Maps to analyze cities and their evolution
Today it's time to try to understand the cities; its urbanism, its structure or how they are evolving over time. For this, we have selected a series of free access online maps that combine databases (Big Data) and cartography, providing us with very useful information for our work and projects.
The accesses to the mapping tools that we provide are worldwide, except for the last section that is dedicated exclusively to the territory of Spain.
1.- Observing the terrain relief
Yes, it is true that we can find different maps that show us the relief and height of the terrain practically anywhere in the world, but, in most cases, they do not allow your work offline, we cannot download the information of a specific area.
In this case, we would go to Maps3d.io. A project that in a simple way allows us to select any region of the planet and obtain a perspective to appreciate the elevations and relief of the terrain.
The steps to follow are; search for the desired area (mountains, city, rural area, etc.), select with the mouse the box that we want to visualize in 3D and click on «Explore in 3D». See the generated map and get the link of the animation.
Sometimes the generated link is "hooked" to download the image. The solution, right mouse button and «Save image as …».
2.- The 3D buildings of the cities
We have to comment that here, Google has implemented different updates both in Google Maps and in Google Earth, improving that lack it had with reference to observing the buildings in three dimensions, but still, the tool par excellence and that we already discussed in our article on interactive maps about cities in 3D, is the F4map.
With this free tool we will not only see the buildings in 3D, we can also use different filters to include the elements that we may need in our project.
As we can see in the previous image, the “Ground elevations” section, the elevations on the ground, represents a new feature that provides important improvements in the visualization with respect to the typical satellite maps that provide flat information on the ground.world atlas.
3.- Map of population density in a city
Tools to try to understand how many people live in a certain area or a city, there are several. But, that we can see it in a 3D graphic on a map, there are very few.
In this case we are talking about a tool created by Matt Daniels, which we can consult from here (It takes a while to load the atlas). A map that helps us visualize which areas of the world are the least and most populated with fairly detailed visualization.
As if that were not enough, it also allows us to compare periods of population density between the years 1990, 1975 and 2015, being able to check the demographic changes in a given city.
Along the same lines, an interactive map has recently been published that analyzes human settlements on a global scale. The Global Human Settlement Layer - GHSL is prepared by the CCI of the European Commission and the CIESIN University of Columbia. This dataset makes several strides toward better mapping in the field of global urban diversity.
4.- Light pollution map
From the following fantastic interactive map on lightpollutionmap, it will help us to better understand the light pollution associated - of course - with the distribution of humanity on our planet.
It is an application that displays VIIRS / DMSP / World Atlas overlays and measurements on Microsoft Bing base layers, with the aim of displaying VIIRS / DMSP data in a more friendly way.
An excellent map to carry out studies of various kinds that, in addition to being able to select certain areas or zoom where appropriate, has different filters.
5.- Mapping of urban transformation at a global level
One of the best data sets for understanding the explosive growth of cities around the world over the past 65 years is the research provided by UN World Urbanization Prospects.
The map records the urban transformation of the most important cities from 1950 to 2014, and includes the predicted populations until 2030. It can be consulted from Luminocity3d.
Another atlas of interest, which we already talked about in the article about how to see the road expansion of your city. It is the one developed by Geoff Boeing. This online application displays the consistency of the road network of any city in the world.
6.- Map on the ground and changes in the landscape
This tool, developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), wants to help control and understand - at a global level - the use soil and landscape changes anywhere.
The Collect Earth Online (CEO) map is web-based, free, available to anyone who wants to consult, and requires no download or installation, and allows you to examine in detail any location on Earth with satellite data.
7.- Air pollution map
Air pollution is one of the great problems of our time. Both for developed countries and, especially, for developing countries.
Pollution levels vary drastically depending on where we are on the planet. We know that big cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Paris or London have really serious problems with the daily quality of their air.
To analyze this problem, different organizations have implemented interactive online atlases that track daily air pollution around the planet.
One of the most impressive maps is the one that compiles more than 10,000 atmospheric stations spread all over the world; from government sources, from satellite imagery, and from sensors around the Earth. From AirVisual Earth, we can see pollution levels from almost every corner of the planet in real time.
As a note, and remembering the article on how to know air pollution in real time. The Waqi portal can also be consulted. Where we can track, globally, a large number of weather stations that provide real-time air quality data.
Intrastructure and urbanism maps of Spain
The theory is that each country has an administration, which deals with infrastructure and urban planning issues where we can find highly relevant information to be able to practice any type of study from a fairly technical perspective.
In the case of Spain, we have the Department of Development, where from the next page multiple maps converge on Geo-Information, we find data from; Cartography, astronomy, geophysics or geodesy, and a relevant section of the observation of the territory or the services where we can see:
You can recognize a multitude of online applications on cartography of Spain in a fairly detailed way. For example, access to the Signa (National Geographic Information System) to consult the types of urban land throughout the national territory:
As we have seen, we have a lot of information on the Internet and we hope that some of the previous online cartographic charts can help you in the development of your projects.
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