{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T00:59:11Z","timestamp":1760057951999,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":50,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,1]],"date-time":"2025-03-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1740787200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000781","name":"the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["101003012"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["101003012"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000781","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJGI"],"abstract":"<jats:p>As web maps are now extensively used by billions of users, the energy consumption of these maps is not marginal anymore. Green cartography seeks to reduce the energy consumption of maps to promote more sustainable digital tools. To reduce energy consumption, we first need to better understand the different sources of energy consumption for web maps. Among these sources, this paper focuses on the tiles that are stored on servers and then constantly transferred each time a user explores the map. This paper presents several experiments carried out with current web maps to assess this energy consumption. We first try to assess the number of map tiles that are loaded through the web when users explore web maps, and we determine which types of interaction are used with the maps, and a similar amount of tiles is loaded. Then, we try to assess which zoom levels are the most loaded by users; it appears that the medium\u2013large scales are the most used (between zoom levels 11 and 17). Then, we explore the size of the map tiles and try to assess which ones are larger and thus require more energy to load over the web; we can find clear differences between zoom levels. Finally, we discuss how map generalization could be used to reduce energy consumption by creating lighter tiles. These experiments show that the current web maps are suboptimal regarding energy consumption, with many tiles loaded at zoom levels where the tiles are larger than necessary.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijgi14030107","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,3]],"date-time":"2025-03-03T03:22:44Z","timestamp":1740972164000},"page":"107","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Understanding the Carbon Footprint of Tile Transfer for Web Maps"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6113-6903","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Guillaume","family":"Touya","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"LASTIG, IGN, ENSG, University Gustave Eiffel, F-77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0416-3398","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Azelle","family":"Courtial","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LASTIG, IGN, ENSG, University Gustave Eiffel, F-77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France"}]},{"given":"J\u00e9r\u00e9my","family":"Kalsron","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LASTIG, IGN, ENSG, University Gustave Eiffel, F-77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France"},{"name":"LIMOS, Clermont-Auvergne-INP, Mines de Saint-\u00c9tienne, Centre national de la Recherche Scientifique, Universit\u00e9 Clermont Auvergne, F-63000 Clermont\u2013Ferrand, France"}]},{"given":"Justin","family":"Berli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LASTIG, IGN, ENSG, University Gustave Eiffel, F-77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9388-1086","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"B\u00e9r\u00e9nice","family":"Le Mao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LASTIG, IGN, ENSG, University Gustave Eiffel, F-77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-5109-4289","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Laura","family":"Wenclik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LASTIG, IGN, ENSG, University Gustave Eiffel, F-77420 Champs-sur-Marne, France"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"117","DOI":"10.3390\/challe6010117","article-title":"On Global Electricity Usage of Communication Technology: Trends to 2030","volume":"6","author":"Andrae","year":"2015","journal-title":"Challenges"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"12","DOI":"10.1109\/MITP.2008.9","article-title":"Green: The New Computing Coat of Arms?","volume":"10","author":"Williams","year":"2008","journal-title":"IT Prof."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Russell, E. 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