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The double act of Music and Geography Firstly, a very belated happy new year, as well as celebrating the first year anniversary of The Map Den! I’ve really enjoyed getting further involved in the geospatial community through this website, sharing interesting developments and content in social media, and hopefully contributing in my own tiny way on here. Geography, the study and the communication of this through maps, GIS and other geospatial forms is a great passion of mine and I believe is inherently relevant to the world around us – perhaps more than ever. Everything happens somewhere. Another strong interest of mine is music, aRead More →

Map of knowledge of Celtic language

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Croeso! Fáilte! Degemer mat! Failt ort! Dynnargh dhis! If you managed to work out the languages in the above greetings without Google, congratulations! For those who needed to Google (including myself), will know for the record that the above all means ‘Welcome’ in Welsh, Irish Gaelic/Scots Gaelic, Breton, Manx and Cornish respectively. However, despite being ‘native’ languages to their respective regions of the British Isles and Northern France with long histories, they are minority languages compared to English and French respectively, with differing fortunes and histories. In a previous article exploring the geography of Wales, we have seen how the Welsh language is a historical link to pre Angl0-SaxonRead More →

Distance to UK Train Stations

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Set for departure… *DING DONG* “The train now arriving at platform 2 is the (delayed) 1743 service to London Paddington calling at…” I’ve been spending a lot more time at train stations recently – starting a new job in a different city with a new commute, as well as travelling to see friends etc. Sometimes it can be frustrating waiting in the cold through delays for the next train, or weaving through commuters in the hope of getting a seat. However, being from a railway-boom town like Swindon, I do feel a certain affinity for the railway. But the geographer in me has often wonderedRead More →

Mapbox GL JS visualisation examples

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Okay, now I want to get coding… In the previous posts in this series, we have looked at the intuitive ‘out-of-the-box’ web maps you can configure with little to no coding knowledge, whether that be with CARTO or ArcGIS Online, with differing level of learning curves. This may be all you require and provide a timely and quick web mapping solution, particularly in the latter example, one that is integrated with your organisation’s/personal GIS infrastructure. However, to begin customising and ‘fine-tuning’ your web map to your exact needs, some knowledge or understanding of HTML, CSS, and a web scripting language, like Javascript, is required. IRead More →

ArcGIS Online Sandbox

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So I can make a web map, but I want more control… In my previous post, I introduced you to the world of web maps and how the world of geo web development has become more accessible for wanting to get started straight away in creating web maps with little to no web development skills, thanks to the intuitiveness of sites like CARTO. As explained previously, for many this is maybe all you are looking for or need, but others may want to explore options more integrated into existing offline GIS software, and get involved customisation and coding further. ArcGIS Online – Tailored for all levels IRead More →

Example of Carto Builder

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That web map looks great! Wish I could make one… In some ways, there has maybe not been a better time to be involved in the geospatial and cartographic industry, whether as a profession or as hobby/passing interest. While ‘static’ maps and images of geographical information and data visualisation are still very relevant and useful, the rise of the interactive web map is an increasingly trend which is hitting the ‘mainstream’ more and more, whether it be through maps in current affairs like election maps, or through games or social media (e.g. Pokemon Go! and SnapMap). Therefore, the ability for cartographers and geospatialists to haveRead More →

Dull Twinned with Boring

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Welcome to ‘Twin City’ Enter most towns, cities or villages in not just the UK, but in Europe and beyond, and you will likely find a ‘Welcome to [insert place name]’ and underneath ‘Twinned with [insert twin cities]’. Perhaps it is easy ignore these twin cities and linkages, or dismiss them as nothing more than symbolic, but what is the story behind twin or sister cities and what does it mean today? For those unaware a twin or sister city partnership is where there is a ‘friendship’ and legal/social agreement between one town or city (or even a region) to another , usually in a different country.Read More →

Conflict_EventType_Mali

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In new series, ‘Map Nation’, I choose a country at random, and use this a topic to create maps related to this country. First, out of the hat – Mali Tim Marshall in his excellent book, ‘Prisoners of Geography’, underlines the importance and much overlooked influence of geography on the history of the world and modern geopolitics. Among many great examples, include Russia and it’s need for a warm sea port, or Europe, where terrain, climate and rivers created the multitude of countries and cultures in a relatively small land mass. Another example of historical and geography’s persisting impact today is perhaps no greater than inRead More →

UK_ESC_Overall_Post2000_Points Comparison

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Trying to understand and explain the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) isn’t the easy. Tune in on the evening of 13th May 2017 and in between overly-scripted hosts, thumping Eurodance and ballards, you’ll treated performances like Azerbaijan’s which includes a man wearing a horse’s head. Meanwhile Italy is one of the favourites, despite having a man dancing in a gorilla suit- and this is par for the course each year in the ESC. For those unfamiliar with ESC,  on the face of it, this is an annual song contest where each competing European country writes and performs a song, which is then scored by a panel of judges andRead More →

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England is often known as the ‘home of football’ due to the its role formalising the first standardised rules of ‘association football’, and this game that was spread globally over the 19th and 20th century. In its early origins in England , the Football Association was formed in 1863, which formalised the rules of the game and started the FA Cup in 1871, but football remained an ad-hoc amateur game, run by those who could afford to play this as a pastime.  For example, the majority of founding FA clubs were private school teams, despite the large popularity of the game in the industrialised inner cities of Victorian Britain.Read More →