Creating an online atlas of Australia

1. Danesh Prakash Chacko
Supervised by: Gita Pupedis

2. ‘National Atlases present a synthesis of the spatial knowledge that
characterises a country’
(Kraak et al, 2009)
Currently, Australia does not have a single national atlas.
Australia has theme based national atlases and
comprehensive state atlases.
 The purpose of the project: To propose the creation of a
single national atlas to act as a geographic portal of the
nation.



4. 
Type of Online Atlas versions:
 A) Static
▪ View only
 B) Dynamic
▪ View only
▪ Interactive

Technological structure of a typical online Atlas:




Map Server
Tile Server (tile Cache)
Client (User-interface)
Geospatial data

5. 
Potential design layout and characteristics of mapping
tools in an atlas:
 Types of zooming applicable
 Legend configuration
▪ Pop-up Legends
▪ Static Legends
 Arrangement of key mapping tools (e.g. Zooming
Printing
Legend)
http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/environment/geology/geologicalprovinces

6. 
From the analysis of a dozen online atlases, potential
topics of the National Atlas of Australia are:
 Geography
 Climate
 Population
 Economy
 Tourism
 Threatened Environment
 History

Dataset sources: Explore Australia, Geoscience Australia,
RMIT and data.gov.au

7. 
3 Stages of creating the prototype:
 Stage 1: Creating the maps in ArcGIS
 Stage 2: Identification of online platform, map transfer to
the platform
 Stage 3: Creation of a non-hosted prototype website

In the process of creating the atlas, various technological
and cartographic limitations have been identified

8. 

The software utilized: ArcGIS 10.0 Desktop
Sample Topics to be covered:
 Physical Australia
 Hydrology of Australia
 Vegetation of Australia
 Tourism of Australia
 Population Characteristics of Australia

9. 
Example Map:
Physical Map of Australia

10. 
Potential Online Platforms to be chosen:
 ArcGIS Online
 TileMill
 Open-source Map Servers
ESRI Atlas
TileMill
Datasets
Maps in
ArcGIS
Map
Servers
ArcGIS
Online
Atlas
Website

11. After much exploration and assessing the pros and cons,
it was decided ArcGIS Online was the way forward.
 There is a problem: Maps in ArcGIS Desktop cannot be
transferred to ArcGIS Online due to versioning process.
 Datasets were uploaded online and new maps were
created from scratch.


12. 
Example ArcGIS Online Map:
Tourism in Australia Map

13. 

The Prototype website design layout was based on the
analysis of the design layout of 12 researched atlases.
A main homepage was created with two menus: A Cascading
menu and a graphical menu. The website has links to other
Australian atlases.

14. 
Geography ‘Home Page’ for users to explore Australian
geography:

15. 
Cartographic
 Text Labelling in ArcGIS Desktop
 Limitations of datasets
 Data Symbolization in ArcGIS Online

Technological
 Choosing a Suitable Online Platform
 Map Transfer from ArcGIS Desktop to ArcGIS
Online
 Web Browser Compatibility

16. 
Cartographic

17. 
Technological
Atlas Homepage in Internet Explorer 8

18. Australia should consider the benefits of producing
a national atlas.
 Universities, the government and the private sector
should be urged to collaborate on the project.
 A well produced Atlas of Australia could encourage
implementation of a similar Atlas in other nations.

www.jacononline.com.au

19. 
Would like to thank the support given by:
 Gita Pupedis (Supervisor) - for the supervision, encouragement and
points of improvement throughout the project
 Bruce McGurty (Explore Australia) – for giving the permission of using
datasets, references to other free datasets
 Damien Demaj & Other ESRI Staff (ESRI) – for giving guidance for
ArcGIS