Better GPT-4 Prompting For Interactive Python Plotly GIS Maps

Author(s): John Loewen, PhD

Originally published on Towards AI.

Mapping historical shipwreck data from Harvard data set

There are some terrific sources for data sets out there on the internet, including historical shipwreck data.

One of the weekly updates I receive as part of expanding my knowledge on available datasets comes from Data is Plural:

This site provides a weekly newsletter on interesting data sets.

In the most recent version (2024–07–10), there is a dataset on ancient shipwrecks (from Harvard University). This data set containse records from approximately 1500BC to 1500AD and is focused around the Mediterranean Sea and northern Europe. Super cool!

I was curious if I could upload this dataset to GPT-4 and have it give me some Python code that places each piece of point data onto a map.

The answer? Yes, it can. But not without some careful prompting. Here’s the steps I went through, so that you don’t have to.

To start off with, I just wanted to see if GPT-4 could interpret the data set in a meaningful way. A generic prompt to see if it can generate GIS map code.

Prompt to GPT-4: Using the attached dataset, give me the python code for a global map that displays each shipwreck as a point on the map.

GPT-4 Response:

OK, that’s a chart — interestingly — each point is accurate… Read the full blog for free on Medium.

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Published via Towards AI