MasterMaps

Great news! On December 1st, the Norwegian Mapping Authority (NMA) launched a series of map services. The best and most detailed maps of Norway are now freely available. You can browse the maps in my new web application: norgesatlas.info (Atlas of Norway). The following map layers are fetched from NMA: Sjøkart = Nautical chart Topografisk = Topographic map (very nice!) Fylker og kommuner = Administrative boundaries Sjødybder = Sea depths Sjøgrenser = Maritime boundaries Below are a few examples depicting Foldøy island - 1 square km of beauty in southwest Norway. Google Satellite, highest resolution available. Google Streets, highest level of detail available. Nautical chart from NMA. Topographic map from NMA. Topographic map and sea depths from NMA. Large scale topographic map from NMA. Grazing land on Foldøy. NMA maps can be accessed as a Web Map Service (WMS) or as cached map tiles for fast retrieval. Both Google Maps and Bing Maps tiling schemes are...

My research paper, Using KML for Thematic Mapping , is now available for download ( PDF, 2.3 MB ). This is the first part of my MSc GIS thesis from University of Edinburgh . The second part of my thesis, describing the Thematic Mapping Engine , is already available on this page . The thesis was awarded with distinction and an invitation to Googleplex . This is a short summary: Why use KML for thematic mapping? The purpose of this paper is to examine how KML, Keyhole Markup Language , can be used for thematic mapping. A thematic map displays the spatial pattern of a social or physical phenomenon, such as population density, life expectancy or climate change. Thematic mapping has a long history in cartography, but the new geobrowsers tend to have a stronger focus on detailed satellite imagery and general-reference maps than on more abstract data sources. "From the perspective of the social sciences, the focus on content that is visible from above is problematic, gi...

Back in May I was waiting for a geobrowser capable of showing KML in different projections. Inspired by a great blog series by Richard Marsden ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 & 7 !), I've done some experiments with OpenLayers and Proj4js . Proj4js is a JavaScript library that provides methods for coordinates transformation between map projections and longitude/latitude. OpenLayers integrates with Proj4js , and by combining these libraries your able to project KML in pure JavaScript. No server side dependencies! This example shows a KML document from the Thematic Mapping Engine in three different projections ( Mollweide , Sinusoidal and Equal Area Cylindrical ). The KML document contains borders, but these are not extracted and displayed by OpenLayers. OpenLayers and Proj4js rocks! :-)

After a great thematic mapping timeout this summer, it feels good to start blogging again. In my first autumn post, I want to write about the benefits of using a Content Management System (CMS) to create KML documents. I will also show how you can create Google Maps and Google Earth mashups without a map key . My office is currently running a UN relay race across Norway. 19 schools are participating, one school from each county. It's possible to follow the race on our webpage - on a 2-D map and as a 3-D tour . I wanted make a dynamic solution which could be reused and automatically updated as the race went on. I ended up playing with our content mangement system. A well designed CMS should enable you to output content in various formats, not only HTML. We're using eZ Publish , maybe the best open source CMS in the world. eZ Publish enables you to create your own content classes and objects . Combined with the built-in template system , I was able to output my new content ...

The summer and everlasting days are here. I need to prioritize my free time in the upcoming months. All the work reflected on this site has been unpaid - and it won't be continued unless I'm able to earn a salary...  I wish my readers a great summer (or winter if you're down under)!  

I'm waiting for a geobrowser capable of showing KML maps in different projections . The projections commonly used by geobrowsers are not the best choice for thematic world maps. Many cartographers  dislike  thematic maps rendered on virtual globes, and the Mercator projection is not suited for large area maps. Greenland looks like the same size of South America, while it is actually 8 times smaller. The coordinate system of KML is geographic (latitude/longitude) coordinates on the  World Geodetic System  of 1984 (WGS84) datum. Geobrowsers use different projection techniques to render a KML document. Google Earth uses a General Perspective projection , which is similar to the  Orthographic projection  (see Larry Moores informed speculation of the Google Earth projection ). Google Maps and Microsoft's Live Maps both use  Mercator projection , which is a good choice for a map that can be panned and zoomed seamlessly .  My favorite projection for world maps is Winkel Triple , whic...

The brand new Thematic Mapping API enables you to create KML based thematic maps from your own data source . This JavaScript library is the missing link between Google Visualization API and Google Earth API (or other geobrowser APIs supporting the KML standard). A few examples: Choropleth map Prism map Proportional symbol map Pie chart map The API is still in beta. Please email me if you would like to try the new API: bjorn[at]thematicmapping.org Thematic Mapping API will be free to use on non-commercial sites.

It's important to seriously discuss and measure the quality of different thematic mapping techniques . I appreciate the critique from Dr. Mark Harrower on the Axis Maps Blog . I encourage everyone to read Mark's blog post - it's an interesting and timely read. This is a quick response to this critique - more blog posts will follow. In short, I agree with most of the arguments put forward, but I disagree with the conclusions: I agree that my 3-D graduated symbol maps are "pure chart junk", but there are some good examples of 3-D symbol maps. ( See previous blog post ) I disagree that 3-D prism maps are chart junk - but thematic world maps on a 3-D globe are problematic. (See previous blog posts: [ 1 ], [ 2 ], [ 3 ]). I very much disagree that Virtual Globes are a bad idea for thematic mapping, but it's certainly not the only or the ultimate way of showing thematic maps. I hope more people will engage in this important debate. What is your opinion about 3-D vi...

Today, Google announced that one of my KML visualisations won a prize in the KML in Research contest . The animated prism map shows Global Infant Mortality from 1960 to 2005. The statistical data was downloaded from UNdata , a great resource for global statistics.  The statistics can be explored in time and space.  Click here to download the KMZ file. My dissertation, Using KML for Thematic Mapping , was also awarded the MSc Dissertation Prize at University of Edinburgh. The second part of my dissertation gives a detailed description of the Thematic Mapping Engine, and can be downloaded from thematicmapping.org . 

My Google Tech Talk "Using KML for Thematic Mapping" is now on YouTube: Poor video quality, but the slides are also available on Slideshare: You can try the Thematic Mapping Engine online , and download the source code and documentation . Some funding is required to make a general purpose library for KML based thematic maps. Any ideas?