Carbon Brief has analyzed global media reports to identify where and how extreme weather events have destroyed crops over the past two years. In How Extreme Weather is Destroying Crops Around the World, Carbon Brief has mapped this analysis, highlighting 100 instances of crops being lost to heat, drought, floods, and other extreme weather events in 2023-24.

The colors of the 100 markers on the map indicate the type of extreme weather event responsible for the destruction. Some markers are multi-colored, representing "compound" events where crops have been affected by more than one extreme condition - for example, frost and drought impacting grain yields in South Australia.

With only 100 data points, the Carbon Brief analysis is likely too limited to draw definitive conclusions about how different extreme climate events are affecting crops in various regions. However, the map effectively illustrates the growing challenges faced by the agricultural sector due to climate change and global warming. As climate change intensifies, agriculture worldwide faces mounting threats, and the Carbon Brief map underscores the urgent need for adaptation strategies to ensure food security.

The citizens of Hong Kong have the best rail transport system in the world according to a new study by the University of Toronto. Osaka, Japan, and Madrid, Spain, rank second and third, respectively, while New York ranks highest among U.S. cities.

The University of Toronto's School of Cities analyzed how well the world's 250 most populated cities provide rail transit for their residents. The ranking is based on the percentage of each city's population that lives within 1 km of a rail station. In essence, the study measures how many people have convenient access to rail transit.

You can view the result for yourself on the University's Rail Transit & Population Density website. The interactive visualization allows you to compare maps of any two cities and see what percentage of their populations have easy access to rail. Each city's map displays population density overlaid on its rail network, with a breakdown beneath showing the share of residents living within 1 km of a major rail station.

The School of Cities highlights two main limitations in their analysis. The rankings focus solely on rail transit, excluding other public transportation systems that may offer comparable service, such as bus networks. Additionally, they do not account for service frequency, a key factor in the overall effectiveness of transit systems.

Via: Data Vis Dispatch

This is New Amsterdam in 1660, when Peter Stuyvesant was serving as the director-general of the colony of New Netherland. New Amsterdam, located on the southern tip of Manhattan Island, was the capital of New Netherland.

One of my favorite interactive maps of all time is the Beyond Manhatta. This project visualizes Manhattan Island and its native wildlife, as it would have looked in 1609. The Beyond Manhatta map allows you to explore New York's original natural landscape of hills, valleys, forests, wetlands, salt marshes, beaches, springs, ponds and streams. 

Thanks to the New Amsterdam History Center, we can now travel forward half a century to explore Manhattan after it had become a Dutch colony, administered and governed by the Dutch West India Company.

The New Amsterdam 1660 3D model (shown above) was created by the New Amsterdam History Center for its Mapping Early New York collection, which features maps and documents of New Amsterdam and New Netherland. This model allows you to explore the settlement’s houses, farms, taverns, and workshops, as well as its surrounding walls. It was developed based on the Castello Plan, a map of the settlement created in 1660 by Jacques Cortelyou.

You can view the original Castello Plan itself on the Mapping Early New York interactive map.

Apple Maps has joined Google Maps in kowtowing to the maggot infestation of U.S. geopolitical policy. This means you might want to bookmark OpenStreetMap, Bing Maps or Mapquest, - who now seem to be the only interactive map providers still interested in maintaining geographical accuracy.

As well as continuing to use the correct place-name label for the "Gulf of Mexico," MapQuest has also released a fun new tool that lets you participate in Google’s and Apple’s new era of crap maps. MapQuest's Name Your Own Gulf allows you to play at being an appeaser to a corrupt, incompetent U.S. president yourself.

With Name Your Own Gulf, you can spend your whole day renaming the Gulf of Mexico to whatever you want. Just enter a new name, and the interactive map will automatically update to display your latest crazy misnomic place-name label. Feeling lazy (or running out of ideas), then simply press the "Surprise Me" button to see the Gulf of Mexico randomly renamed.

If you want to take your deranged despot cosplay to the next level, you can even head over to X in the middle of the night and send demented tweets containing unique URL links to each of your crazy Gulf of Mexico names.

If you still have a few minutes to kill, you can also play my Where's the Gulf of Mexico? game. This game imagines a world where Google and Apple have taken their new MAGA mapping policy to its logical conclusion - renaming every location in the world "United States." However, the Gulf of Mexico has gone into hiding, still remaining somewhere among the thousands of "United States" place-name labels. You have just 60 seconds to find the Gulf of Mexico and report it to Google's ICE (Imaginary Cartographic Edits) team of enforcement agents.

