Data visualization feature: this is what Hungary looks like from above

The New York Times published a data visualization project last year that examined how the United States looks like from above: structures of streets, buildings, and towns. Inspired by this project Atlatszo’s data team, Atlo, decided to look at what Hungary looks like from above.

I remember my high-school geography textbook. Somewhere at the end of the book, there were pictures of the structures of certain Hungarian towns. I distinctly remember the shape of the town of Hajdúböszörmény: it looked like a haystack.

Today I know that all towns and cities have a structure – and scientists study their shape, that is, their morphology. Atlo’s project looked at the morphology of Hungarian towns.

This is the network that Hungary’s roads and towns create:

The structure of roads and towns in Hungary

Our project looks at each of the shapes that characterize urban areas and look at the reasons why towns took that specific shape. We trace their history, provide several illustrations for each of them. We also look at the urban structure of Hungary and you can ’fly’ over Hungary using our interactive map. You can also play our game: try to guess the towns from their shape!

Hajdúböszörmény (Hajdú-Bihar m.)

Our data visualization project is available in Hungarian.

Utak, épületek, hálózatok

Halmaz, szalag, sakktábla. Hogy néznek ki Magyarország települései felülről?

Written by Attila Bátorfy

English version by Anita Kőműves. You can read the original story in Hungarian here.