Kreuzberg, San Francisco

I once spent a memorable winter night in a night-club in the trendy Berlin neighborhood of Kreuzberg. My friends and I emerged from the club at 3 or 4 in the morning to find that during the dark hours of the night a snow storm had turned Berlin into a magical winter wonderland. Every vacation I've been on since that night I have unsuccessfully been seeking to recreate the excitement, wonder and serendipitous joy I experienced on that lost weekend in Berlin.

Now at long last a new interactive map has been released that can help me find the 'Kreuzberg' neighborhoods in other cities around the world. From-To promises to 'make new places familiar'. It does this by comparing neighborhoods in the city you wish to travel to with a city you know well. For example if you are traveling to New York from London then From-To informs you that Camden is like the East Village, Canary Wharf is like the Financial District and Mayfair is like the Upper East Side.

If you are traveling to an unfamiliar city then From-To does seem like a great way to give you at least some sense of the 'lay of the land' before you arrive. If you are intrigued by a city neighborhood compared on the Form-To map you can click through to read a more detailed description, with a list of free and paid activities that are possible to undertake during a visit. From-To also includes a handy trip-planning tool. While exploring a city you can add whole neighborhoods or individual activities to your trip-planner. When finished From-To will even e-mail you your completed trip itinerary. 

Another handy way of gaining some insight into unfamiliar city neighborhoods is through Hoodmaps. Hoodmaps can help you discover what local people think about their neighborhoods through a crowd-sourced map - which has been annotated and labeled by locals.

Hoodmaps has two main ways to show you what the locals think about different parts of a city. One way is by coloring the map according to its dominant characteristics. Different colors are used to paint neighborhoods as being either Offices, Rich, Tourists, Hip, Uni or Normies. The color that you see is the dominant color from all the user inputs. Users can also provide more individual assessments of specific locations by adding a custom label to the map. For example, in New York users have tagged neighborhoods with labels such as 'hipsters with rich parents', 'students in pain' and 'no longer gay'.

Reconstructing the Ancient Trade Routes

Voyage with a Tail Wind: Chronicles of Ancient Maritime Journeys uses an ancient 15th Century book to reconstruct the trade routes used by Chinese spice traders during the Ming Dynasty. The Voyage with a Tail Wind or Shun Feng Xiang Song is a Chinese manuscript, dating from around 1403, which documents the maritime routes, coastal landmarks, and navigational hazards encountered by Chinese sailors navigating the western seas and Indian Ocean.

This story-map animates a journey from China to Indonesia based on the accounts of the sailors retold in Voyage with a Tail Wind. The book records the names of islands visited (or passed) by Chinese sailors on their voyages. This story-map recreates one of these journeys, the 38 day voyage from Wu Yu (modern day Wuyu Island) To Kupang (in modern day Indonesia).

As you scroll through Voyage with a Tail Wind you can follow the journey of a Chinese trade ship as it sails to Indonesia. As you scroll the ship moves on the map while an information window provides a continually updated record of the number of miles traveled. At the bottom of the map a heads up display keeps track of the ship's speed, miles traveled and the amount of time spent on the journey.

As you journey towards Indonesia scrolling info windows use data from the 'Voyage with a Tail Wind' book to provide information on the sights and visual aides used by the sailors to successfully navigate as they journey towards their destination of Kupang.

2024's Climate Tipping Points

2023 was the world's hottest year on record. The European Union's climate service has revealed that last year was about 1.48°C warmer than the world's long-term average. In 2015 196 countries signed the Paris Agreement pledging to limit global heating to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). It seems likely that this promise will be broken very, very quickly. 

The European Space Agency's interactive map Climate tipping points in Earth’s climate system, reveals why we should be very worried about the unprecedented pace of global heating. The map shows the temperature increases needed to trigger irreversible shifts in different ecosystems around the world. 

In climate science, a tipping point is a critical threshold that, when crossed, will lead to even faster, possibly irreversible changes in the Earth's climate. Once tipping points are crossed they accelerate even further the pace of global heating with severe consequences for life on Earth.

For example, according to ESA's map, at under 2°C of global heating the Greenland Ice Sheet will pass its tipping point leading to its eventual collapse. The result will be rising sea levels which will cause devastation to coastal regions around the world. At around 2°C of global heating dieback of the Amazon Rainforest is likely to be triggered. This will result in "widespread and self-reinforcing forest drying, (tipping) the rainforest into a degraded, savanna-like state".

ESA's map includes information on a number of other trigger-points for the world's atmospheric, oceanic and other ecosystems.

Carbon Brief has identified Nine Tipping Points That Could Be Triggered By Climate Change. As well as Amazon rain-forest dieback and Greenland ice sheet disintegration this list includes West African & Indian monsoon shifts (with devastating effects to both regions' agriculture) and irreversible changes to the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Current (permanently changing the climates of Europe and parts of North America).

