Research

As a geographer, I conduct applied research spanning many domains including environmental science, population studies, epidemiology, social justice, and general media consumption. Methodologically, my research sits at the intersection of cartography, human-computer interaction, and communication studies. While interdisciplinary in nature, my research is connected by the common thread of establishing best practices for designing maps to improve peoples' understanding and decision-making. This common thread is present throughout my four major areas of research: developing new geospatial data science methods for quantifying and visualizing mobility designing effective interactive web maps, understanding data storytelling in cartography, and understanding trust in the context of cartography and maps.


Map Trust Research

The bulk of my research focuses on understanding trust in the context of cartography and maps.

Publications

Prestby, T. J., Jang, E., Pacheco, A. (2026). Seeing Isn't Always Believing: The Effects of Misinformation Modality and Debunking on Message Credibility and Memory Recall. International Journal of Cartography. DOI


Prestby, T. J. (2025). The Impact of Data Reliability and Semantic Color Congruence on Trusting and Reading Visualizations. Information Visualization. DOI


Prestby, T. J. (2025). Map Interpretation. The Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge. University Consortium of Geographic Information Science. DOI


Cases, N., Prestby, T. J. , Gartner, G. (2025). Situating Trust in Cartography: Conceptions of Trust and Trustworthiness in Maps. Cartographic Perspectives. DOI


Prestby, T. J. (2025). Situating Trust in Cartography: Conceptions of Trust and Trustworthiness in Maps. Cartographic Perspectives. DOI


Prestby, T. J. (2024). Measuring Trust in Maps: development and evaluation of the MAPTRUST scale. International Journal of Geographic Information Science. DOI


Prestby, T. J. (2023). Trust in maps: what we know and need to know. Cartography and Geographic Information Science. DOI


Presentations

Invited Talks


Prestby, T.J. (2026). Map Trust Through a Media Lens: Integrating Communication and Cartography. City St George's, University of London.. March 12.


Prestby, T.J. (2026). Advancing the Science of Map Trust: A Theoretical and Empirical Approach. BEGIN Seminar: School of Geography and Sustainable Development at University of St. Andrews. March 10.


Prestby, T.J. (2026). Contextualizing Trust in Cartography: A Theoretical and Empirical Approach. Colloquium series: Department of Geography at University of Oregon. February 8.


Prestby, T.J. (2025). An Incomplete Truth: Maps, Misinformation, and Trust NASA Earth to Sky. July 18.


Prestby, T.J. (2025). Seeing is Believing? Understanding the Science of Trust and Deception in Maps. International School on Visualization. April 1.


Prestby, T.J. (2023). Trust in Maps: what we know and what we need to know. Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at UNC Charlotte. October 17


Conference Presentations


Prestby, T.J. (2025). Visual Lies: How Maps and Images Impact Misinformation Perception. North American Cartographic Information Society Annual Conference. Louisville, KY: October 17.


Prestby, T.J. (2025). The Effects of Satellite Maps and Ground Images in Online News on Credibility and Recall. No Boundaries Symposium. State College, PA: May 3.


Prestby, T.J. (2025). The Impact of Design on Map Trust: A Study of Color Semantics and Uncertainty Representation. American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting. Ddetroit, MI: March 27.


Prestby, T.J. (2024). Measuring Trust in Maps: Introducing the MAPTRUST Scale. North American Cartographic Information Society Annual Conference. Tacoma, WA: October 18.


Prestby, T.J. (2024). Trust in Maps: Applying the MAPTRUST Scale to Study Cartographic Design. Viral Movements Symposium. State College, PA: May 15.


Prestby, T.J. (2024). Conceptualizing Trust in Cartography. American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting. Honolulu, HI: April 18.


Prestby, T.J. (2023). To Trust or Not to Trust Maps, That Is the Question. North American Cartographic Information Society Annual Conference. Pittsburgh, PA. October 12.


Prestby, T.J. (2023). In Maps we Trust. International Cartography Conference. Cape Town, South Africa. August 15.


Prestby, T.J. (2023). The Intersection of AI, Trust, and Cartography . Pre-conference Workshop on MapAI, International Cartography Conference. Stellenbosch, South Africa. August 12.



Interactive Mapping Research

Another cluster of my research establishes best practices for designing interactive maps that function as design support tools.

Publications

Prestby, T. J. , Robinson, A. C., McLaughlin, D., Dudas, P. M., & Grozinger, C. M. (2023). Characterizing user needs for Beescape: A spatial decision support tool focused on pollinator health. Journal of Environmental Management, 325, 116416. DOI


Hart, D.A., Prestby, T., & Roth, R.E. (2022). Design and Evaluation of Coastal Web Atlases: Best Practices and Future Opportunities for Map Representation, Interaction, and Usability. Coastal Management, 50(6), 514-548. DOI


Robinson, A. C., Peeler, J., Prestby, T., Goslee, S. C., Anton, K., & Grozinger, C. M. (2021). Beescape: Characterizing user needs for environmental decision support in beekeeping. Ecological Informatics. DOI


Roth, R.E., Sack, C.M., Baldrica-Franklin, G., Chen, Y., Donohue, R., Houtman, L., Prestby, T., Tolochko, R., & Underwood, N. (2021) Web Mapping: A Workbook for Interactive Cartography and Visualization on the Open Web (Version 0.2). University of Wisconsin Cartography Laboratory. DOI


Presentations

Conference Presentations


Robinson, A. C., Prestby, T.J., McLaughlin, D., Houtman, L., Dudas, P., & Grozinger, C. (2023). Geovisualization for Pollinator Decision Support with Beescape NexGen. International Cartography Conference. Cape Town, South Africa. August 16.


