Here Be Dragons

A pleasing map of the French TGV network

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:37:04 GMT

I very much like this map of the French TGV network. (It looks nicer in 24 megapixels.)

The idea of using colour families to relate groups of lines is a good one, nicely executed, combining at-a-glance visibility of the big picture with easy access to the detail.

Sadly, it probably has significant accessibility problems for those with limited vision. /-8

xkcd

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 09:11:31 GMT

Today's xkcd cartoon has an interesting comparison of map projections.

Magazines on Maps

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 02:59:08 GMT

I spotted a new French-language magazine that appeals to me judging by what little I understood of the content: Carto: le Monde en Cartes. Seems to be a hard-copy thing that does for francophones around the world what strangemaps does on the Net for the "anglosphere".

Thought there might be some interest hereabouts...?

Geological base maps

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:31:00 GMT

kaberett needs to create a geological survey of a few square kilometres of the Lake District this summer. She wants to record observations in the field on paper then transcribe them to a computer somewhere less generally rugged.

To this end, she wants a series of sheets of A4 card, each printed with a National Grid kilometre square of base map. For convenience, this would be at either 1:10,000 (10cm×10cm) or 1:5,000 (20cm×20cm) scale.

She has access to the Edina Digimap OS collection, but their OS Explorer map (1:25,000) squares exploded by a factor of 2½ are pretty pixelated — and give the impression of being a re-scan from paper sheets in any case.

I've just taken a look at OS OpenData and downloaded the "OS Street View", "OS VectorMap District (Raster)" and "OS VectorMap District (Vector)" data for a specimen square: the VectorMap raster is cleaner and more detailed than Edina, but lacks paths, fences and — most crucially — contours; the StreetView is still cleaner and more detailed, and does at least have private tracks, but lacks spot heights as well as contours. So far as I can tell without a program that understands it properly, the VectorMap vector data is similar to the raster.

Do any of you know some more effective way to drive either Edina or OS OpenData? Alternatively, is there some other source of mapping data that would be more appropriate?

Netflix mapping

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:54:46 GMT

The NY Times has some maps of Netflix queues in some metropolitan areas in the US, by ZIP (postal) code. Interesting stuff.

Map as index

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:58:06 GMT

“Rainy City Stories is an interactive literary cityscape. Click on a location in our map of Manchester to read a story or poem set there.”

Projection of the sphere onto the plane

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:23:55 GMT

A classic problem of cartography, with some new solutions that preserve area and relative distance almost completely: discussed here.

Live Shipping Maps

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:48:20 GMT

A rather nice mash-up using Google Maps, from the University of the Aegean,

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/default.aspx?level0=100

BBC Berlin Wall

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:54:28 GMT

an interactive map showing where the Berlin Wall is 20 years after coming down

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/8344662.stm

1507 Waldseemuller Map

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:26:16 GMT

There's a nice BBC article on the 1507 Waldseemuller map at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8328878.stm .

New Blog

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:44:18 GMT

Hi all!

Perhaps a shameless plug, but I was hoping to find some interested readers and new blogs to enjoy...

I'm a professional GIS/Remote Sensing ninja monkey hailing from the West Coast. If any of you are interested in my GIS work (involving carbon and fire risk inventory), or Google Maps 'the beginning' (working on a community pollution monitoring website), or Environmental Planning/Landscape Architecture (I did my Master's in it), I invite you to my new blog:

A Drag and Drop World

I will (occasionally) link to my (old) LJ for the moment. However, I'm still going to concentrate a lot of work related stuff here.

Corn!

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:54:50 GMT

Hey!
I saw a write-up in hack-a-day, a site unrelated to LJ:
http://hackaday.com/2009/09/30/farm-hacking-7-amazing-corn-mazes/
I thought people might enjoy this:D

Fast food: the mapping

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:37:00 GMT

The USofA, visualising the density of McDonalds outlets in the lower 48 states.

Edible maps

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:58:28 GMT

Not themselves edible, but maps of potential urban food production, specifically for a couple of neighborhoods around London. It's an interesting idea.

Retrapped

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:40:23 GMT

Google Street View launched in the UK yesterday, but this post isn't about Street View - it's just a record of another trap street in Oxford.

The aerial view of Taula Street in Google Maps makes it pretty clear it's a road to nowhere. (Thanks to j4.)

