About Sunniest Walks
On a cold morning, the sunny side of the street makes a real difference. Sunniest Walks finds the walking route between two places that keeps you in the sun longest, or in the shade on a hot day, for any day of the year and any time between 07:00 and 19:00.
How it works
- It downloads the Environment Agency's 1 m LiDAR height data for the area: the ground, the first surface the laser hit, and the last.
- It sorts what stands above the ground into solid things (buildings, walls) and trees, using OpenStreetMap building outlines and where the laser passed through the canopy.
- For every 5 m of every path, it traces a line toward the sun every 15 minutes through the day and measures how much light gets through. Trees let through more light in winter, when they're bare.
- Your browser then finds the route with the best balance of sun (or shade) and extra distance, using the detour slider.
Data sources and licences
| Data | From | Licence and notice |
|---|---|---|
| LiDAR surface and terrain models (1 m) | Environment Agency, LIDAR Composite DSM (first and last return) and DTM | Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains Environment Agency information © Environment Agency and/or database right. |
| Paths, buildings and trees | OpenStreetMap, through the Overpass API | © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence. openstreetmap.org/copyright |
| Base map | OpenFreeMap | © OpenMapTiles, data from OpenStreetMap. |
| Place search | Nominatim | Data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). |
| Postcode search | postcodes.io | Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. |
Software
Built with ASP.NET Core, MapLibre GL JS (BSD 3-Clause) and three.js (MIT). Fonts: Bricolage Grotesque, Atkinson Hyperlegible and IBM Plex Mono (SIL Open Font Licence).
Limits
- England only, for walks up to 5 km. Wales and Scotland publish their LiDAR separately; support may follow.
- It shows clear-sky sunshine. It doesn't know today's cloud.
- Hedges, fences, scaffolding and anything built or felled since the LiDAR survey may be wrong.
- Few OpenStreetMap trees say whether they're evergreen, so most count as deciduous.
Sunniest Walks is made by AFAutomations.