Part 1: Observations
Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge is fascinating, both for its natural beauty and its amazing history of reclamation and renewal. Founded in 1974 to reclaim Bay Area wetlands from industrialization, this was the first urban National Wildlife Refuge. Its 30,000 acres are now home to more than 280 species of birds, as well as mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, invertebrates, and–of course–human visitors.
My stretch of the refuge is nestled alongside a major highway, so there’s always a hum of traffic in the distance, blending with the more immediate sounds of shoes crunching on gravel, birds chirping, and wind rustling through the leaves. Airplanes landing at SFO cross overhead every 5-10 minutes, but the wildlife and visitors don’t seem to mind. You get the sense that everyone is just glad to be there, in a rescued space whose history was not always certain.
Corridors & Boundaries
Highways and roads serve as boundaries around the refuge on three sides, with the bay along the fourth side. Several types of corridors traverse this space, including footpaths, bridges, waterways, and roads. There are also some informal corridors, where shortcuts have been created between footpaths.
Transformations
The refuge is full of evidence of transformations, from rusting industrial equipment long abandoned and empty hunting shacks, to visible efforts at regrowth and reintroduction of native species. In one of the photos above, you can see the use of bamboo supports to encourage plant regrowth.
Wild Space
Although the reclamation of this space was relatively recent and it is still undergoing regrowth and transformation, it is already full of wild spaces, large and small. Footpaths meander around these spaces, with a lot of care given to leave the ecosystem intact with enough open space for new plant growth and animal habitats. In just one visit, I saw several enormous flocks of birds overhead, so large that you could hear the whoosh of their wings as they flew by, changing directions with the wind. Additional flocks were hanging out on the bay.
I also saw smaller birds perched in bushes chattering to each other, and a few rustling around while they foraged along the forest floor. Squirrels, lizards, insects, herons, and egrets all crossed my path. Toward the hills, there are large, established trees as well as smaller, recently planted ones. Closer to the bay, the marshland is covered with short, hardy vegetation– some brown from the sun and some green with new growth. Even though this is a popular park, it is possible to follow a path in one direction and be completely alone in nature the entire time, with no other humans in sight.
Water Flow
Because a large portion of the wildlife refuge is wetlands, water flow is a crucial component of the ecosystem. Some areas, like the salt ponds on the upper left, contain relatively still water and are home to thriving bacteria and insect colonies, as well as tadpoles and small fish. Larger waterways have a faster flow and are occasionally traversed by boats, which leave the wake shown above. I also spotted some foam floating on the water but was not able to identify it. It seemed to be produced by a process at the nearby building. I watched it disperse, floating with the current and blowing in the wind, before gradually disintegrating.
Part 2: Force Maps
Part 3: Combined Map
Motion & Stillness
For my combined map, I decided to ditch some of my less compelling forces in order to explore the concept of “motion and stillness” with a little more richness and depth. I chose to indicate motion with a color scale, and I drew my inspiration from the ocean. Just as calm water is dark blue, and rough water is white, my areas of stillness are dark blue and areas of motion are white.
Some types of ongoing motion–like waves, wind, and traffic speeding by–fade into the background of the map, just as they fade into the background when you experience this environment in real life. Other elements of intermittent motion–like flocks of birds, airplanes crossing overhead, and joggers–punctuate the landscape as a reminder that life and movement are all around. Not all life is depicted with motion; floating flocks of birds, wading storks, and sitting people appear in dark blue as they blend into their environment.
If someone handed me this map when I arrived at the site, I would probably use it to locate areas of stillness, where I could sit and watch everything rush by me.
Part 4: Final Map
Final Map:
Nice work Serena! First I want to say that I love how you illustrated the map. Use of different colors’ shades has made the motions look realistic (For example, the ocean). Using contrasts in the scale of the birds conveys movements. Human icons are involved in activities which also suggests movement. Nature, the sea, humans, and birds are indicating life, energy, and growth.
