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

Lab 5: Splash Screen for Lab 4

The task was to add a splash screen to the previous lab (New York by train). I took the opportunity to do some cleaning up and tweaking. It's a never ending job.

Weekly Map 6: Oil Spill Splash Screen

I found a lot of civil war related splash screens but I wanted a different one. This one is kind of cool. It gives you an introduction to an interactive map. I like the way that enough info is given to get you interested in exploring the rest of the map. The key map to the right is nicely done and tells you what you're looking at right away, in case you didn't know where the Beaufort Sea was.

Link: http://arcticspills.wwf.ca/#intro/

Weekly Map 5: Timeline of Carbon Emissions

I found this map that portrays the timeline of carbon emissions. The content is definitely relevant to what's going on today. I like the way the timeline is set up so you can see the year you're looking at and the total amount of carbon emissions. I also like that you can click on the timeline and place and move the view accordingly. I think this is an effective map.

 

Link: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/05/carbon_dioxide_emissions_by_country_over_time_the_worst_global_warming_polluters.html

Weekly Map 4: Morphin' Land Area to Population

This is a cool little animation map. It starts with the corresponding land areas of the world countries and morphs into areas representing the population for each country. This type of map is called a cartogram or an anamorphic map. It's a little bit cartoonish but it can be effective if used well. I think this is a good example. It definitely shows you where the highest populations are. 

 

 

Link: http://www.worldmapper.org/animations/wm01to02.html