Make Your Own Scrambled Maps

Introducing:

• Scrambled Maps Studio
• Scrambled Maps Challenge

Are You Ready to Create Your Own Scrambled Maps Games?

Scrambled Maps is probably my all-time favorite map game. I may be a little biased - since I wrote the original game - but TripGeo has taken my small creation and transformed it from a fun little puzzle into an amazing global challenge.

Today, Scrambled Maps has become even better with the release of Scrambled Maps Challenge & Scrambled Maps Studio!

Scrambled Maps Studio

Scrambled Maps Studio allows you to design your own custom Scrambled Maps games for any location in the world. This means you can create a Scrambled Maps game for your own neighborhood or any of your other favorite places. Games you can then share and play with others.

Create Your Own Challenges:

• Global Map Selection: Choose any location in the world at any zoom level
• Customizable Difficulty: Adjust grid sizes for easier or more challenging puzzles
• Themed Collections: Build multi-map challenges around travel destinations, historical sites, or any theme you choose
• Sharing Capabilities: Generate links to share your creations with friends

Scrambled Maps Studio opens up endless possibilities for customization. Whether you want to create puzzles featuring your hometown, dream vacation destinations, or the world’s most recognizable landmarks, you now have the tools to make it happen.

Scrambled Maps Challenge

Alongside the release of Scrambled Maps Studio, TripGeo has also overhauled the main Scrambled Maps page under a new banner - Scrambled Maps Challenge. This major revamp introduces a host of exciting new features, including a revamped Daily Challenge and a new global leaderboard.

Each Daily Scrambled Maps Challenge features carefully selected locations from around the world, with varying difficulty levels to keep you engaged. The daily challenge typically includes three city maps with a 6×3 grid size, optimized for both desktop and mobile play. Complete these challenges and compare your results with players worldwide on the daily leaderboard.

• Daily Challenges: New puzzles every day
• Competitive Leaderboards: See how your completion times stack up against other players
• Performance Tracking: Compare your times with the community average
• Multi-Map Games: Complete series of maps in sequence for a greater challenge

All the cities you complete in daily challenges automatically unlock in your Scrambled World map, helping you conquer the world faster than ever before!

So, why not test your skills right now? Play today’s Daily Scrambled Maps Challenge and see how you rank on the global leaderboard! 🚀🌍

The Fentanyl Supply Chain

In How a New Drug Trafficking Landscape Fuels Violence in Latin America, the International Crisis Group (ICG) maps the supply chains transporting cocaine and fentanyl from Latin America to consumers in Europe and North America. The map reveals how decades of failed prohibitionist policies, shifting demand, and increasingly fragmented criminal networks have transformed drug trafficking into a hyper-violent, adaptable industry. An industry which is wreaking havoc on communities throughout Latin America.

The ICG’s findings are presented in an interactive Mapbox storymap, allowing readers to trace these drugs’ journeys - from raw material extraction and production to final street distribution. This sprawling system relies on a transnational network of criminal groups operating across continents.

Each drug’s production and distribution involve numerous gangs, creating a hierarchy where profits flow upward to cartels, financiers, and international traffickers. Meanwhile, violence festers at the grassroots level as gangs fight for territorial control, devastating communities across Latin America.

Despite decades of militarized crackdowns, criminal groups have only multiplied. U.S. pressure for heavy-handed responses has often backfired - fragmenting cartels into more violent networks, deepening institutional corruption, and displacing trafficking routes into previously unaffected regions like Ecuador and Costa Rica.

The Russian Sabotage Map

During 2024, a number of undersea cables around Europe were sabotaged by Russia. These attacks were only a small part of a larger Russian campaign to disrupt European democracy and undermine its support for Ukraine. Alongside the destruction of undersea cables, Russia has been involved in cyberattacks, social media misinformation, attempted murders, arson, sabotage, and coordinated espionage against countries across Europe.

In Western officials say Russia is behind a campaign of sabotage across Europe the Associated Press has mapped out 59 acts of Russian espionage against European countries since the invasion of Ukraine. These attacks include plots to plant bombs on cargo planes, explosions at shipping facilities, and an attempt to assassinate a major German arms manufacturer. Only incidents with "a clear link to Russia, pro-Russian groups, or ally Belarus" have been included in the map.

GPS jamming is another form of active sabotage against the West, orchestrated by Russia. In 2022, Space reported that Russia was jamming GPS signals during its invasion of Ukraine. In addition to GPS jamming in Ukraine, the Baltic region has experienced a marked increase in GPS interference since Finland and Norway joined NATO - an escalation widely attributed to Russian activity.

