Using Maps

Quality maps and accurate map use are essential in many everyday fields, including but not limited to:

• Navigation and Transportation: For driving directions, public transit planning, and logistics, maps help people and goods get from point A to B efficiently. Beyond basic navigation, spatial data and map data are essential in traffic management and congestion prediction within transportation. By analysing real-time traffic patterns and historical data on traffic flow, transportation departments can identify congestion hotspots, monitor traffic incidents, and adjust signals or implement detours to alleviate bottlenecks. Spatial data also supports infrastructure planning, helping planners decide where to add new roads, bike lanes, or pedestrian paths to improve mobility and reduce travel times across urban areas.
• Urban Planning: Maps support city planners in designing layouts for roads, green spaces, and utilities to optimise land use and improve quality of life. A specific example of how maps support city planners is the use of heat maps to identify urban "heat islands"—areas where buildings, roads, and infrastructure cause higher temperatures due to limited vegetation. By overlaying temperature data on city maps, planners can pinpoint neighbourhoods that would benefit from additional green spaces, like parks, green roofs, or tree-lined streets. This mapping not only helps reduce local temperatures and improve air quality but also enhances residents’ quality of life by creating cooler, more pleasant areas for recreation and reducing energy costs for cooling in nearby buildings.
• Disaster Management: Maps help emergency responders plan for and respond to natural disasters, ensuring they can reach affected areas and allocate resources effectively. An example is the use of flood risk maps by emergency responders during hurricane season to plan evacuations and allocate resources. These maps, which combine elevation data, rainfall predictions, and historical flood patterns, help responders identify areas most likely to flood and the severity of potential impacts. By pinpointing high-risk zones, emergency teams can prioritize evacuations, position rescue teams and supplies nearby, and set up shelters on higher ground. During the response, these maps are updated with real-time data, guiding teams to the hardest-hit areas and helping coordinate the delivery of resources like food, water, and medical aid.
• Agriculture: Farmers and agricultural companies use maps to plan crop layouts, manage soil quality, and monitor resources like water availability. A specific example is the use of soil nutrient maps created from satellite and drone data to help farmers manage crop layouts and optimise fertiliser use. These maps display varying nutrient levels across a field, allowing farmers to apply fertilisers only where they’re needed rather than uniformly across the entire field. This targeted approach, known as precision agriculture, improves crop yields, reduces waste, and minimises environmental impact by preventing nutrient runoff into nearby water sources.
• Environmental Conservation: Maps are crucial for tracking wildlife habitats, managing natural resources, and planning conservation efforts to protect ecosystems. For example migration maps, created with GPS tracking data, are used to monitor animal movements, such as those of African elephants. Conservationists use these maps to identify critical migration corridors and feeding grounds, allowing them to prioritise areas for habitat protection and create safe passages across human-altered landscapes. This data can also reveal where elephants encounter threats like poaching or habitat fragmentation. By understanding these migration patterns, conservation teams can work with local governments to designate protected areas, implement anti-poaching patrols, and establish wildlife corridors that connect fragmented habitats.
• Retail and Marketing: Businesses use maps to find the best locations for stores, analyse customer demographics, and plan delivery routes. One specific example is how Starbucks uses geographic information systems (GIS) to choose new store locations. By layering maps with customer demographic data, such as income levels, age groups, and spending habits, they identify areas with high potential customer density and suitable purchasing power. GIS also helps analyse foot traffic and proximity to other businesses, like office complexes or universities, where coffee demand is typically higher.