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Géomatique anglophone

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13 March 2025
11:00
Mappery: Car Park
sur Planet OSGeo

A minimalist map sent by Dean, who forgot to locate where “You are here” is!

10:17
The Future of Urban Mobility
sur Google Maps Mania

This impressive animated data visualization shows the average levels of traffic on Dubai roads over the course of one day. It is one of a series of mapped visualizations in Moving forward: What drives the future of urban transport, a data-driven exploration of urban mobility in Dubai. Dubai city has one of the highest car ownership rates in the world, with one vehicle for every two residents,

12 March 2025
11:00
Mappery: My Lamp is unique
sur Planet OSGeo

Enclosure: [download]

M. LeCartographe sent us this very unique Lamp.

10:25
Switzerland’s Landscape - Reimagined
sur Google Maps Mania

Switzerland in 2075 will look very different from today. The effects of global heating will transform the landscape, resulting in melting glaciers and raising snow lines on the country's mountains. With less snowmelt, river water levels will drop, making some rivers unnavigable. In agriculture, staple crops will need to be replaced with more heat-resistant varieties. As a result, Switzerland’s
11 March 2025
11:13
ViewPoint 3000
sur Google Maps Mania

UpToWhere allows you to discover what you can see from any position on Earth. You can think of it as a 3D version of HeyWhatsThat. For the past 15 years, HeyWhatsThat has provided panoramic sketches and the names of visible peaks for nearly any location in the world. Simply click on any spot in HeyWhatsThat, and it generates a diagram of your viewpoint, marking all visible

11:00
Mappery: Nairobi International Airport
sur Planet OSGeo

Another African Map in the Wild from Ragnvald. This time, it was the Simba Lounge at the Nairobi International Airport.
3:46
Sean Gillies: Bear training week 3 recap
sur Planet OSGeo
I just noticed that the original URL slug for last week's recap blog post was "beer-training-weeks-1-2-recap.html". "Beer" instead of "bear". I'm fixing that now. I'd be down for a beer mile, but not a beer 100 miler.

In week 3, I got two interval workouts in, but developed a knot in my left calf and some Achilles tenderness. I ran twice, and did long bike rides instead of long runs. They were quality rides, though, and so I still got a good mix of intensity and long easy effort.
- 11.3 miles running
- 11 hours, 50 minutes all training
- 476 ft D+ running
The highlight of my week was a long Sunday ride on the Poudre River Trail east of Fort Collins, stopping by a taco truck and tap room, and ending up at Hoedown Hill, which might be Colorado's easternmost ski hill. It's a bar and restaurant on top of a 200-foot tall butte, with a north-facing slope beneath.

A blue bike parked in soft snow next to orange inner tubes at the bottom of a small ski hill.
10 March 2025
11:39
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings: Analyzing GTFS Realtime Data for Public Transport Insights
sur Planet OSGeo
In today’s post, we (that is, Gaspard Merten from Universite Libre de Bruxelles and yours truly) are going to dive deep into how to analyze public transport data, using both schedule and real time information. This collaboration has been made possible by the EMERALDS project.

Previously, I already shared news about GTFS algorithms for Trajectools that add GTFS preprocessing tools (incl. Route, segment, and stop layer extraction) to the QGIS Processing toolbox.

Today, we’ll discuss the aspect of handling realtime GTFS data and how we approach analytics that combine both data sources.
About Realtime GTFS
Many of us have come to rely on real-time public transport updates in apps like Google Maps. These apps are powered by standardized data formats that ensure different systems can communicate. Google first introduced GTFS in 2005, a format designed to organize transit schedules, stop locations, and other static transit information. Then, in 2011, they introduced GTFS Realtime (GTFS-RT), which added the capability to include live updates on vehicle positions, delays, speeds, and much more.

However, as the name suggests, GTFS Realtime is all about live data. This means that while GTFS-RT APIs are useful for providing real-time insights, they don’t hold historical data for analytics. Moreover, most transit agencies don’t keep past GTFS-RT records, and even fewer make them available to the public. This can be a significant challenge for anyone looking to analyze past trends and extract valuable insights from the data. For this reason, we had to implement our own solution to efficiently archive GTFS-RT files while making sure the files could be queried easily.

There are two main challenges in the implementation of such a solution:
- Data Volume: While individual GTFS-RT files are relatively small—typically ranging from 50KB to 500KB depending on the public transport network size—the challenge lies in ingestion frequency. With an average file size of 100KB and updates every 5 seconds, a full day’s worth of data quickly scales up to 1.728GB.
- Data Usability: GTFS-RT is a deeply nested format based on Protobuf, making direct conversion into a more accessible structure like a DataFrame difficult. Efficiently unnesting the data without losing critical details would significantly improve usability and streamline analysis.
Parquet to the Rescue
Storing and analyzing real-time transit data efficiently isn’t just about saving space—it’s about making the data easy to work with. Luckily, modern data formats have come a long way, allowing us to store massive amounts of data while keeping retrieval and analytics processing fast. One of the best tools for the job is Apache Parquet, a columnar storage format originally designed for Hadoop but now widely adopted in data science. With built-in support in libraries like Polars and Pandas, it’s become a go-to choice for handling large datasets efficiently. Moreover, Parquet can be converted to GeoParquet for smoother integration with GIS such as GeoPandas.

What makes Parquet particularly well-suited for GTFS Realtime data is the way it compresses columnar data. It leverages multiple compression algorithms and encodings, significantly reducing file sizes while keeping access speeds high. However, to get the most out of Parquet’s compression, we need to be smart about how we structure our data. Simply converting each GTFS-RT file into its own Parquet file might give us around 60% compression, which is decent. But if we group all GTFS-RT records for an entire hour into a single file, we can push that number up to 95%. The reason? A lot of transit data—like trip IDs and stop locations—doesn’t change much within an hour, while other values, such as coordinates, often share common elements. By organizing data in larger batches, we allow Parquet’s compression algorithms to work their magic, drastically reducing storage needs. And with a smaller disk footprint, retrieval is faster, making the entire analytics pipeline more efficient.

One more challenge to tackle is the structure of the data itself. GTFS-RT files tend to be highly nested, which isn’t an issue for Parquet but can be problematic for most data science tools. While Parquet technically supports nested structures, many analytical frameworks don’t handle them well. To fix this, we apply a lightweight preprocessing step to “unnest” the data. In the original GTFS-RT format, the vehicle position feed is deeply nested, making it difficult to work with. But once unnesting is applied, the structure becomes flat, with clear column names derived from the original hierarchy. This makes it easy to convert the data into a table format, ensuring smooth integration with tools commonly used by data scientists.
The GTFS-RT Pipelines
With this in mind, let’s walk through the two pipelines we built to store and retrieve GTFS-RT data efficiently.

The entire system relies on two key pipelines that work together. The first pipeline fetches GTFS-RT data from an API every five seconds, processes it, and stores it in an S3 bucket. The second pipeline runs hourly, gathering all the individual files from the past hour, merging them into a single Parquet file, and saving it back to the bucket in a structured format. We will now take a look at each pipeline in more detail.
Pipeline 1: Fetching and Storing Data
The first step in the process is retrieving GTFS-RT data. This is done via an API, which returns files in the Protocol Buffer (ProtoBuf) format. Fortunately, Google provides libraries (such as gtfs-realtime-bindings) that make it easy to parse ProtoBuf and convert it into a more accessible format like JSON.

Once we have the data in JSON format, we need to split it based on entity type. GTFS-RT files contain different types of data, such as TripUpdate, which provides updated arrival times for stops, and VehiclePosition, which tracks real-time locations and speeds. Not all GTFS-RT feeds contain every entity type, but TripUpdate and VehiclePosition are the most commonly used. The full list of entity types can be found in the GTFS Realtime documentation.

We separate entity types because they have different schemas, making it difficult to store them in a single Parquet file. Keeping each entity type separate not only improves organization but also enhances compression efficiency. Once split, we apply the same unnesting process as described earlier, ensuring the data is structured in a way that’s easy to analyze. After that, we convert the data into a data frame and store it as a Parquet file in memory before uploading it to an S3 bucket. The files follow a structured naming convention like this:

{feed_type}/YYYY-MM-DD/hour/individual_{date-isoformat}.parquet

This format makes it easy to navigate the storage bucket manually while also ensuring seamless integration with the second pipeline.
Pipeline 2: Merging and Optimizing Storage
The second pipeline’s job is to take all the small Parquet files generated by Pipeline 1 and merge them into a single, optimized file per hour. To do this, it scans the storage bucket for the earliest unprocessed “hour folder” and begins processing from there. This design ensures that if the pipeline is temporarily interrupted, it can easily resume without skipping any data.

Once it identifies the files to merge, the pipeline loads them, assigns a proper timestamp to each record, and concatenates them into a single Parquet table. The final file is then uploaded to the S3 bucket using the following naming convention:

{feed_type}/YYYY-MM-DD/hour/HH.parquet

If any files fail to merge, they are renamed with the prefix unmerged_{date-isoformat}.parquet for manual inspection. After successfully storing the merged file, the pipeline deletes the individual files to keep storage clean and avoid unnecessary clutter.

One critical advantage of converting GTFS-RT data into Parquet early in the process is that it prevents memory overload. If we had to merge raw GTFS-RT files instead of pre-converted Parquet files, we would likely run into memory constraints, especially on standard servers with limited RAM. This makes Parquet not just a storage solution but an enabler of efficient large-scale processing.
Ready for Analytics
In this section, we will explore how to use the GTFS-RT data for public transport analytics. Specifically, we want to compute delays, that is, the difference between the scheduled travel time and the real travel time.

The previously created Parquet files can be loaded into QGIS as tables without geometries. To turn them into point layers, we use the “Create points layer from table” algorithm from the Processing “Vector creation” toolbox. And once we convert the unixtimes to datetimes (using the datetime_from_epoch function), we have a point layer that is ready for use in Trajectools.

Let’s have a look at one bus route. Bus 3 is one of the busiest routes in Riga. We apply a filter to the point layer which reveals the location of the route.
Computing segment travel times
Computing travel times on public transport segments, i.e. between two scheduled stops, comes with a couple of challenges:
1. The GTFS-RT location updates are provided in a rather sparse fashion with irregular reporting intervals. It is not clear that we “see” every stop that happens.
2. We cannot rely solely on stop detection since, sometimes, a vehicle will not come to a halt at scheduled stop locations (if nobody wants to get off or on)
3. The stop ID, representing the next stop the vehicle will visit, is not always exact. Updates are often delayed and happen some time after passing the stop.
Here’s an example visualization of the stop ID information of a single trip of bus 3, overlaid on top of the GTFS route and stops (in red):

To compute the desired delays, we decided to compare GTFS-RT travel times based on stop ID info with the scheduled travel times. To get the GTFS-RT travel times, we use Trajectools and create trajectories by splitting at stop ID change using the Split by value change algorithm:
Computing delays
The final step is to compute travel time differences between schedule and real time. For this, we implemented a SQL join that matches GTFS-RT trajectories with the corresponding entry in the GTFS schedule using route information and temporal information:

The temporal information is important since the schedule accounts for different travel times during peak hours and off peak:

This information is extracted from the GTFS schedule using the Trajectools Extract segments algorithm, if we chose the “Add scheduled speeds” option:

This will add the time windows, speeds, and runtimes per segment to the resulting segment layer:

Joining the GTFS-RT trajectories with the scheduled segment information, we compute delays for every segment and trip. For example, here are the resulting delays for trip ‘AUTO3-18-1-240501-ab-2230’:

Red lines mark segments where time is lost compared to the schedule, while blue lines indicate that the vehicle traversed the segment faster than the schedule suggested.
What’s next
When interpreting the results, it is important to acknowledge the effects caused by the timing of the next stop ID updates in the real-time GTFS feed. Sometimes, these updates come very late and thus introduce distortions where one segment’s travel time gets too long and the other too short.

