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• 1 2020-07-21T13:08:39-07:00 Spatiotemporal Data Visualizations 21 Spatiotemporal visualizations are complex, multi-layered displays with data indicating growth, movement, or other sorts of changes over time. They help us answer where and when questions simultaneously. They usually come in the form of maps, but there are spatiotemporal data visualizations that do not have a traditional map base. plain 2020-10-18T14:28:38-07:00 Spatiotemporal visualizations are complex, multi-layered displays with data indicating growth, movement, or other sorts of changes over time. They help us answer where and when questions simultaneously. They usually come in the form of maps, but there are spatiotemporal data visualizations that do not have a traditional map base. Spatiotemporal visualizations are prevalent throughout social studies disciplines but they are particularly prevalent in world history, accounting for about 42% of all visualizations in textbooks.[7] This is not surprising if one considers how important it is in world history to be able to imagine change or developments over large swaths of both space and time. All spatiotemporal data visualizations show some sort of change over time and space but it is probably useful to break their potential functions down even further.
  
  Expansion or Contraction over Time and Space
  Reading about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire or the rapid expansion of Islam probably holds little meaning for people if they can't imagine the space over which the empire ruled, or the speed with which the religion spread. Spatiotemporal visualizations can help people understand concepts of expansion or growth and contraction or decline more fully. They show changing spatial boundaries, as well as how those spatial boundaries changed with time. Static spatiotemporal visualizations that serve this purpose, such as the one on the left, often depict changes over space and time with different colors or patterns. Animated spatiotemporal visualizations like the one on the right typically place a timeline at the bottom of the visualization, with changes in space corresponding to the changing points on the timeline.
  
  Movement over Time and Space
  Some spatiotemporal maps function to reveal how people, objects, or ideas moving over space and time. These are different than spatial visualizations that show movement alone in that they include time markers to communicate the timeframe over which the people, objects, or ideas moved. Google Earth does this with several Voyager Projects, such as the one on Global Explorers, by using story cards in chronological order to narrate spatial movement. One of the most famous spatiotemporal data visualizations of all time is one that Charles Joseph Minard created to tell the story of Napoleon's march to Moscow in 1812. It is shown below in both its original French on the upper left and in English translation on the right. The visualizations shows movement over space using direction and cities and rivers to indicate relative location, and shows movement over time with dates when the troops arrived at those points. It also shows temperature, and the number of surviving troops during advance and retreat. 
  
  Progress or Patterns of Change over Time and Space
  Some spatiotemporal visualizations show the adoption of ideas, the passage of laws, or other historical developments over time and space. These are thematic maps with dates overlaid to provide a kind of historical narrative. The map to the left, providing dates for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution is one example of such a visualization.