This map is illustrating a rigion. The first thing that attracted my attention was the airplane. I believe that is an excellent illustration of motion. Also, its big scale can be due to the fact that it is close as we are looking at the map from above. Use of contrasts in scale has made this map so dynamic lively.
The map looks so clean and straightforward. Only the essential icons are illustrated to convey the message. Even though there’s not much of the detail, this map evokes feelings and emotions. I feel relaxed when I look at this. It reminds me of nature. I picture beautiful beautiful green land. I hear the sound of the ocean’s waves and bird’s singing. A calm place without any noise or distractions.
Okay, first thought when I saw your map — “Oooooooooo!”
Your map is sooooo beautiful. I love how you combined everything together. It’s totally a work of art.
I really like how you decided to explore motion and stillness and turned something so abstract into something tangible. I think the only thing that was a bit confusing to me at first was how to interpret your blue to white scale in relation to the map. It took me a couple of beats before I realized: the airplane and birds represent rapid movement… while the wading ducks and people sitting on benches represent slower movement. What type of rapid movement is on the corridors? Cars/traffic? People walking?
I really loved how you illustrated the movement of the water and depicted the ripples and waves of water with different gradations along your scale. I think some of my questions above could be solved if you approached some of the items you colorized in your map in a similar manner. For instance, I think completely stationary or unmovable items should be completely dark blue… while things that are in slight motion (birds and people) should be a lighter dark shade of blue. The person jogging should be a very light shade of blue compared to the runner that is in all white.
PS — the “birds” I’m referring to in the third paragraph are ducks and pelicans or flamingos. Obviously keep the flying birds white 🙂
Serena, great awesome OMG on motion / stillness as a force. What an insight and visual representation of it.
The only thing I can imagine is getting more granular about the motion, maybe a sense of speed or volume of the things in motion? You’ve got me thinking about how I would add FLOW into my map as well (motion and volume).
Hi Tara,
Yes, I love the idea of trying to depict flow! I thought about using several shades of blue to indicate variations in speed, but ultimately it felt overwhelming and more difficult to understand at a glance. That’s why I ended up focusing on motion that stands out versus motion that blends in. It’s so hard to walk the line between user-friendly and information overload, isn’t it?
Do you have any ideas for more subtle ways I could depict speed or volume?
Serena,
Your maps are absolutely beautiful. I really like how you interpreted this assignment and the field site that you chose. You captured a sense of movement in your maps — which I haven’t seen before. I love your “Corridors” and “Water Flows” boundaries the best for this very reason.
I love that you captured the flight pattern of birds in the “Corridors” force. However, I don’t know if I totally understand the correlation between corridors and bird flight patterns and the location of birds. How do the corridors effect them? Did you notice the same flight patten of birds when you observed the location over a period of time? Although I like the simplicity of the representation of birds at the moment, I feel like you could explore the flight patterns and locations of birds even more and turn that into a force of its own.
Your “Water Flows” force was very interesting to me. I like how you visually represented the flow of water in such a simplistic way with arrows. Definitely carry this over into the final version!
The patterns and shapes you created in the “Wild Space” force are absolutely beautiful and so unique. My only suggestion is to figure out how a way to balance the pattern with the other forces when you combine the forces together.
The only force I had a hard time seeing was the transformations one. The little black shapes cover only a small percentage of the map. The boundaries map also looks more like what should be your actual base map. I may try combining this with your “Corridors” force.
Overall, amazing job!
Hi Cassandra,
Thanks for the comprehensive and thoughtful feedback!
1. I actually did notice very similar flight paths & patterns for large flocks of birds. Maybe it had to do with air movement or surrounding geography? My bird mapping is a representation of the most common flight path I observed. Of course, movement of birds on the water was different from movement of birds in the air, and individual birds often created their own paths through both. Since so many people had a strong response to this, I plan to expand on it in my final map!
