Maps Mania
Global Sentiment Towards Israel & Palestine
a year ago
Map of the Week
German Food with Protected Geographical Origin
This map shows some of the 96 foods in Germany that have a protected geographic origin from the...
8 months ago
This map shows some of the 96 foods in Germany that have a protected geographic origin from the European Union.
For example curry sausages must be produced within the city limits of Berlin or they can't be marketed as Berlin currywurst. Other geographically protected foods...
Adventures In...
Detect and measure wildfires with Sentinel-1 Explorer
Our human visual systems collect light from a pretty narrow slice of the electromagnetic spectrum....
5 months ago
Our human visual systems collect light from a pretty narrow slice of the electromagnetic spectrum. But there is so much more light to see. Radar systems use photons with much longer wavelengths that can break through clouds and smoke, and because the energy is sent from the...
Maps Mania
Spreading Love & Peace in Nutopia
8 months ago
Transit Maps
Unofficial Maps: Two new takes on the London Underground by Kenneth Field
Back in 2019, Ken showcased an experimental alternative Tube Map based on a diamond motif (read the...
over a year ago
Back in 2019, Ken showcased an experimental alternative Tube Map based on a diamond motif (read the Transit Maps review here) that had mixed reactions from the community. He went away and absorbed that feedback, and – like a glutton for punishment – he’s back with not one, but...
Maps Mania
FlightRadar's New GPS Jamming Map
10 months ago
Adventures In...
Stories
Here are some StoryMap stories that I’ve written over the years… Piracy & Time Travel How Deep is...
a year ago
Here are some StoryMap stories that I’ve written over the years… Piracy & Time Travel How Deep is Challenger Deep? Julie’s Improbable Flight How to Write a Story, starring sharks and hurricanes Gap, Pass, Notch, & Saddle College Football Air Mile Index Rivers of Plastic Smoking,...
Map of the Week
30 Day Map Challenge-One Final Note
In writing yesterday’s post I forgot about this awesome music video about the 30 Day Map Challenge....
a month ago
In writing yesterday’s post I forgot about this awesome music video about the 30 Day Map Challenge. The lyrics are French with English subtitles and it’s fun to hear how musical words like choropleth and story map can sound in French. “Some people sell houses, chickens, bidets, I...
Musings on Maps
“He Could Easily Destroy Us”
Tucker Carlson's move to Twitter led him to celebrate it as the last preserve of free speech. But...
a year ago
Tucker Carlson's move to Twitter led him to celebrate it as the last preserve of free speech. But his relation to speech was long slippery, best reflected on the heuristic display of the 2016 electoral map that was the logo of the pundit's nightly show's and its guiding...
Maps Mania
Not Everyone Commutes by Car
10 months ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Osage Orange
It seemed strange to fixate on a single tree for more than a decade but that’s exactly what...
a month ago
It seemed strange to fixate on a single tree for more than a decade but that’s exactly what happened. I notice it a few weeks every autumn and then quickly forget about it for another year. That all started sometime around 2013 when I began to ride a stretch of the Capital...
Maps Mania
Visit a Virtual Medieval Farm
10 months ago
Map of the Week
Map for Bloomsday
I have not read Ulysses by James Joyce, few people have. Even fewer have understood it. To honor the...
7 months ago
I have not read Ulysses by James Joyce, few people have. Even fewer have understood it. To honor the annual Bloomsday festival going on right now, here is a map showing the wanderings and locations within the book. The map about as easy to understand as the plot itself.
I have...
Map of the Week
Below the Ice
This past fall scientists uncovered a vast landscape that has been "frozen in time" under the...
a year ago
This past fall scientists uncovered a vast landscape that has been "frozen in time" under the Antarctic Ice Shelf. Here is a nice graphic from phys.org.
The topography was determined by a combination of radio wave echoes and satellite images. This landscape, more than 2...
Map of the Week
Lenapehoking-The Delaware Watershed
A more modern take on last week's Coaquannock map, Lenapehoking is a map of the Delaware Watershed's...
a year ago
A more modern take on last week's Coaquannock map, Lenapehoking is a map of the Delaware Watershed's natural environment. The title means land of the Lenape people.
The map was created by Illustrator Meg Lemieur and is available on Etsy. The map is beautifully illustrated with...
Maps Mania
The Worldwide Breaking News Map
7 months ago
Adventures In...
Vintage Retro Old-School 1890s Basemap for ArcGIS Pro
Here’s how to stack up some tile layers and blend them up to concoct a basemap that wouldn’t look...
5 months ago
Here’s how to stack up some tile layers and blend them up to concoct a basemap that wouldn’t look out of place in 1890. Except that you wouldn’t have anywhere to plug in your monitor so it would be hard to show it to people back then. Ok bring a small generator. Wait, all these …
Transit Maps
Official Map: C-TRAN Bus Network, Vancouver, Washington, October 2023
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Transit Maps has never taken a look at the map for Portland’s...
a year ago
Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Transit Maps has never taken a look at the map for Portland’s northern neighbour, the (original) Vancouver. With the recent addition of their second “The Vine” BRT route along Mill Plain Boulevard, now seems like a good time. At first glance, it...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Dayton, Ohio Part 1 (The Wright Stuff)
When people have asked, I’ve told them with a straight face that we didn’t go to Daytona for Spring...
9 months ago
When people have asked, I’ve told them with a straight face that we didn’t go to Daytona for Spring Break, no, we went to Dayton. As in Ohio. As in probably the least likely Spring Break destination in the United States. We managed to avoid warm weather, sandy beaches, and...
