Images depicting nature (and humans' impact on it) have long been valued as highly effective means to raise environmental consciousness and convey complex environmental concepts. For example, the Apollo 8 mission's famous photo of the Earth rising over the moon's horizon is often credited with helping nurture the rise of modern environmentalism.
Today, the growing use of online, interactive maps that help visualize, contextualize and disseminate complex environmental data could have similarly profound effects on the way we understand our relationship with the natural world.
New Data Visualization Tools
WRI's NextBillion.net blog recently highlighted the World Bank's new "Doing Business" project, which provides a great example of how online maps can present detailed information in an easy-to-understand format. By clicking on a particular country, users of the tool can access various "doing business" indicators for each country, and then quickly compare it to its neighbors.
World Bank - Doing Business Map
Source: World Bank, 2007
According to the map's creators, "Where the annual report could take country policy makers some time to absorb, when they look at the new map, 'in a couple of minutes they see not only how they're doing, but also how their neighbors are doing,' … "Now we can tell stories on a computer screen right away.'
This innovative project is an example of a Google Maps 'mashup'. A mashup is any software application that combines two or more sets of data to form a new hybrid tool. Google Maps are one of the most common mashup components, with thousands of businesses and individuals displaying their own geographically-specific data through the Google Maps interface. The result is a powerful data visualization tool that allows previously cumbersome statistics to be overlaid on a map and accessed in an efficient, intuitive manner.
Examples of the diverse array of data that has already been integrated with Google Maps includes sea level rise visualization, hurricane movements, crime statistics, gas station prices, walkable cities, green travel possibilities, and earthquakes. Google has also enabled the creation of similar mashups with its popular Google Earth application. One prominent user of this new feature is the United Nations Environmental Program, which has used Google Earth to help to visualize global environmental trends as a way to foster public involvement in environmental management.
Google Earth / UNEP Collaboration
Source: World Bank, 2007
Interactive Maps and the Environment
As evidenced by the list above, the benefits of using online maps to visualize data can be particularly valuable for environmental issues.
But what makes these online tools different from the maps, charts, and graphs that have always been part of environmental research and communications?
- First, mashups facilitate the seamless integration of maps and data. Because the maps are dynamic, an unlimited amount of data can be linked to a particular geographical location. And because the maps are interactive, they make exploring the data a richer and more intuitive experience.
- Second, the ease with which this integration can now be accomplished means that many more groups are capable of making their own map/data hybrids.
- Finally, because these are internet-based tools, they are easily scalable and are ready to be deployed to large numbers of users anytime, anywhere.
While Google Maps and Google Earth are arguably the best-known platforms for interactive data maps, MSN, Yahoo, and others also offer similar products. These tools are part of a larger phenomenon of using information technologies to communicate and manipulate information faster and more effectively than ever before.
By leveraging these new technologies to present and disseminate environmental information, organizations and governments can help global society understand and respond to the looming environmental problems it faces.
Related Links:
Environmental Layers on Google Earth
blog that tracks websites, mashups and tools being influenced by Google Maps
EarthTrends
