Ian Lockwood

Over the last year I have continued to work with various methods of presenting elevation for the study areas that I am interested in, both for school (here in Sri Lanka) and for personal work (in India’s Western Ghats). The two maps here are the result of experiments with hypsometric tints. This method uses contours lines derived from SRTM Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and assigned colors bands to present variation in the topography of the land. As my ongoing photographic documentation and writing of the Western Ghats illustrates, I have a multi nodal interest in the landscapes, ecosystems and cultures of the region. These experiments with maps are part of my ongoing efforts to better understand, document and share information on this stunning yet threatened South Asian landscape.

Southern Western Ghats without administration layers

Southern Western Ghats with administration (from ArcGIS Online)

For further information on cartography using GIS see the excellent site Cartotalk. The Cartography and Geographic Information Society promotes a wide range of geographic skills with plenty of GIS links. ESRI promotes the art and science of map making using its propriety and online software through its mapping center. There are also several books out that are helpful , although with the rapid change in technological development some of these books quickly go out of date. One book that I got several years ago is Gretchen N. Peterson’s GIS Cartography (CRC Press, 2009) and as mentioned on a previous post Map Use. 6^th Edition (John Kemerling et al. 2010, ESRI Press) is a must have resource for understanding maps.