got geoint?

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve is the perfect time for reflecting, looking back and checking out all of the “Best of” lists of 2011. Of course, there are plenty of lists like this when it comes to popular culture and entertainment. Though, what about the Best of Maps in 2011? Fortunately, this list does exist and it totally delivers. From the Twitter language map by Eric Fischer to mapping road casualties — we covered both this year — this list reinforces that the utilization of open source data and technology such as Google Fusion Tables have allowed the most creative to come up with innovative maps. We have pulled out some of the more unique maps in this post and be sure to check out the full list here.

The Naming River Map
This map shows how different cultural and linguistic factors have influenced the naming of geographic features in the US.

NOAA Japanese Tsunami Wave Height
NOAA produced a series of maps and visualizations to help chart and explain the devastating tsunami that hit Japan this year.

Facebook Connections Map
And, of course, there is a map that shows how connected we are via good old Facebook.

Be sure to check out more from Spatial Analysis here.

Tags: Best Maps of 2011, Best of 2011, Facebook Map, GEOINT, got geoint?, Spatial Analysis, Tsunami Map, Twitter Map, United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, USGIF