Animaps IV: Of Time and Place

Abstract

Animated maps offer exciting possibilities for tracking spatial change over time. In earlier work in this journal (see links above), animated maps (or "animaps") were used to track changes, across the globe, in bee mite population over time. They were also used as analytic tools that could employ surrogate variables to mimic change over time in variables that were difficult to learn about. The introduction of time, through animation, into the mapping process allows the user to participate "with" the map in more than a purely passive manner; two examples are offered below that allow the reader some degree of interaction with the process. In the first, the reader experiences emotional involvement only and a downloadable interaction, only; in the second the reader can actually drag elements of the map around on the screen, as an instantaneous interaction achieved directly through the browser.