I have been rooting around trying to sort out some maps for a long time and finally have been able to create something that is useable and looks a little nicer. So I finally got around to posting this, slightly prompted by clyde.

So here you go WHS map.

There are 3 layers of maps there, so have a look and see if any are interesting, the animated Heatmap looks interesting to me.

This is very much a first draft, serial/ transnational sites aren't covered properly Only one location showing, but I am working on it.

Any feedback appreciated.

the link will not open for me, meltwaterfalls

The link worked from my ipad. It's a great start although the search function doesn't seem to work. As soon as I typed the name of a WHS the inscribed sites disappeared. I would be great if you could search by country too

Another suggestion would be to go for yellow or another colour for European WHS as it is quite difficult too see the sites when zooming

I can see it now too. Looks great!
The heat map is telling.
Which source for GPS coordinates did you use? I see the Defence Line of Amsterdam in Amsterdam city center, but the WHS lies (quite far) outside.

I would also be very happy to embed a map like this in the website.
P.S.: I have already tried. Nice! http://www.worldheritagesite.org/whsmap.php

The source is the excel file on the official website. I knew about the defence line error but neglected to rectify it. Yeah very happy to use it on the website.

The search function is out of my control unfortunately, but I will see if I can build in a useable filter system. Will have a look later on to make it as useful as possible. I see what you mean about the blue points I hadn't zoomed in that far but yep they are awkward to see.

I hadn't noticed at first, but you also added links to the individual WH pages on the website!

Yep I was trying to work out a way of getting those links in and a colleague unknowingly provided me with the answer yesterday. I want to tidy them up a little, hiding the full address etc

Great addition to the site.
It has long needed a map and this is way way better than that rather strange version on the UNESCO site which lacks any "reference points" such as borders, cities and even roads as to where the sites are situated..

Great Work! Meltwaterfalls! The only thing I would like to suggest is the colour of European and N America sites, the current colour is a bit too pale and similar to water in the map, maybe use the stronger colour will be easy to notice especially many sites of european countries are located in the ocean.

Like the map. However, it's not complete as it does not show all elements of a site.

E.g. (Germany only):
* Pile Dwellings: Too many locations in Germany of the beloved site, but at least Lake Constance should show.
* Upper Rhine Valley is a huge area, not a single point.
* Wismar is missing for Stralsund and Wismar.
* Beech Trees: 5 forests at least in Germany.
* Wadden Sea: Huge area.
* Bauhaus: Central site in Dessau is missing
* Luther Memorials: Eisleben is missing.

If help is needed adding subsites, we could maybe do this collectively? I could add the missing German points in an hours work.

Other remarks:
* Tentative sites would be great. I would need a map like this for planning trips and tentative sites are part of my considerations.
* One layer per country would help.
* One (sub) layer per groups of sites would help, e.g. all Beech tree forests in Germany or the world.

A few comments/thoughts on this excellent map. I don't know how much effort would either be "needed" for some of the ideas or how much Meltwaterfalls and/or Els have available but here they are anyway
a. I don't really see a need for country layers - the frontiers are wonderfully clear on the map which can be fully zoomed for sites near the frontier - and any "problem" is only limited to transnational sites where the single chosen location is, as far as I can see e.g from Rhaetian Railway at the moment only shown in 1 country - I haven't even been able to find where the single dot is for multiple country sites such as Struve, Silk Road and Qapac Nan and the ability to identify particular sites is certainly an issue (see later)! Whether it is possible to have a dot for each country/site combination at the "top view" without bringing in every location I don't know
b. I personally didn't find the "heat maps" of any value - the coloured dots show the reality perfectly well (indeed better in my view) so, having tried it, I don't see it as a feature I would ever use again
c. Adding multiple locations needs a bit of thought - it certainly needs to be an "option" or the number of dots would become ridiculous if they were aall there all the time. If it was a "layer" one could turn it on when one reached a useful level of zoom - but that still leaves the problem of being able to separate those dots relating to a specific site from among a large number - and of course being sure that one has them all in the case of sites with widely separated locations.
d. The map provides an excellent way of getting from the map view to a site via the title and pop up links - It would be very useful to be able to get from a site to the map. i.e a link on each site page to the map (presented at an appropriate level of zoom) for that site with ALL its locations. Only Meltwaterfalls knows how easy/difficult this might be given the approach/technology he has used
e. One of the better features of the UNESCO map was the use of different shape "dots" for Cultural, Natural and Mixed sites. Would that be difficult to provide on this map - square, circle and diamond for instance. The site "pop up" shows the inscribed criteria so it could also show the type as well? It also occurs to me that it could usefully show the number of locations as a check/hint?
f. Agree T List sites in same format would be great but on a separate map not mixed (though I suppose you could have them as a layer when they could be mixed by choice - though would need a different "dot") There is no "location" aspect of course as they have no "official" grid refs or number of locations

Hi All, Thanks for the feedback, it is much appreciated.

