The Best of Rest

This week I posted a number of examples from newspapers around the world where Fusion Tables has been used with local census data to create maps showing the local distribution of different language speakers.

What many data journalists don't realise is that mapped visualisations with Fusion Tables don't always have to be based on the Google Maps API. For example, this US Drone Strikes Map uses Fusion Tables with MapBox


The map animates a time-line of US covert drone strikes in Pakistan from 2004 to 2013. MapBox have even produced a handy tutorial on how the map was created.


Walkshed is one of my favourite applications created with CloudMade, using OpenStreetMap map tiles. Walkshed have created two walkability maps, one for New York and one for Philadelphia.

The application allow users in both cities to generate walkability heat maps based on their own preferences. Users can choose from a number of criteria that are important to them in a neighborhood and view walkability maps based on those criteria.

For example, if dining and drinking out are important to you, then you can select bars, coffee shops and restaurants and create a heat map of the city, showing the areas you can live where you wouldn't have to walk far to eat or drink out.


The Norwegian broadcaster NRK has used Bing Maps to produce an interesting map showing the routes used by drug smugglers to import illegal drugs into Norway.

Smuggled Trends allows the users to visualise the smuggling routes of a number of different drugs, showing the country of origin and the routes that are used to smuggle the drugs into Norway.