Amsterdam Soil Quality on Google Maps

The Amsterdam City Council Planning Department has used the Google Maps API to provide a map of the city's soil quality.

Bodemkwaliteit Amsterdam displays a number of different zones in Amsterdam, demarcated by soil quality. The map can therefore be used to determine the potential re-use of excavated soil, from the location of its excavation. The different zones on the map are color-coded by type of soil. The green and blue zones on the map indicate cleaner soil and the red zones indicate heavily contaminated soil.

Dutch Car Accidents on Google Maps

Ongelukken op de Kaart is a Google Map of all car accidents in the Netherlands from 2007-2010.

Numbered map markers indicate the number of accidents at each location. The markers are also color-coded to show those incidents with no injuries, accidents with injuries and those accidents that resulted in a fatality.

If you click on a map marker you can view details about all the accidents at that location.

Dutch Cadastre on Google Maps

Kadaster is a cadastre map of the Netherlands. The map contains details on the price of properties throughout the country.

If you right click on the map then an information window will open with details about the location and the average property purchase type at the location. The price is given for a range of property types.

Star Counts with Google Maps

Sterrentelling is a Dutch star count map. The map shows the result of users' star counts.

Star counts are a good way to measure light pollution at different locations. Sterrentelling provides seven different star maps with different numbers of stars on each map. Users have to choose which map best reflects the night sky at their location.

The results of user star counts are then added to the Sterrentelling Google Map. The color of the star map markers reflects the number of stars visible at that location and it is also possible to click on each marker to view the result of the star count.

Voting 'Yes' or 'No' with Google Maps

As part of a campaign for more people to register as organ donors in the Netherlands a Google Map called Ja of Nee (Yes or No) has been created to gauge people's reactions to the idea of becoming a donor.

Users of the map can use Facebook connect to vote 'Yes' or 'No'. The results of the votes cast, broken down by town, can be viewed on a Google Map. The map markers themselves show the proportion of 'yes' and 'no' votes cast throughout the country. You can even click on the markers to get a more detailed breakdown of the results in each town.

Via: Nedercaart

The Amsterdam of Anne Frank

Everything about the Het Amsterdam van Anne Frank time-line is beautifully realised, including its use of static and interactive Google Maps.

The time-line explores the history of Amsterdam before and during German occupation in World War II. The time-line includes excerpts from Anne Frank's diary alongside historical photographs and videos of Amsterdam during the occupation.

If you click on an entry in the time-line it will open in a lightbox style window. Most of the entries are geo-located using a a static Google Map. If you click on the static map a larger Google Map will open to show the entry's location in Amsterdam.

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University of Twente Custom Street Views

The University of Twente is building a campus tour using the Custom Street View option in the Google Maps API.

The tour seems to still be a work in progress but already features some great custom Street Views of the 'Little Tower of Drienerlo' (pictured) and some Street Views that go inside the campus buildings.

The 'Little Tower of Drienerlo' is an art work by Wim T. Schippers which depicts the top of a church tower, giving the impression that a church lies at the bottom of the university pond.

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Dutch Listed Buildings on Google Maps

Rijksmonumenten are national heritage sites in the Netherlands that have been listed by the agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE). Rijksmonumenten.info has created a Google Map of all the 61,000 listed buildings.

You can search the map by type of listed building, including windmills, castles, churches, houses, public buildings, bridges, farms and forts. If you click on a building's map marker you can view details about the listed building. Many of the buildings are accompanied by an image slide-show and a selection even include 360° panoramic photographs of the interior.

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Haarlem & Harlem on Google Maps

Haerlem.nu is a website dedicated to recording and presenting the history of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Part of the project includes a Google Map that features historical landmarks, photographs and historical notes about locations in the city.



If you sign-up as a 'mosquito' (as the natives of Haarlem call themselves) you can add your own memories, history or photos to the map. With Haerlem.nu you can even create your own map of Haarlem's history.



Via: Nederkaart





Digital Harlem is a Google Maps based portal to explore the history of New York City's Harlem neighborhood. The site uses Google Maps to present information about Harlem drawn from legal records, newspapers and other archival and published sources.



