Map of the Week 108-Got Biomass?

OK - I couldn't resist the dopey cliche of stealing from milk commercials - everyone else is doing it!
The National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado is working on an atlas of renewable resources for the USA. They have put together a bunch of maps showing potential development of Solar, Wind, Hydrogen, Biomass and Hydrogen as energy sources. Their color choices are a bit confusing but the patterns are clear enough. Here's a biomass map with their description below:

"These maps estimate the technical biomass resources available in the United States by county. Biomass feedstock data are analyzed both statistically and graphically utilizing geographic information systems (GIS). The following feedstock categories are considered for this study: crop residues, methane emissions from manure management, methane emissions from landfills and wastewater treatment facilities, forest residues, primary and secondary mill residues, urban wood waste, and dedicated energy crops."

Of course when you normalize it by population the results are slightly different - especially down in the Southwest where they suprsize their counties:

Map of the Week 107-Mexico City 1550

The Map of Mexico 1550 Project was designed by Lily Diaz, a professor at Media Lab Helsinki. The map is reputed to have been authored by Alonso de Santa Cruz, royal cosmographer to emperor Charles V of Spain. It resides at the Uppsala University Library in Sweden. She took a series of overlapping, stereo images of the map and pieced them together as one digital image. Then a series of historical points of interest were laid on top with descriptions, photos and web links. As you zoom in on regions of the map these squares will get larger and pop up information as you hover over them. The author's description of the map is below:

"Painted on two sheets of parchment joined together at the center, the map shows the city surrounded by water and with canals between its buildings. The clearly drawn roads over the mountains to other parts of the country permit us to retrace the routes taken by the Spanish conquerors. The map also provides abundant information about the ethnography and the flora and fauna of the region during the early colonial days"

Map of the Week 106-Where in the World is Episkopi Cantonment?

According to Wikipedia the first newsworthy event of 2008 was that Cyprus, Malta and the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia adopted the euro. The sovereign what of where?


Oh, there!
Even a geographer like me was unaware of such places. When Cyprus was granted independence by the British Empire in 1960, the Brits insisted on holding on to these military bases. However, unlike the mother country they have decided to adopt the euro as a matter of practicality given that they are on an island where euros are now the currency. Above is a map of Cyprus showing the location of these two areas and below are detailed maps of the areas - all legally stolen from the CIA and wikipedia.

Akrotiri Dhekelia

Map of the Week #105-A Geography of Chaos

We interrupt this season of peace and good cheer to bring you a map of the current turmoil in the Middle East. This map was done by Philippe Rekacewicz who does some nice cartography for Le Monde Diplomatique. The map is a companion piece to their November, 2007 "Special Dossier on the New 'Broader' Middle East" I had some more optimistic ideas but after today's events in Pakistan this one somehow seemed appropriate.

Map of the Week #104-The West Virginia Slaw Mapping Project

For those of you wondering where to go in West Virginia for a good coleslaw topped hot dog here is your map! The Slaw Mapping Project shows the diversity of the state's slaw preferences from the central areas where of course you get the slaw to those red, outlying counties where they may give you strange looks and ask "you mean coleslaw?" For even more info check out the West Virginia Hot Dog Blog.


Of course I couldn't resist this anatomy photo - it's almost like a map!

Map of the Week #103 - Transit Maps of the World

My in-laws gave me a real nice Hanukkah gift - Mark Ovenden' s "Transit Maps of the World". This book is described by boingboing as "sheer subway porn". The map below is from the inside cover and shows a fanciful map, based on Harry Beck's famous London Underground maps linking all of the World's transit systems. Imagine a quick ride on the red line to Istanbul or Shanghai or with one switch at Newark, an easy ride to Vancouver, Buffalo or Ufa! OK, I better stop before I get too excited.

Map of the Week #102 - Chicago Map Fest Map

Those of you who are as obsessed as I am with maps may want to hurry over to Chicago for the Festival of Maps. There is a major exhibit at the Field Museum and a bunch of map related exhibits and events going on at over 30 other institutions including universities, museums, art galleries, libraries and even the Brookfield Zoo. Of course, they also have an excellent web map that allows you to pan around the city find out what's happening at all the big red dots. Even if you can't make it to Chicagoland, you can still spend hours browsing at the events and looking at the little thumbnail pictures. Maybe I'll even make it over there before it's too late. See you there?