The Science of Where. How to make this map of the Rift Valley (John Nelson, Esri)

August 31, 2021

Plan Oblique map of the Great Rift Valley, in Ethiopia

Here is a map of the Great Rift Valley, in Ethiopia.

It is very much a 2D map. Sort of. Absolutely. In a sense. It uses the Plan Oblique tool, available in the glorious set of Terrain Tools for ArcGIS Pro, released by Ken Field some time back. Developed by Bernie Jenny and Bojan Šavrič, based on some beautiful hand-wrought oblique examples from mapping’s rich history, it is a wonderfully sneaky way of vertically warping elevation data so that pixels are pushed “up” commensurate with their elevation. The result is a modified elevation model (a NASA SRTM digital elevation model image, given a UTM projection) that gives the impression of looking slightly sideways at terrain. But it’s not 3D, you hear me!

How to make this map of the Rift Valley (esri.com)

Marco Emanuele

Marco Emanuele è appassionato di cultura della complessità, cultura della tecnologia e relazioni internazionali. Approfondisce il pensiero di Hannah Arendt, Edgar Morin, Raimon Panikkar. Marco ha insegnato Evoluzione della Democrazia e Totalitarismi, è l’editor di The Global Eye e scrive per The Science of Where Magazine. Marco Emanuele is passionate about complexity culture, technology culture and international relations. He delves into the thought of Hannah Arendt, Edgar Morin, Raimon Panikkar. He has taught Evolution of Democracy and Totalitarianisms. Marco is editor of The Global Eye and writes for The Science of Where Magazine.

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