Hi Shannon,
I presented the awards at the closing session this year, and would be happy to share the comments from the judges on the winners and acknowledgements. Here is a rundown of all the awards and comments about each:
Best Map Series or Atlas
1st Place:
WWF Colombia for
Atlas of Conservation Opportunities in the Amazon Biome under Climate Change Considerations
The judges were looking at overall appearance and continuity of the product as a collection of maps. The winner had a consistent approach towards a distinctive product for a central, coordinated theme.
- The judges noted this map for being Bilingual and informative without confusing the observer.
- It also has a well-balanced presentation of maps, legends, and narration.
- It’s engaging both online and in print.
- The color schemes are Attractive and distinctive.
- To quote the judges, the unified artistic theme really makes an impact!
Best Instructional Map
1st Place:
St. Johns County for
Data Driven Pages to the Rescue
The design and flow of the winning submission follows a strong logic
from which the audience can learn or replicate a workflow or process
This story map made great use of mixed media to tell a compelling story about how this organization used the Data Driven Pages toolset to create 75 maps in 24 hours showing the locations of damaged structures from Hurricane Matthew. In addition to telling this incredible story, they’ve shared the workflow so that others might be able to learn from it. The authors fully employed the capabilities of the Story Map Cascade template to create a visually striking, engaging, and interactive learning experience for its audience. One of the things we really liked about this map was that it kept our focus from start to finish. We wanted to read it from beginning to end.
Most Unique
First Place:
Europa Technologies for
The Emoji Map of San Diego
I think this might be everyone’s favorite. The category is designed to support work of an innovative or experimental nature, and is an opportunity for you to show us how you’ve gone beyond the defaults!
The winner in this category was a truly huge map in every sense.
The concept is delightfully simple but beautifully executed.
The size of the map works well for the scale of the room in which it's presented.
It hooks into a modern social media phenomenon that naturally gives the map modern appeal.
It draws you in from a distance and the resolution of the map appears and comes into focus as you approach...along with the smile that appears across your face.
It's colourful, playful and absolutely unique!
Using an API in a Map
1st Place:
U.S. Census Bureau for
FlowsMapper Application
Maps in this category made specific use of an Esri API as a core component in the design and publication of a standalone online map product.
The judges in this category were particularly impressed by how Simple, direct, and easy to use this map was, and how effectively it shows a complex dataset integrated with an intuitive user interface.
Best Student Map - Up to age 12
1st Place:
Pro-West & Associates and the Tri-County Preschool Class for the
GIS Day Community Coloring Map
To describe this map, I’m just going to quote the judges on this one:
Charming and Enchanting!
Student Map 2 - ages 13-18
1st Place:
Sohum Sheth of Sayville High School for
Geospatial Analysis of the Distribution of Sea Turtles and Sharks off the Coast of Long Island, New York
The winner here represents a surprisingly in-depth analysis that addresses a complex problem for which the results are presented in a clear and compelling way.
Student Map 3 - post-secondary, university, and postgrad
1st Place:
Gabriel Rousseau and Kyle Lempinen with the Bureau of Land Management Oregon State Office for
Pinpointing Vulnerabilities - Protecting Regions of the Arctic
The top map here exhibits professionally executed cartography, with subdued colors, clear presentation of overlapping categories, and a well-balanced layout for a page with complex map marginalia.
Best Story Map
1st Place:
Pape-Dawson Engineers for
Remember the Alamo in 3D
For this category, the judges were looking for an appropriate use of a Story Map template, as well as maps that exceed the potential of the default settings of templates. Crucially, the map should share a story and provide clear navigation for the use.
This Map Journal story map progressively builds and reveals the history of the Alamo in 3D.
These beautiful historical models are shown in context with current road and building features to place the reader within a realistic environment where they can appreciate the scale and change of the phenomenon of history and urban development.
Line-of-sight visualizations clearly demonstrate the views and perspectives from interesting locations within.
This story map is an excellent example of well-paced storytelling, thoughtful cartography, and an immersive use of 3D.
Large Format Printed Map
1st Place:
Gallatin County for
A Perspective View of Gallatin County, Montana
For this category, maps should demonstrate that the
final size is suitable and adequate for the theme being mapped and designed to be viewed on display in a large gallery space.
