Animated map – Master of Spatial Analysis

Toronto’s Rapid Transit System Throughout the Years, 1954 to 2030: Creating an Animated Map on ArcGIS Pro

Johnson Lumague

Geovis Project Assignment @RyersonGeo, SA8905, Fall 2022

Background

Toronto’s rapid transit system has been constantly growing throughout the decades. This transit system is managed by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) which has been operating since the 1920s. Since then, the TTC has reached several milestones in rapid transit development such as the creation of Toronto’s heavy rail subway system. Today, the TTC continues to grow through several new transit projects such as the planned extension of one of their existing subway lines as well as by partnering with Metrolinx for the implementation of two new light rail systems. With this addition, Toronto’s rapid transit system will have a wider network that spans all across the city.

**Timeline of the development of Toronto’s rapid transit system**

Based on this, a geovisualization product will be created which will animate the history of Toronto’s rapid transit system and its development throughout the years. This post will provide a step-by-step tutorial on how the product was created as well as showing the final result at the end.

Visualizing Spatial Distribution of SARS in Carto

by Cheuk Ying Lee (Damita)
Geovis Project Assignment @RyersonGeo, SA8905, Fall 2019

Project Link: https://c14lee.carto.com/builder/5ebe8c01-fb32-40bf-9cae-3b5f7326d02b/embed

Background
In 2003, there was a SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in Southern China. The first cases were reported in Guangdong, China and quickly spread to other countries via air travel. I experienced all the preventive measures taken and school suspension, yet too young to realize the scale of the outbreak worldwide.

Technology
CARTO is used to visualize the spatial distribution of SARS cases by countries and by time. CARTO is a software as a service cloud computing platform that enables analysis and visualization of spatial data. CARTO requires a monthly subscription fee, however, a free account is available for students. With CARTO, a dashboard (incorporating interactive maps, widgets, selective layers) can be created.

Data
The data were obtained from World Health Organization under SARS (available here). Two datasets were used. The first dataset was compiled, containing information in the number of cumulative cases and cumulative deaths of each affected country, listed by dates, from March 17 to July 11, 2003. The second dataset was a summary table of SARS cases by countries, containing total SARS cases by sex, age range, number deaths, number of recovery, percentage of affected healthcare worker etc. The data were organized and entered into a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel. Data cleaning and data processing were performed using text functions in excel. This is primarily done to removing the superscripts after the country names such that the software can recognize, as well as changing the data types from string to numbers.

Figure 1. Screenshot of the issues in the country names that have to be processed before uploading it to CARTO.

After trials of connecting the database to CARTO, it was found that CARTO only recognized “Hong Kong”, “Macau” and “Taiwan” as country names, therefore unnecessary characters have to be removed. After cleaning the data, the two datasets were then uploaded and connected to CARTO. If the country names can be recognized, the datasets will then automatically contain spatial information. The two datasets now in CARTO appear as follows:

Figure 2. Screenshot of the dataset containing the cumulative number of cases and deaths for each country by date.

Figure 3. Screenshot of the dataset containing the summary of SARS cases for each affected country.

Figure 4. Screenshot of the page to connect datasets to CARTO. A variety of file formats are accepted.

METHOD
After datasets have been connected to CARTO, layers and widgets can be added. First, layers were added simply by clicking “ADD NEW LAYER” and choosing the datasets. After the layer was successfully added, data were ready to be mapped out. To create a choropleth map of the number of SARS cases, choose the layer and under STYLE, specify the polygon colour to “by value” and select the fields and colour scheme to be displayed.

Figure 5. Screenshot showing the settings of creating a choropleth map.

Countries are recognized as polygons in CARTO. In order to create a graduated symbol map showing number of SARS cases, centroids of each country has to be computed first. This was done by adding a new analysis of “Create Centroids of Geometries”. After that, under STYLE, specify the point size and point colour to “by value” and select the field and colour scheme.

Figure 6. Sets of screenshots showing steps to create centroids of polygons. Click on the layer and under ANALYSIS, add new analysis which brings you to a list of available analysis.

Animation was also created to show SARS-affected countries affected by dates. Under STYLE, “animated” was selected for aggregation. The figure below shows the properties that can be adjusted. Play around with the duration, steps, trails, and resolution, these will affect the appearance and smoothness of the animation.

Figure 7. Screenshot showing the settings for animation.

Figure 8. Screenshot showing all the layers used.

Widgets were added to enrich the content and information, along with the map itself. Widgets are interactive tools for users where displayed information can be controlled and explored by selecting targeted filters of interest. Widgets were added simply by clicking “ADD NEW WIDGETS” and selecting the fields to be presented in the widget. Most of them were chosen to be displayed in category type. For each category type widget, data has to be configured by selecting the field that the widget will be aggregated by, for most of them, they are aggregated by country, showing the information of widget by countries. Lastly, the animation was accompanied by a time series type widget.

Figure 9. Sets of screenshots showing the steps and settings to create new widgets.

Figure 10. A screenshot of some of the widgets I incorporated.

FINAL PROJECT

The dashboard includes an interactive map and several widgets where users can play around with the different layers, pop-up information, widgets and time-series animation. Widgets information changed along with a change in the map view. Widgets can be expanded and collapsed depending on the user’s preference.

LIMITATION
For the dataset of SARS accumulated cases by dates, some dates were not available, which can affect the smoothness of the animation. In fact, the earliest reported SARS cases happened before March 17 (earliest date of statistics available on WHO). Although the statistics still included information before March 17, the timeline of how SARS was spread before March 17 was not available. In addition, there were some inconsistencies in the data. The data provided at earlier dates contain less information, including only accumulated cases and deaths of each affected country. However, data provided at later dates contain new information, such as new cases since last reported date and number of recovery, which was not used in the project in order to maintain consistency but otherwise could be useful in illustrating the topic and in telling a more comprehensive story.

CARTO only allows a maximum of 8 layers, which is adequate for this project, but this may possibly limit the comprehensiveness if used for other larger projects. The title is not available at the first glance of the dashboard and it is not able to show the whole title if it is too long. This could cause confusion since the topic is not specified clearly. Furthermore, the selective layers and legend cannot be minimized. This obscures part of the map, affecting users perception because it is not using all of its available space effectively. Lastly, the animation is only available for points but not polygons, which would otherwise be able to show the change in SARS cases (by colour) for each country by date (time-series animation of choropleth map) and increase functionality and effectiveness of the animation.