The map includes three buttons which allow you to view historical records from 1920, 1925 and 1930. The panel on the left allows you to search for events, people or places, and generate interactive web maps based on the search results.



Multiple layers of results can be displayed on the same map, and each can be toggled on and off. A series of ready-made 'feature' maps can be accessed from the panel on the right.



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Dutch Crime on Google Maps

The Dutch city of Utrecht has its very own crime map.

Stopdecriminaliteit.nl. uses Google Maps to show the latest incidents of crime in the Dutch town and surrounding areas. It is possible to search the map by postcode or by type of crime. For reasons of privacy, however, crimes are never plotted to the exact address on the map.

As well as plotting crimes in Utrecht the site also gives general advice on measures that you can be taken to make your house more secure against burglary.

StopDeCriminaliteit.nl

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Running & Cycling Apps with Google Maps

Afstand Meten

Dutch website Afstand Meten allows joggers and cyclists to create and save routes using Google Maps. The app is available on the desktop and for the Android market and iPhones.

Using Afstand Meten users can create new tracks or search for tracks created by other users. When searching for saved tracks you can refine the search by the 'most viewed', the 'shortest distances' or 'the longest distances'.

Cycle Routes UK

Cycle Routes UK is a cycle routes planner for UK cyclists. Using Cycle Routes UK users can search for cycling routes, add their own routes and comment and rate cycling routes.

Each route is displayed on a Google Map. Alongside the map of the route Cycling Routes UK displays the length, difficulty, the estimated duration and an estimation of calories burned.

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Mapping History with Google Maps

Maps+Motion

Maps+Motion is a great way to visualise the growth of Dutch cities and Manhattan in New York with Google Maps.

Essentially the application allows you to view side-by-side the modern maps of cities with maps of how the cities looked at different times in history. The screenshot above, for example, shows a map of 1450 Amsterdam with a modern map of the city.

The application currently allows you to view the historical growth of Den Haag, Harrlingen, Amsterdam, Leiden, Rotterdam and Zuiderzee in the Netherlands and Manhattan in the USA.

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What to Do with Google Maps

Leukedingenkaart

Thanks to some rather liberal legislation it has never been that hard to find fun things to do in the Netherlands. However if do find yourself at a loss for something to do in the country then Leukedingenkaart has lots of suggestions.

Leukedingenkaart is a real-time searchable Google Map of upcoming events in the Netherlands. Leukedingenkaart scans Twitter for events and displays them on a map. If you are looking for something to do in your area you can just drop a map marker on your location and the latest events will automatically be displayed on the map.

You can define a radius for the maximum mileage you want to travel and you can also filter the events by entering a search term.

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Delft in 3D on Google Maps

TU Delft Cloudviewer

The TU Delft Cloudviewer is the first application to allow 3D exploration of massive point clouds directly from a web browser. The Cloudviewer lets you explore Delft in the Netherlands in 3D, from a number of angles and points of view.

The TU Delft Cloudviewer was developed as a final student project for the Minor 3D Virtual Earth. As part of the project aerial photography and 3D point clouds were pre-processed for use in a real-time 3D rendering engine. Then students designed a system to simulate a virtual camera that creates tens of thousands of oblique 'birds-eye' snapshots for various zoom-levels and viewing angles.

These resulting images are then shown in the Cloudviewer as a layer in Google Maps. Using Google Maps you can explore the 3D point clouds from a number of different perspectives. There are three oblique views available, from 90, 45 and 20 degrees. It is also possible to rotate the point clouds to view the resulting images from north, south, east and west.

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Street View Comes Indoors

Kerken Kijken met Street View

This Dutch website is the first example I've seen of someone making use of the new 'linksControl' in v3 of the Google Maps API. The linksControl lets map developers add or take away the arrow links in Street View. Kerken Kijken use the arrow links to create seamless links to their own panoramic images.

Kerken Kijken have a number of 360 degree panoramic images of the interiors of churches in Utrecht. They have created this Google Maps mashup to show the location of the panoramas and to integrate them with Street View.

