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Community features

You thought OpenStreetMap data uses the WGS84 datum? No it doesn't!

This insightful post by StephaneP attempts to shine some light on the complex world of coordinate accuracy. In short — due to the movement of tectonic plates — WGS84 coordinates can’t be accurate unless you know the time that the coordinates were captured. He also

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How to draw an airport

I’m obsessed with aviation maps so I was excited to see this Observable notebook by Brett Camper on how to draw an airport. He achieves this by using Tilezen vector tiles for the data and D3 for outputting the maps. How to Draw

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Explore the history of the BART map

In this podcast Bart Wright delves into the history of the BART transit map (his name being Bart is a coincidence) and his involvement in designing the map over the past two decades. Podcast: Explore the history of the BART map | bart.govThere are

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Introducing Mapbox developer forums on Stack Overflow

If you’re anything like me then you probably spend a lot of time on Stack Overflow while hunting down answers to your burning programming questions. Mapbox have taken this on board and are now using Stack Overflow as an official support channel. Introducing

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The new ArcGIS StoryMaps has arrived

I’ve featured a selection of story maps in previous issues — they’re a great way to use maps and spatial visualisation alongside text to help communicate a story. Think of them as fancy blog posts. What I haven’t featured yet is that

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GeoJSON Path Finder — offline routing in the browser

Routing in Web maps can be both complicated and time-consuming, or expensive if you need to set up your own server or make a lot of API requests. One alternative option is to use GeoJSON Path Finder, which performs simple routing calculations within the

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Geospatial podcasts you should be listening to

If you want to treat your ears to something nice then look no further than this roundup of spatial podcasts. I’ve already featured a couple of them in this newsletter, and the rest look great too. We’re spoilt for choice! Geospatial podcasts

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Did you know that every Sentinel 2 image is actually a short video?

If you’re familiar with Earth observation then you may already know that Sentinel 2 imagery consists of data from various spectral bands. What I hadn’t realised myself is that the data for each of those bands is collected at slightly different times,

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Building Footprint Comparison

Back in 2018 Bing released a dataset containing 125 million building footprints across the US, generated using machine learning. This interactive map by Azavea highlights just how many of those footprints aren’t currently contained within OpenStreetMap. Building Footprint Comparison | Azavea Demo AppAzavea Demo

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Mont Blanc massif

More Blender-based shading this issue with this beautiful map of the Mont Blanc massif by Santi Hernández Puig. Not sure it’s ever possible to get bored of these maps. Lovely stuff. New map of the #MontBlanc massif designed from scratch. Classic style but

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How Planet's satellites map the Earth in a single day

Ever wondered how satellite imagery is captured on a daily basis? This visualisation by Nadieh Bremer shows how Planet map the Earth in a single day using 600,000 images captured from their fleet of satellites. Outstanding work! 👌 I’d also recommend reading the

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Topi Tjukanov

Topi Tjukanov is a prolific map-maker and someone who is incredibly active in the spatial scene. His maps and spatial visualisations are varied and often utilise cutting-edge techniques and technology. Definitely one to follow. Topi Tjukanov (@tjukanov)

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US street network graph

Geoff Boeing has put together a dataset containing a road network graph for the entire US. I find road network graphs incredibly interesting, especially once you start to use them for practical purposes such as routing and other kinds of analysis. US Street Network

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Global River Widths from Landsat (GRWL)

This dataset contains the widths of rivers and streams around the planet. To do this they utilised satellite imagery from Landsat combined with field measurements. The data is in shapefile format. Global River Widths from Landsat (GRWL) Database

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Uber’s vis.gl brings glTF to geospatial data visualisation

If you’ve been involved in 3D graphics on the Web then you might already be aware of glTF and the benefits that it brings with it. If not, then this article provides some insight into the well-supported 3D format and how it’s

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When pirates studied Euclid

This article on naval navigation provides insight into just how difficult it was for sailors — in a time long before GPS — to work out where they were and how to get from point A to B (and back again). Even today most people probably

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The Atlas of Moons

Continuing with the theme of space and moons, this interactive article from National Geographic is a fantastic overview of the moons of our solar system. The atlas contains detailed and visually-stunning 3D maps of the major moons, amongst a whole wealth of other information

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Mapbox GL JS v1.1.0

Mapbox have pushed a new update for Mapbox GL JS that introduces a variety of minor improvements. The performance updates are very welcome, as well as the usability improvements in terms of new API methods and fixes for mobile devices. mapbox/mapbox-gl-jsInteractive, thoroughly customizable

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Chroma.js palette helper

This handy interactive tool makes it easy to generate and customise multi-hued, multi-stopped colour scales. It uses Chroma.js and provide a variety of export options for the resulting colour scale. chroma.js palette helper

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What’s New in ArcGIS API for JavaScript (July, 2019)

If you want a detailed review of all the new things in ArcGIS API for JavaScript then look no further. From huge performance improvements, to time sliders, to a wealth of new 3D functionality — this is a huge update. I’m excited to check

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Examples of how to make basic Web maps with various libraries

There are countless Web mapping frameworks out there to choose from — too many. Fortunately James Milner has our back and has put together some examples of how to create basic maps using the most popular mapping frameworks. Thanks James! JamesLMilner/web-mapping-librariesA comparison of adding

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Jet streams, atmospheric turbulence and climate change

This thread on Twitter by Helen Metcalfe looks into jet streams, atmospheric turbulence, and climate change. It’s not strictly related to maps but there are certainly some interesting maps referenced throughout the discussion. Today I'd like to talk about jet streams,

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Lights at sea

I love this map, not for its looks but instead for the novelty and technicality. It shows all the lighthouses from OpenStreetMap and uses signal sequence data (if available) to accurately flash the lights as they would in reality. It’s quite hypnotic. geodienst/

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Appalachian Trail map

You may have noticed that I’ve featured John Nelson’s maps before. This time I wanted to feature John’s awesome map of the Appalachian Trail and his guide on how he created it. Would love to see more maps created (and printed)

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Mapping the Moon

I featured the Ordnance Survey map of the Apollo 11 lunar landing site back in the first issue. It’s a great map! This story map from them is a further celebration of the landing and looks into the importance of Moon maps and