Tuesday, March 19, 2024

A Total Scrolly Eclipse

In three weeks time, on April 8, people across large parts of the USA will be able to watch a total solar eclipse. The path of totality, where the Moon's shadow completely falls during a total solar eclipse and where the view of the sun is completely obscured by the moon, will travel around 4,000 miles over North America from the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico, through 15 U.S. states, to the Atlantic off Canada.

You can follow the path of the total April 8 solar eclipse on the Washington Post's new scrollytelling solar eclipse map. As you scroll through Follow a mile-by-mile map of the total solar eclipse you travel north-westwards on a satellite strip map of the eclipse's path. 

The journey starts on the western seaboard of Mexico at 2:07 p.m. As you scroll along the path of the eclipse major towns and cities along the path of totality are highlighted on the Post's strip map. These locations are indicated using reference lines with information on the time of totality at each highlighted location and the chance of clouds. The distance traveled is regularly updated along the bottom of the satellite strip map.

Also see: 

Where to Watch April's Solar Eclipse
Solar Symbology

Monday, March 18, 2024

Mapping the History of the Railway

Martin Brake has created a number of interactive maps which visualize the historical development of transport networks in Germany, London, Paris and Barcelona. His Timemap Timelines project provides an animated map for each featured city which shows how its transit network has grown over time. For example the screenshot above shows the development of the London Underground between 1858 and 1947.

Using the timeline control on each map you can navigate to any year to view a map of the city's transit network at that point in history (including trains, trams, lightrail, subways and funiculars). As well as the individual city maps Timemap Timelines includes an animated map which shows the development of the whole rail German network over time.

Martin warns that 'all the data is not correct'. I found out while creating my own animated map The First 50 Years of the London Undergound that it isn't always easy to determine the exact dates of when individual transit lines were opened and that different historical sources might give different dates. For my map of the history of the London Tube I relied heavily on Wikipedia. I have had to make several revisions to the map since its first publication thanks to a number of keen eyed observers spotting errors in the dates. I suspect that my map is still not 100% accurate.

You can view animated maps of other rail networks being constructed around the world on the amazing Citylines. Citylines is a collaborative platform which is busy mapping the public transit systems of the world. Using Citylines you can explore interactive maps visualizing the local transit systems of hundreds of cities around the globe. You can also use Citylines to explore how each city's public transport network has grown over time. 

My favorite feature of Citylines is the ability to view a city's transit network developing through time. Each city's transit system map includes a date control, which allows you to view the extent of the local transit network for any year in history. Press the play button on the map and you can view an animated map showing how the city's transit system has developed through history. 

Via: WeeklyOSM

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Visit a Virtual Medieval Farm

a short flythrough of part of the virtual reality model of Havrå

Havrå is a collection of 36 medieval buildings in Western Norway. It is now a living museum which allows visitors to explore a traditional Norwegian cluster farm, a traditional community settlement where multiple individual farms and their houses were built close together.

If you can't visit the Havrå living museum in person you can now explore the farm in virtual reality instead. The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) has created an incredible high-resolution 3D model of the farm using over 12,000 images of Havrå. The 3D model Tunet på Havrå (the farmstead on Havrå) can be explored using your mouse or by using keyboard hotkeys (click on the '?' in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen for navigation instructions).

NIKU has created a number of other virtual models of important Norwegian cultural sites of historical importance. You can find links to the 3D models, which include the Steinvikholm medieval castle and the medieval church of Hedrum, on the NIKU NIRA Gallery.  

Friday, March 15, 2024

The 100 Most Segregated School Districts in America

In the United States school district boundaries drawn onto economically and racially segregated neighborhoods ensure that most poor and non-white students receive a much worse education than students in the more affluent school districts.

Back in 2016 NPR examined how school funding in the USA is used to ensure that the rich get the best schools. They created an interactive map which visualized how much each school district in the USA spends on school funding. Why America's Schools Have A Money Problem colors each school district based on the level of school spending in the district per student.

a map of the USA showing the amount of money spent per student in each school district

The map shows that local funding is usually dependent on the levels of local property taxes. If a district has a number of successful businesses contributing a lot of money through property taxes then the school district is more likely to have higher levels of school spending per student. In essence schools in affluent areas are likely to be much better funded that schools in less-affluent areas.

Now the think tank New America has released a new interactive map which allows you to explore school district segregation by race and poverty levels. The Crossing the Line map identifies the 100 most racially segregated neighboring school districts and the 100 most segregated neighboring school districts by school-age poverty rates. It highlights those areas in the USA which have the starkest segregated school districts by race and by poverty level.

a map of the USA highlighting the 100 most racially segregated neighboring school districts

Birmingham, Alabama has some of the most segregated school district borders in the country. Birmingham City School District and Mountain Brook City School District are the two neighboring districts which have the starkest racial segregation in the USA, based on the 'percentage of students of color enrolled'. These two school districts are also the fifth most segregated by the school age poverty rates in each district.