Desperate Journeys

By Ibrahim T. Ghanem

Geovis Project Assignment @RyersonGeo, SA8905, Fall 2019

Background:

Over the past 20 years, Asylum Seekers have invented many travel routes between Africa, Europe and Middle East in order be able to reach a country of Asylum. Many governmental and non-governmental provided information about those irregular travel routes used by Asylum Seekers. In this context, this geovisualization project aims at compiling and presenting two dimensions of this topic: (1) a comprehensive animated spider map presenting some of the travel routes between the above mentioned three geographic areas; (2) develop a dashboard that connects those routes to other statistics about refugees in a user-friendly interface. In that sense, the best software to fit the project is Tableau.

Data and Technology

Creation of Spider maps at Tableau is perfect for connecting hubs to surrounding point as it allows paths between many origins and destinations. Besides, it can comprehend multiple layers. Below is a description of the major steps for the creation of the animated map and dashboard.

Also, Dashboards are now very useful in combining different themes of data (i.e. pie-charts, graphs, and maps), and accordingly, they are used extensively in non-profit world to present data about a certain cause. The Geovisualiztion Project applied geocoding approach to come up with the animated map and the dashboard.

The Data used to create the project included the following:

-Origins and Destinations of Refugees

-Number of Refugees hosted by each country

-Count of Refugees arriving by Sea (2010-2015)

-Demographics of Refugees arriving by Sea – 2015

Below is a brief description of the steps followed to create the project

Step 1: Data Sources:

The data was collected from the below sources.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Human Rights Watch, Vox, InfoMigrants, The Geographical Association of UK, RefWorld, Broder Free Association for Human Rights, and Frontex Europa.

However, most of the data are not geocoded. Accordingly, Google Sheets was used in Geocoding 21 routes, and thereafter each Route was given a distinguishing ID and a short description of the route.

Step 2: Utilizing the Main Dataset:

Data is imported from an excel sheet. In order to compute a route, Tableau requires data about origins,and destination with latitude and longitude. In that aspect, the data contains different categories:

A-Route I.D. It is a unique path I.D. for each route of the 21 routes;

B-Order of Points: It is the order of stations travelled by refugees from their country of origin to country of Asylum;

C-Year: the year in which the route was invented;

D-Latitude/Longitude: it is the coordinates of the each station;

F-Country: It is the country hosting Refugees;

E- Population: Number of refugees hosted in each country.

Step 3: Building the Map View:

The map view was built by putting longitude in columns, latitude in rows, Route I.D. at details, and selecting the mark type as line. In order to enhance the layout, Oder of Points was added to Marks’ Path, and changing it to dimensions instead of SUM. Finally, to bring stations of travel, another layer was added to by putting another longitude to columns, and changing it to Dual Axis. To create filtration by Route, and timeline by year, route was added Filter while year was added to page.

Step 4: Identifying Routes:

To differentiate routes from each other by distinct colours, the route column was added to colours, and the default setting was changed to Tableau 20. And Layer format wash changed to dark to have a contrast between the colours of the routes and the background.

Step 5: Editing the Map:

After finishing up with the map formation. A video was captured by QuickStart and edited by iMovie to be cropped and merged.

Step 6: Creating the Choropleth map and Symbology:

In another sheet, a set of excel data (obtained from UNHCR) was uploaded to create a Choropoleth map that would display number of refugees hosted by each country by year 2018. Count of refugees was added to columns while Country was added to rows. The Marks’ colour ramp of orange-gold, with 4 classes was added to indicate whether or not the country is hosting a significant number of refugees. Hovering over each country would display the name of the country and number of refugees it hosts.

Step 7: Statistical Graphs:

A pie-chart and a graph were added to display some other statistics related to count of Refugees arriving by Sea from Africa to Europe, and the demographics of those refugees arriving by sea. Demographics was added to label to display them on the charts.

Step 8: Creation of the Dashboard:

All four sheets were added in the dashboard section through dragging them into the layer view. To comprehend that amount of data explanation, size was selected as legal landscape. Title was given to the Dashboard as Desperate Journeys.

Limitations

A- Tableau does not allow the map creator to change the projection of the maps; thus, presentation of maps is limited. Below is a picture showing the final format of the dashboard:

B-Tableau has an online server that can host dashboard; nevertheless, it cannot publish animated maps. Thus, the animated maps is uploaded here a video. The below link can lead the viewer to the dashboard:

https://prod-useast-a.online.tableau.com/t/desperatejourneysgeovis/views/DesperateJourneys_IbrahimGhanem_Geoviz/DesperateJourneys/ibrahim.ghanem@ryerson.ca/23c4337a-dd99-4a1b-af2e-c9f683eab62a?:display_count=n&:showVizHome=n&:origin=viz_share_link

C-Due to unavailability of geocoded data, geocoding the routes of refugees’ migration consumed time to fine out the exact routes taken be refugees. These locations were based on the reports and maps released by the sources mentioned at the very beginning of the post.

Geovisualization of Crime in the City of Toronto Using Time-Series Animation Heat Map in ARCGIS PRO

Hetty Fu

Geovis Project Assignment @RyersonGeo, SA8905, Fall 2019

Background/Introduction

The City of Toronto Police Services have been keeping track of and stores historical crime information by location and time across the City of Toronto since 2014. This data is now downloadable in Excel and spatial shapefiles by the public and can be used to help forecast future crime locations and time. I have decided to use a set of data from the Police Services Data Portal to create a time series map to show crime density throughout the years 2014 to 2018. The data I have decided to work with are auto-theft, break and enter, robbery, theft and assault. The main idea of the video map I want to display is to show multiple heat density maps across month long intervals between 2014 to 2018 in the City of Toronto and focus on downtown Toronto as most crimes happen within the heart of Toronto.

The end result is an animation time-series map that shows density heat map snapshots during the 4-year period, 3-month interval at a time. Examples of my post are shown at the end of this blog post under Heat Map Videos.

Dataset

All datasets were downloaded through the Toronto Police Services Data Portal which is accessible to the public.

The data that was used to create my maps are:

Assault
Auto Theft
Robbery
Break and Enter
Theft

Process Required to Generate Time-Series Animation Heat Maps

Step 1: Create an additional field to store the date interval in ArcGis Pro.

Add the shapefile downloaded from the Toronto Police Services Portal intoArcGIS Pro.

First create a new field under View Table and then click on Add.

To get only the date, we use the Calculate Field in the Geoprocessing tools with the formula

date2=!occurrence![:10]

where Occurrence is the existing text field that contains the 10 digit date: YYYY-MM-DD. This removes the time of day which is unnecessary for our analysis.

