The NY-NJ Harbor & Estuary Environmental Monitoring Map displays environmental monitoring sites in the Hudson River estuary. The map allows viewers to filter the data to show sites that monitor for indicators such as water quality and ecological health.

In coordination with Pratt SAVI, I worked with the data, developed the site in React, including the map which uses Mapbox GL.

• Client: Hudson River Foundation
• Date: 2018
• View online at hudsonriver.org/hep-emp

The Tobacco Atlas visualizes numerous issues around tobacco production, sale, and use around the world. The Atlas is both a printed book and a website, and the two share many of the same visualizations.

In coordination with Radish Lab, I worked with the data, developed the visualizations in D3, and coordinated getting the visualizations into a format suitable for print and integrated into the website. I also created a JavaScript library to allow site administrators to create new visualizations.

• Client: American Cancer Society and Vital Strategies
• Date: 2017 - 2018
• View online at tobaccoatlas.org

The History of Art Collecting Map gives users of The Frick Collection’s Archives for the History of Collecting in America a map interface to search and browse the individuals catalogued in the archives. Users can search by the role of the person and the years they were active.

I worked with the data, developed the filters in React, and created the map using Mapbox GL.

• Client: Center for the History of Collecting at The Frick Collection
• Date: 2018
• View online at research.frick.org

The Car Free Key West Map gives locals and tourists in Key West a convenient way to find bus and bike services on the island and to reduce the reliance on cars.

I collected and cleaned the data and developed the site using QGIS and Mapbox.

• Client: South Florida Commuter Services
• Date: 2017, ongoing
• View online at map.carfreekeywest.org

A talk about the origins of 596 Acres to get new coders excited about the possibilities that software can open up to the city.

This talk was part of Codeland in New York.

• Date: April 21, 2017
• View online at ebrelsford.github.io/codeland-talk

This class presents an introduction to web mapping for students who have a foundation in GIS concepts and desktop GIS software. CartoDB is used to get students acquainted with web mapping, then the basics of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are covered to get students making more advanced web maps. The class is part of The New School’s Graduate Program in International Affairs. I developed this class and have taught it three times: in the Spring of 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.

• Date: 2014, ongoing
• View online at gpia-gis.github.io/adv-materials-spring2017

A talk about my experience adding New York’s bike lanes to OpenStreetMap.

This talk was part of State of the Map Latin America 2016 in Sao Paulo.

• Date: November 25, 2016
• View online at ebrelsford.github.io/2016-sotmlatam

This class presents an introduction to GIS concepts and software using the free, open source QGIS, as well as an introduction to web mapping. Map concepts such as projections and overlay operations are covered, as are less GIS-centric topics such as creating and accessing data through OpenStreetMap and other collaborative data project. The class is a design methods class in the graduate Design and Urban Ecologies program at Parsons. Projects from the most recent semester are collected online.

I co-developed this course and have taught it five times: in the Fall of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.

• Date: 2013, ongoing
• View online at due-parsons.github.io/methods3-fall2015

A short talk about getting bike lane data in OpenStreetMap to match the official city data in New York.

This talk was part of Bike Hack Night VI in Washington DC.

• Date: September 7, 2016
• View online at ebrelsford.github.io/talks/2016/dc-bike-hack-night

A half-hour talk on various methods of creating and collecting map data, including numerous examples of projects using these methods.

This talk was part of the inaugural Maps Camp, which was part of Open Camps, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

• Date: July 9, 2016
• View online at ebrelsford.github.io/talks/2016/mapscamp

NYCommons is an online platform that gives New Yorkers information about public housing, parks, libraries, community gardens, and other publicly held spaces in their city. The platform provides tools for tracking these spaces in anticipation of potential development on those spaces.

I collected and cleaned the data and developed the site using the Living Lots framework I developed with 596 Acres.

• Client: NYCommons
• Date: 2016, ongoing
• View online at nycommons.org

A short talk about how 596 Acres used NYC’s open data to get started and how it has used it since.

This talk was part of the Parks Without Borders Summit held by the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation at The New School in May 2016.

• Date: May 12, 2016
• View online at nycgovparks.org/download/summit-2016-open-data-brelsford-eric.pdf

Projestions (short for “projection suggestions”) attempts to make map projection recommendations based on the area you are mapping within. It uses the EPSG’s “area of use” data to find a list of reasonable projections, then sorts the projections using the method of your choosing. There is a public API, a demo of the API in use, and a QGIS plugin that uses the API.

• Date: 2016, ongoing
• View online at projest.io/ns

A node module that exports CartoDB visualizations to static HTML and JavaScript using Leaflet. This is an experiment in turning CartoCSS into other map styling formats, in this case from CartoCSS to Leaflet’s styling.

• Date: 2015, ongoing
• View online at github.com/ebrelsford/cartodb-export

Curb Your Litter is a map of street litter in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It includes complaints about garbage (from NYC’s 311 system), locations of current garbage cans (surveyed by client), cleanliness ratings for each block (also surveyed by client), and locations where garbage cans have been requested (user-submitted).

I collected some of the data via APIs, developed the map, and developed the can location submission sequence.

