Extending the cartographic capabilities of desktop GIS – Implementing less common statistical mapping methods as web services together with students

Abstract. For various reasons statistical mapping is receiving increased interest within the technological shift towards service-oriented web cartography. At the same time new teaching approaches are required at universities which combine both, the motivating of students to get a grip on active programming while learning also about less common thematic mapping methods. The paper points to those cartographic representation methods of visualizing areal distributions of quantitative area characteristics which are often overlooked either due to not being readily available in GIS software or because they are simply not known. Of the nine methods discussed in regard to their abilities and limitations, five are not readily implemented or supported by the ArcGIS Pro software. Within the new teaching course on web processing services (WPS) as part of the International Geomatics master programme at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, the students learn how to conceptualize, program and publish a WPS by gaining a solution for those less common methods. The alternate band map method serves as teaching example, but students are asked to independently work on other methods, too. The WPS course acts here as an eye-opener for the students to the wider pool of cartographic visualization options, of how to get around the limitations of GIS software, and of how to automate processes including making them available to others. With that we hope to contribute to automatically rendered thematic maps becoming more versatile again.