Global Surface Water Explorer
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.
Categories
Aesthetic/Leisure, Climate Change, Data, Ecological Modelling, Ecological Monitoring, Industry/Natural Commodities, Regulation
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