Communication and Climate Change: Using Design

The debate on climate change and biodiversity is challenging. However, scientists agree on one point: restoring natural biodiversity is one of our most effective tools in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.
We want to create an interactive experience for Zurich citizens to visualise the impact of biodiversity on climate scenarios and to stimulate behavioural change.

Project description, including goals and benefits
Scientific studies by our team at ETH Zurich have shown the immense power of nature: In the course of restoring ecosystems, over one trillion additional trees could be planted in the world's forests. This could remove around one third of the carbon caused by humans from the atmosphere. We could also show that by 2050 the climate of Zurich will be the same as Milan today, a city 300 km further south that is 2.2°C warmer. This predicted temperature change could lead to a loss of 10% of Switzerland's forest areas.
This research paper "Tree potential paper" alone reached a global audience of over 160 million people. This study also formed the basis for the "Billion Tree Initiative" as well as the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration. On World Environment Day 2021, we launched the interactive Restor platform (restor.eco) to create a network of over 60,000 global environmental restoration projects.
So what is stopping us from making the restoration of the Earth's ecosystems a reality? We need support to inspire and inform people in Zurich and around the world to get involved in restoring ecosystems on a large scale.

Problem
Climate change and biodiversity can be overwhelming - there is a wealth of information and
warnings. Creative people, such as artists and designers, have the opportunity to spread knowledge through creative projects. However, artists lack access to collaboration with scientists. Without dedicated collaboration, scientific data and findings are rarely put into a full context, leading to misinterpretation, misunderstanding and ultimately inaction.

Solution
Together with ZHdK's Department of Interaction Design (ZHdK), we aim to create an "Interactive Mapping Table" that can visualise our biodiversity and climate data to create new understanding of ecosystems around the world and inspire change.
Over the past year, our data scientists* have been working with students from ZHdK to enhance our scientific data by developing appropriate interactions and visualisations, a multi-touch display that allows regular 2D gestures, and several physical tokens for further interaction.
Unlike any other format (e.g. film or VR), the interactive map format allows users to explore the spatial and temporal patterns in the data without being limited to a specific user journey.
But the whole thing is also meant to be fun! Like a game, the idea is to interact with each other. There is no defined start or end point in the user-journey. This makes this table ideal for exhibitions, trade fair stands and schools.
This table will also contain a link to a website where users can access the interactive map from their mobile device.

Lecturer

• Prof. Jürgen Späth

Research Associate

• Paulina Zybinska
  

Teaching Assistance

• Marcial Koch
  

Students / Groups

• Group 1: Johannes Reck, Elena De Carlo, Janosch Tillich, Micaela Brazerol
  
• Group 2: Réjane Schrago, Silvan Weber, Svenja Steurer Jene, Daniel Treystman
  
• Group 3: Eleonora Bonorva, Miguel Seabra, Thore Reigber
• Group 4: Fabrizio Willi, Nadia Westermann, Sandro Beti
• Group 5: Dzhuliia Kolodko, Bin Martig, Guan Arobei, Nicola Bischof

Collaboration Partner

ETH Zürich / Crowther Lab

Tools

• Teleconferencing Zoom
• Online Collaboration Miro

Attendance

Grading

Grades will be based on final presentation, final work and deliverables.

• 20% Presentations
  
• 50% Final work (Concept, GUI, Micro Interactions, Prototype)
  
• 30% Deliverables
  

Deliverables

The deliverables are divided into two parts. The first part is the delivery of the S-H-O-W conference. All deliverables have to be uploaded to the filer until Monday 22.11.2021 at 9am.

• S-H-O-W conference 300 words summary from your assigned speaker assigned at the SHOW conference including headline and some images from the talk.
  

The second part is the delivery of the module-specific deliverables. All deliverables have to be uploaded to the filer until Monday 13.12.2021 at 9 am.

• PDF Documentation (to be stored in a file labelled “Documentation”)
• Mockup & screencast of interaction with the mockup. A short video (~2min) of the project (to be stored in a file labelled “Video”)
• Text file including the project title, a short description, and a project description (in a file to be labeled “Texts”)
• Approx. 10 representative images of the project (to be stored in a file labeled “Images"

Feedback

There will be a overall feedback after the final presentation. Individual feedback is given after the module has been handed in at a certain distance from the module. This date will be announced.

Kick-Off

To do

S-H-O-W Conference

S-H-O-W is a two day single track event which exists of talks, discussions, music and other activities. The entire conference will be in English.

Deliverables on 22.11.21, 09:00

All 5 groups will hand in the Exercise - S-H-O-W Conference.

Mentoring Tuesday

Look at the calendar for your timeslot. If someone is unable to attend a meeting, please swap the timeslots among the class so that there are no gaps.

Expectation:
We expect findings/directions out of the explore week. What topics/direction are you interested in? Furthermore show first ideas out of brainstorming.

Deliverables on 16.11.21, 17:00

Each group post minimum one «How might we question» until 16.11.21, 17:00.

FIY

Datasets Crowther Lab

Input by Paulina

• Data types : CSV and JSON
• Cleaning up data
• How to load and display data in p5 ?
• Data Visualisation libraries
• Using d5 and geotiff

Mentoring Friday

Look at the calendar for your timeslot. If someone is unable to attend a meeting, please swap the timeslots among the class so that there are no gaps.

Expectation:

We expect a comprehension prototype of your idea(s). Explain and visualize your idea or several ideas. Use sketches, paper prototypes, etc. Don't stay at brainstorming boards. Get into the making process and start to visualize.

Input by Paulina

• Introduction to Web API
• REST API
• Working with external API in p5 : IQ Air
• Overview of useful APIs for Data Visualisation

Mentorings on request

Please write until latest Tuesday 23.11.21 until 12:00 lunch an email if you would like to have a mentoring. 

Mentoring Friday

Look at the calendar for your timeslot. If someone is unable to attend a meeting, please swap the timeslots among the class so that there are no gaps.

Expectation:

We expect the incorporation of the critique from the last mentoring. Show us parts of the visualisation on the table, it doesn't has to be interactive in that state. You could also show us stills.

Websites

Articles

Videos 

Podcasts

Datasets

Websites

Books

Papers / Readings

Videos 

Links

Making Changes that Matter – These 16 steps are the most effective way to reduce your carbon pollution and persuade others to do the same.

Act Now! – The UN Campaign for Individual Action

Links Databases

statista – ZHdK Campus Lizenz

Energy-related CO2 emissions per capita worldwide – statista

Distribution of energy-related CO2 emissions worldwide by sector – statista

World population – data.worldbank.org

CO2 Emissions – climatewatchdata.org

CO2 emissions by selected countries worldwide – Carbon Interface

Biodiversity Hotspots – resourcewatch.org

World Air Quality – IQ>Air

World Air Quality – getambee

Pollen information including species, plants and indices for a specific location – Breezometer

Access to high-quality weather, climate and environmental data – Planet OS

Data Visualisation 2020

Data Visualisation 2019

IAD Past

General Touchtable Projects

Design Guidelines

• Design Guidelines Google
  
• Design Guidelines IBM
  
• Design Guidelines Apple
  

Basics

Three Design Phases