Need Help! Maps, Slovenia

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:18:00 GMT

If you have any economic maps of Slovenia: slovenian industry, agriculture - anything, please help me out. Can't find anything in Russia or on the web and my thesis is to be handed in next week!..

If you have anything that might help me, please, send it to philunchik@mail.ru with a note where it is from...

I'd be very greatful!

Mapping the past in Vermont

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:43:33 GMT

In Vermont there's the chance to revive old roads and rights of way, if they can be found from old maps by 2015. I'm fascinated by the idea of the ghosts of roads past coming back.

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:34:57 GMT

I could use recommendations for GIS software, basic explanation: http://geographile.blogspot.com/2009/02/gis-software-recommendations-needed.html

Journal of Maps

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:26:46 GMT

From an email announcement:

The Journal of Maps is pleased to announce the publication of it's [sic] last issue of 2008. This issue is a "general" issue and incorporates a wide range of material including geology, dasymetric mapping, sub-national mapping of human development and transportation.

This issue is also unique in that it marks the completion of the special issue on "Transport Networks" that has run through the year, with papers first published at the beginning of 2008. An editorial from Professor Chris Wright wraps up this special issue.

Finally there is the annual editorial summarising the activities of the journal over the year and announcing the winner of our inaugural "Best Map" for 2008. The winner will have their map published in a limited 1000 copy print run which will be available for purchase "at cost".

The table of contents is copied below and also available at:

http://www.journalofmaps.com/about.php?helpfile=smartyAbstracts.html

I would also like to draw attention to an issue of the Journal of Maps Student Edition which has just been published. These papers resulted out of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetric Society's annual student meeting and can be found here (and ToC copied below) [omitted]:

http://www.journalofmaps.com/about.php?helpfile=smartyStudentEdition.html

We would like to further promote JoMSE to all research students as an excellent "first publishing" opportunity which can occur early on in a research career when data have been gathered but not analysed. One of our recent authors commented:

"it is very exciting and such a good opportunity, not to mention a fantastic learning curve as a new academic."

I hope we can encourage many more students to share their work.

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:15:39 GMT

Dear all,

We have modified the structure of the main page in order to make it more informative, so the users activity will be much more prominent.
Also, we have implemented some measures to protect our users privacy, thus the anonymous visitors wouldn't be able to place comments in any sections of the site. The members status is not visible to the unregistered visitors any more. However, one can monitor the status of self's connections via Instant Messenger (IM bar in the footer area).

Hope you'll like these changes,
Best Regards,
GeoNetworx | Signup and join us today!

Welcome to GeoNetworx!

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:38:53 GMT

Dear Colleagues,
We would like to invite you to GeoNetworx:

Our resource is exclusively dedicated to the worldwide Geo-professionals community in its broadest meaning.

Here you can find your colleagues, get back in touch with ex-co-workers, expand your professional connections, ask for advice, help others, keep-up your expertise by sharing opinions and experience, and the most important - have a worldwide exposure.

We invite all Geo-professionals of every and any expertise and career level to actively participate in our project.

Widen your horizons, join GeoNetworx today!

OpenCycleMap

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:08:22 GMT

Commercial online mapping services often concentrate on routes for motor traffic to the exclusion, or at least detriment, of paths for pedestrians and cyclists. There are alternatives for specific places such as Cambridge (UK) and Camden. Broader coverage, underpinned by OpenStreetMap data, is available at OpenCycleMap - which started with the UK's National Cycle Network but is seemingly being extended to the rest of the world.

Readers in Oxford, England, may be interested in attending a meeting of Cyclox tomorrow (Thursday): "we are trying to perfect the Oxford version with a view to creating our own Oxford Cycle Map in 2009". Follow the link for details.

All Streets Map

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:09:22 GMT

Here's an interesting map I found through reddit. It's simply a map of all of the streets / roads in the United States, as defined by municipality. No other borders, boundaries, or markers are on the map, and yet we can still make out rivers, coasts, mountains, and population density. There are a few weird places in the midwest, where the counties don't quite define roads in the same capacity, but for the most part it's pretty interesting.

Take a better look here

Where's London?

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:43:33 GMT

That is to say, where does London end? Official definitions don't wholly match local feeling. I think Bromley is in London but many people will insist it's Kent.

Flickr developers took a bottom-up approach by plotting the locations of all the photos described as 'London'.

More here.

US Presidential Election Maps

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:55:55 GMT

Very pretty cartograms of the voting patterns.