Step 2: Create a layer using the new date field created.

Go into properties in the edited layer. Under the time tab, place in the new date field created from Step 1 and enter in the time extent of the dataset. In this case, it will be from 2014-01-01 to 2018-12-31 as the data is between 2014 to 2018.

Step 3: Create Symbology as Heat Map

Go into the Symbology properties for the edited layer and select heat map under the drop down menu. Select 80 as its radius which will show the size of the density concentration in a heat map. Choose a color scheme and set the method as Dynamic. The method used will show how each color in the scheme relates to a density value. In a Dynamic setting versus and constant, the density is recalculated each time the map scale or map extent changes to reflect only those features that are currently in view. The Dynamic method is useful to view the distribution of data in a particular area, but is not valid for comparing different areas across a map (ArcGIS Pro Help Online).

Step 4: Convert Map to 3D global scene.

Go to View tab on the top and select convert to global scene. This will allow the user to create a 3D map feature when showing their animated heat map.

Step 5: Creating the 3D look.

Once a 3D scene is set, press and hold the middle mouse button and drag it down or up to create a 3D effect.

Step 6: Setting the time-series map.

Under the Time tab, set the start time and end time to create the 3 month interval snapshot. Ensure that “Use Time Span” is checked and the Start and End date is set between 2014 and 2018. See the image below for settings.

Step 7: Create a time Slider Steps for Animation Purposes

Under Animation tab, select the appropriate “Append Time” (the transition time between each frame). Usually 1 second is good enough, anything higher will be too slow. Make sure to check off maintain speed and append front before Importing the time Slider Steps. See below image.

Step 8: Editing additional cosmetics onto the animation.

Once the animation is created, you may add any additional layers to the frames such as Titles, Time Bar and Paragraphs.

There is a drop down section in the Animation tab that will allow you to add these cosmetic layers onto the frame.

Animation Timeline by frames will look like this below.

Step 9: Exporting to Video

There are many types of exports the user can choose to create. Such as Youtube, Vimeo, Twitter, Instagram, HD1080 and Gif. See below image for the settings to export the create animation video. You can also choose the number of frames per second, as this is a time-series snapshot no more than 30 frames per second is needed. Choose a place where you would like to export the video and lastly, click on Export.

Conclusion/Recommendation/Limitation

As this was one of my first-time using ArcGIS Pro software, I find it very intuitive to learn as all the functions were easy to find and ready to use. I got lucky in finding a dataset that I didn’t have to format too much as the main fields I required were already there and the only thing required was editing the date format. The number of data in the dataset was sufficient for me to create a time series map that shows enough data across the city of Toronto spanning 3 months at a time. If there was less data, I would have to increase my time span. The 3D scene on ArcGIS Pro is very slow and created a lot of problems for me when trying to load my video onto set time frames. As a result of the high-quality 3D setting, I decided to use, it took couple of hours to render my video through the export tool. As the ArcGIS Pro software wasn’t made to create videos, I felt that there was lack of user video modification tools.

Heat Map Videos Export

Theft in Downtown Toronto between 2014-2018. A Time-Series Heat Map Animation using a 3 month Interval.
Robbery in Downtown Toronto between 2014-2018. A Time-Series Heat Map Animation using a 3 month Interval.
Break and Enter in Downtown Toronto between 2014-2018. A Time-Series Heat Map Animation using a 3 month Interval.
Auto Theft across the City of Toronto between 2014-2018. A Time-Series Heat Map Animation using a 3 month Interval.
Assault across the City of Toronto between 2014-2018. A Time-Series Heat Map Animation using a 3 month Interval.

A Century of Airplane Crashes

Laine Gambeta
Geovisualization Project, @RyersonGeo, Fall 2019

Tableau is an exceptionally useful tool in visualizing data effectively. It allows many variations of charts in which the software suggests the best type based on data content. The following project uses a data-set obtained from the National Transportation and Safety Board identifying locations and details of plane crashes between 1908-2009. The following screenshot is a final product and a run through of how it was made.

Map Feature:

To create the map identifying accident location, a longitude and latitude is required. Once inputted into the Columns and Rows, Tableau automatically recognizes the location data and creates a map.

The Pages function is populated with the date of occurrence and filtered by month in order to create a time animation based on a monthly scale. When the Pages function is populated with a date the software automatically recognizes a time series animation and creates a time slide.

The size of the map icon indicates the total number of fatalities at a specific location and time. To create this effect, the fatalities measure is inputted into the Size function. This same measure is inserted into the label function to show the total number of occurrences with each icon appearance.

When you scroll over the icons on the map the details of each occurrence appear. To create this tool, the measures you want to appear are inserted into the Details function. In this function, Date, Sum Aboard, Sum Fatalities, Sum Survivors, and Summary of accident appears when you scroll over the icon on the map.

Vertical Bar Chart Feature:

To create the vertical bar chart you must insert the date on the Y axis (columns), and the X axis (rows) with people aboard and fatalities.

Next, we must create a calculation to pull the number of survivors by subtracting the two measures. To do so, right click on a column title cell and click create calculated field. Within this calculation you select the two columns

you want to subtract and it will populate the fields. We will use this to identify the number of survivors.

The next step is creating a dual- axis to show both values on the same chart. Right click one of the measures in the rows field and click dual-axis. This will combine the measures onto the same chart and overlap each other.

Following this we need to filter the data to move along the animation by month. It tallies the monthly numbers and adds it to the chart. In order to combine the monthly tallies to show on an annual bar chart, the following filters are used. First filter by year which tallies the monthly counts into a single column on the bar chart. The Page’s filter identifies the time period increments used in the time slider animation, this value must be consistent across all charts in order to sync. In this case, we are looking at statistics on a monthly basis.

To split the colours between green and red to identify survivors and fatalities, the Measure Names (which is created automatically by Tableau) is inserted into the colour function. This will identify each variable as a different colour.

When you bring your mouse over top the bar chart it selects and identifies the statistics related to the specific year. To create this feature, the measures must be added to the tooltip function and formatted as you please.

Horizontal Bar Chart Feature:

The second bar chart is similar to the previous one. The sum of fatalities is put in Columns and the Date is put in Rows to switch the axis to have the date on the Y axis. The Pages function uses the same time frame as other charts calculating monthly and adding the total to the bar chart as the time progresses.

