Cartographic Connections

The Notre Dame School has produced a Story Map which examines the techniques that cartographers use to show connections between different locations on maps. Switched On or Switched Off explores how map makers use isochrones, proportional flow lines, isolines and other techniques to show connectivity.

Switched On or Switched Off not only provides explanations of the various ways that cartographers show connections but also includes a comprehensive number of examples of interactive and static maps to illustrate these connectivity techniques. As you progress through Switched On or Switched Off the example maps are embedded within the Story Map. Many of these maps are live which means that you can interact with them in the map panel.

How London Gets to Work

According to the Mayor of London's office the number of people cycling on London's roads has seen remarkable growth over the last few years. Last year the GLA's report into the impact of the Mayor's Vision for Cycling stated that during the morning rush hour "on some main roads, up to 70 per cent of vehicles are bicycles" and across the city "32 per cent of all vehicles on the roads are now bicycles".

You can see how cycling in London has increased drastically over the last 15 years on a new mapped visualization of cycling during the morning rush hour from Suprageography. Suprageography's London Traffic Counts Map visualizes the mode of transport used in the morning rush hour on London's roads over the last 16 years. The map uses Department of Transport traffic count data for the hour of 8am to 9am to show how people are commuting to work on London's roads.

The map shows how, particularly in central London, cycling has become one of the most popular methods of traveling to work for commuters on London's roads. Using the map you select up to three different modes of transport. Each mode of transport is shown as different colored circles, with the size of each circle proportional to the flow.

The map also allows you to allow you to visualize the change in the popularity of any of the modes of transport between any two years. In this visualization the green circles show an increase and the purple circles indicate decreases in the traffic counts for selected mode of transport.

Animated Flow Mapping

The Canvas Flowmap Layer is a library for the ArcGIS JavaScript API which allows you to map objects flowing from one location to another.You can see the Canvas Flowmap Layer in action on this demo, which uses the library to add animated flow lines to a world map.

The library uses Bezier curves to visualize the movement of objects from one location to another. One purpose of using Bezier curves is that you can show the direction of flow by using either a convex or concave curve on your flow line. The direction of flow is also visualized by the library with animated dots which travel along the flow map lines in the direction of flow.

The library allows you to adjust the speed of the animated flow dots and provides options to use linear, ease-out or ease-in animations.

Make Your Very Own Toposcope

A toposcope is a marker that is placed on the top of a hill or other elevated position to show the direction and distance to notable locations which can be seen from that point. Toposcopes can usually be found at popular vantage points to help you spot nearby locations which can be observed from that position.

If your favorite hill or elevated position doesn't have its own toposcope then don't worry as you can now make your own with this new Toposcope Maker. The Toposcope Maker is a simple to use tool which helps you make your very own handy guide as to what can be seen from any location on Earth.

To create your own toposcope for an elevated position you first need to click on the provided map to show your central position. You can then add nearby points of interest to your toposcope by selecting the marker option from the map toolbox and clicking the POI's location on the map. A line will then be added to the map showing the direction and distance to your added point of interest. You can edit the text label on the line to add a label for your point of interest. You can then continue to add as many other points of interest to your topscope as you want.

New York in 3D

New York is the city where construction never sleeps. If you want to keep track of the endless pace of new builds in Lower Manhattan you can use Downtown Alliance's new 3D map which tracks the urban landscape in the area of New York below Chambers Street.

LM3D maps all current and future developments in Lower Manhattan. It also allows you to analyse building use within the area, as it visualizes all residential, office, and hotel properties in the neighborhood, as well as restaurants, retailers, transit and open space sites.

At the heart of LM3D is a Cesium powered 3D map of New York based on OpenStreetMap data. All the buildings on the map are interactive. You can select a building on the map to view details on the building's square footage, construction date, floor count and building use. The map menu also allows you to analyze Lower Manhattan's buildings in a variety of ways, including the option to filter the buildings of Lower Manhattan by land use.

Travel Time New York

Travelling between Manhattan and Brooklyn is going to get harder. In 2019 the MTA plans to close the L train's East River tunnel for 18 months. This will affect the journeys of thousands of travelers in New York every day.

2019 might seem like a long time away but it's not too early for Google's Sidewalk Labs to start planning for the disruption. They have teamed up with Transportation Alternatives to release a new interactive map which shows how your journey might be affected when there are no L train stops in Manhattan.

