Master's Thesis

The thesis aimed to design cartographic-style maps for younger people, the public, and experts that visualized wildlife species distribution information using geotagged photos and landscape features of the Etosha National Park. The designed maps are then published on the web, combined with an interactive map that allows users to dynamically interact with wildlife data and landscape features of the park in a user-friendly way. This document has described and detailed the processes and procedures involved in achieving the aims and has successfully demonstrated the outputs of this research. The focus of this research was on the process of acquiring geotagged data and designing different-style maps for potential park visitors. The Flickr non-commercial API and Google Earth Pro were used to acquire geotagged photos of wildlife and landscape feature datasets also acquired from public sources

The output of the buffer analysis identified wildlife species that exist at different waterholes, and the dot density method was used to analyze the distribution of wildlife species in the park. The results of the analysis part were used to design maps for different target groups. Each map was designed using different color schemes, basemaps, infographics, intuitive graphical icons for wildlife species, and attractive symbology for landscape features of the Etosha National Park, as discussed in Chapter 5. The textual information related to the park was a little bit different for each map, considering the background knowledge of each target group. These maps provide information related to wildlife occurrences at waterholes, some historical facts about the park, and statistical figures of wildlife species to inform or educate the user about the characteristics of Etosha National Park

The user evaluation of each designed map was also performed with three different groups of people in terms of their design and user ability to perceive information from the map. Overall, the evaluations and feedback were highly positive towards the map design and content. The feedback from users helped make improvements to maps, especially those related to map content. The user-tested map was then published on the web so everyone could access it and combine it with an interactive map that allows users to dynamically interact with wildlife species data and landscape features of the park in a user-friendly way. The GitHub site hosting service was used to publish a web map as a website so anyone could access it with a specific URL.

In conclusion, the designed maps have proven to be a valuable resource that can act as a guide for tourists who are planning to visit Etosha National Park and gain information about the occurrence of wildlife species in the park. Further, the designed cartographical maps can also help park authorities assign more financial resources where wildlife is mostly seen and declare game viewing spots without disturbing the wildlife. The suggestion related to the future expansion of this research.