This might interest you: http://maps.webfoot.com/demos/demographics/ I know these are generated tiles, although I'm not sure how, I assume it is dynamic since she lets you change the colors. It's one of the coolest Google API maps I've seen.
On Aug 30, 6:46 pm, Aaron Kreider <[email protected]> wrote: > I want to start a thread for people who are interested in mapping the > US 2010 Census Data - for sharing ideas and free data sources. > > My goal is to make a map of the US that shows Race at the block > level. So I'd like to color code areas for the major race groups: > black, white, hispanic, asian, and native american. I'm also > interested in income data - which is available down to the census > tract level. > > There are several problems trying to do this with Google Maps. These > problems include > > -Census Data set is very large - 200 GB for the entire summary file > 1. It'll be smaller if I filter out all the variables I don't need, > but it still is going to be huge. > > -Google Maps has trouble displaying large KML files. I'd like to > convert the Tiger Shapefiles (which define the boundaries of census > tracts, block groups, etc) into KML. This is probably feasible if I > do it for a single state and only down to the census tract level. But > if I try to do it for block groups or blocks - it will be harder. > > -I could generate tiles. But if I want to show blocks on tiles I need > to go to zoom level 14 or more. I either need to statically generate > a huge number of tiles (to cover the entire US at zoom level 14) or do > it dynamically. For generating static tiles I think GMapCreator looks > like the best solution:http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/software/gmapcreator.asp > Does around 1000 tiles/minute on my computer. > > -Census Data is in a hard to use format. The Census Bureau > recommends using a Microsoft Access tool to access it. If you do not > need the block groups and block level data, an *excellent* resource > is:http://census.ire.org/ > > How can I display block level data? > > For Census Geographical Areas my guess is there are around > -3000 counties > -40,000 zip codes > -75,000 census tracts (1 per 4000 people) > -210,000 block groups > -8 million blocks > > If I were to use KML I think I could display counties for the entire > US map, zip codes when zoomed in to the state, census tracts when > zoomed into the state (might be slow for big states), block groups > when zoomed into a county, and blocks for medium and small counties. > To do this I'd need to generate 3000+ KML files (one for each > county). Is there a better way? > > Note: I'm using this county KML file (which you are free to > use):http://www.energyjustice.net/map/kml/county_boundaries.kml > > Also: Are there any good Census 2010 data APIs? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Maps API V2" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-maps-api?hl=en.
