Final Project Critique

I feel I've made a great deal of progress on my final project. The goal was to create a photo animation of the National Mall. I picked what I thought were the best ten shots. I added transition shots and individual snapshots of the monuments. I feel I'm about 90% to 95% done.


  Full size link: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jvigil4/final_project/final_project_01   These are some of the questions I'd like to ask:
- Is it easy to navigate?
- If not, how can I improve the navigation?
- More or less text? info?
- Does animation go by at right speed? too fast? too slow?
- Overall suggestions?

Weekly Map 10: Cool and Interactive Leaflet Map Service, USGS TopoView

The USGS, like the rest of the mapping community reacts to changes in technology and public interest when it comes to map services. This new service offers access to the flagship product of the USGS; the topo map. You get access to historic and newer maps available for free at the USGS. BTW this map uses Leaflet technology. Check it out and as it's being tested please feel free to offer comments.

 

 

Link: http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/maps/TopoView/

Lab 10: Heatmap of Shallow Coal Deposits in Alabama

This heatmap shows & ranks 40 drill-hole locations by the thickness of shallow coal deposits present in Alabama. Red indicates thicker deposits and green indicates thinner deposits. Interesting script, I'm not sure it's the best way to present this type of data but I see other uses for it.

 

 

Link: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jvigil4/lab_10/jv_lab10a.html



Lab 9: Pop Density in Top 20 US Cities by Pop 1980, 1990, 2000 & 2010

This Leaflet map shows the population density (population per square mile) in the top 20 US cities by population. Leaflet, JavaScript and open source mapping in general seem to be where things are heading for now. I'm still finding my way here but it's beginning to make more sense.

Link: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jvigil4/lab_09/jv_lab09c.html

Weekly Map 8: Heatmap

I spent a lot of time looking for a good example of a heatmap. Surprisingly there aren't that many that I would consider good. This is Google's Sightsmap. I'm not crazy about it but there aren't that many choices.

Link: http://www.sightsmap.com/

Weekly Map 7: Zooming and Panning

I'm very familiar with this example of good zooming and panning. I like that you can use a traditional zooming tool with a rectangular selection. I also like that you can pan and get info on a particualr map with the same tool. Very cool.



This USGS service gives you access to thousands of Geologic maps in the US.

It's called the National Geologic Map Database (NGMDB)

Link: http://ngmdb.usgs.gov/maps/mapview/

Lab 8: Top 20 US Cities by Population in 2013

Here's my first attempt at Leaflet. This map shows the top 20 US cities by population in 2013. Other years will be added as it will be used as a base for Lab 9. Thank you Wikipedia!

 

 

Link: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jvigil4/jv_lab08a.html

Final Project Proposal: Photo Animation of the National Mall

Examples of Proposed Animation:

1. Powder River Basin Coal Mining:1984-2014 Landsat Images

 



Link: http://earthshots.usgs.gov/earthshots/node/68#ad-image-28

 

2. Google Landsat series

   

Link: https://earthengine.google.org/#intro/LasVegas

My proposal for a final project is to create an aerial/satellite photo animated timeline of the West end of the National Mall (Lincoln Memorial to Washington Monument) in Washington DC. I’ve always liked animations of maps, satellite images or aerial photos that show change of a particular geographic area over time. I’m also a big fan of the Google Landsat series that show areas like the Amazon basin and others, depicting phenomenon like deforestation, other human related changes or even naturally occurring changes to the environment over time. I started my research with every intention of availing myself of all the data the US Geological Survey (USGS) offers. I thought it would be fairly easy to collect satellite, aerial imagery, topo or other kind of data. While this is possible, the time necessary to accomplish a worthwhile project is considerable. With that, I turned to the almighty Google and one of my favorite freebies; Google Earth. While limited by resolution and exporting issues Google Earth offers a lot of good data. I concluded that narrowing my study area would be a good idea. I also wanted an easily recognizable locale with the potential for a lot of historic data available. I happen to be a frequent visitor to the National Mall and immediately went to check out the availability of images there. I was gladly surprised with over 50 years’ worth of images for the mall. The idea of collecting all of the necessary data in one place at the same time was very appealing and welcome.

What I have in mind is an animated, interactive series of satellite images of the West end of the National Mall over time. The animation should have some kind of timeline and maybe roll-overs indicating the different landmarks in the park along with the standard buttons for play and stop. It should highlight seasonal and physical changes to this historic site for the last fifty or so years. It should also have a splash screen with a short narrative of what’s contained in the animation and a start button. I may also include photos of iconic monuments. The audience of this map is a general one, though locals or people familiar with the site would be at the top of the list. I believe most people in the US would be familiar with this area and would want to see an animated timeline of it. I want to use Adobe Photoshop and Flash to do this. I anticipate minor obstacles if any, except for long hours of work putting this together. I need to do some research to find out dates when particular monuments opened and maybe some other info. I may have to adjust pictures in Photoshop. This animation should copy some of the elements used in labs 2 through 5. The schedule for the execution of this project should cover at least the next three weeks. A prototype is anticipated to be ready sometime in mid-April and the final product towards the last week of April.



Lab 7: Choropleth Map of VA Population by County

Here's my second attempt at a JavaScript map. I don't fully understand how it works but it works.

Link: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jvigil4/jv_lab07.html

Lab 6: What? This Actually Works?

Well, this was lots of fun!! Not!! Actually the process is kind of cool, even elegant you might say. What wasn't cool was that my Mason website wouldn't work. For days I couldn't see what I'd done. That's very frustrating for someone who's used to seeing what they're doing. Oh well, here it is in all its glory, a JavaScript map of Virginia with selected cities.

Link: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jvigil4/jv_lab06.html