So just to pick up on some points
First off a couple of technical points, maps can only have 4 layers. They run off of a spreadsheet, all information needed to plot a point is in decimal degrees. Polygons can be incorporated with a bit of extra work. The base map has to be the same for each layer, though I will create a satellite/hybrid version of the final map as I personally would find it useful.

*Serial/ multiple sites, yep as pointed out at the start they aren't on this map at the moment and I am trying to think of a way of integrating them. I will have a look and see if they could be displayed as smaller dots on the main map, but that may start to get cluttered, I can have a look. Additionally it is tough to really pick out which sites require serial locations (yes, sites like the Bauhaus or Heritage of Mercury when they are over different cities/ countries, but is mapping all 11 spots in Karlskronna/ the 16 points in Rome really useful on a global map?). Then comes the tougher point of finding all of the points and corralling it into one source, this may be something I may ask for a bit of community work on, basically I would need the decimal co-ordinates of each component on a spreadsheet, with additional relevant information, I can design a template if people are keen.

*Related to that point I have just added a layer with clustered points, it could be an option in terms of usability, but likewise could be a frustration, it is just there to show what is possible. It is limited though in that it doesn't allow for colour coding or infoboxes.

*Large sites only having one point. This is a bit of a tough one, all sites only have one co-ordinate. I should be able integrate the natural/ mixed heritage boundaries, however it may need a bit of a look in detail at the usage and copyright restrictions in terms of its use on this website. In terms of cultural sites it is a little tougher, we could lie wise include polygons for the core zones of everysite but there are a few issues. Mostly I only have a very select group of sites where I have detailed boundary files for cultural sites (England and Czech Republic) it would be great to have these for all sites, but it is a very large undertaking. Some national agencies may have these available with a bit of searching, but other may well need manual creation, which would be grindly dull for some sites and may not add anything of real value.

*Maps for individual countries. This is feasible, but I need to sort out filters which is tougher than I had initially thought. So I'm working on it but it may well be a little while before it comes through. Alternatively this could be done with colour coding (I have a friend who will be happy that I could find a practical use for his introduction to the Four Colour Theorem)

*Different markers for cultural/ natural/ mixed, yep this is possible, it may need some work. I personally think that at the moment it would be better to switch the colour coding to those from the UNESCO continental divide which I only put on as an example of different colours. In fact I have just switched them and I think it is more useful that way.

*Heat map isn't much help- yep again it was just to show some potential uses for the map. I just found the animated one kind of fun, but it isn't really something that has to be part of the main map.

*
. Yes!! Once I get a grip on the coding behind this it should be feasible, likewise a map for each country page, however it is a touch beyond my skills at the moment, and I'm not sure what effect it may have on the technical aspects of this site. But certainly in an ideal world that would be great. I may need a chat with Els on some of those bits though, and I'm not technically at a stage that I can show anything on that.

*T-list sites - certainly it is possible, and I think a finalised map may have one layer of inscribed sites and a second layer of t list sites, (perhaps even a third former t-list layer). The main problem is the data just does not exist in a usable format. When I created the incomplete t-list map I pretty much had to go through and manually map each individual site/ component of each site. It was 'fun' but very time consuming. In my haste to do that I created a problem for myself as I didn't define a decent structure/ naming convention. It is certainly possible, but again it may be something that will require some community leg work.


Thanks again all for the feedback, hopefully we can make this into something very useful.

Thanks Meltwaterfalls
And where are the dots for multi-country sites like Struve, Qapac Nan and Silk Road at the moment? As I indicated I have been unable to find them in any of the relevant countries!!


But of course it isn't just a global map - I have been amazed to find that it resolves to Street level so, in fact points for close together locations within cities ARE potentially useful.
I certainly hadn't expected that all the grid refs for such sites would have to be entered by hand but that they would be taken off the UNESCO sites - I have just looked at St Petersburg and see that only a few of the 37 locations have grid refs provided!
On the other hand ALL 758 of the Mediterranean Rock Art site have their locations!!
Regarding the "large site" issue I personally think we should limit the map details for these to whatever grid ref has been provoded by UNESCO - we know that there are UNESCO site maps and other sources such as IUCN with maps deliniating the boundaries of these mainly natural sites and I don't think that the map you are providing should worry about them

Missed that one, they take a bit of hunting. Note these weren't my decisions, they were just what the official site had as their single co-ordinate.
Struve is at: 59.0578, 26.3378 (North Eastern Estonia, nr. Laekvere)
Qhapac Nan is at: -18.2500, -69.5917 (the very northern tip of Chile nr. Putre inland from Arica)
Silk Road is at: 34.3044, 108.8572 (North Western suburbs of Xian, China)