Computing the DeepMap: a tool for understanding social-ecological interactions in

a metropolitan setting

Liam HeneghanEnvironmental Science

Program

Computational Thinking• Having to solve a particular problem

– How difficult is it to solve? – What’s the best way to solve it?

• CT is reformulating a seemingly difficult problem into one we know how to solve, perhaps by reduction, embedding, transformation, or simulation.

• CT is using abstraction and decomposition when attacking a large complex task or designing a large complex system. It is separation of concerns. It is choosing an appropriate representation for a problem or modeling the relevant aspects of a problem to make it tractable.

(From Wing 2006)

William Least Heat Moon(1940- )

An amplification of data…“Early, I aimed to write about the most spare landscape, seemingly poor for a reported to poke into, one appearing thin and almost minimal in history and texture, a stark region recent American life has mostly gone past, a still point, a fastness an ascent seeking a penitential corner might discover. Chase County fit

PrairyErth [a Deep Map] 1991

Of Exactitude in Science...In that Empire, the craft of Cartography attained such Perfection that the Map of a Single province covered the space of an entire City, and the Map of the Empire itself an entire Province. In the course of Time, these Extensive maps were found somehow wanting, and so the College of Cartographers evolved a Map of the Empire that was of the same Scale as the Empire and that coincided with it point for point. From Travels of Praiseworthy Men (1658) by J. A. Suarez Miranda

Deep Mapping"Reflecting eighteenth century antiquarian approaches to place, which included history, folklore, natural history and hearsay, the deep map attempts to record and represent the grain and patina of place through juxtapositions and interpenetrations of the historical and the contemporary, the political and the poetic, the discursive and the sensual; the conflation of oral testimony, anthology, memoir, biography, natural history and everything you might ever want to say about a place …"Mike Pearson and Michael Shanks, Theatre/Archaeology (Routledge 2001) page 64-65works[http://documents.stanford.edu/MichaelShanks/51]

Tim Robinson (1935 - )

“A suggestion from the post mistress in the western village of Cill Mhuirbhigh gave me the form of this contribution: since I seemed to have a hand for drawing, an ear for placenames and the legs for boreens, why should I not make a maps of the islands, for which endless summersful of visitors would thank and pay me”Stones of Aran: Pilgramage 1986

Maps and Fractals

http://www.miqel.com/fractals_math_patterns/visual-math-mandelbrot-magic.html

Stone of Aran: Pilgrimage

“Computational thinking will have become ingrained in everyone’s lives when ….trees are drawn upside down.” Wing 2006

http://people.cis.ksu.edu/~schmidt/300s05/Lectures/Lecture0.html

http://www.pseudology.org/cad_obzor/AutoCAD6_eng.htm

“The Problem”: Urban Forest Projects: Canopy Cover

Initiatives: Planting Prioritization Project Chicago Trees Initiative

Regulation / Ordinances: Landscape Ordinance Energy Efficient Building Code Reflective Roofing Code Rooftop Garden Code Municipal Code

Education: Chicago Trees Initiative American Express Tree Planting Gateway Green Community Tree Program Openlands TreeKeepers

The ProblemAmbitious tree planting programs have been proposed and instituted across the globe, from the celebrated Green Belt movement established by Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, which since 1977 has planted 30 million trees in Kenya, to MillionTreesNYC, part of that city’s recent environmental planning initiatives with the goal of planting and caring for one million new trees across New York City's five boroughs over the next decade. 

These plans are matched in Chicago with its urban forest of 750,000 park and street trees, and the city’s Urban Tree Initiative of doubling the tree canopy cover by 2040. Currently, the Chicago Park District alone plants an additional 2,000 trees annually across 570 parks as part of its district-wide capital tree planting program. 

  

A DeepMap of Lincoln Park: A Biophysical Map

We are currently creating a map of the tree distribution, diversity and health in Lincoln Park, Chicago. When completed [in summer 2010] we will have data on every tree in the park.

Since Spring 2009 we have mapped from Hollywood to Lawrence Avenue.

