Best Map Award
About the Award
As Journal of Maps has grown since it was first published in 2005 we have established a growing back catalogue of articles, with maps covering many countries and, indeed, planets.
From 2008 we have initiated a Best Map Award to be presented to the single best contribution to the journal in the year it was published.
Contributions are judged upon both their academic content and cartographic quality. It is neither the best academic paper nor the best designed map, but a combination of qualities from both areas. From all contributions a shortlist is created and one overall Best Map is selected by the Awards Panel. These maps demonstrate an excellent combination of map design and content.
Geological Map of South America in Google Earth
Journal of Maps is pleased to award the 2023 "Best Map'' to Fernando Alirio Alcárcel-Gutiérrez, Jorge Gómez Tapias, Nohora Emma Montes Ramírez and María Fernanda Almanza-Meléndez (Servicio Geológico Colombiano, Basic Geosciences Directorate, Geological Map of Colombia Working Team, Bogotá, Colombia) for their geological map of South America in Google Earth. This is an ambitious undertaking to collate and harmonise the geological mapping for a whole continent, while at the same time producing an easily understandable cartographic representation and freely distribute it electronically as a KMZ file which can be easily and intuitively viewed within Google Earth (as well as many other geographic information systems). It is an important contribution to the geology literature broadly, but also promotes the egalitarian access to information, that is available freely and easily. These are important aspects to champion within our global community. The awards panel noted that it was “brilliantly executed” and “quite an accomplishment to have a seamless map at this scale.
Browse the winning article and runners-up below and view the Best Map Award Previous Winners collection.