EVS-Islands

The above map shows some of my completed island mapping projects. Each icon contains the name of the primary island associated with the project and a link to the post. Once all of my projects are posted, the map will be covered with icons. To productively use the map, zoom into a region of interest. Then select an icon.

Each of my maps is constructed of numerous layers of information. All of the layers are vector files. I will make these files available upon request. You are free to use them with certain restrictions - 1) Don't sell them. You can use them on research projects, post them to your website or things of that nature. If you aren't sure about the use of my maps, drop me a line and we can discuss your idea. 2) Give me credit when you use my vectors or images of my maps. Credit them to Peter Minton @ EVS-Islands

If I have the island vector file(s) and based upon your need, I will make them available. Images of my maps are yours to download and use, with the above restrictions applicable. Enjoy!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Thoughts - Be Careful What You Wish For...

It has been a few days since my last post, but it has been a very busy few days. I am working on a paying island mapping project. The client ( who shall remain anonymous) wants the eastern Pacific islands mapped at EVS precision (using Landsat ETM+ as base imagery). For the past four days I've been mapping the Solomon Islands. All I have to do is create a shoreline polygon for each island. If you've ever studied the Landsat imagery for this part of the world there a lots of clouds. Clouds are a royal pain to the shoreline digitizer. However, I am an enterprising soul and am using Landsat 1990 imagery to try and skirt the cloud issue. It works! Now for the challenge associated with this project. I have 1,000s of islands to digitize, label, add elevation contours and bathymetry, create urban polygons and label, and all of this within two to four weeks. This is what I wished for and now I have it. I will work many many many hours on this project and get paid a few thousand for my efforts (it's never enough). But am I complaining. No, not at all. This is what I want to do - make EVS precision maps of islands. At the end of this project I will have completed EVS precision mapping for the eastern Pacific. That is quite an accomplishment. So my "For Hire" shingle is out. Any more takers? Enjoy!

Labels: EVS Precision, Landsat ETM+, Landsat WRS, Pacific Ocean

Posted by Mr Minton at 4/22/2008 08:48:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Sadoga-shima JA - Finished!

Sadoga-shima JA

An island located along the western coast of Honshu, near the city of Niigata. The inhabitants make their living off of farming and tourists. Sadoga-shima, at one time, was the location of gold deposits that were worked by exiles.

This island, with it's deceptively simple appearance, consists of 630 unique polygons / lines (not counting 50-meter interval contours). The majority of these vectors are the pinkish areas - which depict either human habitation or denuded land. On my map, they all are rendered the same. If I were to further refine this project, the determination between human and denuded would be made.

I am glad this is finished. I think I'll leave Japan for awhile.

A quick aside - I was able to use my work on this island with my students, as we are studying Japan. They know Sadoga-shima's history and current use and are able to compare and contrast it with the four main islands. Neat, huh?

Enjoy!

Labels: EVS, island, Japan, Landsat, map, Marplot, Pacific Ocean, Sea of Japan

Posted by Mr Minton at 2/15/2007 06:45:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Thoughts - What I Do at 2:00 AM? Make a Map, Of Course!

Pacific Ocean B/W Map (1-cm:500-km)

As I tell my students, "Mr Minton is frugal." It's not that I'm cheap, but if I spend my hard-earned cash on something I can get for free, that's just silly. Take, for example, this seemingly innocent looking Pacific Ocean B/W Map, a tool used by geography teachers throughout the world. It was created per a reader's request. He asked if I could make the above map. "Of course", I said. Thinking to myself, "I have every kind of world shoreline vector map file available. A Pacific centered map should be easy to make. Aaha! Not so easy.

First you need to have a mapping package that delivers a Pacific centered map. Marplot, my free mapping package, provides a Greenwich centered map. How does one get a Pacific centered map from a Greenwich centered map. Because we all know that the outer edge of the Greenwich centered map should be the middle of a Pacific centered map.

I solved it and the finished product turned out pretty good. Any guesses as to how I created my map? It has to do with cut and paste, image resizing and careful alignment of two cuts.

It isn't that big of a deal. I used ImageForge software to manipulate my Eastern Pacific and Western Pacific images, which I had taken from Marplot. I pasted and aligned the two images and stitched them together. I saved the Pacific Ocean image as a JPEG file. Just for fun, I imported the image into MS Word and created the Pacific Ocean B/W map as a .doc file. Both the Pacific Ocean JPEG and the Pacific Ocean DOC files are available for download. And that's how I did it. Pretty cool, huh?

Enjoy!

Labels: B/W map, map, Marplot, Pacific Ocean

Posted by Mr Minton at 1/30/2007 02:28:00 AM | Permalink | Comments | links to this post