Wwfmy - Blog Posts

📚 Nature in the Heart of Borneo (2020)

Tool: ArcGIS Pro 2.6.1

Technique: Annotation, Labeling and Symbology

A series of maps were created for the book published by WWF-Malaysia and FORMADAT (Forum Masyarakat Adat Dataran Tinggi Borneo) back in 2020 called Nature in the Heart of Borneo.

This book was meant as a guide to some of the natural attractions at Northern parts of Sarawak. If it was clear, Northern Sarawak is where the we have our very own highlanders which consist of primarily the Lundayeh/Lun Bawang, Sa'ban and Kelabit people. Some of the beautiful settlements up in the north that should not be missed are Ba'kelalan and Long Semadoh. They have beautiful homestays and even more beautiful landscapes with trekking activities lined up for tourists. And this is the culmination of ardent passion by my two absolutely wonderful colleagues, Alicia Ng and Cynthia Chin.

Most part of the maps were made using readily available basemap provided by Esri in their Living Atlas. But in entirety, many of the features and details are drawn manually within ArcGIS Pro. Like many other mapmakers out there, the labeling feature is horrendously temperamental and I either end up using annotations instead.

In summary, technically, there are 2 lessons learned here:

1️⃣ Establish concept or pick an idea before you start drawing

A concept of the map and palette should be established at the earliest stage possible. And don't just throw the task of making maps and split them evenly between cartographers. They won't have similar ideas or similar interpretations of the concept. It'll only give you double the pain of creating the maps again from scratch.

2️⃣ Omit borders

If you're making maps for books, don't border trying to make borders and fully utilize the whole layout. In the end, you'll need to export out your maps and they will resize it anyway and it'll compromise the maps you created. As if it wasn't graining enough in the first place, it'll look absolutely microscopic by the time they're done.

📑 International Climate Initiative (IKI) Land Use Plan: Green Initiative in the Heart of Borneo (HoB) Report

Tool: ArcGIS Pro 2.9.3 Technique: Overlay analysis, visualization via remote sensing technique

These maps are developed to aid or supplement the Natural Capital Valuation (NatCap) initiative. As cited by WWF:

An essential element of the Natural Capital Project is developing tools that help decision makers protect biodiversity and ecosystem services.

One of the site included in this initiative by WWF-Malaysia is the Heart of Borneo (HoB). Specifically for this exercise, the visualization of policy and land use eventually become the data input utilized in the tool InVest that generates the models and maps for the economic values of ecosystem services within the landscape of interest.

The generation of the data mainly includes superficial remote sensing to assess the status of the land use in the respective concessions using Sentinel-2 satellite image with specific band combination to identify tree cover, particularly mangrove forest.