We will continue refining the analytics and related libraries, including the QGIS Trajectools plugin, to facilitate analytics of GTFS-RT & GTFS.

After successful testing of this analytics approach in Riga, we aim to transfer it to other cities. But for this to work, public transport companies need ways to efficiently store their data and, ideally, to release them openly to allow for analysis.

The pipelines we described, help keep storage needs low, which allows us to drastically reduce costs (for a year we would only have a few gigabytes, which is inexpensive to store in S3 storage). Let us know if you would be interested in an online platform on which one could register a GTFS-RT feed & GTFS, which would then automatically start being archived (in exchange, the provider would only need to accept sharing the archives as open data, at no cost for them).

11:38
The Republic of Climate Change Deniers
sur Google Maps Mania

The United States is currently undertaking the biggest act of climate change denial in history.One striking example is what is happening at the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Over 200 FEMA employees have been fired by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Those who remain have been ordered to remove all language related to climate change from FEMA websites and

11:00
Mappery: Priscilla Tour
sur Planet OSGeo

Ken sent me this. I can see why it is a map in the wild but I didn’t know what it was meant to be saying. A bit of searching suggests that it is related to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert:

“A 1994 Australian road comedy film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot follows two drag queens, played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, and a transgender woman, played by Terence Stamp, as they journey across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named “Priscilla”, along the way encountering various groups and individuals.”

UTS might be University of Technology, Sydney – feel free to correct me.
1:00
Paul Ramsey: BC IT Outsourcing 2023/24
sur Planet OSGeo

OK, it has been a while since the last time I published this data, but I have a valid excuse.

The most striking feature of the 2024 chart is the zero’ing out of IBM’s piece of the pie. Big Blue, which once billed the government $107M in a year, has been reduced to a billing rate of less than $5M per year over the last two years.

Everything else feels more or less the same. After seven years of NDP government, the overall trajectory of outsourcing growth has beeen flattened, but in no way reversed. It is a smaller proportion of overall spend, but the substantial change wrought by the Campbell Liberal government starting around 2005 has been durable – BC IT has a huge outsourced component still.

The initial surge in smaller local companies after 2017 stalled out by 2021 and had been flat since.

The most consistent grower is now CGI, which entered the Victoria market around 2005 and has grown to $60M/year in billings with consistent year-over-year increases.
09 March 2025
11:00
Mappery: How to order food in Hokaido
sur Planet OSGeo

The simple answer is to find a resaurant that has menus in English as well as Japanese, it’s useful to also know that you are in the right place!

Another one from Ken
1:00
Paul Ramsey: Cancer 13
sur Planet OSGeo

Back to entry 1

I recently “celebrated” my “cancerversary”, the one-year mark since my GI doctor phoned me up and said the fateful words – “you have cancer”.

At that moment, my universe shrunk down immensely. All the external stuff, job, professional relationships, volunteerism, just kind of fell away, I had no mental space for it. It was just me and my immediate family and the many, many unknowns.

My experience since then has included two major physical insults. The “curative” surgery that removed most of my rectum, and the associated c.difficle infection that brutally wrecked my GI tract.

The insults really knocked me back. Moving around the house involved effort. Meals would lead to stomach pain and long sessions on the toilet. Runs were replaced with walks and then shorter walks. A trip to the cafe became my gold standard for “getting out”.

Now, I am immensely “better” than I was this summer. But I am still a very long way from the physical condition I was before (which was excellent). My body just doesn’t work as well anymore. This may slowly resolve over more months, or it may be permanent. As it stands, I feel like I’ve been instantly aged 10-15 years. I went into this process in my early 50s and came out in my late 60s.

A result of feeling weak and out of control is that I have a lot less confidence than I used to. This manifests in not wanting to leave the house as much, or engage with novel situations. I never know when I am going to have a “bad day” and feel sick or uncomfortable for 24 hours. Travel feels fraught. Staying close to home, feels safer.

I am a turtle, startled and afraid, drawn up into its shell.

To try and break out of this pattern, I have scheduled two trips this spring, one personal and one professional. They are both east coast, so there’s a 5 hour flight involved and then all the usual transfers and so on. And then just “living” in a different place. As they get closer, I get more scared. I shouldn’t. The worst case scenario is just “pooping a lot in a hotel room”, but I think the verification of worse-case scenarios is the scary part – maybe I am not someone who travels anymore.

Most of my other pre-surgery worst-case scenarios have not come to pass. I am still able to climb. I have started running again. I can lift weights again. I have done some middling bike rides. I have rowed on the ocean. I have started some building projects around the house.

But travel is (like going out for dinner) fraught with being away from the home base, and full of questionable activities (like eating for pleasure, or taking a walk not knowing where the next public restroom is). Hopefully these trips will go well, and I will be able to poke my head a little further out of my shell.

The next station on my cancer journey will be the first monitoring procedures. Colonoscopy and then a CT scan. The odds of anything growing back are low, but I still keep my fingers crossed, since they are not zero.

Keep f’ing going. See you soon, inshala.
08 March 2025
11:00
Mappery: Niseko Taproom
sur Planet OSGeo

Ken visited Japan recently for a bit R&R, he couldn’t resist sending us this map-centric menu from a local bar.

10:44
Scrambled Vintage Maps
sur Google Maps Mania

Vintage Scrambled Maps There's a new Scrambled Maps game in town. If you have been enjoying Tripgeo's popular Scrambled Maps game then you will also love Vintage Scrambled Maps!If you are a fan of maps and enjoy a good puzzle challenge, then Vintage Scrambled Maps is the perfect game for you! This unique and engaging game transforms historical maps into an interactive jigsaw-style experience,

07 March 2025
12:53
Markus Neteler: GRASS GIS 8.4.1 released
sur Planet OSGeo

The GRASS GIS 8.4.1 release provides more than 80 improvements and fixes with respect to the release 8.4.0. Enjoy!

The post GRASS GIS 8.4.1 released appeared first on Markus Neteler Consulting.
11:00
Mappery: Is this a map?
sur Planet OSGeo

Elizabeth saw this in the foyer of a building in SW1.

The blurb says:

“Angela Detanico & Rafael Lain – A Different Place, 2022

This wall painting is based on a method of cartographic writing that correlates a letter of the alphabet with each of the earth’s 24 time zones. That system of navigation, still in use today, was developed in 1802 by American astronomer Nathaniel Bowditch, who is considered the father of maritime navigation. Angela Detanico and Rafael Lain used the lexicon to encode text into a world map, spelling out the phrase “A Different Place.” By melding language with the map, the artists address two of the basic structures- geography and language that govern our daily lives.
Linguists, semiologists and graphic designers by training, the artists invite viewers to play a decrypting game that unlocks multiple levels understanding. Their rearranged map could represent immigration patterns or the phenomenon of globalisation, but it also serves as a vehicle to reflect on the connection between signs and meaning.”

10:27
The Dot Map of America
sur Google Maps Mania

One of my all-time favorite interactive maps was created by Dustin Cable at the University of Virginia. Unfortunately, the Racial Dot Map of America was removed in 2022. This map used data from the 2010 Census to place a colored dot on a map for every American - all 308,745,538 of them. As the name suggests, the color of each dot was determined by race.The UVA map, based on 2010 Census

1:00
Kartoza: Introducing the new QGIS Plugins Website and QGIS Hub
sur Planet OSGeo
We are excited to announce the release of the newly updated QGIS Plugins Website and the launch of the QGIS Hub Website! These updates bring a fresh new look that aligns with the QGIS branding overhaul, along with significant improvements in user experience.

Revamped QGIS Plugins Website
QGIS Plugins Homepage

The QGIS Plugins website has undergone a major redesign to enhance usability and provide a seamless experience for users. With a modernised interface and improved navigation, users can now find and manage plugins more efficiently. Some of the key updates include:
1. A fresh UI that matches the latest QGIS branding.
2. Enhanced browsing experience with better categorisation of plugins.
3. Detailed plugin pages showcasing ratings, download counts, and descriptions more clearly.
4. Improved search and filtering options to find the right plugin quickly.
5. A more intuitive submission process for plugin developers.
Plugins List with Grid View and a Table View

Plugins search and details page

Introducing QGIS Hub
QGIS Hub Homepage

In addition to the plugin update, we are thrilled to introduce the QGIS Hub, now available at https://hub.qgis.org. This new platform serves as a dedicated space for sharing QGIS resources such as styles, 3D models, geopackages projects files, QGIS Layer Definition (QLR) files, and much more. By separating this section into its own website, we have made it easier for users to discover and access valuable resources.

Key features of the QGIS Hub include:
1. A visually appealing homepage with featured resources.
2. A well-organised list view for browsing available assets.
3. Detailed resource pages with previews and descriptions.
4. Advanced search functionality to quickly locate specific resources.
5. A seamless submission process for users who wish to contribute their resources.
Resources list and details page

Thank you to the QGIS Community
QGIS is developed by a team of dedicated volunteers, companies and organisations. The QGIS project relies on sponsorships and donations for much of their funding. Without the contributions of the QGIS sustaining members and donors and all volunteers, these continued improvements would not be possible. At Kartoza we are fortunate to employ both a QGIS Document Writer and QGIS Developer as fulltime staff members, an achievement made possible through the donations from QGIS community. Thank you to Tim Sutton (member of QGIS Steering Committee) for donating his time and helping make these updates possible.

Experience the New Platforms Today!
We invite you to explore the new QGIS Plugin website and the QGIS Hub today. These updates are designed to enhance your workflow and make it easier to extend and enrich your QGIS experience. We look forward to your feedback and continued support as we work to improve the QGIS ecosystem!
06 March 2025
20:36
QGIS Blog: QGIS.ORG Annual General Meeting 2024 – Minutes Now Available
sur Planet OSGeo
We are pleased to announce that the minutes from the QGIS.ORG Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2024 are now available for public review.

Since the establishment of QGIS.ORG as a formal legal entity in 2016, we have held virtual AGMs to ensure transparent governance. These meetings allow QGIS Voting Members to approve the annual budget, review financial reports, elect new project members, and make other key decisions affecting the future of the project.
Key Highlights from the 2024 AGM
The AGM took place virtually from November 20 to December 1, 2024, with discussions held via mailing lists and voting conducted through online forms.
Election Results
- Board Members:
  - Chair: Marco Bernasocchi
  - Vice-Chair: Anita Graser
  - Treasurer: Andreas Neumann
- Project Steering Committee (PSC) Members:
  - Alessandro Pasotti
  - Jürgen Fischer
  - Régis Haubourg
Approvals
- Annual Financial Report 2023 – Approved unanimously.
- Annual Report 2023 – Approved unanimously.
- Financial Auditors for 2024
  - Andreas Voigt
  - Andreas Vonlaufen
Read the Full AGM Minutes
The complete minutes of the QGIS.ORG AGM 2024 can be accessed here:

Thank you to all QGIS Voting Members who participated in the AGM. Your contributions help shape the future of QGIS!
11:00
Mappery: Terra Computer
sur Planet OSGeo

Marc-Tobias sent me this.