Maps Mania
London, Paris & Berlin Metro Memory Games
a year ago
Transit Maps
What I’m Up To and the Future of the Blog
Hi, everyone – it’s been a while! Quite a few people have written in lately wondering why I haven’t...
6 months ago
Hi, everyone – it’s been a while! Quite a few people have written in lately wondering why I haven’t updated the blog in a while, so I thought I should address that. Firstly, for those that were concerned something was wrong, I’d like to reassure you that I’m a-okay and everything...
Map of the Week
Nice Eclipse Maps - Part 2
As promised from last week's post here are a couple additional sites that nicely visualize the path...
10 months ago
As promised from last week's post here are a couple additional sites that nicely visualize the path of next month's eclipse. The first one is from Bloomberg, How to Find the Best Cities to Watch the Eclipse. One of the best things about this page is that it starts with an...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Dayton, Ohio Part 2 (Take a Walk)
Dayton is decently sized place with about 130,000 residents in the city proper and about 800,000 in...
9 months ago
Dayton is decently sized place with about 130,000 residents in the city proper and about 800,000 in the larger metropolitan area. So that makes it large enough for some attractions and urban amenities, but nobody would mistake it for a city that never sleeps. I figured I might...
Map of the Week
If Mars Were on Earth
This image of the surface of Mars was released last Spring as part of the Atlas of Mars. Images were...
9 months ago
This image of the surface of Mars was released last Spring as part of the Atlas of Mars. Images were compiled from the Emirates Mars Mission "Hope", an approximately two year mission in that began orbiting the planet in 2021.
via New York Times
Some remarkably detailed...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Costa Rica, Part 4 (Brew Day)
We hadn’t visited any breweries in the first several days but that was about to change. It turns out...
a year ago
We hadn’t visited any breweries in the first several days but that was about to change. It turns out Costa Rica has a fairly lively craft brewery scene and we were moving into an area rich with them. Several fell within our direct path between La Fortuna and Tamarindo and that...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Dayton, Ohio Part 5 (Venturing West)
My second day of county counting focused west of Dayton, once again targeting five new counties....
9 months ago
My second day of county counting focused west of Dayton, once again targeting five new counties. This time I planned to capture Butler and Darke counties in Ohio; and Union, Fayette, and Randolph counties in Indiana. Hopefully this excursion would also take about three hours like...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Southern Heat, Part 6 (Houston)
The heat really cranked up as we entered Texas, never dropping below a daily high of 100° Fahrenheit...
a year ago
The heat really cranked up as we entered Texas, never dropping below a daily high of 100° Fahrenheit (38° Celsius). Here my hybrid working vacation transitioned completely to pure work for a day. That’s where I needed to attend meetings at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Asia-Pacific, Part 8 (Postscript: Interesting Signs)
I know that some of the articles in this series veered into heavy topics. So let’s take things in a...
a year ago
I know that some of the articles in this series veered into heavy topics. So let’s take things in a less serious direction for a moment now that I’ve completed the travelogue portion. It’s no secret that I enjoy signage, the more unusual the better. Sometimes I even collect them...
somethingaboutmaps
The Dream Lives
I know lately I’ve been in commercial mode, pointing you toward various projects of mine that you...
2 months ago
I know lately I’ve been in commercial mode, pointing you toward various projects of mine that you can support by giving me money. And I promise I’ll get back to less commercial musings as time goes on. But for now, I also want to alert you to a way you can give other people...
Maps Mania
Mapping the Route of the Adriana Disaster
a year ago
Adventures In...
How to Make a Historical Animation with Landsat
Here’s how to whip up a three decade animation of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest,...
11 months ago
Here’s how to whip up a three decade animation of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest, using Landsat Explorer. And it only takes a few minutes. … 0:00 Intro0:20 Assembling the animation1:47 Checking the result2:14 Saving an animation as an MP42:44 More animation examples3:33...
Maps Mania
Mapping Mythical Islands & Imaginary Lands
2 months ago
Adventures In...
The Geoholics Podcast
I got to join The Geoholics podcast this week and had a fun conversation with Kent Groh, Ryan Kelly,...
over a year ago
I got to join The Geoholics podcast this week and had a fun conversation with Kent Groh, Ryan Kelly, and Nik Smilovsky Here is a link to the episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0sHBwsGyfAoZE3ra5RaeVB?si=f1f3bdf9ab3b4695 Here’s the episode’s description: Raised by two...
Maps Mania
Piecing the World Back Together
5 months ago
Adventures In...
Three Maps & the Truth
You may have heard that “all maps lie” and that’s right (also, here’s some required reading). Each...
a month ago
You may have heard that “all maps lie” and that’s right (also, here’s some required reading). Each map is a collection of compromises, whether they’re geomatic (your projection and scale choices), editorial (your choice of subject and what you’ve chosen to show and not show), and...
Map of the Week
Stolen Native American Remains
In 1990 the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed by the U.S. Congress...
a year ago
In 1990 the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act was passed by the U.S. Congress to gave indigenous peoples a way to reclaim their dead. 33 years later about half of the remains have yet to be returned. Pro Publica produced a piece with excellent interactive...
Map of the Week
The Atlas of Design, Volume 7
Note to readers on this platform: I also publish this blog on Substack. You may find that the...
3 months ago
Note to readers on this platform: I also publish this blog on Substack. You may find that the pictures below show up a little better than here.
The Atlas of Design is a biannual production of the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS). It highlights some of the...