The Black History Month Map is a new collaborative and dynamic map developed by kinkofa and PamPam to honor and document the significant places, individuals, and movements that have shaped Black history. To help you explore the invaluable contributions of Black Americans to U.S. history, the map is powered by PamPam's "Ask Pam" AI assistant.

According to NASA, Asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 2.3% chance of impacting Earth on December 22, 2032. The asteroid is estimated to be between 40 to 90 meters (130 to 300 feet) in diameter.

If you want to know what damage Asteroid 2024 YR4 might cause if it lands in your backyard, you can use Neal.Fun's Asteroid Launcher to find out.

According to Neal.Fun's Asteroid Launcher, if a 200-foot diameter rock asteroid hit Manhattan at 38,000 mph at a 45-degree impact angle, it would cause a fireball almost 1 mile in diameter. As a result of the fireball, 3,671,280 people would die, and an estimated 2,904,736 people would receive third-degree burns. Homes within 8.2 miles of Manhattan would collapse, and nearly all the trees within 8.8 miles would be knocked down.

Neal.Fun's Asteroid Launcher is an interactive map that allows you to visualize the impact and effects of an asteroid hitting the Earth. The map allows you to define the size, composition, speed, and impact angle of an asteroid and then choose where on Earth the asteroid will hit. Once you have chosen an impact location, you can view information on the predicted width and depth of any impact crater, as well as data on the number of people who would be vaporized in the crater or killed by the resulting fireball, shock wave, and wind blast.

While the current estimated impact probability of Asteroid 2024 YR4 is 2.3%, it is important to note that this figure is likely to change as additional observations and data are collected. Continued monitoring and analysis by NASA and other space agencies will help refine the asteroid's trajectory and provide a clearer understanding of any potential threat.

The chances of Asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting your town are very slim - there is probably more chance of a nuclear war. But don't worry, Bomb Blast Bomb Blast can show you the likely effects of a nuclear missile landing on your home.

Outrider's Bomb Blast interactive map allows you to choose from a range of different types of nuclear weapons and select whether you want to detonate it at ground level or as an airburst. You can then view the likely damage of the selected weapon hitting your town, visualized on an interactive map. The map shows the likely radius of the fireball, radiation, shock wave, and heat. It also provides an estimate of the number of fatalities and injuries that the selected nuclear weapon would cause to your chosen target.

Ecotenet is an interactive platform that provides users with a unique map of ecoregions across the globe. The map focuses on ecological boundaries in order to provide users with an understanding of different types of ecoregion and their unique biodiversity.

One of the most compelling aspects of Ecotenet is its emphasis on ecoregions, which are defined by the World Wildlife Fund as a "large unit of land or water that contain distinct species, natural communities, and environmental conditions".

Click on any ecoregion on the map and you can read a general summary of the region's ecological characteristics and history. The ECO-651 Filter can be used to view the global distribution of various animal or plant species. For example the screenshot at the top of this post shows the distribution of the northern giraffe in Africa.

The species distribution data on Ecotenet is sourced from organizations such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, World Wildlife Fund, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, USDA, and the Ocean Biodiversity Information System. This ensures that the data is both accurate and comprehensive, covering a wide range of species and their habitats.

Also See

• Explore Earth's Bioregions - a map which visualizes the Earth as 185 discrete bioregions
• The Ecoregions Map - a guide to 846 ecoregions around the globe

The Topography Explorer is an interactive map that generates and allows users to explore 3D renderings of the Earth's surface.

Using the application, you can create your own 3D visualizations of watershed areas or predefined regions. The animated GIF at the top of this post is an example of a 3D visualization generated by the Topography Explorer. This animation shows a 3D rendering of Bioko, an island belonging to Equatorial Guinea.

The Topography Explorer includes dynamic URL addresses. For example, here is a direct link to the 3D visualization of the island of Bioko. Currently, the application does not provide the option to download data from created 3D visualizations.

The DEM Net Elevation API can also help you create your very own 3D terrain models for any location on Earth. DEM Net has a fantastic tool that allows you to generate 3D models simply by selecting an area on a map.

