Drowning Cities in 3D

The Sea Level Rise 3D Map is a very effective visualization of the possible effects of rising sea levels. The map uses Google's 3D Maps API with deck.gl and three.js to create a very realistic demonstration of how locations around the world could be impacted by different levels of sea level rise.

The map was created by combining Google’s Photorealistic 3D Tiles with a custom Three.js water simulation to model rising sea levels in realistic cityscapes. Built with deck.gl as the rendering framework, the map overlays a dynamic ocean surface - constructed from Three.js’s Water and Sky objects - on top of Google’s high-resolution terrain and building data. 

The map also integrates SunCalc to calculate real-time solar positions and Math.gl for accurate geographic projections, ensuring that the simulated water plane aligns properly with the Earth’s curvature and elevation data.

The Sea Level Rise 3D Map features two intuitive slider controls that let users interactively explore environmental and lighting changes in the map view. The vertical slider on the left side of the interface adjusts the sea level height, allowing users to raise or lower the simulated water surface in one-meter increments. This control visually demonstrates how different levels of sea rise would impact coastal landscapes and urban areas in real time. 

The horizontal slider at the bottom of the map adjusts the time of day, changing the position of the sun and thereby altering the lighting, shadows, and reflections across the 3D landscape. Together with Google’s photorealistic 3D map tiles, these sliders enrich the visual experience of the simulation, creating a dynamic and immersive environment that feels both natural and lifelike.

Stories of Displacement & Return

Journeys of Resilience of Refugees from Ukraine is an interactive map tracking the movements of refugees from Ukraine amidst the ongoing war. Created for the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), the map captures both the immense scale of forced migration and the stories of return and resilience that continue to unfold.

Since Russia’s invasion, around 11 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes. Of these, 6.9 million have moved abroad - mostly to other European countries - while 3.7 million remain internally displaced within Ukraine. IOM has visualized the destinations of these refugees using an animated flow map, which reveals the numbers of Ukrainians moving to each individual European country.

Many refugees have actually returned to Ukraine. Around 14% of the country’s entire population is now made up of returnees. A choropleth map in Journeys of Resilience shows the percentage of returnees in each oblast. As you might expect, the percentage of returnees tends to be higher in the western oblasts, farther from the front line of the ongoing war.

How much for a house like this?

How good are you at guessing the value of a house based purely on its curb appeal? Well, now you can find out with my new daily challenge Street View game - Curb Value.

Each day, Curb Value loads a new set of real homes currently on the market. For every property, you’re shown a static Street View image, a frozen snapshot of the house captured by Google’s cameras. Based on what you see from the curb, your mission is to guess the home’s listing price.

You have five attempts to get within 5% of the correct price. After each guess, the game tells you whether to guess higher or lower. You’ll lose a star for each incorrect attempt, and if you miss all five, the true value is revealed along with details like the home’s location, number of bedrooms, and listing agent.

Each new property links directly to its Google Maps Street View location, so you can explore the neighborhood for yourself. One click takes you from the static image in the game straight to the interactive panorama in Google Maps - perfect for anyone who loves virtual house-hunting or geographic sleuthing.

The Mapping Behind the Game

Under the hood, Curb Value pulls property data from the TripGeo Rentcast API. Each listing includes coordinates, a Google Street View panorama ID, and a directional heading. These are used to generate a static Street View image via TripGeo’s own image API - which ensures quick loading and consistent presentation.

Because the properties refresh daily, there’s always a new challenge waiting! 

Battleships!

Curb Appeal isn't the only new game featuring on TripGeo. You can now also play the classic strategy game Battleships. Battleships is a timeless strategy game where two players face off in an intense naval battle. The objective is simple: be the first to sink all of your opponent's ships!

Obviously Battleships is outside the usual TripGeo remit of geography/map based games. The game was developed as a proof-of-concept project, using WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) for direct browser-to-browser connections. Meaning that two players can play against each other from anywhere in the world.

