Geospatial analysis and educational writing that help students connect the patterns on a map to the world around them.
Through GISetc, I worked with National Geographic on MapMaker, pairing geospatial analyses and map layers with articles that make complex science and geography accessible to students.
My work brought together spatial data interpretation, thematic mapping, and educational storytelling—from environmental pressures and natural hazards to population patterns and movement. I worked with educators and project stakeholders to connect the maps to meaningful classroom questions.
About National Geographic MapMaker ↗Three resources that connect environmental patterns with the people and ecosystems they affect.
Connecting heat severity with vegetation, infrastructure, and the lived experience of cities. The article helps students interpret a raster map and explore ways to reduce urban heat.
Heat severity dataset: Descartes Labs, as credited in the article.
Pairing mapped incidents and fire perimeters with an explanation of wildfire ecology, ignition, and prescribed burning. The resource gives students context for interpreting the map’s incident types and attributes.
The linked layer displays changing incident data; this thumbnail is a snapshot.
Making a complex measure of human pressure approachable through maps and explanatory writing. The article explores how population, infrastructure, land use, and access shape patterns—and why comparisons need context.
Underlying Human Footprint research is credited to WCS and Columbia University in the article.
Six more examples across Earth science, climate, and human geography.
Explore the distribution and classification of volcanoes in relation to tectonic settings.
Examine magnitude 7.0+ events from 1950–2020 using a filtered USGS earthquake dataset.
Interpret global precipitation patterns alongside explanations of the water cycle and climate.
Explore the paths of EF-4 and EF-5 tornadoes recorded between 2000 and 2017.
Compare the geographic distribution of generational cohorts across different map scales.
Explore origin-to-destination patterns for selected countries using 2020 UNHCR data.
Map previews are from the supplied screenshots of National Geographic MapMaker resources; the tornado preview is the linked ArcGIS item’s thumbnail. Articles and interactive layers open on their original platforms, where data providers and project contributors are credited.
See how I used drone mapping to support research at the Boiling River in the Peruvian Amazon.
The Boiling River Project