Total Count Features:

To create the chart you must insert the date on the Y axis (columns), and the X axis (rows) with people aboard and fatalities.

Adding in running counts is a very simple calculation feature and is built into Tableau. You build the table by putting the measure into the text function, this enable’s the value to show as text and not a chart. You will notice below that the Pages function must be populated with a date measure on a monthly basis to be consistent with the other charts.

In order to create the running total values, a calculation must be added to the measure. Clicking the SUM measure opens the options and allows us to select Edit Table Calculation. This opens a menu where you can select Running Total, Sum on a monthly basis. We apply this to 3 separate counters to total occurrences, fatalities, and survivors.

Pie Chart Feature:

Creating a pie chart requires the following measures to be used. Under the marks drop down you must select pie chart. This automatically creates a function for angular measure values. The fatality and survivor measures are used and filtered monthly. The Measure Values which is automatically created by Tableau identifies the values of these measures and is inputted into the Angle function to calculate the pie chart. Again, the Measures Names are inputted into the colour function to separate the values by fatalities and survivors. The Pages function is populated with date of occurrence by month to sync with the other charts.

Lastly, a dashboard is created which allows the placement of the features across a single page. They can be arranged to be aesthetically pleasing and informative. Formatting can be done in the dashboard page to manipulate the colors and fonts.

Limitations:

Tableau does not allow you to select your map projection. Tableau Online has a public server to publish dashboards to, however it does not support timeline animation. Therefore, the following link to my project is limited to selecting the date manually to observe the statistics.

https://prod-useast-a.online.tableau.com/t/lainegambeta/views/ACenturyofAirplaneCrashes/Dashboard2?:origin=card_share_link&:embed=n

Visualizing Station Delays on the TTC

By: Alexander Shatrov

Geovis Project Assignment @RyersonGeo, SA8905, Fall 2018.

Intro:

The topic of this geovisualization project is the TTC. More specifically, the Toronto subway system and its many, many, MANY delays. As someone who frequently has to suffer through them, I decided to turn this misfortune into something productive and informative, as well as something that would give a person not from Toronto an accurate image of what using the TTC on a daily basis is like. A time-series map showing every single delay the TTC went through over a specified time period. The software chosen for this task was Carto, due to its reputation as being good at creating time-series maps.

Obtaining the data:

First, an excel file of TTC subway delays was obtained from Toronto Open Data, where it is organised by month, with this project specifically using August 2018 data. Unfortunately, this data did not include XY coordinates or specific addresses, which made geocoding it difficult. Next, a shapefile of subway lines and stations was obtained from a website called the “Unofficial TTC Geospatial Data”. Unfortunately, this data was incomplete as it had last been updated in 2012 and therefore did not include the recent 2017 expansion to the Yonge-University-Spadina line. A partial shapefile of it was obtained from DMTI, but it was not complete. To get around this, the csv file of the stations shapefile was opened up, the new stations added, the latitude-longitude coordinates for all of the stations manually entered in, and the csv file then geocoded in ArcGIS using its “Display XY Data” function to make sure the points were correctly geocoded. Once the XY data was confirmed to be working, the delay excel file was saved as a csv file, and had the station data joined with it. Now, it had a list of both the delays and XY coordinates to go with those delays. Unfortunately, not all of the delays were usable, as about a quarter of them had not been logged with a specific station name but rather the overall line on which the delay happened. These delays were discarded as there was no way to know where exactly on the line they happened. Once this was done, a time-stamp column was created using the day and timeinday columns in the csv file.

Finally, the CSV file was uploaded to Carto, where its locations were geocoded using Carto’s geocode tool, seen below.

It should be noted that the csv file was uploaded instead of the already geocoded shapefile because exporting the shapefile would cause an issue with the timestamp, specifically it would delete the hours and minutes from the time stamp, leaving only the month and day. No solution to this was found so the csv file was used instead. The subway lines were then added as well, although the part of the recent extension that was still missing had to be manually drawn. Technically speaking the delays were already arranged in chronological order, but creating a time series map just based on the order made it difficult to determine what day of the month or time of day the delay occurred at. This is where the timestamp column came in. While Carto at first did not recognize the created timestamp, due to it being saved as a string, another column was created and the string timestamp data used to create the actual timestamp.

Creating the map:

Now, the data was fully ready to be turned into a time-series map. Carto has greatly simplified the process of map creation since their early days. Simply clicking on the layer that needs to be mapped provides a collection of tabs such as data and analysis. In order to create the map, the style tab was clicked on, and the animation aggregation method was selected.

The color of the points was chosen based on value, with the value being set to the code column, which indicates what the reason for each delay was. The actual column used was the timestamp column, and options like duration (how long the animation runs for, in this case the maximum time limit of 60 seconds) and trails (how long each event remains on the map, in this case set to just 2 to keep the animation fast-paced). In order to properly separate the animation into specific days, the time-series widget was added in the widget tab, located next to to the layer tab.

In the widget, the timestamp column was selected as the data source, the correct time zone was set, and the day bucket was chosen. Everything else was left as default.

The buckets option is there to select what time unit will be used for your time series. In theory, it is supposed to range from minutes to decades, but at the time of this project being completed, for some reason the smallest time unit available is day. This was part of the reason why the timestamp column is useful, as without it the limitations of the bucket in the time-series widget would have resulted in the map being nothing more then a giant pulse of every delay that happened that day once a day. With the time-stamp column, the animation feature in the style tab was able to create a chronological animation of all of the delays which, when paired with the widget was able to say what day a delay occurred, although the lack of an hour bucket meant that figuring out which part of the day a delay occurred requires a degree of guesswork based on where the indicator is, as seen below

Finally, a legend needed to be created so that a viewer can see what each color is supposed to mean. Since the different colors of the points are based on the incident code, this was put into a custom legend, which was created in the legend tab found in the same toolbar as style. Unfortunately this proved impossible as the TTC has close to 200 different codes for various situations, so the legend only included the top 10 most common types and an “other” category encompassing all others.

And that is all it took to create an interesting and informative time-series map. As you can see, there was no coding involved. A few years ago, doing this map would have likely required a degree of coding, but Carto has been making an effort to make its software easy to learn and easy to use. The result of the actions described here can be seen below.

https://alexandershatrov.carto.com/builder/8574ffc2-9751-49ad-bd98-e2ab5c8396bb/embed

Visual Story of GHG Emissions in Canada

By Sharon Seilman, Ryerson University
Geovis Project Assignment @RyersonGeo, SA8905, Fall 2018

Background

Topic:

An evaluation of annual Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions changes in Canada and an in-depth analysis of which provinces/ territories contribute to most of the GHG emissions within National and Regional geographies, as well as by economic sectors.

