Featured articles

In this article, Matt Forrest makes his case for why zip codes are bad for accurate spatial analysis and insight. He delves into the history of the zip code and its quirks — for example that the codes aren’t attached to a geographic area,

We’re still not quite done with map-related content about the Moon landings. This time I’m featuring an interesting article on how geological maps were integral in the planning and ultimate success of the Apollo landings and the science that followed. How geological

I find subterranean data and maps incredibly interesting for some reason — probably because they’re maps of things that are otherwise invisible. This article on the various tunnels underneath Washington, D.C. delves into just what sort of tunnels exist (and why), as well

HERE have released a tutorial on processing and mapping the street light sensors from the City of San Diego. They use Python for processing the data, HERE XYZ for hosting and filtering the data, and Tangram for outputting it in a Web browser using

Normally when you hear of vector tiles you think of static data — buildings, roads, etc. One area which isn’t well documented with vector tiles is how to use them with temporal data, especially if it needs to be animated. This approach by Mapbox

“Thanks to the Moon, the Sun, and gravity, the place where the land meets the sea is not a fixed line.” — a simple concept to understand, yet one which is often overlooked when reading a map. This article on the NASA Earth Observatory blog

This article by Atlas Obscura takes a look at Heinrich Berann’s stunning painted maps of America’s national parks. Throughout the article Tom Patterson details some of the process behind both the creation of these maps and how Heinrich came to work for

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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

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

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,

Chris Beddow explores the history of OpenStreetMap and how it needs to evolve to survive alongside modern techniques like mass-produced data from satellite and street view imagery. Can OSM continue to grow, or will it always be limited by its need for human interaction

Ordnance Survey have put together a series of tutorials on how to visualise historic call-outs from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). Other tutorials in the series cover how to produce similar maps using QGIS and Tableau. Tutorial – visualising data in Kepler with the

I only stumbled across Harold Fisk’s Mississippi River meander maps in the past few years, oblivious to both their age and their sheer scale. This short article by Jason Kottke is a nice love-letter to his maps — I particularly like how he describes

StoryMaps are all the rage at the moment, and this one on mapping Mount Everest by Alex Tait — geographer at the National Geographic Society — is no exception. It’s a fascinating insight into an expedition to perform photogrammetry of the entire Khumbu glacier. Inspiring!

SharedStreets have created an open standard for curb restriction data (eg. parking restrictions) and have been working on integrating this standard into OpenStreetMap. The idea is that governments can release curb-restriction data and it can be directly integrated into tools and maps using this

Mapbox collect over 300 million miles of anonymised location data every day to produce speed estimations for routing. This article by Saba El-Hilo goes into detail about how they use Apache Spark to calculate 30 billion of those speed estimations each week. Calculating 30

This fantastic article by Datawrapper covers the various things to consider when using choropleth maps. It’s a useful reference for understanding when to use a choropleth and how to make them communicate things better. What to consider when creating choropleth mapsSimple do’s

NASA are using machine learning to detect particles emitted from ships as they work their way across the oceans. They do this using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on their Aqua satellite. It’s even possible to detect the ships at

An insightful article from Ordnance Survey on the difference between grid north (vertical lines on an OS map) and magnetic north (where a compass points). This difference is constantly moving due to fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field. Magnetic north continues its march