Trees of Edinburgh

The Edinburgh Tree Map uses data from a number of sources to map Edinburgh's trees. The map uses colored map markers to show the locations of the city's trees by species.

Using the map menu it is possible to view individual tree species separately on the map or to view all species at once. If you select a tree on the map you can view its Google Maps' Street View image and details about the tree's height and age. Each tree also has its own unique URL (click on a tree to get its link), which means you can share a link to any tree on the map.

The Edinburgh Tree Map was built using Leaflet.js and the Carto Maps API. If you don't want to build your own map and database then you can create a tree map with OpenTreeMap, a paid service which was used to create the Los Angeles and San Francisco tree maps (linked below)

Other Tree Maps:

San Francisco
New York
Los Angeles
London
Melbourne
Madison, Wisconsin

Memory Maps of Edinburgh

At last year's State of the Map - Scotland participants were asked to draw a map of central Edinburgh from memory. The map had to include Edinburgh Castle, Waverley Station, and Evolution House (the conference venue).

Alan Bragg used Map Warper to georectify the hand drawn maps of Edinburgh and then overlaid the results on top of an interactive Leaflet map. The resulting No-map Map of Edinburgh allows you to adjust the transparency of each of these memory maps of Edinburgh and compare the results with the OpenStreetMap map of Edinburgh.

The results seem to suggest that most of the people taking part in the experiment had a sense of Edinburgh Castle and the Royal Mile as being the geographical center of Edinburgh. It also appears to me that most of the participants then used major roads as a guide or frame to help place other details on their maps.

The No-map Map only has six hand-drawn maps of Edinburgh. However it is a really interesting little experiment. Carried out on a larger scale this could be a really interesting way to explore how people mentally map geographical spaces.

Edinburgh Blackspots

Blackspot is a map of vehicle collisions in the city of Edinburgh between 2010 and 2013. Using the map it is possible to see which locations in the Scottish capital had the highest number of vehicle accidents during this period.

The size of the spots on the map are scaled by the number of vehicles involved in each accident. It is also possible to change the scale by the number of casualties involved. If you select an individual spot on the map you can view details about the collision, including the date, the number of vehicles involved, the number of collisions and the weather conditions.

The map includes a large number of options to filter how the results are visualized on the map. You can filter the accidents shown by date, by time of day, by severity and by the speed limit where the accident took place.

Book Maps of Edinburgh

The Lit Long - Location Visualiser is new map of literary Edinburgh which allows you to explore place-names mentioned in books that use Edinburgh as a setting.. Zoom in on Edinburgh on the map and you can discover books which mention the selected location and even read an excerpt from the relevant texts.

In truth the map is a little frustrating to use. At the moment there is a very noticeable lag as you pan and zoom the map as it loads the relevant data. This is especially annoying as you really have to drill down to get past the numbered markers. Once you do manage to get to the individual quill shaped markers you can then read the excerpts from the texts that mention your selected location.

The time-line below the map shows the distribution of texts (related to the current map view) over time. The map side-panel also updates as you explore the map to show the texts which mention locations in the current map view.


The Lit Long - Location Visualizer is the work of Edinburgh University's Palimpsest Project. The project has also created another (older?) map application, Literary Edinburgh on Palimpsest. Interestingly this map is easier to use and much more fun.

All you have to do with this map is just pan around to different locations and excerpts from texts mentioning locations in the current map view instantly appear beneath the map. This is a great little application to use to explore the literary history of Edinburgh.

I imagine this map would be a lot of fun to use on a mobile device as you travel around the city. Share your location with the map and you instantly get to read excerpts from books which mention nearby locations.

The History of Edinburgh Map

Edinburgh Library has created a wonderful map featuring historical stories, photos and maps about life in the Scottish capital.

Our Town Stories - Edinburgh is a great showcase for some of Edinburgh Library's collection of historical documents, photographs and maps. My favorite aspect of Our Town is that you can view historical photos of the city actually overlaid on your choice of historical maps of the city.

The map includes a handy time-line feature which allows you to search through the stories, photos and maps by date. Enter a date range on the time-line and all the documents for that period are shown on the map using categorized markers.


If you select a 'history map' marker you can view the map overlaid on top of the Google Map base layer. You can then select an 'image' marker to view the historical image and the location that it depicts.

If you select a 'story' marker a story map opens. The story map guides you through an historical event from Edinburgh's past highlighting all the relevant locations on a Google Map. For example, the 'Robert Louis Stevenson’s Edinburgh' story recounts the author's life in Edinburgh, featuring family portraits and historical photos, and a mapped guide to some of the Edinburgh locations important in his life.

An Avoid the Ghetto Option for Google Maps

One of the most frequently asked questions to pop-up on my Twitter searches for Google Maps is,

"Why doesn't Google Maps have an 'avoid the ghetto' option?"

This, I assume, is a request for an option in Google Maps driving directions to avoid crime hotspots.

SaferRoute is an interesting attempt to do just this for the city of Edinburgh, Scotland. Using crime data from Lothian and Borders Police Reports, this Google Maps app will return directions that try and avoid crime hotpsots.

If you enter two addresses into the app you will be shown a Google Map with two routes highlighted. The safest route is shown in green on the map and the fastest route is shown in red. Beneath the map turn-by-turn directions are also given, with each street on the journey given a safety rating.

Google Maps at the Fringe

The world's largest art festival the Edinburgh Fringe is due to start on Friday.

With over 2,000 different comedy, musical and theatrical shows taking place in over 250 different events what is needed is a Google Maps guide to the Fringe.

Enter stage right - Gigglemaps.

Using Gigglemaps you can click on any Edinburgh Fringe Festival venue and view the next five performances. The map includes a menu that allows you to filter the venues by category, such as comedy, cabaret etc.

Gigglemaps

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Historical Maps of Scotland

Visualising Urban Geographies

William Edgar, City & Castle of Edinburgh, 1765

Visualising Urban Geographies is a project that aims to bring together historical data provided by Professor Richard Rodger with historical maps provided by the National Library of Scotland. The project's examples website provides access to a very large number of historical maps of Scotland, many of which you can view using the navigational tools of Google Maps.

Maps of Edinburgh, 1765-1945
The Maps of Edinburgh section includes 16 historical maps of Edinburgh from 1765 to 1945. Each of the maps has been overlaid on Google Maps. The maps include a transparency tool so it is easy to compare the maps to the Google Map tiles underneath.

ExMap Viewer

The Exmap Viewer brings together maps from the National Library of Scotland collection and some useful research tools. Features include: adding your own maps and data; Google Street View; bulk geocoding and integration of the Topocoding API.

It is also possible to set up your own instance of the ExtMap viewer using Google Spreadsheets to store your configuration details. Customisable options include: map start point, map layers; bookmarks.

Map and Google Spreadsheets Data Mashup

This is a hugely impressive map viewer that allows you to create your own map mashup with the National Library of Scotland's historical maps and your own geocoded data from Google Spreadsheets.

The viewer includes some example Google Spreadsheet data that geocodes information about tenement plaques in the Marchmont area of Edinburgh. If you wish to add your own data you just need the id number from your Google Spreadsheet.

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