This Map Spotlight will be showcasing the runner-up of the 2023 Avenza Map Contest: Korea Between the Wars by Nat Case. This map was part of a series of five maps created by Nat to be published in the memoir Beyond the Border: A Korean’s Journey Between the North and South by Tae-hyok Kim and Nicole Kim Rogers, which follows Tae-hyok’s life in war-ridden mid-century Korea. This particular map is used to set the stage for the beginning of his story when North and South Korea were divided by the 38th parallel post-World War II. Hand-drawn map elements and handwriting-style labels are used to highlight relevant cities, provinces and other features of the Korean peninsula and surrounding regions.

Check out the other maps in the series on Nat’s website, and find Beyond the Border: A Korean’s Journey Between the North and South here.

Select the images below to see a detailed look at Nat’s map

Making the Map

Nat used both MAPublisher and Geographic Imager tools in the creation of this map. In MAPublisher, coastline and political boundaries as well as points were imported and then projected and rescaled. Transforming the projection of the data upon import allowed him to set up the map scale and projection of the document without needing to use the MAP View Editor after import. The coastline data was then exported as a TIFF to be used in the process of creating the textured shaded relief.

In Geographic Imager, a Prisma shaded relief was imported and transformed to the desired projection. It was then cropped and exported to a TIFF as well, to also be used in the process of creating the textured shaded relief.

Both TIFF files were then imported into the Illustrator map file. Nat used the grayscale of the Prisma relief as a mask in Illustrator to create the textured relief around the coastlines and land formations. The hand-drawn texture were created using textures from the Adobe Stock library.

Nat selected handwriting fonts when creating the labels using the Label tool to place them initially. He then adjusted the labels manually as desired.

See the winners announcement for the 2023 Avenza Map Contest here, and check out our other Map Spotlight blogs here!

In our first Map Spotlight of the year, we are showcasing the winner of the 2023 Avenza Map Contest: Arctic Carbon Monitoring Network by Christina Shintani, with additional contributions from Jessica Howard (text content) and Julianne Waite (illustration). This map shows eddy covariance flux tower locations in the Arctic that measure the continuous movement of carbon between soils, plants, and the atmosphere. This process is often intriguingly referred to as the Earth’s breath. These towers collect data that is crucial to establishing a comprehensive carbon monitoring network in the Arctic region, which will assist efforts in advancing plausible solutions to curbing permafrost thaw.

A warming Arctic contributes to intensifying wildfires and permafrost thaw, both of which in turn contribute to increased carbon emissions, which is a serious environmental concern. The supporting maps explore the various implications of what is at stake as the Arctic warms three to four times faster than the rest of the world: the Arctic ecosystems at risk, the extent of permafrost thaw, and the shifting of the Arctic from a carbon sink to a new source. Maps like Christina’s are helpful in allowing people to visualize and further understand the progressive impacts of climate change.

Check out more of Christina’s maps on her website, and learn more about the work of Permafrost Pathways here.

Select the images below to see a detailed look at Christina’s map

Making the Map

Christina used both MAPublisher and Geographic Imager tools in the creation of this map. Christina used the Import tool to import the data files she processed in another program, such as QGIS. Following import, she used the MAP Views panel to set up the map scale and projection of the document. Since this map required a polar map projection, the MAP View Editor was also used to reproject data layers from different coordinate systems.

Christina also employed MAP Themes in the creation of her map. Stylesheet Themes were used to symbolize the data on both the main map and supporting maps. These stylesheets could then be used to create legends for the respective maps.

In Geographic Imager, Christina opened her raster data using the Advanced Import, which contains several geoprocessing tools to adjust, crop or transform her imagery before importing it. This can be especially helpful when working with large datasets that may slow the program down if they are not cropped or downsized in some way. She also used the Transform feature to reproject images where necessary.

See the winner announcement for the 2023 Avenza Map Contest here, and check out our other Map Spotlight blogs here!