State of Incompletion

As a former Michigander, it always bothered me to see the state represented without the Upper Peninsula or Isle Royale. A map showing only the Lower Peninsula, labeled "Michigan," is incomplete. End of story.

Map of "Michigan" from Van Diest Supply Company

When I see maps of Virginia like the one below in today's edition of the Washington Post's Express, without the Eastern Shore included, I wonder if Virginians are equally bothered.

Map of "Virginia" from the Express [PDF]

It bothers me to see maps produced without some level of concern for cartographic accuracy. This is the world we live in. Everyone can be a "mapper," but the level of quality is greatly diluted.

Epilogue: Where does your (DC) Water come from?

Last month, we covered a blogger roundtable with DC Water, discussing about a wide range of issues related to the DC utility that supplies our drinking water and treats the sewage of DC and surrounding municipalities.

Our website reported on an interesting map that showed the location of reservoirs in the city, and how each one serves areas at a common elevation, regardless of the reservoir's proximity. Unfortunately, the map had to be redacted due to "security concerns" regarding the ability to glean information regarding the water system from the map.

Interestingly enough, the Washington Post ran an article ten days ago regarding a broken water main in Montgomery County. That article included a link (PDF) to a map that shows the water main network for the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) in Prince Georges and Montgomery counties.

To the best of our knowledge, no one has requested that map be redacted, since it has been online longer and hosted on a website that gets viewed my many more people than the DC map we posted. Perhaps it's because the map is not very sharp, thus making it difficult to ascertain the location of information depicted on the map.

That nice map—nevermind

Well, in the "security" obsessed reality we live in, having something as simple as a not-very-high-resolution map of water pipes out there on the Internet is enough to make government-types wet their pants (water related puns—gotta love 'em!).

This morning, I received notice from Alan Heymann, the Public Affairs Director of DC Water, that the EPA contacted DC Water to let them know they believe the map is "sensitive information" and should not have been shared. Now, I'm not naive, and I understand the need for vigilance regarding threats to infrastructure in the nation's capital, but it seems to me that this kind of information doesn't add much value for someone looking to do harm to our water supply. The easiest places to do so, the open-air reservoirs at Dalecarlia, Georgetown, and McMillan are all well-guarded. Just try to take a photo at any of them, and a gruff person will threaten you with physical harm if you look in their direction for too long.

One of my mantras is "information wants to be free," so my initial response was to say, "Hell no, this is public property, and the public has a right to know about this." According to Flickr statistics, nearly 1200 people have taken the time to click on the largest version of the map, so the bird has flown the coop, so to speak, and the data is out there in the wild now.

But, Mr. Heymann has been a great help in solving the problem of 'Montello Springs' as well as offering the tour of the Bryant Street Pumping Station, so we've decided on a compromise. The highest resolution version of the map has been removed from Flickr, and we're including an annotated version below that shows the location of the reservoirs. You can still get the basic gist of our previous article from this map—that different sections and elevations of the city are fed from reservoirs that aren't necessarily the closest to that part of the city. That information is still readily available in text form on DC Water's website.

In thinking about all of this, Jaime discovered the EPA website called "MyEnvironment," where they tout "transparency, transparency, transparency" and openness, and discuss the sharing of maps and data with the public (http://dirt.asla.org/2009/09/08/government-2-0-epas-myenvironment/). In light of the recommendation to remove this map, we asked Alan Heymann if he feels that sites like "MyEnvironment" can ever truly meet the goal of openness? Should government agencies set explicit limits on what is appropriate to share? Here's his response:

I agree that generally, more information is better than less information. Many District residents don’t know much about the facilities and the agency that supply their drinking water, which was the idea behind the bloggers’ roundtable that you attended last week. Likewise, not everyone gets a chance to visit the inside of a pumping station, but you have the ability to take your audience there through your photos and words.

The General Manager and the rest of the team were pleased to see your informative, thoughtful take on the distribution system on Tuesday. At the same time, especially because this is the nation’s capital, we need to be mindful of security concerns. When the U.S. EPA mentioned to us that the posting of a detailed map online might put sensitive information into the wrong hands, I made the request that the map be removed from your post.

As you mentioned in the earlier post, our new name and logo are just part of an effort to connect with our customers in ways this agency has never done before. However, in hindsight, I probably erred a little too far on the side of openness and transparency in providing a high-resolution map of the distribution system for the web. I appreciate greatly your cooperation in agreeing to take it down, and I want to thank the GGW readers for their understanding as well. I’m looking forward to collaborating with you on future posts.

