The Interactive Sign Languages Map

Saint Mary's University in Canada has released interactive maps which show you how to sign Atlantic Canadian place names in both American Sign Language (ASL) and the regional dialect Maritime Sign Language (MSL).

The Atlantic Provinces Sign Language Place Names maps are very easy to use. If you click on a location's marker on the map a YouTube video will appear showing you how to sign the selected place name in both Maritime Sign Language and American Sign Language. There are three interactive maps available, for Nova Scotia / Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland / Labrador.

The World's Solar Atlas

The Global Solar Atlas allows you to carry out a simple solar power output calculation for nearly any location in the world. Using the map you can simply click anywhere in the world to view an estimation of the likely electricity output from photovoltaic solar panels at that location.

The Global Solar Atlas also provides a number of different map layers, including photovoltaic electricity output, global horizontal irradiation, direct normal irradiation, diffuse horizontal irradiation and temperature. The 'Downloads' section of the Global Solar Atlas allows you to download map posters for individual countries or regions. Solar resource and PV power potential poster maps are available for over 140 countries.

Ban Trump from Britain

An online petition to stop President Trump's planned state visit to the UK has raised almost 1.5 million signatures in two days. The petition, on the UK government website, needed only 100,000 signatures to be considered for debate by the UK parliament. The government claims that "petitions which reach 100,000 signatures are almost always debated".

You can see where people in the UK have signed the petition to prevent Trump's state visit on this interactive map. If you turn on the 'percentage of constituents' option then you can view a choropleth layer showing where the highest proportion of voters have voted to stop Donald Trump from meeting the Queen. In some parts of London 7% of voters have already signed the petition.

The petition is not actually about stopping the President from visiting the UK. It just wants to stop it being an official state visit and protect the Queen from 'embarrassment'. If the petition does go to parliament then it should be interesting to hear Members of Parliament debating how the President might embarrass the Queen and why she needs protecting from his bigly hands.

The World's First Geological Maps

William Smith was an English geologist who created the first nationwide geological map of the UK. In 1815 Smith's beautiful geological map of Britain visualized geological types using different different colors.

William Smith's Maps allows you to explore William Smith's geological maps of England, Scotland & Wales in close detail. An interactive map interface allows you to view geo-rectified overlays of a number of William Smith's maps including his original 1815 geological map and his 1828 New Geological Map of England and Wales.

The interactive William Smith's Maps also includes a number of 3D fly-through movies of Smith's geological maps. In these fly-throughs William Smith's geological maps have been overlaid on a digital elevation model of the UK. The resulting movies help the user to appreciate even more the detailed beauty of Smith's 200 year old geological maps.

Fun with Japanese Maps

The Japanese certainly like to have fun with their interactive maps. A couple of weeks ago the Kirin Brewery company released the Green Emoji Map, a map of Japan which consists entirely of user submitted emoji symbols.

Toyota have now got in on the act with their own fun interactive map of Japan. Their Wondermap provides details of great places to visit throughout the country. To emphasize how much fun you can have at each of these locations the venues are all shown on the map by hand drawn animated icons.

You can find out about each of the destinations by clicking on its animated marker on the map. The information includes a general description about the location and its address & telephone number. If you need a little more information about how to get to a destination a link to Google Maps is also provided for each of the mapped locations.

Indoor Mapping with Mapbox GL

Mapbox GL's extrude property can be used to extrude polygon shapes to create interesting mapped visualizations of data in 3D. It can be used to extrude and color building footprints, as in this Toronto Zoning Map. It can also be used to represent census data in 3D, like in this Population Density Inspector map, which shows the number of people living in each census block in America in 3D. Vox even recently used the extrude property in their National Snowfall Map to visualize the last 24 hours of snowfall across the whole of the USA.

The extrude property has probably been most used to create 3D maps of building height and use. The University of Michigan for example has used the extrude property to create a 3D map of its campus. However Rooms with Mapbox-gl.js is much more than just a building height map. It actually uses the extrude property to create a useful indoor map of all the university's buildings.

By extruding each floor level separately the university has managed to create a map which the user can use to select and view each floor layer individually. This enables the user to view a floor plan of any floor level of any university building. Rooms on the map have also been colored by function, such as office, lab, classroom and restroom.

Rooms with Mapbox-gl.js is a neat demonstration of how the extrude property can be used to create an indoor map. The next stage would be to use map labels to add room information. The map would also benefit from a room search function or a drop-down menu which allowed you to select and find individual rooms on the map.

