Introducing the SPL Atlas.
A club that says “mapping is important” should have a map you can actually touch. Now we do — and every layer of it can be built by a member.
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? — and turns the data into something you can pan, zoom, click, and interrogate yourself. No screenshots of maps. The map.
Below is our first, a demonstration built on DC Open Data: Metrorail lines and stations over the District’s wards. Click a station. Click a ward. Toggle the full experience on its dedicated atlas page.
How it works
There is no server, no API key, and no software budget behind this page. The map runs on 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 a dozen lines of configuration.
That’s the point. The Atlas isn’t just a product of the lab; it’s the curriculum. Learn QGIS in a workshop, export your analysis, and your layer — with your name on it — ships on this site.
What’s next
This demo exists to prove the plumbing. The first real atlas in the series is in the works: a policy question, member-gathered data, and a map that makes an argument. If you want your name in those credits, now is exactly the right time to show up.
— The Georgetown Spatial Policy Lab