Saturday, March 31, 2012

Irish landed estates database 'heatmap'


I am involved with a project to catalog Irish landed estates in conjunction with the Moore Institute at the National University of Ireland, Galway. Right now the database covers the provinces of Muster and Connaught.

The web site includes an interactive map which visitors can use to browse for houses and estates of interest. I thought it might be interesting to make a 'heat map' of the areas which people found the most interesting.

Every time someone zooms into an area on the map, the database is queried for records matching that rectangular area. The web server logs record all these queries (anonymously of course).

The image on the right was generated by summing about half a million of these database queries. I had intended to super-impose the heat map on a Google map, but unfortunately I don't have the time to complete that right now. However one can see the distinct outline of the west and south of Ireland coast line with hot spots around the cities of Galway and Limerick. (Why there is no hot-spot around Cork city? I have no idea!)

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