“Seen randomly at a German hospital. Apparently a German computer brand
[https:]] . Looking closely it really is a world map, not a fantasy maps. They
smoothed the edges it became also unrecognizable.

10:37
Urban Growth in Motion
sur Google Maps Mania

The City Population Bubble Chart with Proportional Text & Total Population is an animated bubble chart organized into a geographical map that visualizes population changes in cities worldwide from 1950 to 2035. The animation presents the populations of global cities over time, offering an overview of where urban populations are rising and falling.The map uses data from the 2018

0:00
Ecodiv.earth: Raster layer properties in QGIS
sur Planet OSGeo

When working with raster data in QGIS, manually entering raster resolution and extent repeatedly across various processing steps can become tedious. Often, functions require these inputs explicitly, which can become cumbersome when consistent parameters are essential across multiple tasks. A solution is to use model builder to create a new function that includes as input parameters the raster extent and resolution as input parameters. Still, as an user, I often would prefer to simply use a reference layer as input, similar to what the Align rasters function offers.

As it turns out, the Raster Layer Properties function makes exactly that possible. It is not new, but it might have gone unnoticed by some users, as it did for me in any case. The function automatically extracts useful properties, including the extent, size in pixels and dimensions of pixels (in map units), number of bands, and NoData value, from a choosen reference layer. You can then feed these outputs directly into subsequent processing algorithms, ensuring consistency across your entire model.
Figure 1: An example of a model in QGIS model designer that uses the Raster layer properties function to get the extent and pixel size from an user-defined reference layer and uses this as input in the Rasterize function.
To illustrate this, built a simple distance-to-features model (Figure 1). The model takes a vector layer and converts it to a raster layer with a fixed value of 1 for all features. Subsequently, it computes a raster proximity map with the distance from each pixel to the center of the nearest pixel with value 1 (in other words, to the nearest feature).

Using this option saves time and reduces potential errors when having to do this manually. It is just a small adjustment, but it can streamline your workflows, especially if you’re regularly dealing with multiple rasters that need to align precisely. If you haven’t used this function before, it’s worth exploring—it’s an efficient way to maintain consistency across your raster workflows and makes your models cleaner and easier to manage.

In case you want to try out, you can download the model here: distance_to_features.model3.
05 March 2025
11:00
Mappery: The Discovery
sur Planet OSGeo

Reinder spotted this in a Utrecht restaurant “… in restaurant ‘De ontdekking’ [The discovery]”

Quite something!

10:16
Wiki Explore
sur Google Maps Mania

Wiki Explore is a new application that overlays Wikipedia articles onto an interactive map, allowing users to discover information about the world around them. Each point on the map represents a location with an associated Wikipedia article, providing users with quick access into insights about their surroundings.Why Use Wiki Explore?For history enthusiasts, travelers, or curious minds, Wiki

04 March 2025
18:56
GeoSolutions: FREE Webinar: Supporting Mobility and Infrastructure Decisions in Flanders with MapStore
sur Planet OSGeo

You must be logged into the site to view this content.
11:00
Mappery: Westport, Mass. t-shirt
sur Planet OSGeo

Florence shared this pic of a cracking t-shirt

10:08
Rebuilding the Berlin Wall
sur Google Maps Mania

choropleth election map showing the CDU dominant in the west and the AfD winning in the east In my round-up of 2025 German Election Maps, I commented on the "stark contrast between the results in former East Germany and the rest of the country." It was immediately apparent to most observers of last week's German election that there was a clear voting split along the old East-West German border.

6:45
OPENGIS.ch: QField 3.5 “Fangorn”: Background tracking a reality!
sur Planet OSGeo

Enclosure: [download]

Let’s not bury the lead here: the long-awaited capability to track position while QField is in the background or the device is locked has arrived in this brand-new version of QField. This feels like a magical moment, so we settled for a fantastical forest for our release name.
Main highlights
As highlighted above, QField 3.5 has unlocked background position tracking on the Android platform. This allows users to keep track of their positions even as they put QField in the background to conduct other tasks on their devices. It also means that tracking has become far more battery efficient, as users can lock/suspend their phones and tablets for long periods while QField continues to collect and track positions. On top of it all, this will work out of the book with internal GNSS as well as external high-precision GNSS devices.

This is a long-requested functionality for QField, and we couldn’t be prouder to deliver it to our hundreds of thousands of Android users. Big thanks to Groupements forestiers Québec, Biotope, and Terrex Seismic, who jointly sponsored the development.

Moving on to the next major feature added to this new version. Users can now easily import folders from WebDAV services and subsequently upload and download content to that remote folder within QField itself. This functionality eases friction on Android and iOS platforms where storage access is heavily regulated. This implementation highlights our commitment to providing QField users with the freedom they need to build their workflows; thanks to Prona Romandie, AgaricIG, and Oslandia for commissioning this work.

It’s important to note that the WebDAV functionality does not provide data synchronization. The download and upload operations will overwrite datasets stored locally or remotely. For users in need of synchronization and smooth project distribution, QFieldCloud is the way to go. With this new version of QField, downloading large datasets from QFieldCloud has become much more reliable, especially on devices with low memory.

Last but not least, QField has gained support for project-configured grid decoration. When activated, a grid is overlayed on top of the map canvas, which will dynamically render while panning and zooming around. The grid is configured and activated while setting up projects within QGIS itself.

Pro tip: this functionality can replace heavy grid datasets when covering a large dataset, something to consider when trying to optimize projects’ storage size. Big thanks to Oester Messtechnik GmbH for supporting the implementation of this fourth decoration following the arrival of title, copyright, and image decorations in earlier releases.

Other improvements in this release include “forward” angle snapping to digitize perfectly angled polygons, pinch gesture-driven feature rotation, and a new print template which unlocks printing of map canvas to PDF even when their projects have no layouts defined.
Plugin-specific improvements

One of the main additions to QField’s plugin framework is the capability to integrate custom results into the search bar. Thanks to Kanton Basel-Landschaft for supporting the development, users can enjoy OpenStreetMap Nominatim search result integration by installing this plugin (instructions available on the repository). This integration also opens up many new possibilities, such as enabling plugins to send prompts to AI, just like this plugin does.

Other noteworthy improvements include shipping Quick3D QML modules, which allow authors to develop 3D overlays, a new API to customize QField’s colour appearance and a new mechanism for plugins to add a configuration button within the plugin manager.

Users and plugin authors can expect an exciting year ahead as the QField plugin framework continues to grow with new functionalities and improvements. Watch this space!
03 March 2025
16:12
GRASS GIS: GRASS Developer Summit 2025
sur Planet OSGeo

Join Us for the GRASS Developer Summit 2025 at NC State! ? Dates: Monday, May 19 – Saturday, May 24, 2025 ? Location: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA The GRASS team is excited to announce the GRASS Developer Summit 2025, the main community meeting of the year! This 6-day event will bring together contributors, developers, power users, and geospatial enthusiasts to collaborate, code, document, and shape the future of GRASS.
11:00
Mappery: Lufthansa in Munster
sur Planet OSGeo

Marc-Tobias sent me this pic of a travel agent’s window in Munster

9:24
Mapping Myths Across the World
sur Google Maps Mania

Mythosjourney is 'an interactive global map of myths, legends, and folklore'. Throughout history, myths and legends have shaped our cultures, art, and traditions. Mythosjourney brings these stories to life by plotting them across the world, providing an immersive way to explore folklore through a geographic lens.The platform allows users to interact with myths and legends by navigating an

1:44
Sean Gillies: Bear training weeks 1–2 recap
sur Planet OSGeo
It's time for the first training recap of my 2025 season. I'm training every day, but only running 2-3 days a week because I'm cautious about stressing my Achilles tendon too much. When I do the numbers, I'll report running distance and elevation gain, and the time for all training, including cycling, weight lifting, elliptical or stationary bike, and yoga.

Week 1:
- 11.3 miles running
- 5 hours, 40 minutes all training
- 1,112 ft D+ running
The first week of my 32-week season was a little light. The highlight was running at Cougar Mountain Regional Park in Issaquah, Washington with my sister-in-law. Even in winter, it's green, with moss and ferns everywhere.

Week 2 was complicated by back pain. Instead of skipping workouts, I did a lot of chugging indoors. Going easy on my back early in the week let me recover and get out for a solid long run today at Bobcat Ridge, my longest run in seven months. In all, this was one of my biggest weeks since April, 2024.
- 17.8 miles running
- 10 hours, 18 minutes all training
- 3,199 ft D+ running
As a side project, I'm doing some physical therapy on my left hip flexor muscles, which are much weaker than those on my right side. I do seated single-leg raises, supine marching with a resistance band, and Joe Uhan's skaters. I'm making slow progress.
1:44
Sean Gillies: Bear training weeks 1–2 recap
sur Planet OSGeo
It's time for the first training recap of my 2025 season. I'm training every day, but only running 2-3 days a week because I'm cautious about stressing my Achilles tendon too much. When I do the numbers, I'll report running distance and elevation gain, and the time for all training, including cycling, weight lifting, elliptical or stationary bike, and yoga.

Week 1:
- 11.3 miles running
- 5 hours, 40 minutes all training
- 1,112 ft D+ running
The first week of my 32-week season was a little light. The highlight was running at Cougar Mountain Regional Park in Issaquah, Washington with my sister-in-law. Even in winter, it's green, with moss and ferns everywhere.

Week 2 was complicated by back pain. Instead of skipping workouts, I did a lot of chugging indoors. Going easy on my back early in the week let me recover and get out for a solid long run today at Bobcat Ridge, my longest run in seven months. In all, this was one of my biggest weeks since April, 2024.
- 17.8 miles running
- 10 hours, 18 minutes all training
- 3,199 ft D+ running
As a side project, I'm doing some physical therapy on my left hip flexor muscles, which are much weaker than those on my right side. I do seated single-leg raises, supine marching with a resistance band, and Joe Uhan's skaters. I'm making slow progress.

02 March 2025
23:15
25 Years of SRTM
sur James Fee GIS Blog

I noticed earlier last week that I just missed the 25th anniversary of the mission of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission aboard STS-99. I’m not sure there has been a more important elevation data product that has been released to the public than SRTM.

Given the uncertainty of funding for government programs in the new Trump administration, I’m not sure we’ll see another public 3D dataset in my time. Sure, there are private companies who collect much more detailed elevation data than SRTM, but none are as freely available as SRTM is (hopefully not was).

