California Water Atlas workshop time
Tonight we tried a little something new – a participatory workshop by our friends working on the New California Water Atlas. The organizers, Chacha Sikes and Laci Videmsky, brought many maps of water in the state – including well location and groundwater – for the group to discuss and ask questions about.
After learning more about the project and the complexity of mapping water (coastlines shift, some water is underground, lots of it isn’t reported correctly if at all), we were asked to think of questions that we had about our water in California. Where is fracking happening? and Where is groundwater? were two of many questions that were asked during the course of the evening. All were documented on Post-It notes. Chach is the queen of the Post-its! (and also Sharpies).
Now documented, these questions have become part of Chach and Laci’s ongoing conversation with the public and policymakers, and they will inform the design in some way. Can’t wait to see what they make!
Another activity that happened during this MapTime was reviewing an in-progress project by Ryan Orban and Jonathan Dinu. In their map (which I need a link to I realize…hmmm….) is all about mapping health department scores across San Francisco. Not only was it great to see their work (although kind of mortifying to realize that a score of 92 is the mean and that much of Chinatown is well below it) I also realized that feedback is an important part of the learning process, and therefore important to Maptime. More of that in the months to come!