Interactive City Maps in Python: Heatmaps, Routes, and Landmarks with Folium
Build a complete interactive city map in Python with routes, landmarks, and a heatmap using the folium library. This is a simple yet customizable script, where steps are explained in the video and visualized as a walkthough.
In this video we go beyond the “one polyline on a map” demo and create a small city story map:
multiple transit or walking routes
grouped landmark layers (parks, libraries, museums…)
an activity heatmap layer
a layer control so you can tell different stories with the same map
This builds on my earlier folium route tutorial ( • Interactive Route Line Map in Python using... ), but you can follow along even if you’ve never used folium before.
CODE & FILES
GitHub repo / code download: https://github.com/winswithdata/build...
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro & Demo
00:49 - Jumping to the code
02:23 - baseline map
05:54 - Heatmap setting, data
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
How to create a clean folium base map centred on a city
How to draw multiple routes as separate toggleable layers
How to add grouped landmark markers (parks, libraries, museums, etc.)
How to add an activity heatmap layer on top of your routes and points
How to structure your script so you can swap in your own city and data later
TECH STACK
Python
folium
folium.plugins.HeatMap
This pattern is a good starting point if you work with:
city or community projects
non-profit or public sector data
classroom or research maps you want to share as HTML
If this helped you, please like the video and subscribe for more practical data & mapping workflows in Python.
#python #folium #mapping #geospatial #dataviz #tutorial