11:00
Mappery: European Languages
sur Planet OSGeo

Berl said “We saw these two at the top of Monte Igueldo in Donostia (San Sebastian) in the Basque region of Spain. Apparently Basque bears no relationship to any other language.”
10:42
GRASS GIS: GRASS 8.4.1 released
sur Planet OSGeo

What’s new in a nutshell The GRASS 8.4.1 release contains more than 80 changes compared to version 8.4.0. This new minor release includes important fixes and improvements to the GRASS tools, libraries and the graphical user interface (GUI), making it more stable and robust for your daily work. Most importantly, since the 8.4.0 release: location is now project: The Python API, command line, and graphical user interface are using project instead of location for the main component of the data hierarchy while maintaining backward compatibility.
01 March 2025
17:27
Free and Open Source GIS Ramblings: Trajectools is moving to Codeberg
sur Planet OSGeo
The Trajectools repository is migrating from GitHub to Codeberg. The new home for Trajectools is:

[https:]]

The GitHub repo remains as a writable mirror, for now, but the issue tracking is only active on Codeberg.
Why the move?
I am working on moving my projects to European infrastructure that better aligns with my values. Codeberg is a nonprofit and libre-friendly platform based in Germany. This will ensure that the projects are hosted on infrastructure that prioritizes user privacy and open-source ideals.
What does this mean for users?
- No impact on functionality – Trajectools remains the same great tool for trajectory analysis, available through the recently update QGIS Plugin Repo.
- Development continues – I’ll continue actively maintaining and improving the project. (If you want to file feature requests, please note that the issue tracker on the GitHub mirror has been deactivated and issues should be filed on Codeberg instead.)
What does this mean for contributors?
If you’re contributing to Trajectools, simply update your remotes to the new repository. The GitHub repo continues to accept PRs and the changes are synched between GitHub and Codeberg, but I’d encourage all contributors to use Codeberg.
How to update your local repository
If you’ve already cloned the GitHub repository, you can update your remote URL with the following commands:
```
cd trajectools
git remote set-url --add --push origin [https:] git pull origin main
```
Interested in testing Codeberg for your projects?
Here are the instructions I followed to perform the migration and to set up the mirroring: [https:]]

Thanks for your support, and see you on Codeberg!
11:00
Mappery: Olive Oil Soap from Cyprus
sur Planet OSGeo

Elizabeth found this in her hotel room

9:35
What is Your Climate Vulnerability?
sur Google Maps Mania

As climate change continues to reshape the environment, understanding the risks and vulnerabilities specific to different communities is more important than ever. The U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index offers a new interactive mapping tool to help users visualize climate-related vulnerabilities across the country and to show which areas face the greatest challenges from the impacts of climate

28 February 2025
16:50
Le blog de Geomatys: Les enjeux de l’IA en défense : optimiser la prise de décision et le renseignement stratégique
sur Planet OSGeo

Découvrez comment l'IA révolutionne la défense avec Examind C2 : analyse prédictive, interopérabilité et prise de décision en temps réel.

The post Les enjeux de l’IA en défense : optimiser la prise de décision et le renseignement stratégique first appeared on Geomatys.
11:00
Mappery: Crafting maps
sur Planet OSGeo

Our friend Giuseppe is trying to print a map on a tee shirt. He is not yet satisfied with the result, but can you guess the location?

10:39
The Battering School Kids Map
sur Google Maps Mania

I was horrified to learn today that not only is corporal punishment legal in most of the U.S., but 20 states even allow schools to physically punish young children. The U.S. States Where Corporal Punishment is Allowed - IDRA Map shows where schools are permitted to use corporal punishment and also details how many schoolchildren have been subjected to it.The map was created by the

27 February 2025
20:27
KAN T&IT Blog: UP42 y Kan Territory se unen para simplificar el acceso a datos de observación terrestre
sur Planet OSGeo
Muchos artículos hablan sobre cómo desbloquear el potencial completo de los datos de observación terrestre, y especialistas en geoespacial trabajan arduamente en todo el mundo para mejorar su accesibilidad e integración. Hoy queremos contarte sobre uno de estos avances. El plugin de Kan Territory para QGIS, un software SIG de código abierto muy popular, te permite descubrir y adquirir datos archivados del catálogo de UP42 sin salir de QGIS.

Primero, repasemos el catálogo de UP42 y luego exploremos cómo el plugin de Kan Territory puede beneficiarte.
El catálogo de UP42: un breve repaso
El catálogo de UP42 simplifica la búsqueda y adquisición de datos de observación terrestre (EO, por sus siglas en inglés), ofreciendo acceso a un extenso archivo de los principales proveedores del mundo. Incluye una variedad diversa de datos ópticos, SAR y de elevación de proveedores como Airbus, Planet, 21AT, Vexcel, ISI, BlackSky, Capella Space, Hexagon e Intermap. Este catálogo abarca desde imágenes con resolución ultraalta de 5.5 cm y tomas estéreo, hasta niveles de procesamiento flexibles.

El catálogo estandariza las ofertas de los proveedores y armoniza los distintos tipos de datos, lo que reduce el trabajo manual del usuario. Además, cuenta con herramientas avanzadas para clasificar, filtrar y visualizar datos, como vistas previas de múltiples escenas para compararlas fácilmente.

Funciones como verificaciones de disponibilidad en tiempo real y datos de muestra gratuitos te ayudan a encontrar fácilmente los datos adecuados para tus proyectos. También podés añadir etiquetas para categorizar tus datos, haciendo que tus proyectos sean más eficientes.
Kan Territory y su plugin para QGIS
Kan Territory & IT (a quien llamaremos simplemente Kan en este artículo) se especializa en aplicar geo-inteligencia para desarrollar soluciones de IA de código abierto, gobernanza de datos, inteligencia territorial e imágenes satelitales. Su plugin para QGIS, Kan Imagery Catalog (KICa), te permite conectar QGIS con el catálogo de UP42 al instante. De esta forma, podés buscar, ordenar y analizar imágenes de los principales proveedores del mundo, todo desde un único punto de acceso y sin salir de QGIS.
¿Por qué usar el plugin?
- Flujos de trabajo optimizados: Explorá el catálogo de UP42 dentro de QGIS, filtrá según tus criterios, visualizá imágenes, hacé pedidos e integrá los datos en tus proyectos de QGIS para análisis posteriores, sin descargas y cargas manuales ni la necesidad de usar varias plataformas.
- Análisis simplificado: Visualizá y analizá imágenes compradas, superponé imágenes con otros conjuntos de datos y capas de mapas, realizá análisis espaciales o generá visualizaciones de alta calidad.
- Estandarización de datos: KICa y UP42 utilizan el estándar STAC para ofrecer datos en un formato estandarizado, lo que facilita la consulta, visualización e integración posterior de datos geoespaciales.
¿Cómo empezar?
Primero, necesitás instalar el plugin Kan Imagery Catalog. Para hacerlo:
1. Abrí QGIS y dirigite a Complementos -> Administrar e instalar complementos en el menú superior.
2. Escribí «KAN Imagery Catalog» y hacé clic en Instalar complemento.
Para acceder al plugin, andá a Complementos o simplemente hacé clic en el ícono de KAN Imagery Catalog en el menú. El panel del plugin aparecerá en el lateral de la interfaz de QGIS. Luego, conectate a UP42. Andá a Configuración (el ícono de engranaje en la esquina superior derecha del plugin) e iniciá sesión con tus credenciales habituales de UP42. ¡Listo!

Ahora, podés definir tu área de interés (AOI) importando una existente a QGIS o dibujándola manualmente en el mapa. Indicá la cobertura de nubes deseada, el rango de fechas y seleccioná los proveedores de tu interés haciendo clic en Selección de catálogo (en nuestro ejemplo, elegimos Pléiades, Pléiades Neo y Pléiades Neo HD15). Los datos disponibles que coincidan con tu AOI y requisitos se mostrarán.

Las escenas disponibles aparecerán como huellas en el mapa de QGIS. En la parte inferior izquierda, podés ordenar los resultados por fecha, encontrar toda la información que necesitás sobre cada imagen, previsualizar miniaturas o dirigirte a la plataforma de UP42 para adquirir los datos.

Con este plugin, la industria geoespacial ahora cuenta con una nueva forma de acceder a UP42 a través de una de sus herramientas más populares.

Descargá el plugin ahora
11:00
Mappery: The Barbary
sur Planet OSGeo

I had lunch at The Barbary in Covent Garden with a pal. I couldn’t resist a couple of pics of these lovely place mats.

9:58
It's a Scrambled World
sur Google Maps Mania

If you're a fan of map-based puzzles, there's exciting news for you - Scrambled Maps has evolved into something bigger and better! Scrambled World, is a major new version of Scrambled Maps that expands the game beyond its classic format and introduces a host of new features designed to enhance your puzzle-solving adventure.What is Scrambled Maps?For those unfamiliar, Scrambled Maps is a
26 February 2025
11:01
The Best & Worst Countries in the World
sur Google Maps Mania

This map reveals how people perceive each country on Earth. The snappily entitled Sentiment Different Ratio by Country visualizes global public sentiment based on comments from the popular social media platform, Reddit.According to an analysis of 444,059 Reddit comments, Laos, Iceland, and Slovenia are the most highly regarded countries in the world.On the other hand, Palestine, Israel, and

11:00
Mappery: Geographical clock
sur Planet OSGeo

I came across this beautiful globe while visiting the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (UK).
25 February 2025
11:00
Mappery: Shop, Eat and Drink at Battersea Power Station
sur Planet OSGeo

Elizabeth speed this massive map at Battersea, lots of places to spend your money

9:45
Colonial Frontier Massacres
sur Google Maps Mania

In 2017, the University of Newcastle in Australia released an interactive map of Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia 1788-1930. The map is part of the university's efforts to record and document the massacre of over 10,000 Native Australians between 1788 and 1930.The eight-year-long project to document the massacres of First Nations people in Australia has now ended

24 February 2025
11:00
Mappery: Old Commercial Airline Ad
sur Planet OSGeo

Enclosure: [download]

Another Old commercial Airline Ad shared by M. Le Cartographe

9:56
2025 German Election Maps
sur Google Maps Mania

The conservative CDU party emerged as the biggest winner in yesterday's German election. Another clear winner from Sunday's vote was the far-right AfD party, which doubled its vote share to 20.8%. Meanwhile, the center-left SPD (the party of incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz) suffered its worst-ever results, securing just 16.4% of the national vote.The Berliner Morgenpost's Federal Election 2025

23 February 2025
11:00
Mappery: Schatz die Welt
sur Planet OSGeo

Jaview Jimenz Shaw shared this board game. The translation of the box is:

APPRECIATE THE WORLD

Who will be the betting world champion?

Most residents?

Longest road network?

Largest forest area?

Highest temperature?
9:13
QGIS Blog: QGIS Grants #10: Call for Grant Proposals 2025
sur Planet OSGeo
Dear QGIS Community,

We are very pleased to announce that this year’s round of grants is now available. The call is open to anybody who wants to make a contribution to QGIS funded by our grant fund, subject to the call conditions outlined in the application form.

This year’s budget is €50k and the deadline for the proposals is in four weeks, on Wednesday, 26 March 2025. Here’s the full timeline:
Timeline
- 2025-02-23: Call for proposals (4 weeks)
- 2025-03-26: QEP discussion period (2 weeks)
- 2025-04-09: Writing discussion summaries (1 week)
- 2025-04-16: Voting starts (2 weeks)
- 2025-04-30: Publication of results
- — 6 months of project work —
- 2025-10-30: Deadline for follow-up reports
Procedures
There are no new procedures in 2025. Please note the following guidelines established in previous years:
- The proposal must be submitted as a ‘QEP’ (QGIS Enhancement Proposal) issue in the repo: [https:]] (tagged as Grant-2025). Following this approach will allow people to ask questions and provide public feedback on individual proposals.
- Proposals must clearly define the expected final result so that we can properly assess if the goal of the proposal has been reached.
- The project budgets should account for PR reviewing expenses to ensure timely handling of the project-related PRs and avoid delays caused by relying on reviewer volunteer time.
- In the week after the QEP discussion period, the proposal authors are expected to write a short summary of the discussion that is suitable for use as a basis on which voting members make their decisions.
The PSC of QGIS.ORG will examine the proposals and has veto power in case a proposal does not follow guidelines or is not in line with project priorities.