The overall effect is very impressive. As you can see from the sceenshot below the added arrow links to Kerken Kijken's own panoramas are indistinguishable from the links to the adjacent Street Views.



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EEC Funding on a Google Map

Europa Om De Hoek

Europa Om De Hoek is a Google Map showing the location of European Union funded projects in the Netherlands.

The map displays three categories of marker, City & Surroundings, People & Society and Knowledge and Innovation. If you pan or zoom the map the markers are updated automatically to reflect your current view.

You can also select to view projects by subject, by the amount of money invested, by location and by EU agency.

Also See

Sandbag Emissions Map - explore how the emissions trading system is operating in the European Union.

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The Dutch Election on Google Maps

Verkiezingskaart

The 2010 Dutch general election will be held on Wednesday, 9 June 2010. Verkiezingskaart will be displaying all the results as they are announced on Google Maps. The data for the results are coming directly from the company supplying the software to count the votes. Therefore, using Verkiezingskaart, should be one of the fastest ways to get the results of the Dutch election.

Currently the site is displaying the results of the 2006 general election. The map uses coloured polygons to display who holds a majority in each constituency. The Christian Democrats are displayed in green and the Labour Party in red.

If you roll over any of the constituencies on the map you can view a detailed breakdown of the 2006 election results for the area. It is also possible to view the election results for 2002 and 2003 on the map.

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The Bridges of Amsterdam

Vaarkaart Amsterdam

Vaarkaart Amsterdam is a Google Map designed to help you navigate the canals of Amsterdam.

The site includes up-to-date information on locks, bridges and sections of canal that are currently shut for construction work or repairs. The map also shows the location of Amsterdam's marinas, gas stations, slipways and charging stations.

Vaarkaart Amsterdam has usefully mapped all the bridges on the canal network. As well as providing Street Views of all the bridges the map shows the bridge heights and the canal depths.

Finally, Vaarkaart Amsterdam has mapped the routes of a number of tours that you can take on its canal system. The tours include routes to see the best of the Western Isles, the Wallen district, the Plantage area and South Amsterdam.

Vaarkaart Amsterdam was created using the Geostart Google Maps creation tool.

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Just Give Me a Google Map with Everything

Gee-map.com - Google Maps Routeplanner

Gee-map.com is a Dutch Google Map mashup that has a whole host of features.

To start with the map includes the locations of thousands of points of interest around the world. You can access these points of interest by selecting ‘Lokaties NL’ for Dutch points of interest, 'Lokaties Overig' to select points of interest for other countries or 'Special' to browse by category.

Alternatively you can click on the map anywhere in the world to access information about your chosen location. When you click on the map an information window opens with a number of tabs to give you a whole host of information about your selected location.

If you click on the 'Algemeen' tab you will be given the full address of your selected location and links to YouTube videos, Wikipedia articles and Twitter messages around that area.

The 'Weer' tab will reveal the weather for your chosen location. Selecting 'Route' allows you to get driving directions to your chosen location.

The site also includes a fun Google Earth plug-in browser helicopter game. To fly a helicopter around any location in the world just click on the map and select the helicopter tab from the information window. Once you select 'helicopter' a Google Earth plug-in browser map will open of your selected location. You are now free to fly your helicopter at will.

Oh, and did I mention you can also view Street View and Bing Maps Birds Eye View for any location (where available).

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GeoCoded Art on Your Mobile Phone

GeoCoded Art
Geocoded Art is a great website that is busy mapping the world's fine art paintings. When I first reviewed the site back in February I said I'd like to see the site available as a mobile phone application. Geocoded Art have contacted me to tell me that they are now available as a layer in the augmented reality platform Wikitude.

Currently only the 'Paintings of the Netherlands' is available but if you live in the Netherlands then you should definitely check this out. As I don't live in the Netherlands I can't get a screenshot of Geocoded Art in Action on Wikitude. However if you check out the video below and imagine the text on the phone is replaced with a painting you should have a good idea of what the Geocoded Art layer achieves.



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