Using open source tools to create vector tiles and web-maps (other things)

November 2, 2017

Peter Keum

 

University of Washignton, Tacoma WA

CUGOS

Using open source tools to create vector tile basemaps

Using open source tools to create web map

Creating web maps with vector tiles

Vector tiles and the future of web maps

(Tobin Bradley)

Another new new thing???

Doing is Learning, but...

Doing it badly?

It's still learning!

Raster

  • Image format
  • Styled before loading
  • Specific zoom levels

Vector

  • Protobuf format, includes geo data
  • Styled after loading
  • Unlimited zoom level

Map Tiles

Part 1 - Vector Tiles & Web Mapping

Raster Tiles

  • Don't Scale
  • Hard to change
  • Just Pictures, not data

ArcMap

ArcGIS Server

Power of Vector Tiles

Five County Parcels Polygons

  • King, Pierce, Snohomish, Island, Kitsap
  • 1.2 million polygons
  • shp 730 MB -> 90 MB vector tiles 

WA Building Footprints - 1 million buildings

  • Source: 9.8 million building by Microsoft hand digitized footprint with heights 

Quick Demo

WHOA!

Vector Tiles

Google Protocol Buffers

language-neutral, platform-neutral extensible mechanism for encoding structred data"

Similar to xml except smaller, faster and simpler

.pbf  or .mvt (mapbox vector tile)

Vector Tiles

Similar to raster tile except it returns vector representation of feature in the tile.

  • Scales
  • Easy to change
  • Smart data

Easy to Change!

Smart Data!

Raster & Vector Tiles

Preparing

Data

Creating

Vector Tiles

Styling/Rendering

Vector Tiles

Preparing Data

GDAL/OGR

Geospatial Data Abstraction Library

Command line utilies for data processing and data translation

SHP --> GeoJSON

How to convert shp to geojson

Creating Vector Tiles

Tippecanoe

Command-line Utility tool to convert custom data to vector tiles

How-to-use

GeoJSON --> *.mbtiles

Styling Vector Tiles

Maputnik

Free visual style editor for designer and developers

Mapbox Studio

Commercial visual style editor for designer and developers + so much more...

Rendering Vector Tiles

Tileserver-gl

Open Source Vector Tile server with options

Many Alternative Options

Preparing

Data

Creating

Vector Tiles

Styling Vector Tiles

Rendering Vector Tiles

Part 2 - Tools

CUGOS

Cascadia 

Users

of 

Geospatial

Open 

Source

(Community)

Part 3 - GIS + Vertical Industry

Future of GIS (personal view)

GPT

General Purpose Technology

The Second Machine Age - Erk Brynjoflsson, Andrew McAfee

GPT

+
=
+
=

"GPT always needs complements"

+
=

Urban Planning

+
=

Utilities

You

+
=

Social Justice/Equity

+
=

Environmental

Science

GIS

GIS

GIS

GIS

You

You

You

GIS 

Don Cooke, early digital mapping pioneer about the explosion in mapping technology. His comment: “After 20 years, it’s nice to be an overnight sensation”.​​

Companies are using maps not just as nice features but to drive revenue as core components of their offering. Maps are no longer just a good way to visualize content, they are core to competitive advantage.

Companies are thinking more creatively about how to combine location with outside content and internal business data to differentiate products

"First do it, then do it right, then do it better."

THANK YOU!

peter.keum@kingcounty.gov

@pkeum

github.com/keum