Introducing the SPL Atlas.
A club that says “mapping is important” should have a map you can actually touch. Now we do, and any member can build a layer of it.
What it is
The Atlas is our platform for interactive, policy-focused maps. Each atlas takes one question. Where is transit access thin? How do rents move along a Metro line? The data then becomes something you can pan, zoom, and click through yourself, instead of a screenshot of a map somebody else already made.
Below is the first one, a demonstration built on DC Open Data: Metrorail lines and stations over the District’s wards. Click a station or a ward to see what is attached to it, or open the full atlas page for the whole interface.
How it works
Nothing here runs on a server and there is no API key anywhere in it, which is also why it costs nothing to keep up. The map uses MapLibre GL, an open-source rendering library, and every layer is a plain GeoJSON file exported from QGIS, the same tool we teach in workshops. Publishing a new layer means dropping a file in a folder and describing it in about a dozen lines of configuration.
That low barrier is deliberate, because the Atlas doubles as the curriculum. You learn QGIS in a workshop, export your analysis, and the layer goes up on this site with your name on it.
What’s next
The demo is here to prove the plumbing works. The first real atlas in the series is in progress: a policy question, data gathered by members, and a map built to support an argument about it.
Join the Lab → Open the Atlas →
James Kocis, Founder, Georgetown Spatial Policy Lab