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World

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Narrative Geography

What is that place like? I’ve thought since grad school that Geography, especially in the US, has lost something in its emphasis of the quantitative over narrative. We need more Narrative Geography. The idea in my head for Narrative Geography began when I saw the book “Narrative Economics” but not exactly because of that specific book content. But, it reminded me of a time building Encarta World Atlas where we began to leverage the ideas of Max Egenhofer and David Mark who at one time worked in an area they called “Naive Geography”, based on the ideas of “Naive Physics” (see their article for more details). We used it in the Atlas to better model a subjective hierarchy of place so we could automate labels in the Atlas with a more human prioritization and hierarchy. We called this “Relative Importance” and it went through several iterations and became quite good in my opinion. Ironically it was built with quantitative statistical methods but it allowed us to automate labels at different scales of the map and insure it was cartographically representative, no matter the density or sparseness of other places potentially in view on the screen. In any event, Narrative Geography sits in my head in a very similar position as Naive Geography. It’s both a nascent idea and old common sense. Humans are story tellers, and listeners. There’s something important there that still needs to be fleshed out and if it is, Geography as a whole will be better off, more understood, with richer communication. Story Maps, or as the USGS calls them GeoNarratives, are pretty amazing when well done. That’s a good start. There have been several examples of “scrolly telling” geographical stories in past GeoCraic Issues. One of the best is one Eric shared about Colorado River water usage (linked below). The bottom line is, tell more stories about places.

Neolithic Boats

Rewilding

GeoSoundscapes

Playing thriving reef sounds on underwater speakers ‘could save damaged corals’ I’ve seen this research before in a great series about the Great Barrier Reef. I’m glad to see it back in tne news and I hope the techniques spread widely. It also means we should be thinking geographically about soundscapes just as we do landscapes. Organisms are attuned to soundscapes, particularly marine organisms. So, if we want to bring back the diversity and restore marine, and potentially terrestrial, ecosystems we need to learn a lot more about them. One other thing I learned from the Attenborough series that gave me hope for the future of coral reefs was that the age of the Great Barrier Reef was only about 10,000 years. Since the sea level rise after the last ice age. That such a magnificent living organism formed in such a short time seems very hopeful to me.

Mapping Biodiversity Here’s your chance to play with global biodiversity GIS data.

Economic Geography

Mathew Yglesias has an article on his Substack feed "Slow Boring" this week where he discusses the economics of short term rentals.

US

Zombies of the US Tax Code From Eric (thanks Eric) a NYT story on why we can’t get rid of fossil fuel tax subsides. This is one reason why lots of people are pissed at the US government. This should not be hard and is a no-brainer.

PFAS (aka “forever chemicals”) in your drinking water. Check the map for your location.

Eclipse Tracks

The Long Burn Two runaway fires set by the US Forest service became the largest ever wildfire in New Mexico and the continental US in 2022 The Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire destryed 430 homes. FEMA has been glacial helping victims with the recovery.

Climate Change Impacts Also from Eric (thanks again) a good article on ghost streams, redlining legacy, and unfair flood risk.

PNW

There’s a couple of posts on the Washington Oso slide in the group. With an interesting WA Landslide history and risk interactive map.

Rewilding

Elwha River restoration 10 years on. Interesting that the USGS is calling this a “GeoNarrative” instead of a Story Map. Story Maps are a wonderful tool for this. Charlie is working on some interesting story maps of Ireland. Be sure to share drafts when you can.