Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S
nytimes.com
Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S
1–10 of 49 posts
Re: Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S
#2[deleted]
Re: Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S
#3I think there's a certain point at which we need to accept, and are accepting, that droughts will happen and that we need to prepare for them.
Re: Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S
#4We really, really need to stop growing lawn grass as a region.
Re: Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S
#5I think this excellent feature also serves as a great example of the shortcomings of maps. When I saw the tweeted screenshot of the most recent version of this map, I thought, "Oh shit, the drought is all over the place!"
However, actually going to the article and seeing the D3 animation...I see that it's...kind of the same as before? That is, still not great, but not overall more of a severe drought? Or is it? Just because it looks like a few areas have receded, I can't say for sure my eye is summing up all the drought-areas correctly...so even with the time-lapse, it's hard to tell if things have gotten worse, or better...
And of course, "better/worse" compared to the last few months is just one thing to care about...I'd also like to know how the drought level right now compares to last year, last decade, etc....and while we're looking at the past, I want to see what the rates of change were in those past timeframes, so I can judge whether or not the change from this month to last is drastic or expected (based on the cycle).
The bottom of the article contains just that chart (which is why I think this is such a great feature)...of course, you lose the geographical information, but at least the perspective is there. One minor improvement, with a small tradeoff in clutter, is to overlay a small part of the Palmer Drought Index chart on top (or near) the map, so that anyone visiting this map, now or in the future, can have some perspective at a glance on how bad the drought is...because without that frame of reference, just about any quantity of orange/red over a geographical map will be dramatic.
Re: Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S
#6We really, really need to stop growing lawn grass as a region.
Funny enough, that would require changes to laws first: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/07/19/california-couple-faces...
I would love it if I could just throw a bunch of gravel down around my house and never have to worry about mowing again...
Re: Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S
#7Mike Bostock and D3!
Re: Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S
#8Mike Bostock and D3!
Everything that guy touches is visualization gold. I wish I had half as much talent.
Re: Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S
#9I think this excellent feature also serves as a great example of the shortcomings of maps. When I saw the tweeted screenshot of the most recent version of this map, I thought, "Oh shit, the drought is all over the place!" However, actually going to the article and seeing the D3 animation...I see that it's...kind of the same as before? That is, still not great, but not overall more of a severe drought? Or is it? Just…
It's not a "shortcoming of maps". It's a difficulty in data representation. It's hard to clearly display more than two metrics in a chart. If geography is one of your key metrics, a map is perfect.
Re: Mapping the Spread of Drought Across the U.S
#10We really, really need to stop growing lawn grass as a region.
You seem to be overestimating the amount water we use for lawns.
Agriculture uses 77% of all water in California. Residential is less than 14%, with half of that being indoor use.
I am all in favor of low water gardening, but you are not going to save us from the drought by getting rid of lawns.