CASA launches MapTube

The UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis has launched a new website where mapped data can be consolidated and compared.

Entitled 'MapTube' the new site is basically a place to share, mix and combine maps with a nod towards professional mapmakers rather than the more widely seen 'MyMaps' type applications.

"The main principle of MapTube is that shared maps can be overlayed to compare data visually. For example, to see a map of the London Underground overlayed on top of a map of population you simply go to the search page and enter the keywords 'tube' and 'population'. Then click on the two relevant maps to add them," explained site creator Dr Andy Hudson-Smith. "In this way any combination of data can be quickly and easily visually compared. The maps are created using our free of charge software - GMap Creator.

For the last few weeks, a back-end section of the site has been used by BBC Radio Four's PM Show to create a mood map of the credit crunch in the UK. Radio 4 listeners have been inputting their postcode and answering a simple question on the credit crunch to automatically create a map of the nations mode.

Dr Hudson-Smith added: "This indicates a future direction of the site with both freely available software and server based map applications, all subsequently viewable against any other local, national or global dataset on the site."

The site is part of the Geographic Virtual Urban Environments (GeoVUE) research project, providing grid-enabled virtual urban environments (VUEs), within which users are able to link spatial data to geographic information systems (GIS)-related software relevant to a variety of scientific and design problems.

The project is also developing pollution monitoring and constructing VUEs to assess the impact of pollution on the resident population, and urban planning proposals respectively.

To find out more, use the links at the top of this article.

Image: Credit Crunch Mood Map