Reconstructing a Plane Crash

Japanese newspaper Nikkei has created a mapped re-enactment of last week's plane collision in Tokyo. On 2 January 2024, Japan Airlines Flight 516 (JAL516) collided with a plane operated by the Japan Coast Guard while JAL516 was landing at Haneda Airport in Japan. As a result of the collision both aircraft caught fire. All 367 passengers and 12 crew on the JAL516 flight survived but tragically five of the six crew on board the Dash 8 died in the crash.

What Happened When the JAL Plane Caught Fire uses Google Earth imagery to create a 3D reconstruction of the crash. This reconstruction is used as part of a story map which attempts to explain the events which led up to the collision. This story map is further illustrated with images and videos taken during and after the collision.

Nikkei's account of the collision also examines the transcripts of the conversations between the pilots and air traffic control and examines the possible sight lines of the pilots of JAL516 and the air traffic control tower.

This isn't the first plane crash which has been virtually reconstructed using Google Earth imagery. Back in 2009 Jeral Poskey created a Google Earth tour that re-enacted Flight 1549's crash into the Hudson River. The re-enactment included sound from eight audio tapes released by the FAA between pilots and controllers. Jeral's tour could be viewed in Google Earth. Unfortunately the kmz file for the tour no longer seems to exist but luckily Jeral did create this video of his re-enactment.

In 2009 US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of birds shortly after taking off from LaGuardia airport in New York. The pilots Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles were able to glide the plane to a landing on the Hudson River off Midtown Manhattan. All 155 people on board were saved. The incident was later made into a major motion picture 'Sully: Miracle on the Hudson', starring Tom Hanks as the pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger .

Via: Data Vis Dispatch

Mapping Conflicts Around the World

At the beginning of 2024 the specter of military conflicts haunts the world. Israel is engaged in conflict in Gaza, Russia continues its illegal invasion of Ukraine and the Syrian civil war is now in its thirteenth year. In response to the spreading threat of global conflicts a number of organizations have now released interactive maps dedicated to tracking the progress of military action around the globe.

According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) the intensity of conflicts around the world increased last year with the number of people dying in these conflicts increasing by 14% year-on-year.

The IISS is an international research institute (or think tank) focused on global security, political risk, and military conflict. The IISS Conflict Trends Map plots the fall and rise of conflicts around the world based on the result of the institute's annual Armed Conflict Survey. The interactive conflict trends map plots five main criteria: troop deployments, violent events, fatalities, the number of internally displaced persons and the number of refugees.

The map also includes a timeline control which allows you to track conflicts in countries around the world over time. Press the play button on this timeline and you can view an animated choropleth layer visualizing the progress of global conflicts for the years 2014-2023.

The Center for Preventative Action's Global Conflict Tracker is another interactive map which tracks conflicts around the world. The Center for Preventive Action (CPA) is a think tank based in Washington, D.C., affiliated with the Council on Foreign Relations. It has a specific focus on conflicts which affect 'U.S. interests'.

The Global Conflict Tracker allows you to filter the conflicts shown on the map by status (worsening, unchanging or improving). The map can also be filtered to show conflicts which have a 'critical', 'significant' or 'limited' impact on the United States. If you click on any of the conflicts shown on the map you are taken to the CPA's page on the conflict, which includes background information, a summary of concerns and news of any recent developments. 

The ACLED Conflict Severity Index (from the The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project) uses four different indicators to assess and rank the complexity and severity of conflicts in countries across the world. Based on violence measured in countries around the globe in 2022 the Index identified 46 countries and territories which were experiencing severe levels of conflict. 

You can explore Conflict Severity Index rankings for individual countries and the 46 countries identified with severe levels of conflict on ACLED's interactive map (based on 2022 conflicts). The map includes a choropleth layer which shows the number of incidents of political violence in each country. In 2022 political violence was seen in nearly every country and in many countries the incidents and number of incidents were considered severe by the ACLED. The ACLED has yet to publish it 2023 report.

The Self-Driving Car Simulation

A Virtual World - Self-Driving Car is a JavaScript video course which you can follow on YouTube. The course teaches you how to create a virtual environment using OpenStreetMap data, in which virtual self-driving cars drive around on the streets of an interactive map.

If you haven't got the time (or inclination) to build your own virtual world then you can still explore a demo of the course's completed Virtual World. In this demo map a number of virtual self-driving cars drive around navigating a virtual town, while trying not to collide with each other.

The JavaScript course on building a virtual world for self-driving cars is 11 videos long.The 11 video course guides you through the steps needed to create a virtual world (or at least the map of it) from scratch, starting with the basic concepts and then adding more features and functionality as the course progresses. If you are mainly interested in the mapping elements of the virtual world then you might want to skip to video 10, which looks at using OpenStreetMap data and how to use Overpass Turbo to retrieve that data.

The completed code from each video lesson can also be accessed on GitHub. 

