Feeling Safe Where You Live? Map Your Risk

I’m safe. Even if a zombie apocalypse breaks out, I know I will be fine. How do I know? Because as a Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) enthusiast, I have searched the web so you too can find out if you are safe in your home town.

There is this thing called Big Data, the massive amounts of information being gathered by computers, cell phones, and numerous other sources on a daily basis. I wrote in detail about it in my article I Like Big Data, and I Cannot Lie. I;ve even written more serious pieces about how we are using it to Map Causes of Cancer and Using The Past to inform the Present.

But it’s Halloween, and there are things out there that are truly scary. Luck for you, GIS is leveraging all that Big Data to map these and other amazing things for you..

According To Hollywood

First, if you want to know where the safest places in the United States are, at least according to Hollywood, you can explore ESRI’s Geography of Horror. I know I am safe, as other than The Reflecting Skin, a Philip Ridley film released in 1990, there hasn’t been a single horror film set in Idaho.

Depending on what, exactly, scares you, either New York or Los Angeles are equally scary according to Hollywood, with King Kong, Rosemary’s Baby, and Sisters all set there before 1970. More recently, Final Destination and The Girl Next Door were also set in New York State.

Los Angeles answers with such classics as War of the Worlds, Targets, and Homicidal. In the 1980’s there was an explosion of horror love set in the City of Angels, with classics such as White Dog, They Live, and Eating Raoul. If you count fictional towns in Southern California, you could count Poltergeist, making So Cal an even more frightening place.

Photo Credit: ESRI

If There Was a Zombie Apocalypse

Want to know where your resources are near where you live, and if you are likely to survive the brain seeking hordes? Enter your zip code, or allow Google and the NSA access to your location, in this Map of the Dead.

If I center on the Boise airport, near where I live, you can see I have all kinds of resources at my disposal, including military weapons and aircraft. Don’t feel safe? Type in zip codes close to your town to figure out your chances of survival. There is even a game available from the Apple Store.

Photo Credit: Map of the Dead

Where are the Bodies?

Want to know where some of the most famous and infamous people of all time are buried? Nothing gets your blood pumping better than to visit a cemetery on All Hallows Eve. So open this map, and scroll down (and down, and down) to find where famous bodies are buried.

This list includes people from Peter Benchley (creator of Jaws) to John Dillinger. It even includes the grave of Hemingway in my home state.

Photo Credit: ESRI

Sharks? There are sharks?

Sound fishy? Not so fast! There are always sharks somewhere, and if you feel the need to know where, open this map and find out how close sharks are to you. Not at your PC? You can download tracking apps in the iTunes or Google Play store.

Photo Credit: Ocearch

Want to Track other Monsters?

There’s an app for that. Literally. You can download everything from this very useful Vampire Detector (that shows you a world map of detections by other users) to Werewolf and Demon Detectors. A little known addition to the iStore is the Ghost Tracker app.

Photo Credit: Vampire Locator

Big Data is not All Scary

Want something a little more benign? We’ve gathered that for you as well. You can check out influenster to find out what the most popular Halloween candy is by state in 2015. And if after you check all these maps out, you still feel like venturing out, but haven’t found a costume yet, they have you covered as well, with this list (and map) of the most popular costumes in each state this year.

Photo Credit: Influenster

What are you scared of? Tell me in the comments below! Happy Halloween all!