"Coastal Dimensions": Exploring Bay Area Sea Level Rise and Wetland Habitat Change Through Time (working title)
"Visualizing the Bay" exhibit at the Exploratorium's Bay Observatory Gallery. Interactive visualizations are projected onto the 3D relief table.
Changing mediums, expanding audiences
The challenge I am facing going from a 3D relief table exhibit in the Exploratorium's Bay Observatory for public audiences to a digital platform that can engage a general audience AND highlight regional scientists' work in a unique way.
The goal this week is to identify the MVP for the "MVP" (Most Valuable Players) of my story.
The Sea
The Wetlands
The Message
The dynamic relationship between the sea and the land have shaped the Bay Area for millennia. Let's explore these patterns in the context of future sea level rise and one adaptation strategy that may be our ticket to resilience.
Installation Sketch
2 Videos (or Projections) featuring post-glacial sea level rise and future sea level rise projections.
1 Interactive featuring image comparisons ("crossfade") of wetland habitat extent; past, present, future.
The visitor can select via buttons what time period they want to see (Past - Present) or (Present - Future) and can compare wetland habitat extent and composition by swiping across a soft potentiometer ribbon.
Test Website; a platform to prototype the components and interactivity.
Wetland Interactive Goals
Illustrate how wetlands have expanded with rising seas in the past and are specially adapted to fluctuations of the sea.
Human activity on the shoreline have converted wetlands into working landscapes (for humans) and have impacted the services they provide.
Wetland restoration activities today restore essential ecosystem services and provide flood control in the face of rising tides and extreme weather now and into the future.
Feedback
Sea Level Rise Videos: Need more visual consistency between deep past and near future.
Wetlands Interactive: Need to simplify message and symbology. Interpretive dialogue box?
Removing levees in the South Bay Salt Ponds project. Restoration sites represent the connection between what communities are doing TODAY to address flooding, extreme weather, and habitat loss associated with sea level rise. It is a nuanced solution that, if combined with sustainable development, supports the dynamic inter-relationship between the sea and the land that has shaped the Bay for millennia.