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GIS & Geoinformatics

Every map is a lie — some are just useful ones. Explore how projections distort reality, how GPS pins your location from 20 000 km away, and how floods spread through terrain data.

7 simulations Projections · GPS · DEM Spatial Analysis · Remote Sensing

Simulations

Open any simulation — runs instantly in your browser

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Popular★★☆ Moderate
Satellite Orbit Visualiser
Place LEO, MEO and GEO satellites on a rotating Earth. Observe ground track, coverage footprint and how orbital altitude affects revisit time — the geometry behind GNSS constellations.
KeplerCoverageThree.js
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★★☆ Moderate
Digital Elevation Model & Erosion
Generate a heightmap and derive slope, aspect and hillshade — the core raster analysis operations in any GIS. Hydraulic erosion carves drainage networks in real time.
DEMRasterErosion
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★★★ Advanced
Tectonic Plate Simulation
Real-time plate interaction on a sphere — fundamentally a geospatial problem of moving geometries, topological change and spatial joins as continents collide.
PlatesGlobeWebGL
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★☆☆ Beginner
Spatial Routing — A* on Terrain
Least-cost path across a cost-surface grid — the fundamental GIS network analysis operation used for road routing, pipeline placement and wildlife corridor modelling.
A*Cost SurfaceNetwork
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★★☆ Moderate
GPS Trilateration
Position 4 satellites and watch intersection of spheres narrow to a single point. Vary satellite geometry (PDOP) and add clock errors — the physics behind every GPS fix.
TrilaterationPDOPSignal
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★★☆ Moderate
Flood Spreading & Hydrology
SPH raindrops accumulate on a landscape — runoff collects in valleys, spills over a dam and inundates downstream cells. The visual prototype of GIS flood-fill analysis.
HydrologySPHFlood
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New★★☆ Moderate
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New ★★☆ Moderate
GPS Map Projection
Map projections including Mercator and Tissot indicatrix showing distortion across cartographic projections.
map projection Mercator Tissot indicatrix
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New ★★☆ Moderate
Spatial Interpolation & Kriging
Kriging (Gaussian Process regression on spatial data): estimate values at unsampled locations. Vario...
Kriging Interpolation Geostatistics
Wildfire Spread — Wind & Slope
Cellular-automaton fire propagation weighted by wind direction, terrain slope and fuel moisture — demonstrating GIS raster overlay analysis for fire risk assessment.
CAFireOverlay

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About GIS & Geospatial Simulations

Map projections, routing, spatial data, and geographic analysis — live

GIS and geospatial simulations model the mathematical and computational foundations of geographic information systems. Map-projection simulations render the same set of world polygons under dozens of different projections — Mercator, Mollweide, Robinson, Azimuthal equal-area — showing how each distorts area, shape, distance, and direction relative to the spherical Earth.

Least-cost-path routing simulations apply Dijkstra on a grid of elevation-weighted terrain costs, reproducing the algorithms used in GPS navigation and urban transport planning. Spatial-interpolation demos apply inverse-distance-weighting and kriging to scattered point measurements, producing the smooth raster surfaces used in soil-science, meteorology, and geology. These tools connect classical cartography to modern computational spatial analysis.

Each simulation in this category is built with accuracy and interactivity in mind. The underlying mathematical models are the same ones used in academic research and professional engineering — just made accessible through a web browser. Changing parameters in real time and observing the results is one of the most effective ways to build intuition for complex scientific and engineering concepts.

Key Concepts

Topics and algorithms you'll explore in this category

Map ProjectionsMercator, Robinson, Mollweide: distortions compared
GPS TriangulationTime-of-flight multilateration from satellites
Satellite OrbitsLEO/MEO/GEO orbital parameters and ground tracks
Raster AnalysisDEM hillshading, slope, and viewshed
Routing on GraphsDijkstra and A* for road-network path finding
Spatial InterpolationKriging and IDW for sensor field estimation

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about this simulation category

What GIS concepts can I explore here?
Map projection comparison (Mercator, Robinson, Mollweide), GPS multilateration, satellite orbit visualisation, digital elevation model hillshading, road-network Dijkstra routing, and spatial interpolation (kriging, IDW).
How does the GPS triangulation simulation work?
You see satellite positions in space. The simulation measures pseudo-ranges (scaled by time of flight), draws spheres of position, and shows how three or more intersections resolve a ground position.
What is the difference between Mercator and other projections?
The map projection simulator lets you toggle between projections and see how shape, area, and distance distortions change. Tissot's indicatrix ellipses visualize local distortion at each point.

Every Geographic Information Systems simulation here runs free in your browser, letting you experiment with each interactive GIS model — spatial data rendering, coordinate projection, map tile loading and geospatial query visualisation — without installing anything. Adjust parameters, overlay data layers and observe how geographic features are encoded and displayed to learn GIS online at your own pace, whether you are a student, educator or curious researcher. GIS underpins navigation apps, urban planning, disaster response and environmental monitoring worldwide, making hands-on spatial thinking one of the most practically useful skills in modern data science and engineering.