Living Maps: From Cosmos to Community
What makes our communities livable and resilient? Living Maps: From Cosmos to Community explores the conditions that support life, from the outer edges of the solar system to their own communities in the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina. Understanding these conditions can inform strategies for addressing interconnected challenges facing the region.
This event originally took place at the Land of Sky Regional Council, in collaboration with UNC Asheville’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center (Asheville, NC) on September 26, 2013. The production highlights concepts underlying the Livable Communities Initiative, a 3-year project funded by the HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities. Three screenings and dialogues were hosted with audiences who represent an array of regional governmental, planning, NGO and academic institutions tasked to develop regional and local strategies for sustainable development, economic prosperity, and quality growth.
The “Living Maps” program explored three questions with audiences:
- How can we make transportation between where people live and work more sustainable and affordable?
- How do we balance land use demands among agriculture, development, recreation and environment?
- What global and regional issues will affect our communities over the next 20 years?
The movie above showcases the first section of Living Maps, and the rest can be viewed online.
Program kit
Script and storyboard, installer, and the data sources used.
Script & Storyboard
- Read the storyboard (web page)
- Open the script and storyboard (Google Doc)
Installer
Uniview Installer Files
- wvn09_journey_FINAL.msi (27.4MB)
- Requires Uniview 1.5
Data Sources
- Digital Universe Atlas
- Blue Marble Next Generation (Next Generation +Topography and Bathymetry)
- Blue Marble Next Generation (BATHYMETRY (GEBCO))
- Cascadia Research Collective
- eBird
- The Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- Landscape Conservation Cooperative outlines
- NASA Earth Observations
- National Snow & Ice Data Center
- NOAA Climate.gov
- NOAA National Climatic Data Center
Videos and visualizations related to the program.
Living Maps: The Conditions for Life
Living Maps: Southern Appalachia
Living Maps: Livable Communities
Reading and reference links for going further.
Resilience
- Stockholm Environment Institute’s The best explanation of resilience video
- On Resilience from SEED magazine
- What is resilience? from the Stockholm Resilience Center
- Resilience is the capacity of a system to continually change and adapt yet remain within critical thresholds.
- Principles of a Resilient World from Ecotrust
- Resilience Regions from from Ecotrust
- Resilience Dictionary Resilient Community Wiki from the Stockholm Resilience Center
- Community and Regional Resilience Institute
- Community Resilience and Adaptation
- A Resilience Community from YES! magazine
- Re-Thinking Progress: The Circular Economy video from the Ellen Macarthur Foundation
- Community Resilience Toolkit Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange from Bay Localize
- Pay Now, Pay Later: North Carolina (the projected economic costs of climate change)
- The Business of Climate Change: Opportunities in Adaptation and Resilience at the American Security Project
- Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool from the Environmental Protection Agency
Whole Systems Design
- Introduction to Whole Systems Thinking online presentation from Transition US
- Systems Thinking from the Center for Ecoliteracy
- Whole Systems Design Leadership and Systems from the Rocky Mountain Institute
- What is Design Thinking, Really?
Planetary Boundaries
- Big Question: Is Earth Past the Tipping Point? (video from the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment)
- From ocean to ozone: Earth’s nine life-support systems from New Scientist magazine
- How Defining Planetary Boundaries Can Transform Our Approach to Growth from the Solutions Journal
To find out more or become involved with community issues in western North Carolina, contact UNCA’s National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center.
The people and organizations behind the program.
Partners
- Renaissance Computing Institute – Asheville
- UNC Asheville National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center
Funders
Presenters
- Jim Fox (NEMAC)
- David McConville (The Elumenati)
Scriptwriters
- Jim Fox (NEMAC)
- Ned Gardiner (NOAA)
- David McConville (The Elumenati)
- Susan Weatherford (NEMAC)
GIS & Visualizations
- Jim Fox (NEMAC)
- Ned Gardiner
- Jeff Hicks (NEMAC)
- Matt Hutchins (NEMAC)
- Lindsay Irving (CAS)
- David McConville (The Elumenati)
Historic Imagery & Data
- Jim Fox (NEMAC)
- UNC Asheville Photo Collections
Production Coordination
- Lindsay Irving (CAS)
Event Coordination & Production
- Nina Flagler Hall (NEMAC)
- Clayton Hooker (The Elumenati)
- Susan Weatherford (NEMAC)
Creative Director
- David McConville (The Elumenati)
Technical Support
- Ned Gardiner (NOAA)
- Lindsay Irving (CAS)
- Greg Mancari (DMNS)
- David McConville (The Elumenati)
- Ka Chun Yu (DMNS)
Participants
- Ashevillage
- Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College
- BR RN Patient Advocates
- Barons Advanced Meteorological Services
- Black Box Studio
- Buncombe County government
- Care Share Health
- Carolina Mtn. Land Conservancy
- Colburn Earth Science Museum
- Communicatia
- Community Foundation of WNC
- The Elumenati
- FAIA
- FMD Architects
- The GIS Institute
- Haywood County EDC
- Historic Resources Commission
- Land Design
- Land-of-Sky Regional Council
- Madison County
- Mountain Valleys RC&D
- NC Department of Commerce
- NC Department of Natural Resources
- NC Division of Community Planning
- Pisgah Legal Services
- Smith Mill Creek
- Square Peg, Inc.
- SunDance Power
- True Nature Camp
- University of Georgia’s Odom School of Ecology
- UNC Asheville National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center
- Warren Wilson College
- WWC Environmental Leadership Center
- WaysSouth
- WNC Green Building Consortium
Sustainable Community Initiative / GroWNC
The Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant Program, branded as GroWNC, supports metropolitan and multijurisdictional planning efforts that integrate housing, land use, economic and workforce development, transportation, and infrastructure investments in a manner that empowers jurisdictions to consider the interdependent challenges of:
- economic competitiveness and revitalization;
- social equity, inclusion, and access to opportunity;
- energy use and climate change; and public health and environmental impact.
- Partnership for Sustainable Communtiies at sustainablecommunities.gov
- Partnership for Sustainable Communities at the White House
- HUD-DOT-EPA Partnership for Sustainable Communities Sustainable Communities Grants Map at the Environmental Protection Agency
- Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grants at Housing and Urban Development
Livable Communities Initiative
Livable Communities Initiative Partners
- Renaissance Computing Institute
- National Environmental Modeling and Analysis Center
- Land of Sky Regional Council
- LandDesign
ONE THOUGHT ON “LIVING MAPS: FROM COSMOS TO COMMUNITY”
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