Posted In: Reflective posts
The Pudding is a digital platform that explains ideas debated in culture with visual essays. The article, “How is flooding affecting your community?” models the likelihood that homes will flood both today (2020) and 30 years into the future (2050), accounting for increases in storm severity and sea-level rise due to climate change.
The first visual showcases a bubble map where circles are displayed over a designated geographical region with the circle’s area proportional to its value in the dataset. There are three different bubble sizes with three different colors. First, we have a light blue bubble, which indicates fewer properties (this is the smallest bubble). Next, we have a yellow bubble that indicates middle properties. Last, we have a pink bubble, which means more properties (this is the largest bubble). There is also the option to search which city of your choice in the search bar provided.
When we look at Texas as a whole, we see almost an even split between yellow bubbles and pink bubbles. The bubbles differentiate in size, depending on the number—increase in number results in an increase in bubble size. However, a significant disadvantage with Bubble Maps is that overly large bubbles can overlap other bubbles and regions on the map. This is true because if you look at Houston, it overlaps with Beaumont, which is almost touching Lake Charles, LA. Another disadvantage that I see with Bubble Maps is that if you click on the bubble, it does not display the city’s name. And when you zoom in closer, it only shows the zip code. I only knew it was Houston because I am from Houston.
The second visuals showcase a list, and you have the option to pick between states, counties, or cities. Each key in its dictionary is in a horizontal line. The keys we see are state or county or city (text scalar), properties in flood zone (number scalar), total properties in state, county, or city (number scalar), and percent in flood zone (number scalar). There is also the option to search for any location of your choosing to see the data.
My screen defaults to College Station, TX; therefore, the website presents three types of questions you can click. The first one is “How Texas compares to nearby states?” followed by “How Brazos compares to nearby counties?” and ending with “How College Station compares to nearby cities?” for me. Each question showcases nine different states, counties, and cities and their answers to each category.
The third visual is a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), where you can search a location, and it will show the progression of the number of properties at risk of flooding from 2020 to 2035 to 2050. Personally, it was hard for me to understand the GIF visual as I could not tell much of a difference at all between the three different years.