Caitlin Dempsey

Caitlin Dempsey is a geographer, writer, and founder and editor of Geography Realm. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in Geography from UCLA and a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) from San José State University.

For more than two decades, she has written about geography, maps, geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, satellite imagery, and environmental science. Her work focuses on making geography accessible to a broad audience through articles, tutorials, and educational resources.

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Visualizing American Migration Without a Map

Caitlin Dempsey

As a cartographer, the display of spatial information is of great interest to me.  I’ve been particularly intrigued by analysts ...

Anita Graser | Profiles from the Geospatial Community

Caitlin Dempsey

Anita Graser, a prominent figure in open source GIS, authored "Learning QGIS 2.0". She shares insights on her GIS journey and the future trends in open source GIS.

Free and Open Access to Sentinel Satellite Data

Caitlin Dempsey

The European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that free and open access to Sentinel satellite data will become available during ...

ZIP Code Data is “Commercially Sensitive” Per the US Postal Service

Caitlin Dempsey

Robb Shecter of the Weblaws.org site wanted to map out restaurant health inspections in Multnomah County, Oregon as part of his ...

Automating Extracting GIS Data from Scanned Maps

Caitlin Dempsey

The New York Public Library Labs (NYPL Labs) has posted on Github the code to its open source map-vectorizer project.  NYPL ...

National Digital Stewardship Alliance Releases Report: “Issues in the Appraisal and Selection of Geospatial Data”

Caitlin Dempsey

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance (NDSA) has published a report titled "Issues in the Appraisal and Selection of Geospatial Data" in PDF format.

Find Old GIS Software Programs

Caitlin Dempsey

Take a walk down memory lane and find old GIS software programs hosted by the Internet Archive.

GOCE Gravity Mapping Mission Has Ended

Caitlin Dempsey

GOCE, which stands The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer was launched with the purpose of mapping the Earth's gravity field at a high level of detail.

New Portal for Free SPOT Vegetation Satellite Data

Caitlin Dempsey

There is a new distribution portal for accessing SPOT vegetation data.  The Belgium site, VITO (Flemish Institute for Technological Research), ...

If Google and Facebook Were Empires: Age of Internet Map

Caitlin Dempsey

If the most visited websites became the ruler of each country, what would a map of the world look like? ...

Map of Great Britain Created for Minecraft by the Ordnance Survey

Caitlin Dempsey

The staff at Britain's Ordnance Survey have created a map of the United Kingdom for use in Minecraft.  

Australia in a puddle?

Cartocacoethes

Caitlin Dempsey

Cartocacoethes is a term meaning “a mania, uncontrollable urge, compulsion or itch to see maps everywhere.”

QGIS 2.0 Released

Caitlin Dempsey

A new release of QGIS, the popular open source GIS software has officially been released.  Each version receives a name ...

Black and Tan map made in the 16th century showing the Western Hemisphere.

Fear of Maps

Caitlin Dempsey

Is there a scientific term for the fear of maps?

The Rise of GIS Terminology

Caitlin Dempsey

When did the terms GIS, geographic information systems, and geospatial start showing up in books?

Map Projection Selection Tool

Caitlin Dempsey

The Map Projection Selection Tool was developed to help cartographers pick the best map projection for making maps in a GIS software program.

Mapping the World Three Words at a Time

Caitlin Dempsey

Instead of address and postal code, Chris Sheldrick has started a company that has divided the world into 57 trillion 3 meter ...

Make Maps in Excel with the New MAPCITE Version

Caitlin Dempsey

MAPCITE has released a new version of its popular Excel spreadsheet mapping tool.  The add-in allows users to visualize geographically ...

Should You Get a GIS Internship?

Caitlin Dempsey

Those currently studying for a career in GIS should consider carefully how to start their GIS employment.  One of the ...

Mapping Global Events Since 1979

Caitlin Dempsey

The Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) scours international news sources to catalogue georeferenced events occuring around the world.

Study Guide for ArcGIS Desktop Certification

Caitlin Dempsey

Esri Press has released a new publication that those seeking a study guide for Esri's Technical Certification can take advantage of.

Natural-color Shaded Relief Maps by Hal Shelton

Caitlin Dempsey

Hal Shelton is a cartographer most notable for his natural-color maps done for Jeppeson Map Company in the 1950s and 1960s.

Pangaea

Caitlin Dempsey

For hundreds of millions of years, all the land of Earth was joined together in one large mass or super ...

Add ArcGIS Online Maps to Your Wordpress Blog

Caitlin Dempsey

A new plugin has just been released that gives those using Wordpress the ability to embed maps from ArcGIS Online ...

Assessing a School’s Economic Background Using GIS

Caitlin Dempsey

I do pro bono GIS work from time to time, and a recent contribution was towards a local school that ...

Continental Drift Theory

Caitlin Dempsey

Continental Drift Theory was put forward by the German scientist Alfred Wegner in 1915. According to the Continental Drift Theory, ...