This is my short thesis presentation (in Italian) given last Friday (16th Jan).
Dropple [.PDF | 3 MB]
A world of information about water 3 January 2009
A lot of informations, solutions and tips about the future of water:
IBM Advanced Water Management: from availability and quality to distribution and consumption.
-
RBC Blue Water Project: a wide-ranging, multi-year program to help foster a culture of water stewardship, so that people have clean fresh water today and tomorrow.
-
Vital Water Graphics: focuses on the critical issues vital to the quality of life on earth – water quantity, quality and availability.
-
Blue Planet Run [.PDF] is a book that provides an extraordinary look at the water problems facing humanity and some of the hopeful solutions being pursued by individuals and organizations around the world.
Water: Fun for Kids 29 December 2008
“There are a number of ways to save water, and they all start with you!”
Why not teach kids that water is important and eduacate them to use it with intelligence, perhaps through games?
-
First step 3 December 2008
InsigniaMe is a web-based software which:
• shows world statistics (about social, energetic and environmental issues, in particular about water consumption and waste) in a thought-provoking manner (through InfoVis) to help people to better understand them;
• at the same time tries to raise awareness on people providing them a framework for monitoring and analyzing their life styles, and their impact on society on a simple way.
-
The service/tool is divided into four parts:
information area: shows interactive visualizations of the global (and national) statistics about water consumption.
-
test area: when an user enter for the first time the system ask him/her some simple questions about his/her life style; the software gathers data from the answers and from them it gives a qualitative representation of the information.
To help user to better understand the impact of his/her behavior on the planet and on society, the application could show the effects of his/her choices on large-scale. At the end of the test phase, the system could provide suggestions and tips to induce the user to improve his/her habits.
-
user area: from the second use, users can login on the system and try develop their own stories (where and how they live…) and try to find out their precise ecological footprint on the world, starting from an average position and refining it time after time they answer the question of the system.
-
database area: after the first login, the tool take tracks (from the answers) of the user consumptions and expenses on day/week/month basis. In this way users can see if they improve or not, compare their result with friends, and perhaps receive a gift if they take suggestions given.
—
This is my ‘firstest’ (hand-made) rough version of the graphic interface of information area of InsigniaMe system.
Village of 100 people 22 November 2008
A gigantic isometric infographic, based on the concept of summarizing world statistics as a village of 100 people. As a result, all the objects and characteristics within it become a percentage: 6 cars, 24 televisions, 9 English speaking people, 10 homosexuals, and so on. The village is divided into 5 navigable zones: Economy, Life, Food, Danger and a World map.
However, somewhere the concept became a bit lost, as I suppose the 300 million bottles of wine and 2500 million cups of coffee are not destined to be consumed by a meager 100 people?
-
Consumer Consequences is an interactive game designed to illustrate the impact of our lifestyles on the Earth and which let the user explores whether the modern American lifestyle is sustainable in the long run.
-
Another little quiz game on statistict about water consumption here.
Cut Home Power 17 November 2008
The millions buildings in the U.S. consume more energy than any other sector of economy, including transportation and industry. Here’s software and hardware to help consumers and businesses cut down on power consumption. The more building owners know about the power they use, the easier it is to cut water, energy waste and carbon-emissions — a case of knowledge equals less power (used).
-
Building Dashboard is a web-based software and sensor service that monitors the real-time use of electricity, natural gas and water and through a dashboard it display the amount of money both spent and saved.
-
Greenbox is a software to measure a home’s energy consumption and create an interactive system to help homeowners cut down on energy use.
AgileWaves is an energy dashboard for green homes, which can monitor not only electricity and gas, but also eco-home add-ons like a living roof, a geothermal well, or an efficient sprinkler system.
-
Wattson (hw) tracks your energy use and shows off your power consumption in the form of either how much you’re spending, or how many watts are being used. Holmes (sw) that turns your energy data into nifty easy-to-read charts and graphs.
Carbon Footprint 17 November 2008
Carbonica help you make a difference and combat climate change.
Most human activity causes CO2 emissions, contributing to global warming. Carbonica’s goal is to help you, your family and your business reduce your carbon footprint.
They believe that tree planting is the only efficient way to do this. Trees recapture your carbon emissions while they grow and they can cancel your carbon footprint completely. In addition, trees provide habitats for wildlife, support communities, cool the air and provide us with invaluable oxygen.
-
Another project related to carbon footprint is Carbon Diem: London-based start-up company has developed software for mobile phones that uses global positioning satellites to work out automatically whether you are walking, driving or flying and then calculate your impact on the environment.
-
The Ecological Footprint Quiz estimates the area of land and ocean required to support your consumption of food, goods, services, housing, and energy and assimilate your wastes. Your footprint is broken down into four consumption categories: carbon (home energy use and transportation), food, housing, and goods and services.
Water footprint 15 November 2008
The H2O Conserve Water Calculator is an interactive tool designed to help you figure out how much water you use, how you use it and how you can use less.
The Calculator gives you an estimate of the total amount of water you use, what is called your water footprint. The Calculator takes into account not only the water used in your home, but also the water used to produce the food you eat and the products you buy. Your water footprint includes other factors such as water utilized to cool power plants that provide your electricity, and water saved when you recycle. You may not drink, feel or see this water, but it makes up the great majority of your water footprint.
-
Waterfootprint.org is a great site where you could learn a lot about waterfootprint and virtual water.
Water Waste 13 November 2008
Virtual Water is a detailed infographic poster that shows the water footprint of nations (including the im/export of virtual water) & the virtual water content of selected foods & commodities. The “water footprint” of a person, company or nation is defined as the total volume of freshwater that is used to produce the commodities, goods & services consumed by the person, company or nation.
-
Another example on water information design is The Global Water Footprint of Humanity.
