The Maps of the Week

Andrew Hill has created a map of United States rivers in which all the rivers are colored by the direction of flow. The U.S. Rivers Colored by the Direction they Flow map only shows the colored river locations on a black background to create a visually striking map of the United States.

The map uses data from Nelson Minar's Vector River Map, which in turn uses river flow data from NHDPlus. Andrew has also used the same river data to create another beautiful map. Rivers with Rainfall. This map shows U.S. rivers and rainfall in the last hour. The rain data comes from a National Weather Service data feed.


The US Geological Survey (USGS) and Esri have released a detailed global ecological land units map. The map allows you to click on any location in the world to view the bioclimate, landform, lithology, and land cover parameters at that location.

Select a location on the Explore the Ecological Tapestry of the World map and four inset maps reveal the bioclimate, landforms, rock types and land cover that can be found at the chosen location. The four ecological features are also listed at the top of the main map layer.


Are There Zombies in Your Neighbourhood? is a fun Street View application which allows you to view a zombie walking down your street. Enter an address into the app and you can watch an animated zombie walking down your street using Google Maps Street View imagery.

As the zombie terrorizes your neighborhood you can adjust the viewpoint and even adjust the size of the zombie. You can also grab the URL of your Street View animation which makes it easy to share your zombie Street View with friends.

I couldn't get Are There Zombies in Your Neighbourhood? to work on Firefox or Internet Explorer but it worked fine in Chrome.