Maps are an awesome tool to help visually show the impact of a crisis before, during, and after the incident. Everything from the swine flu, to the Iran protest, to the fires in Los Angeles have been documented on a map to help people understand the issue at hand. Looking at a map of the spread of swine flu would show you where the population where there is the most infection. You could compare the differences in cities to try and determine why some places would have more instances of sickness. It would also be helpful information for people who live in the heavily infected cities so they could take extra precautions to staying healthy.
For my project I am going to use maps to show which oceans/lakes are affected by certain disasters. From the Great Lakes and the shores of New Orleans of the United States to the coasts of Japan and other parts of the world whose marine ecosystems are being destroyed.
Envision Music Festival March 1-4, 2012 Costa Rica A little piece of heaven on earth...
I think a map of the swine flu would have been a great idea. I was terrified to get it but then realized (at first) it hardly affected anyone in our area. Mapping illness would be difficult in poor areas because many people cannot afford healthcare and would not go to the doctor to get treatment. However, in areas that the illness was traceable, this would certainly help us understand the spread of disease.
ReplyDeleteSeconded, I also unfortunately got the swine flu. The use of online mapping is effective not only for cases of disease, but pretty much any crisis. Not to mention, the ease of making an annotated Google map is so easy that anybody can make or add to one. For the swine flu, CU could have made a map of where all the sick kids generally lived. Furthermore Amanda, I am also using mapping for my project because I think it is an easy way to visually show many different aspects of a crisis.
ReplyDeleteI think that maps are a fantastic tool for organizing information during periods of crisis, or above average interest (elections, events, etc...) For the past few days I have been brainstorming about where map mashups are going to go. In some sense, I feel like they have reached a ceiling: Map, mark, tag, comment. The exception in my opinion is with Google earth. Additional functionality exists where users can save annotated tours, roll back the image histories and view scenes in 3D (although the sun is in two places sometimes) Maybe one of you folks who is doing a mapping project for the final could do something cool with Google Earth?
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