Where does your DC Water come from?

On Thursday, June 17th, I was invited (along with other local bloggers) to a roundtable with the General Manager of DC Water, George S. Hawkins.

Mr. Hawkins spoke about the culture of accountability that is being nurtured at DC Water (formerly known as the DC Water and Sewer Authority / DC WASA), discussed the ongoing lead-in-the-water saga, and spoke at length about his interest and excitement regarding all things environmental (he was formerly the head of the District Department of the Environment). Other bloggers have covered many of these points well, so there's no need for me to rehash them here (though I do know that a Greater Greater Washington post which will touch on a few other points is currently being worked on, and I will add a link to it when it's ready).

I'd like to take the time to share with you one of the fascinating things that we learned during our tour of the Bryant Street Pumping Station. If you read the information at that link, you can learn about the seven service areas that provide water to the residents and businesses of the city.

Briefly, all the water we use comes from the Potomac River near Great Falls, is treated at the Dalecarlia Reservoir by the Washington Aqueduct (a division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers), and is then sold to DC Water. That water is then pumped to reservoirs all over the city. The reservoirs are located at different elevations, and they supply water to points below them. From those reservoirs, the water flows downhill (via gravity) to houses and businesses.

Check out this great map:

(Click on the map to view larger.)

The legend at the bottom of the map shows the color-coding which indicates the approximate elevation of different parts of the city. As you can see, blue water mains run along roads at the lowest elevations (between zero and 70 feet above sea level). Red water mains are located at the second elevation range (between 70 and 140 feet), green at the third range, orange at the fourth, and brown at the highest elevations. The red and green areas east of the Anacostia River are separate zones than those west of the river, while the lowest zone (blue) spans both sides of the river.

What fascinated me the most was the fact that this means that the reservoir that serves your house isn't necessarily the one closest to your house, or even in your quadrant of the city! For example, our house is in Trinidad. While the closest reservoir is at Brentwood Parkway and New York Avenue (just north of Gallaudet University), we are served by reservoirs in Berkley and at the Armed Forces Retirement Home, both across town in the Northwest quadrant of the city. The reservoir nearest our house serves locations at the lowest elevations (below 70 feet), from lower Georgetown and Southwest in the west all the way to Rosedale and Deanwood in the east.

Some other examples of reservoirs and the neighborhods they serve:

• The reservoir at Van Ness and 44th NW serves neighborhoods at intermediate elevations across the city like Brookland, Woodridge, and Michigan Park in Northeast; Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, Adams Morgan, and Kalorama in the center of the city; and Foxhall and the Palisades in Northwest.
• Two of the reservoirs at Fort Reno serve higher elevations like Glover Park, Cleveland Park, American University Park, and Forest Hills west of Rock Creek Park; and Petworth, North Portal Estates, Manor Park, and Takoma east of Rock Creek Park.
• The highest reservoir at Fort Reno serves the highest elevations in the city—neighborhoods like Tenleytown, Chevy Chase, and Shepherd Park.

Neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River have had a persistent problem with lower water pressure. DC Water is looking to rectify that with the construction of the new reservoir and pumping station in Ward 8. The construction of the new Department of Homeland Security headquarters on the campus of Saint Elizabeths will greatly increase demand for water in that part of town, and Mr. Hawkins said it would be a win-win for the neighborhood and DHS to get the new reservoir built as part of the new construction there.

Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.

One more example of a horrible map

OK, we're going to have some real, honest-to-goodness posts very soon, but to tide you over try this on for size:

Since the last District Curmudgeon post was about maps, I thought it would be a good idea to point out another one that's been bugging me for months now. The above series of maps is used in the Express newspaper to highlight the locations of news stories, often for the "Weekend Review."

Look at that map on the right, though. I realize this is meant to be a generalization, but there's no good reason for the map to be done as poorly as it has been. Here are the biggest problems I see—feel free to add more critique in the comments below:

• The islands of Java and Sumatra have been merged into one large island.
• Only the North Island of New Zealand is shown. The larger South Island has been unceremoniously deleted. (Not to mention that New Zealand is FAR too close to Australia.)
• The western end of New Guinea has disappeared, while the island of New Britain has become an appendage on New Guinea's east.
• The Philippines, Borneo, and the Sumatra/Java monster have all migrated south and are not close to being in the right relation to Guinea and Australia.

