mapstory: an interdisciplinary research platform for the earth sciences

8/12/2019 MapStory: An Interdisciplinary Research Platform for the Earth Sciences

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MAPSTORY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY

RESEARCH PLATFORM FOR

THE EARTH SCIENCES

One can only understand our planets present day and historical

dynamics through the many sciences that help us explore the

fundamental processes that have shaped and reshaped our planet.

These include, but are not limited to, the physical processes that

have driven change on Earth over the past 4.54 Billion years, and

which have brought us the map of the Earth that we all identify

with today. Biopoiesis, or the process by which living organisms

arose from non-living matter, some 3.5 Billion years ago, unleashed

evolutionary biological processes that were necessarily intertwined with

these physical processes, refashioning our planets ecosystems time and time

again. And evolutions processes yielded humans and an Anthropocene era that have,over the millennia, transformed large swaths of the Earths geological, biological and hydrological surface and

subsurface, as well as its atmosphere. Our Earth has continuously changed under these co-evolving natural

and anthropogenic processes, across space and time. Indeed, it is only on a foundation of space and time that

we can truly understand our Earths rich past, complex present and uncertain future. As such, it is imperative

that the Earth sciences nd new and compelling ways to organize, share, and collectively reect upon scientic

observations and perspectives in space and time.

In recent decades, digital scholarly resources for the Earth sciences have often drawn upon the power of

geospatial applications. Some have managed to map Earth science observations and model outputs in

terms of space and time. Many specialized applications have even enabled 4D volumetric mapping (including

subsurface and atmospheric) of change over time - whether observed or modelled. But, little has been done

to enable Earth science scholars to curate collections of resources across space and time, enabling their

reections to be shared in tailored and focused ways. And, no digital scholarly resources have provided a

global platform that allows scholars, students, professionals, citizens, and youth to collaborate in a continuously

peer reviewed open environment over time, therefore enabling an ever-improving picture of Earth history to

emerge.

LOCATING EARTH SCIENCE DISCIPLINES IN

SPACE AND TIME

The Earth sciences have a natural anity with geographic

information, and the representation of change over space and

time. After all, everything that has ever happened on Earth has

happened in space and time. These underlying processes have given

our continents, our coastlines, and our landscapes their very shapes, and

have caused them to change over time. But, too often, Earth science data is

not managed spatio-temporally, making the discovery, exploitation, visualization and

interpretation of Earth science knowledge highly problematic. Even when Earth science data is

... IT IS ONLY ON A

FOUNDATION OF SPACE

AND TIME THAT WE CAN TRULY

UNDERSTAND OUR EARTH'S RICH

PAST, COMPLEX PRESENT AND

UNCERTAIN FUTURE.

SPACE AND TIME

SERVE AS THE ANVIL

ON WHICH A COMMON,

INTERDISCIPLINARY

UNDERSTANDING CAN BE

FORGED.


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managed spatio-temporally, too often information systems built around disciplinary stove-pipes

have made it dicult if not outright impossible to conduct real interdisciplinary Earth science.

Earth science scholars increasingly recognize the payo of conducting empirical and

interdisciplinary research, particularly when trying to develop explanations for how the world is

changing over time - locally, regionally or globally. Yet it remains dicult for knowledge produced

from dierent disciplinary lenses about the same places or times to literally interact and layer in

geographic space, allowing for a comprehensive picture to emerge. Instead, all too often, the

work goes on in its own silos.

In the end, it is advantageous to have knowledge from all Earth science elds of study organized

spatio-temporally - whether geology (e.g., mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry, geomorphology,

paleontology, stratigraphy, structural geology, and sedimentology), physical geography (e.g.,

geomorphology, soil study, hydrology, meteorology, climatology, and biogeography), geophysics

and geodesy, soil science, ecology, hydrology, glaciology, and atmospheric sciences (e.g.,

meteorology, climatology, atmospheric chemistry, and atmospheric physics) - since they all

interact over various spatial and temporal scales. And, it is no less important to our understanding

of the nexus of culture/nature, with natural sciences elds like ecology, geology, hydrology and

climate sciences shaping how we think about critical issues in the humanities - particularly the

social sciences, human geography, history, archeology, anthropology and area studies. Space

and time serve as the anvil on which a common, interdisciplinary understanding can be forged.

