BE Coding Café · TU Eindhoven · Special edition

#30DayMapChallenge 2026

One theme a day, every day from 1 to 30 November. Make a map for the days that suit you and share it. Here are the maps our community made.

Join the challenge See the maps Starter repo
Maps
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What is the #30DayMapChallenge?

The #30DayMapChallenge is a community mapping challenge that runs every November. Each day has a theme, from "Points" on day 1 to "Pen & paper" on day 30. You make a map for a theme and share it with the hashtag #30DayMapChallenge.

The BE Coding Café takes part with maps of our own, made in R, Python, QGIS or by hand. It's a good excuse to try a new dataset, a new tool or a new projection.

  • No sign-up needed to take part. Our form only keeps you in the loop.
  • Any tool is very welcome. R, Python, QGIS, or pen and paper, with or without AI.
  • You don't need to do all 30. One or two days is already great.
  • It isn't a competition. Make your own work and credit your data.

AI is welcome here

This year the BE Coding Café's theme is AI in research software development, so using an AI assistant or agent to help make your maps is supported. It isn't the main aim, though: the point is making maps, and maps made in R, Python or any other tool without AI are just as welcome.

If you do use AI, add one line to your map saying how, for example: "AI wrote the plotting code, I chose the data and the projection." Two days fit AI especially well: Day 10, "Prompting only", where the AI makes the whole map, and Day 27, "New tool".

How to take part

  1. Sign up with the form (2 minutes), so we can send you updates. You can join even if you miss the café.
  2. Get the starter repo. Fork or clone the repo. It has R and Python templates and a ready-made Eindhoven dataset.
  3. Pick a day below and make your map.
  4. Add it as maps/dayNN-yourhandle/ with map.png, your code and a README.md from the template, then open a pull request. It appears here automatically.
  5. Share it with #30DayMapChallenge wherever you like.

Kick-off at the Coding Café: Wednesday 28 October 2026, 12:00–13:30, Vertigo 9.06, TU/e. Bring a laptop and make your first map with us.

The 30 themes

Click a day to see its maps.

Resources

Open data for the Netherlands

  • OpenStreetMap Worldwide map data. Credit "© OpenStreetMap contributors" (ODbL).
  • Overpass Turbo Query and download OSM data in the browser.
  • PDOK Dutch government geodata: buildings (BAG), topography, aerial photos.
  • CBS Statistics Netherlands, incl. the district and neighbourhood map (wijken en buurten).
  • Eindhoven open data Municipal datasets: trees, parking, sensors and more.
  • Natural Earth Free country and coastline data for world maps.

Mapping in R

  • sf Read, transform and analyse vector data.
  • ggplot2 Plot sf data with geom_sf().
  • tmap Thematic maps with little code.
  • Geocomputation with R Free online book, from basics to advanced.

Mapping in Python

Other tools and help