Soils of the Panoche Hills | Maps We Love

Why we love it

Most people probably don’t give much thought to soils, or know very much about the geography of soil types. But soil data is very important to those who work as engineers, hydrologists, farmers, foresters, and planners. We love how this map shows the power of transparent overlays. It brings that data into an organized landscape showing the way major soil types follow ridges, rivers, and valleys.

Why it works

This map works because it’s interesting and beautiful. Beyond the great use of transparency and vibrant colors, it contains gorgeous labeling. Case and spacing is used very deliberately to both denote and differentiate features. The text curves to mimic the shape of geographic features, giving a level of professional polish rarely seen in online maps. Labels sit above the other content, making for better legibility. Text boxes provide even more detailed information.

Important steps

Place labels above content

In ArcGIS Online, place your labels above other content using Esri’s World Reference Overlay.

Go to World Reference Overlay

Your basemap may not need labels

To get a basemap with no labels, skip the regular basemap pull-down list in the ArcGIS Online map viewer and search for "World Light Gray Base" in the Add > Search for Layers option. Click the name and select “use as a basemap.”

Go to World Light Gray Base

Use multidirectional hillshade relief

Use Esri’s highly detailed, multidirectional hillshade relief.

Go to Multi-Directional Hillshade

US Soil Data

The US Soil Map Units is a fantastically rich dataset ready to use, though any data of polygons (not just soils data) will work using this same styling approach.

Go to US Soil Map Units

Requirements

Data and software

This map combines four ready-made data layers: The label-less World Light Grey Base as your basemap, multi-directional hill shading and the World Reference Overlay for the geographic labels. Software used: ArcGIS Online.