To create a 3D model using the DEM Net Elevation API, all you have to do is draw a square on an interactive map around the area you wish to model. Within seconds, DEM Net will generate a 3D model of your selected area. You can then rotate and zoom in & out on your model directly in the browser. Additionally, you can download the model in two different formats.

DEM Net offers several customization options, including:

• A selection of different satellite imagery or map tile sources for your model.
• The ability to adjust the height of your model to exaggerate elevation levels.
• A choice of various elevation models to generate your terrain.

If you’d love to own a 3D model of your own neighborhood, you might want to try Tile Exporter. Unlike the Topography Explorer and DEM Net, this application does not generate topographical representations but instead creates 3D models of urban areas using building footprints from Mapzen maps.

The tool utilizes building height data from Mapzen’s vector map tiles, enabling you to create a 3D map of any neighborhood. Just enter an address into Tile Exporter, and you’ll see a 3D map of the location. You can also use the inset map to adjust the location by selecting adjacent map tiles.

Once you’ve found a 3D scene that you like, simply press the "Download" button to grab the .obj file. This file includes:

• Building height data
• Earth, water, and land-use layers of your selected map tile

Once you’ve downloaded your .obj file, all you need is a 3D printer to bring your model to life!

There is something slightly old-fashioned about Obscure Islands I Find Interesting, which I find very endearing. In essence, it is a simple interactive map with a limited selection of just 16 interesting islands. However, there is a certain charm in its innocent delight in exploring the world—one that reminds me of why I first became obsessed with interactive maps.

Obscure Islands I Find Interesting takes you on a tour of some of the world's most unique and little-known islands. With a selection of just 16 islands, each accompanied by a brief but intriguing description, this site offers a delightful exploration of some of the most isolated and mysterious locations across the globe.

The islands featured on the map range from historical curiosities (like Pheasant Island, which changes sovereignty every six months) to geographical anomalies (such as the recursively nested unnamed island in Canada). Its simplicity is perhaps the map's greatest strength. For example, the minimalist interface, with “Next” and “Previous” buttons, allows for smooth browsing between islands, making it easy for users to navigate through the 16 'interesting' islands with minimal hassle.

One of the islands featured on Obscure Islands I Find Interesting doesn't actually exist. In 2012, scientists from the University of Sydney sailed to Sandy Island, an island that appeared on Google Maps in the Pacific Ocean. However, when they arrived at the location, all they found was open sea. Sandy Island didn't exist - it was a phantom island.

Phantom islands are fake islands that have appeared on maps for a period of time, only to be later removed when proven to be nonexistent. Most of these islands originated from reports by sailors exploring uncharted waters. Presumably, they were a mix of mythical tales and simple cartographic errors in positioning real islands on early maps.

One of the most impressive explorations of these imaginary places is Phantom Islands – A Sonic Atlas, an interactive map that takes users on a journey through some of history’s most famous phantom islands. Each island is marked on the map, and clicking on a location reveals the story behind its creation. You can learn when the island first appeared on an atlas, when it was last recorded on a map, and how it was eventually debunked. Press the "Cruise" button, and you'll be taken on an audio tour of all the phantom islands.

Godview is one of the most promising new AI-powered maps to have emerged in the past 18 months. It is an interactive map that allows users to perform geographical searches using natural language queries.

This week, Godview introduced an exciting new feature called "Discover." This addition enhances the user experience by enabling individuals to click on any location on the map and instantly access AI-generated insights about the area.

Discover

The Discover feature is particularly valuable for a wide range of users, from travelers and researchers to everyday individuals curious about their surroundings. For example, as I plan a trip to southern Italy, Discover should allow me to simply click on towns and cities in Puglia to identify which ones might be most interesting to visit. It could also help me pinpoint must-see attractions in the towns where I eventually decide to stay.

Or Don’t Discover

Unfortunately, Godview appears to be somewhat myopic, and its Discover answers can be geographically imprecise. For example, when I clicked on West Ham in London, I was informed that it was Wanstead—"a generally affluent area." While the two locations are only two miles apart, in a city like London, those two miles can make a world of difference (West Ham actually has one of the highest poverty rates in the UK). 

I encountered similar inaccuracies when clicking on towns and cities in southern Italy. For the large city of Bari, Discover provided an accurate and useful general description. However, for smaller towns in Puglia, the results were more inconsistent. Godview frequently defaulted to a broader description of the Puglia region rather than providing details specific to the town in question. In some cases, it even confused locations with nearby towns.

