March 2021 Summaries

The MappingForRights Congo Basin Community Atlas, developed by the Rainforest Foundation UK and partners, is an innovative geospatial tool designed to document and advocate for the rights of approximately 50 million indigenous and forest-dwelling people in the Congo Basin. By equipping these communities with advanced mapping tools, the platform has facilitated the creation of over a thousand maps covering more than nine million hectares, influencing landmark community forest laws, planning processes, and national moratoriums on logging in the region. The Atlas highlights the benefits of forests managed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities, contributing to international conservation reforms. The modernized version of the Atlas offers a user-friendly interface that allows users to analyze various land uses and forest data, supported by Mapbox technology for efficient performance even in low-bandwidth environments. The platform is primarily aimed at policymakers and community leaders who need to generate reports on the impact of land use decisions, and it continues to expand its reach and functionality to advocate for increased community forest management.

Mapbox has updated its satellite imagery layer for zoom levels 8-12, enhancing the recency, color, and resolution of maps for improved large-scale visualizations. This update replaces Landsat imagery with a blend of downsampled Maxar Vivid imagery and global-scale MODIS data, creating smoother transitions and reducing cloud cover for more seamless 2D and 3D map experiences. The update, which is available to all Mapbox customers without needing code changes, improves the visual quality of maps and provides more current imagery, reflecting recent human developments and environmental changes. The new imagery offers a resolution improvement from 30 meters to 50 centimeters, maintaining detail even when downsampled and ensuring consistent coloring across different zoom levels.

The Tileset explorer, now accessible to all Mapbox users within Mapbox Studio, offers a comprehensive interface for managing Tilesets created with the Mapbox Tiling Service (MTS). It enables developers to optimize tilesets by providing insights into tile size distribution, layers, and individual features, which are crucial for enhancing map performance. The explorer includes tools such as an x-ray map for quick data verification and feature inspection, aiding in ensuring data renders correctly. It provides detailed layer properties, allowing developers to confirm data type processing and toggle layers for visual assessments. Additionally, the explorer offers job history and status views, helping developers track changes, assess job processing times, and identify areas for optimization. This functionality supports iterative development and refinement of tilesets, as highlighted by users like Strava and PreK, and it can be used with any custom tileset created with MTS, complemented by API documentation and recipe examples for new users.

NCX is revolutionizing access to forest carbon markets by creating a data-driven platform called the Natural Capital Exchange (NCAPX) that democratizes the process for landowners, enabling them to generate revenue by preserving and capturing carbon in their forests. By employing precision forest monitoring and measurement, NCX addresses the supply-demand gap in the carbon offset market, projected to reach $50 billion by 2030, and makes participation feasible for small and family-owned forests previously hindered by costly set-up and complex contracts. The company's Basemap technology, incorporating satellite data and forest biometrics, evaluates and monitors 600 million acres of forest across 48 states to ensure transparency and accountability in carbon credit quality. NCX utilizes Mapbox's Interactive Storytelling tools to visualize and communicate the environmental and economic impact of its programs, such as the successful pilot in Pennsylvania, to stakeholders and potential participants. With over 9 million acres already submitted for evaluation, NCX aims to expand its reach across the U.S., driving collective efforts towards achieving net-zero emissions and making a significant impact on climate change mitigation.

The real estate industry heavily relies on maps to assist in property-related decisions, utilizing dense and detailed data from an estimated 155 million property parcels and 166,000 neighborhoods in the US. This data includes ownership details, sales deeds, crime rates, school scores, flood risks, and more. The Mapbox Tiling Service (MTS) enables efficient processing of this massive data into custom vector tilesets, enhancing the speed and performance of interactive maps. Real estate companies, such as Georadix, TopHap, and Deepblocks, leverage MTS to offer advanced geospatial mapping, visualization, and analysis, transforming realtors into territory experts and aiding in strategic real estate development. Utah Real Estate and How Loud also utilize MTS for new products like interactive parcel maps and noise maps, respectively. MTS employs distributed and parallelized processing for quick data updates and offers tools like MTS Data Sync, Tilesets CLI, and Tilesets API to create custom tilesets, with a growing library of best practices available for users.