• Client: Curb Your Litter
• Date: 2015, ongoing
• View online at map.curbyourlitter.org

This class presents an introduction to GIS concepts and software using the free, open source QGIS. Map concepts such as projections and overlay operations are covered, as are less GIS-centric topics such as creating and accessing data through OpenStreetMap and other collaborative data projects. The class is part of Pratt Institute’s Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative (SAVI).

I developed this QGIS-based version of the class and taught it in the Fall of 2015 and Summer of 2016.

• Date: 2015, ongoing
• View online at ebrelsford.github.io/talks/2016/SAVI/702

This class is an advanced web mapping course that assumes students have a strong foundation in web mapping with Leaflet. The course covers in-browser GIS functions with Turf, using APIs such as CartoDB’s SQL API, and other advanced JavaScript topics. As part of Pratt Institute’s Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative (SAVI),

I developed and taught the class in the Spring of 2015 and the Spring of 2016.

• Date: 2015, ongoing
• View online at ebrelsford.github.io/talks/2016/SAVI/800

A half-hour talk at NCGIS 2015 in Raleigh, NC, on Urban Reviewer. The conference recorded a video of the talk.

• Date: February 2015
• View online at ebrelsford.github.io/talks/2015/ncgis/urbanreviewer

A half-hour talk at NCGIS 2015 in Raleigh, NC, on 596 Acres. The conference recorded a video of the talk.

• Date: February 2015
• View online at ebrelsford.github.io/talks/2015/ncgis/596acres

A map of US-based organizations whose missions deal with food workers, including advocacy groups, unions, and workers centers. Interested food workers can find contact information for organizations in their cities. The map was made in conjunction with Food Chain Workers Alliance and the film-makers behind the documentary The Hand That Feeds.

I normalized the data and developed the site.

• Date: 2014
• View online at changingthefoodchain.org

A map of all the urban renewal plans ever enacted in New York City. As far as we know, this is the only digital version of this data. Volunteers spent hundreds of hours in City records offices digitizing this data, and then we spent many hours rectifying the circa-1960s parcel outlines with current day geometries.

I cleaned the data and developed the site.

• Date: 2014
• View online at urbanreviewer.org

A simple Leaflet plugin that lets you invert polygons on a map. Sometimes you would rather de-emphasize everything outside of an area rather than highlight everything inside that area, and this plugin does that for you.

• Date: 2014, ongoing
• View online at github.com/ebrelsford/Leaflet.snogylop

A vacant lot viewer using the Living Lots framework for New York City. Made with 596 Acres, this is a modernized version of the original map which was at 596acres.org.

I developed the site and migrated data from the old one.

• Date: 2014, ongoing
• View online at livinglotsnyc.org

An hour and a half talk at Hunter’s Geography Department about FOSS and the Geoweb. A video of the talk is available.

• Date: February 2014
• View online at ebrelsford.github.io/talks/2014/Hunter

This is a twenty-minute talk at the GeoNYC meetup about my work with 596 Acres.

• Date: November 2013
• View online at ebrelsford.github.io/talks/2013/geonyc-596acres

A vacant lot viewer web framework built on Django. The framework makes it relatively easy to make sites like the ones 596 Acres has been involved in–maps that show vacant lots and let users organize around those lots–relatively easily. The framework consists of a series of Django modules that you plug in as needed, which you can find under 596 Acres’ Github organization.

I wrote and maintain all of the code in this framework, which is an abstraction of the first 596 Acres site.

• Date: 2013, ongoing
• View online at github.com/596acres/django-livinglots

A simple loading control for Leaflet. When a layer on the map needs to load tiles or data, the control displays a customizable animated spinner that notifies the user that the map is loading more data.

• Date: 2013, ongoing
• View online at github.com/ebrelsford/Leaflet.loading

A vacant lot viewer built on Living Lots for Philadelphia in conjunction with the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia and 596 Acres.

I contributed to the concept of the site, worked on the data that drives the site, and developed it.

• Client: Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
• Date: 2013 - 2015
• View online at groundedinphilly.org

Berlin Freespaces maps squats and free culture spaces in Berlin in a nicely searchable manner. Artist Jaime Iglehart did the research behind the map. You can see Jaime talk about it at GeoNYC in this video.

I normalized the data in CartoDB and created the site.

• Date: December 2012
• View online at berlinfreespaces.org

596 Acres maps vacant public land in New York City and works with communities that want to get access to that land.

I started working with 596 Acres just after its inception. I helped design the original user experience, cleaned the data, and built the technology that has driven the organization since. With 596 Acres, I created an open source web framework for making sites like ours, Living Lots.

• Date: 2011, ongoing
• View online at 596acres.org

Farming Concrete produces methods that help community gardeners measure the good things growing in their farm or garden. This ranges from food production to composting to improving the moods of people who participate in activities at the farm or garden.

I have worked on Farming Concrete since its inception in 2010 and helped set the project’s goals and organize its data. In the process I built an open source data entry tool for the project (the Barn) and a public data portal (the Mill).

• Date: 2010, ongoing
• View online at farmingconcrete.org