Data Visualization for Geographers

An overview of the many non-map graphs and graphics geographers use to visualize and visually analyze data and how to make them properly. This workshop outlines when one should use common graphs such as bar charts, line charts, histograms, scatterplots, and box plots, and provides introduction to graphs that are more unique to geography and geosciences, such as population pyramids, stage-discharge graphs (rating curves), polar charts, and Gapminder. This workshop also includes a graphing by hand activity and an Excel activity to help participants develop a knowledge of how to create effective graphs using proper conventions.

Contributors

JS

Jerry Sun

Ben Woodward

Ben is an MSc student at the University of Waterloo studying coastal erosion in the Great Lakes. Ben's areas of interest include digital humanities/historical applications of GIS and web maps, geomorphology, and (of course) teaching geography. Outside of his studies, Ben enjoys watching the NBA and playing squash. Ben represented Canada at iGeo in 2018 and 2019, placing third internationally in 2019.