Climate Cartographics

This site was created to examine the ways maps and other visualizations both limit and expand our understanding of climate change and its impacts. It is also the forum of an undergraduate course on maps and climate change at Middlebury College during January, 2009. Visual communication has long been used to aid the understanding of science. Popular mappings of environmental, political and social issues can have lasting effects on public opinion. Maps can convey complex information with clarity and directness. Yet at the same time, complex and variable phenomenon can be extremely difficult to capture in a still map image. Such is the case with the impacts of climate change. This blog will address some of the main challenges of mapping these impacts, as well as to give a critique of existing examples from various organizations and institutions.

Our critique strategy is largely based upon the techniques used by Denis Wood and John Fels in their new book, The Natures of Maps (2008).   Specifically, it is perhaps most important to explain the following terms: “paramap” meaning all content surrounding the map as it is presented on a page; “perimap” as the map elements that are directly attached to the map itself, such as legends, interactive photos, titles, etc; and the “epimap” which is information about the map that is found in other documents or webpages.  We also followed some general guidelines to structure how we looked at maps.

Guidelines for critiquing maps:

1. Layout and Perimap: How do the title, captions, text color, balance and other elements of the perimap set the context for reading the map?

2. Data Presentation: What symbology, colors, background, projection and other features in the map image contribute the map’s message?

3. Data Analysis: What type of data is shown? What are the classification techniques, choice of scale, research methods, and sources?

4. Message: What is the message of the map? How effectively is it communicated? Who is the intended audience?

5. Recommendations: How should the map be changed so that it would communicate the message more effectively?