The timeline for this analysis was from 1990-2015
Main data sources: Government of Canada Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory and Statistics Canada

Why?

Greenhouse gas emissions are compounds in the atmosphere that absorbs infrared radiation, thus trapping and holding heat in the atmosphere. By increasing the heat in the atmosphere, greenhouse gases are responsible for the greenhouse effect, which ultimately leads to global climate change. GHG emissions are monitored in three elements -its abundance in the atmosphere, how long it stays in the atmosphere and its global warming potential.

Audience:

Government organizations, Environmental NGOs, Members of the public

Technology

An informative website with the use of Webflow was created, to visually show the story of the annual emissions changes in Canada, understand the spread of it and the expected trajectory. Webflow is a software as a service (SaaS) application that allows designers/users to build receptive websites without significant coding requirements. While the designer is creating the page in the front end, Webflow automatically generates HTML, CSS and JavaScript on the back end. Figure 1 below shows the user interaction interface of Webflow in the editing process. All of the content that is to be used in the website would be created externally, prior to integrating it into the website.

The website:

The website it self was designed in a user friendly manner that enables users to follow the story quite easily. As seen in figure 2, the information it self starts at a high level and gradually narrows down (national level, national trajectory, regional level and economic sector breakdown), thus guiding the audience towards the final findings and discussions. The maps and graphs used in the website were created from raw data with the use of various software that would be further elaborated in the next section.

Figure 2: Website created with the use of Webflow

Check out Canada’s GHG emissions story HERE!

Method

Below are the steps that were undertaken for the creation of this website. Figure 3 shows a break down of these steps, which is further elaborated below.

Understanding the Topic:
- Prior to beginning the process of creating a website, it is essential to evaluate and understand the topic overall to undertake the best approach to visualizing the data and content.
- Evaluate the audience that the website would be geared towards and visualize the most suitable process to represent the chosen topic.
- For this particular topic of understanding GHG emissions in Canada, Webflow was chosen because it allows the audience to interact with the website in a manner that is similar to a story; providing them with the content in a visually appealing and user friendly manner.
Data Collection:
- For the undertaking of this analysis, the main data source used was the Greenhouse Gas Inventory from the Government of Canada (Environment and Climate Change). The inventory provided raw values that could be mapped and analyzed in various geographies and sectors. Figure 4 shows an example of what the data looks like at a national scale, prior to being extracted. Similarly, data is also provided at a regional scale and by economic sector.
  Figure 4: Raw GHG Values Table from the Inventory
- The second source for this visualization was the geographic boundaries. The geographic boundaries shapefiles for Canada at both a national scale and regional scale was obtained from Statistics Canada. Additionally, the rivers (lines) shapefile from Statistics Canada too was used to include water bodies in the maps that were created.
  - When downloading the files from Statistics Canada, the ArcGIS (.shp) format was chosen.
Analysis:
- Prior to undertaking any of the analysis, the data from the inventory report needed to be extracted to excel. For the purpose of this analysis, national, regional and economic sector data were extracted from the report to excel sheets
  - National -from 1990 to 2015, annually,
  - Regional -by province/territory from 1990 to 2015, annually
  - Economic Sector -by sector from 1990 to 2015, annually
- Graphs:
  - Trend -after extracting the national level data from the inventory, a line graph was created in excel with an added trendline. This graph shows the total emissions in Canada from 1990 to 2015 and the expected trajectory of emissions for the upcoming five years. In this particular graph, it is evident that the emissions show an increasing trajectory. Check out the trend graph here!
  - Economic Sector -similar to the trend graph, the economic sector annual data was extracted from the inventory to excel. With the use of the available data, a stacked bar graph was created from 1990 to 2015. This graph shows the breakdown of emissions by sector in Canada as well as the variation/fluctuations of emissions in the sectors. It helps understand which sectors contribute the most and which years these sectors may have seen a significant increase or decrease. With the use of this graph, further analysis could be undertaken to understand what changes may have occurred in certain years to create such a variation. Check out the economic sector graph here!
- Maps:
  - National map -the national map animation was created with the use of ArcMap and an online GIF maker. After the data was extracted to excel, it was saved as a .csv files and uploaded to ArcMap. With the use of ArcMap, sixteen individual maps were made to visualize the varied emissions from 1990 to 2015. The provincial and territorial shapefile was dissolved using the ArcMap dissolve feature (from the Arc Tool box) to obtain a boundary file at a national scale (that was aligned with the regional boundary for the next map). Then, the uploaded table was joined to the boundary file (with the use of the Table join feature). Both the dissolved national boundary shapefile and the river shapefile were used for this process, with the data that was initially exported from the inventory for national emissions. Each map was then exported a .jpeg image and uploaded to the GIF maker, to create the animation that is shown in the website. With the use of this visualization, the viewer can see the variation of emissions throughout the years in Canada. Check out the national animation map here!
  - Regional map -similar to the national one, the regional map animation was created in same process. However, for the regional emissions, data was only available for three years (1990, 2005 and 2015). The extracted data .csv file was uploaded and table joined to the provinces and territories shapefile (undissolved), to create three choropleth maps. The three maps were them exported as .jpeg images and uploaded to the GIF maker to create the regional animation. By understanding this animation, the viewer can distinctly see which regions in Canada have increase, decreased or remained the same with its emissions. Check out the regional animation map here!
Final output/maps:
- The graphs and maps that were discussed above were exported as images and GIFs to integrate in the website. By evaluating the varied visualizations, various conclusions and outputs were drawn in order to understand the current status of Canada as a nation, with regards to its GHG emissions. Additional research was done in order to assess the targets and policies that are currently in place about GHG emissions reductions.
Design and Context:
- Once the final output and maps were created, and the content was drafted, Webflow enables the user to easily upload external content via the upload media tool. The content was then organized with the graphs and maps that show a sequential evaluation of the content.
- For the purpose of this website, an introductory statement introduces the content discussed and Canada’s place in the realm of Global emissions. Then the emissions are first evaluated at a national scale with the visual animation, then the national trend, regional animation and finally, the economic sector breakdown. Each of the sections have its associated content and description that provides an explanation of what is shown by the visual.
- The Learn More and Data Source buttons in the website include direct links to Government of Canada website about Canada’s emissions and the GHG inventory itself.
- The concluding statement provides the viewer with an overall understanding of Canada’s status in GHG emissions from 1990 to 2015.
- All of the font formatting and organizing of the content was done within the Webflow interface with the end user in mind.
Webflow:
- The particular format that was chosen in for this website because of story telling element of it. Giving the viewer the option to scrolls through the page and read the contents of it, works similarly as story because this website was created for informative purposes.

