Jason Sawle has shared ten teaching tips for National Geographic's MapMaker.
Here's one for example that I used to make a lot more use of than now....
Monday, July 14, 2025
Thursday, July 03, 2025
Climate Shift Index
The Climate Shift Index was mentioned by ITV Anglia presenter Chris Page in his forecast last night.
It is produced by Climate Central who perform a similar role to Carbon Brief in providing reports in the arena of Climate Change.
This work is significant as the Trump administration is deleting and stopping access to research and reports on Climate Change in the USA. This will not stop it happening by the way... it will just make it harder to prepare, and make the impacts even worse... and not just in the US.
Check out the Global Map showing how much the climate has shifted.
The Climate Shift Index (CSI) is a system that quantifies the influence of climate change on local daily temperatures around the world.
The Climate Shift Index ranges from -5 to +5. Positive levels indicate temperatures that are becoming more likely due to climate change (negative scores indicate conditions that are becoming less likely).
A CSI of level 5 means that a temperature is occurring at least 5 times more frequently when compared to a world without human-caused carbon pollution. This temperature would be very difficult to encounter in a world without climate change – not necessarily impossible, just highly unlikely.
Here's how to interpret the scale from 1-5 and in the negative too.
And here is the interpretation guide for specific numbers.
Zoom in to your local area to see what the likely impact of climate change is on the weather in your area as the summer goes on....
Images: Climate Central
Thursday, June 26, 2025
How big is Glastonbury?
Glastonbury is big. Fifteen years ago today, I was there... in the heat, working with the Geography Collective in the Greek Kids Zone. I've blogged about it before - search the blog for 'Glastonbury'.
This map shows you how big, although from my experience it felt quite a lot larger than it is shown here. I think there are other areas still beyond what is shown here - whether car parking or additional camping and the security zone.
It's made by Geoffrey Prytherch.
Here's Ely compared to the site.
And here's one of my images from up near the letters... at night, it looks pretty awesome too. This was sunset on the 24th of June.
Image: Alan Parkinson - shared on Flickr under CC license
Wednesday, May 07, 2025
Map of the Week blog
The Map of the Week blog has been around for quite a while - dating back to 2005 (which is about the time I started some of my blogs). Produced by Dug from Massachusetts, USA.
Why not lose yourself by digging into the archive for a few hours...
Saturday, April 05, 2025
Young Geographer of the Year Competition
A chance for your students to create an ESRI StoryMap.
This annual competition is run by the Royal Geographical Society.
The Young Geographer of the Year is the Society’s annual competition which recognises the outstanding work of the next generation of geographers. With its age ranges spanning the primary years to A Level, the competition encourages thoughtful and creative answers to the competition’s theme which is set each year.The Society encourages schools to run their own in-house competition and then send their top 10 entries into the international competition. The Young Geographer competition has been running for over 20 years and every year thousands of children across the world take part.
2025 competition
The theme for the Young Geographer of the Year competition 2025 is:
Understanding islands
Let’s take a closer look at the World’s islands.
It is estimated that our planet contains almost 670,000 islands, of which around 11,000 are permanently inhabited. Islands have a unique geography; their landscapes and coastlines vary massively – some are home to volcanoes; others are barely above sea level. Some are barren, deserts or rocky outcrops, others lush vegetation havens for a range of unique wildlife and plant species. There are islands seen by many as popular holiday destinations, and there are others that are inaccessible or many miles from civilisation. Every island is unique, and every island has its challenges.
Some are threatened by climate change and issues such as sea level rise, and through this are embroiled in the geopolitics of the climate emergency and the mitigation strategies implemented through both international policies and local-level action. The people who live on islands face a range of socio-economic, cultural or historical challenges, from over-use of their towns and cities by tourists, to access to resources, clean water or adequate living conditions. The ‘ownership’ of some islands is contested; some are protected, others are fought over because of their geopolitical or strategic significance. In some places, islands are being created to meet the need for more space to satisfy our growing population. By exploring and understanding islands, including the island we live on, we can unlock a multitude of geographical themes and connections across people, places and environments.
The Society invites you to create a poster (Esri StoryMap or poster for KS5 entrants) to explore islands and highlight the geographical themes, challenges and solutions that connect across both human and physical geography to make islands unique. We are looking for eye catching, creative and informative posters and StoryMaps that delve into the socio-economic, cultural, political and physical aspects of a range of islands, showcasing their features and exploring how islands can be connected through the challenges that they face and the solutions they use to address those challenges.
The Society invites you to create a poster (Esri StoryMap or poster for KS5 entrants) to explore islands and highlight the geographical themes, challenges and solutions that connect across both human and physical geography to make islands unique. We are looking for eye catching, creative and informative posters and StoryMaps that delve into the socio-economic, cultural, political and physical aspects of a range of islands, showcasing their features and exploring how islands can be connected through the challenges that they face and the solutions they use to address those challenges.