Keep an eye on TripGeo for some more multiplayer projects in the very near future!

How Big was the Roman Empire?

TrueSize.net is an interactive map that allows you to compare the true size of countries and regions around the world. You’ve probably played with 'true size' maps before but TrueSize.net goes far beyond other 'true size' maps - t’s a fully fledged platform for exploring the real scale of countries, regions, and even historical empires.

Unlike most 'true size' maps that focus solely on modern nations, TrueSize.net also ventures into history, offering over 9,000 historical territories, including the USSR, the Roman Empire, and numerous medieval kingdoms. For anyone curious about how the world’s political geography has changed, this feature transforms the map into a living timeline of shifting borders and empires.

For example you can use the historical territories to compare the size of the Roman Empire at its height to Genghis Khan's 13th Century Mongol Empire. Or you could overlay the Aztec and the Inca Empires at their heights over the modern United States.

For advanced users, the platform also includes custom data tools that allow importing GeoJSON or TopoJSON files and exporting results after moving and resizing regions. This makes TrueSize.net not just a visualization toy but a serious tool for geospatial analysis, education, and storytelling.

Also See

• The Size of Anything 
• The True Size Of ... 
• GeoSize Compare 
• Country Size Comparison 
• Reprojector

30 Day Map Challenge

November’s 30DayMapChallenge is fast approaching - and the daily themes for this year’s event have just been released!

The #30DayMapChallenge is an annual, community-driven event that brings together mapmakers from all over the world. Started by Topi Tjukanov in 2019, it’s become a global celebration of cartography, creativity, and data visualization. Each day in November, participants create and share one map inspired by a daily theme - from “points” to “Makeover” (redesigning an old map).

The idea is simple: make one map per day, share it on social media using the hashtag #30DayMapChallenge, and explore what others have created. There’s no competition, no prizes - just a fun way to learn, experiment, and be part of a creative mapping community.

 

"Doing less than 30 is also fine."

You can use any data or tools to complete a challenge. Here are the tools I expect I'll be using the most this year:

Maplibre - an open-source library for creating interactive web maps
OpenFreeMap - free global map tiles powered by OpenStreetMap data
Maputnik - a user-friendly visual editor for designing custom map styles
geojson.io - an online tool for drawing, editing, and exporting GeoJSON files
Mapshaper - a browser-based app for simplifying and editing geospatial vector data

India Rules the World Map

This animated cartogram resizes countries around the world according to their annual number of births.

In this “natal map” of the world, India appears as the largest country, with over 23 million babies born each year - roughly equivalent to the entire population of a country such as Chile (about 20 million people). China, with 9.54 million births per year, and Nigeria, with 7.51 million births per year, are the second and third largest countries on this re-imagined world map.

Canada and Russia become almost invisible on the world map of countries sized by the annual number of births. Russia is a very wide, west-to-east, stretched country. When its area is shrunk to reflect its relatively small number of births, the cartogram compresses its height far more than its length, leaving a long, thin almost invisible ribbon. In contrast Angola, which has a similar number of annual births to Russia, is more compact to begin with. So when it shrinks, it is still a more visible landmass.

This birth cartogram was created on Go-Cart, a map creation tool for making cartograms - maps where countries or regions are resized according to a data variable such as population, GDP - or births. With Go-Cart you don't need any coding skills to create cartograms, you can just upload your data and use the built-in maps to generate a cartogram in a matter of seconds.

The World Population Cartogram is another example of a map created on Go-Cart. On this cartogram countries are resized by their total population.

Four Ways to Destroy the Earth

Project Impact is an interactive asteroid-impact simulator that lets you drop different sized asteroids on the cities of your choice - and observe how they could be destroyed. Alongside the simulation, you can also learn about the mitigation strategies used to detect and deflect hazardous near-Earth objects, and even test your defense skills by taking command of Planetary Defense Command in a full-scale potential impact scenario.

