GRID-Arendal story map awards

Björn Alfthan

By GRID-Arendal

July 18^th, 2018

GRID-Arendal has been working with maps for almost 30 years, and we are proud to say that many of our maps and graphics are recognized the world over.

We still use print-format maps and graphics for many of our reports. But as time has moved on and the world has become digital, the use of maps has moved online and new ways of representing data have become available to us.

One of these ways is through ESRI’s story map platform, which allows maps, photos, text and multimedia content to be combined into an interactive, flowing story.

We are pleased that two of our most recent story maps won awards in the 2018 ESRI Storytelling with Maps Contest. The maps were judged based on their ability to make subject matter interesting, understandable and engaging, as well as for overall design, impact and creativity.

Sanitation and waste water, like all GRID-Arendal story maps, began with a sketch by Levi Westerveld.

A GRID-Arendal story map -- Sanitation and Wastewater in Africa -- won first place in the Infrastructure, Planning and Government category.

We also won second place in the Conservation, Environment and Sustainability category for Protecting Marine Mammals in Crowded Waters. For this one we collaborated with colleagues from the University of Brittany to demonstrate the work done through the Horizon 2020 Ecopotential project.

Map showing part of the Mediterranean Sea around Corsica in Protecting Marine Mammals in Crowded Waters story map.

“Creating story maps with our partners and colleagues at GRID-Arendal is always an exciting process,” GRID-Arendal’s Levi Westerveld says, explaining each product starts with a pen.

“In the very first step of the process we sketch out a story board. In this way, for each story map we try to come up with new ways to show content.”

GRID-Arendal has produced a series with 12 story maps so far. They are designed to raise awareness on issues ranging from the spread of invasive marine species (“The Spread of Sargassum Seaweed”) to examining the global movement of plastics (“The Trade in Plastics”).