30-Day-Map-Challenge-2022
I only discovered this challenge on day 2 (2nd November 2022), but I'm planning to give them all a go anyway! You can find all my code here in this repo, but feel free to follow my progress on my socials:
Interactive maps can be found on my 30 Day Map Challenge site
Day 1 ¦ Day 2 ¦ Day 3 ¦ Day 4 ¦ Day 5 ¦ Day 6 ¦ Day 7 ¦ Day 8 ¦ Day 9 ¦ Day 10
Day 11 ¦ Day 12 ¦ Day 13 ¦ Day 14 ¦ Day 15 ¦ Day 16 ¦ Day 17 ¦ Day 18 ¦ Day 19 ¦ Day 20
Day 21 ¦ Day 22 ¦ Day 23 ¦ Day 24 ¦ Day 25 ¦ Day 26 ¦ Day 27 ¦ Day 28 ¦ Day 29 ¦ Day 30
Skills and Technologies Used During the Challenge
New Languages and Software:
- Aerailod
- CSS
- HTML
- Inkscape
- Mapbox Studio
- Prettymapp
- QGIS
Daily Themes:
-
Points
Plan:
To plot the locations of volcanoes around the world.
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- Geopandas
- Pandas
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Goal was for map to be more functional than artistic.
- Used orange instead of red for points to make the map more colour blind friendly.
- Volcano data is from 2021 so the map could be improved by repeating with more up to date data.
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Lines
Plan:
Make a pretty map of rivers in the UK
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- Geopandas
- Pandas
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Goal was for the map to be more artistic than functional.
- Could have experimented with the colour of the hydronodes to make them more visible on a dark background.
- Map could be improved by smoothing the colour mapping to remove the harsh vertical line change in colour at the Welsh border.
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Polygons
Plan:
To map wind speeds across the UK
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- Geopandas
- Pandas
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Goal was for the map to be more artistic than functional.
- No difference in information displayed between the two maps - purely aesthetic changes.
- Wind speed data doesn't seem to be responding correctly with colour mapping - might be issues with data used (area for improvements).
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Colour Friday: Green
Interactive Map
Plan:
Map land cover changes to a rainforest
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- json
- Pandas
- Plotly
- requests
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Goal was for map to be more functional than artistic - showing deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest by state within the country of Brazil.
- Might be more interesting to explore this again with smaller sections for the choropleth overlay (even areas by km2 for example?)
-
Ukraine
Plan:
Map the Chornobyl site and the cool meanders in the Prypiat River
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- osmnx
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Goal was for map to be more artistic than functional.
- Initial hope was to focus on the river specifically but was unsure how to use code to fill the outlines of the water produced by osmnx.
- Map did not appear very clear with only waterways so new map focusing on streets was produced.
- Could have been improved by overlaying the streets and the water outlines on the same image.
- Could have also used an illustration software such as Autodesk Sketchbook to fill in the water shapes to make those sections clearer.
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Network
Plan:
Map the cycle network of Amsterdam
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- osmnx
Code:
Notes:
- Goal was for map to be more artistic than functional.
- The colour of each bike lane was determined by its length.
-
Raster
Plan:
Map the mountains around Mafadi on the South Africa/Lesotho border.
Key Skills/Technologies used:
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Initial attempt had difficulties with installing the required python packages needed to clip the DEM file down to the target (Mafadi mountain). This meant I had to change from making the map any level of functional to artistic.
- Unhappy with this outcome I tried again the next day by using QGIS to clip the DEM before returning to python to complete the new map.
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Data: OpenStreetMap
Plan:
Use Prettymaps to plot somewhere that looks interesting from above.
Technologies used:
Files:
Notes:
- Prettymaps appears to have a common problem where it cannot be installed however someone has built a web app based on the package (Prettymapp).
- Used the web app to build the map which focuses on Spaghetti Junction, Birmingham.
- No code used however above file details settings used in the web app to reproduce this map.
