Maps for crisis response, humanitarian relief, and emergency management often require complex map symbols and innovative design solutions. The Humanitarian Symbology Scorecard is a free, online self-assessment resource that may be used to evaluate crisis maps, and offer suggestions and relevant resources to improve map symbology. A quick guide and tutorial video are available on the website to introduce you to major features of the system.

Maps and geographic information that characterize attributes of human culture such as language, ethnicity, and religion serve a range of diverse purposes, including maps used by social scientists to visualize and understand the cultural composition of a place, maps in the media to explain the complexities of current global events to the general public, and maps produced by government intelligence agencies to support diplomatic relations or military intervention in foreign lands. Thematic maps that visualize ethnicity, language, religion, and other attributes of culture (both historic and contemporary) are prone to several cartographic design challenges. This project inventoried a range of cultural maps and assessed design challenges common to cultural mapping. Research results were presented at the 2017 International Cartographic Conference.

Map Source (Left): CIA Cartography Center, 2008

The Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) maps are produced for coastal areas in the United States by NOAA. This project provided cartographic recommendations to redesign the ESI map series. Guidelines were used to redesign ESI maps for the entire Atlantic coastline.

The objective of this research is to develop GIS methods for modeling and visualizing global sea level rise due to climate change. The project was initiated through the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) with colleagues at the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University. See the sea level rise project website for project results. Ongoing work focuses on the development of improved methods for effectively visualizing sea level rise at local, regional, and global scales particularly in the context of uncertainty and level of realism.

The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) estimates that there are currently 40-50 million landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the ground around the world today. Maps and GIS are essential to landmine removal or humanitarian demining process. The goal of this project was to develop a new set of cartographic symbols that could be used in humanitarian demining activities. The new symbol set has been implemented in the GICHD's Information Management System for Mine Action (IMSMA), a leading GIS used in humanitarian demining. See the humanitarian demining project website at the University of Kansas for detailed information about the project as well as to download the symbol set and example maps.

Web-mapping tools have become increasingly popular in emergency management contexts for hazard planning, mitigation, response, and recovery purposes. The goal of this project was to design and develop iMapper, a web-based mapping system for use by emergency managers in Illinois. In conjunction with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, the iMapper system was developed utilizing a user-centered design approach that solicited input and feedback from emergency responders from across the state.