The 2024 UK General Election Map

2024 is a year of elections. Next Thursday it is the turn of the UK to go to the polls. Which means next Friday Maps Mania will be featuring a number of interactive maps, visualizing the collapse of the governing Conservative Party's vote.

According to the latest opinion polls the Tories could be heading for a loss that might almost rival the collapse of the Canadian Conservative Party in the 1993 federal election. If, as forecast, the UK Labour Party does win a huge majority in this year's General Election then the data visualization editors of the daily newspapers may have a bit of headache in visualizing the scale of the victory. The support for the Conservative Party in rural areas of the UK means that even if they win a few seats the election maps next Friday may still look very blue.

If you are working on visualizing the results of any of this year's major elections then you should be considering how you can prevent larger rural electoral areas from visually overpowering smaller urban constituencies. One way of doing this is by ensuring that there is an equal representation of electoral areas, for example by using a hexmap layer. 

Hexmaps can represent each electoral district or region with the same size hexagon. This ensures that every district is given equal visual weight, regardless of its geographic size. Luckily, thanks to the work of Philip Brown and Alasdair Rae, of Automatic Knowledge Ltd, if you are working on a UK election map you can download a geojson file providing a hexagonal representation of the UK's new parliamentary constituencies. 

Automatic Knowledge's UK Constituency Files contains a number of downloadable election resources, including a hexmap of the 2024 General Election constituencies. You can view an interactive demo of the hexmap on Automatic Knowledge's UK Constituency Hex Map 2023.

I've taken the hexmap data for a spin and created a Torygeddon interactive map. Using Automatic Knowledge's hexagon layer I've created a list and map of all the current Conservative MPs. On election night you can click on the name of each Tory MP as their defeat is announced to wipe them off the electoral map forever. The map really has no useful purpose, beyond providing myself with a neat visual guide to the (hopeful) end of fourteen years of spectacular mismanagement.

Cartographer's Note: My Torygeddon map is using two different data sets. The Automatic Knowledge hexmap shows the new UK electoral constituencies. My list shows all the current Conservative MPs - who won their seats in the previous constituencies. Some current Tory MPs' constituencies may therefore not appear on the map. 

Around 80 Conservative MPs are standing down at this election and are not seeking reelection in 2024. My list shows current Conservative MPs, so in around 80 seats the name shown is not the person seeking election in 2024 but the current retiring Conservative MP.

1000+ Streets Called Washington

George Washington has more streets named after him in America than any other person in history. There are 1,399 streets named for the Founding Father in the United States, including George Washington Memorial Parkway in Washington DC and a number of Washington Streets in the state of Washington.

At the other end of the scale Babe Ruth has only 3 U.S. streets named in his honor. There are 11 other people with only 3 streets bearing their names in the whole of the U.S., including the French author Albert Camus, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and the French physicist André-Marie Ampère.

I discovered all this on Mihai Olteanu's fascinating Famous people on street names worldwide. Mihai queried Open Street Map data to discover all the roads in the world that are named for people. He then set about calculating the number of streets which are named for each of these individuals across the whole world.

Saint Joseph has streets named after him in 31 different countries. Which makes the 'not-father' of Jesus the person who has streets named after him in the most number of different countries. The next most globally recognized person is Saint George, with streets in 30 different countries. Surprisingly Jesus' mother Mary only has streets named after her in 25 different countries. 

'Famous people on street names worldwide' does not include any maps itself, but it is entirely built on map data and it is an amazing resource for anyone who wants to build a global eponym map. Using Mihai's results you can explore individual countries around the world to learn which individuals are most commemorated in street names or you can explore the 'worldwide' list of all the people commemorated at least once - sorted by the number of different countries they appear in.

If you are interested in the names of streets and who they are named for then you should explore some of the other maps listed under the toponym label on Maps Mania.

Where Immigrants are Settling

The Washington Post has used immigrant court records from the last ten years to map out where migrants are settling in the United States. The data comes from immigration courts, which are responsible for adjudicating immigration cases. In 4.1 million migrants: Where they’re from, where they live in the U.S. the Post claims that this is "the most detailed publicly available information showing where migrants have put down roots."