Two and a Half Minutes to Midnight

The National Snow and Ice Data Center has created a series of interactive maps which visualize Satellite Observations of Arctic Change. The maps allow you to see how sea ice, snow cover and frozen ground have all been shrinking during the 21st Century. Other maps plot air temperature changes in the Arctic and the changes to Arctic vegetation.

Global warming is causing observable changes to ecological systems in the Arctic. Air temperatures in the Arctic are rising and sea ice extent is declining. Even Arctic vegetation is changing with tundra being replaced by shrubs.

Each of the NSIDC interactive maps uses NASA satellite data and research to plot changes to the Arctic from 1979 to 2015. The maps allow you to observe the data for each year in this period to observe how global warming has effected the ecological systems of the Arctic.


If you want to create your own interactive maps of the Arctic then you can use the Arctic Web Map service. Arctic Web Map is an Arctic specific web mapping tool, consisting of an Arctic-focused tile server and a Leaflet-based client library.

There are six Arctic projections available, each using a Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area (LAEA) view of the North Pole region. The Arctic Web Map tiles are compatible with Leaflet maps, when used with the Proj4JS and Proj4Leaflet libraries. The map tiles are available to use free of charge for low-traffic users. If you need high-traffic use then you should contact the Arctic Web Map.

The Global Urban Footprint

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has released an interactive globe which visualizes human settlements around the world. The Global Urban Footprint map shows the global distribution of the human population on a custom made WebGL globe.

The Global Urban Footprint globe was made by analyzing satellite imagery of the Earth. The globe uses only three colors: black for urban areas, white for land surfaces and grey for water. The result is that urban settlements are much more visible on the interactive globe.

It is possible to zoom in on the map to some extent by using your mouse's scroll wheel. However the map doesn't have a great degree of resolution. You can view higher resolution images of a number of global cities on the Global Urban Footprint about page.

Mapping Tall Buildings in 3D

When you need a map that can leap over tall buildings in a single bound you can call on the super OSM Buildings. OSM Buildings is a very impressive JavaScript mapping library that can be used to create 3D models of buildings from Open Street Map data.

For example when DNAInfo wanted to create an interactive map to show the visual impact of new skyscrapers on the New York skyline they used OSM Buildings with Stamen designed map tiles. DNAInfo's New York Skyline map shows New York buildings in 3D. It also shows buildings which have been approved for construction (colored turquoise on the map) and buildings which are still in the proposal stage (colored blue).

You can find out more about the approved for construction buildings and the proposed buildings by clicking on their 3D models on the map. This information includes details on the height of the building and, where available, an image of the building's proposed design.


Berlin's neue Skyline is a similar visualization from the Berliner Morgenpost. This map uses OSM Buildings to create a story map exploring Berlin's growing skyline.

As you scroll down Berlin's neue Skyline you can see how the center of Berlin has changed since 1990. The map spins and zooms into some of Berlin's new skyscrapers. The map sidebar also scrolls down to provide information on the building visualized in the current map view (the text is in German but the map still works if you view the page in Google Translate).

The Webkid blog created a really useful tutorial explaining how the Berliner Morgenpost used OSM Buildings to create their interactive map of the Berlin skyline. If you want to use OSM Buildings to create your own 3D building map then Webkid's Interactive 3D Maps With OSM Buildings is a great place to start.


Stuart MacMillan used Webkid's tutorial to help develop a 3D Map of Glasgow Construction Projects. Stuart's 3D map of Glasgow shows some of the city's current construction plans (highlighted in different colors on the map).

Stuart has added an option for anybody to submit their own GeoJSON building polygons to the map. If you click on the 'Empty GeoJSON' button you will be sent to geojson.io where you can create a building polygon of a Glasgow construction project and then grab the resulting GeoJSON file for the completed building polygon.

Mapping School Ratings & Catchment Areas

There are a number of factors that you might want to consider when choosing the right school for your children. In the UK you might want to consider Ofsted inspection reports, the school's academic record and the teacher to pupil ratio. You will probably also want to view the school's catchment area, especially if you are looking to move house.

This is where AdmissionsDay can help. AdmissionsDay is a new interactive map which shows the Ofsted ratings, exam performance and demographics of UK schools. It also shows you the rough catchment area for each school.

To view local schools you just need to enter an address or postcode into AdmissionsDay. You can then select to view local primary or secondary schools. The locations of the schools are shown with colored markers. The colors of each school's marker indicates its latest Ofsted inspection rating. If you select an individual school's marker you can also view details on the school's academic results, the number of pupils and the teacher to pupil ratio. You can also select to view a rough guide to the school's catchment area on the map.