Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with maps and geography

Website to sort and display different mountain heights?

seasparrow — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:56:36 -0800

Is there a website that would show the world sorted by elevation? I recently enjoyed reading Plague Year, a post-apocalyptic thriller. The main conceit of this science-fiction novel is that a nanotechnology plague that kills any warm blooded animal (including humans), but the disease self-destructs at altitudes above 10,000 feet. How much territory would this be across the whole planet? I liked the book. It isn't great literature, but the author, Jeff Carlson, thinks through the ramifications of a world where most mammals are now extinct and a tiny fragment of humanity clings to a few frozen mountain-tops. Carlson also doesn't shy away or sugar-coat the realities of such a situation. He also doesn't make it easy for his characters, unlike other authors in the post-apocalyptic genre. (Yes, I'm pointing at you, S.M. Stirling.) Some of the protagonists feel guilty about the cannibalism they had to resort to in order to survive, but at least they are alive, unlike 99.9% of the human race.

So, like I said, a fun read that got me thinking. My real question for the Hive Mind is-- in all the great variety of the internet, is there some sort of geographical website that would allow me to view the world through the filter of all elevations above 10,000 feet?

Which sparks another question: Have you seen the maps that occasionally appear showing what the world would look like if global warming caused the sea levels to rise 50 or 100 feet? Is there a website that will let you do that as well? Maybe even set your own parameters on how much you want the water levels to rise or fall, and then generate a map for you?

Does anyone work in the field? Isn't is called Geographical Information Systems? It sounds fascinating. I think I might enjoy working a GIS job eventually. Questions like these linger in my mind, so much so that I'm willing to spend my one-a-week currency of an AskMe question to see what the sophisticated and cosmopolitcal Mefite community has to say about it.

Thanks for your help, and I hope I'm not the only weirdo who thinks about these things!

What can you see in satellite photos?

k. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:33:01 -0800

Satellite photos: what interesting features can be seen or measured in them (or other aerial photos), and where can I get a supply of images? Examples I have already seen, from some crude Google-searching:
Roads
Buildings
Degree of development (urban/suburban/rural)
Oil spills (apparently these are usually hard to see)
Blooms of algae (cyanobacteria) in the Baltic Sea
Damage to buildings from earthquakes

More would be appreciated--the more specific, the better. These will be used in a computer vision system, so I'd especially like to know where I can find a supply of images containing whatever feature I'm looking for (including the above)--easy for buildings or roads, but hard for rare events like oil spills. Natural disasters seem interesting, if there are pictures available.

I would also consider some other kind of non-photographic data as well, if it could be combined with maps or photos. Don't worry whether you think it's suitable; any idea you have will help!

A Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood...

richmondparker — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:19:03 -0800

Anybody know of a way to get a map that shows neighborhoods instead of just street names? If it helps, I'm looking for the 30062 area code...

Dammit, Mercator!

HumuloneRanger — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:05:15 -0800

Help me find a series of maps with various countries superimposed on the continental US. I used to spend hours poring over atlases as a kid. One of my favorite maps came from a community college course that my grandfather took; it was a map of Africa something like this. Looking back, I really appreciate what an intuitive grasp that gave me of just how HUGE the continent is, when we're usually so accustomed to the Mercator projection.

However, I still find it difficult to get a sense of the sizes of individual countries compared to my own. I'm familiar with common verbal comparisons, e.g. 'France is about the size of Texas,' and the CIA World Factbook is pretty good about providing some less common ones, but this is the sort of thing where a visual is much more helpful. My google-fu is failing me, perhaps because I'm not coming up with a very good search string. This isn't very helpful, because it's cluttered with too many borders and cities and is clearly just two areas from different latitudes of the same Mercator projection. I think this site captures the basic idea of what I'm looking for, although I'd prefer higher quality maps and less in the way of politicization. Something like this map of Alaska, but with India, Japan, Nigeria, etc in its stead.

I can haz demographic displays, plz?