2. I agree with you that the transformation force is a little weaker than the others. This is the one I struggled with the most, as I wasn’t sure how to depict changes over time alongside other forces in the location that aren’t changing, or aren’t changing on the same time scale.
Hi Serena,
You are so creative with your maps. They look amazing. I love how you draw the corridors map and illustrated the wild space. Would you share with me how did you come up with the concept?
Your map totally changed the way I look at maps. I think it can be really fun to look at if they are well depicted.
Hi Annie!
Originally I was going to include wildlife in “wild spaces” but my corridor map seemed really boring and conventional with just trails and roads. But when I started thinking about all the different species that use this space and how their paths intersect, things really clicked for me. (During my observations I noticed lots of movement of both people and animals along these corridors, but wasn’t really conceptualizing those as the same type of path as, say, a highway.)
Hi Serena,
Great job with your forces and your maps! They all look great, I love your use of white for the corridors, it really stands out against the colorful base map you used. And to again reiterate what others are saying, mapping the freeways and whatnot would be the most obvious thing but adding the birds was very cool.
I will say, I was a little confused with the boundaries map, I couldn’t really tell at first if you really added anything to your base map until I realized what the actual base map was. But I really like what you were going for, since you explain the area is primarily wetlands, I interpret the green on the blue as symbolizing that constant change between water and land.
The final three are straight forward, beautiful – good job! Nice arrows to depict the actual flow of water at your site.
Thanks for the feedback! It sounds like I could flesh out the boundaries map a little more so the regions which undergo change are easier to spot.
Serena, your map is so beautiful! The map gives me a lively feeling for nature. I like how you represent the corridors, especially the delightful visual representation of water and air. I also like your way of showing some forces with subtle textures. They’re subtle, but they effectively add the depth of each force. It is a 2 dimensional, stable map, but I can feel lively movement, depth and flows from your choice of forces on the map. I learned many things from your map both visually and informatively. I can’t wait to see your final map with all the forces together!
Youngsun, thank you! I was really going for that feeling of movement, so I’m glad it came through!
Serena,
The corridors for birds and waterfowl are great! Taking the corridors that nature uses seem like a wonderful way to connect the human idea of roads with the environment’s modes of transportation. I also really like the way you used the softer touch for the boundaries that changed.
I wonder if something similar could be done for the transformations. That’s the one of these that seems a bit stark and immobile. It seems odd for it to portray the idea of transformation. Maybe somehow show things in varying states of decay or growth?
Christine,
Yes, I feel the same way about the transformations map. To be honest, the transformations I observed were at a much smaller scale than I could easily portray on the map– with the exception of buildings. Scaling down wouldn’t let me capture all my other forces so I focused just on the buildings . I did observe many areas of decay and growth, but–again–they were pretty small and not visible at this scale.
I’ll play around with it and see what I can do to improve!
One thing that occurred was adding human elements, like walkways for people, or air traffic that flies nearby. Maybe showing more of the surrounding area with this area highlighted. It also seemed like the legends were a big part of the final products. I wonder if you can tell more by using the legend to illustrate “stories” that take place on the map…
Serena, these maps are so beautiful! I love the way you illustrated the forces and brought it all together. Wow! Wish I were more articulate than that, but it’s a starting point. You’ll have to tell me a bit about how this came together in your head. Thanks for sharing!
Tara– Honestly, I’m not sure it *is* all together in my head yet but I’m glad it looks that way! I chose my forces without really thinking about how I could represent them, and I’m still wrestling with how some of them might interrelate in a meaningful way. My forces are a combination of large and small scale, which makes this a little challenging.
Not to mention the fact that the space is intended to benefit people, wildlife, and plants. Some parts are intentionally designed, and some are designed by nature. If you have any ideas about ways to capture additional detail without compromising larger patterns, I’m all ears!
Well, I think it is a great concept to do a charrette around. I’d love to see us doing synchronous design exercises online…