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Kharita Challenges

Problems

Real geospatial problems, graded automatically. Choose a track, a level and what you want to hand in.

4 of 59 problems

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  1. Not started, Normalise the map before you shade itCartographyGeoJSON

    Turn a count into a rate: population per square kilometre for every country, with the area measured rather than looked up.

    CartographybeginnerDifficulty: beginner140 XP~25 min6 checks

    You hand in a GeoJSON result.

    Dataset

    • Countries · MultiPolygon · 241 features · EPSG:4326

    What you’ll do

    • Measure every polygon's area in an equal-area projection
    • Compute a rate by dividing the count by the area
    • Return every country, ready to shade
    choroplethnormalisationEqual EarthdensityglobalAlso trains Spatial Analysis
    Open problem
  2. Not started, How big does Web Mercator make Greenland?CartographyAnswers

    Put a number on the most famous distortion in cartography: the same countries measured on the ellipsoid and on the projection every web map uses.

    CartographyintermediateDifficulty: intermediate210 XP~30 min4 checks

    You hand in your answers as values.

    Dataset

    • Countries · MultiPolygon · 241 features · EPSG:4326

    What you’ll do

    • Measure area geodesically or in an equal-area projection
    • Project the same polygons to Web Mercator and take their planar area
    • Express the distortion as ratios a reader can repeat
    Web Mercatorprojectionarea distortionEqual EarthglobalAlso trains Spatial Analysis
    Open problem
  3. Not started, The buffer that shrank on the way to the mapCartographyAnswers

    Quantify what a 400 m buffer drawn in EPSG:3857 actually covers on the ground in London, and how much of the coverage report it loses.

    CartographyintermediateDifficulty: intermediate200 XP~30 min4 checks

    You hand in your answers as values.

    Datasets

    • Santander Cycles docking stations (live snapshot) · Point · 799 features · EPSG:4326
    • London boroughs · Polygon · 33 features · EPSG:4326

    What you’ll do

    • Derive the Web Mercator scale factor at London's latitude
    • Translate a projected buffer distance into its ground equivalent
    • Re-run the coverage analysis with the shrunken buffer and measure the shortfall
    Web Mercatorscale factorprojectionbufferLondonAlso trains Spatial Analysis
    Open problem
  4. Not started, Classify a map where most of the values are zeroCartographyAnswers

    Quantile breaks collapse on a distribution dominated by zeros. Measure how, on the river-kilometres-per-country table, and say what a map maker should do instead.

    CartographyadvancedDifficulty: advanced290 XP~45 min6 checks

    You hand in your answers as values.

    Datasets

    • Countries · MultiPolygon · 241 features · EPSG:4326
    • Rivers and lake centrelines · LineString · 461 features · EPSG:4326

    What you’ll do

    • Reproduce a derived per-country measure
    • Compute quantile and equal-interval breaks on a zero-heavy distribution
    • Quantify how each scheme distributes the countries
    choroplethclassificationquantileszero-inflatedhydrologyAlso trains Python, Spatial Analysis
    Open problem