USP 543 (Mini-)Challenge 02 -- Spatiotemporal Data Viz in QGIS2

Joe Broach
updated: 2018-04-19

Intro

GIS data with a time dimension is becoming more common and in more demand, but most GIS courses in planning ignore it. Luckily, it's also getting easier to display a time dimension as we move from static/paper maps to more flexible, web-oriented forms.

This challenge will introduce you to QGIS as you grapple with spatiotemporal data from the Census. The data are simple, which should leave more of your mental resources free to focus on visualization and data manipulation.

Parameters

For full credit, you need to consider at least the following:

• Using at least 3 GIS methods, visualization population patterns in PDX over the past 7 years. Use QGIS and the Cartogram & Time Manager Plugins to create:
  • Choropleth: the most typical way to present temporal data is to symbolize by absolute or rate of change over the entire span and/or to present a progression of single-period maps of the same variable.
  • Cartogram: a cartogram adjusts a choropleth by warping geographies to better reflect relative change in areas of different physical dimensions.
  • Animation: an animation allows a series of choropleth or other maps to overlay and shift across time. It's a natural visualization any time a time attribute exists (and sometimes even when one doesn't).
• Another aspect of spatiotemporal data is the need for normalization. Often, a variable has a trend across an entire study area (e.g. growing population) that masks the relative change between areas. You'll need to address this by normalizing the population counts in some way so that shifts in distribution are emphasized rather than the general trend.

Deliverables

• A portable, zipped project folder with all steps documented and all data needed to view and re-create your QGIS maps.
• In /Products
  • One or more animated GIFs of your final time-series map. Include a README file that explains what each animation shows, including a legend and your Time Manager parameters.
  • PDF versions of your final Choropleth and Cartogram map layouts.

Resources

You can use GifMaker.Me to create nice animations from the Time Manager images stacks. No charge/no registration.

Portfolio Notes

This would make a nice portfolio section. All you need are some ST data of interest. Bike share, transit feeds, even the RLIS archives of land-use or transportation might make good sources.

Hand-in date: by Friday April 27 (mailto: jbroach@pdx.edu)