Making Maps for Fun and Profit: A NEMAC Internship

When I told my dad that sea level rise would likely impact his home, he rolled his eyes. So I did what any aspiring environmental scientist would do — I made a map.

By Metis Meloche, Regional GIS Intern

My dad lives in a bungalow by the coast, deep in a flood zone in Norfolk, Virginia. My map showed the likelihood of my dad’s bungalow being inundated with flood waters due to sea level rise. While making this map was (kind of) for fun, this year I found a home working with a group of people at NEMAC who, like me, would have solved this problem by making maps.

Impacts of sea level rise on Norfolk Beach at 0.7 feet. The star is my dad’s house. Note that the higher elevation, shaded in green, is the Norfolk International Airport.

I’ve been making maps for the last eight months or so, both for where I live — Asheville, North Carolina — but also maps for locations all around the country. Due to NEMAC’s applied research approach, I’m able to connect to my community and to the communities I work with. I get to work on the problems that are currently affecting these communities and analyze places with high environmental risk.

The process of trying to look at these problems leaves me asking a lot of questions—

• Why is this area at a higher risk?
• Does my map tell the story I’m trying to tell?
• Where can we go from here?

Because of the practicality of map making, I’m asking a lot of smaller questions too, like—

• Why isn’t the data showing up?
• Does this font look okay?
• How should I adjust the legend?

And I’m lucky enough to be in a place where I can find the answers to those questions.

It’s no secret that people who work in altruistic fields are typically compassionate. Focusing one’s work on tasks that benefit others, as I have learned, fosters a constructive workplace environment. That philosophy rings true here at NEMAC. The mentorship is warm, passionate, and earnestly constructive. They answer all my questions, provide compassion and understanding, and help steer me towards creating valuable work.

Through NEMAC I have become more aware of how data is used and represented.

Through patient mentorship, I have learned that there’s more than one way to make a map that represents what you want it to.

Through this internship, I have discovered that I’m not a natural-born map-maker — but that’s OK.

I love the work that I do.