Lessons Learned:

While the this website provides informative information, it could be further advanced through the integration of an interactive map, with the use of additional coding. This however would require creating the website outside of the Webflow interface.
Also, the analysis could be further advanced with the additional of municipal emissions values and policies (which was not available in the inventory it self)

Overall, the use of Webflow for the creation of this website, provides users with the flexibility to integrate various components and visualizations. The user friendly interface enables uses with minimal coding knowledge to create a website that could be used for various purposes.

Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed this post!

Visualizing Urban Land Use Growth in Greater Sào Paulo

By: Kevin Miudo

Geovis Project Assignment @RyersonGeo, SA8905, Fall 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il6nINBqNYw&feature=youtu.be

Introduction

In this online development blog for my created map animation, I intend to discuss the steps involved in producing my final geovisualization product, which can be viewed above in the embedded youtube link. It is my hope that you, the reader, learn something new about GIS technologies and can apply any of the knowledge contained within this blog towards your own projects. Prior to discussing the technical aspects of the map animations development, I would like to provide some context behind the creation of my map animation.

Cities within developing nations are experiencing urban growth at a rapid rate. Both population and sprawl are increasing at unpredictable rates, with consequences for environmental health and sustainability. In order to explore this topic, I have chosen to create a time series map animation visualizing the growth of urban land use in a developing city within the Global South. The City which I have chosen is Sào Paulo, Brazil. Sào Paulo has been undergoing rapid urban growth over the last 20 years. This increase in population and urban sprawl has significant consequences to climate change, and such it is important to understand the spatial trend of growth in developing cities that do not yet have the same level of control and policies in regards to environmental sustainability and urban planning. A map animation visualizing not only the extent of urban growth, but when and where sprawl occurs, can help the general public get an idea of how developing cities grow.

Data Collection

In-depth searches of online open data catalogues for vector based land use data cultivated little results. In the absence of detailed, well collected and precise land use data for Sào Paulo, I chose to analyze urban growth through the use of remote sensing. Imagery from Landsat satellites were collected, and further processed in PCI Geomatica and ArcGIS Pro for land use classification.

Data collection involved the use of open data repositories. In particular, free remotely sensed imagery from Landsat 4, 5, 7 and 8 can be publicly accessed through the United States Geological Survey Earth Explorer web page. This open data portal allows the public to collect imagery from a variety of satellite platforms, at varying data levels. As this project aims to view land use change over time, imagery was selected at data type level-1 for Landsat 4-5 Thematic Mapper and Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS. Imagery selected had to have at least less than 10% cloud cover, and had to be images taken during the daytime so that spectral values would remain consistent across each unsupervised image classification.

Landsat 4-5 imagery at 30m spectral resolution was used for the years between 2004 and 2010. Landsat-7 Imagery at 15m panchromatic resolution was excluded from search criteria, as in 2003 the scan-line corrector of Landsat-7 failed, making many of its images obsolete for precise land use analysis. Landsat 8 imagery was collected for the year 2014 and 2017. All images downloaded were done so at the Level-1 GeoTIFF Data Product level. In total, six images were collected for years 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2017.

Data Processing

Imagery at the Level-1 GeoTIFF Data Product Level contains a .tif file for each image band produced by Landsat 4-5 and Landsat-8. In order to analyze land use, the image data must be processed as a single .tiff. PCI Geomatica remote sensing software was employed for this process. By using the File->Utility->Translate command within the software, the user can create a new image based on one of the image bands from the Landsat imagery.

For this project, I selected the first spectral band from Landsat 4-5 Thematic Mapper images, and then sequentially added bands 2,3,4,5, and band 7 to complete the final .tiff image for that year. Band 6 is skipped as it is the thermal band at 120m spatial resolution, and is not necessary for land use classification. This process was repeated for each landsat4-5 image.Similarly for the 2014 and 2017 Landsat-8 images, bands 2-7 were included in the same manner, and a combined image was produced for years 2014 and 2017.

Each combined raster image contained a lot of data, more than required to analyze the urban extent of Sào Paulo and as a result the full extent of each image was clipped. When doing your own map animation project, you may also wish to clip data to your study area as it is very common for raw imagery to contain sections of no data or clouds that you do not wish to analyze. Using the clipping/subsetting option found under tools in the main panel of PCI Geomatica Focus, you can clip any image to a subset of your choosing. For this project, I selected the coordinate type ‘lat/long’ extents and input data for my selected 3000×3000 pixel subset. The input coordinates for my project were: Upper left: 46d59’38.30″ W, Upper right: 23d02’44.98″ S, Lower right: 46d07’21.44″ W, Lower Left: 23d52’02.18″ S.

Land Use Classification

The 7 processed images were then imported into a new project in ArcPro. During importation, raster pyramids were created for each image in order to increase processing speeds. Within ArcPro, the Spatial Analyst extension was activated. The spatial analyst extension allows the user to perform analytical techniques such as unsupervised land use classification using iso-clusters. The unsupervised iso-clusters tool was used on each image layer as a raster input.

The tool generates a new raster that assigns all pixels with the same or similar spectral reluctance value a class. The number of classes is selected by the user. 20 classes were selected as the unsupervised output classes for each raster. It is important to note that the more classes selected, the more precise your classification results will be. After this output was generated for each image, the 20 spectral classes were narrowed down further into three simple land use classes. These classes were: vegetated land, urban land cover, and water. As the project primarily seeks to visualize urban growth, and not all types of varying land use, only three classes were necessary. Furthermore, it is often difficult to discern between agricultural land use and regular vegetated land cover, or industrial land use from residential land use, and so forth. Such precision is out of scope for this exercise.

The 20 classes were manually assigned, using the true colour .tiff image created from the image processing step as a reference. In cases where the spectral resolution was too low to precisely determine what land use class a spectral class belong to, google maps was earth imagery referenced. This process was repeated for each of the 7 images.

After the 20 classes were assigned, the reclassify tool under raster processing in ArcPro was used to aggregate all of the similar classes together. This outputs a final, reclassified raster with a gridcode attribute that assigns respective pixel values to a land use class. This step was repeated for each of the 7 images. With the reclassify tool, you can assign each of the output spectral classes to new classes that you define. For this project, the three classes were urban land use, vegetated land, and water.