Map of the Week
This One
This one map (via New York Times) tells you quite a bit about what happened in the U.S. Election on...
2 months ago
This one map (via New York Times) tells you quite a bit about what happened in the U.S. Election on Tuesday.
Aside from a few strange outliers (western Oklahoma, suburban Atlanta, northwest Michigan) The "red shift" happened across all regions and demographics. Hard to look at...
Maps Mania
The Right-Wing Terrorism Map
11 months ago
Maps Mania
Mapping a Global Coral Bleaching Event
9 months ago
Maps Mania
Every Basketball Court on Google Maps
4 months ago
Transit Maps
Fantasy Map: Washington Commanders 2023 “Season Map”
Posted yesterday on the Commanders’ Twitter account, here’s a Washington Metro-themed map of the...
a year ago
Posted yesterday on the Commanders’ Twitter account, here’s a Washington Metro-themed map of the team’s 2023 season. It basically just places the team’s opponents for the year on a vaguely US-shaped map using some Metro iconography and colours and calls it a day. It’s...
Map of the Week
Humpback Whale Migration
The Arctic University of Norway leads the Whaletrack program to map Humpback and Killer Whale...
a year ago
The Arctic University of Norway leads the Whaletrack program to map Humpback and Killer Whale migrations.
Whales are tracked as they travel thousands of miles from the Barents Sea in the Arctic where they feed to winter breeding breeding grounds in the Caribbean Sea. The map...
Maps Mania
The Easter Bunny's Egg-cellent Adventure
9 months ago
Maps Mania
The River Basins & Watersheds of the World
a year ago
Maps Mania
Out of Africa - The Story of Human Migration
7 months ago
Map of the Week
An Appreciation of Ordnance Survey Maps
I spent some time in May at the British Library randomly looking at atlases and maps, some of which...
6 months ago
I spent some time in May at the British Library randomly looking at atlases and maps, some of which will be featured here in upcoming weeks. They have a huge collection of Ordnance Survey atlas books of 1:1056 scale (1 inch = 88 feet) map sheets. While these maps are primarily...
Map of the Week
The Lost Subways of North America
A new book by Jake Berman, The Lost Subways of North America explores the history of unbuilt and...
a year ago
A new book by Jake Berman, The Lost Subways of North America explores the history of unbuilt and discontinued transit in 23 cities in the United States and Canada. Mexico is not included because "Mexico's urban history is so unlike that of the United States and Canada."
Cities...
Maps Mania
How big are London, New York & Tokyo?
a year ago
James Cheshire
The Scarred Landscape of the Climate Crisis
I’ve been obsessively checking satellite imagery to witness the UK turn from green to yellow, thanks...
over a year ago
I’ve been obsessively checking satellite imagery to witness the UK turn from green to yellow, thanks to the period of extreme heat and lack of rain Europe has been enduring. The parched landscape is unlike anything I’ve seen before and a cloud free day today (10th August) has...
Transit Maps
Submission – Unofficial Map: Tramways in Gdańsk, Poland by Arsen Mosiichuk, 2024
Submitted by Arsen, who says: Hello, this summer I with Sergey Steblina as art-director designed a...
a month ago
Submitted by Arsen, who says: Hello, this summer I with Sergey Steblina as art-director designed a transit map of Gdańsk trams. I am very interested what Transit Maps think about this. Transit Maps says: Overall, this is very solid and clean work – very much in the style of...
Maps Mania
The World's Bioregions & Ecosystems Mapped
a year ago
Adventures In...
How to make a “peeled edge” area of interest effect
Sure, everyone loves a good raised area-of-interest effect. But what about a peeled edge area of...
5 months ago
Sure, everyone loves a good raised area-of-interest effect. But what about a peeled edge area of interest? It’s a snazzy trick and maybe just the sort of flair that your map needs! And it’s simpler than maybe you’d guess. To give your area of interest a peeled edge effect, you...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
England, Day 5 (Isle of Purbeck)
Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck isn’t an island it’s a peninsula. It was probably more isolated and...
6 months ago
Dorset’s Isle of Purbeck isn’t an island it’s a peninsula. It was probably more isolated and difficult to reach in previous centuries. So maybe it felt like an island to people back when the English Channel was the primary “road” to the outside world. Even now it’s a...
Maps Mania
Mapping Oil and Gas Emissions
11 months ago
Maps Mania
Tracking American Spies in Germany
6 months ago
Map of the Week
Indigenous Languages-Part 3
Here is part 3 in what was meant to be a two part series. In between my last two posts, Vivid Maps...
11 months ago
Here is part 3 in what was meant to be a two part series. In between my last two posts, Vivid Maps posted a map of indigenous languages. I think this was just a coincidence. I only saw their post yesterday and I don't think they saw or were reacting to what I posted. Anyway this...
Maps Mania
The Chain Restaurants of America
11 months ago
somethingaboutmaps
On the Practice of Wobbling
We live in an era in which maps (and plenty of other graphics) are made with digital tools....
a year ago
We live in an era in which maps (and plenty of other graphics) are made with digital tools. Workflows vary, but the end result is that a lot of us base our cartography entirely on clean vector shapes and neat raster grids. For example, I talked earlier this year about a map I...
Adventures In...
Make these ornaments please
It’s that time of year when geographers the world over gather together in, let’s be honest, just...
a month ago
It’s that time of year when geographers the world over gather together in, let’s be honest, just slightly awkward office holiday parties. We dedicate 82-86% of our mental capacities to socializing with our colleagues over deserts and drinks, while the remaining 14-16% remain...
