AI-ASSISTED · EDITOR-REVIEWED

Theme brief

Hexagons reduce some directional bias and give each cell six equal neighbours, making them useful for aggregation and movement. They are still arbitrary containers: cell size and alignment can change the pattern, so show scale and avoid implying natural boundaries.

Official prompt
“Hexagons, the good old bestagons.”
30DayMapChallenge 2026

02

WAYS IN

Four map ideas

01
Aggregate tree observations into a multi-resolution H3 grid.
02
Compare hexbin density with a conventional heatmap.
03
Make a hexagon tile map that preserves approximate geography.
04
Test how the same point pattern changes across three cell sizes.

03

IN THE DIRECTORY

Recommended tools

H3

Provides a global hierarchical hexagonal index designed for multi-resolution analysis.

Open source · View details

kepler.gl

Styles H3 and hexbin layers interactively with minimal setup.

Open source · View details

QGIS

Creates custom hex grids and joins point summaries through a graphical workflow.

Open source · View details

deck.gl

Renders large H3 and hexagon layers efficiently on the web.

Open source · View details

04

START WITH A CLEAR LICENSE

Data sources

Any well-documented point dataset

Hexagons work with events, observations, facilities or samples.

Check the chosen source GBIF occurrence records

Filter by license and cite the download DOI when available.

CC0, CC BY or CC BY-NC per record OpenStreetMap points of interest

Query amenities, shops and other tagged places with Overpass Turbo.

ODbL 1.0 · attribution required

Licenses are a planning aid, not legal advice. Check the source record and version you actually download; terms can vary within a catalog.

05

BEFORE YOU EXPORT

Cartography check

Choose cell size from the question, not aesthetics, and state the resolution in the subtitle or legend.

06

COMMUNITY MAPS

Selected work

Selections begin after this theme closes.

First participate officially by posting publicly with #30DayMapChallenge. You can then suggest that original post for our independent MapTools picks. We link to the source, credit every author and use images only with permission.

Suggest for MapTools picks