SkAI Data Services' Live GPS Spoofing and Jamming Tracker Map is an interactive map that uses live ADS-B data from the OpenSky Network to detect spoofed aircraft positions and GPS jamming in real-time across the globe. As shown in the screenshot above, the map consistently displays high levels of GPS spoofing and jamming activity in the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, and the Baltics.

Exploring the Amazon

National Geographic's Into the Amazon takes you on an impressive virtual tour of one of the world's most breathtaking and ecologically vital regions. From its source high in the Andes, the Amazon River carves its way through dense rainforests, winding past diverse ecosystems teeming with life, before finally reaching the Atlantic Ocean. 

For two years, 16 scientists journeyed along the Amazon - from the Andes to the Atlantic - as part of the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition. They were accompanied by photographer Thomas Peschak and his assistant Otto Whitehead, who documented the expedition. The mission was to study the Amazon’s waters and learn more about how to protect them.

Into the Amazon features an interactive map with markers that allow you to jump between different chapters of the expedition. However, despite my love of maps, I recommend following National Geographic’s guided 'Explore' path instead. This route mirrors the Amazon’s journey from its source to the Atlantic, offering a more chronological and immersive experience.

This Explore path enhances the storytelling, allowing you to fully appreciate National Geographic’s stunning visualizations - such as a breathtaking 3D flyover of the Andes and an incredible LIDAR-assisted rainforest tour. These immersive features bring the Amazon to life, offering a rare perspective on this vast, interconnected ecosystem while emphasizing the urgent need for its protection.

Via: Webcurios

How to Learn the Countries of the World

Learn the World Map is a fun online game which requires you to identify countries on an interactive map - and which helps you to learn while you play.

How to Play

Learn the World Map is simple to play. You are given a series of country names and must correctly identify their locations on a world map. If you get a country wrong, the game shows you its correct location and asks you to try again.

To prevent lucky guesses, the game also adjusts zoom levels and map positioning, ensuring that you genuinely recognize the locations rather than relying on memorized patterns.

There is a Daily Challenge featuring a new set of countries each day. However, you can also play the standard mode for as long as you like. If you're curious about your progress, you can check your personal statistics (although I'm not entirely clear as to what 'stability' and 'difficulty' mean in this context). 

How to Learn

The game uses a Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler (FSRS) algorithm, meaning you’ll notice frequent repetition of certain countries. Spaced repetition is a learning technique that optimizes review intervals, helping players retain information more effectively. Instead of cramming, the system schedules reviews at increasing intervals. As you correctly recall the information, the system increases the time before the next review. 

A Free Spaced Repetition Scheduler algorithm uses 'intelligent' spaced repetition. An optimal algorithm will adapt dynamically based on your play history. It will be used to determine when to show you questions again, ensuring you review locations on the map at the optimal time, based on your answers so far.

Room for Improvement

Learn the World Map has a lot of potential as a tool for learning geography. Unfortunately the game does have a few inaccuracies. For example, it incorrectly uses a map of the United Kingdom to represent England.

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.

Scrambled Vintage Maps

Vintage Scrambled Maps

There's a new Scrambled Maps game in town. If you have been enjoying Tripgeo's popular Scrambled Maps game then you will also love Vintage Scrambled Maps!

If you are a fan of maps and enjoy a good puzzle challenge, then Vintage Scrambled Maps is the perfect game for you! This unique and engaging game transforms historical maps into an interactive jigsaw-style experience, allowing players to piece together beautiful antique maps of New York and London. Whether you’re a map enthusiast, a history buff, or just someone who enjoys a brain-teasing game, Vintage Scrambled Maps is sure to captivate you.

How It Works

The game features a collection of gorgeous vintage maps sourced from the Library of Congress and the David Rumsey Map Collection. Players start by selecting a map from a set of thumbnail images. Once chosen, the map appears scrambled into multiple tiles - and your challenge begins!

To complete the puzzle, you must drag and swap the tiles to restore the original map. The goal? Solve the scrambled map in the fewest moves possible! 

Vintage Scrambled Maps is just the latest addition to Tripgeo's growing collection of interactive map games. As well as the original Scrambled Maps game, you might also enjoy GeoTripper (find the shortest route between random locations) and Jumbled World (correctly name every country in the world).

The Dot Map of America

One of my all-time favorite interactive maps was created by Dustin Cable at the University of Virginia. Unfortunately, the Racial Dot Map of America was removed in 2022. This map used data from the 2010 Census to place a colored dot on a map for every American - all 308,745,538 of them. As the name suggests, the color of each dot was determined by race.