Maps Mania
Mapping Moving Borders in Real-Time
4 months ago
Map of the Week
Summer Light Reading 2024
Here is another installment of what is becoming an annual summer tradition. Just like the light...
5 months ago
Here is another installment of what is becoming an annual summer tradition. Just like the light beach reading, here is some light map reading. Not much to comment about, just some maps and related items I like.
First of all since the Olympics are in Paris, a nice papercut map you...
Maps Mania
The Money Mountains of Los Angeles
4 months ago
Transit Maps
Submission – Official Map: Madrid Cercanías Rail Network, December 2024
Submitted by Juan, who says: I send the new version of the Renfe-Madrid Cercanías network. It seems...
2 weeks ago
Submitted by Juan, who says: I send the new version of the Renfe-Madrid Cercanías network. It seems to me that it has improved quite a lot the previous version. This previous version had crossroads, angles, etc. I would like to know your opinion about this new map. Transit Maps...
Map of the Week
Planning for the Next Eclipse
Maybe you saw Monday's eclipse and were impressed enough to want to travel to see another one or...
9 months ago
Maybe you saw Monday's eclipse and were impressed enough to want to travel to see another one or maybe you missed it because life got in the way or you couldn't justify the time and expense of travel. Or, maybe you're like me and foolishly traveled to Rochester, New York where...
somethingaboutmaps
A New, Unrelated Blog
Kindly readers: I wanted to let you know that I’ve started another little publication, one which has...
over a year ago
Kindly readers: I wanted to let you know that I’ve started another little publication, one which has nothing to do with maps, but I figure is worth telling you about anyway: I climb trees recreationally, and I’ve decided to start writing about my thoughts and experiences. Perhaps...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Southern Heat, Part 4 (Bug Loop)
Sure, the southern United States has more than its fair share of pesky bugs that most people...
a year ago
Sure, the southern United States has more than its fair share of pesky bugs that most people actively avoid. Mosquitos, horseflies, and palmetto bugs probably top that list. So it probably sounds strange that we devoted an entire day to insects, particularly to the appreciation...
somethingaboutmaps
Take the 2024 Freelance Mapper Survey
Friends and colleagues, it’s time once again for the survey that Aly Ollivierre and I conduct every...
10 months ago
Friends and colleagues, it’s time once again for the survey that Aly Ollivierre and I conduct every two years. We ask people who do freelance mapping work about their fees and other business practices, in order to help bring more transparency to our little niche of the world, and...
Map of the Week
Earth Transit
Earth Transit is a project by Zhaoxu Sui showing the major passenger rail lines of the world.
In...
a year ago
Earth Transit is a project by Zhaoxu Sui showing the major passenger rail lines of the world.
In his own words "This is the beta version, which means a lot of errors and mistakes could
be on the map, please give me corrections and suggestions so that I can
improve." Lines are...
Map of the Week
Tyne River Shipbuilders
While researching something unrelated, I came across this series of maps showing ship builders and...
a year ago
While researching something unrelated, I came across this series of maps showing ship builders and related industries on the River Tyne in and near Newcastle, UK.
The maps, from 1972, stretch from the mouth of the river (above) to the City of Newcastle upon Tyne,
and westward...
Maps Mania
Adding URL Parameters to an Interactive Map
12 months ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Inland Northwest, Day 1 (Staging)
Was there a name for that largely empty space beyond Washington’s Cascades Range and into the Idaho...
3 months ago
Was there a name for that largely empty space beyond Washington’s Cascades Range and into the Idaho Panhandle? A little research suggested the Inland Northwest, or perhaps a now lesser-used designation, the Inland Empire (not to be confused with a similarly named area of...
Map of the Week
The Possible Collapse of Oceanic Circulation
This map, via Down to Earth shows the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).
The AMOC...
9 months ago
This map, via Down to Earth shows the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).
The AMOC is like a "heat conveyor belt". It moderates temperatures on the planet by moving warmer air to northern latitudes while returning cooler air to the tropics. It has already slowed...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Costa Rica, Part 5 (Relaxing in Tamarindo)
Rainy season doesn’t mean the same thing across the entirety of Costa Rica. Nor does it start...
a year ago
Rainy season doesn’t mean the same thing across the entirety of Costa Rica. Nor does it start suddenly or retain consistent intensity. So our drive to Guanacaste Province’s drier Pacific coast during the earlier part of the season promised plenty of sunshine. That was our plan...
Maps Mania
Who Deserves a Monument Anyway?
10 months ago
somethingaboutmaps
A New Take on an Old Style
Gentle readers, I have some exciting things to share with you. After several months of tinkering and...
2 months ago
Gentle readers, I have some exciting things to share with you. After several months of tinkering and toolmaking, I have created a series of posters of iconic peaks (and other terrain), illustrated in a sketch style inspired by old hachure drawings. There are 37 designs to choose...
Maps Mania
Four Free Alternatives to GeoGuessr
9 months ago
Maps Mania
The Great Amazonian Indigenous Land Grab
a year ago
Maps Mania
⅓ of Rafah’s Buildings Destroyed
9 months ago
Adventures In...
GIS Day 2024
They say it’s the mappiest day of the year, but here’s a short video we made for GIS Day way back at...
2 months ago
They say it’s the mappiest day of the year, but here’s a short video we made for GIS Day way back at the mappiest place on earth (aka the Esri User Conference) back in July! November felt like forever away, but you know how all that goes. Thanks to Jo Ann Prichniewski for...
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 4, Assembly
“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” In this 4-part series...