The Mapbox Navigation SDK v2, available in public preview for iOS and Android, enhances navigation experiences with the integration of the Maps SDK v10, offering faster rendering, cinematic camera movements, and on-device routing that operates without a network connection. This version includes a predictive caching feature that preloads route data, enabling seamless navigation even in areas with limited connectivity. The optimized navigation camera adjusts dynamically to provide the best viewing angles, while improved map rendering reduces data usage and enhances battery efficiency. The SDK also introduces 3D building highlights for precise arrival points and leverages Metal support on iOS for improved performance, achieving significant gains in map load speeds and reduced network traffic. Developers can access these features under a pay-as-you-go pricing model, with no commitments, and can start integrating navigation into apps by creating a Mapbox account and obtaining an access token.

VaccineFinder, a platform redesigned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Boston Children’s Hospital, aims to help individuals locate COVID-19 vaccine providers by using Mapbox's mapping technology. This online tool allows users to find vaccine providers within a specific radius of their zip code, displaying details such as contact information, location hours, and vaccine availability while ensuring providers can report their vaccine supplies directly to the CDC. Initially created during the H1N1 flu outbreak, VaccineFinder has evolved to meet the complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic by rebuilding its technology infrastructure to handle nationwide demand, supported by partnerships with Mapbox and Castlight Health. The platform, which launched on February 24, initially includes providers in several states and plans to expand to include more locations. The collaboration with Mapbox provides scalable and reliable mapping services, allowing the VaccineFinder team to focus on data infrastructure and improve the platform further as part of ongoing public health initiatives.

Mapbox Movement is a robust, privacy-focused location dataset that provides detailed insights into human mobility across different geographies. The dataset has been crucial in analyzing significant events like the early pandemic shutdowns, the 2021 U.S. Presidential Inauguration, and the retail sector's recovery. It includes a full year of data for the U.S., Germany, and Great Britain, accessible to Mapbox developers. The blog post explains how to utilize this dataset for analyzing movement trends, focusing on airports as a case study. Users are guided through accessing, visualizing, and analyzing data using Python and Jupyter notebooks without requiring extensive coding skills. The data is visualized using tools like Kepler.gl, enabling analysis of spatial and temporal trends, such as comparing activity levels pre- and post-pandemic at major airports. The activity index, a proprietary Mapbox metric, helps measure relative activity levels by aggregating anonymized mobile location data. The tutorial highlights the steps to replicate the analysis for other industries and locations, demonstrating the dataset's versatility for broader applications.

Cameron Kruse, a creative technologist and National Geographic Explorer, embarked on a unique project to run and map all the public staircases in his hilly neighborhood of Silverlake, Los Angeles. Utilizing Mapbox tools to highlight staircases and delineate neighborhood boundaries, he created a visually engaging map that guided his journey. Post-adventure, Kruse used Mapbox's storytelling template to document his experience, incorporating photos, thoughts, and GPS data to craft a compelling narrative. His enthusiasm for maps stems from their ability to enrich his explorations by offering companionship and organization, transforming the simple act of moving through space into a meaningful story.

Explorer.land is a platform designed to enhance communication and monitoring for forest protection and reforestation projects, aiming to address issues of quality control, transparency, and impact reporting in the reforestation sector. Developed by OpenForests, which has extensive experience in forest information systems, the platform enables users to create detailed web maps to inform stakeholders about project activities, regardless of their technical expertise. It supports land management with data layers like forest fragmentation and wildfire monitoring, and facilitates engagement with project sites through high-performance visualization on various devices. Explorer.land also showcases positive impacts on biodiversity, helping to attract donor support by allowing projects to share geolocated content such as wildlife imagery. Currently, over 200 projects globally utilize the platform to communicate progress and foster relationships with stakeholders, demonstrating its effectiveness in supporting ecosystem restoration and engaging potential partners.

Peter Sirota has been appointed as the new CEO of Mapbox, succeeding Eric Gundersen, who will transition to the roles of Chair of the Board and Chief Strategy Officer. Under Peter's leadership, Mapbox aims to leverage its unique assets, including its software platform, map content, and developer relationships, to extend its leadership in the mapping industry. Eric will continue to influence product and business strategy, focusing on developer-centric progress and key strategic initiatives. The company is poised to make significant strides in logistics and automotive industries in 2021, driven by its team of skilled engineers and business leaders.