The 3D Maps of the Week

This week I was really impressed with an interactive map from Dublin City Council commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

The City and the Rising features images, text and videos that connect incidents and events of the Easter Rising with locations across the city.This multi-media content is displayed on top of vintage map of Dublin.

My favorite part of The City and the Rising has to be the incredible 3d maps which you can view of a number of important locations in Dublin. These 3d maps were made from archive photographs, maps and documentary sources to recreate how Dublin actually looked in 1916.

Therefore with The City and the Rising you can not only learn more about the events that took place in and around Dublin's General Post Office (for example) you can also explore the GPO and O'Connell Street in 3d. In fact, if you have an Oculus Rift headset, you can view the 3d scenes in virtual reality.


I was also impressed this week with a 3d map of the London Marathon route, created by Emu Analytics, using Qgis2threejs and building height & elevation data.

London Marathon 3D uses building height information derived from the UK Environment Agency's LIDAR data. The 3d buildings help you to navigate the route and the terrain elevation layer gives you a good idea of the few hills along the route. The elevation layer reveals how flat the London Marathon route is, apart from the beginning of the race in Greenwich.

Emu Analytics warn that the map is a bit of a browser killer. If your computer is a little old you might want to view this YouTube video of the map instead.


The Washington Post has been looking at the uneven recovery in the housing market since its collapse in 2004 (this one obviously isn't in 3D). What they have found is that although the market has largely recovered it is the wealthy who are benefiting, while poorer and minority neighborhoods are lagging behind.

The Post's report America's Great Housing Divide is accompanied by an interactive map which allows you to see how property prices are doing in your area. If you enter a town name or zip-code into the map you can view a choropleth map showing how homes in your neighborhoods have changed in value since 2004.

If you click on the map you can see the percentage change in value in homes in the zip-code area. You can also view a graph showing the rise and fall of property prices in the area since 2004 compared to the rise and fall of house prices in the wider metro area.