For more details, please read the introduction provided in the application form.

We look forward to seeing all your great ideas for improving QGIS!
22 February 2025
11:00
Mappery: Map of Africa found in Africa
sur Planet OSGeo

Enclosure: [download]

?Ragnvald shared this map of Africa found in a Bar in Malawi

10:21
2024 - Another Year of Record Heat
sur Google Maps Mania

Last year, two-thirds of the Earth’s surface experienced at least one month of record-breaking heat. The Guardian has visualized data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service to illustrate the average temperatures around the world for each month in 2024.The animated map at the top of the article comes from The Guardian's feature, Two-thirds of the Earth’s surface experienced record

1:00
Paul Ramsey: Book Pairings
sur Planet OSGeo

A funny thing happened when I wrote up my 2025 book list – a lot of the books were parts of pairings. And I started wondering what other pairings I had read that were memorable.

So here’s another list!

Wicked, Gregory Maguire and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

You wouldn’t know it to look at me (or would you?) but I am a person who has read all 14 books of the original L. Frank Baum Oz series. From “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” to “Glinda of Oz” and all in between.

As… that kind of person, I was truly tickled to pick up “Wicked” a couple years ago and take in not only the invented back-story of the Wicked Witch of the West (Elphaba), but also all the references to the Oz world that Maguire builds into his narrative. “Wicked” is the best kind of reimagining, one that manages a completely fresh story, but without tearing down the original source material on the way. Maguire clearly is also… that kind of person, and he treats Oz with respect while building a totally fresh take. Loved it so much.

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Asten and Longbourne, Jo Baker

I came across “Longbourne” as a book recommendation from the hosts of the Strict Scrutiny Podcast (a podcast that current events renders more relevant every day). Like “Wicked”, “Longbourne” picks in the same world as the source, but manages to tell an entirely unique story that pays tribute to the original.

“Longbourn” is told entirely from the point of view of the servants in the Bennet family home. It both tells a heart warming love story, and illuminates just how different the circumstances of the upstairs and downstairs of the house are.

The version I had conveniently included both “Longbourn” and the entirety of “Pride and Prejudice” in one volume. It was crazy to read the old novel and see just how little the service staff figured in the story. And yet, as “Longbourn” makes clear, they would have been omnipresent, working hard every day, 24/7.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain and James, Percival Everett

“James” showed up on number of “best of” lists for 2024, and I deliberately read it after doing a re-read of Huck Finn. The central conceit of “James” is that the slaves are all play acting the character of “slave” in front of the white world, but have a rich secret intellectual life they only show to one another. This makes Everett’s “James” an engaging narrator, well read, ironic at times, and observant, but no more compelling as a human being than Twain’s “Jim”.

For me, after the first third of the book, “James” did not have a lot new to offer. Everett has to work through all the narrative beats of the original material, but does not have much more to offer than the central twist. In those parts of the story where James is separated from Huck, and Everett has the freedom to write his own narrative for James, I found the story more engaging, but when he is stuck inside Twain’s story arc, the book kind of grinds along.

March, Geraldine Brooks and Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

“March” tells the tale of the largely absent father figure of “Little Women”, abolitionist Mr. March, who heads off join the Union Army as a chaplain, and ends up having as miserable a time as one would expect, in the Battle of the Wilderness and then on a Union-occupied plantation.

I found this book on the Pullitzer list (winner for 2006) and it was a great engaging read, good for anyone interested in a little Civil War fiction that does not shy away from just how miserable an experience war is. The human wreckage of battle, the devestation of every built structure, the disappearance of civil society and law. March heads off to war thinking he can make a difference. He returns much more realistic.

Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver and David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

The “Demon Copperhead” and “David Copperfield” pairing I wrote about before. I picked up “Copperfield” right away after “Demon” to explore all the connections that Kingsolver had built into her tale, and I was a little surprised to find out how much she’d changed. Some of her characters had no analogues in Dickens and vice versa. Parts of the plot were gone or re-arranged or had no obvious analogue. Which was all fine, since “Demon Copperhead” stands perfectly well on its own.

1984, George Orwell and Julia, Sandra Newman

Also wrote about these before. Worth reading together, if only to appreciate, in Newman’s telling, just how much of a self-absorbed prig Winston Smith actually is.

21 February 2025
11:07
Zoom, Pan, and Explore: Sutro Tower in 3D
sur Google Maps Mania

Vincent Woo has released an astounding 3D model of Sutro Tower in San Francisco. Sutro Tower in 3D is a fully interactive representation of the city's 977-foot (298-meter) tall radio and television transmission tower. The model was created using thousands of aerial images of the tower, all captured by drone. These images were then processed into a fully interactive 3D model, thanks largely

11:00
Mappery: African bag
sur Planet OSGeo

Spotted this bag on the tube recently
20 February 2025
11:00
Mappery: Miniature
sur Planet OSGeo

Wanmei shared her craft miniatures featuring maps

9:38
How Climate Change is Destroying Crops
sur Google Maps Mania

Carbon Brief has analyzed global media reports to identify where and how extreme weather events have destroyed crops over the past two years. In How Extreme Weather is Destroying Crops Around the World, Carbon Brief has mapped this analysis, highlighting 100 instances of crops being lost to heat, drought, floods, and other extreme weather events in 2023-24.The colors of the 100 markers on the

19 February 2025
14:34
GeoTools Team: GeoTools 31.6 released
sur Planet OSGeo

GeoTools 31.6 released The GeoTools team is pleased to announce the release of the latest stable version of GeoTools 31.6: geotools-31.6-bin.zip geotools-31.6-doc.zip geotools-31.6-userguide.zip geotools-31.6-project.zip This release is also available from the OSGeo Maven Repository and is made in conjunction with GeoServer 2.25.6 and GeoWebCache 1.25.4.
11:00
Mappery: Washington Metro
sur Planet OSGeo

Who doesn’t love a good metro map/diagram? Surely not our community of Maps in the Wild lovers?

This is the Washington Metro Map which was very useful for getting to the National Air and Space Museum which has featured a lot over the last couple of weeks

10:39
The Best (and Worst) Cities for Rail Transport
sur Google Maps Mania

London & New York - population density and railways The citizens of Hong Kong have the best rail transport system in the world according to a new study by the University of Toronto. Osaka, Japan, and Madrid, Spain, rank second and third, respectively, while New York ranks highest among U.S. cities.The University of Toronto's School of Cities analyzed how well the world's 250 most populated
18 February 2025
11:16
Before New York
sur Google Maps Mania

This is New Amsterdam in 1660, when Peter Stuyvesant was serving as the director-general of the colony of New Netherland. New Amsterdam, located on the southern tip of Manhattan Island, was the capital of New Netherland.One of my favorite interactive maps of all time is the Beyond Manhatta. This project visualizes Manhattan Island and its native wildlife, as it would have looked in 1609.

11:00
Mappery: Loyalty map
sur Planet OSGeo

Enclosure: [download]

Dean shared this Loyalty card mapping a coffee place.

1:16
Spring Training 2025
sur James Fee GIS Blog

This week is one of the best in baseball—the start of Spring Training, with players practice already underway. Sadly, it’s been a long time since the Giants last made a World Series run, and the Dodgers are as annoying as ever. But hey, the team is healthy, and baseball is always fun to watch!

17 February 2025
11:12
The Gulf of Kleptocracy
sur Google Maps Mania

Apple Maps has joined Google Maps in kowtowing to the maggot infestation of U.S. geopolitical policy. This means you might want to bookmark OpenStreetMap, Bing Maps or Mapquest, - who now seem to be the only interactive map providers still interested in maintaining geographical accuracy.As well as continuing to use the correct place-name label for the "Gulf of Mexico," MapQuest has also

11:00
Mappery: UN HQ
sur Planet OSGeo

The United nations headquarters building in New York has their world map logo all over the place.
1:00
GeoServer Team: GeoServer 2.25.6 Release
sur Planet OSGeo
GeoServer 2.25.6 release is now available with downloads (bin, war, windows), along with docs and extensions.

This series has now reached end-of-life, and it is recommended to plan an upgrade to 2.26.x or the upcoming 2.27.0 soon.
GeoServer 2.25.6 is made in conjunction with GeoTools 31.6, and GeoWebCache 1.25.4.

Thanks to Peter Smythe (AfriGIS) for making this release.
Release notes
Improvement:
- GEOS-11651 Support env parametrization on OIDC filter
- GEOS-11652 Externalize printing configuration folder
- GEOS-11677 Hide version info on GWC home page
Bug:
- GEOS-10844 Exclude xml-apis from build
- GEOS-11649 welcome page per-layer is not respecting global service enablement
- GEOS-11664 Update REST security paths
- GEOS-11672 GWC virtual services available with empty contents
- GEOS-11690 Bug in Externalize printing configuration folder
- GEOS-11694 OpenID connect: allow caching authentication when an expiration is declared in the access token
- GEOS-11696 AdminRequestCallback not loaded due to spring bean name conflict
- GEOS-11700 GeoFence fails in recognizing some caller IP address
- GEOS-11707 Ogr2OgrWfsTest test failures with GDAL 3.10.1
- GEOS-11711 Clickhouse DGGS stores fails to aggregate on dates
- GEOS-11713 Concurrent LDAP builds fail on Jenkins
- GEOS-11715 STAC sortby won’t work with “properties.” prefixed names
- GEOS-11716 WFS POST requests fail if a layer is misconfigured
Task:
- GEOS-11650 Update dependencies for monitoring-kafka module
- GEOS-11659 Apply Palantir Java format on GeoServer
- GEOS-11671 Upgrade H3 dependency to 3.7.3
- GEOS-11682 Add tests for WMS SLD XML request reader
- GEOS-11685 Bump jetty.version from 9.4.56.v20240826 to 9.4.57.v20241219
- GEOS-11701 Update JAI-Ext to 1.1.28
For the complete list see 2.25.6 release notes.
Community Updates
Community module development:
- GEOS-11686 Clickhouse DGGS stores cannot properly read dates
- GEOS-11687 OGC API packages contain gs-web-core
Community modules are shared as source code to encourage collaboration. If a topic being explored is of interest to you, please contact the module developer to offer assistance.
About GeoServer 2.25 Series
Additional information on GeoServer 2.25 series:
Release notes: ( 2.25.6 | 2.25.5 | 2.25.4 | 2.25.3 | 2.25.2 | 2.25.1 | 2.25.0 | 2.25-RC )
1:00
EOX' blog: The Last Common Hamsters
sur Planet OSGeo

The common hamster, once a familiar sight in European fields, is now teetering on the brink of extinction. Nature filmmaker and ecologist David Cebulla's documentary, "The Last Common Hamsters" ("Die Letzten Feldhamster"), explores this crisis. The documentary aired on the 17th of January 2025 at D ...
16 February 2025
19:54
Narcélio de Sá: Fina e os Mapas agora fala português!
sur Planet OSGeo

A jornada começou com um objetivo claro: tornar um material educativo valioso acessível para mais pessoas. “Fina e os Mapas”, um livro encantador que ensina crianças e jovens sobre mapas colaborativos e cartografia digital, já estava disponível em galego e espanhol. Agora, tenho o orgulho de anunciar que a versão em português está pronta e acessível para toda a comunidade!