New America argues that because of America's long history of racist housing segregation there is now a marked trend of lower property values in 'communities of color'. Because school funding is usually dependent on the levels of local property taxes those school districts in areas with lower property values spend less per student than those in more affluent areas. According to New America on average the "districts serving more students of color collect $2,222.70 less in local revenue per pupil than the predominately white districts". 

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Flip Off the World with Street View

The UK Houses of Parliament being flipped off on Street View

AI and Street View seems like the perfect match. Last month panoramai released a fun tool which allowed users to change the appearance of Google Maps Street View images based on their own AI prompts. The app became so popular it had to be turned off because of the costs being incurred by the developers (you can still browse the example images created with the app).

Now a new Ai and Street View project has been released. Only this time the Ai doesn't stand for 'artificial intelligence', but is actually the first name of the famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. Because Ai Weiwei has collaborated with Avant Arte to release an interactive mapping tool which allows you to create an image of any location in the world being flipped off on Street View.

Since 2017 the artist Ai Weiwei has taken self-portraits of his own hand giving the middle finger to various iconic landmarks and institutions around the world. The result is "Study of Perspective", a powerful photographic series of Ai Weiwei flipping off some of the world's most iconic global centers of power and cultural importance.

Now thanks to Middle Finger you can join in the fun. Using the Middle Finger interactive map you can navigate to anywhere in the world (that has Street View imagery) and create your own image of a location being flipped off. After you have created your custom Street View image you can then download the image or share it on social media.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Climate Resilient Crops

map showing the potential yield of groundnut across Africa under a high emissisions model of climate change

The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) has released an interactive map which visualizes how different crops will be affected by climate change in Africa. The visualization focuses on climate-resilient crop varieties in order to help identify the most promising crops for the changing climate.

The VACS Explorer maps out where in Africa climate-resilient crops will likely have bigger and smaller yields under two different climate change models (Low Emissions and High Emissions). On each crop map areas likely to experience increased yields of a crop after climate change are colored green, while areas where yields are expected to fall are shown in orange. If you hover over an area on the map you can discover the exact percentage of the expected increase or fall in yields of the visualized crop.

It is also possible to view which varieties of different food groups will have the highest increase in yields across all of Africa (legumes, vegetables, cereals, seeds & nuts, and roots and tubers). For example if you select to view vegetables then different colors are used for tomatoes, eggplant, okra and Joseph's coat, to show where each of these vegetable varieties will be the crop with the largest increase in yields as a result of climate change. 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Real-time Air Pollution Alerts

an animated map of global aerosol alerts

In February the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) launched an Aerosol Alerts service to provide warnings about upcoming air pollution. You can view an animated map of today's alerts on the Aerosol Alerts interactive map.

Aerosols are tiny particles that are suspended in the air, which can come from both natural and human-made sources.  Natural sources of aerosols include dust storms, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and sea spray. Human-made sources of aerosols include air pollution from vehicles and factories, and the burning of fossil fuels. 

The CAMS Aerosol Alerts service provides forecasts of the largest aerosol events (such as forest fires, dust storms and anthropogenic pollution episodes) up to three days in advance. The alerts service provides a valuable tool for anyone with a keen interest in the air quality conditions in their area. The information can be used to make decisions about whether to stay indoors or to take other precautions against possible poor air quality. Anybody can sign up to receive customized alerts from CAMS Aerosol Alerts covering their geographical area and aerosol areas of interest. 

If you are interested in current air pollution levels in your area you can also use IQAir's interactive maps. The IQAir Earth Air Pollution Map is a real-time interactive map of worldwide air pollution. The map includes an animated wind layer and an animated heat map showing the level of air pollution around the world based on the Air Quality Index (AQI).

The air pollution data for AirVisual Earth comes from thousands of EPA monitoring stations around the world. Data for the map also comes from owners of AirVisual's own air quality monitors across the globe. You can see where all these measurements come from on AirVisual's World Live Air Quality Map. This map shows the real-time readings from over 9,000 worldwide locations.

Plume Labs map of current air pollution levels around the world

Plume Labs' World Air Quality Map is another real-time map of air pollution around the world. This map is driven by data from Flow personal air pollution sensors and from other recognized sources of air quality.

The World Air Map updates every 15 minutes showing air pollution levels around the world recorded by Plume Labs' distributed air quality sensors. Zoom in on a city on the World Air Map and you can view a street-by-street visualization of local air pollution levels. The map also includes a link to view a weekly or monthly forecast of air pollution levels in the chosen city. 

