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jpamado.bsky.social
@jpamado.bsky.social
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History, computing and cartography.
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jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 12: MAP FROM 2125 - (LET'S HOPE THIS WON'T BE) A SATELLITE VIEW FROM THE IBERIAN PENINSULA IN 2125 - This image shows one possible future scenario: the desertification of the southern Iberian Peninsula.
Tools: #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
The image presents a simulated satellite view of the Iberian Peninsula, as it might appear in the year 2125. Based on one possible climate-change modelling scenario, much of the southern portion of the Peninsula has become desert, reflecting a northward expansion of the Sahara. Smaller desertified areas also appear along the Mediterranean coast of Spain and on the island of Ibiza. At the bottom of the image, parts of northern Africa are visible, and they too appear as desert terrain. The simulation is adapted from data presented by Natalie Thomas and Sumant Nigam in the article “Twentieth-century climate change over Africa: Seasonal hydroclimate trends and Sahara desert expansion” (Journal of Climate 31.9, 2018, pp. 3349–3370). A text column with the title, description, and technical details is displayed on the left side of the image.
November 15, 2025 at 1:52 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 11: MINIMAL - FOUR MINIMALIST PORTRAITS OF PORTUGAL - Inspired by the words of the 19th-century Scottish writer, traveller, and soldier James Edward Alexander, written after his visit to Portugal.
Tools: #QGIS, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
In 1834, after visiting Portugal, the Scottish writer, traveller and soldier James Edward Alexander commented that a few tiles of azulejo would be enough to awake associations of Portugal. Inspired by those words, and the way images evoke associations, four different maps of Portugal are shown, with the borders enclosing four different images. From left to right, the first shows the wonderful blue tilework of azulejo, from the Grand Lisbon Panorama before the Earthquake, housed in the National Tile Museum in Lisbon. The second shows several small egg custard tarts, or pastéis de nata, rightly found on any list of the world’s best desserts. When J. E. Alexander was in Lisbon, he might already have tasted them, though he left no mention of it. The third shows the Rooster of Barcelos, a vividly painted clay figurine with an entertaining legend behind it. The fourth is a staple of Portuguese cuisine: grilled sardines over burning coals, essential to the lively religious festivities held throughout the country every month of June. On the top left there is a title block. On the top right there is an expanded citation of the words of James Edward Alexander. There is a small text description over the maps. Under each map there is a small text block with a description of its contents. At the bottom of the page there is a text block with mentions to each photo's authors and additional technical data.
November 13, 2025 at 5:12 PM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 10: AIR - THE LISBON NOISE MAP DURING NIGHTTIME - Based on data from April 2021, the blue–green tones indicate quieter zones, typically open, forested, or residential areas.
Tools: #QGIS, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
The image shows a noise map of Lisbon during nighttime, drawn based on data from April 2021. It is composed of a series of isochrones, measuring the noise level from less that 30db to more than 80db, using a color palette from blue-green to purple with reddish tones in between. Blue–green tones indicate quieter zones, typically open, forested, or residential areas. Gradually, as the colors shift from light green to purple, the city’s road network becomes visible. Unsurprisingly, the most heavily used streets and roads are those that stand out most, such as the busy A5 highway, which connects Lisbon to Cascais, appearing near the lower-left portion of the map. The city is notably crossed by a progressively darker band running from SSW to NNE. This is not a road itself, but one of the aircraft approach and departure paths to and from the airport, visible as darker lanes toward the top of the map. On the bottom right of the map there is a color legend and a scale bar. On the left side there is a text column with the title, description and technical data. The color ramp used is based on the work and recommendations of Dr. Beate Tomio (https://www.coloringnoise.com)
November 13, 2025 at 12:14 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 9: ANALOG - A HEIGHT MAP IN GRAPH PAPER or ANALOG MUSINGS IN ‘digital’ PAPER - The drawing presents a simplified and colored height map of Lisbon, usable as a guide for further interpretations.
Tools: #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
The image shows a simplified and colored height map of Lisbon, traced on graph-paper. It is the kind of simplified representation that can be used as a guide for further interpretations, including mosaics made from LEGO pieces or magnetic pixels. The drawing was made on an old piece of graph-paper, torn from a pad supplied by the Digital Equipment Corporation computer company, active between 1957 and 1998. As such, the page has the word 'digital' - used as the company logo - printed on the top right corner. It allows a play on words, since it is a 'digital' piece of paper used for an analog mapping exercise. On the left side there is a text column with the title, description and technical data.
