Mapping Internal Migration

Internal Migration in the City of Barcelona 2016 is a simple but effective visualization of where Barcelona residents moved to and from within the city in 2016. The map provides an overall scale of the numbers of people moving between Barcelona's different neighborhoods without giving the precise figures of how many people moved between each district.

The scaled markers on the map provides a rough overview of how many people moved into or out of each Barcelona neighborhood from elsewhere in the city. If you can switch between the incoming and outgoing internal migration views the markers automatically change to represent the numbers for the selected view. If you then hover over a neighborhood on the map flow-lines show all the other districts where residents moved to or from.

These flow-lines are scaled to show the number of residents who moved between the different neighborhoods. Some of the flow-lines have numbers attached, which presumably represent the number of residents who moved between the two connected neighborhoods. However not all the flow-lines are annotated with the number of residents. The scaled neighborhood markers on the map also don't give the precise numbers of internal migrants. When you hover over the neighborhood markers the neighborhood's name is revealed. It would be nice if the number of internal migrants (incoming or outgoing depending on the view) was also revealed when you hover over a marker.

The Internal Migration in the City of Barcelona 2016 map is therefore an effective visualization of the general size of internal migration between different neighborhoods in the city. However it isn't much use if you want to know the precise number of residents moving between different neighborhoods in Barcelona.


The US Migration Flow Map provides a nice example of how an internal migration flow map can provide the actual numbers of people moving between different areas.

The US Migration Flow Map, like the Barcelona map, uses scaled flow-lines to visualize the numbers of people moving between different states in the USA. The size of the flow-lines on the map is representative of the number of people moving between two states. However, unlike the Barcelona map, you can also hover over the lines to view the total number of people moving between the two states. You can also hover over a state on the map to view the total number of internal and external migrants.

Migration in Latvia is another internal migration map which allows you to hover over the flow-lines on the map to view the precise number of people moving between two regions. Hover over a selected region on the map and you can also view details on the total number of people who moved in and out of the region.

Global Food Security

Around 12% of the Earth’s land surface is being used to grow crops and about 22% is being used for grazing and rearing livestock. As the world's population grows rising demand for food coupled with the environmental strains of global warming is straining our ability to feed ourselves.

The Colors of Food Security is a series of maps visualizing some of the social and environmental issues surrounding the future of global agriculture. The maps visualize a multitude of issues that affect the future stable supply of quality food, such as agricultural productivity, poverty, climate, biodiversity loss, water, and environmental pollution.

You can access each of the Colors of Food Security map visualizations by selecting from the icon buttons running down the side of the map. When a map visualization loads an information window provides a short introduction to the data being shown and its relationship to global food security.

If you are interested in where different crops and livestock are grown and reared then you might also be interested in Esri's The Living Land interactive map. The Living Land is the second installment in Esri's Living in the Age of Humans series and focuses on global agriculture and its environmental impacts. If you want to look more closely at agriculture in the USA then check out The Consolidation of the American Harvest. Bloomberg's The Consolidation of the American Harvest maps where different crops are grown in America.

Mapping Global Causes of Death

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has released the results of the 2017 Global Burden of Disease Study. The study investigates causes of death in countries around the world. You can explore the results of the study on GBD Compare, an interactive tool which visualizes estimates of the world’s health for 359 diseases and injuries and 84 risk factors from 1990 to 2017.

The map is particularly good for identifying anomalous causes of death in different countries. If a country is the only country in the world shown in red for a cause of death then it obviously has a health concern in this area. For example if you visualize opioid deaths on the map you can clearly see that this is a huge problem for the US. In fact the death rate from opioids is twice as high in the USA as it is in Libya, which has the second highest rate of deaths from opioids.

opioid death rates

If you map cardiovascular diseases then you can see how heart diseases are very high in many countries in the former Soviet bloc.

cardiovascular death rates

Deaths from guns is a big problem in a number of South & Central American countries.

firearm death rates

For the examples above I have used the GBD Compare map view to visualize country death rates for three causes of death. The GBD Compare tool has many other ways to interact and visualize health around the globe. As well as the map view you can visualize the data using treemaps, arrow diagrams, and many other types of chart. You can use these tools not only to explore patterns and trends by country but by age and sex as well.

1.4 Million French Dead on the Field of Honor

1.4 million French soldiers died between 1914 and 1918 in the First World War. That is the equivalent of 37 deaths per hour for four and a half years. One hundred years after Armistice day the French newspaper Le Figaro has released an interactive map which visualizes the huge number of French death in World War I.

Fallen on the Field of Honor animates through every single day of the war showing every location where French soldiers died on each day. The data for the map comes from the Ministry for the Armed Forces. The map doesn't show the French soldiers whose date and location of death remains unknown.

The map is accompanied by a bar graph which shows the number of deaths per week for the course of the whole war. This graph is annotated with the dates of important military offensives and campaigns. Fallen on the Field of Honor also has a bar graph which shows the number of soldiers who died by age. The average age of the dead was 27.5 years old.

