DTM Consulting, Inc.

The Tributary Fund has sent a team of ecological scientists to Mongolia, with the goal of helping local citizens create a restoration vision for landscapes that are overgrazed and degraded by mining. As is true in parts of the American West, the challenging geologic and climatic conditions make it difficult for revegetation projects to thrive, as drying winds are abundant and water is in short supply. The trip serves as a great opportunity to share restoration knowledge and experiences.

The team is sending frequent updates on their travels, including sets of beautiful photos from the heart of Mongolia. We wanted to find an easy, inexpensive way to share their photos, and to provide spatial context so folks not familiar with Mongolian geography could trace the team’s progress. We settled on a nifty third-party application called iMapFlickr that places geolocated photos (coordinates are embedded in the EXIF information) from a Flickr account onto a Google basemap. The map can be embeded into a website or left as a direct link to an iMapFlickr account. The Tributary Fund office in Bozeman, Montana can then drag-and-drop the photos into their Flickr photoset as they come in from the field, and the map will automatically update. The workflow is beautifully simple, does not require any customized coding, and is free of charge. Enjoy the photos!

Mongolia Restoration Ecology Photos

Our favorite kind of shop in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

It’s not very often that we get to work on a project that is as collaborative, technically challenging, and high-visibility as this one. In 2011 DTM started working with the Gallatin Valley Land Trust in Bozeman to revamp their pocket-sized parks and trails map. The goal was to combine the locations of trails, parks, playgrounds, landmarks, and conservation easements with a road map that could be used by locals and visitors alike. That map came out this past Spring. GVLT then wanted to revamp the information kiosks they have installed around town. Each kiosk contains a map and assorted information about the Bozeman trail system. The fun part of making these maps was working with a local graphic artist, Molly Stratton, to come up with a design that not only communicates clearly but also supports the branding efforts of GVLT and the City of Bozeman. Being an active, recreation-as-a-brand kind of town, the displays needed to be fresh, organic, and effective in various types of outdoor installations. We tend to choose earthy, neutral versions of color in our work, while Molly likes vibrancy and personality. We think her choices elevated what would otherwise have been fairly understated maps to a level that will instead encourage engagement by viewers as they explore the trail system. These will start popping up all over town, and we can’t wait to see folks checking them out with their friends and families. They have incorporated a lot of thought and feedback, on both the content and design sides, and we couldn’t be happier.

The Montana Conservation Corps recently released their 2011 annual report where a DTM map highlighting our publication-quality cartography was featured prominently with a two-page spread. This map leveraged existing base-mapping datasets for the roads, rivers and boundaries, but required a custom color ramp and hillshade background to match the client’s requested color palette. DTM was provided a listing of communities-served that were geolocated using open-source tools.  The map was then exported to Adobe Illustrator for final styling.  The resulting Illustrator file was then integrated directly into the client’s internal Adobe InDesign layouts.

Feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss custom cartography for your project (tony@dtmgis.com).

The new Gallatin Valley Parks and Trails Map is hot off the press and in stores around Bozeman.  Bryan worked with GVLT over the winter to develop the latest version of the map.  While the core data sets were initially edited within ArcMap, this sort of ‘for-the-press’ map production is best done outside the GIS environment.  We used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to stylize the maps and add associated text and graphics.  The final product is 18 by 24 inches and is printed on heavy paper.  Several local businesses chipped in to help fund the effort, so be sure to support them when you get the chance!  The following graphics will appear in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle to announce the new map:

…and here’s the map printed on its final paper:

Bryan attended the 2012 Intermountain GIS Conference in Kalispell, Montana, from April 17th to 19th.  He gave a talk on GIS-based channel migration zone and inundation modeling, using examples of the work we have been doing with Applied Geomorphology, Inc.  He also entered his latest map project, the Gallatin Valley Parks and Trails map, into the conference map contest, and won 2nd place!