11 months ago
“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the reckoning of a Lord of the Rings style fantasy map, right in ArcGIS Pro. We map-makers get to breathe honest to goodness geographic life into the seminal...
Map of the Week
My Favorite New Jersey Drone Map
Here is my favorite “map” showing the drone hysteria over New Jersey. It’s from Instagram...
a month ago
Here is my favorite “map” showing the drone hysteria over New Jersey. It’s from Instagram user wmh_x_0, aka Oona Harrigan.
It is based on these maps of drone sightings that have been going around the internet.
The “globe” text is there because she is known for designing sad...
Transit Maps
Submission – Official Map: Tram and Busways of Casablanca, Morocco, 2024
Submitted by Leo, who says: On September 24, the Casablanca tramway network nearly doubled in length...
3 months ago
Submitted by Leo, who says: On September 24, the Casablanca tramway network nearly doubled in length with the opening of T3 and T4. The Casatramway network, operated by RATP, is depicted in the new map alongside the Casabusway BRT lines currently under construction. The map...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Costa Rica, Part 2 (In the Shadow of the Volcano)
We landed at Juan Santamaría airport in San José on a Friday afternoon, clearing Immigration and...
a year ago
We landed at Juan Santamaría airport in San José on a Friday afternoon, clearing Immigration and Customs nearly effortlessly. Then we got a taste of rush hour traffic riding on the shuttle to retrieve our rental car. Driving conditions became a lot more difficult later in the...
Maps Mania
Mapping Marine Light and Noise Pollution
a month ago
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 1, Forests
“Most of the trees are just trees, of course; but many are half awake.” In this 4-part series we’ll...
11 months ago
“Most of the trees are just trees, of course; but many are half awake.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the reckoning of a Lord of the Rings style fantasy map, right in ArcGIS Pro. We map-makers get to breathe honest to goodness geographic life into the seminal aesthetic...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Dayton, Ohio Part 7 (Hodgepodge)
The Dayton trip came to an end but I still had a bunch of stuff to talk about that didn’t fit into...
8 months ago
The Dayton trip came to an end but I still had a bunch of stuff to talk about that didn’t fit into any of the earlier articles. Naturally I’ve collected them all together within this final compilation to serve as a wrap-up. Then we can call this one done and move onto the next...
Maps Mania
The Loss of the Great American Grasslands
7 months ago
Transit Maps
Submission – Official Map: Greater Copenhagen Rail Map, 2024
Submitted by Jakob, who says: The M4 branch extension to Copenhagen South has just opened, and with...
5 months ago
Submitted by Jakob, who says: The M4 branch extension to Copenhagen South has just opened, and with it, a much improved map compared to 2019 [My review of the 2019 map can be found here – Cam]. The Circle Line is now more spacious, junctions are labeled more clearly, and metro...
Map of the Week
Suginami Walking Tours
Suginami is a ward on the west side of Tokyo. The Experience Suginami web page features a series of...
a year ago
Suginami is a ward on the west side of Tokyo. The Experience Suginami web page features a series of walks and tours with some nice maps.
The Historical Walk shows not only the shrines and gardens of the neighborhood, but also shows where you can get ramen and "healthy" soy...
Map of the Week
Where Your Christmas Tree Comes From
A recent map on maps.com (an Esri run map site) by Joshua Stevens shows where Christmas trees are...
a year ago
A recent map on maps.com (an Esri run map site) by Joshua Stevens shows where Christmas trees are grown.
The data is from the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Each tree shaped spike represents a county. The most significant areas are in Oregon and North Carolina. If you click on...
Map of the Week
The Coaquannock Map
I will begin Philadelphia month at an early stage, just before European settlement.
via...
a year ago
I will begin Philadelphia month at an early stage, just before European settlement.
via Historical Society of Pennsylvania
This 1934 map showing the homeland of the Lenape people when the first white settlers arrived in Philadelphia, was funded by the Works Progress...
Maps Mania
Which Country Most Resembles Your Country?
a year ago
Maps Mania
Geotripper - the Traveling Salesman Game
a month ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
England, Day 7 (Tankfest)
Finally the single event that justified our entire trip to England arrived, the renowned Tankfest....
5 months ago
Finally the single event that justified our entire trip to England arrived, the renowned Tankfest. It’s everything the name implies, a festival of military tanks, and it happens only once a year on the grounds of the Tank Museum in Bovington (map). This is what the younger kid...
Maps Mania
Welcome To Your New Gardening Zone
8 months ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
England, Day 6 (Bournemouth)
We didn’t go far but it seemed like a world apart, traveling from an isolated corner of Dorset into...
6 months ago
We didn’t go far but it seemed like a world apart, traveling from an isolated corner of Dorset into its most populous area. That led us to Bournemouth (map), a coastal town along the English Channel. There are so many ancient places in the United Kingdom but this is not one of...
somethingaboutmaps
Kickstarter 3: The Return
For the past several years, I’ve enjoyed the process of cyanotype printing, and have released a...
2 months ago
For the past several years, I’ve enjoyed the process of cyanotype printing, and have released a number of projects based on this technique (including my favorite item I’ve ever made). Now, I’ve decided to take my recent work in developing terrain sketches, and turn it into a new...
Maps Mania
The Interactive Map of Ambridge
2 months ago
Map of the Week
The Grand Paris Express
I was recently in Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD) when I came across this...
a year ago
I was recently in Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (GSD) when I came across this fantastic exhibit on the Grand Paris Express. The GPE is a hugely ambitious project to add several metro ring lines connecting the suburbs of Paris to each other and to the central...
