A Few Nice Maps from 2015

There are lots of best maps of the year posts on other sites. You could spend hours looking at the Maps Mania 100 Best Maps of the Year - not a bad way to spend your time if you have it. I also highly recommend Cartonerd's favorite maps list. I am not nearly that ambitious, nor can I pretend to have seen every good map that has been made in the past year. Instead, I will show three maps that I never got a chance to post during the year. I really like these, but will make no claims about their "best"-ness.

The Magnificent Bears of Finland - Annukkah Makijarvi*

This is a deceptively simple looking density map showing the population of bears by area.** If you look closely though the areas are made of of bears. A great synthesis of art and cartography.

* I think this map may be a couple of years old by now but it made the rounds on the map sites this year. 
** Not completely sure what the areal unit used here, a sort of bear grid perhaps.

Longyearbyen and Environs - Norwegian Polar Institute.

This map shows an area of Svalbard, an Arctic island off Norway. It is another artistically beautiful map. The International Cartographic Association's Map of the Month for November, 2015. Here are two zoomed in details.

Sculpteo's 3-D Printed Maps

These "datasculptures" can be rotated in three dimensions, even in their preview views. They include several demographic maps, mostly from Germany. This example shows rents in Dusseldorf.

Looking forward to another year of mappy goodness!

Metro Santaland

I've always thought of Santa's village as some quaint little place but according to Santa Lives Here, it's a pretty large city.

When you think about it realistically, of course you would need a large city in order to be able to be able to make and deliver toys for over a billion children. You need factories, but also amenities to keep the workers happy such as schools, parks and an eggnog district. So maybe my illusions have been shattered a bit but now I realize how complex the operation is. Enjoy your holidays and appreciate where all the good stuff comes from.

The Atlas of Design II

Last year the North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) published Volume II of the Atlas of Design. I looked at some of the online content, was very impressed and then stupidly forgot about it. This year with the holidays coming, I hinted to my wife that I might know of a nice Hanukkah gift. She took the hint and this fantastic book landed in our doorway. There's too much awesome to do it all justice but here are a few samples of what's inside. Note - since these maps are copyrighted, I only reproduced pieces that are already available on the Atlas site.

1. "The Road from Madison..." by Andrew Umentum

This map chronicles a bicycle trip from Umentum's home in Madison, Wisconsin to New Orleans and then back again via Detroit. It is presented as a series of strips, inspired by Jon Ogilby's 1675 atlas of England and Wales - example here.

I love the details he brings out to give the map life. Also the way the lack of state boudaries and south(!) arrows force you to see these places from a different perspective. Rather than divide us, the states merge together into one continuous landscape.

2. "Map of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway" by Dong Zheng

Inspired by pre-modern Chinese maps that were primarily intended to be paintings, the map uses a birds-eye view. The modern railroad and buildings blend harmoniously with the ancient landscape and built environment.

 3. "The Heart of Canyonlands National Park" by Tom Patterson

This was an exercise in using Terrain Texture Shader to generate improved hillshading. The author was inspired by Bradford Washburn's Grand Canyon map and by Swiss topo map techniques and shows that beauty can be found in cartographic algorithms.

4. "The Family Farm" by Alex Hotchin

I love a good hand drawn map and this one tells a story of a particular place. Where exactly this is is not clear. The stories have no personal meaning outside of the author's family, yet he still makes you care about this place.

5. "The Asheville Map" by Bruce and Nora Daniel

This fold-out paper map can also be found and purchased online. The base colors are unique (beige roads!) and were inspired by the colors of the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains. The map is artistic yet much more easily readable (and more accurate) than those touristy maps you often get when traveling.

There are many more maps here - 32 in total. Some are made by people I know. The range of techniques and styles is impressive. Most of them beautiful, all interesting in their own way. The previews don't do the maps justice and since in many cases they are not available online I guess you need to buy the atlas to see the full maps. If you're looking for a nice holiday gift for a map fanatic (or even casual map gawker) check it out.

Muslims Don't Support ISIS Either

We get a lot of confusing results when looking at how much support ISIS has in the Islamic world. This is because large numbers of unscientific opinion polls show widely differing results. Metrocosm created this map, based on six different scientific polls.