WidgetAlley — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:09:46 -0800

I am in need of a program that will allow me to display demographic information by county on a state map. Recommendations? I am interning for the Legal Aid society over the summer, and part of my work includes compiling demographic statistics about their client population and figuring out a way to display it in a way that ties in with a map of our area (Tennessee.) I am looking for a program set up for this, and that will allow me to create some quite sophisticated displays-- for instance, percentage of total population vs. percentage of clients per county, dominant type of cases per county, etc.

Legal Aid is fairly well-funded, but we are still a non-profit; we are willing to make a cash commitment but don't have a whole lot of money to throw around, so cheaper/free is better! Thank you from a lowly intern!

Any interesting map theory books?

slab_lizard — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:06:27 -0800

I'm looking for suggested book(s) for backgrounding myself in map theory. Think somewhere between a history of maps and a technical textbook. I've been looking at maps for 30+ years as a non-geographer, and will be taking some GIS and mapping courses this autumn. So, plenty of text-and-classroom exposure there. What kind of semi-technical background reading would be useful over the summer?

Where in the world is.........

micklaw — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:47:52 -0800

Please pass on your favourite online mapping websites, with an emphasis on interactive applications. I really love maps. I spend a lot of time using a variety of (mainly educational) online maps such as the WWF Wildfinder, NationMaster, Reuters AlertNet, Globalis and the very excellent Geoscience Australia Sentinel Bushfire tool and so on. Maps of War is also an excellent resource in a similar vein, although not as interactive as those previously listed.

Anyway, the internet being what it is, I am sure there are many more fantastic resources online that I have not yet come across and I would love to tap the collective mind of Metafiler users to help me expand my mapping horizons.

Post your recommendations, particularly with an emphasis on non-US maps (global or other regions would be most useful) as these will be used in a non-US school.

Thanks in advance!

If I only had a widget...

nosila — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 06:16:34 -0800

I'm looking for a Dashboard widget for Mac OS X that will help me get better at geography. I've found the Worldview Widget and the countries widget, but neither is exactly right.

Ideally, the main interface would be a normal old colored map with country borders and country/capital names that I could zoom into/out of. It would be a bonus if I could switch between a map/satellite view a la Google Maps, but if I had to choose, I would prefer a plain old map.

The Worldview Widget is close, but it's really small, and you can't make it larger. It also doesn't have a non-Google-Earthy map; it's all satellite imagery. I do really like the extra info it gives, though.

The Countries widget is too simplistic.

It is key to me that it works in Dashboard.

Help me find a pseudo-cartogram of the world's largest cities.

brownbat — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:58:53 -0800

Help me re-find a cartogram-like picture of the 100 largest cities by population. A few months ago I saw a chart of the world's largest cities (maybe the cutoff was all cities with over 1 million people, maybe it was the 100 largest). The picture was a large rectangle and the cities were rectangles as well. Tokyo was in the upper-left with a bajillion people (35 million ish), then the next 5 or so cities had in the 20 millions.

There may have been color coding to indicate what country of the world they were in.

I might have seen a story about this chart on Lifehacker, the Freakonomics blog, or maybe just reddit. Can't remember, and I'm apparently not Googling for the right keywords.

If I must have a title, make it some pithy comment about the Yukon's Menstruation, I suppose.

converge — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:02:33 -0800

What is this? 60°24'37.66"N 130°48'59.78"W. View it in satellite on Google Maps or Earth. This has been bugging me for a couple of months. Forest fire? Maybe. But it seems to go much higher than the tree line (yeah, I get that the heat could possibly distort the sat pic) and shows up in a few sources (though, this area is probably not photographed much). I'm sure its not beetle kill. Might it be a huge copper deposit or some such?

Mapgeek looking for a career

desjardins — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:56:45 -0800

What kind of career can I pursue that involves maps, apart from the obvious (cartography, GIS, geography teacher)? I love maps. Correction: I LOVE maps. I want to think outside the box and compile a list of alternative career opportunities that involve maps in some way; either creation or analysis. My minimum is $40K/year. Domestic or foreign travel is fine but I don't want to relocate outside of the US (preferably midwest or west coast). Not-for-profit is OK. I'd love something I can do as a consultant, though I realize that might be tough in the current economic climate. I'm mostly interested in demography/human geography/sociological issues. Not especially interested in environmental/sustainability issues. I have a Master's in urban planning with a concentration in GIS.