Map of the Week
Forest Fires All Over North America
This has been a remarkably heavy year for forest fires and it's still very early in the season. The...
a year ago
This has been a remarkably heavy year for forest fires and it's still very early in the season. The last few summers the West Coast has experienced many days of terrible air quality. This year the East Coast is experiencing it. Last week cities like New York, Philadelphia and...
somethingaboutmaps
Leopard Map Disassembly
Friends, it’s been a long while since I last wrote up a walkthrough of one of my mapping projects....
a year ago
Friends, it’s been a long while since I last wrote up a walkthrough of one of my mapping projects. So, today, let’s break down a piece that I made earlier this year for Scientific American magazine. This is actually the first of three pieces that I’ve made for Scientific American...
James Cheshire
Newspapers and the 1976 Drought
With each new temperature record that tumbles the UK, climate skeptics have a standard stock phrase:...
over a year ago
With each new temperature record that tumbles the UK, climate skeptics have a standard stock phrase: ‘it was this hot in 1976’. Of course it wasn’t, and crucially the planet overall was not as hot then as it is now. Parts of the UK media have had their part to play in fueling...
Transit Maps
Submission – Fantasy Map: New York Regional Rail Concept by James G
Submitted by James, who says: I created this map based on various concepts (mainly the work of Alon...
5 months ago
Submitted by James, who says: I created this map based on various concepts (mainly the work of Alon Levy) for through-running regional rail in the New York region. This network would integrate all of the current commuter rail networks, increasing frequencies to metro-like levels,...
Musings on Maps
Swing States, Battleground States and Hot Spots
Are the maps of President Trump's 2024 electoral evidence of a sudden shift or deep undercurrents of...
2 months ago
Are the maps of President Trump's 2024 electoral evidence of a sudden shift or deep undercurrents of disaffection? The sudden partisan shift of voting maps suggest a dark undercurrents in American politics. Continue reading →
Maps Mania
Attacks on the Press Map 2023
10 months ago
Adventures In...
Imagery basemap ready for data
Imagery is the most detailed, most literal of basemaps. You are actually seeing a picture of what...
a year ago
Imagery is the most detailed, most literal of basemaps. You are actually seeing a picture of what the ground looks like at any location. And while this sort of context can be incredibly useful, it can also wreck the way we see and understand thematic data that is draped over it....
Maps Mania
Virtual Indian Independence Day
5 months ago
Map of the Week
30 Day Map Challenge 2024-Part 2
Here is the second half of the 30 Day Map Challenge. The one where I don’t make anything but just...
a month ago
Here is the second half of the 30 Day Map Challenge. The one where I don’t make anything but just sit back and enjoy the work of others. The first half of the month was reviewed here.
I will start on Day 23 where the prompt was memory. There were quite a few good entries for this...
Adventures In...
Women in GIS Workshop
If you aren’t doing anything else on the allotted 2.5 hours of January 24, 2025, then consider...
a month ago
If you aren’t doing anything else on the allotted 2.5 hours of January 24, 2025, then consider tuning in to this Women in GIS workshop where I’ll share the process (and all the data and documents) for making this migration map. The cost is free, unless you count the 2.5 hours of...
Adventures In...
How to make tapered rivers in ArcGIS Pro
Cartographers will often exaggerate the natural scale of a mapped feature to help it communicate...
a year ago
Cartographers will often exaggerate the natural scale of a mapped feature to help it communicate something of its nature. Some examples are vertical exaggeration of terrain or the very existence of point symbols (cities aren’t actually that big). We embellish for effect. Making a...
Adventures In...
Storybook Cartography
ArcGIS Pro is a serious tool for serious GIS analysis. Are you ready for some seriously charming...
a year ago
ArcGIS Pro is a serious tool for serious GIS analysis. Are you ready for some seriously charming illustration style cartography? Ok! . . Children’s maps are a valuable thing. They are often the first impressions the world of geography has on every single one of us. What an...
Maps Mania
The Distressed Communities of America
10 months ago
Map of the Week
Make the Desert Bloom
Tomas Pueyo has an idea to help combat global warming and rising seas. His idea is to create new...
a year ago
Tomas Pueyo has an idea to help combat global warming and rising seas. His idea is to create new seas by flooding several below sea level basins, such as the Dead Sea or Death Valley with seawater to create or enlarge inland seas. Here is an image from his Substack pages showing...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Inland Northwest, Day 5 (University Loop)
This was another early morning start although not as early as some of the others. We wouldn’t need...
3 months ago
This was another early morning start although not as early as some of the others. We wouldn’t need to drive very far anymore now that we’d settled into our temporary home in Lewiston, Idaho for four nights in a row. The Washington Race Sunrise came quickly and we soon found...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Kaiserslautern
I hope to stay longer than 72 hours the next time I visit Germany. I don’t recommend such a short...
8 months ago
I hope to stay longer than 72 hours the next time I visit Germany. I don’t recommend such a short visit. However I went there for work as I do occasionally, and I had no choice. So that’s what I did. I landed in Frankfurt on Monday, drove down to Kaiserslautern, stayed through...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Dayton, Ohio Part 6 (Breweries)
It’s the eternal question. Should I lump all of the brewery visits into a single article or should I...
9 months ago
It’s the eternal question. Should I lump all of the brewery visits into a single article or should I spread them within the series? Well, as always, it depends. This time I decided to discuss them all at once because of a simple fact of geography. We visited eight breweries...