Cartographic Element Choices:

It was at this point within ArcPro that I had decided to implement my cartographic design choices prior to creating my final map animation.

For each layer, urban land use given a different shade of red. The later the year, the darker and more opaque the colour of red. Saturation and light used in this manner helps assist the viewer to indicate where urban growth is occurring. The darker the shade of red, the more recent the growth of urban land use in the greater Sào Paulo region. In the final map animation, this will be visualized through the progression of colour as time moves on in the video.

ArcPro Map Animation:

Creating an animation in ArcPro is very simple. First, locate the animation tab through the ‘View’ panel in ArcPro, then select ‘Add animation’. Doing so will open a new window below your work space that will allow the user to insert keyframes. The animation tab contains plenty of options for creating your animation, such as the time frame between key frames, and effects such as transitions, text, and image overlays.

For the creation of my map animation, I started with zoomed-out view of South America in order to provide the viewer with some context for the study area, as the audience may not be very familiar with the geography of Sào Paulo. Then, using the pan tool, I zoomed into select areas of choice within my study area, ensuring to create new keyframes every so often such that the animation tool creates a fly-by effect. The end result explores the very same mapping extents as I viewed while navigating through my data.

While making your own map animation, ensure to play through your animation frequently in order to determine that the fly-by camera is navigating in the direction you want it to. The time between each keyframe can be adjusted in the animation panel, and effects such as text overlays can be added. Each time I activated another layer for display to show the growth of urban land use from year to year, I created a new keyframe and added a text overlay indicating to the user the date of the processed image.

Once you are satisfied with your results, you can export your final animation in a variety of formats, such as .avi, .mov, .gif and more. You can even select the type of resolution, or use a preset that automatically configures your video format for particular purposes. I chose the youtube export format for a final .mpeg4 file at 720p resolution.

I hope this blog was useful in creating your very own map animation on remotely sensed and classified raster data. Good luck!

Invasive Species in Ontario: An Animated-Interactive Map Using CARTO

By Samantha Perry
Geovis Project Assignment @RyersonGeo, SA8905, Fall 2018

My goal was to create an animated time-series map using CARTO to visualize the spread of invasive species across Ontario. In Ontario there are dozens of invasive species posing a threat to the health of our lakes, rivers, and forests. These intruding species can spread quickly due to the absence of natural predators, often damaging native species and ecosystems, and resulting in negative effects on the economy and human health. Mapping the spread of these invasive species is beneficial for showing the extent of the affected areas which can potentially be used for research and remediation purposes, as well as awareness for the ongoing issue. For this project, five of the most problematic or wide-spread invasive species were included in an animated-interactive map to show their spatial and temporal distribution.

The final animated-interactive map can be found at: https://perrys14.carto.com/builder/7785166c-d0cf-41ac-8441-602f224b1ae8/embed

Data

The first dataset used was collected from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and contained information on invasive species observed in the province from 1982 to 2012. The data was provided as a shapefile, with polygons representing the affected areas.
The second dataset was downloaded from the Early Detection & Distribution Mapping System (EDDMapS) Ontario website. The dataset included information about invasive species identified between 2010 and 2018. I obtained this dataset to supplement the Ontario Ministry dataset in order to provide a more up-to-date distribution of the species.

Software
CARTO is a location-intelligence based website that offers easy to use mapping and analysis software, allowing you to create visually appealing maps and discover key insights from location data. Using CARTO, I was able to create an animated-interactive map displaying the invasive species data. CARTO’s Time-Series Widget can be used to display large numbers of points over time. This feature requires a map layer containing point geometries with a timestamp (date), which is included in the data collected for the invasive species.

CARTO also offers an interactive feature to their maps, allowing users control some aspects of how they want to view the data. The Time-Series Widget includes animation controls such as play, stop, and pause to view a selected range of time. In addition, a Layer Selector can be added to the map so the user is able to select which layer(s) they wish to view.

Limitations
In order to create the map, I created a free student account with CARTO. Limitations associated with a free student account include a limit on the amount of data that can be stored, as well as a maximum of 8 layers per map. This limits the amount of invasive species that can be mapped.

Additionally, only one Time-Series Widget can be included per map, meaning that I could not include a time-series animation for each species individually, as I originally intended to. Instead, I had to create one time-series animation layer that included all five of the species. Because this layer included thousands of points, the map looks dark and cluttered when zoomed out to the full extent of the province (Figure 1). However, when zoomed in to specific areas of the province, the points do not overlap as much and the overall animation looks cleaner.

Another limitation to consider is that not all the species’ ranges start at the same time. As can be seen in Figure 1 below, the time slider on the map shows that there is a large increase in species observations around 2004. While it is possible that this could simply be due to an increase in observations around that time, it is likely because some of the species’ ranges begin at that time.

Figure 1. Layer showing all five invasive species’ ranges.

Tutorial

Step 1: Downloading and reviewing the data
The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry data was downloaded as a polygon shapefile using Scholars GeoPortal, while the EDDMapS Ontario dataset was downloaded as a CSV file from their website.

Step 2: Selection of species to map
Since the datasets included dozens of different invasive species in the datasets, it was necessary to select a smaller number of species to map. Determining which species to include involved some brief research on the topic, identifying which species are most prevalent and problematic in the province. The five species selected were the Eurasian Water-Milfoil, Purple Loosestrife, Round Goby, Spiny Water Flea, and Zebra Mussel.

Step 3: Preparing the data for upload to CARTO
Since the time-series animation in CARTO is only available for point data, I had to convert the Ontario Ministry polygon data to points. To do this I used ArcMap’s “Feature to Point” tool which created a new point layer from the polygon centroids. I then used the “Add XY Coordinates” tool to get the latitude and longitude of each point. Finally, I used the “Table to Excel” conversion tool to export the layer’s attribute table as an excel file. This provided me with a table with all invasive species point data collected by the Ontario Ministry that could be uploaded to CARTO.

Next, I created a table that included the information for the five selected species from both sources. I selected only the necessary columns to include in the new table, including; Species Name, Observation Date, Year, Latitude, Longitude, and Observation Source. This combined table was then saved as an excel file to be uploaded to CARTO.

Finally, I created 5 additional tables for each of the species separately. These were later used to create map layers that show each species’ individual distribution.

