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Using the new National Geographic style basemap in education

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07-18-2019 08:40 AM
JosephKerski
by Esri Notable Contributor
Esri Notable Contributor
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‎07-18-2019 08:40 AM

I highly recommend investigating the amazing and beautiful new National Geographic map in teaching, learning, and beyond.  This is one of the rapidly expanding set of vector tile maps available to you, and this one presents different wonders and delights at different scales.  At smaller scales, a new cached base layer has been created, the National Geographic Style Base. It blends our multi-directional hillshade with a specially prepared version of the Esri/USGS Ecophysiographic Land Units Map. For more information on the science behind ELUs, see this link. At mid-scales, the ELUs give way to a single tone land color. The hillshade continues into large scale, matching the coverage seen on other basemaps such as Topographic.  To find out more about this map, see this essay from my colleague at Esri:   https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-living-atlas/mapping/meet-the-national-geographic-s...  

To access the map, you have two options:

 

  1.  Later this year, the National Geographic basemap will be added to the basemaps default gallery.  At the moment, in ArcGIS Online or ArcGIS Pro, you need to add both the National Geographic STYLE and the National Geographic Style BASE from the Living Atlas (see graphic below).  Note that this map is different from the one that has existed for years in ArcGIS Online (which is the National Geographic World Map).   

 Using the National Geographic new basemap.

2.  Another option to use it is to open the following map in ArcGIS Online:

https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=f33a34de3a294590ab48f246e99958c9

This map contains both of the above 2 map items in a combined format, and is shown below.

Using the National Geographic new basemap, 2.

  

--Joseph Kerski

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About the Author
I believe that spatial thinking can transform education and society through the application of Geographic Information Systems for instruction, research, administration, and policy. I hold 3 degrees in Geography, have served at NOAA, the US Census Bureau, and USGS as a cartographer and geographer, and teach a variety of F2F (Face to Face) (including T3G) and online courses. I have authored a variety of books and textbooks about the environment, STEM, GIS, and education. These include "Interpreting Our World", "Essentials of the Environment", "Tribal GIS", "The GIS Guide to Public Domain Data", "International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning with GIS In Secondary Education", "Spatial Mathematics" and others. I write for 2 blogs, 2 monthly podcasts, and a variety of journals, and have created over 5,000 videos on the Our Earth YouTube channel. Yet, as time passes, the more I realize my own limitations and that this is a lifelong learning endeavor and thus I actively seek mentors and collaborators.