Santa Claus Story Web Map

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Santa Claus coming to town…via maps With Christmas coming soon and Santa preparing for his annual global delivery service of presents, I thought it would be an opportune time to investigate the origin of Santa Claus, using a story map created in Mapbox. To get the fullscreen version of the embedded map below click here, and hope you enjoy!   Finally and most importantly, Happy Christmas and have a Happy (mappy) New Year! Happy Mapping, DavidRead More →

Screenshot from Disaster Watch displaying Forest Burn in California

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Earth Observation for Everyone As 2017 starts to draw to a close, we return to one of our earlier (and all too neglected) features, Map of the Day. However, our latest entry isn’t just a map for one day, but one where you can observe changes over time, using satellite imagery and earth observation data at Canadian start up – Remote Pixel. We are in a fortunate position currently where satellite data from such sources as LANDSAT is much more readily available for public consumption. Remote Pixel is one of many to take advantage of this new environment, using the flexibility of Mapbox and LeafletRead 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 →

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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For those of us in the fortunate position to be in paid work, we are lucky if our travel to work is a simple one. The last century has been the increase in flexible working practices in many businesses, the geographic centralisation of economy and rise of private transport in most Western countries. This has led to it being common for many to not live in the same city/area, let alone the same part of town as your place of work. Therefore, commuting time has become of greater interest to companies and employees, as well as influencing property prices, climate change and transport infrastructure. This isRead More →

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I’m a self confessed Dutchophile. There’s something about the colour ‘Oranje’, the unique sound of the language (which I’m ‘trying’ to learn), the windmills, clogs, tulips, hagelslag, stroopwafels, Edam cheese and (until recently challenged) liberal attitudes. I feel there is much to admire about the resourcefulness of the people of the Netherlands, once a economic powerhouse in the 1600s, where making the most of limited land has been vital. This was particularly embodied by the philosophy of ‘Totaal’, where the ability of space to have multiple uses influenced (particularly architectural) philosophies within the general liberal Dutch culture of the 20th Century. Famously, this was reflectedRead More →

Urban Population Change 2010-2015

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One of the things I’ve enjoyed so far in creating The Map Den, is being able to share some of the latest and interesting pieces of work and tips coming out of the GIS and mapping industry. The ‘science of where‘ community is alive and strong. However, it’s time I did some original mapping content myself. Today I’m starting simple, but nonetheless importantly, looking at global urban and rural population increases. Created through static maps created in ArcGIS and joining with population data from United Nations between 2010-2015, these maps investigate the continuing phenomenon of global population increase and the urban to rural shift. WeRead More →

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How would you define a map? A type in a popular search engine beginning with ‘G’, has a familiar definition, “a diagrammatic representation of an area of land or sea showing physical features, cities, roads, etc.”, and indeed the word map derives from the word ‘mappa’ meaning sheet/napkin. However, ironically though ‘map’ isn’t restricted to this two dimensional version we can fold up; as we all know, we live a digital age where you navigate the world around you with your laptop or smartphone too. But what happens if you live somewhere with little to no mobile internet signal and sub-zero temperatures most of theRead More →

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In a world where digital maps are available within a few clicks and can rely pre-loaded map projection systems to ensure we are mapping in the right location, for me it is always humbling and breathtaking the painstaking efforts and relative accuracy of older maps. One particular example is the Selden map of China (acquired from estate of London lawyer John Selden in 1659), one of the oldest surviving merchant trade maps, and one of the first Chinese maps to reach Europe, roughly dated 1607-1617. In many ways the beauty and craft of this map speaks for itself (see here), but there is more to thisRead More →