Via: weeklyOSM

The Bike Map

Biking directions are very difficult. There are a few factors which are important to cyclists which most route planners tend to avoid. When I'm planning a bike route I usually consider the amount of road traffic (e.g. are there bike lanes available), elevation, and road surface (e.g. avoiding cobbles). 

I actually have a little test route which I use for previewing route planning maps for cyclists. I ask for directions from my home to my favorite large supermarket. It is a route I cycle at least twice a week and the best route requires a good knowledge of the locations of dedicated cycle lanes and shared pedestrian-cycling paths.

Sherpa, a new cycling route planner, is the first map which actually recommends my preferred cycling route to my nearest supermarket. When planning a new cycle route Sherpa includes options to prioritize elevation, road types or leisure/race. I think the leisure/race option has something to do with prioritizing dedicated bike lanes or roads as I found that when I select the 'leisure' option Sherpa actually provides a route that follows the dedicated bike lanes and shared pedestrian-cycling paths that I prefer.

The 'Choose Route Profile' option (located on the right-hand edge of the map) allows you to select the factors which are most important to you in your bike journeys. It allows you to prioritize the type of road surfaces you prefer, whether you want a flat of hilly route and whether you want a leisure or race route.

You can also color the line of any returned cycle route on the map by elevation, surface, or grade. This will, for example, allow you to easily see where the major hills are along your route. You can also preview an elevation profile of your entire route at the bottom of the map. The road surface along the route is also shown on this elevation profile using different colors.

You might have your own preferred options when you consider new cycling routes. For me however Sherpa seems to cover the main three - elevation, road-type, and the availability of bike lanes. The only thing missing for me at the moment is that I'd like to be able to color the route 'line type' by type of road (e.g. road, physically separated bike lane, painted bike lane, bike path, shared pedestrian-bike path).

The Year of the Map Game

I've said it before but 2024 is the Year of the Map Game.

Every day of 2024 a new map game is released*. Today's game is Metrodle, a fun daily challenge to identify a station on the London Underground map.

Every day Metrodle shows you an unlabeled station on a map of the London Underground. Your task is to simply name the mapped station based on your microscopic knowledge of the London tube. You have six attempts to name the correct station and will receive clues after each unsuccessful guess.

After each incorrect guess you are informed how many stations you are away from the correct answer and in which direction you need to travel. If you know all 272 stations on the London Underground like the back of your hand then you will have no problem in identifying the correct station from the clues provided. If your knowledge of the London Underground is a little more limited then you can always cheat by consulting the official London Underground map.

If you are a fan of London Tube games then you are in luck. Metrodle follows in the footsteps of the hugely popular London Tube Memory Game and my own hugely unpopular Tubebusters game.

If daily game challenges are your thing then you might prefer Travle (a daily challenge to connect locations on a map) or any of the games featured in the post The 10 Best Wordle Like Map Games.

* - Past performance is no guarantee of future results

Top Territory Trumps

2024 is the Year of Map Games. 

We are only 4 days into 2024 and already we have been blessed with:

Timeguessr - a game involving identifying the time and location of vintage photographs

Tubebusters - help find London's abandoned 'ghost' tube stations 

Travle - a daily challenge to connect locations on a map *

To trump them all now comes Territory Trumps - a fun new geography game which pits the countries of the world against each other.

Maps Mania readers of a certain age will probably remember playing the popular card game Top Trumps during their childhood. Top Trumps is a classic card game that has been around since 1978 and is still going strong. It's a simple but addictive card game using themed decks of cars. Each deck is themed around a particular topic like dinosaurs, superheroes, or sports stars. Each card features a different character or item, along with a set of statistics related to the theme. 

The actual game of Top Trumps involves the two players flipping over the top card of their deck and comparing a player chosen stat. The player with the higher stat wins the round and takes both cards. The game continues until one player has all the cards. 

Territory Trumps follows the traditional rules of Top Trumps. In Territory Trumps each card represents a country of the world. On each card the country's Average Temperature, Calling Code, Life Expectancy, Population and Total Area are listed. Each time a card flips you have to pick which of these stats will beat the corresponding stat on the computer's card. Pick correctly and you win the computer's card. Pick incorrectly and the computer wins.

* Disclaimer: none of these games may have actually been released in 2024

The Daily Explorer

Oison Carroll's Travle is a fun daily puzzle which requires players to travel between two different countries on an interactive map in the least possible moves. 

Every day Travle publishes a new map, which is blank except for two highlighted countries. All you have to do is journey from one of the highlighted countries to the other by typing in the names of the countries you could travel through to complete the journey. The object of the game is to complete this journey using the least possible number of guesses.

If you find your craving for Travle is not being met by the daily challenge you can also play unlimited games in the Travle Practice Mode. In Practice Mode you can even choose to play regional versions of the game set in different countries around the world (for example in the USA you are required to journey between two different states).

If you want even more fun daily map challenges then you will probably love Maps Mania's post on The 10 Best Wordle Like Map Games.

Hat-tip: Map Channels