This is my first stab at using Google Fusion Tables to present area-level data. In this case, it’s just a simple map of the Greater London Authority constituencies, coloured according to the results of the 2012 GLA elections. Fusion Tables are one of the easiest ways to host and publish data online – especially maps.
The boundary data comes as a shapefile from UKBORDERS. It’s then a case of converting the shapefile into a set of KML files – one KML for each constituency – which can be imported into individual rows within a Fusion Table, along with attributes contained within the shapefile’s related dbf file, like constituency name. All this can be done using the web-based tool shpescape. Then it’s just a case of adding data to the Fusion Table, such as the election result for each constituency, along with some adjustments to the map style to display each constituency in a certain colour according to the winning party.
This is quite a boring map. Ultimately I want to map more interesting things – ideally, things other people haven’t mapped yet.
[map z=”9″ h=”387″ w=”581″ address=”London” fusion=”3995591″ id=”map1″]