Components of the global water cycle
NASA briefly explains the water cycle: Water regulates climate, predominately storing heat during the day and releasing it at night. Water in the ocean and atmosphere carry heat from the tropics to...
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Every river system mapped in World of Rivers
The annual Malofiej awards, for top graphics in journalism, were handed out last week. The best map of 2010 went to National Geographic for the World of Rivers. Every river system in the world was...
View ArticleWater changes everything in motion graphics
In the most recent media push for Charity: Water, a video of motion graphics explains the importance of clean water and what millions have to go through every day just to get something questionable to...
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Where the water resources are and where they go
Designer David Wicks compares rainfall against water consumption in his thesis project Drawing Water: Drawing Water is a constructed landscape shaped by the relationship between where water falls and...
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Rising Water Levels in the Immediate Future
Stamen Design, in collaboration with Climate Central, shows major areas that could be affected by probable rising water levels in the not so far off future. The context for this work is: while there...
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Great Lakes currents map
Using the same tech Martin Wattenberg and Fernanda Viegas created to show wind flow, the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory mapped water flow in the Great Lakes, based on forecasting...
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Mapping all the rivers in the United States
Inspired by Ben Fry's All Streets map, which showed every road in the United States, Nelson Minar mapped every river to similar effect. As you'd expect, the geography of the United States emerges...
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Drought report cards for California water districts
Thomas Suh Lauder for the Los Angeles Times provides you with a way to see how the water district near you is doing relative to the rest of the state. Look up a location. Get a report card. It's still...
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Greater access to clean water
National Geographic, in collaboration with Bestiario, looks at the improving accessibility to clean water around the world. In 1990, as part of the Millennium Development Goals, the UN set a target to...
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A transforming river seen from above
The Padma River in Bangladesh is constantly shifting its 75-mile path. Joshua Stevens for the NASA Earth Observatory shows what the shifting looked like through satellite imagery, over a 30-year span....
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Turning water pollution into audiolized awareness
Brian House collected polluted water with acid mine drainage in the Tshimologong Precinct, Johannesburg and translated pollution levels to sound: Acid Love comprises vessels of AMD gathered from a mine...
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Watch rising river levels after Hurricane Florence
Hurricane Florence brought a lot of rain, which in turn made river levels rise. The New York Times animated the rise over a five-day period. The height of the bars represents the rise of the river...
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Light installation shows future water lines against existing structures
Timo Aho and Pekka Niittyvirta used sensors, LED lights, and timers to display future water lines: By use of sensors, the installation interacts with the rising tidal changes; activating on high tide....
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Map shows you where a raindrop ends up
River Runner is a fun interactive map by Sam Learner. Click anywhere in the contiguous United States to drop some rain and, based on data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the map shows you where the...
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Map of drying reservoirs in the west
To show water levels in California’s drying reservoirs, The Washington Post used upside down triangles to represent each reservoir. I like the idea to use an encoding that kind of looks like a...
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Shifting currents and melting ice in the Antarctic
Based on data from autonomous sensors floating in the oceans, researchers are able to model the flows and characteristics of ocean currents in more detail than ever before. For The New York Times,...
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Drop rain anywhere in the world and see where it ends up
One of my favorites of the year, Sam Learner’s River Runner shows you a terrain map that lets you place a drop of rain anywhere in the contiguous United States. You’re then taken on a river tour that...
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A visual and audio tour of sound at Nap Nap Swamp
When I think swamp noise, I imagine a blob of sound that’s some mix of water and wildlife, but that’s because I don’t know anything. Mitchell Whitelaw, in collaboration with ecologist Skye Wassens,...
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World water gap
We tend to use more water than is available in the world, which as you can imagine, can be problematic. In a collaborative effort, National Geographic mapped the water gap since 1980: The result is a...
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Declining groundwater
The New York Times analyzed water levels across the country since 1920. In more recent years, the levels aren’t looking great if we want to keep growing crops. An animated map using angled lines shows...
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