Thematic mapping

Thematic mapping really appeals to us because it aims at displaying global data, as opposed to specific locations. An excellent application of this idea can be found at thematicmapping.org, which offers an engine that plots statistical data on a map. The primary data source of the website is UNdata, and the map used for final display is Google Earth.

Country-based statistics are clearly easier to understand when displayed on a map. Here are some of the few indicators that the engine is able to render: CO2 emissions, GDP per capita, children under five mortality rate, internet users, life expectancy, patent applications, population etc. For each of these indicators, the engine is able to generate 3D objects which vary in color and scale to offer a very visual approach of the statistics. What is also interesting is that the engine can fetch historical data, going back to the 60’s for some indicators.

The person behind this project is Bjørn Sandvik, working as a project manager at United Nations Association (UNA) of Norway. One of his KML visualisations recently won a prize from Google’s KML in research contest.