Billboard Ads on Maps

Sofia Cannale has been experimenting with displaying virtual billboards on top of an interactive map. In their latest digital advertising campaign for LUXE EVERYWHERE they have added a number of advertising billboards to a Google/Cesium 3D map.

The Luxe Everywhere map features seven virtual advertisements, featuring different models wearing Sofia Cannale sunglasses, all displayed along the edge of Central Park in New York. The digital ad campaign for Sofia Cannale also allowed fans of the product to 'star on a real billboard in Times Square'.

Until very recently I would probably have been vehemently opposed to the idea of polluting maps with billboard ads. That position now seems a little hypocritical - mainly because I have been experimenting with the same idea myself.

My little experimental map Video on Map with Sidebar overlays a 3d video player on top of a Maplibre map. These video overlays are created using a custom 3D layer that integrates THREE.js with MapLibre GL. When a user clicks on a location from the sidebar, the updateVideoLayer function is triggered, zooming the map to the corresponding latitude, longitude for the selected video. The idea being that each video appears to be embedded directly into the landscape at their respective real-world locations.

I have had in mind a number of possible uses for the idea, for example as virtual road signs - either pointing the correct direction on a route finding map, or for pointing out the route to local tourist landmarks. However I do have to admit that we have tentatively discussed the idea of using the code to add 3D advertising billboards to some of the games on TripGeo. 

In fact, if you are interested in advertising via a virtual billboard on a TripGeo game, you can contact us through the Support Messenger button on the site. I'm sure we could work out a special introductory deal for the earliest, pioneering supporter of 3D map advertising billboards.

State of the Global Climate 2024

MET Office visualization of near surface temperatures since 1970

2024's Climate in Crisis

The World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) annual flagship report was published yesterday, and it makes for deeply concerning reading. Each year, the WMO releases its State of the Global Climate Report, providing an authoritative scientific summary of global climate trends and extreme weather events.

The 2024 State of the Global Climate Report from the World Meteorological Organization paints a worrying picture. Temperatures in 2024 appear to have been more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, making it the warmest year in the 175-year observational record. The report also states that the 18 lowest Arctic sea-ice extents were all recorded within the past 18 years. Additionally, a new record for ocean heat has been set in each of the last eight years, and the rate of sea level rise has doubled since satellite measurements began.

State of the Climate 2024 Story Map 

You can view an interactive map summarising some of the report's main findings. The State of the Climate 2024 interactive map is organised into seven sections: 'Atmosphere, Land, Ocean, Cryosphere,

Extreme Events, Risks & Impacts, What can we do?' 

Each section examines how different aspects of the climate were affected by global heating in 2024. The concluding What Can We Do? section calls for "immediate and deep greenhouse gas emissions reductions," a transition to renewable energy, and an increase in climate finance investments. The WMO has also urged governments to ensure that "every person on Earth is protected by early warning systems within five years."

Extreme Weather Events

Members of the World Meteorological Organization have also contributed to an Extreme Events 2024 interactive map. Global heating is driving an increase in the frequency and intensity of severe weather events worldwide. Each year, the WMO collects data on extreme events from national meteorological services. The map highlights the locations of the most severe weather events reported in 2024, categorized by event type.

Open Access, Open Source: OpenTimes

OpenTimes is an interactive travel-time map of the United States. Click on any location, and instantly view an isochrone map that shows how far you can travel from that spot within different time frames and via various modes of transport.

But OpenTimes is more than just an interactive isochrone map. It’s also an open-source platform offering free, pre-computed travel times between United States Census geographies.

What is OpenTimes?

OpenTimes is a comprehensive database of point-to-point travel times calculated between Census geographies across the United States. Unlike proprietary services that charge for access to similar data, OpenTimes is completely free and open-source. All the data is pre-computed and available for bulk download, making it an invaluable resource for anyone needing to analyze spatial accessibility.

The project leverages open-source software and publicly available data to calculate travel times. From the data pipelines to the infrastructure and even the website, every component of OpenTimes is open-source and hosted on GitHub. 

How OpenTimes Works

OpenTimes uses publicly available data and open-source tools to compute travel times between Census geographies. The data is pre-processed and made available for bulk download, allowing users to integrate it into their own analyses seamlessly. The project’s GitHub repository includes detailed documentation on how to access and use the data, making it accessible even to those with limited technical expertise.

OpenTimes was inspired by the OpenFreeMap project. Together, with mapping libraries such as Maplibre, these initiatives are helping to build a robust, free and open-source ecosystem for creating interactive mapping applications.

The Invasion of America

In recent years, the United States has been overrun by the twin menaces of illegal extraterrestrial aliens and hairy Sasquatches. This is the reality that the American public now faces - an invasion of little green men and ape-like creatures who show no regard for borders or the American way of life.

The BFRO Bigfoot Sightings Interactive Map reveals that no part of the United States remains untouched by the Sasquatch invasion. During his first term, Donald Trump famously promised to build a wall around Oregon and Washington to halt the march of these illegal Bigfoots into the country. Now, Trump is threatening to invade Oregon and Washington to make them America's 51st state.

