I think the question to be asking is who the intended audience for this article is.

It's worded in a way that seems to be for the layman, but the map snippets featured in the article convey no useful information because of the aforementioned lack of legends.

The arcgis maps linked to in the article, on the other hand, have a full legend and are fully interactable. Plenty useful for both laymen and experts alike.

I think the article could be presented better so there's less dissonance in its intention.