The Washington Post's map shows where migrants who have arrived since 2014 are living. The first thing that struck me on viewing the map was how many migrants have settled outside of the big city centers. Traditionally, because of job opportunities and existing family & social networks urban areas have been the first port of call for the majority of new migrants arriving in America. However according to the Washington Post the court filings "show the newest immigrants are settling across rural and urban America." The Post believes that this might be partly a consequence of the lure of "jobs in meatpacking, agriculture and petroleum".

The Post article also contains a small multiple visualization, containing a series of U.S. maps showing the distribution of new arrivals from specific countries. These individual maps show some definite patterns in the destinations of migrants from many individual countries. For example it is clear that the majority of new arrivals from Cuba still live in Florida. The North-East seems to be the most common destination for new arrivals from Ecuador and Brazil. New Chinese migrants appear to mostly settle in New York and Los Angeles.

The New Nuclear Arms Race

As several countries actively expand their arsenals of nuclear weapons, Sweden's SVT has released an investigation into World Nuclear Forces. In recent years, China, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea have all augmented their nuclear stockpiles. 

In World Nuclear Forces SVT examines the numbers of nuclear weapons owned by countries around the world and the overall and country trends in nuclear weapon numbers over time. SVT's article also includes an interactive map based nuclear weapons 'simulator'. This simulator allows you to select from a menu of actual nuclear weapons and to simulate the effect it would have if dropped on a location of your choice.

As you can see from the screenshot above, showing the effect of a 5,000 kiloton Chinese Landbased ballistic missile dropped on San Francisco, the simulator visualizes the extent of the fireball, radiation, pressure wave and extreme heat zones on a location using concentric colored circles (San Francisco could be in range of a 5,000 kiloton Chinese Landbased missile stationed on China's eastern seaboard).

There are of course other options open to those interested in simulating nuclear Armageddon. Since 2012 Alex Wellerstein's NUKEMAP has been visualizing the effects of different sized nuclear weapons on locations around the globe.

NUKEMAP allows you to explore the fireball, airblast and radiation fallout extents of different nuclear weapons on any location in the world. Alex's map can also calculate the estimated number of casualties of a nuclear weapon dropped at any location. This estimation includes the expected number of fatalities and the expected number of injuries.

Who is Your Closest Team?

If you have ever wondered which baseball team you should support then you need Maptitude's Closest Major or Minor League Baseball Stadium by Drive Time map. The map shows you which affiliated major or minor baseball stadium you can drive to in the quickest time in the contiguous United States.

The map is a sort of combination of a voronoi diagram and an isochrone map. However, because the map uses zip-code areas, it doesn't map the driving times from all locations in the contiguous US. Instead (I assume) it uses the drive times from the center of each zip-code area to the nearest baseball stadium. I believe the drive times were calculated at noon on Wednesdays (which seems like a strange time to have a baseball game to me).

Not a fan of baseball? Don't worry Maptitude have mapped other sports as well. For example the Closest 2023-24 Premier League Football Club by Drive Time shows the Premier League clubs which can be reached the quickest by car from any point in England & Wales. The Closest NHL Rink to Where You Live (2019-20) shows 'North America divided into territories based on the shortest drive-time to a National Hockey League rink.'

If you want to view a strict voronoi map of the UK divided into areas based on the nearest football teams then you can refer to Automatic Knowledge's three interactive Voronoi maps which show which football team people in the UK live nearest to: 

• The Premier League map shows which EPL team you live closest to (2021-21 season)
• The Top Four Leagues map shows which English top 4 tier football team you live closest to 
• The Tiers 1-8 map shows which team in the top 8 tiers of the English football leagues you are nearest to

Alasdair Rae has written up an interesting blog post about these three maps. In Which Football Team is Nearest Me Alasdair looks a little more closely at the Voronoi catchment areas of English football teams. In particular he has worked out the total number of people living in each of the Premier League team's Voronoi polygons and in each polygon for the top 8 tiers of English football. 