November 11, 2025 at 11:29 PM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 8: URBAN - URBAN CHANGE, URBAN GROWTH - These partial city plans and satellite images - both old and recent - illustrate two selected examples of urban change and urban growth in Lisbon.
Tools: #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
This is a demonstration both of urban change and urban growth in the city of Lisbon. There are two lines with seven images each, either partial city plans or the corresponding satellite images. The top seven images show the evolution of the territory around Quinta da Musgueira, on the northern part of the city. From agricultural farmland at the beginning of the 20th century, in the 1960s it became the location of several social-housing projects, two of which - Musgueira North and Musgueira South - are shown here. In the late 20th century the whole area became the target of a huge urban-renewal project, called Alta de Lisboa, which razed the social blocks and implanted a new urban structure. The bottom seven images showcase an urban growth process, in the area called Campo de Ourique, nearer the Tagus river. Starting from farmland, an orthogonal street grid was developed. The area was fully occupied by the 1970s and it is, until today, a nice residential area. It exemplifies urban growth, albeit one that occurred within strictly imposed borders - it wasn't a question of increasing the city area, but rather developing an existing empty area inside city limits. On the left side there is a text column with the title, description, a small location map of the two spots inside Lisbon and technical data.
November 10, 2025 at 1:50 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 7: ACCESSIBILITY - WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE - Isochrones showing the distance covered according to the walking time needed to reach the subway stations in Lisbon.
Tools: #QGIS, #TravelTime, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
The map show the Lisbon city plan with some locations outside the formal city limits. 56 dots mark the location of the subway stations. Around the stations a series of isochrones were drawn, showing the distance covered according to the walking time needed to reach the station: 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 40 minutes. The isochrones are colored from bright green (5 minute walk, smaller distance) to light red (40 minute walk, longer distance. There is a scale bar located on the bottom right side of the map. On the left side there is a text column with the title, description and technical data.
November 7, 2025 at 11:37 PM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 6: DIMENSIONS - COUNTING (AND PRINTING) THE HILLS OF LISBON - The actual number of hills in Lisbon is somewhat debatable. Instead of a map, I made a 3D print of three of those hills.
Tools: #RealityCapture, #Z-Suite, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
Several images are presented in three rows, showcasing the steps that were necessary to recreate with a 3D print an area of Lisbon that includes three different hills: Nossa Senhora do Monte, Graça and Castelo. The images on the first row describe the raster capture process, using Google Earth. The capture must include images taken at different heights and angles, in order to provide volumetric data to the next program. The second row shows the use of the RealityCapture software, that takes those images and recreates a 3D model of the area they cover, thanks to the different angles they present. The third row shows the 3D print being prepared, together with the final result. On the left side there is a text column with the title, description and technical data.
November 6, 2025 at 2:36 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 5: EARTH - WHERE FOOD STILL GROWS FROM THE GROUND IN LISBON - There are still a few places within Lisbon where food is grown directly from the ground.
Tools: #JOSM, #QGIS, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
The image shows the Lisbon city plan with the streets drawn in light gray. Several areas are marked on the map, identifying different forms of landuse, related to growing food from the ground. These areas include urban vegetable gardens (in green), orchards (in orange), vineyards (in purple) and generic farmland (in brown). A scale bar is present on the bottom right. On the left side there is a text column with the title, description, map legend and technical data.
November 5, 2025 at 2:42 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 4: MY DATA - IF NOT THE CITY, AT LEAST THE AIRPORT - I’ve been to the airports in these cities – though not always to the cities themselves.
Tools: #QGIS, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
The image shows a world map using the Winkel Tripel projection, with airports marked on several continents. A line connects all the airports, defining a more or less extensive geographic area. Each airport is identified with its own name (if any), IATA code and the name of the city where it is located. On the bottom left of the map there is a scale indicator (approximately 1:86800000). Below the map there is a text block with the title, description and technical data.