This map of the City of Bozeman's home county suits this well and provides a perspective view of the area's dramatic terrain and unique geographic features.
By diverging from the traditional "North is Up" orientation, the rotated "East is Up" view allows for better placement of labels and the exclusion of neighboring areas creates an focused look at the contents of this single US county.
Best Small Format Printed Map
1st Place:
New York City Parks for
Alley Pond Park
Despite its size, this map has an impressive cartographic design:
not only it is very easy to read but it’s also just beautiful to look at...it was clear to the judges that incredible thought and work went into how to communicate this information...
A subtle hillshade was well used
A clever rendition of white dashed lines in the legend ...
Overall, this map had excellent graphic communication for its intended audience.
Best ArcGIS Pro Map
1st Place:
The City of Fort Collins for
The Union Canal (Fallkirk to Edinburgh)
Clean, cased labels, and excellent use of muted pastel colors.
At a glance, this map might seem somewhat traditional, but the closer you get the more you see the modern cartographic appeal
The map author has beautifully crafted a visual hierarchy that pulls the canal outward from the map background.
Best Analytic Map
First Place:
Far Western Anthropological Research Group Incorporated for
Modeling the Prehistoric Extent of San Francisco Bay and Potential for Cultural Resources.
The winner in this category identifies and communicates the
problem using maps and additional graphics but with a focus on the methods, techniques and processes used in the
analyses., the judges were particularly impressed by how the landscape evolution analysis so clearly displays the potential for historical understanding.
The progression of spatial analyses is depicted in an easy-to-understand layout.
Color selection is pleasing to the eye without unnecessary labels.
This entry also includes some interactivity with a link to a time lapse animation and details of the analysis online.
Best of Show
First Place:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – GRASP for
The Environmental Burden index: Estimating Environmental Quality by Peer Group.
This map is a deep dive experience and fully embodies the science of where. The authors have mixed and matched traditional vs modern cartographic aesthetic. They created a balanced layout with informative marginalia that offers varying dimensions of data analysis. Color balance and hues across categories is beautifully expressed and easy to differentiate. The cartography in this map is not just for show, but is actually their method of demonstrating a complex exploratory analysis. It’s one of those maps that you see from far away and you want to check it out, and when you see it up close you never stop finding new bits of information.
Cartography Special Interest Groups
The three users being recognized this year by Carto SIG for Excellence in Cartography awards are:
- Claude Frank of S&P Global Platts for Natural Gas North American System
- New York City Parks for Alley Pond Parks map
- USDA Forest Service for Welcome to Santium Pass – Winter Recreation Area
The People’s Choice Award
Voted on by you, and this year you have chosen to recognize:
The Hydrographic and Oceanographic Center of the Indonesian Navy for
The Hydrographic Data Center
ICA/IMIA Excellence in Cartography Award
This award is to promote and recognize excellence in map design and advancement in cartography. The criteria for this award includes creativity, appropriate text, design balance, unity, clarity, effective use of color, cohesiveness of title and technical aspects of the subject matter.
The first ICA/IMIA award
U.S.G.S. for
Geologic Map of Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
The second ICA/IMIA award
Tokyo Map Research Incorporated for
Relationship between geographical names and landforms with names of birds in Japan
Geonet User MVPs
Geonet is recognizing 3 users who have truly modeled the vision and mission of GeoNet and demonstrated how to apply The Science of Where in community by being some of the most helpful, generous, and resourceful members. They have answered hundreds of questions, openly shared what they're working on and helped thousands of other users solve complex GIS workflow problems with the Esri products, all of which has built stronger, more collaborative relationships across our user community.
First Place - Robert Scheitlin
Second Place – Dan Patterson
Third Place – Rebecca Strauch
Congratulations to all of you and thank you for making the Geonet community a richer experience for everyone.
User Apps Fair Contest
1st Place:
Kittitas County, Washington
Exotic Plant Information Collector (EPIC)
The 2017 User Software Application Fair showcased the best customized apps that utilized Esri technology to meet specific business requirements; with or without integration with non-GIS apps.
This submission won because they had a great application, it was intuitive, and had some great feature functionality. It truly exemplified the spirit of the User Apps Fair which is about sharing and collaboration among users. The app creator was happy to demo their app to fellow users and share their best practices and lessons learned. It was really what the fair is all about!
Christopher Catania
