Introducing the Equal Earth Projection

Introducing the Equal Earth Projection
Presenter: Tom Patterson, US National Park Service
Copresenters: Bojan Savric, Esri; Bernhard Jenny, Monash University

The Equal Earth map projection is a new equal-area pseudocylindrical projection for world maps. It looks similar to the widely used Robinson projection, but unlike the Robinson projection, retains the relative size of areas. Continental outlines are shown in a visually pleasing and balanced way. Equations are simple to implement and fast to evaluate. We introduce the Equal Earth projection as a response to the recent wave of news stories about the unfortunate switch of Boston Public Schools to the Gall-Peters. To encourage adoption, we will release a world political map in the Equal Earth projection online free of charge.

This presentation was made at the 2018 annual meeting of the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) in Norfolk. For more information on NACIS, check out http://NACIS.org.