Making Sense of the World
I never planned to be a geographer. In fact, I nearly failed my first geography exam. But somehow geography kept pulling me back in. I am a curious person, and geography offers me a framework for exploring and organizing information about people, places and phenomena.
I've always been more of a generalist than a specialist, interested in intersections and relationships more than understanding something very deeply but in isolation. The expansive and integrative aspects of geography appeal to me – expansive, because geographic thinking can be applied to nearly any topic, and integrative because geographic thinking reveals how places are shaped by the interplay of multiple factors (environmental, economic, political).
Similarly, GIS offers me a framework for exploring and organizing information, and maps provide a language for synthesizing and communicating. I find the intersection of analytics and aesthetics that maps encourage compelling. Visual communication through maps and other images can be so effective because the brain processes images faster than words, leading to faster insight and understanding. Images also can make an emotional connection that numbers alone rarely do, making them effective for communicating data.
I was fortunate to discover geography as an undergraduate. I meet many people who love exploring the world and maps, and who are naturally inclined to be geographers, regardless of what they study or their profession. The book "The Power of Where" lays out the "geographic approach", a method for using maps and GIS to develop understanding and make decisions based on locations and relationships.
"The Power of Where" is an amazing tour through the geographic approach and the field of GIS. For anyone who wants to learn more about GIS and where it's going without pursuing a full-on degree, the book is a great starting point. It includes over 400 maps and apps as examples of how GIS is used across contexts as diverse as choosing the best sites for electric vehicle charging stations to removing landmines from former conflict zones, from prioritizing natural areas for conservation to designing smart cities.
Through the book's companion web site (powerofwhere.com), you can delve into these maps and apps to learn about the topics they cover and explore how they were built. You also can build your GIS skills through more than 50 scenario-based hands-on tutorials.
I encourage you to explore this flipbook, which includes the preface from GIS pioneer and Esri co-founder Jack Dangermond. If your curiosity is piqued, the promo code WHERE-EDU provides a 30% on the book to students and educators on IndiePubs. The book also is available in Kindle format from Amazon.
I hope The Power of Where inspires you to learn more about GIS and seek out ways to use geographic thinking to make sense of the world and create a bright future for yourself and your community.