If you’re eager to flatten your least-favorite cities, head straight to the Impact Assessment section of Project Impact. Here you can explore and view 3D models of some of the largest asteroids drifting around the solar system. You can then select any of these near-Earth objects and launch them toward any target on Earth.

Once you’ve had your fill of global destruction, it’s worth checking out the Mitigation and Scenario sections of Project Impact. The Mitigation section lets you chat with an AI, experiment with different asteroid-defense strategies, and watch simulations of how they might work.

In the Scenario section, you take command of Planetary Defense Command and lead a mission to save Earth from an asteroid on a collision course. Your task is to assess the asteroid and its trajectory, choose the most effective deflection method, and balance mission success probability against cost efficiency.

Good luck with saving the Earth!

Also See

Asteroid Launcher
What if it hit my town?
Bomb Blast - launch a nuclear bomb instead

Mapping Russia's Attack on Europe

Each symbol on this interactive map represents an attempt by the Russian state to destabilize European democracy. The map visualizes Russia’s hybrid warfare against the West, which involves tactics as diverse as cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, physical sabotage, and even possible assassinations — actions that might seem minor in isolation but form part of a broader strategy to undermine political stability, weaken institutions, and erode trust across Europe

Cassini Maps’ Beyond Hybrid Warfare is an ambitious, research-driven interactive map that visualizes the often-invisible dynamics behind Russian hybrid warfare in Europe. Built in collaboration with the GEODE laboratory, the French Institute of Geopolitics, and the CORUSCANT collective, the project hopes to illuminate patterns of Russian destabilization in Europe that might otherwise remain hidden.

The map is accompanied by a Network Graph of Actors. This graph visualizes the relationships between the Russian state and its proxy actors, showing who is linked to which events. Nodes represent actors, and links capture their documented connections. Selecting a node on the graph filters the map to reveal where that actor has been active.

The map also includes five charts that can be used to dynamically filter the events shown on the map by type, country, attribution certainty, time period, and actor type. l way to interrogate the data.

The School Lines That Divide US

New America has released an interactive map that reveals how the boundaries of U.S. school districts could be redrawn to create a fairer education system for all students.

In most states, school district lines determine which local property taxes fund which schools. This means that children in affluent areas often benefit from far more school funding than those in nearby districts with lower property wealth. These school district borders, often drawn decades ago, have locked in funding gaps and contributed to persistent racial and economic segregation. The new Redrawing the Lines map allows users to explore how alternative boundary lines could redistribute resources more equitably and promote more diverse, integrated schools.

Developed by New America’s Education Funding Equity initiative, Redrawing the Lines compares today’s school district boundaries with alternative redistricting models designed to distribute property tax bases more evenly and foster more diverse student populations. Users can click on a state or search by address to see their own district, then explore how three different approaches to redrawing boundaries - starting from scratch, aligning with county lines, or merging existing districts - would affect local school funding and segregation.

By translating complex policy research into an accessible, visual format, the map helps parents, educators, and policymakers see both the roots of current inequities and the potential benefits of reform.

Also See

Segregation Explorer - Stanford University's map visualizes the levels of segregation in schools and school districts in the United States

The Atlas of American Gun Violence

The Trace's An Atlas of American Gun Violence is an interactive map that uses data from the Gun Violence Archive to visualize gun homicides and assaults across the contiguous United States.

The map has drawn a fair amount of criticism on the MapPorn subreddit, with many dismissing it as “just a population density map.” I think this criticism is somewhat unfair.  If you were to zoom in on a similar map of most European cities you would not see the same density of shooting. Even in European cities with higher population densities than most U.S. cities, the level of gun violence is nowhere near as intense. 

That said, it is true that raw counts of shootings will naturally correlate to some degree with population - areas with more people tend to have more incidents simply because there are more potential interactions. However, the degree of concentration of gun violence in certain U.S. cities, and even within particular neighborhoods of those cities, points to factors beyond mere population density.