Eu e minha esposa tivemos o prazer de trabalhar na tradução deste material e foi uma experiência incrível! Trazer essa história para o público lusófono reforça a importância de tornar conteúdos educativos mais acessíveis e de incentivar o aprendizado sobre cultura livre e colaboração digital desde a infância.

A história de Fina e sua avó nos leva a um universo onde tecnologia e cooperação se encontram. Ao longo da narrativa, as crianças descobrem que podem contribuir para a criação de mapas do mundo real por meio do OpenStreetMap, um projeto aberto e comunitário. Mais do que um livro, essa obra representa uma porta de entrada para o entendimento da colaboração digital e do impacto que cada um de nós pode ter na construção do conhecimento coletivo.

Ao chegar em casa, Fina corre para o seu quarto para pesquisar sobre mapas. Um projeto chama sua atenção. Ele se chama OpenStreetMap e se define como “um mapa do mundo, criado por pessoas como você e de uso livre”.

Traduções como essa são fundamentais. Quando disponibilizamos materiais educativos de forma aberta e acessível, ampliamos o alcance do conhecimento e criamos oportunidades para que mais crianças e jovens possam se envolver com a tecnologia de maneira significativa. Ensinar desde cedo sobre o valor da colaboração e da informação compartilhada é um passo essencial para formar cidadãos mais engajados e conscientes.

Essa conquista não teria sido possível sem o trabalho incrível da Associação GHANDALF (https://ghandalf.org), que não apenas criou esse material inspirador, mas também deu suporte imediato na organização do repositório no GitHub, facilitando todo o processo de tradução. O compromisso deles com a cultura livre e a educação aberta faz toda a diferença, e somos imensamente gratos por essa parceria!

Agora, a versão em português já está disponível gratuitamente no site do projeto: https://finaeosmapas.ghandalf.org.

Se você acredita no poder do conhecimento aberto, ajude a divulgar essa iniciativa. Compartilhe, comente e, quem sabe, inspire mais projetos educativos livres!
11:00
Mappery: Harry Beck – Partial Sketch for the 1951 Quad Royal Poster, 1950
sur Planet OSGeo

An incomplete sketch by Harry Beck, the designer of the iconic London Underground map. The hastily drawn sketch focuses on Southwest London as it intends to show a proposed new layout for the District Line branch to Richmond.
Much of the map is composed of crude pencil sketches, but the relevant areas have been tidied up and straightened with colour pencil.
15 February 2025
11:00
Mappery: Harry Beck’s first sketch of a diagonal Victoria Line
sur Planet OSGeo

This unique manuscript sketch by Harry Beck, the designer of the iconic London Tube Map, shows an early attempt to add the Victoria Line (still under construction at the time) to his Underground diagram. His elegant and ingenious proposal introduces the Victoria line as a clean diagonal running from northeast to southwest. This sketch focuses on the most complex section of the map: Highbury & Islington to Victoria.

Harry Beck had served as the chief designer for the London Underground map since 1933 when his revolutionary schematic design was first introduced to the public. With only a brief interlude from 1937 to 1941, Beck retained control of the design until 1960 when he was unceremoniously told by London Transport that his services were no longer required. Another member of London Transport’s Publicity Department, Harold Hutchinson, took it upon himself to produce a new Underground map in 1960, without consulting Beck and without following many of the key tenets of Beck’s design.

The Hutchinson design, much derided at the time, was felt to be a poor replacement with its harsh angles and inelegant zig-zagging lines. Beck may have thought that the arrival of the Victoria Line offered an opportunity to correct the errors of the Hutchinson design. After working for months to incorporate the new line, Beck submitted two Quad Royal posters for approval on 29 November 1961.

On those maps, the Victoria Line is portrayed in lilac, a colour which was ultimately abandoned as it was too difficult to print consistently. Both Quad Royal posters were returned less than two weeks later without comments. His elegant solution for the Victoria Line was never adopted. The following year, London Transport sent Harry Beck a dismissive letter in which they stated: “If at any time London Transport decides to use your map again, nobody but yourself will be commissioned to alter it and bring it up to date. The map now in use is of another design, and this is the one on which London Transport intends to show the Victoria Line and any other future additions to the Underground System.”

This wholly unfinished sketch provides a fascinating insight into Beck’s design process.

10:58
The Black History Month Map
sur Google Maps Mania

The Black History Month Map is a new collaborative and dynamic map developed by kinkofa and PamPam to honor and document the significant places, individuals, and movements that have shaped Black history. To help you explore the invaluable contributions of Black Americans to U.S. history, the map is powered by PamPam's "Ask Pam" AI assistant.The Black History Month Map allows you to discover

0:00
Ecodiv.earth: Species distribution modeling using Maxent in GRASS GIS
sur Planet OSGeo

I’m pleased to introduce new GRASS GIS add-ons that integrate Maxent-based species distribution modelling (SDM) with GRASS GIS spatial analysis tools. To help users get started, I’ve prepared a comprehensive step-by-step tutorial that walks you through the entire workflow.
Why these add-ons?
Existing Maxent implementations often require programming skills, lack integrated GIS capabilities, or combine modelling steps in ways that obscure the underlying processes for novice users. The new GRASS GIS add-ons represent a front-end to the Maxent software package and aims to make it easy to carry out the different modeling steps while providing an integrated environment for the complete SDM workflow.

Four main steps of species distribution modelling and the corresponding add-ons
After importing the required data, the workflow starts with v.maxent.swd to prepare environmental and species occurrence data. It continues with r.maxent.train for model development and concludes with r.maxent.predict for generating distribution predictions. This modular approach hopefully maintains clarity for novice users while providing a complete workflow within the GRASS GIS environment.

Like any GRASS GIS module, these add-ons support both graphical and command-line interfaces, making them suitable for both interactive analysis and automated processing. This flexibility serves both new users exploring SDM concepts and more experienced users requiring reproducible and automated workflows. They also complement existing GRASS GIS machine learning tools, such as the r.learn.ml2 add-ons.
About the tutorial
To support these tools, I’ve created a tutorial that provides a structured approach to SDM in GRASS GIS. It guides users through the preparation of input data, model training, evaluation, and visualization of the result. The aim is to encourage exploration while maintaining a logical workflow.

I will use the tutorial in my upcoming course on species distribution modeling, course taught at the Applied Geo-information Science program HAS green academy and welcome feedback to improve it further. You can find the tutorial at [https:]] .

14 February 2025
17:56
Resurrecting Planet Geospatial
sur James Fee GIS Blog

UPDATE: We have the domain working, you now just need to go to geofeeds.me and you’ll get the same results as below. The feed is at geofeeds.me/feed. You don’t need to update anything as the old urls will continue to work. Full speed ahead, make sure you reach out to Bill or myself if you want your blog, newsletter or other writing added.

A couple days ago, Bill Dollins reached out to me and had a crazy idea:

“Forget podcasting. We should resurrect planetgs”

It took me all of 10 seconds to respond, “Hell yes”. You can read the technical way it was brought back on Bill’s blog:

So, “Neptune” is born. The name is a nod to what Planet and Venus did/do, while the “N” planet hints at the Node underpinnings. Feel free to check it out. It’s about 50% me and about 50% Cursor. It’s not all the way baked, but good enough to release.

A lot has changed since I put Planet Geospatial to bed. It’s been 10 years, longer than Planet Geospatial was alive since the python script culled all those Blogger sites and spit out a HTML page and an RSS feed. The world has changed a couple times over, blogs which were falling out of style have started to come back, newsletters are everywhere and Twitter is a cesspool of junk.

Many of us had Planet Geospatial as our homepage (back when that was a thing) but feel free to grab the new temporary URL [https:]] and the new feed [https:]] . We’re working at getting an easier domain set up because I let PlanetGS.com go many years ago and alas it has been taken.

I hope this helps many of you start blogging again, we need all the good content to survive the next few years.

11:00
Mappery: Valentine’s Day
sur Planet OSGeo

To Celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day, what better map than Paris, the city of Love, with two lovers?

Painting on an old-school map by C215

9:36
What If Asteroid 2024 YR4 Hit Your Town?
sur Google Maps Mania

According to NASA, Asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 2.3% chance of impacting Earth on December 22, 2032. The asteroid is estimated to be between 40 to 90 meters (130 to 300 feet) in diameter.If you want to know what damage Asteroid 2024 YR4 might cause if it lands in your backyard, you can use Neal.Fun's Asteroid Launcher to find out.According to Neal.Fun's Asteroid Launcher, if a 200-foot diameter rock

13 February 2025
11:00
Mappery: Harry Beck’s Sketches for the Victoria Line
sur Planet OSGeo

We went to see the exhibition of Tube Diagrams featuring some very early sketches by Harry Beck at the Map House in Knightsbridge (very, very pricey).

Victoria Line at Kings Cross and Euston

Four unique sketches in Harry Beck’s hand showing different ways to depict the area around Kings Cross and Euston when the Victoria Line was added to the diagram.
These sketches, drawn between 1961 and 1964, after Beck was unceremoniously ousted by London Transport, show his continued obsession with the design.

The first sketch (top-left) employs a design element which Beck had never used before: a square symbol for a mainline station interchange. As Beck never included this device on any of his other maps, we can suppose that he did not like this solution.

The second sketch (top-right) uses a bend in the Circle and Metropolitan Lines at King’s Cross to allow for a tidier connection with the Victoria Line. This ‘hump’ reduces the number of interchange circles to two, allowing for a much tighter diagram. Here Beck uses capitalized station names to indicate an interchange with British Railways services instead of the square icon. Beck had never been permitted to mix upper-case and lower-case station names prior to 1960.

The third sketch (bottom-left) shows King’s Cross with four interchange circles and Euston with three. Beck’s use of coloured circles to indicate which lines intersect dates back to his first map of 1933, but this tradition had been axed by Beck’s replacement who favoured one black circle or square to indicate an interchange. This sketch includes one other unique design element – the curved line connecting the two branches of the northern line between Mornington Crescent and Euston.

The fourth sketch (bottom-right) is an outlier, showing much of the eastern Circle Line, and parts of the Central and Piccadilly Lines. Here Harry Beck grapples with two problems: the route of the Victoria Line and how it might affect the eastern curve of the Circle Line. This sketch proposes a solution which never appears on a finished map, but was inspired by Paul Garbutt’s bottle-shaped Circle Line.

This remarkable set of sketches show the evolution of Harry Beck’s thinking about the addition of the Victoria Line and his continuing effort to improve the design after 1960.