-
Space
Plan:
Drawing Inspiration from Eleanor Lutz, produce a map of all the stars that can be seen from earth
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- cartopy
- fontTools
- matplotlib
- numpy
- pandas
- Inkscape
- Aligning Map Layers
- Autodesk Sketchbook
- Background Editing
- Layer Lock
Code and Data:
Files:
Notes:
- Map was aimed at being largely artistic over functional - however stars and Messier objects are size arranged by magnitude, or the relative brightness as seen from Earth.
- Colours are purely aesthetic.
-
A bad map
Interactive Map
Plan:
Plot countries where suspicious handling of fish is a legal offence
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- Pandas
- Plotly
Code and Data:
Notes:
In 1986 the UK introduced the Salmon Act which makes it illegal to "handle salmon suspiciously". There is in fact a valid reason for this slightly eccentric sounding law but I thought it would be fun to use it as the basis of my map.
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Colour Friday: Red
InteractiveMap
Plan:
Map popularity of "Red (Taylors Version)" by country
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- pandas
- plotly
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Goal was for map to be more functional than arty.
- Could be improved by adjusting colour mapping to better handle outliers.
- Originally wanted to scrape Spotify to see streaming data but was unsure how to break it down by country/region.
-
Scale
Plan:
Comparison Map between the smallest country in the world - The Vatican City, and the capital city of the largest country in the world - Moscow, Russia
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- QGIS
- Polygon shapefile layers
- Annotations
Files:
Notes:
No coding used for this map.
-
5 minute map
Plan:
Use OpenStreetMap to map an area as fast as I can.
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- osmnx
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Recycled day 5 code to plot the roads in Aberdeen (Scotland).
- Aim was art over function.
-
Hexagons
Interactive Map Map Interactive Demo Vid
Plan:
Exploring Hexabin Mapbox and Mapping sightings of bees in North East Scotland in 2011.
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- pandas
- plotly
- mapbox
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Colour scheme influenced by honey.
- Aim was to be both functional and artistic.
- Could be improved with more recent data.
-
Food/Drink
Plan:
Produce a hillshade map of the Champagne region of France
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- QGIS
- Annotations
- Polygon shapefile layers
- Python
- earthpy
- matplotlib
- numpy
- rasterio
- Autodesk Sketchbook
- Image Dimension Manipulation
Code and Data:
- Code
- ETOPO_2022 (Bedrock; 15 arcseconds) Raster Download
- Champagne Region Boundary Source
Notes:
- Map is primarily artistic rather than functional.
- Used Autodesk Sketchbook to manipulate the dimensions of the Champagne region boundary map to match the raster dimensions.
- Overlayed the manipulated image over the raster in QGIS to create a template for a polygon shapefile layer, which was then used to clip the raster.
- Transferred clipped raster to python environment to complete the map.
- Colour scheme extracted from an image of a glass of champagne.
-
Minimal
Plan:
Make a contour map of the Ochil Hills, Scotland
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- QGIS
- Contour plotting
Files:
Data:
- Raster Source
- Coordinates used:
- N: 56.33
- S: 56.14
- E: -3.42
- W: -3.98
- Coordinates used:
Notes:
- Could be improved by resampling/filtering the raster to smooth out the contour lines.
- Was designed to be art over function.
-
A map without a computer
Plan:
Hand draw central Carrbridge, Scotland
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Colour pencils
- Fine liner
- Drawing
- Typography
-
Colour Friday: Blue
Interactive Map Blue Friday Custom Base Map
Plan:
Map the migration of bluefin tuna on a blue map.
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Mapbox Studio
- Python
- pandas
- plotly
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Separate data set for each fish so only plotted the migration of five fish.
- Could be improved by including more fish and using more recent data.
-
Globe
Plan:
use HTML and CSS to build a 3D spinning object of earth at night
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- CSS
- Animation building
- Image object manipulation
- Site background image setting
- HTML
- Static website build
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Learning CSS and HTML from scratch.
