How to Geo-code Maps in Map Warper and Import to ArcGIS

Map Warper is a map-warping (geo-rectifying) service website. It is an open and free resource online. When I am working on my final project that requires excessive geo-mapping and rectifying, my partner and I found that Map Warper is a great tool for geo-rectifying. This website is useful for digital work that requires alignment of two maps. It is also helpful with aligning a historical map with a current map.

  1. Google search “map warper” or open the website http://mapwarper.net/
  2. Download the map image as “png”/”tiff”/”jpeg” to your computer
  3. Create an account on map warper website
  4. Log into your account
  5. Import the map image you downloaded to map warper
  6. Click “Rectify” tap
  7. The right side map shows a current world map. Click on the map to zoom in and find the location your map shows
  8. Press “p” to pin down reference points in your map on the left side. For buildings, roads and other polygons on the map, it is better to pin down several points to make rectifying better.
  9. After pinning down a reference point on the left map, pinning down the respective point on the right (current) map.
  10. Click “add control point” tab at the bottom
  11. Pin down reference points for several places and click on “warp image”
  12. Copy the url for the web map
  13. Select add a layer from web and paste the url. Chang {z}/{x}/{y} values to {level}/{col}/{row}

Other tutorials:

Map Warper Tutorial: https://labs.ssrc.org/dds/articles/map-warper-tutorial/

Map Warper Tutorial Video by New York Public Library (NYPL): https://youtu.be/cCbBpKZh0To

Author: ameliayd

2 thoughts on “How to Geo-code Maps in Map Warper and Import to ArcGIS

  1. Map Warper seems like a great tool to use in conjunction with ArcGIS. It’s amazing how you can revive old maps to work with modern GIS tools! Very interesting tutorial.

  2. I found this tutorial very enjoyable! I see a lot of important uses for a tool like this, as comparing old and new maps provides a lot of insight on the history of a location. I georectified an old map of Chicago, and one thing that I found very interesting is that some of the old off-shoots of the Chicago River have been cut off or even completely dammed up to provide space for development. Very cool stuff.

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