The Global Surface Water Explorer is an educational interactive map that allows users to explore the world in terms of global data on surface water. The Global Surface Water Explorer is a project started by the EU Science Hub in partnership with Google, NASA, and the US Geological Survey in the early 2000s that displays data as far back as 1984, with the most current information originating from 2019. The interactive online map can display four different layers of surface water data: water occurrence (how often the area sees precipitation), changes in water occurrence intensity (how fast does precipitation in whatever form fall), water seasonality (year-round or just at certain times), and annual water recurrence (predictability/consistency). These four metrics act as a source of valuable data and tell an interesting story for how areas around the globe are seeing changes in their water supply as climate change begins to take effect. There is a scrollbar at the bottom of the webpage where one can jump to different parts of the globe that the creators have chosen to highlight, likely because of the changes those areas are experiencing. As climate change shifts and stressed water supply, tools like this that share and display such information will become more useful for conceptualizing and planning for change. However, the information could stand to be represented to be more visually striking; on a global scale, the information of whatever layer one chooses is lost in a beige backdrop.
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Aesthetic/Leisure, Climate Change, Data, Ecological Modelling, Ecological Monitoring, Industry/Natural Commodities, Regulation
Air Pollution Robot
The dangers of air pollution to human health are well documented, though the traditional methodology of collecting and reporting on sample lags behind the need to keep abreast and regulate air pollution in a meaningful amount of time. The use of drones and robots have been identified by researchers as resources that can be tweaked […]
Artificial Life, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Industry/Natural Commodities, Lifestyle, Monitoring
Telematic Rivers
Erica Kermani’s artwork seeks to answer a central question: if rivers were seeing an equal, living entity, would humans take issues like climate change threatening them more seriously? In his year-long art exhibition in 2017, Kermani, in collaboration with Diana Salcedo & Jeana Chesnik, created a new forum of interaction between humans and rivers to […]
Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution, Visual Technologies
Co-occupied Boundaries
Art is easily found in nature but rarely is what considered art today inherently natural. The concept of co-occupied mediums that serve to be both functional for nature and aesthetically pleasing to people is being actively explored by Asya Ilgun and Phil Ayres, from the CITAstudio at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In […]
Climate Change, Ecological Monitoring, Lifestyle, Monitoring, Pollution, Visual Technologies