Costa Rica:

Environmental

and

Socioeconomic

Progress

 


Mat 259 Final | W07 | Anna Knos
Data | Proposal | Images
Brief Description

The following is a data visualization project proposal that takes scientific data and, through a singular artistic process, transforms it into an informative and aesthetically intriguing map. The map is a visualization of the growth of Costa Rica's protected areas along side that nation's socioeconomic advancement. The goal is to show that
environmental and human growth can move in a positive direction together.
What data am I visualizing?

Four sets of data pertaining to Costa Rica from 1970-2002. Two data sets are environmentally focused (protected areas) and two sets have a socioeconomic focus (population and agricultural production). All of the data come from the Global Environmental Outlook Report compiled and published by the 'United Nations Environmental Programme'.

http://geodata.grid.unep.ch

 
data types
 data used
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Environmental

National Protected Areas (IUCN Categories I-VI) - Area - Costa Rica

 
Costa Rica (CRI)
1970-1980-1990-2002
93823 547395 961087 1115527

Variable: Protected Areas (IUCN Categories I-VI) - Area
Units: Hectares
Data Source: World Database of Protected Areas
Data Provider: World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)
Years: 1970, 1980, 1990, 2002
Copyright c 2002 World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)

Environmental

National Protected Areas (IUCN Categories I-VI) - Number - Costa Rica

 
Costa Rica (CRI)
1970-1980-1990-2002
6 34 59 71

Variable: Protected Areas (IUCN Categories I-VI) - Number
Units: Number of Sites
Data Source: World Database of Protected Areas
Data Provider: World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)
Years: 1970, 1980, 1990, 2002
Copyright c 2002 World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)
 
Socioeconomic

National Urban Population - Percent of Total Population

 
Costa Rica (CRI)
1975-1980-1985-1990-1995-2000
41.3 43.1 44.7 45.8 46.8 47.8

Variable: Urban Population - Percent of Total Population
Units: Percent
Data Source: World Urbanization Prospects: The 1999 Revision
Data Provider: United Nations Population Division/Department of
Economic and Social Affairs
Years: 1960-2000
Copyright c 2001 United Nations Environment Programme/DEWA/GRID-Geneva

Socioeconomic

National Agricultural Production Index - Total

 
Costa Rica (CRI)
1975-1980-1985-1990-1995-2000
65.7 72.5 80.9 100.0 123.4 137.8

Variable: Agricultural Production Index - Total
Units: Net Production Index Number (PIN) base 1989-91
Data Source: FAOSTAT (Data as of May 2001)
Data Provider: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
Years: 1961-2000
Copyright c 2001 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
 

 
What form does the data take? The data is visualized in a chronological top-down style like a scroll. The data sets are grouped using gray squares that represent the approximate date of data and each individual piece of data is represented through a series of hand-drawn lines within the square container. The lines extend from a constant side of the square; The left corners house the environmental data and the right corners house the socioeconomic data.
 
See Map
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Why does this data interest me? I am interested in issues surrounding the growth of environmental awareness and socioeconomic conditions. I traveled to Costa Rica for the first time when I was 11 years old and continued to have a deep fascination with the creation of its eco-friendly approach to national policy.
 
What other attempts have been made to visualize similar data? Barents, a Scandinavian cooperation project that was funded by the European Union Kolartic Interreg program, made a map of protected areas in Scandinavia.
http://www.barentsinfo.org

The New South Wales 'National Parks and Wildlife Service' created a map/case study of the 1996 protected marine area that ran along NSW.
http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/mpa/nrsmpa/development/number33.html

What form would your visualization take? A time based tangible map in the classic scroll style with a folded area for the subsection information. The map is approximately 25" rolled and opens up to be a large triangle. The scroll map is organized chronologically and reads from the top-down. The subsection information area is with-in unrolled scroll and accessed by opening up the map like a book (left to right).
   
A summary of any work you've done on this project to date.

I knew from the start I wanted to make a tangible map so, over the past few weeks, I sketched out six different map styles using the data sets to determine the feel of the maps. I moved between a few different data sets ranging from personal daily map of jarring situations visualized as a treasure map to a radio scanner (29.0MHz-956MHz) sound realization visualized as a cartoon dealing with a handful of characters determined by the sound and 11 environments determined by the band the sound(s) were noted.

Once I decided to make a map based on Costa Rican growth, I did weeks of exploring the GEO Data Portal, an authoritative source used by the United Nations Environmental Programme. I was attracted to four data sets from two main categories because the collection was historically recent and clearly fell within the scope of my interest.
 
Describe the technical/aesthetic challenges that would have to be
overcome to complete this project.		 The technical issues go hand-in-hand with the aesthetic concerns in realizing this project. The challenges I still face deal with appropriate map size and subsection information placement. The actual map needs to be large enough to clearly express the information but small enough to invite the viewer to take the map with them in order to show others. The subsection information is an expanded visual explanation of each data set accompanied by a brief piece of text to further the viewers understanding of the visuals. The text also serves to further clarify the data in order to solidify the information into knowledge. Because the text needs to be easy to read and still have a hand-done quality the font and its weight is still an issue.
Inspirational references:

Books:
"Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer" -Peter Turchi
"You are Here. Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination" -Katherine Harmon

Artists:
Lee Walton
Steve Roden

Aesthetic direction considered

Cartoon scroll map read from left to right


Treasure map
Information visualization and map web links

http://iv.homeunix.org/research.php


http://infosthetics.com


http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc
   
Map Scans
  
Top
Map | data visualization

 
 

Map | data clarification

   
 

 

More of my work can be found at:




www.annaknos.com