Viewable by the world
LBL Mapping Issues
- Cost: Must be free
- Coverage: Reasonably accurate coverage in rural areas worldwide
- Urban: Urban accuracy may not be important
- Layers: Choose mapping layers (governmental boundaries, topography, water/land, etc.)
- SVG: Drawing on top of maps (ease of use with D3 would be great)
- Availability: Must be free of government restrictions in all parts of the world
- Responsiveness: Lag time may or may not be important. May be OK for LBL to download map images once, and store them on our servers.
Google Maps vs Open Street Maps
- gM better for urban, but that may not be an issue for ESD projects.
- gM more responsive, can handle much more traffic. May not be an issue for ESD.
- Both integrate with D3.
- gM always improving, but could be turned off at any time.
- gM charges for for-profit viewings of over ?25K/day but should not affect ESD projects.