When it comes to maps—a technology that is 4,000 years old—two completely contradictory things are true: Nothing has changed. And everything has changed.
What hasn’t changed is maps are a language. They can present volumes of data to instantly tell a story, when that very same data would be incomprehensible if you looked at it on spreadsheets.
What has changed is the kinds of stories maps can tell, the data they can present, the questions they can ask and then answer.
What has changed is their capacity — literally.
A book and a laptop may weigh the same, but a modern laptop can contain the information in about 300,000 books.
That’s exactly what has happened to digital maps.
The modern map looks and works like maps always have. You can see geography — highways, forests, coastlines. You can see layers of data — where do people with college degrees live, which zip codes are environmentally-conscious consumers concentrated in, where do farmers grow which crops.
But a modern map is also a dynamic window that allows zooming in and out, adding or removing layers of data to make a richer picture or focus on specific details. Maps communicate complexity, reveal patterns, and help people understand.
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Most important, cutting-edge maps contain real-time data, updated constantly.
For the first time in 4,000 years, maps are not just a graphic presentation of data but also an analytical and visualization tool for problem-solving. Consider:
- In transportation and logistics, a multinational leader in package delivery and supply chain management can update the best nationwide delivery routes across the US, every 10 minutes — a process which saves the company $1 million a day in fuel and labor, while making customers happier, and also reducing traffic and air pollution. Because of a map.
- In market analysis and site selection, one of the fastest-growing quick service restaurants in the US can look at months of sales and traffic data to figure out which restaurants would grow and by how much from adding a second drive-thru lane. Because of a map.
- In public safety and security, the whole world could look at COVID-19 infection data, hour by hour, and find crucial patterns — at the country level, the state level, the city level, the hospital level. The kind of patterns that would end up saving lives. Because of a vivid, real-time map.
A map isn’t limited to physical geography anymore. It’s about societal geography. It’s about economic geography.
The capabilities of today’s digital maps can be traced to the powerful map-making and data management tools known as geographic information systems (GIS). Initially envisioned by British geographer Roger Tomlinson, GIS makes complex information easier to understand and analyze, by organizing it geographically and in multiple layers. Modern GIS software can do this with vast quantities and types of data.
At Esri, this is our work, helping businesses and governments around the world tap into the ability of maps to better explain the world. As many of those organizations already know, GIS maps foster a ground truth, a type of visualization that is accessible to almost everyone.
Maps are the language of geography. Geography is the science of our world, integrating everything we know.
Mapping has been waiting for this moment – waiting to take advantage of computers and the cloud and the way information gets stored in instantly accessible databases.
One dataset can contribute to dozens of maps. One map can tap dozens of data sources.
You can always update a map with new data. You can compare and see June versus May, you can do the same with this June versus last June, in seconds.
Maps built on GIS can take in data from any source. That ability has only accelerated in recent years.
GIS maps can now present any kind of data – sales data, customer data, census data, real-time GPS data, real-time weather data, satellite imagery, even imagery and location data from drones.
Here’s the biggest breakthrough of all:
We can put our problems on maps. And then we can use maps to solve them.
Sometimes the problem is extremely complicated, but also routine.
When Brisbane, Australia needed to extend its subway system for the 2032 Summer Olympic Games, it used a shared, interactive, 3D mapping system to keep the project on schedule and spark designers' imaginations.
Sometimes the problem requires an urgency we can bring to bear in all new ways. Real-time mapping of natural disasters and climate change-related events allows emergency responders to issue precise warnings and move rescue crews quickly to the places that need help.
Sometimes the problem is something we’ve been wrestling with for decades. In urban planning, modern smart mapping lets everyone start with a single template and create proposed futures using tools that show actual designs of buildings, parks, roads, and protected areas. The shared space of the map opens a different conversation, allowing for understanding and compromise.
This era of mapping is a whole new world: a world of spatial problem-solving. Maps allow everyone to participate in a way that was not possible before — whether the subject is supply chain optimization or asset and network management or environmental conservation and monitoring.
Because all the data lives in a database, because the software is ever-ready to make a map, a businessperson or a policymaker, a government analyst or a data scientist, can have a sudden question, or a sudden brainstorm — and map it out in minutes.
In the digital age, maps are arguably the most powerful visual media, with interactive web maps emerging as the most effective way to understand complexity. Maps create understanding, and understanding precedes action.
Today, in both business and government, if we can imagine it, we can map it. And in mapping it, we can re-imagine it.
Maps are not just about the science of location but also the science of possibility.
Better than thousands of words is a single map that can enable us to protect the environment, achieve sustainability, and bring peace.
Maps have always been a window into our current reality.
Modern mapping is a window into the future — more than that, it’s a way to imagine that future, and then design and build it, together.
