This year, we took part in the 30 Day Map Challenge, a daily social mapping project happening every November which invites people to create a map for a specific theme every day throughout the month.
Discover below the maps we made for the 2023 challenge.
Day 1: A map with points.
On this map, we're showing gang on gang, and gang on civilian conflicts in Haiti (2023) using data from ACLED.
We used matplotlib, Python, geopandas, and Illustrator to produce this map.
Relevant publications:
- Gang violence reports in Haiti in 2023: Six reports available (in English and French)
- Gang Violence in Plaine-du-Cul-de-Sac, Haiti, 24 April 2022
Day 2: A map with lines.
This maps shows the road network of Accra, Ghana, using data from OpenStreetMap, accessed via OSMnx
Tools: osmnx, Python, Illustrator.
Day 3: Polygons
Buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, using data from Open Buildings Datasets, Google.
Tools used: Datashader, geopandas, Python, Illustrator.
Day 4: A 'bad' map
This map shows all of the communal sections of Haiti containing the word 'bad'.
Day 5: Analog Map
Our Data Engineer James made these laser-engraved coasters that show the world's rivers, using data from HydroSHEDS and Quantarctica.
Day 6: Asia
On this map, we're showing rivers in Bangladesh, using data from Global Map Initiative, Local Government Engineering Department (LGDE) & OCHA Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP), via HDX.
Tools: geopandas, Python, Illustrator
Relevant publication: Mobile Phone Data to Understand Climate Change and Migration Patterns in Bangladesh
Day 7: Navigation
A map that helps you to navigate. Here, we show the nearest school for each building in Lagos State, Nigeria. White dots are schools, coloured lines connect buildings to the closest school within 10km.
Data from Google Open Buildings, and GRID3 via HDX.
Relevant publication: Improving access to education in Nigeria through school placement optimisation
Day 8: Africa
This map is one of our favourite mobility maps, showing average daily flows across the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 2018. Véronique Lefebvre, our Director of Data Analysis, says:
"I love this map as it clearly shows the Congo river as an important transportation route. This data and map are really useful when trying to estimate how many people travel on the Congo river and other route, as data on transportation in scare in the DRC. Passenger travel on the Congo river was an important question in the 2018 MBandaka Ebola outbreak"
Pseudonymised Call Detail Records: Vodacom RDC. CDR data products: Flowminder.
Day 9: Hexagons
This map shows our geographical reach, covering our mobility and geospatial data analysis as well as capacity strengthening activities.
Day 10: North America
We've asked our teams which places they've visited, for work or leisure, in North America. Here are the results!
Day 11: Retro
This is one of our very first maps, published in 2011, estimating the population distribution in Port-au-Prince,in Haiti, post earthquake, using mobile operator data.
Relevant publication: Improved Response to Disasters and Outbreaks by Tracking Population Movements with Mobile Phone Network Data: A Post- Earthquake Geospatial Study in Haiti.
Day 12: South America
This map shows Uruguay's gridded population estimates (2020) using data from WorldPop. We showcased Uruguay to celebrate the Festival De Datos and the insightful data stories we heard then. We particularly liked the talks on transformative innovations for public health and surveillance; the partnership of INE Uruguay / ANTEL; and how the principles of GDPR might be adopted in Africa.
Day 13: Choropleth
The left map shows the number of suspected cases of cholera across Haiti between 02 and 08 November 2022.
The right map shows the infectious pressure for each commune as of 08 November, with greater infectious pressure associated with greater risk.
Relevant publications:
- Haiti Cholera Outbreak 2022: Six reports available (in English and French)
- Haiti Cholera outbreak 2010
Day 14: Europe
Flowminder is a Swedish non-profit foundation with two branch offices, in the UK and Switzerland respectively.
Day 15: OpenStreetMap
This map uses OpenStreetMap data on road layers and settlements (Somalia, 2020). Using our optimisation algorithm, we combined these data population data from WorldPop and UN World Population Prospects to model the most suitable locations for new vaccination sites.
This map shows an example of microplan support map for which these data have been used. This map was produced as part of the REACH project in partnership with IRC, ThinkPlace and COREGroupDC, funded by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia. As Geospatial Data Lead, we estimate the zero-dose-children population and suggest new vaccination site locations to improve microplans and population coverage.
Relevant content: Service Site Placement Optimisation
Day 16: Oceania
These two maps show the changes in daily presence in Papua New Guinea during the two phases of mobility restrictions due to COVID-19, estimated from anonymised mobile phone data.