The Dawn Chorus Map of Birds

Each and every morning birds around the world herald the start of a new day by participating in the dawn chorus. While the aural phenomenon of birds singing at dawn is a global one the songs of the dawn chorus can vary greatly depending on where you live and on the make-up of your local avian population. Now, thanks to a new(ish) interactive map, you can tune into this morning serenade at thousands of locations around the globe

Select a marker on the Dawn Chorus map and you can listen to a recording of the morning dawn chorus captured at that location. Dawn Chorus is a citizen science project which aims "to document bird diversity over time using sound recordings through the help of citizen scientists". Using the Dawn Chorus map you can listen to the thousands of dawn chorus recordings already made by these citizen scientists.

The map includes a number of filter controls which allow you to search and listen to the recorded bird songs by location, date, species of bird, and by habitat. If you wish to participate in the project you can record bird song using the Dawn Chorus mobile app, or you can simply upload your own sound recordings directly through the Dawn Chorus website.

Via: weeklyOSM

From the insect chorus of the Borneo rainforests to the crooning baritone song of an Atlantic humpback whale, the Earth.fm Nature Soundmap can also serenade you with the sounds of nature. Nature Soundmap is a map featuring the sounds of nature captured by professional nature sound recordists around the world. 

Maps have always been a fascinating way to explore the globe. Satellite imagery and Street View imagery have made armchair exploring even more immersive. Add in the sounds of the monsoon in Borneo and the soundscape of the Brazilian rain-forest and you can almost imagine that you really have been transported to the other side of the world.

Find Your Future Climate Zone

In fifty years time Los Angeles will no longer be in a temperate climate zone. As a result of climate change the climate in LA in 2070 will closely resemble the climate of New Delhi today. The average temperature will increase from 59.8°F to 65.2°F and LA can expect hot and arid summers.

You can discover if your city will be changing climate zones in the near future (it will) on The Pudding's new interactive Climate Zones map. Climate Zones - How Will Your City Feel in the Future? explains the current climate zones of 70 global cities and the climate zones that they will exist in after global heating. 

The Climate Zones map uses the Köppen climate classification to divide the world into the five main climate zones (Arid, Tropical, Temperate, Cold & Polar) and also into each climate zone's subcategories. If you scroll to the end of the presentation you can view a list of the 70 global cities divided into their current climate zones. If you select a city from this list you can watch it move into its future climate zone and learn how average temperatures in the city will be changed by global heating.

National Geographic has also created an impressive interactive visualization which reveals which climate zone your home is likely to be moving into in the next half century. In Your Climate, Changed the National Geographic uses an interactive map to show the future climate analogs of 2,500 cities around the world (for example in the future London will experience a climate similar to the current climate in Sovicille, Italy).

These analogs are based on worst-case climate change scenario assumptions. The map automatically detects your location to show you your nearest future global heating twin. The map also explains what kind of climate zone your city currently experiences and compares that to the likely climate it will have in 2070.

The use of climate analogs is a useful tool for helping to explain how climate change will affect people's own homes. You can also discover your town's future climate twin using the Analog Atlas interactive map. If you type in an address into Analog Atlas it can show you a town which currently experiences a climate similar to the one you can expect in the future due to global heating. The map can even show you your climate twin using two different climate change predictions, for a world which has warmed by 2 degrees centigrade or own warmed by 4 degrees centigrade.

You can discover your 2080 climate twin using The Summer of 2080 Will Be This Warm interactive map. If you enter your location or click on your location on this map you can view the town or city in the world which has a climate today which is similar to the climate you can expect in your location in the year 2080. The map uses two different climate models. This allows you to find your climate twin for a global heating scenario of 4.2 degrees or 1.8 degrees centigrade.

The Newest Maps of Mars - in 3D

The National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences has released a 3D interactive map of Mars, using imagery captured from the Tianwen-1 interplanetary mission. The Gras Mars Map allows you to explore Mars using the navigation tools that you are familiar with using from exploring Earth on Google Maps.

The Gras Mars Map uses imagery captured by the 2020 China National Space Administration's mission to Mars. The Tianwen-1 mission included an orbiter, which spent several months scanning and imaging the surface of Mars to refine the target landing zone for the Zhurong rover. I assume that the Gras Mars Map uses the imagery captured from this orbiter (you can view a panorama of the surface of Mars captured by the Zhurong rover here).

You can explore Mars in even more detail using the AeroBrowser. The AreoBrowser allows you to explore over 7000 Martian locations in full 3D. The map uses data from the HiRISE camera (on-board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) and the HRSC (on-board ESA’s Mars Express) to create full 3D terrain model of locations visited by NASA's Mars rovers on the red planet.