Final Thoughts

While Godview’s Discover feature has significant potential, it still has room for improvement in accuracy and precision. The issue may stem from imprecise reverse geocoding rather than the AI itself - perhaps the geocoding service Godview relies on is returning overly broad results. Alternatively, the language model (LLM) powering Discover may currently be limited to generating insights in some locations at a broad regional rather than a local level.

This also raises the question of user needs - something Discover does not yet fully address. Different users clicking on Greenwich Village in New York, for example, may be looking for entirely different levels of detail. One might expect a general overview of New York City, another may want specifics on the neighborhood itself, while a third could be interested in insights about a particular block or street.

Introducing Jumbled Maps

Tripgeo has kindly agreed to host another of my map games, bringing geography enthusiasts a fresh and exciting challenge. If you love testing your knowledge of world maps and enjoy puzzles, then my latest game, Jumbled Maps, is perfect for you. 

In Jumbled Maps, someone has played a cosmic prank on the world map, and every country place-name label has been randomly displaced. Your mission is simple: restore geographical order by putting each nation back in its rightful place.

To play Jumbled Maps, click on any misplaced country label and type in its correct name. There are 249 countries in total to correct. Country names that you have successfully fixed will be shown with a green outline on the map and will also appear in the map sidebar.

How the Map Works

In essence Jumbled Maps is a very simple game. The game is powered by MapLibre, the flexible and open-source mapping library, with map tiles provided by OpenFreeMap, an open-source platform providing free custom map layers. These map tiles have then been custom styled using Maputnik to remove all country place-name labels from the map layer.

When the map loads, new country place-name labels are displayed on the map in randomly shuffled positions. These labels are retrieved from a GeoJSON dataset. This creates the core challenge of Jumbled Maps, as players must use their geographical knowledge to restore order.

The game also utilizes local storage to track a player’s progress. Any countries that have already been correctly identified are saved and excluded from future shuffles. This means you don’t have to correct all 249 country names in one session - you can return to the game at any time and pick up where you left off!

Also See

If you enjoy Jumbled Maps then you will also love Scrambled Maps, Tripgeo's daily map challenge. Scrambled Map requires you to unscramble the jumbled map tiles of a different city every day.

The Punggol Digital District

The Punggol Digital District (PDD) is a pioneering smart district under development in Singapore. Designed to be a hub for innovation, it will house major technology firms, fintech hubs of banks like OCBC and UOB, and will be seamlessly integrated with the newly opened Punggol Coast MRT station. What sets PDD apart from other smart districts is its Open Digital Platform (ODP) - a centralized system that enables seamless connectivity between various technologies and services across the district.

Building an Open Digital Platform (ODP)

The ODP will serve as the district’s core digital infrastructure, facilitating smooth communication between different systems, including robotics, energy management, security, and public utilities. Acting as the smart city’s "operating system," it will streamline processes such as energy optimization, robotic coordination, and facility management, ensuring greater efficiency and sustainability.

Practical Applications

The ODP promotes interoperability between various smart systems. For example, autonomous food delivery robots and cleaning robots will operate seamlessly within the district using the ODP’s unified communication standard. This will allow robots to access elevators, navigate buildings, and move between designated zones without technical obstacles.

Building a Digital Twin

One of the ODP's key features is its integration with a real-time 3D digital twin of the district. This virtual model allows estate managers to monitor conditions, track footfall, analyze energy consumption, and manage public services efficiently.

Building a Digital Twin of a Digital Twin

The Straits Times has an amazing track record of creating virtual 3D models to illustrate important news stories. Therefore when it came to covering the 3D digital twin of PDD, the Straits Times naturally developed its own scaled-down version of the district to provide a visual representation of its smart systems in action.

In Punggol Digital District: Singapore’s blueprint for future smart districts, the Straits Times uses its very own 3D model of the district to demonstrate how cleaning and delivery robots will navigate the district by using the city's new Open Digital Platform (ODP).

The Straits Times’ 3D virtual model of the Punggol Digital District provides a visual tool that brings the district’s smart systems to life. It perfectly illustrates how the Open Digital Platform (ODP) will help to facilitate seamless interaction between robots, infrastructure, and urban services in Singapore's newest smart district. 