Relevant publication: Papua New Guinea - COVID-19 Report (December 2019 to May 2020)
Day 17: Flows
Here, we're showing the top flows of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, and Ghana. We use anonymised mobile operator data (Call Detail Records) to estimate population mobility for humanitarian and development purposes.
Data for DRC and Haiti have been scaled and adjusted to reduce the influence of phone usage behaviour, and make the data representative of the whole population rather than representing numbers of subscribers only. This is the first time that such estimates have been produced for these countries.
Relevant publication: Haiti Mobility Data Platform - Description of indicators
Day 18: Atmosphere
This map shows the cyclone tracks from the past year in North/South hemisphere using azimuthal projections, using data from IBTrACS and the World Bank.
Day 19: 5-minute map
The colleague who produced this map had recently come back from a cycling break in Spain, cycling to Madrid via Picos, Burgos and Valladolid from Santander - this had clearly influenced the theme of the day!
Day 20: Outdoors
This map shows the estimated maximum coverage area of each Education Radio transmitter in Sierra Leone. Children in strong signal areas are predicted to consistentlyreceive good quality audio while those in weak signal areas may experience some interference. Signal strengths are affected by various factors, including transmitter power and geographical features such as elevation or slope.
Relevant publications:
Day 21: Raster
On this map, we're showing settlement boundaries at 10m resolution for Kumasi, Ghana, using data from GHS-BUILT-C. It's worth noting the settlements around Lake Bosumtwi forming the circular pattern in the bottom right!
Day 22: North is not always up
This map shows the districts with areas affected by flooding, following the Akosombo Dam Spillage in September 2023, using data from NADMO via Ghana Statistical Service.
Relevant publication: Ghana, Akosombo floods | Long- and medium-distance displaced subscribers from flood-affected areas of the Lower Volta River: Situation as of 22 October 2023
Day 23: 3D
Left: Relief map of Haiti
Right: Relief map of the area near Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with Mounts Nyamuragira (left) & Nyiragongo (right), and Lake Kivu standing out.
Relevant publications and/or news articles:
Day 24: Black & White
This maps shows the daily travel flows in Ghana, highlighting the main routes and connections in Ghana. We like the fact that this map, in black and white, look quite similar to a satellite photo at night, in that it maps the urban centres, whereas ours shows connections between them!
Pseudonymised CDR data from Vodafone Ghana. Tools & methods by Flowminder.
Relevant publication: Ghana | Routine Mobility Analysis for 2020-2022: Insights into routine long term and short term mobility in Ghana (beta report)
Day 25: Antarctica
Here, we've mapped the routes of early explorers in #Antarctica, using data from American Geographical Society (AGS) Maps and Natural Earth Data.
Day 26: Minimal
This shows our basemap, developed for consistency across our data viz. The work behind it was not as minimal as the final result, due to accessibility, readability and complementarity considerations when new data or palettes are to be added.
Day 27: Dot
Using our optimisation solution, we've modelled the most suitable locations for new vaccination sites in Haut Lomami, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC, to help boost children vaccination coverage.
This map shows before and after optimal placement of mobile and outreach vaccination sites. The colours represent different priority ranking.
Relevant publication: Informing placement policies with an optimisation algorithm (Storymap)
Day 28: Is this a chart or a map?
Bar Charts on a Map - This map shows the spatial distribution of the population of Haiti in 2020, using data from WorldPop.
Day 29: Population
Here, we show two population data examples we've recently worked on, involving survey data and/or anonymised mobile phone usage data (Call Detail Records).
Left: This map shows the DRC population estimates (2021) which we co-produced with WorldPop. We led the microcensus survey data collection which was used as main input data for producing the estimates. The microcensus was conducted in the targeted provinces throughout March and April 2021.
Right: This map comes from our Haiti Mobility Data Platform, which provides access to Haiti's most comprehensive view of human mobility and population distribution across the country, with accurate, privacy-safe, and representative dynamic population estimates.
Relevant publications and/or news articles:
Day 30: "My favourite.. You Choose!"
This map is definitely not our strategic focus on, but given the free theme and the terrible weather in the UK that day, we tried to bring some sun and good vibes to the challenge
Thanks to the Flowminder staff who produced these maps. This was made possible thanks to Robert Eyre, Alistair Stewart, Sophie Delaporte, Zachary Strain-Fajth, James Harrison, Chris Brooks, Roland Hosner.