You can find lots of strange things going on in the Eurasia and North America maps as well. Wouldn't hurt to have Madagascar on the Africa map too.

C'mon, Express, spend 5 minutes and make a more accurate map for your readers. There's no need to publish something this inaccurate and misleading.

There are better cartographers out there

This map can currently be found at bus stops all over Washington, DC. It's an advertisement for the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse, a government organization that "supports efforts to assist States and communities to promote and support Responsible Fatherhood." The sentiment is more than admirable, it's crucial: if you're a dad, spend time with your children. The poster/ad shows places where one can go out and have fun at any number of neat, free parks all over the city.

Of course, as a cartographer and a curmudgeon, I have a few gripes. The design leaves more than a little to be desired. Why are there drop shadows on the orange circles used as labels for the parks, but no shadow on the part that points to the locations? The linework used for the roads is clunky, and there are some terrible transitions from one level of road hierarchy to another (like where Virginia Avenue NW ends at the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway). The interior glow on the bodies of water and the parks seems like an unnecessary embellishment. But the biggest problem is the labeling of roads.

First, why are the quadrant labels a mix of upper- and lower-case letters (i.e. Ne instead of NE)? Second, there are many, many errors, such as North Capital Street instead of the correct North Capitol Street, and South Capitol Street is labeled North Capitol Street Ne—a double error. Here's a not necessarily exhaustive list:

• 17th Street NW label next to White House is the wrong color.
• H Street NW is labeled H St Ne.
• Cleveland Avenue NW labeled Ceveland Ave Nw.
• Massachusetts Avenue NW labeled Massachusetts Ave Ne twice.
• Rock Creek Church Road NW labeled Allison Street Nw.
• 7th St NW label too far north (falls on Georgia Avenue NW).
• New York Avenue NW labeled New York Ave Ne.
• 29th Street NW labeled 29th St N.
• 19th Street NW in Foggy Bottom labeled 18th St Nw.
• Maine Ave label obscured by Thomas Jefferson Memorial label.
• 2nd St Ne label technically straddles NE and SE.
• 13th Street NE is labeled 13th St Nw.
• Rhode Island Avenue NW is labeled Rhode Island Ave Ne.
• Why is T Street NW even labeled for the short section of it that's highlighted?
• Michigan Avenue NE is labeled Michigan Ave Nw.
• It falls off the right edge of the map, but the label on 21st Street NE appears to say 21st Sh St Ne.
• Other labels, which fell within the extent of the PDF of the poster (see link below) were cut off in the version hung in the bus shelters.

Do you see any more errors? Point them—and any thoughts on the map's design—out in the comments.

(A PDF of the map can be found here.)

Response to "Food Desert or Mirage?"

In addition to a number of comments both on this blog and on the cross-posting at Greater Greater Washington, we received two very salient responses to this week's "Food Desert or Mirage?" post. One, below, is from Carolina Valencia, Director of Research at Social Compact. The other is from J. Graham, the geographer at the D.C. Office of Planning who created the map referred to in the original post; you can read his response in the comments on GGW. I want to thank both Ms. Valencia and Mr. Graham for taking the time not only to thoughtfully respond, but also to actively make efforts to clarify the information in future versions of the report. Again, I strongly concur that food security is an important issue we need to take seriously, and I applaud the work being done here.

*   *   *

In response to the post submitted by Jaime Fearer, we at D.C. Hunger Solutions and Social Compact would like to offer a few additional points of information and clarification. We would first like to thank Jaime for the review and critique of the recently released report, When Healthy Food is Out of Reach [pdf]. It is important to note that Social Compact is in agreement that the best way to measure residents’ access to goods and services is to take into account physical barriers (e.g. parks, highways, etc.). However, in the absence of a reliable data source that can provide this information, our current methodology offers an alternative means to measure access.

While the maps developed by Social Compact, as seen on pages 6, 11, and 15 of the report, do reflect all parks in the District, it is correct that they do not depict other key landmarks in the city, such as universities and hospitals. Social Compact has made the decision to not include all landmarks in these maps for the purpose of providing a readable image given the size and scale of the maps published in the report. This decision was not meant to obscure the information provided or mislead readers. All food access indicators in the report are a result of calculations that take into account the total population and households, thus providing accurate, reliable information pertaining to food deserts.