November 4, 2025 at 2:29 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 3: POLYGONS - SHAPING THE CITY - Several examples of the use of polygons from city blocks around the world.
Tools: #JOSM, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
The map shows six partial city plans from cities around the world, illustrating differently shaped city blocks. The plans are presented in two lines. On the first line, from left to right, are shown the cities of Curitiba in Brazil (triangular city blocks), Houston in the USA (square city blocks) and Mexico City in Mexico (rectangular city blocks). On the second line, from left to right, are shown the cities of Shanghai in China (a pentagonal city block), Singapore (hexagonal city blocks) and Athens in Greece (city blocks shaped like lozenges). Below the images there is a text block with the title, description and technical data.
November 3, 2025 at 1:01 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 2: LINES - HIGH-RESOLUTION CONTOUR LINES - Four views of the use of contour lines in the Lisbon city plan originally drawn from fieldwork conducted between 1904 and 1911.
Tools: #JOSM, #QGIS, #GoogleEarth, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
The map shows four different views of the same area in the southwest part of Lisbon. The top-left image shows an area with a small hill and a fortress located on the southwestern edge of the city (Algés/Restelo), as represented in the original 1904–1911 map. The area is mostly undeveloped, with a small palace (Palácio Cadaval) at the bottom. The contour lines are visible, though lightly traced. The top-right image highlights the contour lines from the same map, showing their highly detailed representation of the area. The bottom-left image overlays those contour lines onto a recent aerial view of the same area. It is now mostly residential, with one of the lowest population densities in the city. The hill surrounding the fortress has been incorporated into the Monsanto Forest Park. The bottom-right image presents an approximate 3D view of the same area, generated using Google Earth with the Terrain and 3D Buildings layers enabled. Below the images there is a text block with the title, description and technical data.
November 2, 2025 at 1:21 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 1: POINTS - CROSSING SAFELY - All the locations of traffic lights (yellow) and pedestrian crossings (red) in Lisbon presented as groups of points, extracted from the OpenStreetMap database.
Tools: #JOSM, #QGIS, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
The map has the title and description on the top left and technical data on the bottom left. The Lisbon city area occupies the right two-thirds of the whole drawing area. The city plan is shown using hundreds of points that identify traffic lights and pedestrian crossings, both plotted inside the municipality contour. There are no streets directly drawn in this city plan, since the points themselves trace the latent structure of the major city streets. A scale bar is present on the bottom right.
November 1, 2025 at 1:26 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge 27: MICROMAPPING - MICROMAPPING AN ENTIRE CITY - Trying to use JOSM to create the digital twin of a 1911 Lisbon city map with an absurd amount of detail.
Tools: #JOSM, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
The image shows two views of the same area of riverside Lisbon, centered on the Torre de Belém monument. The first view shows the area as it appears in the "Silva Pinto 1911 City Plan", which was the first highly detailed map of Lisbon created in the 20th century, presenting the entire city at a 1:1000 scale. The second view shows a rendering of the same area as it was edited in JOSM as a digital twin. This second views exemplifies a highly detailed way of mapping a small geographic area. There is a text block above the two views with the title and another below them with a description and technical data.
November 27, 2024 at 1:12 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 24: ONLY CIRCULAR SHAPES - DEFINING THE COURSE OF A RIVER WITH CIRCLES (AND HALF-CIRCLES, QUARTERS, AND SEGMENTS) - Center-pivot irrigation areas in the Sorraia River valley in Portugal.
Tools: #osmium, #JOSM, #QGIS, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
Four images with four different views of the Sorraia River valley in Portugal. From top to bottom, the first image shows only the location of center-pivot irrigation areas, presenting a series of circles, half-circles, quarter-circles, and smaller circular segments. The second image shows the same shapes overlaid on a digital elevation model of the valley, along with the river's course. The third image shows the same shapes and elevation model, and also all additional water resources present in the valley. The fourth image is a satellite view of the valley, overlaid with the circular shapes. There is a text block on the top with the title and another at the bottom with the description and technical data.
November 24, 2024 at 7:25 PM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 23: MEMORY - DISTORTING DOWNTOWN LISBON - This map was likely drawn around 2008, based on its placement in a notebook with dated entries before and after this page.
