Overlay geographic territory borders on map

[dlogan]

I am needing to create a filled map that shows acreages by county, but will need to also show geographical boundaries for groups of counties. These boundaries will be referred to as divisions. So, each county will have it's own color based on acres of a certain crop within that county. Then for the divisions I would need a dark border around the group of counties for each division.

Below are 2 maps created in Power BI. I am needing to overlay division (without colors) borders onto the acres map. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am assuming a TopoJSON file will need to be created, but have no idea where to get started with that either. 

Acres:

Divsions: miscolored counties in SC have been corrected 🙂

[dlogan]

Thank you for your reply. Since posting this question I've changed the map to be an ArcGIS map. There are so many more options with it. I'm still not sure about your suggestion. Would I still be able to lay a "division boundary" layer over this map? If so, I can't understand how it would work. I'm imagining using the map pasted below, but being able to see those divisions on this map. 

[v-yilong-msft · Accepted solution]

Hi @dlogan ,

I think you can adjust the layer’s properties to control how the boundaries are displayed, such as setting transparency, color, and line thickness. Maybe this video can help you: How to create boundaries in ArcMap - YouTube

Best Regards

Yilong Zhou

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.

[v-yilong-msft]

Hi @dlogan ,

As you said, TopoJSON is necessary. Here’s a simplified example of how you might edit a TopoJSON file to include division boundaries.

{
  "type": "Topology",
  "objects": {
    "counties": {
      "type": "GeometryCollection",
      "geometries": [
        // County geometries here
      ]
    },
    "divisions": {
      "type": "GeometryCollection",
      "geometries": [
        // Division geometries here
      ]
    }
  },
  "arcs": [
    // Arcs defining the boundaries here
  ]
}

After you have your TopoJSON files ready, you can import them into Power BI. You’ll use the Shape Map visual in Power BI to display your maps. In Power BI, you’ll assign colors to each county based on the acreage data. For the divisions, you can create a dark border around the group of counties by adjusting the border styling options. You can read this document: How to convert and prepare TopoJSON files for interactive mapping with d3 | by Richard Zimerman | Ha... . To overlay the division borders onto the acreage map, you’ll need to ensure that the division boundaries are included in your TopoJSON and styled appropriately so that they appear as dark borders around the groups of counties.

Best Regards

Yilong Zhou

If this post helps, then please consider Accept it as the solution to help the other members find it more quickly.