Your posters and StoryMaps should think about geographical themes across people, places and environments.
Image: Alan Parkinson, waves on Reynisfjara beach - shared on Flickr
Monday, February 17, 2025
ESRI Visualiser
If you need to show students the world and have a free GIS / Visualisation tool, check out ESRI's Visualiser.
This is a free tool with no login. Maps can be viewed in 2D or as a 3D sphere.
There are some measuring tools, and also some layers that can be added e.g. ocean currents.
LiverpoolGEE
Via the latest issue of 'Geography' journal.
The University of Liverpool has shared a variety of Google Earth Engine tools for researchers (and educators).
This includes options for coding using Google Earth Engine.
Some school based resources are apparently on the way, and if you'd like to make some suggestions there's a form on the website.
Sunday, January 19, 2025
EMU Analytics
EMU Analytics have shared a number of interactive maps on their Location Insights Explorer.
Conversely the number of hectares given over to growing potatoes in 1945 was almost 4 times higher than it is today.
One thing that the map clearly reveals is that farming is much more intensively concentrated in certain areas today. Back in 1945 the farming of potatoes, pigs and turkeys was fairly evenly distributed across the country. In 2018 there is a less even distribution with livestock and crops being grown much more intensively in specific areas of the country.
One thing that the map clearly reveals is that farming is much more intensively concentrated in certain areas today. Back in 1945 the farming of potatoes, pigs and turkeys was fairly evenly distributed across the country. In 2018 there is a less even distribution with livestock and crops being grown much more intensively in specific areas of the country.
This shows where cities are at risk of high temperatures which may make them unliveable.
Use the drop downs on the left hand table to discover a whole host of other maps on a range of themes
e.g. here's one on Social Infrastructure. As you can see, Norfolk doesn't have a great deal of this, and I live in a dark red area...
Other useful maps are:
- a fly-tipping map showing where incidence is highest
- HDI and Global risk mapping
- Tescos coverage in London
- areas where you are more likely to get stuck in a lift
Don't forget the CDRC maps as well for location insight.
Saturday, January 11, 2025
SHIFT podcast with Jack Dangermond of esri
Listen to the SHIFT podcast which features an interview with Jack Dangermond, founder of esri. He is the President of esri.
From deciding where to build a new business, airport or fire station, to understanding the potential impact of decisions regarding conservation or governance, people make billions of maps everyday using GIS.We explore the history and evolution of this tech with one of its pioneers, in the latest instalment of our oral history project.
He is clear that "geography is everything!"
Find out more here.
A few points that Jack makes:
- Between 4 and 5 billion maps are made on esri's platforms every day.
- GIS digitises geography and puts it into a geographical frame.
- Organisations are run by geography.
- Do analytics of the geography behind the maps.
- GIS tools help frame the decision making they do.
- FEMA and other emergency departments use the tools to plan the response to hazards
- Roger Tomlinson invented the term GIS
- Talks about getting his customers together and working out what they could develop as a product
- esri has 680 000 customers... when they started they had single digit numbers of customers
- A third of revenue is spent on advancing products and R&D
- UPS saved hundreds of millions of dollars from rerouting their vehicles
- Helped with EBOLA
- 1.3 trillion maps were created showing the spread of COVID19 around the world
- "Geography is everything"
Thursday, January 09, 2025
Global Influence Index (GII)
Thanks to Bob Lang / Brendan Conway for the tipoff to this GIS resource which explores the GII: the extent to which countries are influenced by, and align themselves with either USA or China.
The Global Influence Index (GII) measures the influence of both the U.S. and China in 191 countries.gii.cesionline.org gt find by Brendan Conway excellrnt for post16 superpowers @jbwgeog.bsky.social
— Bob Lang (@boblanggeog.bsky.social) January 9, 2025 at 6:24 PM
[image or embed]
The GII uses 28 measures of influence across the economic, political, and security spectrums to track the U.S. - China competitive landscape. What is the influence they have in other countries?
Sunday, January 05, 2025
200 000 page views
Thanks for viewing.
This is one of my older blogs and started out sharing ideas for Google Earth before broadening out over the years....
Thursday, January 02, 2025
Slavery from Space
The UN member countries have set the target of ending slavery by 2030.
However, no country has a system for actively monitoring slavery, and this lack of data leads to poor interventions and policies.
The Slavery from Space programme at the University of Nottingham aims to address this problem. The programme uses Earth Observation (EO) to identify and track the scars left on the Earth by the industries with high levels of slavery.
This includes fish processing in Bangladesh, brick-making in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, deforestation in Mozambique, cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, agriculture in Greece, and multiple sectors in Uganda.
This includes fish processing in Bangladesh, brick-making in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, deforestation in Mozambique, cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo, agriculture in Greece, and multiple sectors in Uganda.
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