Except for Syria, support for ISIS is very low - even 0% in Iran and Lebanon.* Contrast this with the perceived support in the United States:


These are the types of perceptions that cause rednecks to throw pig's heads at mosques and this illustrates the dangers of the media relying on social media and other non-scientific opinion polls.

I am no expert of what makes a poll "scientific" but the questions and polls cited for the above map can be found here.

* 0% in any poll should arouse skepticism.

Chicago Transit, Frank Lloyd Wright Style

Last week's post featured some maps from Max Roberts. Another recent project is this map of the Chicago "El" in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright.

The map captures Wright's Arts and Crafts style aesthetic with the use of clean lines and fonts. I do find the font a bit difficult to read, however.

The map's outline and stop symbols were inspired by Wright's stained glass work, as seen clearly on the loop inset.

One final nice detail is the diagrams of each line along the sidebar.

This map, the ones highlighted last week, and lots of other cool designs can be purchased at Roberts' Tube Map Central Site.

Peripheral Vision and Curvy Transit Maps

NPR's Science Friday had a nice piece last week on redesigning transit maps. The program features MIT’s Ruth Rosenholtz, a cognitive scientist and the University of Essex’s Max Roberts, a transit map researcher and lecturer. According to Rosenholtz, 99% of our visual field is peripheral. She analyzes maps from this standpoint and has an algorithm to show how they look in peripheral vision. For examples, Boston's MBTA map does pretty well...

while New York's subway map is much more blurry.

I do wonder if the white background version from the Other Map Flavors page would work better. Also we are comparing two very different levels of complexity here.

Max Roberts has designed circular maps for several cities, including New York. 

When I first saw this map, I was underwhelmed and a bit bothered by the geographical distortions but after hearing him explain it, I can see how it does help untangle the lines and make trip planning more straightforward. His Paris map on the other hand is an obvious (to me) improvement. 

Compared to the original.

These curvy maps do better on Rosenholtz's peripheral tests (though no examples were provided) and also did better on tests by Roberts. In his tests subjects were able to plan a trip in much less time.

I really like his treatment of Washington DC.

Chicago is interesting too. I'm not fond of the giant loop-a little too distorted for my tastes. Roberts explains that a diagram should show you how a network works rather than where things are. From that standpoint these maps work well. Just don't expect to be able to walk from Rosemont to Harlem on the blue line in the same amount of time as it would take to get from Jackson to Washington.

Listen to the broadcast here.

Canada's 1955 future

Macleans magazine bought this map from the Canadian government. It is from 1955 and details "100 Important New Resources That Will Help Make Canada's Future Bright And Prosperous" - 1950's booster-ism at its finest.

Here is a close-up view showing details such as petro-chemical and nickel leaching plants near Edmonton, a nationwide microwave net for TV, far-reaching rural electrification, gas turbine locomotives and a money tug of war with the United States.  

Sample text from the title block

"Yesterday many of the places shown here were barren rock, desolate tundra or virgin forest. Tomorrow they will pour out a swelling flood of nearly all the materials needed by modern man...."

I'm not sure if the colors (green, yellow and red-ish) mean anything (elevation?) or if that's just an artistic effect. Also, the leaf-like channels within the Great Lakes are a strange touch.

The Macleans article has a nice selection of items from the map showing which predictions were good (tar sands oil) and which were overly optimistic (potash.) Some other interesting items not covered in the article:

• "Flying laboratory” carries ½ ton of electronic equipment in simultaneous search for many minerals.
• Latest rust-resistant wheat developed at government lab in Fort Garry, Man.
• Continent’s first turbo-prop airline service.
• 2,250-mile gas pipeline from Alberta to Toronto-Montreal at cost of $300 million.
• 19 new river valley conservation programs in Ontario.
• $60 million for world’s largest transatlantic telephone cable built by Canada, U.S.A., U.K.
• Atomic reactor at Chalk River for research into peaceful uses of atomic energy.

 I included that last item because I spent time in Chalk River as a graduate student and got to know some of the nuclear plant workers.

A complete list of all 100 resources can be found here, while a larger version of the map is here.

The "Red Zone" in France

The Red Zone is a series of areas in northeastern France that were isolated by the government after World War I. These areas were too damaged by the war for agriculture or human habitation. Some small areas remain off limits.

