For this week’s 1-hour-per-day assignment I felt it important to step away from the computer while experimenting with my idea to engage it in a different way.

Day 1 (Thurs)

Today I went to the Queens museum to see the 1964 Panorama of the City of New York:

…and the 1938-1939 Relief Map of the New York City Water Supply System:

The city’s watersheds are highlighted. Catskill & Delaware watersheds:

Croton watershed:

The plaques along the perimeter of the map added some interesting numbers to the visual:

Day 2 (Friday)

After too much stalling on what to do, I decided to just start doing something and let it develop over time. So I mapped out the Yangtze River watershed in China, one of the more interesting watersheds I’ve looked at this semester. It encompasses about 20% of China, which is a considerable size even on a global scale:

I drew the map and river on paper, then overlaid the watershed area in yellow on transparent paper. At the mouth of the Yangtze River is Shanghai:

Day 3 (Saturday)

Next I drew the smaller rivers / tributaries that make up the entire Yangtze River catchment system:

Along the Yangtze River is the massive Three Gorges Dam, which is the world’s largest power station, producing hydroelectric power. This led me to mapping the locations of all currently operating hydroelectric power stations in this watershed:

Day 4 (Sunday)

On day 4 I finished mapping the hydroelectric power stations:

Day 5 (Monday)

I read about a study that concluded that the benefit for preserving the watershed’s forests helped flow more water through the dams thus producing more electricity was greater than the revenue generated from clearing them for timber production, so I decided next to map the proliferation of forests in the area:

As in most parts of the world, tree loss (orange) far exceeds growth (black).

Day 6 (Tuesday)

After this I thought it would be interesting to map the consumption / demand of the water (darkest: >1000/km sq; lightest: <= 1/km sq):

Day 7 (Wednesday)

TBD