Mapping Canada's Coastline

The World Wildlife Fund has released an interactive map examining the habitats of marine species, human activity and conservation efforts around Canada's coastline.

Canada's Oceans: Planning for a Better Future allows you to learn more about Canada's Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific coastlines. From the main map you can select from either of these three oceans. Then, from any of the three ocean views, you can  drill down further to explore environmental stories from along the selected ocean's coastline.

These individual environmental stories use a 'story map' format. As you scroll down through these stories relevant overlays are added to the map, showing such things as local marine species habitats, human shipping activity and conservation areas.

You can also explore the information provided on the map by selecting the 'Map Layers' option. This allows you to add and remove the different overlays to the map in four different categories; Wildlife, Protected and important areas, Human activity and Planning and management.

Google Sheep View

Google has not yet got around to providing Street View of the Faroe Islands on Google Maps. Therefore the islanders have had to take things into their own hands. Their solution is Google Sheep View.

The Faroe Islands may not have Google Street View but it does have sheep. A lot of sheep. The logical step therefore was to deck out the islands' sheep with 360 degree panoramic cameras and set them loose.

Anybody can add panoramic imagery to Google Maps. Therefore once the Faroe Islands sheep have captured their favorite locations on camera it is a simple task for them to publish their Sheep View images to Google Maps.

The first five images from the Faroe Islands Sheep View project are now on Google Maps. You can find links to the new Sheep View imagery on the Sheep View Map. Just click on the sheep markers on the map and you will be taken to the Sheep View imagery directly on Google Maps.

Mapping the Rise & Fall of Empires

Running Reality is an interactive map which has set itself the small task of plotting the rise and fall of countries and empires throughout the entire history of human civilization. Using Running Reality you can browse historical events on an online animated historical atlas.

Pick any date using the map timeline and you can explore any date in human history and view an interactive atlas of civilizations and countries for the chosen date. After selecting a date you can click on any civilization displayed on the map to view more information, such as when the civilization was founded and when it ended.

To help build this huge historical mapped model of the whole of human civilization Running Reality needs the help of its users. Therefore if you register with Running Reality you can help improve the map by contributing historical data to the timeline and map.


Hoagy Cunningham and Misha Wagner have also decided to map the entire history of the world. The result of this ambitious undertaking is Timeglo.be, a d3.js powered interactive globe plotting the location of over 20,000 events across the whole of recorded history.

Timeglo.be uses data from Wikipedia and DBpedia to show historical events on an interactive 3d globe. The map provides a global overview of any chosen time period, giving a really interesting cross section of world history at any given point in time. You can search for events by date and by key words and then follow the links provided to view more detailed information on Wikipedia.


Chronas is another interactive atlas which plots Wikipedia data to provide a view of historical events across the globe.

Chronas not only maps historical events but also provides a mapped overview of country boundaries for any given date. If you select a year from the time slider, running along the bottom of the map, the map will update to show how the world looked at the chosen time.

If you then click on a country or geographical area on the map a Wikipedia article on the selected historical region will open in the map sidebar. For example, if you select the year 573 AD from the time slider, you can select the Visigoths region on the map to learn more about these nomadic tribes.

The Transit Deserts of New York

Chris Wong has created an updated version of his Subway Deserts of New York map. His new interactive map shows areas of NYC which are more than ten minute walks from a subway station as deserted islands in the city of New York.

Subway Deserts v2 is an improvement on Chris's original Subway Deserts map which placed blue circles over a 500 meter area around each subway station. In the new map the areas of New York which aren't within a quick walk of a subway station really do stand out as deserted islands on the map of the city.

I'm wondering if this metaphor of transit desert islands could be improved further by perhaps reversing the areas which are colored the same as water on the map. This would create desert islands around each subway station with the areas of New York more than a ten minute walk from a station covered over on the map. You could then add isochrone lines around each station at 1 minute walk intervals. This would probably create a nice relief map effect for each of the created islands on the map.

It would have the added benefit of providing a guide to walking distances around each New York subway station.

England's Rising Death Rates

Death rates in England and Wales increased by 5.6% in 2015 compared to the previous year. The ONS is attributing this increase to rises in dementia and Alzheimer’s and a flu virus which predominantly affected older people. However others have argued that the UK's government's austerity programme has played a major role in the worsening overall health of the UK population.

The UK's Office for National Statistics has published an interactive Leaflet map which allows you to examine the age-standardised mortality rate in each local authority area in England & Wales for the years 2001-2015. The ASMRs by Local Authority District map is a choropleth map which shows the mortality rate in each local authority area for each year.

If you select an area on the map you can view a line graph in the map sidebar showing the mortality rate in the area for 2001-2015.The North East of England has the highest ASMR and the South East has the lowest. As the ONS points out "higher levels of deprivation are present in the north of England and ... increased mortality rates for many causes of death have long been associated with higher levels of deprivation".