The red zone on the maps refers to completely devastated areas and the yellow areas have major damage. The green areas only had minor damage and the blue area was undamaged. The red zone is still full of unexploded shells and the soil is polluted by various chemicals and human and animal remains. From Wikipedia:

Each year dozens of tons of unexploded shells are recovered and, according to the Sécurité Civil agency in charge, at the current rate no fewer than 700 more years will be needed to completely clean the area. Some experiments conducted in 2005-06 discovered up to 300 shells / 10.000m² in the top 15cm of soil in the worst areas.
Some areas remain off limits (for example two small pieces of land close to Ypres and Woevre) where 99% of all plants still die as arsenic can amount up to 17% of some soil samples. Most destroyed villages lie in this area.

 Some of these areas have been set aside as artificially planted state forests but the trees are in poor shape. Other areas have been cleared for agriculture but concerns about pollution remain. Much more detailed information can be found on the French language wikipedia page.

The Island of Bad Art

Artist Grayson Perry created this etching to look like a Renaissance-era map of Venice in conjunction with the 2013 Venice Biennale. The place names reflect Perry's categories of bad art-here are some examples.

Based on some of the internet commentary he seems to have offended many people which is what art should do. It may be a bit snooty, but the mappy details are well done and enjoyable. Click below for an enlarged, readable version.

Mappa Monday: The Schuylkill River Aerial Tram

The 1976 Bicentennial celebrations prompted some grand visions for Philadelphia. Planning director Edmund Bacon envisioned a world's fair modeled on the highly successful 1876 Centennial, the first major world's fair in the United States. The fair was to be held on the same exhibition grounds as the 1876 fair with a system of boats and aerial trams along and across the river linking it to the central parts of the city.

Utlimately this and other grand plans were sunk by the politics of the time. The bicentennial events did bring millions of tourists to the city but the numbers were well short of expectations, as were the long term benefits to the city.

Madrid Subway Complaints

This map shows complaints at subway stations-presumably from some 311-type of database. Complaints are color coded by type and given concentric, proportional symbols. The map is not easy to interpret but it makes for great art.

 The legend is in English, the popups are in Spanish.

As you hover over a station you can see the complaint type and frequency. Multiple complaints show up as concentric circles. The popup depends on what part of the circle you're pointing at. There are no obvious patterns, it seems like each station has its own discreet issues. Some of the data seems a little strange though.

For example,the 866 complaints about a breakdown at Nuevos Ministerios yet no other types of complaints. While most other stations have speed and access complaints (I'm guessing this means problems with tickets, turnstiles and/or maybe wheelchairs) there are none of these complaints here. That must have been one horrible breakdown.

Also, the dark base map is great for artistic effect but makes it hard to see where you are.

This whole thing would be easier to read with fewer categories and bigger circles but it would also be less fun. I enjoy watching how the artistic effect changes as you zomm further out.

Explore the map here.

Canadian Election Maps - The Good, Bad and Ugly

I hesitate to criticize another country's election maps but come on! This is Canada - you people invented GIS! I'll start with the ugly and work my way over to the good so I end on a positive note.

Here is the National Post's interactive map.

Granted, this is interactive so you can zoom in as needed but still the emphasis on Canada's Arctic waters in the default view makes the smaller places (where almost everyone lives) hard to see. Also, it's ugly, and the Mercator projection makes it uglier and harder to read. Finally, being a conservative paper, all that red must be making their eyes water. Their non-interactive maps are much better (see further below)

BAD: Here is a cartogram from The Star.

 This is a cartogram? So the liberals won the north of every province and the conservatives the south? Compare British Columbia with the interactive version.

The cartogram is interactive. Click a dot and you will see that there is no relationship between its position on the diagram and its geographical location resulting in misleading information. If the goal is simply comparing numbers then the Globe and Mail version is the way to go.

When you click on the cells above, the map takes you to that individual Riding (I love that term!) Also, they have a nice list of key Ridings underneath their interactive info.

This map also came from the Globe and Mail - nicer looking, better projection and it includes St Albert among the important cities - what???

On the good side of things the National Post has this excellent graphic that lets you compare the vote from the last three elections.

I like the detailed city maps - except they forgot St Albert!