My skills/education (not exhaustive):

GIS (ArcGIS, MapInfo, Idrisi)

Cartography

Urban planning

Web design

Basic graphic design (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)

Basic database development & management

Research/statistics/data analysis

Basic VB

Excellent writing and editing

Good presentation skills
Good troubleshooting/problem solving

Intermediate spoken/written French

Skills I want to acquire:

Web dev (PHP, AJAX, ASP.net, etc.)

Programming (C#, etc, open to suggestions)

Expand RDMS skills (MySQL, etc)

Spanish

I welcome contact through MeFi mail or my gmail listed in my profile.

Guess the island.

The Toad — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:55:30 -0800

One of those "Suicide Girls" has decorated her wall with the antique map of an island. Ignore the tattoos for a moment: which island is shown here? NSFW Link. (This is for a blog quiz)

Generating shaded maps of India with state-level data series.

matthewr — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:31:29 -0800

What's the easiest way of generating a map similar to this? I have several state-level data series I want to display on maps of India. I assume this blank map of India in SVG format is a good starting-point. Now, what program(s) do I use to link areas on the map to my data series and hence automatically shade states by a variable x?

My data looks like:
[state code] state x [jm] jam 1.93386 [hp] him 1.74945 [pj] pun 1.90247 [uc] utt 2.13038 ... 33 more states ...

I have Windows, Stata, Excel and zero budget.

What about London should I map?

viewofdelft — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:23:05 -0800

What about London should I map? I'm in an Advanced GIS class for which I need to produce a final cartographic project. The project must begin in ArcGIS but from there I'm free to use anything else (Illustrator, Flash, Google Earth, etc). In the spirit of John Snow, I'd like to make my upcoming trip to London a force for academic good.

I have a GPS unit, a DSLR camera, a student's budget, and a winning personality. What should I map? I'm open to all suggestions as long as they meet the following criteria:

1) The map should present complex and interesting information. I'm not too worried about this one because questions soliciting suggestions on this site often generate very interesting answers.

2) The project/map should be focused. I'll be in London for only a week and I'd like to make the data collection effort into a sort of overarching theme for my visit. That means I should probably confine my map to one neighborhood or area (I'm staying in Soho, but don't let that restrict you).

3) The data can come from any (accessible) source. I'd like to have a little fun gathering the data, but if your suggestions for a map can just as easily be constructed with data from other sources, I'd be happy to hear them. I live in the United States, so any return trips are out of the question this semester.

Thanks in advance. If I choose to go with one of the suggestions, I'll keep you updated.

Help me find a direction for my website.

desjardins — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 07:56:45 -0800

I want to build a website centered around maps, mapping, geography, GIS, etc., but I need help narrowing down my focus. I like niche blogs like Strange Maps and Google Maps Mania, as well as more general cartography blogs like Map Room (run by MeFi's own mcwetboy). Of course, I don't want to rip off either one, or any other site, but I'm starting to feel like it's all been done before.

I want to provide something interesting and useful. I also want it to be a playground where I can create my own maps. I can create Google and Yahoo mashups, I'm good with HTML and CSS, and so-so with Javascript, but I'm not at the point where I can create flash maps or Web 2.0 stuff like Wayfaring or Mapbuilder. I'm not going to sell anything on the site and I don't anticipate it as a money-making venture.

I'm sorry for the vagueness of the question - I don't mean this to be a name-my-kitten type of AskMe. I'm just hoping you can help me over my creative block. I've owned the domain name for half a year and have done basically nothing with it. So what kind of mapping site/blog would you be interested in seeing?

you got map'd

pinto — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 13:17:10 -0800

What are the best essays, books, or scholarly articles regarding the social role of maps? Both pre- and post- web 2.0, google earth mash ups, and the like. I'm familiar with the Situationalist critique, but wonder where else to begin reading. Bonus: Current mapping projects which seem particularly relevant with regard to socialization, cultural production, etc.

