Interactive map unlike any other: Alaska Logistics Map helps business.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: EDUCATION: SIDEBAR

For the 19.3 million acres known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge--it's not even a dot on the map. The 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline, the state's most important engineering feat, is typically indicated by a thin, squiggly line, if at all. And the 3,500-mile Alaska Marine Highway that stops in 33 communities, or the 600-mile Inside Passage--well, let's just say you need to know what you're looking for.

With the release of the Alaska Logistics Map, Dr. Darren Prokop, professor of logistics at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), hopes this will change.

UNIQUE AND FRESH

"No other map like it exists," he says, describing the level of detail that includes geographic boundaries of significant landmarks such as ANWR, major fishing ports, the Alaska Railroad, Pebble project, and other geographic points of interest and transportation infrastructure that logistics professionals and the business community need to understand.

It also shows Alaska's geographic relationship with Russia and Canada. Since the map's release, Prokop has received countless words of encouragement from members of the business community who use the map for planning purposes and as a visual aid when making presentations to clients worldwide.

AN IDEA IS BORN

The idea for the project came about two years ago when Prokop was working with a student who was trying to show him where ANWR is located. Other than being able to point to the general vicinity on the large Alaska map on Prokop's office wall, even the student--a lifelong Alaskan--could find no indication of the refuge's impressive geographic boundaries.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In a state that is one of the most diverse in terms of resources and geography, it didn't take long for Prokop to come up with an extensive list of other key points of interest business leaders would find useful. When he tried to locate each of them on the...