First steps using GIS

Proposal for new dedicated
bicycle lanes in Uppsala, Sweden

This was the final project of the last GIS course I did at the Bachelor's level. I needed to come up with a hypothetical scenario myself while still fulfilling the 6 Cs of map-making. That is:

Since I'm personally interested in sustainable personal transportation, I chose to do something with infrastructure planning for bicycles. Hence, a proposal for new dedicated bicycle lanes in Uppsala, Sweden. That is, where improvements can be made in this regard. Furthermore, the point of the project was to try out different ways to visualize the results. Specifically, to present the results in both color and grayscale, while also importing it into Google Earth as a .kml file for an interactive experience.

The upper map frame is the current extent of the bicycle infrastructure, and below is the proposed extent. The upper frame shows that the current bicycle infrastructure is already quite extensive and developed throughout the study area. However, there is a clear disconnection between the student housing areas in the west (blue) and the university areas in the east (orange), namely in the neighborhoods of Kungsgärdet and Kåbo. To better benefit students, and other residents alike, the proposal is to facilitate safer and more direct connectivity.

This map shows the same results as the colored map above but in 8-bit grayscale. This was my first introduction to how challenging it can be to present the results without the contextual significance that color provides. The main purpose of this was to practice map-making in the context of scientific publications. I.e. making a version that makes the most use of space, and avoiding the use of colors, presumably due to printing costs. To achieve this, I had to make sure that network symbology was easily distinguishable (checkered vs. non-checkered), as well as the land-use areas (hatched fill vs. non-hatched fill).

Just to get acquainted with other ways to present and share the outcome, I had to export my result as a .kml file (Keyhole Markup Language - a file format used to display geographic data in Google Earth), and then import it to the dedicated Google Earth desktop software for viewing and interacting with.