Need geographical maps of earth

heylight — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 03:50:52 -0800

I'm looking for some fairly high-quality geographical maps of the whole planet (preferably contained in a single map, instead of being spread over several), but without any details on it whatsoever to do with places or names, not even names of mountains or rivers - no country/state borders drawn in either - the only detail should be things like the geography (high/low land, desert, mountains, forest, etc) Thanks in advance!

What is the geographical center of Polk County, Florida?

?! — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 20:24:13 -0800

What is the geographical center of Polk County, Florida? I'm defining geographical center as a the center of gravity of a "cut-out 2D map of the country, of uniform thickness and density" (Thanks, justkevin.)

Of course, I'd appreciate the answer, but I'm willing to do the work if someone could point out a link to software that could help figure this out for me, or a formula I could use (and by "I" I mean someone who hasn't had a math class in over 30 years.)

Baring those, an email from a kind professor whose class would do this as an extra credit question on a Friday pop quiz would make my Father's Day.

How do I find the population within a defined radius of a certain point?

brain_drain — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:58:06 -0800

I'm looking for a tool (preferably free) that will provide population data for the area within a defined radius of a point on a map. Ideally, it would be a website that allows you to click on a map, set a "center," and choose a radius from the center (say 10, 20, 100 miles). It would then provide information on the population within the chosen radius. At a minimum I need information on population size, but other demographic data would be helpful as well.

If there's no such site (or it's expensive), next-best would be a tool that at least provides this information for major metropolitan areas.

"The Map of a Single province covered the space of an entire City."

viewofdelft — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:50:20 -0800

I'm looking for maps "the same scale as the Empire." Both Jorge Luis Borges and Lewis Carroll describe fictional 1:1 scale maps in which the map is as vast as what it represents.

What other 1:1 maps can be found in literature (or the real world, for that matter)? I'd also be happy if you point me towards other outlandish maps on par with the 1:1 map. Thanks.

Help me find a gift for a map-obsessed friend

wannabehippie — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 10:34:30 -0800

Gift-Filter: Friend who likes maps + Access to a map library = ??? A good friend's birthday is coming up and I would like to get him something map-related. This is a person who enjoys spending countless hours just pouring over old AAA road guides or discarded atlases. He also has a strong interest in local history and politics. Through work, I have access to a large collection of antique maps and airphotos of the area my friend grew up and still resides in, his family has a large part in developing the local area and civic history etc.

What's a good way of presenting this? FWIW, I have at my disposal a high resolution scanner, printer, oodles of geographical goodness and at least two good-natured map librarians.

Man, the beltway sure is a pretty octagon!

phrontist — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 13:00:08 -0800

Is there a geographically accurate map of the DC metro system? Like this London tube map?

Is there a GIS + Google Maps website?

blacklite — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 20:46:42 -0800

Is there a website that lets you show GIS data (i.e. standard geographical data from various sources) on Google Maps? I thought I had seen something like this referenced in a MetaFilter post, or here, but I can't find it anywhere. Help, o wise people.

Ethnic maps?

scazza — Tue, 15 Mar 2005 13:09:02 -0800

1. Are there maps anywhere that show the geographical distribution of ethnicities and religions accross different regions? 2. Or, does a program exist where I could plug in preference for different feilds (example: religion, climate, geography) and it would spit out the closest region to such specifications? I would mostly apply this to Central Asia (the closest I have found is this, which I can't read, nor can I find the source map). I have a very good general idea, I know what exists over a large area of Asia, but specifically where? There has been a confluence of ethnicities and religions established over its history, joining Asian, Turkish, Russian, Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu cultures. After researching countries individually, having studied the ancient history of the region, I can't get a handle on what actually exists today in specific locations. Kazakhstan, one of the many countries that comprises "Central Asia," reaches from the Caspian Sea to China, from desert to freezing temperatures, so where is what?

Why are Europe and Asia considered two distinct land masses when it's obvious they are one?

Scoo — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 17:24:20 -0800

Why is it still taught that the Earth has seven continents, when it's obvious it has only six, or to be more precise, why are Europe and Asia considered two distinct land masses when it's obvious they are one?