30DayMapChallenge 2024
The worldwide #30DayMapChallenge in Estonian Land Board.
For every day in November one new map will appear in the gallery on this page. The authors of the maps are "cartgoraphy lovers" of the Land Board, who dared to take up the challenge in order to learn something new.
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Day 30. The final map. Today's map is the last one we can publish under the name of Estonian Land Board. Starting January 1st 2025, the newly established Land and Spatial Development Board (MaRu) will begin its work, and, along with other organizations, we will also be joining under its larger umbrella. The final map focuses on our people. It shows the number of employees working in each county, the gender distribution and the TOP 3 largest departments.
Find previous days maps descriptions below the gallery.
Day 1. Points. According to European tradition, house numbers are assigned in a one-way ascending order, with even numbers on one side of the street and odd numbers on the other. The rule about whether even numbers are on the left or the right, when looking along the street in the direction of ascending numbers, varies by region. However, exceptions can be found everywhere, with individual houses or even entire blocks disregarding the local rule.
Day 2. Lines. To acquire land for the Rail Baltica corridor and service facilities, designated portions of land parcels need to be separated. In recent years, this has led to the creation of so-called temporary land units, which are planned to be merged into a single cadastral unit in the near future. Now, interestingly shaped cadastral units can be found on the map of Estonia – long and narrow parcels and circular land areas. Together, these fragments form a large puzzle across Estonia, allowing us to trace the emergence of a new linear spatial object. For further information, you can read a dedicated article on the website of the Land Board.
Day 3. Polygons. Estonia's cities are modest in population, but comparable in area size to some of the major metropolises in different parts of the world. The map visualizes the three largest Estonian cities that were formed as a result of the 2017 administrative reform, with an example of a comparable metropolis for comparison. For more details on the administrative divisions, please visit the geoportal of the Estonian Land Board.
Day 4. Hexagons. Estonia has over 760,000 cadastral units, whose boundaries are defined by precise border points, totalling over 5.5 million. There are over 11.7 million connections between cadastral units and border points in Estonia. The data on cadastral units and boundary points provides a comprehensive overview of our land areas and their use. The map displays the number of points within each hexagon by the hexagon’s size and indicates the median age of points by colour. For a closer look at cadastral data, visit minukataster.
Day 5. Journey. With the help of the friends of Pirita convent, Estonian Land Board has mapped the pilgrimage route of Estonia and its related locations. The Estonian pilgrimage route starts at Pirita convent, crosses seven counties and ends at Vastseliina castle visitor centre. The layer of the route will be soon available on Land Board's X-GIS map service. In the meantime, see more information about the route here. Can you tell which locations are highlighted in the tilted aerial photographs on the map?
Day 6. Raster. Spring snow patches and puddles. In agricultural areas, including fields shaded by forest edges, snow melt can be uneven, with patches of ice and snow lingering well into spring. This prolonged winter presence affects both soil and vegetation. The map highlights an area as an example, how using near-infrared and red channels can bring out snow patches and puddles (in white), where winter, as if touched by Elsa's icy hand, seems to last "forever". Satellite images with supporting data layers and masks are available from our satellite application Satiladu.
Day 7. Vintage style. Ludwig August Mellin's "Atlas of Livonia", which depicts Estonia at the end of the 18th century, was added recently to the map of the Land Board's geoportal on the initiative of the Geography Department of the University of Tartu. It is now possible to compare the atlas with other historical maps and modern data layers. For contrast, the vintage map shows solar parks in Saaremaa and Muhu in the 21st century, information about which can be found, for example, in the Estonian topography database. According to statistics, Saaremaa is the sunniest place in Estonia and Kuressaare is the sunniest city, hence the title of the sun capital since 2017. Explore the historical maps and wander through 18th-century Estonia.
Day 8. Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX). Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX) is a platform that enables the sharing of humanitarian data between organizations. Established in 2014, HDX aims to make humanitarian data easily accessible and usable for analysis. The data repository contains various datasets at both global and country levels. Learn more about the HDX data repository on web page.
Day 9. AI only. Similar to the rest of the world, Estonia is also making significant progress in developing 3D data and digital twins. In 2023, the Geo3D business analysis was completed, analyzing how spatial data can be captured, produced, and distributed in 3D over the coming years. Of course, this also involves the use of artificial intelligence. The map represents an AI interpretation of what a digital twin of Estonia might look like. You can explore the Geo3D business analysis.
Day 10. Pen & paper. Tartu is often called the university city, the city of intellect, the city of good thoughts and wisdom – all pointing to the organ of thought itself. This allegorical map portrays Tartu as a brain, with schools and educational institutions shining as centers of mental activity. The map reveals Tartu's intellectual essence, where each school and institution illuminates with the light of knowledge and ideas.
