Enhancing Your Maps

Google My Maps are a free, easy to use mapping platform that helps you to collaboratively create online maps that visualize your geolocated data. A My Maps can contain data from spreadsheets, mapping files (KML/KMZ) and from points, lines and polygons added directly to the map. You can embed a fully interactive map into your website to share with your community. One useful workflow, demonstrated in the previous activity, is to gather information using a Google Form, populate a Response Sheet and import it into a Google My Maps. In this session you will learn how to style and enhance your map to create a useful addition to your community engagement and public record.

If you would like to see how My Maps can be used along with other data tools, check out these examples:

Round Rock Trading Post case study

Cherokee At-Large Communities Extreme Weather case study

Copy of Copy of IMW22 MyMaps

This Google My Maps was created from a spreadsheet (CSV file) downloaded from Cleanups In My Community search on Oneida Nation and Brownfields and the American Indian/Alaska Native Areas/Hawaiian Home Lands file from the US Census Bureau (I divided the file in two because Google My Maps has a 5 MB KML file size limit). The base map was changed to satellite and then the icons were changed from the default and the polygon color was changed to make it easier to see. I zoomed in and set the default view to focus attention on the site. The map is embedded in this Google Site and is fully interactive.

Hands on Activity

Using the map you created in the Spreadsheets to Maps session try to change the icon style.
Add the map files from the folder on the right that were obtained from the US Census Bureau American Indian/Alaska Native Areas/Hawaiian Home Lands Please note that the file was split in two because it was too larger to import directly into My Maps as a single file. These files are in KML map format, not CSV spreadsheet format because they are polygons rather than points. As a result you won't be able to open them and edit them like we did with the spreadsheet file downloaded from CIMC.
Change the icon style and the color of the polygons to make them easier to see.
Change the base map to satellite and zoom into the brownfields sites.