The NYC Transit Explorer allows you to plan and view travel times and routes across New York's five boroughs. The map is really useful for planning any journey on New York's transit network. However it is far more than just a simple journey planner. As well as showing you how to get from A to B on the MTA the NYC Transit Explorer can also be used to view how long it would take to get anywere in the city from any location.

Click on any location on the map and a colored overlay will show you how long it will take you to travel anywhere in the city on the public transit network. It also allows you to adjust the settings to see how long your journey times would take at different departure times, with different maximum walking distances and with different transfer & mode preferences.

The NYC Transit Explorer isn't only useful for planning how you might travel when the East River tunnel closes. The map has the option to include the L train if you want to see your best route while the tunnel is still open.

Harriet Tubman - An American Hero

Harriet Tubman is an American hero. She escaped from slavery in 1849. She then went on to use the Underground Railroad to personally help around seventy other people escape from slavery. During the American Civil War she also worked as a scout, spy and nurse for the United States Army.

Ron Stodghill in Harriet Tubman's Path to Freedom examines the extraordinary life of Harriet Tubman. In this New York Times article Stodghill travels through Maryland's Eastern Shore. He uses the journey to visit some of the locations important in Harriet Tubman's life and to tell the story of how she managed to escape from slavery and go on to free other slaves. He also visits some of the other locations in the area that played an important role in the Underground Railroad.

Harriet Tubman's Path to Freedom uses a simple story map format to show the locations in Stodghill's journey through the places important to Harriet Tubman's life. As you progress through the article the background map updates to show the locations visited by Stodghill and flashing markers help to highlight these locations on the map.

Also See:

Visualizing Emancipation - a map of slavery’s end during the American Civil War.
The Jamaican Slave Revolt Map - mapping Tacky's Rebellion and its brutal suppression by the British Army
The Atlantic Slave Trade in Two Minutes - an animated map of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database
The Spread of U.S. Slavery - mapping the population of slaves at county level in the USA from 1790–1860.

Where's Everyone Moving?

In the UK when people move house they often give their new address to the post office. This enables the Royal Mail to redirect any mail posted to their old address to their new home. It also means that the post office has a lot of data about where people move from and where they move to in the UK.

The Royal Mail has used data from over a million of these redirection applications to create the Redirection Moving Map. The Redirection Moving Map allows you to enter any UK postcode and view a map showing where people have moved to in the UK from that address. It also allows you to see where people who have moved to that address have moved from.

On top of the map you can also view a few overall statistics about the total number of moves in and out of the postcode area. This includes the average distance moved to and from the area, the shortest distance moved, the greatest distance moved and the total number of house moves.

Sounds of the City - Mixing Desk

You can become your own urban DJ and remix the sounds of the world's cities on the Soundcities Herd Above the Noise map. This map lets you play and remix sound recordings captured in thousands of different urban landscapes around the globe.

Soundcities – Herd Above The Noise uses the Sound Cities extensive database of geo-tagged sound recordings to take you on an animated audio tour of the cities of the world. What's more using the map you can remix the thousands of found sounds and field recordings from around the world to create your own global city soundscape.

Herd Above the Noise can be controlled by selecting sounds from the markers on the map or by selecting from the two overlaid word clouds (locations and categories of sound). Alternatively you can just sit back and listen to the map in 'auto' mode. If you don't interact with the map then Herd Above the Noise will automatically take you on a journey around the world mixing together random sound recordings from random cities as you travel across the globe.


If you want to you can also become a natural soundscape DJ by remixing the natural sounds recorded around the world by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

GBIF Soundscape uses sound recordings from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility website to reconstruct the natural soundscapes of different regions around the world. Using the GBIF Soundscape map you can create your own mix of bird and frog sound recordings.

Select a region from the map and you can listen to a mix of all the bird and frog sounds which have been added to the GBIF data records at that location. At each location you can listen to all the recordings playing at once or create your own mix from the available recordings. You can also click on the 'random' button to listen to a random mix from a location's sound recordings.

How Immigrants Boost the Economy

The New American Economy has mapped the contributions of immigrants in all 435 Congressional districts, the 55 largest U.S. metro areas and all 50 states. The map provides information on the tax contributions made by immigrant workers and data on their spending power and contributions to entrepreneurship and the general workforce.

If you select a location on the Map the Impact interactive map you can view details on the number of immigrant residents in the area and the amount of taxes paid by immigrants and their combined spending power.

For each area selected on the map you can also click-through to view more detailed information on the benefits that immigration provides at that location. This includes detailed demographic data about immigrant residents, their contributions to the different employment sectors and the amount of taxes paid by immigrants.