Tools: #GoogleEarth, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
This map shows three representations of the same downtown Lisbon area. On the left there is a satellite image centered on the Praça do Comércio square, rotated so that North points towards the left. On the middle there is a hand drawn representation of more or less the same area. On the right there is a satellite photo similar to the first but with an overlay representing the area covered by the hand drawing. Both the middle and right images have some numbers identifying specific locations: the town municipality building, the Praça do Comércio square and the Casa dos Bicos building. There is a text block on the top with the title and another at the bottom with the description and technical data.
November 23, 2024 at 2:20 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 22: 2 COLOURS - THE LISBON BLUEPRINT - This map of Lisbon is presented as a blueprint. In Portugal, such reproductions were commonly referred to as "Marion copies".
Tools: #GoogleEarth, #osmium, #JOSM, #QGIS, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
A map of Lisbon presented as blueprint, the reproduction technique derived from the cianotype imaging process invented by Sir John Herschel in the 1840s. The content in these copies is reproduced in white over a deep blue background - hence the term "blueprint". There is a text block on the top left with the title and description, and another at the bottom left with technical data.
November 22, 2024 at 1:55 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 21: CONFLICT - DEFENDING LISBON - The Lines of Torres Vedras, built to defend Lisbon against the Napoleonic French armies during the Peninsular War (early 19th century).
Tools: #GoogleEarth, #osmium, #JOSM, #QGIS, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
A map of the Lines of Torres Vedras, built in the early 19th century to defend Lisbon against the Napoleonic French armies, during the Peninsular War. The image shows a digital elevation model centered on the Lisbon Peninsula, overlayed with survey from the early 19th century that shows the Lines in detail. This map is overlayed with a series of orange circles that mark the locations of forts, redoubts, blockhouses, and artillery positions that comprised the Lines. There are six small inset satellite views from some of these location, as they look today. There is a text block on the top left with the title and description, and another at the bottom left with technical data. A scale bar is located on the bottom right.
November 21, 2024 at 1:49 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 20: OPENSTREEMAP - MAPPING PORTUGAL'S PEAKS - This map displays all the peaks identified in the OSM database for mainland Portugal, overlaid on a digital elevation model (DEM).
Tools: #osmium, #JOSM, #QGIS, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
A map of continental Portugal showing all the peaks identified in the OpenStreetMap database, overlayed on a Digital Elevation Model with hillshading. Peaks higher than 1000 meters are labeled with their height. On the left side there is a vertical bar with the title and description at the top, and technical data at the bottom. There is a map scale bar on the bottom right.
November 20, 2024 at 2:09 AM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 19: TYPOGRAPHY - AN ASCII VIEW OF THE WORLD - A satellite view and three ASCII renderings of the same of Earth hemisphere.
Tools: #GoogleEarth, String Theory, ASCII Camera, ASCII 1NCOGNIT0, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
Four images picturing the same hemisphere of planet Earth shown as a 2x2 mosaic. The original satellite view is placed on the top left corner. The other three are rendered entirely as text using various image processing tools. Characters and colors are used in distinct ways to create legible, albeit simplified, representations of the original. The view of the hemisphere is centered on the Iberian Peninsula with Europe, parts of Africa, Asia, Greenland and North America also visible. There is a text block at the bottom with the title and description and technical data.
November 19, 2024 at 10:27 PM
jpamado.bsky.social
#30DayMapChallenge Day 18: 3D - REBUILDING LISBON FROM RADIANCE FIELDS - A 3D Gaussian splatting reconstruction of Lisbon's physical city model rendered from 942 photos, made with Postshot (BETA) software.
Tools: #Postshot, #Photoshop, #Illustrator
Files: github.com/LX-Files/30D...
A series of six images describing the use of 3D Gaussian splatting techniques to recreate a virtual representation of the Lisbon physical city model made by the town municipality. From top to bottom the images show a sparse point cloud of the area covered; the same sparse point cloud and the positions of the training cameras used for calculating the splats; the sparse point cloud, camera positions and the radiance fields rendered; another view of the training cameras and radiance fields; radiance fields providing a full view of the city model and a detail of the city model, centered on downtown Lisbon. There is a text block on the top left with the title and description, and another at the bottom left with technical data.
November 18, 2024 at 2:24 PM