Transit Maps
Historical Map: Argentine Railways, 1907
Now this is a map! This is just superb cartography: detailed, clear and lovely to look at. I love...
over a year ago
Now this is a map! This is just superb cartography: detailed, clear and lovely to look at. I love the way that brown is used for mountainous features, and a light blue is used for water features – it allows this information to be visible, but it doesn’t compete with the overlaid...
Maps Mania
How Big is Your Country's CO2 Footprint?
2 months ago
Adventures In...
North Arrow Necessity
Can a map still be considered a map if it doesn’t have a north arrow? Yes. A north arrow is an...
5 months ago
Can a map still be considered a map if it doesn’t have a north arrow? Yes. A north arrow is an optional map accompaniment and you should think critically about your map to determine for yourself if it needs a north arrow or not. For what it’s worth, often a map should not have a...
Map of the Week
Middle Earth Transit Map
Hard to believe that those dumb hobbits risked their lives walking all the way to Mordor when they...
8 months ago
Hard to believe that those dumb hobbits risked their lives walking all the way to Mordor when they could have just taken the Orange Line.
Oh wait, the tunnel under the mountain is closed
so they would have had to switch to the Red Line at Bree and then made another...
Map of the Week
Parking Lot Map
The Parking Lot Map is a project of the Parking Reform Project, an organization dedicated to climate...
a year ago
The Parking Lot Map is a project of the Parking Reform Project, an organization dedicated to climate action, safer streets and housing affordability. The map explores how much land in the central area of the major cities of the United States is dedicated to parking. On average...
Maps Mania
An Extremely Distorted Map of the US Election
6 days ago
somethingaboutmaps
Getting Local: A Map Disassembly
Though it’s only been a couple of months since the last time I did a map breakdown, I feel like it’s...
a year ago
Though it’s only been a couple of months since the last time I did a map breakdown, I feel like it’s time for another. While my own instincts are to avoid repetition, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my YouTube-watching habits, it’s that a creator can put out a regular...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Costa Rica, Part 1 (Intentions and Observations)
This was supposed to be the younger kid’s trip. It was his turn to select a destination — anywhere...
a year ago
This was supposed to be the younger kid’s trip. It was his turn to select a destination — anywhere in the world — as a present for his upcoming high school graduation next year. The older one chose Australia back in 2018 and we expanded it to include New Zealand too. England...
Maps Mania
Alien Arrivals Nosedive in 2023!
11 months ago
somethingaboutmaps
2022 Freelancer Survey Results
Thank you once again to everyone who participated in this year’s survey of freelance cartographer...
over a year ago
Thank you once again to everyone who participated in this year’s survey of freelance cartographer rates and business practices! Herein, you will find the results of the survey, sliced into a few different charts and visuals, all crafted by my survey partner Aly Ollivierre. For...
Maps Mania
Mapping the Political Landscape
3 months ago
Maps Mania
Google Updates Satellite Imagery of Ukraine
a year ago
Adventures In...
How to find (and style!) detailed water polygons for your map
I often struggle to find high resolution polygons for things that tend to change, like water, urban,...
a year ago
I often struggle to find high resolution polygons for things that tend to change, like water, urban, ice, whatever. Here’s how you can wrangle some up-to-date, detailed, water polygons for your small or medium scale maps (plus five different ways you can style them up)… Here’s...
Maps Mania
Inside the Maya Temples of Copan
3 months ago
Adventures In...
Analysis in the Browser
Here is a two-pack with some small adventures with data in ArcGIS Online. The first is a smashing of...
a year ago
Here is a two-pack with some small adventures with data in ArcGIS Online. The first is a smashing of two fields into a new frankenfield ready for mapping, and the second shows how to create entirely new map layers and cram them with meaningful attributes. … Sometimes you have all...
Adventures In...
Layout sandwich
Here’s how to make an ArcGIS Pro layout where certain elements of the map step over the neatline and...
a year ago
Here’s how to make an ArcGIS Pro layout where certain elements of the map step over the neatline and the graticule is relegated only to the oceans. Because that looks cool! Mapping has a long and handsome history of neatlines that are interrupted by bits of land spilling over it,...
Map of the Week
The 2022 Hurricane Season
While I was busy obsessing over my 30 Day Map Challenge in November, CNN put out this map in a...
over a year ago
While I was busy obsessing over my 30 Day Map Challenge in November, CNN put out this map in a summary of the 2022 hurricane season.
It's interesting to see all the hurricane tracks on one map. While the season started out slowly, it finished with several memorable storms...
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 3, Water
“The world has changed. I see it in the water.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the...
11 months ago
“The world has changed. I see it in the water.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the reckoning of a Lord of the Rings style fantasy map, right in ArcGIS Pro. We map-makers get to breathe honest to goodness geographic life into the seminal aesthetic found in the LOTR...
Maps Mania
170 Years of American Immigration
5 months ago
Maps Mania
Global Climate Change Impacts
10 months ago
Maps Mania
The Scariest Place Names in the World
2 months ago
Map of the Week
The Film Industry's Nine Dash Line Problem
This summer's hit movie Barbie has been banned in Vietnam for its portrayal of the Nine Dash Line on...
a year ago
This summer's hit movie Barbie has been banned in Vietnam for its portrayal of the Nine Dash Line on a world map. Note: I have not (yet) seen any of the movies or shows listed below.
This line represents China's claims in the South China Sea. These claims have been rejected by...
