The Map Room

An interactive map showing oil production by country from 1960 to 2010. Flash required. Via @spatialanalysis.

The October issue of National Geographic includes a map supplement that shows the Gulf of Mexico’s oil infrastructure; it doesn’t so much map the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as its context. A zoomable version is available online. The verso of the map, a poster showing the Gulf’s ecosystem, is also available online in an interactive version.

This thermal map of Antwerp and the surrounding region measures heat loss from rooftops. In Flemish. Via Ogle Earth.

Renewable resources information company 3TIER has produced a number of resource maps showing such things as wind speed, solar irradiance and precipitation to suggest renewable-energy potential; at right, for example, is a map showing global mean wind speed at an altitude of 80 metres at five-kilometre resolution. Via Ogle Earth.

Above, a MODIS image from NASA’s Terra satellite, taken last Saturday, showing the spread of the Deepwater Horizon slick in the Gulf of Mexico.

NOAA has released an interactive map that “integrates the latest data the federal responders have about the oil spill’s trajectory with fishery area closures, wildlife data and place-based Gulf Coast resources — such as pinpointed locations of oiled shoreline and current positions of deployed research ships — into one customizable interactive map.” More information here. Via Ogle Earth.

Ted Weinstein sends along a link to this animated map showing the spread of oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico since 1942:

The video’s author discusses the maps and data here and here.

Via Boing Boing, Mother Jones looks at a poster map from Offshore magazine (16.6-MB PDF) showing the Gulf of Mexico as a network of drilling leases, pipelines, and other oil and gas infrastructure. “Where most people look at the Gulf, they see a vast marine ecosystem, wetlands, and, until recently, gorgeous beaches. What energy executives see is a massive grid, tangled with scores of oil and gas pipelines and rival fields with macho names that sound like heavy metal bands, black-diamond ski runs, and weapons systems.”

Also via Boing Boing, the American Bird Conservancy has issued a map showing the location of Globally Important Bird Areas in relation to the oil spill.

My entries on this oil spill now have their own category archive.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is looking into using federal lands for solar energy development, and has issued maps of six states showing the locations of so-called Solar Energy Study Areas where solar energy generation may be a…  •  Continue reading this entry.

For a series on the U.S. electricity grid, NPR has put together an interactive map showing said grid, including transmission lines (both existing and proposed; pictured), power sources (i.e., coal, nuclear, hydro), power plant locations, and solar and wind…  •  Continue reading this entry.

The San Francisco Solar Map is a part of the city’s goal to have 10,000 roofs equipped with solar panels by 2012; it maps current solar installations and provides information for those interested in installing solar panels. Via Vector One;…  •  Continue reading this entry.

As reported last year, the provincial government of British Columbia is making its geographic databases available online and via Google Earth. The announcement was made last Friday; the Vancouver Sun has coverage. Via, and more at, AnyGeo….  •  Continue reading this entry.

The U.S. Geological Survey is running a number of projects in Afghanistan, including the Afghanistan Airborne Geophysical and Remote Sensing Survey, for the Afghan government: “Data collected during this survey will provide basic information for mineral and petroleum exploration studies,…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Very Spatial points to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s U.S. Atlas of Renewable Resources. Sue writes: “The atlas (which is still under development) includes a web mapping interface that show the geographic distribution of wind, biomass, geothermal and solar…  •  Continue reading this entry.

A cartogram showing the world’s oil reserves: the larger the country, the more oil it has. The Arabian peninsula is understandably enormous; see also Nigeria and Venezuela. Not sure how this map works, since both Canada and Russia are…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Also via GeoCarta, this story about a proposed national mapping strategy — a “decade-long plan to map Canada’s resource-rich north” — is framed in the context of Canada’s mining industry, which is hungry for new reserves that good mapping, which…  •  Continue reading this entry.

This pregnant news item just begs for more detail: an Australian gold exploration company is embarking on a $216-million mining project in Egypt that was explored based on a 3,000-year-old pharaonic map that indicated locations of gold sites. Via Map…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Though only in fits and starts so far, I’ve been slowly working my way through the maps in my local archives’ collection. We have what you might expect: a mixed bag of local topo and cadastral maps, both current and…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Three-quarters of Alaska’s electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels, mostly natural gas; the Renewable Energy Atlas of Alaska (26 MB, PDF) identifies potential sources of energy from renewable sources in the state, such as wind, hydro and tidal power…  •  Continue reading this entry.

There has been an explosion in mining claims lately; the Environmental Working Group’s U.S. Mining Database uses the Google Maps API to show active mines and claims on federal lands in the western United States. (There’s also a Google Earth…  •  Continue reading this entry.

BLDGBLOG’s been having fun with images from NASA’s Earth Observatory again (see previous entry), linking to this collection of MODIS images of Africa during 2005, showing the occurrence of fires deliberately set by people as part of their agricultural…  •  Continue reading this entry.

Cute little Canadian province Prince Edward Island has released an online wind atlas, the CBC reports. The atlas, in PDF and ALOV-based interactive versions, maps potential wind energy — i.e., potential locations for wind turbines. See previous entry: Wind Energy…  •  Continue reading this entry.

A protected forest in Tasmania was accidentally logged due to a mapping error, ABC News (Australia) reports. Via Cartography; see also GeoCarta. Update, 10:40 PM: From ABC News, “Forestry Tasmania general manager Kim Creek says the error was caused by…  •  Continue reading this entry.