Danny Dorling of Oxford University has gone a little further than the ONS in directly attributing the rising death rates in England and Wales in part to the Conservative government's Austerity policies. In Brexit: The Decision of a Divided Country Dorling claims that,

 "Austerity had a major role, with people who had long term care needs dying earlier. ... The underlying reason for worsening health and declining living standards was ... ever growing economic inequality and the public spending cuts that accompanied austerity".

The History of Greene Street

In 1840 Greene Street, with 14 brothels, was the center of New York City's sex industry. Since then the street has gone through many changes. with the brothels giving way to garment factories and then, later still, many of these vacated garment factories being occupied by artists as loft spaces.

You can learn more about the long and ever changing history of Greene Street on A Long History of a Short Block by the NYU Development Research Institute. This multi-media interactive uses vintage maps, historical photographs, videos and sound to recount the many changes that Greene Street has undergone in its varied history.

You can view many of the vintage maps featured in A Long History of a Short Block by jumping straight to the 'Maps' section from the main menu. However, if you proceed through the chapters chronologically, you can view the maps embedded within the street's historical narrative. These embedded maps also include map markers, featuring historical information about Greene Street and its wider neighborhood.

What Three Pokemon

Damn my tendency to procrastination. Last night I was debating what would make an interesting clone of what3fucks. The obvious answer seemed to be replacing the swear words with Pokemon names.

Unfortunately for me I was rudely distracted by a bottle of ten year old brandy and never quite got around to starting this project. When I finally struggled, hungover, out of bed this morning I discovered that someone had already beaten me to the creation of the world's first Pokemon based location coding system.

what3pokemon is a clone of what3fucks. Using what3pokemon you can click on any location in the world to get a unique three word location identifier, one that includes the names of Pokemon characters.

 Anonymaps claims that,

There are actually more people building what3words parodies than using it to navigate https://t.co/oPELfJgmnz

— Anonymaps (@Anonymaps)

I'm not sure that we are actually there yet. However if you want to create your own parody of what3words you can use the what3fucks Fucking Application Programming Interface.

All the World's a Stage

I'm not sure that Shakespeare can be bounded in a nutshell but Expedia's Global Shakespeare Explorer has made a good attempt at it. This interactive map plots locations important to Shakespeare's life, plays and legacy.

Using Google's antique mapping API seems an appropriate choice for the Global Shakespeare Explorer, helping to give the map a fitting dated Elizabethan feel. This antiquated look is complemented by the use of feathered quill icons for the map markers. What I like best about this map however is the furling and unfurling scroll effect when you switch between the three different map sections, exploring Shakespeare's life, plays and legacy.

In truth there isn't much analysis of the importance of the mapped locations to Shakespeare's work. There may just be enough information to tempt you to click through and explore nearby hotels on Expedia's hotel booking website.

The Clan Map of Scotland

Tartan makers Lochcarron of Scotland have hit upon a novel marketing idea for promoting their different plaid patterns. Their interactive map, the Clan Map of Scotland, divides Scotland into geographical areas associated with the historical kinship groups of the country.

The map shows the areas of Scotland where each clans has historically been based. If you select a clan region on the map you can learn more about the individual clan, including the origin of the clan and its historical ties to the area associated with it on the map.You can also discover who the current clan chief is and view its heraldic badge, motto and its distinct tartan.

The map itself seems to be completely custom designed with SVG. It uses the svg-pan-zoom library to control the panning and zooming interactions on the map.

Mapping the Battle of Gettysburg

Mapping Gettysburg is an interactive map of the most decisive battle in the American Civil War. The map allows you to learn more about this important event in American history through eyewitness accounts, original photographs and views of the site as it is today.

At the heart of Mapping Gettysburg is a vintage map of the battlefield from the Library of Congress. This map of the 'Field of Gettysburg, July 1st, 2nd & 3rd 1863' was made soon after the battle and shows "the movements of the respective armies ... compiled from the personal observation of eye-witnesses of the several battles".

Overlaid on this vintage map of the battlefield are markers which allow you to browse photographs of some of the soldiers who fell in the battle, letters and diaries from some of the soldiers, historic photos of the battlefield and modern views of Gettysburg National Park.

Perhaps the most poignant aspect of this map is the vintage photographs and brief pen portraits of some of the Union and Confederate soldiers who lost their lives during the battle. These brief biographies and portraits come from the records of the Gettysburg National Military Park.


If you want to learn more about the actual evolution of the Battle of Gettysburg then you should have a look at this ESRI map on the Decisive Moments in the Battle of Gettysburg. At the heart of this map is a timeline which allows you to view troop movements and the development of the battle from July 1–3, 1863.

The map tiles are based on both an 1874 map of the area and on present-day digital data. The troop positions are determined from historical maps made during and just after the battle. Select a date or a time from the timeline and you can learn more about how the battle played out and even view panoramic images showing views of the battlefield at key moments in the battle.