Step 4: Uploading the datasets to CARTO
After creating a free student account with CARTO, I uploaded the six datasets as excel files. Once uploaded, I had to change the “Observation Date” column from a “string” to “date” data type for each dataset. A “date” data type is required for the time-series animation to run.

Step 5: Geocoding datasets
Each dataset added to the map as a layer had to be geocoded. Using the latitude and longitude columns previously added to the Excel file, I geocoded each of the five species’ layers.

Step 6: Create time-series widget to display temporal distribution of all species
After creating a blank map, I added the Excel file that included all the invasive species data as a layer. I then added a Time-Series Widget to allow for the temporal animation. I then selected Observation Date as the column to be displayed, meaning that the point data will be organized by observation date. I chose to organize the buckets, or groupings, for the corresponding time-slider by year.

Since “cumulative” was not an option for the Time-Series layer, I had to use CARTCSS to edit the code for the aggregation style. Changing the style from “linear” to “cumulative” allowed the points to remain on the screen for the duration of the animation, letting the user see the entire species’ range in the province. The updated CSS code can be seen in the screenshots below.

Step 7: Creating five additional layers for each species’ range
Since I could only add one Time-Series Widget per map, and the layer with the animation looks cluttered at some extents, I decided to create five additional layers that show each of the species’ individual observation data and range.

Step 8: Customizing layer styles
After adding all of the layers, a colour scheme was selected where each of the species’ was represented by a different colour to clearly differentiate between them. Colours that are generally associated with the species were selected. For example, the colour purple was selected to represent Purple Loosestrife, which is a purple flowering plant. The “multiply” style option was selected, meaning that areas with more or overlapping occurrences of invasive species are a darker shade of the selected colour.

A layer selector was included in the legend so that users can turn layers on or off. This allows them to clearly see one species’ distribution at a time.

Step 9: Publish map
Once all of the layers were configured correctly, the map was published so it could be seen by the public.

Urban Development of San Francisco

By Hannah Burdett

SA8905 Geovisualization Project, Ryerson University

The Development of San Francisco

San Francisco is located in the center of Northern California. It started as a base for the gold rush of 1849, the city quickly became one of the most populated cities in the United States. Shortly thereafter, San Francisco was devastated by the 1906 earthquake. Development peaked in the 1900’s as San Francisco rebuilt areas demolished by the earthquake and fires to compensate the growing population. During the 1930’s the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge were opened. Additionally, during World War II, San Francisco was a major mainland supply point and port of embarkation for the war in the Pacific. Both factors led to another peak in construction. After World War II, many American military personnel who had fallen in love with the city while leaving for or returning from the Pacific settled in the city. This led to promoting the development of the Sunset District, Visitacion Valley, and the total build-out of San Francisco. Starting in the latter half of the 1960’s, San Francisco became most recognized for the hippie movement. Currently, San Francisco has become known for finance and technology industries. There is a high demand for housing, driven by its close proximity to Silicon Valley, and a low supply of available housing has led to the city being one of America’s most expensive places to live.

Data

The data used for the time series animation was imported from data.gov. Data.gov is a repository for the US Governments open source data. The imported data included a Land use Shapefile for San Francisco. The shapefile included information such as land use, shape area, street address, street number, etc. The land use shapefile also included the year the building was built. The building years range from 1848 to 2016 displaying 153 years of urbanization. The buildings were represented as polygons throughout San Francisco. Additionally, a grey scale base map from ArcGIS Pro was displayed to create a more cohesive map design.

Time Series Animation

To develop the reconstruction of San Francisco throughout the years, both QGIS and ArcGIS Pro were utilized. Both platforms were used so to provide a comparison between time series animation tools from an open source application and a non-open source application.

QGIS is an open source geographic information systems application that provides data visualization, editing, and analysis through functions and plugins. To create the time series animation the Time Manager plugin was utilized. The Time Manager plugin animates vector features based on a time attribute. For this study the time attribute was the years built.

ArcGIS Pro is the latest professional desktop GIS from Esri. ArcGIS Pro enables users to view, explore, analyze, edit and share maps and data. Unlike QGIS, no additional plugins are required to create the animated time series.

QGIS Methodology

To generate the time series in QGIS, the land use shapefile was downloaded and opened in QGIS. The attribute table from the land use shapefile was then exported and opened in Excel so that the yrbuilt column could be reformatted to meet QGIS Time Manager requirements. The yrbuilt column had the data presented as YYYY format for building dates. QGIS Time Manager requires timestamps to be in YYYY-MM-DD. To correct the format, -01-01 was added to the end of each building year. The modified values were then saved into a new column called yrbuilt1. The Excel sheet was then imported into QGIS and joined to the land use shapefile.

In QGIS, each of the buildings was presented as polygons. The shapefile symbology was changed from single symbology to quantified symbology. In other words, the symbology for each of the polygons was broken down to seven classes defined by years. Each class was then distinguished by color, so that one may differentiate the oldest building from the newest buildings. Furthermore, a grey scale basemap was added to create a more cohesive map.

Furthermore, in the Time Manager settings, “Add Layer” was selected. The land use shapefile was chosen as the Layer of interest. The start time was set to the yrbuilt1 attribute, whereas the end time was set to “No end time – accumulate features”. This allows newer buildings to be added without older buildings being removed from the map. For the animation, each time frame will be shown for 100 milliseconds. The Time Manager plugin was then turned on so that the time series may run.

In order to export the time series animation, Time Manager offers an “Export Video” option. However, this exports the animation as an image series, not as an actual video. To correct this, the image series was uploaded to Mapbox where additional Mapbox styles were used to render the map. It was then exported as a Gif from Mapbox.

ArcGIS Pro Methodology

In ArcGIS Pro, the land use shapefile was imported. The symbology for each of the polygons was then broken down to seven classes defined by years. The same colours utilized in QGIS were applied to the classes in ArcGIS Pro to differentiate between the building years. Within the layer’s properties, the Layers Time was selected as “each feature has a single time field”. Furthermore, the start and end times were set to the newest and oldest building years. The number of steps were assigned a value of sixteen. In View, the animation was added, and the Time Slider Steps were imported. The time frames were set to match the QGIS animation so that both time series animations would run at the same speed. The time series animation was then exported as a Gif.

Final Animated Map

Finally, to create a cohesive animated map the exported Gif’s were complied together in PowerPoint. Additional map features, such as a legend, were designed within PowerPoint. A bar graph was added along the bottom of the map to show years of peak building construction. The final time series map was then exported as a .mp4 and upload to YouTube.