Monday, March 11, 2024

Virtual Rewind Machines

animated satellite imagery showing some urban development in the Summerline West neighborhood of Las Vegas since 2014.
urban development of the Summerline West neighborhood in Las Vegas since 2014

Esri's World Imagery Wayback is a virtual rewind machine which allows you to create animated GIFs of locations showing how they have changed over time.  The World Imagery Wayback interactive map provides access to satellite imagery captured over a period of years, currently stretching back to February 20, 2014.

Using the map you can center on any location in the world. You then need to simply press the play button to automatically create an animated timelapse GIF from a series of satellite images captured over the years since 2014. If you then select the download button you can save your animated timelapse creations.

a satellite timelapse of canal side development in East London
East London canal-side warehouses replaced by expensive flats

Google's Earth Timelapse site is another fantastic tool for visualizing changes to our planet over time. Earth Timelapse gives you access to a global interactive map featuring historical satellite imagery from the past 37 years. 

Earth Timelapse includes an 'embed current view' (under the share button) which allows you to embed the map into your own website or blog. However if you want to capture a timelapse GIF from Earth Timelapse you will have to use your own screen-recording utilities.
mining development in Alberta, Canada
mining development in Alberta, Canada

The Landsat program has been capturing satellite imagery of the Earth since the early 1970's. This means they now have access to over 40 years of satellite imagery, which is a wonderful resource for documenting changes to our planet.

Landsat Lens allows you to explore how the Earth has changed by comparing Landsat satellite imagery from six different years. The map allows you to search for any location on Earth and then overlay satellite imagery of your selected location from 1975, 1990, 2000, 2005, 2010 & 2015.

Saturday, March 09, 2024

Not Everyone Commutes by Car

map showing the preferred mode of transport for travelling to work in cities around the world

In Canada and the United States 95% of journeys to and from work are made by car. Elsewhere in the world people often walk, cycle or use public transport in order to get to work.

Cities Moving is a research project by the Complexity Science Hub of the University of Vienna, which analysed the mode of transport most commonly used for commuting to work in 794 cities in 61 countries around the world. The study categorized commuting journeys using three different modes of transport: Active Mobility (eg walking and cycling), Bus or Public Transport, and Cars.

Even outside the US it would be wrong to suggest that the car isn't often the most used mode of transport for traveling to work. However as you can see from the graphs below comparing the modes of transport used in US cities compared to the rest of the world there is far more use of public transport (shown in blue) and active mobility (yellow) outside of America.

side-by-side graphs showing the difference the mode of transport used for commnuting journeys in the USA and the rest of the world
The study's published paper Large cities are less efficient for sustainable transport: The ABC of mobility concludes that outside of the US city size has a significant impact on the mode of transport chosen for work. The longer commuting distances often associated with larger cities make active mobility (walking and cycling) less popular, and the study found that in larger cities there is an increased use of public transport.

Friday, March 08, 2024

Global Climate Change Impacts

map showing likelhood of drought in the US under different climate models

We have just experienced the warmest February on record. That makes it nine months in a row which have broken all previous record global temperatures. This means that over the last twelve months the world has exceeded 1.5 °C global heating compared to pre-industrial temperatures. The goal of 1.5 °C was set by the 2015 Paris Agreement because scientists believe that global heating above 1.5°C will result in significant climate change impacts.

The National Academy of Sciences has created three interactive maps to show how this global heating will increase the chances of extreme heat, drought and flood events around the world. The three maps use data from Probable Futures in order to identify the areas of the world that will probably be worst affected by climate change.

In Where will climate change hit hardest? PNAS has mapped out what different levels of rising temperatures will mean in terms of deadly heat, debilitating droughts, and destructive floods around the world. The maps reveal that huge areas of the planet will be affected by multiple extreme climate events, for example areas of Pakistan will "face the simultaneous threats of life-threatening heat and disastrous floods".

You can click anywhere in the world on each of the three interactive maps to view a chart of the likelihood of extreme climate events at the selected location under different levels of global heating. For example if you click on Phoenix, Arizona on the Devastating Drought map you will see that at 3 °C of global heating the probability of a year-long extreme drought is projected to be more than 40%.

The National Academy of Scientists aren't the only ones to have mapped out the likely effects of climate change. In New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States ProPublica shows how different parts of the U.S. are likely to be affected by global heating. The ProPublica map shows where extreme heat will become commonplace, where growing food will become very difficult and where dangerous 'wet bulb' conditions will become the norm.

The New York Times has also released an interactive map which attempts to explain how global heating will effect the climate where you live. If you enter your county into Every Place Has Its Own Climate Risk. What Is It Where You Live? you can find out which climate risks will become the most extreme in your area.