Comparing US Climates and Populations

SALEHIAN 604.001.502

Climographs & Population Pyramids

Assignment #2 LILIA IMAN SALEHIAN ID: 604-001-502 Shin | Ward, D. Lab 1G

SALEHIAN 604.001.502

Climographs Each of the following climographs charts the average precipitation amounts and temperatures recorded by a particular weather monitoring station from 1981-2010. The map to the right shows the respective locations of these stations (indicated by the station’s assigned number in the graphs below).

See p. 4 for a detailed write up concerning graphing methodology and results.

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SALEHIAN 604.001.502

Population Pyramids

Analysis Climographs

The four climographs spanning pages 2 and 3 of this report depict temperature and precipitation averages recorded over a 30-year pyramid. The regions the four climographs data pertains to roughly correspond to the four corners of the continental US and were chosen with the intent of drawing comparative conclusions about the varying climates of the US’s coastal regions. Given this intent of comparison, the graphs themselves were treated with a consistent scale. The results of this comparative analysis generally conformed to expectations held about the regions’ climate, but were telling nonetheless.

Carlsbad’s climate averages display prototypical Southern Californian paradise, with mild rainfall in the fall and winter and relatively stable temperature year-round. Seattle— while notoriously rainy—similarly displays heavier rainfall during its fall and winter months, with cooler winters creating steeper temperature changes. Unlike the west coast, the east coast and south’s rainfall patterns appear not to conform to seasons. Both New York and Georgia display rainfall year round (with Georgia displaying up to 40mm more). A possible explanation for this phenomenon might be the data’s exclusion of snowfall (a fault explored further in Visualization Drawbacks). In terms of temperature, while varying in terms of extremity, the east coast’s temperature conforms to the pattern typical of the Northern Hemisphere, with hot summer months and typically cooler winters. Overall, one can safely argue that temperature patterns (especially with respect to heat in summer months), grow more extreme as one moves eastward. Rainfall patterns (though resistant to conclusive readings concerning north/south trends within this dataset) can similarly be said to become more consistent year-round as one moves eastward, also.

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Population Pyramids

Unlike climographs that deal with arguably stand-alone readouts concerning temperature and precipitation, the population pyramids on page 4 (depicting Canada and Mexico’s age distribution in 2010) deal with the wildly complex topic that is human population.

Canada’s population pyramid illustrates a relatively stable, albeit slowly shrinking, population.

Just over forty years ago, there was a slight population boom; however, it appears that that generation refrained from imitating its parents in terms of family size (i.e. they seem to have had less children). It will take more recent data to see if the population aged 20-30 in 2010 has since contributed to Canada’s population growth.

Mexico, by contrast, displays an incredibly young population, with an age concentration far less spread out than that of Canada. The implication this triangular population pyramid holds for Mexico as a population is one of rapid growth. With the median age of the population hitting typical parenting age, time will tell if this growth will persist.

Note: Seeing as these visualizations were created to emphasize population age distribution, not comparative population size, the scales on these population pyramids were not made uniform.

Visualization Drawbacks

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While these graphics are useful means of communicating data about the given locales, there are definite issues that arise from using them to draw conclusions about the places and locations described. Firstly, the graphs only represent the two variables of temperature and precipitation—as opposed to the various factors that compose a regions climate. Exploring the Golden Gate Weather database at large, for instance, it was revealed that the monitoring stations have completely separate measures for snowfall, as well as maximum and minimum temperature, evidencing that these graph, as with any visualization, are inarguably simplistic representations of a region’s climate. The same is the case with population pyramids. In reporting only numeric fact, these visualizations exclude any extraneous factors affecting population size—such as disease or, relatedly, the economic state of a nation. As Johanna Drucker writes, “We can take any data set and put it into a pie chart, a continuous graph, a scatter plot, a tree map and so on. The challenge is to understand how the information visualization creates an argument and then make use of the graphical format whose features serve your purpose.” It is impossible to make a visualization that will include every detail on a given subject. That is neither the task nor responsibility of an information graphic; however, recognizing that our climographs and population pyramids are—by means of excluding and simplifying—making very real arguments about the data they use is a skill vital to our task of producing and interpreting visualizations, and one that will ultimately make us better wielders of GIS technologies as well.

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*Population Data collected from United Nations (for full citation, see Works Cited) ** Median ages rounded to the nearest whole (source: CIA, for full citation, see Works Cited)

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The challenge is to understand how the information visualization creates an argument and then make use of the graphical format whose features serve your purpose.

-Johanna Drucker

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Works Cited Central Intelligence Agency. “CIA World Factbook for Canada, 2010.” Find the Data. 8 Oct.

2013. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. < http://cia-world-fact-book.findthedata.org/> Central Intelligence Agency. “CIA World Factbook for Mexico, 2010.” Find the Data. 8 Oct.

2013. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. < http://cia-world-fact-book.findthedata.org/> Drucker, Johanna. “Visualization.” Introduction to Digital Humanities. Sept. 2013. Web. 10

October 2013. < http://dh101.humanities.ucla.edu/> Golden Gate Weather Services. “1981-2010 U.S. Climate Normals.” National Climatic Data Center. 9 Aug. 2011. Web. 8 Oct. 2013. < http://ggweather.com/normals> Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs. “Population Data:

Canada and Mexico, 2010.” United Nations. 2013. Web. 8 Oct. 2013. < http://esa.

un.org/wpp/unpp>