The map referenced in the blog post, seen on page 18 was developed by the DC Office of Planning using the data from this report. Unlike the other maps in the report, it does not include parks. We hope to address this inconsistency in future updates to the report. The on-line report will soon contain the revised map [see revisions below].

Furthermore determining areas that should be included or excluded is not a clear-cut task. As the table below demonstrates, all of the Census block groups, except for one, located in the areas highlighted as areas that should have been excluded have people living in them. While Jaime is right to note that it is possible that certain areas with landmarks are likely to contain (in some cases) sizable ‘zero population’ areas it would be improper to exclude them in the case at hand since there are residents in these areas. 

Additionally, the report maps and indicators DO take into account “easily accessible facilities located right over the border in Maryland.” As noted in the report, the indicator calculations include grocers within the entire District of Columbia and all grocers located up to two miles beyond the District boundary in both Maryland and Virginia.

Finally, please note full service grocers, as stated on page 6, are defined as business establishments with a minimum of 5,000 square feet primarily engaged in retailing food for home consumption and preparation. Additionally, to be considered full service grocers, stores had to contain the following sections: fresh fruits (8 or more types), fresh vegetables (8 or more types), fresh meat (5 or more types), dairy and bread products.” Thus, Yes! Organic Market was not included in this category because these stores do not meet the aforementioned criteria.

(I find it interesting to note that Yes! Organic Markets do not qualify as a full-service grocer seemingly because that do not meet only one of the above criteria—the sale of fresh meat. One can purchase some packaged meats at these stores, but not fresh, butchered cuts. - IMGoph)

Social Compact agrees that information provided at a micro level is optimal and does understand that “Just because something is across the ward doesn't make it easy to access.” However, in an effort to compare access indicators with health indicators (only available at the Ward level) provided by the DC Department of Health, as seen on page 3 of the report, the decision was made to report information at the Ward level. Furthermore, the average distance indicator provides information on physical distance to the closest full-service grocery store precisely to highlight that access does not behave the same way that geographical boundaries do.

Click image to enlarge

Carolina Valencia
Director of Research
Social Compact, Inc. | www.socialcompact.org
738 7th Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003
cvalencia@socialcompact.org

Food Desert or Mirage?

I am deeply concerned, on a both personal and professional level, about food security. At the same time, I strongly believe that in order to educate citizens about an important issue, we must be as accurate as possible when disseminating information. And so, upon first glance two weeks ago, I and a number of like-minded folks in the region sent along links and tweets to our contacts about "When Healthy Food is Out of Reach," a joint report from D.C. Hunger Solutions and Social Compact. Sadly, it comes as no surprise that food deserts—here defined as an "area in the United States with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly such an area composed of predominantly lower income neighborhoods and communities"—or "grocery gaps," exist in DC. Similarly, it comes as no surprise that, based on that definition, Wards 5, 6, 7, and 8 are the hardest hit.

The trouble I have with the report comes from the maps used to convey the District's food deserts, particularly Maps 3 and 4 on pages 15 and 18 of the report. Below is our annotated version of Map 4, "Food Deserts in the District of Columbia."

Click image to view larger map

What seems to have happened in the report is what Mark Monmonier calls a "Blunder that Misleads" in his book How to Lie With Maps. According to the report, the methodology for creating Map 4 is as follows:

Map 4 was developed using poverty data provided by the District of Columbia Office of Planning. The Office of Planning matched census tracts where 51 percent or more of the population lives at incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level with those tracts that have below-average access to full-service grocery stores (as identified by Social Compact in Map 3).

The blunder—not a lie but rather a "cartographic fallibility"—is that census block group data is used. Entire block groups are designated as food deserts that a.) have no living residents (cemeteries and parks, etc.), and so do not have much income and require no access to food, or b.) are institutionally used (hospitals, etc.), and so do not have much income but likely provide food on-site. Simply put, nearly 1/4 of the areas designated as food deserts may technically, but not realistically, fit the working definition.

Particularly during this time of increasing unemployment, homelessness, and hunger, advocacy groups across the District and the country are working overtime. Like many others, I want to help in the fight for social justice, but we need to be sure our data are airtight in order to effectively convey our messages.

Cross-posted at Greater Greater Washington.