9:57
What is Your Ecoregion?
sur Google Maps Mania

Ecotenet is an interactive platform that provides users with a unique map of ecoregions across the globe. The map focuses on ecological boundaries in order to provide users with an understanding of different types of ecoregion and their unique biodiversity.One of the most compelling aspects of Ecotenet is its emphasis on ecoregions, which are defined by the World Wildlife Fund as a "large unit

12 February 2025
23:07
Markus Neteler: GRASS GIS 8.4.1RC1 released
sur Planet OSGeo

The GRASS GIS 8.4.1RC1 release provides more than 70 improvements and fixes with respect to the release 8.4.0. Please support us in testing this release candidate.

The post GRASS GIS 8.4.1RC1 released appeared first on Markus Neteler Consulting.
11:00
Mappery: Show Some Love, Keep It Clean
sur Planet OSGeo

Spotted in Chinatown, NYC.

10:33
The Flight of the Barn Swallow
sur Google Maps Mania

This animated gridded occurrence map shows recorded sightings of the Barn Swallow in Europe throughout 2024. The Barn Swallow is one of Europe's most well-known migratory birds, undertaking a long-distance migration between its breeding grounds in Europe and wintering areas in Africa.On the animated map, you can see Barn Swallows returning to southern Europe in late February and early March.

11 February 2025

21:31

QGIS Blog: Plugin Update – January, 2025

sur Planet OSGeo

January, the first month of 2025, brought us 36 new plugins, published in the QGIS plugin repository .

Here follows the quick overview in reverse chronological order. If any of the names or short descriptions catches your attention, you can find the direct link to the plugin page in the table below:

Overview

GBIF Extractor

Based on an extent, the user can download GBIF data.

Transliterator

A plugin to transliterate Georgian script to Latin.

CARTO

Seamless Cloud Data Warehouse Integration.

Open Google Maps

Opens current map extent in Google Maps.

Planet Sandbox Plugin

Plugin to explore Planet’s Sandbox data from the Planet Insights Platform. Right now it only displays a single layer, but makes it easy to see where the data is. This plugin will expand functionality in future versions.

QSFCGAL

This plugin integrates SFCGAL functions into the QGIS Processing toolbox and expressions for advanced spatial analysis.

Sampling Time

Performs multiple sampling methods on shapefile layers.

Layer Reverse

Reverse order of highlighted layers.

PointCloudFR

Downloads LiDAR tiles from IGN that intersect with the input AOI.

Layer CRS Shifter

Coordinate System Shift for Layer.

Connector for ODK

Connect to ODK Central, fetch submissions, and visualize field data on QGIS maps. Supports filtering, spatial analysis, and data export.

TeamArea Creator

Create 3 Layers for each Team, Collecting Things like garbage and trace their route. Export collectionMarks to Excel.

Lateral spreading

Lateral spreading for seismic microzonation.

WMS CQL Filter to QGIS Server Filter Request

Transforms CQL_FILTER WMS request to a QGIS server compatible FILTER request.

WQICalculator

WQICalculator is a QGIS plugin that allows automatic calculation of the Water Quality Index (WQI) using raster data of various physicochemical parameters as input.

Elasticsearch Loader

Connects to an Elasticsearch index, executes a query, and loads the results as a QGIS layer.

Sankalan 2

Tool for transferring data from and to Sankalan 2.0 Mobile App for field survey.

Layer Color Plugin

This plugin enables users to customize the background colors of layers and groups in the layer tree view, enhancing visual organization and project management.

Seismic microzones with morphological gradient

This plugin identifies areas with a morphological gradient with slopes ?15° within seismic zones (input vector file) starting from the DTM.

Raster Stats Plus

Calculates detailed statistics of a selected raster layer, allows you to choose the band via a menu, and generates histogram and Gaussian curve plots.

Landsklim

Spatial interpolations from quantitative data.

RGD Savoie Mont Blanc Plugin

Plugin QGIS fournissant un accès simple aux flux de données géographiques du GIP RGD Savoie Mont Blanc et d’autres ressources géographiques utiles aux acteurs publics de Savoie et de Haute-Savoie ( plan cadastral, photographies aériennes, données d’urbanismes, cartes topographiques, données alimétriques, PCRS…). Fonctionnalités de recherche et consultation de données cadsatrales. Recherche d’adresse postale. Veuillez noter qu’un certain nombre de services accessibles par le plugin nécessitent d’avoir un accès autorisé accordé par la RGD Savoie Mont Blanc. info@rgd.fr pour toute création de compte.

TeleProp

Radio Propagation Fieldstrength

AfpolGIS Data Connector

This plugin allows you to load geospatial data from several Data Platforms; OnaData, ODK, KoboToolbox, ES World, GTS and DHIS.

GeoFlight Planner

A versatile QGIS plugin for drone flight planning, ensuring optimized flight paths and high-quality data capture.

Geology from points and lines

Geoprocessing plugin to generate polygons and lines from lines and points with geological information.

Census Downloader

Downloads Census Data.

FeaturesBoundingBox

Show the BBox info for the selected features.

Raster Reclassifier

Reclassification of the raster layer using a table of range values ??extracted directly from the raster band, or defined directly by the user. The histogram of the raster is shown, reflecting the distribution of values ??within the minimum and maximum range of the selected reference band. Available languages: English, Italian and Spanish. ***ITALIANO*** Riclassificazione del layer raster tramite una tabella di valori di intervallo estratti direttamente dalla banda raster, oppure definiti direttamente dall’utente. Viene mostrato l’istogramma del raster, che riflette la distribuzione dei valori all’interno dell’intervallo minimo e massimo della banda di riferimento selezionata.

QBeachball

Easily plot focal mechanisms (beachballs) onto a map.

argentina_georef

Obtiene información administrativa de Argentina a partir de coordenadas.

Stara Maps

Plugin para organizar arquivos de agricultura de precisão, facilitando a organização de mapas e arquivos em geral.

NL wfs_loader

Deze plugin laad publiek beschikbare, maar lastig vindbare, WFS lagen.

Polygon Labeler

Automatically generate and label polygons with custom names, and add the labels as a new attribute field to the attribute table.

ahp_application

This QGIS plugin implements the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) for suitability analysis.

Geospatial Gateway – GeospatialCloudServ and Tile Server Connection

This plugin requires the purchase of either Windows Tile Server [https:]] or Ready to Go Cloud or On-Prem/Edge Virtual Machine Solution [https:]]

16:00
GRASS GIS: GRASS GIS App for Mac now notarized
sur Planet OSGeo

The GRASS Development Team is pleased to announce that the prebuilt applications for macOS are now signed and notarized. This enhancement represents a significant improvement in both security and user convenience. The currently available notarized binaries include the preview version 8.5.0dev and the release candidate 8.4.1. These versions are bundled with essential software components, including GDAL 3.10.1, PDAL 2.8.3, PROJ 9.5.1, and Python 3.12. Future releases will also be signed and notarized to ensure continued security and compliance.
11:00
Mappery: GRAB
sur Planet OSGeo

Using Satellites for Spying
GRAB (Galactic Radiation and Background) Satellite Ground
Station Contact Map, 1960

GRAB was the first electronic spy satellite; it picked up radio communications from Cold War adversaries. Ground operators used this map to tell when the satellite was overhead. That’s when they could download intercepted intelligence.

This is the last post from my visit to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, it’s a must see if you are in the city.

10:35
3D Print Your World
sur Google Maps Mania

The Topography Explorer is an interactive map that generates and allows users to explore 3D renderings of the Earth's surface.Using the application, you can create your own 3D visualizations of watershed areas or predefined regions. The animated GIF at the top of this post is an example of a 3D visualization generated by the Topography Explorer. This animation shows a 3D rendering of Bioko

1:00
Nick Bearman: tmap version 4 released!
sur Planet OSGeo
tmap version 4 has now been released, and is now available on CRAN. It has a whole range of new features, which we will explore in this blog post.

If those words above mean nothing to you, a quick recap: tmap is a library used in R to make maps. I use it in my Introduction to Spatial Data and Using R as a GIS training course so if you have attended one of those, you have already used it. If you are interested in learning more, check out my Training Courses or my Training Materials

tmap’s maintainer, Martijn Tennekes, has been working on v4 for a number of years, and has quite a few changes under the hood.

From our point of view (people who are new-ish to R, and/or tmap) the code to make maps has changed slightly. Martijn has put in a lot of ‘helper’ information for people transitioning from v3 to v4, so all your code will still work.

For basic maps, qtm() hasn’t changed at all; although you will notice that the defaults have changed:
tmap v3: qtm(sthelens, fill="Burglary")
tmap v4: qtm(sthelens, fill="Burglary")

Similarly, tm_shape and tm_polygons are the same for a basic map, but again the defaults have changed.

However, when you get to doing slightly more advanced things with tm_shape, for example specifying colours, the code has changed slightly:

tmap v3:
```
tm_shape(LSOA) +
    tm_polygons("Age00to04", title = "Aged 0 to 4", palette = "Greens", style = "jenks") +
    tm_layout(legend.title.size = 0.8)
```
tmap v4:
```
  tm_shape(LSOA) +
    tm_polygons(fill = "Age00to04",
                fill.scale = tm_scale_intervals(values = "brewer.greens", style = "jenks"),
                fill.legend = tm_legend(title.size = 0.8))
```
One specific thing of note is that there is a much wider selection of colour pallets available than the Brewer pallets. As such, we now need to specify brewer.greens rather than just Greens. However we do get a handy note if we forget:
```
[cols4all] color palettes: use palettes from the R package cols4all. Run
`cols4all::c4a_gui()` to explore them. The old palette name "Greens" is
named "brewer.greens"
Multiple palettes called "greens" found: "brewer.greens", "matplotlib.greens". 
The first one, "brewer.greens", is returned.
```
Martijn has designed the library to be backwards compatible, and if you do try using some v3 code with v4, it will still run and create your map, and give you some handy advice:
```
tm_shape(LSOA) +
   tm_polygons("Age00to04", title = "Aged 0 to 4", palette = "Greens", style = "jenks") +
   tm_layout(legend.title.size = 0.8)

?? tmap v3 code detected ????????????????????????????????????????????????
[v3->v4] `tm_polygons()`: instead of `style = "jenks"`, use fill.scale =
`tm_scale_intervals()`.
? Migrate the argument(s) 'style', 'palette' (rename to 'values') to
  'tm_scale_intervals(<HERE>)'
[v3->v4] `tm_polygons()`: migrate the argument(s) related to the legend
of the visual variable `fill` namely 'title' to 'fill.legend =
tm_legend(<HERE>)'
```
Additionally, when dealing with the layout, legend and so on, things are a bit different:

tmap v3:
```
  tm_shape(LSOA) +
    #Set colours and classification methods
    tm_polygons("Total", title = "Total Population", palette = "Greens",
                style = "equal") +
    #Add scale bar
    tm_scale_bar(width = 0.22, position = c(0.05, 0.18)) +
    #Add compass
    tm_compass(position = c(0.3, 0.07)) +
    #Set layout details
    tm_layout(frame = F, title = "Liverpool", title.size = 2,
              title.position = c(0.7, "top"))
```
tmap v4:
```
  tm_shape(LSOA) +
    #set column, colours and classification method
    tm_polygons(fill = "Age00to04",
                fill.scale = tm_scale_intervals(values = "brewer.greens", style = "jenks"),
                fill.legend = tm_legend(title = "Aged 0 to 4", size = 0.8)) +
    #add scale bar
    tm_scalebar(position = c(0.1, 0.1)) + 
    #north arrow
    tm_compass(size = 1.5, position = c(0.1, 0.3)) +
    #Set title details
    tm_title("Total Population of Liverpool, 2021")
```
All of this redesign is in aid of better flexibility. For example, in v3 we were limited to tm_polygons(), tm_lines(), tm_symbols(), and tm_raster() (and their derivatives such as tm_borders() and tm_dots()). But with v4, these are easily extendible - so we can have things like tm_cartogram(), tm_donuts() and so on. Many of these are still in development but it opens up a much wider range of options.