Explore what cultural and academic treasures Tartu has to offer through our points of interest map application.
Day 11. Arctica. The polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is the world’s largest bear and largest land carnivore. They inhabit coastal areas and on sea ice in the Arctic region. Polar bears rely heavily on sea ice, which they use for hunting, travelling across vast distances, breeding, and denning. However, due to climate change, the Arctic is warming and sea ice is melting, which is reducing available areas for habitation and hunting. In addition to climate warming, there are other threats to the polar bears such as increased commercial activity, conflicts with people, pollution, disease, inadequate habitat protection, and the potential for over-harvesting in smaller or declining polar bear populations. The IUCN estimates that there are currently about 26,000 polar bears worldwide, distributed across twenty subpopulations in the Arctic. The map presents the number of polar bears in subpopulation and the short-term population trends, estimated in 2024. Find more data about subpopulations.
Day 12. Time and space. Coastal mapping of the shoreline of the Baltic Sea and large lakes is done periodically by the Estonian Land Board. The shoreline is affected by, for example, ground level rise, changes in sea level, storms and deposition of sediments. In some coastal areas, erosion and sedimentation processes can be seen by comparing the mapped shorelines of different years. On today’s map, shoreline changes are observed just off the narrow Soela strait.
This year Estonia gained 95 islands as a result of the most recent shoreline mapping. The number of marine islands grew from 2222 to 2317 and the updated territory of Estonia is 45 335 km2.
Day 13. A new tool. The Python library ridge_map was used to create this map, inspired by the cover art of Joy Division's 1979 album Unknown Pleasures. The highest peaks in Estonia are highlighted on the landscape: Suur Munamägi (317.4 m), Korgõmägi (230.1 m), Maaniidü mägi (225.4 m), and Kuudse mägi (Kuutsemägi) (217.6 m). For more information, see the map of Estonia's highest peaks provided by Estonian Land Board.
Day 14. A world map. "World” in Estonian means the whole universe, thus the planet Earth with known space, thus the entire universe, but in addition to that, the word "world" also includes the entire spiritual world (everything that is imagined and felt). The tradition is still alive in Estonia, where the mardisants (mardi beggars) and the kadrisants (kadri beggars) visited people in November, who come through the five rainbows, the six angles of the dawn and the seven sieves and bring with them the happiness, luck and abundance of the new year. The understanding that the world contains far more than what we can see with our eyes or touch with our hands is rooted in the Estonian language. The map shows the entire observable universe.
The diameter of the universe is approximately 93 billion light years (or 28.5 billion parsecs). All stars visible to the naked eye belong to the Milky Way galaxy. Andromeda is our nearest galaxy located 2.5 million light years away. The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are approaching each other at 296 km/s and will meet in about 4 billion years. In about 5 billion years, the Sun will turn into a red giant and destroy Mercury, Venus and probably the Earth as well. Since most of the universe consists of invisible dark matter, the Earth is probably even larger and contains much more than what is shown on this map. The map is made with the sky observation atlas Aladin.
Day 15. My data. January 1, 2025 is an important day – Estonian Land Board in its current form becomes history as the organisation evolves into Land and Spatial Development Board (MaRu). The map illustrates the new MaRu offices across Estonia.
Day 16. Choropleth. Statistics of purchase and sale transactions, in the period of 01.01-31.10.2024, have been used to compile the map. It is possible to request data on real property price statistics from the Land Board website: Query of real property price statistics.
Day 17. Collaborative map. Can you see the three-dimensional image hidden within the autostereogram in the picture?
Day 18. 3D. Can you recognize the "mountains" on the map? The map is a hybrid of the old and the new, combining 2D and 3D elements. It features the oldest map in our historical maps application—Mellin's Atlas of Livonia (1796)—overlaid with the Estonian Land Board's elevation model. Special thanks to the Geography Department of the University of Tartu for analyzing and harmonizing the atlas's map pages.
Explore historical maps. Discover elevation models. P.S. On Day 7, we shared another fascinating map from the Mellin Atlas: Vintage
Day 19. Typography. In the beginning was the Word. But even before there were letters.
This overview map of Muhu island and surrounding islets, located in Estonia discards traditional cartographic representations (filling with colour, hatches, etc.) and uses only alphabetic characters from Latin typefaces.
Six different font families (downloaded from www.dafont.com) are used to visualise map features. The most up to date spatial data for Muhu and other Estonian islands can be found at Estonian Topographic Database.