To explore the 3D terrain models on AreoBrowser select the 3D Models option on the site's home page. You can then browse through and explore in 3D any of the current locations featured on AreoBrowser. While in one of the 3D terrain models you can navigate by using your keyboard arrow keys to move the camera. You can rotate the camera by holding your mouse's right-hand button. Zoom in and out using your '+' or '-' keys or by using a mouse scroll wheel.

If the Chinese Martian place-name labels on the Gras Mars Map are a little confusing then you might prefer exploring Mars using the Global CTX Mosaic of Mars interactive map. Caltech's Bruce Murray Laboratory for Planetary Visualization's map has been created using a 5.7 terapixel global image of Mars created from 110,000 individual images. Images which were captured by the Context Camera (CTX) aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

The Global CTX Mosaic of Mars contains a number of handy links to help inter-planetary explorers avoid becoming lost on the red planet. Clicking on the provided links will automatically pan and zoom the map to some of the planet's most memorable topographic features and to some of the locations on Mars which have been traversed by NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance Rovers.

Last year NASA called the mosaic "the highest-resolution global image of the Red Planet ever created". NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been capturing imagery of Mars since 2006. This new mosaic of this imagery provides a resolution of around 25 square meters per pixel. The previous highest resolution of Mars at a global scale was 100 meters per pixel.

The Worldwide Breaking News Map

You can now explore breaking global news stories in real-time on a new interactive map. The Global Alerts Map highlights breaking news stories around the world. Using the map you can filter stories by category, and read the latest news updates. From major political developments to natural disasters, with just a few clicks, you can zoom into any region or country of the world, and read the latest news updates as they unfold.

The map works by taking news from the GDELT Project. The "GDELT Project monitors the world's broadcast, print, and web news from nearly every corner of every country in over 100 languages". The Global Alerts Map downloads the latest data from the GDELT Project, translates the stories with Python and then geo-locates each breaking news story. 

On the map breaking news stories are shown using headline text labels. If you click on any of these text headlines an information window will open with media links. Click on these links and you can read more about a story as originally reported in the sourced news outlet. 

From my brief browsing of the map this morning I found links to coverage of yesterday's severe storms in France and Germany and Just Stop Oil's spray painting of Stonehenge. On the negative side the map doesn't seem to report on the extreme heat in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast. The heat map overlay on the map reflects the total number of articles emanating from a location. As you might expect the Global Alerts Map is pretty hot right now in Israel & the Palestinian territories. 

Mapping the Big Map Index

The Economist's Big Mac Index compares the purchasing power parity between the currencies of different countries by examining the price of a Big Mac hamburger sold at McDonalds' restaurants in each country. The Index "is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity, the notion that in the long run exchange rates should move towards the rate that would equalize the prices of an identical basket of goods and services (in this case, a burger) in any two countries". 

It can also be used to find out the price of a Big Mac in countries around the world. For some reason, however, The Economist has decided not to map the Big Mac Index. A burger shaped hole which has now been filled by Burgernomics. 

The Burgernomics interactive map shows the price of a Big Mac in countries around the world in US dollars and in the local currency. It also provides data on how much a Big Mac should cost in each country based on the exchange rate and therefore whether the value of a Big Mac is currently over- or undervalued in each country.

The cost of a Big Mac in countries around the world is also tracked by Statista's Big Mac Index.

The cost of a Big Mac can differ at different locations within the same country. The McCheapest Map by Pantry & Larder tracks and maps the cost of a Big Mac at every McDonalds in the United States. On this map every McDonalds outlet is represented by a dot which is colored to show the cost of a Big Mac (green=cheaper and red=more expensive). 

The McCheapest Map can therefore be used to explore the purchasing power parity of the dollar in different areas of the United States. It can also show you where in the States you can buy the cheapest Big Mac. You can compare the prices in other popular fast food outlets on the Fast Food Index map. The Fast Food Index maps the differences in the prices of fast food across the United States. The map allows you to compare the prices charged by MacDonald's, Chick-Fil-A, Taco Bell and Chipotle across the whole of the US (data from 2022).