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Mapping

Six new ways to map the world

In his new book, social geographer Alastair Bonnett promises 50 maps unlike any you've ever seen. Here's a look at six of our favourites.
  • Oct 23, 2017
  • 318 words
  • 2 minutes
Cover of New Views by Alastair Bonnett Expand Image
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Maps are everywhere. With modern technology, cartography is often literally at our fingertips today, be it on our smartphones or in-car navigation systems. Most of us, even those who aren’t self-professed map geeks, see a lot of maps these days.

So, the promise inherent in the title of a new book out this week from Aurum Press, New Views: The World Mapped Like Never Before, is certainly intriguing. New Views features 50 specially-commissioned maps detailing physical, political and cultural dimensions of our world in ways never seen before. Each map is accompanied by an essay by author Alastair Bonnett, a professor of social geography at the U.K.’s Newcastle University, giving context to its social, historic or geographic importance.

Here are six maps from the forthcoming title (available Oct. 26) that definitely caught my attention. 

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Expand Image
Air Traffic, created for New Views by Alastair Bonnett. Data
source: Licensed under CC-BY- SA http://www.martingrandjean.ch/connected-world- air-traffic-
network. (Image courtesy Aurum Press)
Expand Image
Undersea Cables, created for New Views by Alastair Bonnett. Data
source: AIMS, GBRMPA, JCU, DSITIA, GA, UCSD, NASA, OSM, ESRI. (Image courtesy Aurum Press)
Expand Image
Asteroid Strikes, created for New Views by Alastair Bonnett. Data
source: Planetary Defense Coordination Office, NASA Headquarters. (Image courtesy Aurum Press)
Expand Image
Ocean Rubishcreated for New Views by Alastair Bonnett. Data
source: Nikolai Maximenko, International Pacific Research Center, School of Ocean and Earth
Science and Technology, University of Hawaii. (Image courtesy Aurum Press)
Expand Image
Shipping Routescreated for New Views by Alastair Bonnett. Data
source: NOAA’s SEAS BBXX database, from 14.10.2004 to 15.10.2005. (Image courtesy Aurum Press)
Expand Image
Unknown Oceanscreated for New Views by Alastair Bonnett. Data
source: Ocean Biogeographic Information System. Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission. (Image courtesy Aurum Press)
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