Day 20. OpenStreetMap. Tartu is often referred to as Estonia's cycling capital – but which areas of this university town are particularly convenient for cyclists? This "bikeability" map combines open-source OpenStreetMap data about cycleways, the proportion of green areas and bike parking facilities. The inspiration for creating the map comes from a study done at Heidelberg University which developed various indicators to gauge bike-friendliness in urban areas.
The map uses violet tones to highlight areas where cycling is more convenient, while dark blue tones indicate places where infrastructure needs improvement. Explore the map and see how different parts of Tartu support cyclists! If you want to create a similar map yourself, watch this workshop on creating maps in QGIS.
Day 21. Conflict. The Estonian National Museum is located in two administrative units.
The development of the area surrounding the museum has not progressed as envisioned when the building's design began in 2006. The apartment buildings in Tartu Parish have been built too close to the museum. The conflict has arisen because the planning process is carried out by cadastral units.
Day 22. 2 colours. Around 8% of Europeans are colorblind. Color blindness comes in different types and can manifest in various ways. Usually, it is not the most severe form, which is why people are often unaware that they have some type of color blindness.
Today's example features a map of Estonia's administrative and settlement divisions, designed in subtle pastel shades (at a scale of 1:350,000). On one hand, these soft hues are visually pleasing and allow other elements of the map, such as text and symbols, to stand out more clearly. On the other hand, a higher color contrast can make the map more distinguishable for individuals with varying abilities to perceive colors.
If you see all the counties on the map in different colors, your color perception differs from those who can only distinguish two colors in this color scheme. If you notice someone struggling with what seems like a simple task, consider whether the task requires color differentiation. It is possible that the person has a different color perception.
You can find additional information about color blindness.
Day 23. Memory. In Tallinn, "moving pictures" were shown for the first time in 1896 at the location of the current Eesti Draamateater in the Tallinn Stock Exchange building called Original-Bioskope(1).
In the years 1907-1913, traveling cinemas operated on Nunne Street in Exhibition Square(2).
Metropol was opened as the first place in 1908(3). Until 1940, cinemas were added mainly in the (Old Town)Vanalinna sub-district, and after the war also in new districts. For various reasons, most cinemas have not survived to nowadays.
In the memory of the residents, cinemas have had different names and addresses at different times, according to changes the owners and the polity. Find more about address objects in the Address data map application.
Day 24. Only circular shapes. Today's map is about roundabouts. Entering the roundabout may often be a fear for a novice driver, especially if there happens to be multiple lanes. Or instead, the joy of a driver longing to get on the main road... :)
On this map, roundabouts are supported by carefully shaped municipalities, lakes and islands. There should be no problem with spotting mainland Estonia. In the case of a frisky fantasy, the viewer may see that the map is projected onto the surface of a large and juicy orange.
Day 25. Heat. When we think of the word "heat" during the gray and chilly month of November, many of us imagine an idyllic scene of a hot, sunny day on a southern sandy beach. Thoughts of climate change, political issues, or high heating bills may also come to mind.
But how many places in Estonia actually include "heat" or "warmth" in their names? A search through the Estonian Land Board’s database reveals that the list is rather short. However, there are somewhat more people in Estonia with the surname Kuum than street and place names. As of January 1, 2024, there are 75 men and 93 women with this name. The surname Kuum is most common in Rapla county, where it appears at a rate of 5 per 10,000 inhabitants.
Day 26. Map projections. Map projection is a way of representing a spherical surface on a flat surface. There are hundreds of map projections, of which only a few dozen are used. In addition to the common map projections (e.g., Lambert and Mercator projections), there are several unusual projections. Some of them actually have no practical use other than to represent the world map in an unusual form.
Due to the spherical shape of the Earth, a two-dimensional surface cannot be represented without distortions. The created maps shows distortions of Estonia's position in unusual map projections. You can learn more about the Estonian map projection and Estonian geodetic system in geoportal.
Day 27. Micromapping. Small things have great meaning. The mapping of heritage knits keeps both heart and hands warm. Paradoxically, the micromapped pattern of a church mitten appears in a data table rather than a map window.
The Estonian museums public portal MuIS is a treasure trove for knitters and beyond. Similarly, one can easily lose themselves wandering through the Land Board's historical map application.
Day 28. The blue planet. The small treasures of the blue planet. Map describes Estonian fishing areas, species richness and recreational fishing quantities.
Day 29. Overture. A constantly changing world requires the continuous updating of spatial data to reflect the most recent developments. Established in 2022, the Overture Maps Foundation focuses on major challenges, including the collection and updating of open data. For example, Overture helps to visualize landmarks and points of interest across the Baltic States.
At the local level, the Estonian Land Board offers diverse and up-to-date open data, which can be accessed through the Geoportal.