The University of Sheffield
Department of Geography

Tiffany Tao

Tiffany Tao

Using Cartograms for Diseases Mapping
 Supervisors: Professor Danny Dorling and Dr Jan Rigby

Background

In 1994 I graduated from the Nanjing University in China with a BSc degree in GIS and Cartography. After working in an Institute of Mapping and Surveying for six years and for public sectors by developing electronic maps for 2 years, in September 2002 I returned to academia to pursue my master's degree in GIS at Leeds University. Through using the census data 1990 and 2000 in Britain, my dissertation of MA, titled as "Visualizing Health Inequalities in England and Wales" focused on describing the differences of health status across England and Wales in time and space. Two main methods were used: quantitative analysis and cartographic visualization. After completing the master study, I decided to do a PhD relating cartographic visualization within Human Geography.

Current Study

Basically, my PhD concentrates on exploring a special cartographic method used for a specific study: using cartogram for disease mapping. Cartograms are developed by combining map information (cart) and statistical information (gram) through resizing the objects according to the attributes interested. Cartograms are regarded as a wonderful form for describing more than two themes simultaneously which helps searching potential correlations, especially for the themes related to population and locations as the same time. However, the inevitable distortions of cartogram impede its wider applications in human geography. My PhD study is trying to promote the use of cartogram, from analyzing the nature of cartogram, from collecting experts' views about the cartograms, and from observing the current applications of cartograms.

There are five aims and objectives of my PhD study

  1. Understanding the nature and the features of cartograms from literature review in order to generalize all advantages and disadvantages of cartograms
  2. Understanding the development of distortions by doing relevant experiments
  3. Collecting and analyzing the opinions of professionals for the purpose of improving the use of cartograms appropriately
  4. Conducting unstructured observation on project "WorldMapper" involving a series of cartograms, to figure out the practical problems and solutions in using cartograms
  5. Based on the full understandings summarized from the four stages, trying to edit a complete guides and strategies of using cartograms in human geography

Conference Attended

RGS IBG, London (August 2005)
RGS-IBG PGF Mid-term Conference, Newcastle (March 2006)
ENRGHI, London (June 2006)
RGS IBG, London (August 2006)

Research Interests

Useful Links

Social and Spatial Inequalities Research Group
A wonderful Cartography Society
Series of Cartogram Applications

Contact Details

Address: University of Sheffield, Department of Geography, Winter Street, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
Tel: +44 (0)114 222 7132
Fax: +44 (0)114 279 7912
Email: ggp03mt@Sheffield.ac.uk

Cartograms