- Proof of concept idea - could be used again for 3D day or remix day.
- Aesthetic rather than function.
-
"My favourite ..."
Plan:
Produce a contour map of the Skaftafellsjökull Glacier and surrounding area
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- QGIS
- Contour plotting
Files
Data:
- Raster Source
- Coordinates used:
- N: 64.14
- S: 63.89
- E: -16.30
- W: -17.23
- Coordinates used:
Notes:
- Found this brief a little difficult as I don't naturally have favourites.
- Aesthetic over function.
-
Data: Kontur Population Dataset
Map/Software Demo Vid !CW! The video does flash and judder as the map renders.
Plan:
Map the population density of Pretoria, South Africa
Key Skills/Technologies used:
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Maps prioritised aesthetic over function.
- Enjoyed using Aerialod so much that I made extra map.
-
NULL
Plan:
Use OpenStreetMap to map Nulltown, Indiana
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- osmnx
Code:
Notes:
Null colours for Nulltown.
-
Movement
Plan:
Plan: Plot world flight paths (inspired by Adam Symington)
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- cartopy
- geopandas
- matplotlib
- pandas
- shapely
Code and Data:
Notes:
- Was updated a few days later to take into consideration the curvature of the earth.
- Cartopy would not install in my conda environment - I had to use mambaforge in order to access the package.
-
Fantasy
Plan:
Explore python turtle to randomly generate a base map.
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Autodesk Sketchbook
- Python
- image
- math
- random
- turtle
Code and Additional Files:
- Code
- Turtle output postscript file
- Turtle output png file
Notes:
Accessed canvas output by using a ps to png converter
-
Colour Friday: 2 colours
Plan:
Design and build a map themed around orange and green tic tac sweets
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- QGIS
- Clipping vector files
- Polygon Shapefile layers
Files:
Notes
Had to eyeball the vector clipping polygon shape which was based on the outline of the town visible on the OpenStreetMap site as the boundary was not included in the data download.
-
Island(s)
Plan:
Plot an elevation map of La Gomerra.
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Autodesk Sketchbook
- Image Cleaning
- QGIS
- Gaussian Filtering
- Polygon Shapefile Layers
- Raster Clipping
- Python
- earthpy
- matplotlib
- rasterio
Code and Data:
Notes:
More experimentation with the Gaussian filter and different datasets might help to further reduce pixelation of map.
-
Music
Interactive Map
Plan:
Plot the locations that Dolly Parton has sung on stage.
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- pandas
- plotly
Code and Data:
Notes:
- OpenStreetMap used to find lat/long values for each concert venue.
- Data goes from 1972 to 2007 - Concert archive has data up until the present but after more than 4 hrs to gather the data for the first 185 concerts, and with another 219 to take me to the present day, it was taking too long to gather the data. Hence the map does not show data from 2008-2022.
- This map could be really interesting though and the completed dataset is worth sharing on my public dataset repo so I'll probably come back to it.
- Might also be interesting to play with the hexabin size a bit more.
- Colour scheme inspired by Dolly Parton's website
- Might be a cool project so set up a repo for doing these kinds of maps for lots of different artists...
-
3D
Interactive Map
Plan:
Explore pydeck to produce a basic 3D map that could be re-addressed in the "remix" theme.
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- Python
- ipywidgets
- palettable
- pandas
- pydeck *vega_datasets
Code and Data:
Notes:
This map was entirely about experimentation. Would be much more interesting with real data.
Inspired by Mapzilla Commuter Flowers
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"Out of my comfort zone"
Plan:
Build a map using R (Health Insurance Coverage 2012-2016 by US County)
Key Skills/Technologies used:
- R
- dplyr
- mapview
- rio
- sf
- tigris
Code and Data:
Notes:
Following this tutorial Need to figure out how to convert output to html for the website
-
Remix
Interactive Map
Plan:
Improve on day 1 map by making it more attractive and including additional data.