Meanwhile, America's UFO Hotspots Map, which tracks reported UFO sightings submitted to the National UFO Reporting Center, highlights the extent of extraterrestrial activity. The President has expressed regret that some Trump voters were inadvertently caught up in the administration's crackdown on extraterrestrials. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged that several Republican voters were mistakenly deported after being misidentified as beings from another planet.

Democrats argue that the United States has become the laughingstock of the world. However, these two maps shed light on how the country ended up with Donald Trump as President. Thankfully, the United States has now turned its back on vaccines, the funding of medical & scientific research, and the tyranny of facts.

Air Tours of the World

TripGeo's new Air Tours app is an engaging and immersive way to virtually explore cities around the world. This interactive web application combines Google Maps' 3D imagery, Street View, and aerial perspectives to provide you with four different perspectives of some of the world's most iconic locations. Whether you're a travel enthusiast, an urban explorer, or simply someone looking to get a new perspective on global destinations, Air Tours delivers an exciting way to navigate the world's major cities.

A Multi-Layered View of Iconic Cities

Air Tours allows users to virtually visit renowned cities such as London, Paris, and San Francisco, among many others. By combining multiple mapping technologies, Air Tours gives you a number of different perspectives of each featured location. You can fly over city skylines, orbit around landmarks, or dive down to street level for a more detailed view of urban landscapes. The smooth transitions between aerial and ground perspectives create a fluid and natural navigation experience that enhances the sense of immersion.

Famous Landmarks

The numbered buttons at the top of each city's Air Tour allow you to easily navigate between some of the most iconic locations in each city. Hover over these buttons to view labels for each destination. Click a button and the four map views will automatically pan to your chosen location, which you can then explore in 3D from the air, or from the ground using Google Maps Street View.

Fly Free

One of the standout features of Air Tours is its 'Fly' mode. This flight-sim mode allows you to take control and explore your city from the air. The ability to switch seamlessly between different perspectives - whether an expansive bird's-eye view or an up-close Street View experience - sets Air Tours apart from conventional mapping applications.

Air Tours is an innovative and exciting way to experience cities from multiple perspectives. Whether you're preparing for an upcoming trip, reminiscing about past travels, or simply indulging your wanderlust from home, this application provides a captivating way to interact with the world's urban landscapes. 

Air Tours is best suited for desktop users. The level of detail and the fluidity of navigation are best experienced on a larger screen. If you're looking for a new way to see the world, Air Tours is well worth exploring.

Travel Cat

If you enjoy the Flight mode in Air Tours then you will probably love Travel Cat, TripGeo's playful flight-sim exploration game. Travel Cat allows you to explore over 11,000 cities worldwide from the comfort of a feline piloted golden monoplane.

A Bird's Eye View into the Past

Glasgow

In the 1860s, The Illustrated London News published a series of bird’s-eye panoramic maps of famous cities. These maps were created by architectural draftsman Thomas Sulman with the help of engraver Robert Loudan. Legend has it that Sulman used hot air balloons to capture his aerial perspectives of these prominent urban centers.

The Glasgow City Heritage Trust has created an impressive interactive map of Sulman’s 1864 Bird’s Eye View of Glasgow. Their Gallus Glasgow presentation allows users to explore this aerial depiction of mid-19th-century Glasgow and compare it with a panoramic bird’s-eye view of the city as captured at the beginning of the 21st century.

This interactive version of the historical map includes several optional overlays. These feature markers indicating the locations of buildings that have survived since the map’s creation, structures that have been lost over time, and an option to display Glasgow’s street names superimposed on Sulman’s map. The map even incorporates a series of videos that dive into the details, offering a more immersive, first-person perspective of life in 19th-century Glasgow.

New York

You can view Sulman's 1876 bird's eye view of New York, New York From Bergen Hill, on the Library of Congress website. This panoramic view of New York was published as an extra supplement to the Illustrated London News on August 18, 1876. The Library of Congress copy of the map is a little poor in quality. A higher resolution copy can be viewed on Digital Commonwealth.

London

The Charles Dickens Page allows you to view a number of bird's eye views of London neighborhoods, as captured by Thomas Sulman in the 1880's. These maps were originally published in 1886, in a London guidebook by Herbert Fry.

The maps on the Charles Dickens page include some interactive place-name labels, which can be clicked on to learn more about the most important buildings and streets displayed. Some of the maps have also been digitally altered to enhance certain features and to 'align the images with Dickens' lifetime'.

The Future of Urban Mobility

This impressive animated data visualization shows the average levels of traffic on Dubai roads over the course of one day. It is one of a series of mapped visualizations in Moving forward: What drives the future of urban transport, a data-driven exploration of urban mobility in Dubai.

Dubai city has one of the highest car ownership rates in the world, with one vehicle for every two residents, contributing to 9.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually. In 'Moving Forward', the geo-intelligence platform Urbi Atlas explores how adopting electric vehicles and expanding public transportation can contribute to reducing air pollution in the city.

