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Archive for May, 2009 Page 2 of 2

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Excel Spreadsheet Data To Google Earth Thematic Map

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in data, Google Earth and spreadsheet. 2 Comments

After yesterday’s post on thematic mapping in Google Maps, John Stewart  of the University of North Carolina’s MEASURE program wrote to tell me about their own thematic mapping tool, the E2G Thematic Mapper. This Microsoft Excel macro spreadsheet data and links it with polygon data for countries and their administrative units to create thematic maps for Google Earth:

Excel data to Google Earth thematic map

Image is from the excellent PDF manual included with the distribution. I can’t try it out because I don’t currently have a computer with Excel (2003 or 2007), and it doesn’t seem to run on Open Office Calc.

It also currently only has polygon data for sixteen countries:

  • Botswana
  • Côte d’Ivoire
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Ethiopia
  • Guyana
  • Haiti
  • Kenya
  • Mozambique
  • Namibia
  • Nigeria
  • Rwanda
  • Tanzania
  • Uganda
  • Vietnam
  • South Africa
  • Zambia

But John says that an update coming this summer will add polygon data for more countries, along with more macro features.

If you’re interested in field data acquisition, the entire Monitoring and Evaluation Systems section of the MEASURE site is worth a look.




Thematic Data In Google Maps With Plug And Play Maps

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in Google Maps. Closed

Chris Duncan writes to let me know about his online mapping tool/service, Plug and Play Maps (slogan: “Just Add Data”), that lets you take data in number of formats:

  • Spreadsheet/text (CSV)
  • JSON string
  • DBF
  • KML
  • Shapefile
  • Web database

And display it as a thematic map in Google Maps, with colors/shapes representing thematic values (with limitations for some formats like KML and shapefile). Some live examples shown on the website include:

Continue reading ‘Thematic Data In Google Maps With Plug And Play Maps’




Online GPS Format Conversion And Track Creation With GPSies

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in GPS and GPX. 1 Comment

GPSies is a site whose primary function seems to be as a social site where you can upload tracks of your travels, and have them posted on a map to keep track of them or share them with others. Tracks can be uploaded from standard formats like GPX or KML, directly from Garmin GPS using the Garmin Communicator plugin, or from the iPhone using their free app. This social aspect isn’t something I’m all that interested in doing, so those features are wasted on me. But the site has two tools that GPS users will find useful:

Continue reading ‘Online GPS Format Conversion And Track Creation With GPSies’




Additions To List Of Free GIS Programs For The Mac

Published by
Leszek Pawlowicz
 in GIS. Closed

A few more additions to the full list of free Mac GIS software, where they will be added shortly; you need only bookmark that preceding link to have it as a complete and regularly-updated reference.

Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS) – “The Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS) is an interactive desktop tool that is used for easy access, manipulation, and visualization of earth science data. The format of the data may be either binary, GRIB, NetCDF, or HDF-SDS (Scientific Data Sets).”

MARPLOT – “MARPLOT is the mapping application. It allows users to “see” their data (e.g., roads, facilities, schools, response assets), display this information on computer maps, and print the information on area maps. The areas contaminated by potential or actual chemical release scenarios also can be overlaid on the maps to determine potential impacts. The maps are created from the U.S. Bureau of Census TIGER/Line files and can be manipulated quickly to show possible hazard areas.”

Puzzle-GIS – “Puzzle is a Java Geographic Information Systems (GIS) development platform build on top of NetBeans6. The main goal of Puzzle GIS is to create a free, production ready and competitive tool as a valid alternative to commercial software.”

Spatial Commander – A free German GIS program. This link (in German) lists its features.

Spatial Data Integrator – “Spatial Data Integrator (SDI) is an ETL (Extract Transform Load) tool with geospatial capabilities.”

STEM – “The Spatiotemporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM) tool is designed to help scientists and public health officials create and use spatial and temporal models of emerging infectious diseases. These models could aid in understanding, and potentially preventing, the spread such diseases.”




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