The UVA map, based on 2010 Census data, was taken down after the 2020 Census because it was no longer considered to provide an accurate depiction of the nation's population distribution and changing racial composition.

Saddened by the loss of the Racial Dot Map of America, Luke Loreti took it upon himself to create a new version using data from the 2020 Census. His Census Dots follows the exact same methodology as the original, using colored dots to visualize the racial composition of the USA.

By using over 330 million colored dots, the map effectively illustrates the often stark racial divides in many communities. For example, in St. Louis, MO, a clear north-south divide emerges, with a dense white population in the south and a strong Black American presence in the north. The so-called Delmar Divide -named after Delmar Boulevard - is particularly evident on the Census Dots map.

Another great feature of the map is its dynamic URL, allowing users to link directly to specific locations, such as the Delmar Divide. This also makes it easy to share direct links to other interesting places discovered on the map.

Other U.S. racial dot map are also available. These include CNN's Race and ethnicity across the nation and All of US, which incorporates data from both the 2010 & 2020 Censuses.

Urban Growth in Motion

The City Population Bubble Chart with Proportional Text & Total Population is an animated bubble chart organized into a geographical map that visualizes population changes in cities worldwide from 1950 to 2035. The animation presents the populations of global cities over time, offering an overview of where urban populations are rising and falling.

The map uses data from the 2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects report, which outlines key urbanization trends and future projections. Crucially for this visualization, the report tracks population sizes and growth rates of cities worldwide and forecasts how these populations are expected to change up to 2050.

The changing sizes of the circles on the map effectively highlight global trends in urban populations. According to the UN report, many of the fastest-growing urban agglomerations are in Asia and Africa, a trend that becomes especially apparent on the map after 2010. Currently, Tokyo is the world’s largest city, with an agglomeration of 37 million inhabitants. However, the map illustrates how Delhi is projected to become the most populous city around 2028.

A significant limitation of mapping total population rather than population density is the issue of how city borders are defined. The map displays "urban agglomerations with 300,000 inhabitants or more in 2018," which may explain why London is absent—despite its metropolitan population of around 9 million, the City of London itself has only about 9,000 residents. However, my biggest complaint about the map is the lack of interactivity: the timeline cannot be paused or adjusted to select individual years. This restriction makes it impossible to examine the data in any detail.

Wiki Explore

Wiki Explore is a new application that overlays Wikipedia articles onto an interactive map, allowing users to discover information about the world around them. Each point on the map represents a location with an associated Wikipedia article, providing users with quick access into insights about their surroundings.

Why Use Wiki Explore?

For history enthusiasts, travelers, or curious minds, Wiki Explore offers a unique and engaging way to learn about the local area. Instead of manually searching Wikipedia for local knowledge and history, users can simply navigate the map to uncover interesting stories and locations near them. 

How It Works

Wiki Explore utilizes Mapbox as its base mapping platform, enhanced with a custom historical cartography-inspired design. Users can click on a location to view Wikipedia article excerpts and images. In areas with multiple points of interest, clustering is used to maintain readability, and a dropdown menu allows users to browse all articles in that location.

Alternatives to Wiki Explore

Wiki Explore is a well-executed example of a wiki-based map. However, I can't help but ask: why? There are already several excellent interactive maps that allow users to discover nearby points of interest through geolocated Wikipedia articles. While there may be room for another, Wiki Explore doesn’t offer much that isn’t already available on:

• NearbyWiki
• Wikimap
• Geopedia

Another alternative is the long-running Wikimapia, the 19-year-old collaborative mapping project that blends wiki-style content with interactive maps. On Wikimapia users can tag places, add descriptions, and categorize locations into various types, such as landmarks, businesses, and residential areas. Many tagged locations not only feature user-contributed content but also include links to relevant Wikipedia articles.

Rebuilding the Berlin Wall

choropleth election map showing the CDU dominant in the west and the AfD winning in the east

In my round-up of 2025 German Election Maps, I commented on the "stark contrast between the results in former East Germany and the rest of the country." It was immediately apparent to most observers of last week's German election that there was a clear voting split along the old East-West German border. In the west, the Christian Democratic (CDU/CSU) party was triumphant, while in the eastern part of Germany, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was dominant.

However, according to Data Journalism Studio, this split is not as clear-cut as it first appears on German election maps. In German Elections: Did the Eastern Bloc Vote Radically? Not Exactly, the Data Journalism Studio uses a scrollytelling story map to illustrate how the actual results were more nuanced than the simple east-west divide suggests.

cartogram map of the German election revealing an urban-rural political divide

By switching from a traditional choropleth map to a cartogram view, the Data Journalism Studio demonstrates that German voting patterns were influenced as much by population density as by the former East-West divide. A cartogram, which represents each electoral district as a single hexagon, reveals this different perspective. This visualization shows that in major eastern cities like Berlin and Leipzig, voters actually supported Die Linke rather than the AfD.