Mexico's Cocaine Routes

Enter your home address into Cocaine Routes and you can track your drug deliveries in real-time on Google Maps from Mexico all the way to your front door.

Of course - I'm lying. Cocaine Routes is actually a website designed to make you think more closely about the human cost of drug trafficking. Enter your address into Cocaine Routes and it will actually create a personalized video based on your address which is designed to make you think about how drug cartels move illegal drugs around the world. Cocaine Routes mixes together Google Maps, satellite imagery, Google Street View and video to show how illegal drugs might be smuggled to your actual address.

Cocaine Routes has been released to promote the launch of Narcos: Mexico on Netflix. Narcos: Mexico is a dramatization of the true story of the rise of the Guadalajara drug cartel in Mexico.

The Geography Treasure Hunt Game

How good is your knowledge of the world? You can find out by playing Esri's Geography Treasure Hunt game.

During the game you are asked a series of questions. To answer each question you just need to zoom in on the correct location on the map. If you zoom in on the correct location a numbered marker will appear leading you to the next question. In other words you have to find the correct location to progress to the next question in the Treasure Hunt. If you are struggling to find the correct answer you can use the 'hint' option to receive a clue about the location that you are seeking.

If you follow all the questions to the end of the Treasure Hunt you will receive a special GIS Day Treasure Hunt certificate (or if you are me a '500 Internal Server Error' message).

Mapping the Evolution of Brasilia

You can now explore the social and urban evolution of Brasilia on the pilotPlan interactive map. The map allows you to access and view historical photos, aerial imagery and vintage maps of the city since its inauguration as Brazil’s capital in 1960.

At the heart of pilotPlan is a timeline control which allows you to view historical maps, plans and images of the city from  different decades. When you choose a date from the timeline the bottom panel updates to show the media and overlays that you can add to the interactive map. For example, select 1960 on the timeline and you can view historical photos of the city from that decade. If you then select the map icon you can overlay a vintage 1960 map of the city on top of the interactive map. By selecting the hammer icon you can view vintage plans of the city on top of the map.

PilotPlan is the second interactive map exploring the social and urban development of a Brazilian city over time. You can explore the development of Rio de Janeiro since its foundation on the imagineRio interactive map.

Mapping New Zealand Population Growth

All sixteen regions of New Zealand have experienced population growth in the year ending 30 June 2018. In many of these regions international and internal migration was responsible for a large part of this growth. Lots of people want to move to New Zealand. Presumably not all of them are Silicon Valley billionaires preparing for the apocalypse.

You can compare the effect of natural increase and net migration on New Zealand's regional population growth on this Estimated Resident Population Change interactive map from Stats NZ. The map allows you to compare side-by-side the effect of natural increase and net migration on each regional council area. In the Tasman and Gilman regions net migration accounted for as much as 90% of local population growth. While in the Gisborne and Southland regions net migration was responsible for only around 50% of population growth.

You can read more about the data behind the map and the areas of New Zealand which experienced the highest growth in population last year in Stats NZ's report Migration drives local population growth.

US Election Maps

Donald Trump might consider hanging a map of the House midterm elections in the Oval office. Despite losing control of the house the map still appears deceptively rosy for the GOP. Luckily, for the rest of us, both the New York Times and the Washington Post have created cartogram map views of the House results which provide a far more accurate picture of the Democrat Party's success in yesterday's House election.

The NYT's U.S. House Election Results map includes two different map views, a 'map' and 'cartogram' view. The 'cartogram' map view provides an equal size view of each house district. The result is a map which looks far less red.

The Washington Post's interactive map of the House results also includes two map options, a 'geographic' and 'equal size' view. The 'equal size' cartogram view provides a much more accurate visualization of the relative successes of the Republicans and Democrats in yesterday's election than the 'geographic' view. Both map views allow you to hover over a district to view the percentage of votes cast for each candidate. If you have trouble finding a district on the 'equal size' cartogram view you can switch back to the more familiar 'geographic' map view.

The Post also has an interactive map of the Senate results. The NYT's Senate Elections Results also comes with an interactive map.

The United States of Apathy - No More

In the 2016 Presidential Election if absenteeism from voting was counted as a vote for 'nobody', then nobody would have won the election. More counties, more states and more electoral college votes were won by nobody than were won by either presidential candidate.

You can see where nobody won in a new joint interactive map from Esri and cartographer Philip Kearney. The United States of Apathy interactive map visualizes where voter apathy was biggest in the United States and how that affected the 2016 presidential race. The map shows how nobody won 445 out of 538 electoral votes.

As you progress through the United States of Apathy story map the most apathetic states and counties are shown on the map. These are the places where the most people didn't bother to vote. The story map also explores where the apathetic vote benefited Trump and where it benefited Clinton.

Don't let apathy win in the Midterm Elections. Go out and vote!