While I was attending MSU Denver, there was not a course available for web mapping. Therefore, I conducted a self guided study of web mapping technologies. I had no previous background in web development so I began by learning HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Once I gained basic knowledge on how webpages are created I began to explore some web mapping JavaScript API’s.

Here is an example where I wanted to depict a large number of points within a geographic region that was easy for a user to understand where the points did not clutter the map. This map shows points of facilities maintained by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. There are over 4600 points depicted within the borders of Colorado. The data was taken from the CPW’s GIS Unit data download page. This example uses the JavaScript API Leaflet and its marker clustering strategy. When a user clicks on a cluster of points the map zooms in and the points un-cluster. When the points un-cluster to a single point a user can click that point for more information from a pop-up. After the map is zoomed in past a certain level, the basemap changes from an OpenStreetMaps layer to Google’s Satellite/Street Hybrid layer.