It was Groundhog Day on Sunday. Punxsutawney Phil of Gobbler’s Knob saw his shadow, and according to tradition, this means there will be six more weeks of winter.

However, Punxsutawney Phil's prognosis of an extended winter was not universally accepted by all the groundhogs of North America. This is why you need the Groundhog Map.

If you don’t trust Punxsutawney Phil’s forecast, the Groundhog Map offers 84 other groundhog predictions to consider. The map compiles the annual weather predictions of groundhogs across the United States and Canada, harnessing the collective wisdom of the burrow to provide a crowd-sourced critter climatological forecast.

This year, 55% of all groundhog predictions actually forecast an early spring. So, at least for this year, Punxsutawney Phil is in the minority with his prediction of a long winter.

The Groundhog Map also features an API. The Groundhog Day API allows users to access data on past predictions from individual groundhogs, as well as aggregate yearly data comparing the number of early spring forecasts to predictions of longer winters.

Of course, whether you trust a single seasoned marmot or the wisdom of the burrow, one thing is certain - spring is coming. Until then, you can either embrace Phil’s prophecy and dust off your snow shovel, or side with the majority of groundhogs and start shopping for sunglasses. Either way, at least now you have data-driven rodent meteorology to back up your decision.

Introducing Street View Animator

Who doesn’t enjoy exploring the world on Street View? I can’t begin to calculate the number of hours I’ve spent on Google Maps, virtually wandering the streets of New York, Paris, and Rome. Street View has also given me the chance to explore some of the ancient wonders of the world, such as the Pyramids of Giza, the rock city of Petra, and the temple complex of Angkor Wot.

Now imagine exploring those locations on Street View with your friends. 

Picture this: You’ve just returned from visiting Tokyo, and you want to share your experience with your friends. But instead of just showing them static photos or a map, you take them on a fully immersive virtual tour. With Street View Animator, you can guide them through the bustling streets of Shibuya, past the iconic Tokyo Tower, and along the serene pathways of the Meiji Shrine - all in real-time and from the comfort of their own homes.

Street View Animator represents an innovative new approach to virtual exploration, combining Google's Street View technology with interactive routing and real-time sharing capabilities. This powerful tool can transform how you experience and share locations virtually, making it invaluable for education, real estate, tourism, and personal travel planning.

How It Works

At its core, Street View Animator allows users to create custom routes on Google Maps and automatically navigate them through Street View. Users can either draw routes directly on the map or enter start and end locations. The tool then generates a smooth, continuous journey along the selected path, creating an immersive ground-level experience that feels like actually traveling through the location.

Real-Time Sharing

One of the most impressive features of Street View Animator is its real-time sharing capability. Once you’ve created a journey, you can explore it in real-time with your friends or colleagues. In Shared View, you can lead an interactive group experience and guide other viewers through your journey in real-time. Everything you do on the animated Street View tour is seen in real-time by everyone you’ve invited - on their own screens and monitors. Street View Animator’s combination of route planning, automated navigation, and real-time sharing capabilities makes it an invaluable tool in many scenarios. Whether used for virtual tourism, education, real estate, or business applications, it offers an engaging and practical way to explore and share locations virtually with other people in real-time.

In 2023 nearly 5.5 million Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes because of the Russian invasion. In the same year, over 6 million refugees fled Pakistan following the devastating 2022 floods. Additionally, the ongoing war in Syria displaced over 3 million people, forcing them to seek refuge abroad.

In total, 27,320,316 people were displaced in 2023 and forced to seek a new life in a new country. Of those 27.3 million refugees, only 394,073 found a home in the United States. To put that into perspective, Germany - a country about 27.5 times smaller than the U.S. - accepted 2,488,862 refugees. Meanwhile, Iran alone took in 3,764,517 refugees, which is approximately 10 times the number accepted by the United States.

These figures come from the Refugee Project interactive map. The map uses 50 years of refugee migration data from the UNHCR to plot the numbers of refugees forced to flee individual countries each year since 1975, as well as the countries where they sought asylum. 

Using the map's timeline, you can select any year to view refugee data. Once a year is selected, you can choose any country in the world to see how many refugees it accepted that year and the countries those displaced individuals fled from. You can also explore how many refugees were forced to leave specific countries and where they found asylum globally.