The ability to zoom into individual cities can reveal stark differences in the distribution of shootings between neighborhoods in the same metropolitan area. If the visualization were just a proxy for population, we’d expect a much more uniform spread within each city. Instead, the data exposes clear geographic patterns -some neighborhoods suffer disproportionately high levels of gun violence, while others in the same city remain relatively unaffected.

Finally, the map’s interactive filters allow users to explore incidents by location, date range, fatal versus non-fatal shootings, and categories such as mass shootings, accidental discharges, officer-involved incidents, and those involving children. These features make the map more than just a static population density map; they turn it into a powerful tool for understanding the scale, nature, and distribution of gun violence across the United States.

European Death Zones

Tages-Anzeiger’s data team has published a striking interactive map that visualizes one of Europe’s most profound demographic challenges: in most of the continent's regions, more people are now dying than are being born.

In Europe is becoming a “net death zone”: What the future would look like without immigration the newspaper uses regional data from Eurostat and national statistics offices to show where natural population decline is most acute. The choropleth map shades European regions according to whether they have a birth surplus (more births than deaths) or a death surplus (more deaths than births). It reveals that large swaths of Eastern and Southern Europe, are witnessing falling birth rates.

Only a handful of areas in Northern and Western Europe - such as parts of France, Sweden, Norway, England, and Switzerland - still record more births than deaths. The simple two-color scheme used by the map (blue for birth surplus, red for death surplus) conveys this stark divide at a glance.

The conclusion from the map is clear. Population growth in much of Europe is now entirely dependent on immigration. Without immigration most of the continent faces a future of an aging population without enough younger workers to sustain its economies, support its welfare systems, or maintain current levels of social and economic vitality.

Tages-Anzeiger's map follows quickly upon a similar themed map published by The Guardian. The Guardian's map, Europe's population crisis, is a similarly effective and stark visualization of the continent's emerging demographic problems. This map's primary purpose is to highlight the dramatic difference migration makes to Europe's population projections by 2100. It successfully achieves this by comparing Europe's projected population "With migration" and "Without migration".

The map reveals that without migration nearly all of Europe is going to see a massive fall in population. By 2100, the proportion of people aged 65 or over is projected to rise significantly, leading to slower economic growth, increased tax burdens, and a greater demand for health and social care services. 

Via: Datawrapper's Data Viz Dispatch

The World is Your Canvas with PaintMyMap

Creating a truly beautiful and customized map can be a frustrating experience, requiring either expensive software or deep coding knowledge. Enter PaintMyMap, a new online custom map maker that lets anyone - from educators to professionals - design, style, and export custom maps in minutes, and all for free.

What is PaintMyMap?

PaintMyMap is an intuitive web-based editor designed to simplify the map creation process. It strips away the complexity of traditional GIS tools, offering a clean interface focused on styling and customization.

The platform provides a variety of base maps, including world, continent, and country outlines. The real power, however, lies in its ability to handle user-uploaded data. You can easily drag and drop your own geographic data files - including common formats like GeoJSON, TopoJSON, Shapefiles, KML, and CSV - right into the editor.

Once your data or base map is loaded, the customization begins. You can "paint" regions with different colors, add labels, and use a draggable legend to clearly present your information. For those who need specific cartographic standards, the tool also offers a selection of popular projections like Mercator, Robinson, and Winkel Tripel.

It literally took me less than 5 minutes to create the map at the top of this post. That time included downloading U.S. state boundaries as a GeoJSON file, uploading the data into PaintMyMap, editing the map legend, color-coding each state, and exporting the final graphic as a PNG file.

Overall I would say that PaintMyMap excels at creating clear, publication-ready, static maps for data visualization, presentations, and print media. It is superb at quickly creating and coloring static regional maps (particularly for creating choropleth-style map visualizations).