In terms of how we show maps, v3 had plot and view modes, but this new framework makes it possible to add other modes as well.

Equally, tmap is based on sf and stars, but the new framework will make it easier to work with other spatial classes, such as SpatRaster and SpatVector from terra.

A nice overview for those already familiar with tmap is at [mtennekes.github.io] (originally posted in 2021). The website also had a new range of tutorials under Basics and Advanced which are in the process of being developed.

The fact the tutorials (and the whole website) are built using pkgdown means that it is very easy to open the relevant page on GitHub and make changes. For example, I added a fixed breaks example to the Basic Scales page.

This also featured at the FOSS4G Code Sprint (Brazil) where Andrés Duhour and I updated the ggplot2 comparison article.

Tennekes M (2018). “tmap: Thematic Maps in R.” Journal of Statistical Software, 84(6), 1–39. doi:10.18637/jss.v084.i06.

If you want to learn how to use tmap, do have a look at my Introductory or Advanced GIS training in R, or if you have any questions, please do contact me.
10 February 2025
17:00
Paul Ramsey: The Early History of Spatial Databases and PostGIS
sur Planet OSGeo

For PostGIS Day this year I researched a little into one of my favourite topics, the history of relational databases. I feel like in general we do not pay a lot of attention to history in software development. To quote Yoda, “All his life has he looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing.”

Anyways, this year I took on the topic of the early history of spatial databases in particular. There was a lot going on in the ’90s in the field, and in many ways PostGIS was a late entrant, even though it gobbled up a lot of the user base eventually.
11:00
Mappery: The World from Space in 1950
sur Planet OSGeo

Picturing Earth from Space
Before the Space Age, people could only imagine what Earth looked like. Artists tried their best, and in time, new technologies started to piece together a more accurate picture. High-altitude rockets, satellites, and human space missions gave us increasingly dramatic views.
In 1950, Scientific American had to rely on artist Chesley Bonestell’s conception of Earth as seen from space, not on an actual photograph.

9:58
There's Something About Islands
sur Google Maps Mania

There is something slightly old-fashioned about Obscure Islands I Find Interesting, which I find very endearing. In essence, it is a simple interactive map with a limited selection of just 16 interesting islands. However, there is a certain charm in its innocent delight in exploring the world—one that reminds me of why I first became obsessed with interactive maps.Obscure Islands I Find

09 February 2025
11:00
Mappery: Operation Moon Bounce
sur Planet OSGeo

Another one from the Air and Space Museum.

Using the Moon as a Communications Satellite

The U.S. Navy’s Operation Moon Bounce beamed radio signals to the Moon that bounced back to another location on Earth. This system made it easier for the military to send long-distance messages during the Cold War. This lighted globe helped radio operators see which half of the Earth was facing the Moon— showing when and where moon-bounce messages could be sent.
08 February 2025
13:05
QGIS Blog: QGIS recognized as Digital Public Good
sur Planet OSGeo
We are thrilled to announce that QGIS has been officially recognized as a Digital Public Good (DPG) by the Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA)! This recognition underscores our commitment to open-source geospatial solutions that contribute to the advancement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
What is a Digital Public Good?
A Digital Public Good is a digital solution that meets the DPG Standard, ensuring that it is open-source, respects privacy, adheres to best practices, and contributes to sustainable development. The DPGA is a multi-stakeholder initiative dedicated to fostering the discovery, development, and implementation of digital solutions that address global challenges such as climate change, public health, and equitable access to technology.
Why is this important for QGIS?
Being recognized as a Digital Public Good highlights our:
- Alignment with SDGs, supporting sustainable development by enabling environmental monitoring, disaster management, urban planning, and more.
- Commitment to open-source principles, ensuring transparency, collaboration, and accessibility.
- Independence & accessibility, empowering users without restrictions, across different operating systems, and in a multitude of languages (even more than can be listed on the DPG Registry page).
- Privacy & security, adhering to best practices in data protection and governance.
What does this mean for the us?
Being recognized as a DPG strengthens our global reach and impact, opening doors for further collaborations with governments, NGOs, and educational institutions looking for robust and free geospatial tools. It also reaffirms our dedication to building an open, inclusive, and innovative GIS ecosystem that serves communities worldwide.
Learn more
You can find QGIS listed in the Digital Public Goods Registry here. We encourage all members of our community to share this great news and continue contributing to the growth of QGIS!

We would like to particularly thank Enrico Ferreguti for taking the initiative and preparing the application for the QGIS project.
11:00
Mappery: Satellite Communications
sur Planet OSGeo

Saw these in the Air and Space Museum, can’t quite remember the story behind them but I think it is to do with satellite communications for internet (somebody correct me please). Regardless, this is a massive globe with lights and lines and I thought it was cool.
07 February 2025
17:25
QGIS Blog: Reports from the winning grant proposals 2024
sur Planet OSGeo
With the QGIS Grant Programme 2024 (Updates #1 & #2), we were able to support 7 enhancement proposals that improve the QGIS project. The following reports summarize the work performed:
1. QEP#269 Update older annotation items to new framework — report
  This enhancement introduced new annotation types, improved callout options, and a rich text editor for better formatting. Annotations can now link to a “visibility layer,” and older types are automatically upgraded for a cleaner UI. Future improvements may include handling HTML annotations, deprecating the “Form” annotation, and refining the user experience.
2. QEP#289 Authentication system revision (v1.1) — report
  This work enhances the authentication framework by automating password synchronization with the system keychain and generating secure default passwords for new profiles. Users now experience a smoother setup with fewer manual steps, while UI tweaks improve password handling and security. These changes provide a more seamless and secure experience for both users and plugin developers.
3. QEP#291 Mitigate Abusive Tile Fetching on OpenStreetMap (OSM) — report
  This work enhanced network caching by dynamically adjusting cache size based on available disk space, significantly improving tile storage for most users. New safeguards prevent accidental breaches of OpenStreetMap’s tile usage policy by limiting bulk downloads across various tools and warning users when thresholds are exceeded. Additionally, the default OpenStreetMap XYZ layer now uses a 96DPI tile resolution, reducing unnecessary tile requests and improving print layout exports. These changes help ensure responsible data usage while enhancing performance and usability.
4. QEP#287 PyQGIS linter warnings — report
  This work enhanced QGIS’s Python integration by contributing upstream, directly to SIP. This approach avoids extra build-time complexity. In addition to static linting, support for deprecation messages was added, now active in QGIS (requires Python-SIP 6.9.0 or later). Due to budget constraints and dependency availability, planned updates to the plugin platform needed to be postponed.
5. QEP#290 Clean up point cloud index and improve its thread safety — report
  This work enhanced point cloud support by providing shared pointer access to the point cloud index, cleaning up the point cloud index API, unifying local and remote implementations of EPT/COPC providers, and refining hierarchy fetching logic. These updates make point cloud handling more robust and better prepared for future use cases.
6. QEP#292 Implementing CI Qt6 Windows Builds through vcpkg — report
  This enhancement focused on transitioning QGIS to build with Qt6 using vcpkg, streamlining dependency management and improving the Windows development experience. Continuous integration pipelines now test Qt6 builds, helping identify compatibility issues early. Additional contributions include improved build documentation, enhanced dependency tracking, modernized CMake scripts, and updates to the pull request comment bot. Preliminary work has also begun on macOS support using the same vcpkg system. These efforts lay the groundwork for a smoother Qt6 migration and long-term maintainability.
7. QEP#248 Authentication System: allow Database storage for authentication DB — report
  This enhancement introduced a new API for managing authentication credentials in QGIS. While its immediate impact on users is limited, it addresses SQLite scaling issues for QGIS Server in cloud environments and lays the foundation for future enhancements. The update includes an abstraction layer for third-party credential storage, support for multiple prioritized encrypted and unencrypted storage options, and improved access control for authentication assets. Documentation has been updated to reflect these changes.
Thank you to everyone who participated and made this round of grants a great success and thank you to all our sustaining members and donors who make this initiative possible!
14:15
gvSIG Team: Participación en el Workshop sobre Compartición y Reutilización de Open Source en el Sector Público LocalWorkshop
sur Planet OSGeo

Hoy me estreno en el blog de gvSIG para contaros nuestra participación en el Workshop on Open Source Sharing and Reuse in Local Public Sector Organisations, un evento clave para el debate sobre la reutilización de software libre en organizaciones del sector público local y regional.

Este taller ha sido una gran oportunidad para compartir experiencias y reflexionar sobre cómo se está adoptando y gestionando el software libre en diferentes instituciones. En particular, el debate se ha centrado en la validación de las conclusiones de la investigación llevada a cabo por OSOR (Open Source Observatory) sobre el uso del software libre en el sector público, tomando como referencia cinco proyectos analizados como casos de estudio.

La sesión ha sido altamente interactiva y ha permitido a los participantes aportar sus opiniones sobre temas clave como la gobernanza, la organización, la financiación y la sostenibilidad del software libre en el sector público. La agenda del workshop ha estado estructurada de la siguiente manera:

Introducción y presentación de participantes
Presentación de casos de estudio
Exposición de hallazgos sobre gobernanza y organización
Debate y feedback sobre gobernanza y organización
Exposición de hallazgos sobre financiación y sostenibilidad
Debate y feedback sobre financiación y sostenibilidad
Conclusiones y cierre

La reutilización del software libre en el sector público es un tema estratégico que puede generar grandes beneficios en términos de eficiencia, reducción de costes y soberanía tecnológica. Sin embargo, también presenta desafíos que requieren una reflexión profunda sobre la manera en que se organizan los proyectos, se gestionan los recursos y se garantiza su sostenibilidad a largo plazo.

Desde gvSIG seguimos comprometidos con estos debates y con la promoción de modelos abiertos y colaborativos en el ámbito de los Sistemas de Información Geográfica y la Infraestructura de Datos Espaciales.

¿Te interesa este tema? ¡Déjanos tus comentarios y sigamos la conversación!
11:00
Mappery: Brooklyn: A Nostalglarama
sur Planet OSGeo

At the Brooklyn Library they had an area where there was a rotating display of artwork from and about the city, I particularly liked this map of the Brooklyn neighbourhoods.

“A Map of Brooklyn: a nostalglarama by Richard Rosenblum”

9:50
Godview AI
sur Google Maps Mania

Godview is one of the most promising new AI-powered maps to have emerged in the past 18 months. It is an interactive map that allows users to perform geographical searches using natural language queries.This week, Godview introduced an exciting new feature called "Discover." This addition enhances the user experience by enabling individuals to click on any location on the map and instantly

1:00
Camptocamp: GeoNetwork-ui code sprint in Berlin
sur Planet OSGeo

Enclosure: [download]

At the end of January, we organized the first GeoNetwork-ui code sprint in our Berlin offices. We were about 15 people from different countries, companies and backgrounds - developers for most, but also architects, product owners & project managers.

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