• Mapping the social component of Lincoln park:–What are the most used parts of the

park?– How does the park figure in folklore,

memory, history, poetry–What is the best way of capturing this

information etc…..

Social Significance of Lincoln Park: A DeepMap

Denning’s “The Great Principlesof Computing”

• Computation is the execution of an algorithm, a process that starts from an initial state containing the algorithm and input data, and goes through a sequence of intermediate states until a final, goal state is reached.

• Communication is the transmission of information from one process or object to another.

• Coordination is control (through communication, for example) of the timing of computation at participating processes in order to achieve a certain goal.

• Recollection is the encoding and organization of data in ways to make it efficient to search and perform other operations.

• Automation is the mapping of computation to physical systems that perform them.

• Evaluation is the statistical, numerical, or experimental analysis of data.

• Design is the organization (using abstraction, modularization, aggregation, decomposition) of a system, process, object, etc.From: Computational Thinking Across the Curriculum: A Conceptual Framework by

Ljubomir Perkovi´c and Amber Settle College of Computing and Digital Media DePaul University December 18, 2009; http://compthink.cs.depaul.edu/FinalFramework.pdf

Breaking down the task• Identifying Trees• Measuring Tree Size• Spatial locations of

Trees• Tree health assessment

• OUTPUT• Snapshot of Diversity• Comparison of Parks

and Semi-Natural Areas

• Evaluating use of park– Frequency of visits– Types of activity

• Evaluating knowledge of park

• Memories/affiliation with park.

• Google Earth Map summarizing the biophysical data and social information.

Tree Identifications

Liam Heneghan, DePaul University

White AshFraxinus americanaLike the other ashes, white ash has spear-tip, lightly serrated leaflets, in opposite sets of 5-13 leaflets per leaf, with odd one at the tip. The unique trait of white ash is the whitish underside of the leaves. The tree has the characteristic diamond-forming corduroy-like bark on older trees, and seeds enclosed in papery paddle-shaped keys that hang down in bunches. It is common in woodlands as well as residential streets and parks, and the leaves turn yellow to purple in the fall. The dioecious flowers are wind-pollinated and inconspicuous. White ash is common throughout the Eastern-central United States to the East Coast.

Ash trees have long been used for baseball bats and many other uses because of its strong wood. Ash trees also are known to have healing properties for skin ailments.Julie Allen

Liam Heneghan, DePaul University

Linden/BasswoodTilia is the scientific name for the tree more commonly known to North Americans as the Linden or the Basswood tree. In addition to NE North America, the Tilia tree is found in temperate parts of Asia and Europe.

The Tilia is a deciduous tree (one that sheds its leaves annually) that averages in height from 70 to 100 feet tall. The leaves of the tree are asymmetrical, smooth, heart-shaped, and usually from two to eight inches across. The veins on the leaves are well defined, and the edges have small teeth.

Along with these leaves, the tree produces a small fruit, resembling a pea, which has its own “leaf” called a bract. The bract is ribbon-like and yellowish. The tree also flowers which produces a sweet honey that is very valuable for bee-keepers. The flowers from the tree are often used in herbal tea. The flowers can also be used medically to cure ailments such as: coughs, colds, headaches, and can be used as a diuretic.

The wood of the Tilia tree is soft and easily worked which makes it ideal for wooden modeling and for making guitars.

Alex Ulp

Methods• Each tree is identified to

species.• A Geographical

Positioning System [GPS] point of each tree encountered is taken with a handheld unit.

• A Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) [1.37 m from the ground] is taken.

• The tree ID, GPS points, and DBH are entered into Google Earth [this will be subsequently transferred to a Geographical Information System for more extensive analysis.]

• Mapping the social component of Lincoln park:–What are the most used parts of the

park?– How does the park figure in folklore,

memory, history, poetry–What is the best way of capturing this

information etc…..

Social Significance of Lincoln Park: A DeepMap

Social Component• Mapping the social

component of Lincoln park:– What are the most

used parts of the park?

– How does the park figure in folklore, memory, history, poetry

– What is the best way of capturing this information etc…..?

Results to Date I

DeepMap Stories