top down approach is what I would call this one, though a bottom up approach on the island would be a better, and more sustainable use of our time. Hence, our summer travel plans.

To keep it brief, I won't say much more right now. Though, do not give up, my strong-willed companions, for this blog shall continue in a new, greatly-extended and evolved version. From the map to the land, I share with you my stories.