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.
*Solivagant:
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)
. 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.