Musings on Maps
A Global Landscape of Growing Glacial Loss
With frozen glaciers disappearing into the oceans at an unprecedented rate, the rise of an...
a year ago
With frozen glaciers disappearing into the oceans at an unprecedented rate, the rise of an ecotourism of glacier viewing is hardly unexpected. But the rise of new heights of glacial melt that are feared for much of the arctic this … Continue reading →
Maps Mania
SPOT: the Natural Language Geolocation Map
2 weeks ago
Map of the Week
The Auschwitz Exhibition
This past weekend I saw a traveling exhibition in Boston about the Auschwitz concentration camp. It...
4 months ago
This past weekend I saw a traveling exhibition in Boston about the Auschwitz concentration camp. It contains over 700 objects from shoes to gas masks to implements of torture and experimentation. The exhibit was co-produced by the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and has been in...
Maps Mania
Battles of World War II & American Wars
6 months ago
Map of the Week
The Liverpool Overhead Railway
I found this cool strip map of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, the first elevated electric railway...
a year ago
I found this cool strip map of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, the first elevated electric railway in the world. It opened in 1893 and was dismantled in 1957 because the company could not afford to make the necessary repairs. This map is dated "c1938".
via Flickr
According...
Musings on Maps
The Office of the Geographer and Art of the Deal
There is plenty of blame going round this election cycle on the Democratic Party for having given...
2 months ago
There is plenty of blame going round this election cycle on the Democratic Party for having given material assistance–if not tacitly supported–the bombing Palestinian inhabitants and settlements in Gaza by Israeli Defense Forces. The drumbeat of disquiet about the Democratic …...
Musings on Maps
Security Walls: “This is Just the Beginning”
Attending New Year’s service in an Oxford Orthodox synagogue, I paused when the ritual prayer book I...
a year ago
Attending New Year’s service in an Oxford Orthodox synagogue, I paused when the ritual prayer book I held–a Machzor-moved smoothly from prayers to George VI (it was an old one) to prayers for the Israel Defense Forces. The rabbi, who … Continue reading →
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Great American Beer Festival (and More)
I hinted at ulterior motives in the last article about my long weekend in Denver. I didn’t travel...
2 months ago
I hinted at ulterior motives in the last article about my long weekend in Denver. I didn’t travel all the way out there just to casually tour around. Indeed, I had a very specific purpose in mind — checking off a bucket list item in fact — attending the Great American Beer...
Map of the Week
Huge Lego Model of the Lake District
Artist Jon Tordoff has made a 100 square foot, 200,000 piece (so far) Lego model of England's Lake...
over a year ago
Artist Jon Tordoff has made a 100 square foot, 200,000 piece (so far) Lego model of England's Lake District.
via Getty Images
The model began as a pandemic recreation map of Buttermere, his favorite spot.
"Now I've come over the Honister Pass, up Borrowdale and I've got...
Maps Mania
Live 2 Years Longer with Better Air Quality
a year ago
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Indiana I-69 Time Zone Crossing
If you’re driving along Indiana’s portion of Interstate 69, say from Evansville to Bloomington, you...
4 weeks ago
If you’re driving along Indiana’s portion of Interstate 69, say from Evansville to Bloomington, you are going to cross a Time Zone boundary. It happens between Mile Markers 37.5 and 39.0, about forty minutes north of Evansville at normal highway speeds. But please note that the...
Maps Mania
The Newest Maps of Mars - in 3D
7 months ago
Maps Mania
Your Hour-By-Hour Guide to Election Night
2 months ago
Maps Mania
The Best Price Comparison Maps
11 months ago
Map of the Week
Algal Blooming Across the World
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center produced a video showing the increase in harmful algal blooms...
5 months ago
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center produced a video showing the increase in harmful algal blooms over the last 50 years.
If the above video does not load try clicking here. This version ends by opening the globe into a world map to show everywhere at once. There is another...
Maps Mania
Backdrop - the Ultimate Challenge
9 months ago
Map of the Week
Merry Gridmas!
Gridviz is a Javascript library for visualizing gridded (raster) data. They created a Christmas...
4 weeks ago
Gridviz is a Javascript library for visualizing gridded (raster) data. They created a Christmas themed map showing land use with holiday emojis.
Also if you visit the Gridmas page you can watch the snow fall over Europe. You can pan and zoom around, however if you try to go...
Maps Mania
Mapping the Spread of War in the Middle East
11 months ago
Map of the Week
30 Day Map Challenge-Admiring the Work of Others
For the past several years November for me has meant working on the 30 Day Map Challenge. This year...
2 months ago
For the past several years November for me has meant working on the 30 Day Map Challenge. This year I’ve been too busy to participate - also I really needed a break from it. Not participating means I’ve been able to admire the work of other cartographers. Here are some highlights...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Southern Heat, Part 5 (Mississippi Gulf)
Next we returned to familiar territory. I’ve mentioned the Mississippi Gulf Coast many times on...
a year ago
Next we returned to familiar territory. I’ve mentioned the Mississippi Gulf Coast many times on Twelve Mile Circle because I go there fairly regularly and I have a lot of family there. However, my last trip was way back in 2019 and only for a long weekend. Somehow I never figured...
Maps Mania
Mapping Russian Military Facilities in Crimea
a year ago
Adventures In...
Find and download vintage USGS topo maps
The new Historical Topo Map Explorer is out of beta and ready for you to dive into a collection of...
7 months ago
The new Historical Topo Map Explorer is out of beta and ready for you to dive into a collection of over 180,000 beautiful vintage USGS topo maps! Use this updated Living Atlas app to geographically browse, download, export, and even animate, these cartographic objects of joy....
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