By 2030, 25% of Dubai’s cars could be electric, supported by government incentives like tax breaks, free charging stations, and a growing EV infrastructure. However, challenges such as battery range limitations due to extreme temperatures and the need for expanded charging networks remain key concerns. Urbi Atlas visualizes the already growing presence of electric vehicles on Dubai's roads with an impressive interactive timeline map (shown below).

Beyond EV adoption, cities in the Middle East are investing heavily in public transit and urban design. Urbi Atlas shows the expansion of Dubai’s public transit network in another time series map. This map visualizes the doubling of the transport network since 2018.

Urbi Atlas’s data visualizations provide valuable insights into Dubai’s urban mobility challenges, and show how moving forward electric vehicles and public transit can play a crucial role in further reducing congestion and emissions in the city.

Switzerland’s Landscape - Reimagined

Switzerland in 2075 will look very different from today. The effects of global heating will transform the landscape, resulting in melting glaciers and raising snow lines on the country's mountains. With less snowmelt, river water levels will drop, making some rivers unnavigable. In agriculture, staple crops will need to be replaced with more heat-resistant varieties. As a result, Switzerland’s once-familiar alpine scenery will be dramatically altered, reshaping both its environment and way of life.

The impact of climate change on Switzerland's landscape will be so dramatic that it is very hard to picture. That is why NZZ has visualized it for you. In Switzerland in 2075 NZZ has created a photo-realistic 3D model which allows readers to experience the country's altered terrain firsthand. This interactive satellite map illustrates Switzerland’s transformed scenery of melted glaciers, shifting forests, higher snow lines, and changed agricultural landscapes.

Accompanying this impressive 3D visualization is detailed text explaining how and why Switzerland’s landscape will be affected by climate change. It also explores the impact on the Swiss way of life and outlines how the country can adapt and take decisive action to navigate this climate changed future.

ViewPoint 3000

UpToWhere allows you to discover what you can see from any position on Earth. You can think of it as a 3D version of HeyWhatsThat. 

For the past 15 years, HeyWhatsThat has provided panoramic sketches and the names of visible peaks for nearly any location in the world. Simply click on any spot in HeyWhatsThat, and it generates a diagram of your viewpoint, marking all visible peaks.

UpToWhere offers a similar service but with a key enhancement—it visualizes the view range of any location on Earth as a fully interactive 3D map. Just click anywhere on the UpToWhere map, and it uses NASA's SRTM Digital Elevation 30m data to generate a realistic 3D simulation of what you can see from that spot. The shaded blue areas on the map represent the regions visible from your selected location.

Today, I've been using UpToWhere to check out the views from several houses in Italy that I’m considering renting for my summer vacation. This tool is also incredibly useful for anyone interested in hiking, mountaineering, skiing, or simply exploring different viewpoints.

One notable feature of HeyWhatsThat that is currently missing in UpToWhere is the identification of visible landmarks. HeyWhatsThat provides the names of significant peaks within your view, currently UpToWhere does not have this feature. However, you can partly work around this by switching from satellite view to map view. In map view, you can navigate to locations within your line of sight and read the place-name labels on the map (where available).

The Republic of Climate Change Deniers

The United States is currently undertaking the biggest act of climate change denial in history.

One striking example is what is happening at the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Over 200 FEMA employees have been fired by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Those who remain have been ordered to remove all language related to climate change from FEMA websites and publications. Staff have also been instructed to report any colleagues who continue working on climate change-related projects.

This purge of climate-related information means that many of FEMA’s most useful tools have been censored by the Trump administration and can no longer be accessed by the public.

FEMA's Flood Map Service - Censored 

FEMA’s Flood Map Service once provided an essential tool for American citizens, allowing them to assess flood risks for any property in the country. Under the new regime, this information is no longer available. Whether you already own a home or are considering purchasing one, you are now banned from knowing the flood risks associated with your property.

FEMA's National Risk Index Map - Censored

Before Trump, FEMA’s National Risk Index Map allowed users to assess their vulnerability to 18 different natural hazards. This interactive tool visually represented areas most at risk from disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes. Now, in the Republic of Trump, that information has been erased. Americans are no longer permitted to understand the environmental risks they face.

FEMA's Future Risk Map - Censored

This FEMA tool helped communities prepare for climate change by projecting the potential economic losses from environmental hazards such as coastal flooding, extreme heat, wildfires, hurricanes, and drought. The National Risk Index was a free resource that allowed Americans to explore how climate change might impact their neighborhoods. Now, that data has been wiped from public view.

The US Future Risk Map - Reclaimed and Resurrected

Thankfully, not all Americans are willing to bury their heads in the sand. After the Trump administration removed FEMA’s interactive Future Risk Map, independent researchers acted swiftly to preserve the data. Software engineers Jeremy Herzog and Rajan Desai salvaged screenshots and downloaded critical information before the administration erased it.

Using this data, they successfully rebuilt the interactive Future Risk Map. Their version, hosted independently, allows the public to continue accessing vital information about the risks of wildfires, hurricanes, extreme heat, drought, and coastal flooding.