Robinson, A. C., Prestby, T. J. , McLaughlin, D., Dudas, P., & Grozinger, C. (2022). Evaluating User Needs for Geovisualization of Pollinator Health and Ecosystems. EuroCarto. Vienna, Austria. September 21.


Roth, R.E., Sack, C.M., Baldrica-Franklin, G., Chen, Y., Donohue, R., Houtman, L., Prestby, T., Tolochko, R., & Underwood, N. (2021). Introducing "Web Mapping: A Workbook for Interactive Cartography and Visualization on the Open Web". North American Cartographic Information Society Annual Conference. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. October 14.


Hart, D.A., Prestby, T., & Roth, R.E. (2021). Design and Evaluation of Coastal Web Atlases: Best Practices and Future Opportunities for Map Representation, Interaction, and Usability. CoastGIS. Virtual. September 16.


Hart, D.A., Prestby, T., & Roth, R.E. (2021). Enhancing the Wisconsin Coastal Atlas as a Resource to Support Adaptive Coastal Management. International Coastal Atlas Network Steering Meeting. Virtual. September 27.


Hart, D.A., Prestby, T., & Roth, R.E. (2020). Designing Coastal Web Atlases: Best Practices and Future Directions. Social Coast Forum. Charleston, South Carolina. February 6.



Map-based Storytelling Research

Another cluster of my research examines data storytelling in cartography.

Publications

Prestby, T. (2022). Design Techniques for COVID-19 Story Maps: A Quantitative Content Analysis. Cartography and Geographic Information Science, 1-20. DOI


Song, Z., Roth, R.E., Houtman, L., Prestby, T., Iverson, A., & Gao, S. (2022). Visual Storytelling with Maps: An Empirical Study on Story Map Themes and Narrative Elements, Visual Storytelling Genres and Tropes, and Individual Audience Differences. Cartographic Perspectives. DOI


Bley, K., Caldwell, K., Kelly, M., Loyd, J., Roth, R.E., Anderson, T.M., Bonds, A., Plevin, J., Madison, D., Sims, T., Spencer, C., Archuleta, C., Ellner, Z., McDowell, T., Nestel, C., Noterman, E., Smith, N., Velednitsky, S., Underwood, N., Darlington, R., Gao, Y., George, A., Miller, L., Prestby, T., & Vongkusolkit, J. (2021). A Design Challenge for Transforming Justice. GeoHumanities. DOI


Presentations

Conference Presentations


Birkenholtz, T., Prestby, T.J., Houtman, L. (2024). Placing Wetlands in the Watershed: Situating Millbrook Marsh, Pennsylvania in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Delaware Wetlands Conference. Wilmington, DE: February 6.


Song, Z., Roth, R.E., Houtman, L.,Prestby, T. , Iverson, A., & Gao, S. (2022). Visual Storytelling with Maps: Update and Outlook from an Empirical Study. AutoCarto. Redlands, CA. November 3.


Prestby, T. (2022). Surveying the Design of Story Maps in Digital Journalism. NACIS. Minneapolis, Minnesota. October 20.


Prestby, T. (2022). Design Techniques for COVID-19 Story Maps: A Quantitative Content Analysis. EuroCarto. Vienna, Austria. September 21.


Prestby, T. (2021). Characterizing Storytelling in COVID-19 Cartographic Journalism. International Cartography Conference. Florence, Italy. December 16.


Prestby, T. (2021). Mapping Multiscale Pollinator Big Data. Center for Pollinator Research Symposium. State College, Pennsylvania. November 16.


Visualizing Mobility Research

A final cluster of my research developed new geospatial data science methods for quantifying and visualizing mobility.

Publications

Li, B., Gao, S., Liang, Y., Kang, Y., Prestby, T., Gao, Y., & Xiao, R. (2020). Estimation of regional economic development indicator from transportation network analytics. Scientific reports, 10(1), 1-15. DOI


Prestby, T., App, J., Kang, Y., & Gao, S. (2020). Understanding neighborhood isolation through spatial interaction network analysis using location big data. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 52(6), 1027-1031. DOI


Gao, S., Li, M., Rao, J., Mai, G., Prestby, T., Marks, J., & Hu, Y. (2021). Automatic urban road network extraction from massive GPS trajectories of taxis. Handbook of Big Geospatial Data , 261. DOI


Presentations

Conference Presentations


Prestby, T., App, J., Kang, Y., & Gao, S. (2020). Visualizing Neighborhood Isolation by Spatial Interaction NetworkAnalysis. American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting. Denver, Colorado. Canceled.


Prestby, T., Gao, S., Liang, Y., Kang, Y., & Li, B. (2019). Linking Traffic Volume to Economic Development IndexUsing Big Data and Gravity Models. American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting. Washington,DC. April 4.