BUILDING A PLATFORM FOR SPATIO-TEMPORAL DATA SHARING

AND INTERPRETATION

MapStory was conceived of as a new dimension to the global data commons that lets everyone

organize and share what they know about the world both spatially

and temporally, license free and in perpetuity, so that others can

benet from and improve upon their contributions. Perhaps

more important, it was conceived of as a platform that

enables everyone to compose and share their stories

about topics of personal importance to them, to local,

regional and global audiences. While MapStory enables

individuals to pursue individual excellence in both

data curation and (map) storytelling, it was specically

designed to enable both the crowd-editing and

improvement of spatio-temporal data and a communal

process of MapStorytelling. The Earth sciences oer

vast wells of knowledge that should impact how everyone

understands the world around them. Organizing, sharing, and

reecting upon this knowledge in a way that is accessible to everyone is

a central challenge to the Earth sciences and to society writ large. It is part of MapStorys raison

dtre to bring this about.

Fortunately, we live in a moment when the open data, academic and technological models

have suciently matured to make a common content-channel for interdisciplinary research

rooted in time and place possible. Nonprot projects like Wikipedia demonstrate the viability of

crowdsourcing data from expert and lay audiences alike. Open source mapping software like the

MAPSTORY ... PUTS

EMPIRICAL RESEARCH TO

WORK IN SERVICE OF QUALITATIVE,

REFLECTIVE STORYTELLING, ALLOWING

US TO MOVE EVER CLOSER TOWARDS

AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR

RICH PAST AND COMPLEX

PRESENT


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GeoNode now provide geospatially and temporally-enabled frameworks for adding and managing

complex data. And the moves to open data being pushed by governmental agencies and private

foundations has resulted in a rapidly growing body of Earth science related data for researchers to

draw upon.

Pure empirical research, whatever statistical modeling it employs, can never bring us to the point

of fully understanding a particular phenomenon, place or time. MapStory, in its most ambitious

conceptualization, puts empirical research to work in service of qualitative, reective storytelling,

allowing us to move ever closer towards an understanding of our rich past and complex present.

GOING FORWARD

As mentioned before, MapStory is not the rst or only platform to help scholars from the Earth

sciences think geographically, or to orient their work in space and time. But, though it has a ways

to go, MapStory is the rst and only platform purpose-built to enable their ongoing interaction and

continual debate around spatio-temporal data and stories related to complex, interdisciplinary,

Earth science questions. MapStory is not a technical platform that a given scholar should

deploy and manage for his or her own content. MapStory is not a commercial service that can

be used to visualize ones data, or to tell a story about ones data. MapStory is a global data

commons where ones work in the Earth sciences can be organized and shared, in perpetuity,

for a global community to discover, learn from, and even embellish over time. MapStory is an

Open Educational Resource that any scholar or student can leverage to advance and share their

understanding of the Earth sciences. MapStory is a platform for telling stories, in space and time,

that leverage the data from any scholar, professional or lay person who has generated data of

veriable provenance and value. MapStory is a community of people seeking to better understand

how the world has changed over time.

MapStory expands the role geography and spatial analysis can play in Earth sciences scholarship

by empowering scholars, practitioners and citizens who dont happen to be GIS experts or

software coders with an entry point to project their knowledge and stories about the world into

a common spatial and temporal framework. Doing so will dramatically expand the power of

work done by Earth science scholars with deep qualitative knowledge of issues and places, and

accelerate knowledge creation by enabling future scholars to critique and build upon the work of

others.

mapstory: an interdisciplinary research platform for the earth sciences

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