Writing
Notes
Every note on this site, in one list. The notes record how each map or application was made, which data it uses, and what the method can and cannot show. You can also subscribe with a feed reader.
Selected work
Projects and applications
Professional GIS work for local government, and personal applications built with public data.
One place to see the water in the West
Reservoir storage, mountain snow, and drought for eleven western states, in one ArcGIS application. AI agents did most of the work under written rules.
No test goes red on a misleading name
Four failures from building a GIS application with AI agents. The code was good. The bugs were about meaning, and the tests stayed green.
Sidewalk & Trails Master Plan
A city-wide plan that turns sidewalk gaps into a connected trail network.
Future Land Use, Millcreek
The General Plan land use chapter, made into a map the public can read.
Millcreek Redistricting
ArcGIS Pro analysis and a public feedback loop, used to redraw the City Council districts.
WUI Boundary Mapping
Wildland-Urban Interface boundaries for Utah local governments. The Wildland-Urban Interface is where houses meet wildland fuel.
Alcohol Spacing Regulations
A map and a web application that show where state spacing rules permit an alcohol license.
Keeping neighboring polygons apart
A Python script that gives a different color to each adjacent polygon.
One drought dashboard, two WebGL renderers
The first version of the water dashboard, built twice to compare a commercial renderer with an open-source one.
30 Day Map Challenge, 2024
Selected maps from the 2024 30 Day Map Challenge
Twelve Utah maps, each made for one daily theme of the 2024 challenge.
Utah Dark-Sky Points
Utah's International Dark-Sky Parks, mapped as points to open the challenge.
Utah Scenic Byways
All 27 of Utah's Scenic Byways, 1,893.84 miles, individually symbolized with ArcPy.
Utah Government Land Ownership
Government land ownership across Utah — federal and state trust lands — styled in Esri's "Firefly" look and color-matched to SITLA's reference map.
Utah Population Hexagons
Census 2020 population aggregated to a 50-square-mile hexagon grid, extruded and colored by density for a statewide, apples-to-apples comparison.
Old Spanish Trail
The Utah segment of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail, from historic site to historic site.
Raster Terrain Study
An Imhof-style hillshade of Utah built on Esri's Terrain Service, styled after John Nelson's modern take on classic relief shading.
Vintage Atlas Style
Utah's urban areas and rivers, styled after an 1854 atlas via Esri's Physical Atlas style.
Utah Localities via HDX
Utah's populated places, built entirely from a global humanitarian locality dataset.
AI-Generated Fictional Map
A ChatGPT-generated "map" of fictional Utah water resources — kept for what it gets wrong.
Utah Counties, Pen & Paper
Utah's counties and county seats, styled to look hand-drawn.
Avalanche Paths
A 3D map of avalanche activity in Little Cottonwood Canyon, styled for an Arctic aesthetic.
Utah Time and Space
Mule deer migration corridors and stopover habitats across the Paunsaugunt Plateau.