ADA Proposal
Analysis of Rise in Global Temperatures and its Causes Through Interactive Visualizations
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Project Overview
Climate change is a material issue that is recognized by all countries and is not only a concern for the future but also for the present. Global citizens of all ages and economic backgrounds are faced with unwanted effects climate change on a daily basis. As the buzz around global warming and climate change continues to increase, the universal acceptance and recognition of this contemporary issue has incited many relevant visualisations. However, existing visualisations do not attempt to showcase the inter-dependencies between the causes of climate change and the ultimate impact on our environment. Through this project, we will be analysing these inter-dependencies and creating a visualisation dashboard for the same.
Project Scope
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Causes of Global Warming
- Fossil Fuel Consumption
- Deforestation |
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Greenhouse Gases
- Carbon Emissions
- Methane Emissions |
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Effects of Global Warming
- Temperature Changes
- Rainfall Pattern Changes - Sea level Rises |
Critique of Relevant Prior Work
While most contemporary visualisations focus on individual environmental hazards such as increased rates of carbon emissions or the rapid rise in temperature, our project attempts to connect the dots to better understand the cause-and-effect nature of global warming. For example, a visualisation by the Guardian effectively shows the estimated rate of carbon emissions for each country based on their current rate of emissions.
As carbon emissions are the direct cause of increasing temperatures, some visualisations focus purely on the rise in global temperature and the yearly trends of increase in temperature from 1850-2016.
Another example of a country-specific visualisation by Carbon Footprints of Nations attempts to highlight the environmental footprints of nations for a specific time-period. Such geolocation analysis is important to highlight the regions that are major contributors of global warming.
Description of Dataset
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Our analysis will focus on 1990 – 2012 as these are the common years available across all chosen datasets.
Visualisation Plan
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Expected Technical Challenges
Data Preparation
- Agglomeration of country-specific and yearly trends data for each of the aforementioned proponents and consequences of global warming;
- Our approach: Based on intensive research for appropriate data sources, we have collected yearly data on each subject based on different geolocations (countries or other well-defined regional sections).
Data Consolidation
- Merging all recorded data sources into one super table which will serve as an analytical sandbox for creating analysis models and visualisations;
- Our approach: Before data consolidation, we will prepare a sample table with required fields that will be needed for our analytical models and corresponding visualisations. This table will serve as our blueprint to create the consolidated data table.
Interactive visualisations
- Creating interactive storyboards that provide a multi-factor overview of the cause-and-effect of global warming and also allow the targeted audience to filter and zoom on-demand;
- Our approach:Creating a wireframe/storyboard of our ideal dashboard which will be used as a blueprint to prepare the final output.
Project Execution Plan
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References
- Fossil fuel consumption – World Bank
- Deforestation – World Bank (1)
- Deforestation – World Bank (2)
- Carbon Emissions – World Bank
- Methane Emissions – World Bank
- Temperature Changes – Kaggle
- Rainfall Pattern Changes – World Bank
- Sea Level Rise - Centre for Operational Oceonographic Products and Services