Further cartogram views, displaying party support across Germany, reveal that while the AfD performed well in the rural areas of the east, they did not perform well in the largest cities. Additionally, a cartogram map highlighting where the AfD gained votes since the previous election suggests that the AfD gained new voters quite evenly across all of Germany.

Mapping Myths Across the World

Mythosjourney is 'an interactive global map of myths, legends, and folklore'. Throughout history, myths and legends have shaped our cultures, art, and traditions. Mythosjourney brings these stories to life by plotting them across the world, providing an immersive way to explore folklore through a geographic lens.

The platform allows users to interact with myths and legends by navigating an interactive map. Two drop-down menus also allow you to filter the results by country or classification. The classifications include ‘Deity,’ ‘Epic,’ ‘Folklore,’ ‘Legendary Creature,’ ‘Legendary Figure,’ and ‘Legendary Place.’

As a cartographer, I must admit I was immediately drawn to the ‘Legendary Place’ category. This includes well-known mythical locations such as El Dorado, Atlantis, and Camelot. However, it also features lesser-known places I hadn’t encountered before. For example, the islands of Chryse and Argyre in the Indian Ocean were said to be made of gold and silver, respectively.. Or in Morocco, there is the Garden of the Hesperides, a sacred orchard bearing golden apples.

By presenting myths geographically, Mythosjourney highlights how folklore has spread and evolved across different regions. Users can see how similar stories appear in distant cultures, suggesting ancient connections between civilizations. It also allows you to research the myths and legends associated with the locations near you, or to research the folklore associated with the different regions of the world.

What is Your Climate Vulnerability?

As climate change continues to reshape the environment, understanding the risks and vulnerabilities specific to different communities is more important than ever. The U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index offers a new interactive mapping tool to help users visualize climate-related vulnerabilities across the country and to show which areas face the greatest challenges from the impacts of climate change. 

What Is the U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index?

The U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index is a comprehensive tool designed to measure and map climate vulnerabilities across various geographic areas. It presents data at both the county and tract levels, enabling users to zoom in on specific regions and gain a detailed understanding of the climate risks they face locally.

The map highlights areas of high vulnerability using darker colors, making it easy to spot regions that are most at risk. By selecting different indicators, users can explore specific factors contributing to climate vulnerability, such as socioeconomic conditions, environmental hazards, or infrastructure resilience.

Key Features of the Interactive Map

The map’s interface is intuitive and packed with useful features to help users navigate the data efficiently:

• Indicator Navigation Tree – Users can explore five levels of vulnerability indicators to better understand the drivers of climate risks.
• Cartogram View – This feature displays how climate risks vary across different states or Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regions, helping users identify broader trends.
• Location Focus Bar – Clicking on a location provides in-depth details, including the region’s vulnerability level, national percentile score, and ranking for the selected indicator.
• Search and Filter Tools – Users can search for specific locations, zoom in and out, pan across different areas, and adjust the map scale filter to focus on high-vulnerability regions.

The U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index is a powerful and accessible tool for anyone interested in understanding climate risks in their community and beyond. By offering an easy-to-navigate, data-rich interactive map, it empowers users with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about climate adaptation and resilience strategies.

You can explore the potential conflict risks which arrive from climate vulnerability on the Climate Conflict Vulnerability Index Map. The Climate Conflict Vulnerability Index Map identifies areas around the world where climate change and conflicts are likely to happen, and where people are especially vulnerable to these risks.

How It Works

The CCVI is built on three key factors:

• Climate: Looks at the risks caused by changes in weather, such as more intense storms, droughts, or floods.
• Conflict: Considers places where there is a higher chance of violence or conflict.
• Vulnerability: Focuses on how vulnerable people are based on things like poverty, poor infrastructure, or limited resources.

The tool combines all this data to figure out which regions are most at risk. It’s updated every three months and uses a system that breaks the world into small squares (about 55 km by 55 km) to analyze risks. If you hover over any of these squares on the map you can view each of the Climate, Conflict and Vulnerability Index scores for that region. You can also select either Climate, Conflict or Vulnerability form the map menu to view where in the world these risks are highest.

Why It Was Made

The CCVI was developed with support from the German government to help researchers, governments, and organizations understand where climate change and conflicts are most likely to create the biggest problems, so they can plan and take action to help those areas.

In short, the map shows where climate change and conflict might hit hardest, helping organisations and governments figure out how best to respond to these challenges.