Each dot represents a given county
This visualization depicts counties in the form of 3D bars spread across the country (whose geometries match the county's geographical boundaries).
The rendering of the bars is influenced by a series of demographic and air pollution variables, which can be selected in the "variable toggle" menu above this popup window.
Each demographic variable controls the bar's color, whereas the air pollution variable dictates the bar's height.
A legend in the bottom-right corner of the screen offers clarification about the chosen variables and their corresponding scales.
The demographic variables come from the 2010 edition of the US Decennial Census of Population and Housing, a government initiative which aims to count the population of the country and survey its underlying demographic characteristics (such as age, race, and housing status).
Conversely, the air pollution variables come from a research study conducted by Dr. Heresh Amini and his collaborators at Harvard University. Their team developed a model to estimate the concentrations of different chemical compounds in the air, all of which can be considered forms of air pollution.
While the underlying sources vary from component to component, higher concentrations are generally linked to poor health outcomes. This mapper works with 5 of the components from the research study— elemental carbon (EC), ammonium (NH4+), nitrate (NO3-), organic carbon (OC), and sulfate (SO42-).
The pollution dataset spans 3,535 urban regions at a 50-m spatial resolution and all other non-urban areas at a 1-km resolution. While the data is available from 2000 to 2019, only 2010 values are currently hooked up to the mapper.
To find the county you live in— or any other county you're curious about— simply navigate to the search bar in the top-right corner of the page and enter its name. The mapper screen will teleport you to the county's coordinates.
Upon selecting a county, the resulting pop-up window provides an overview of specific values for the two chosen variables, as well as how they each compare to the national average. The wording of the pop-up provides a guide for how to interpret the data values. If the summary statistics at first do not load, zoom in closer to the county and click on it once again.
To switch the combination of variables currently being viewed, look for the third icon down from the top-left corner of the page. The variable selection menu consists of a series of radio buttons, which will update the map, legend, and all other pop-ups when clicked. A total of 1 demographic and 1 air pollution variable are allowed to be graphed at a given point in time.
The relationship between each of these variables can be explored visually through the form of a scatterplot window, which pops-up when clicking on the fourth icon down from the top-left corner of the page. Each dot represents a county, with its name visible in the form of a tool-tip appearing upon hover.
Clicking on a scatterplot dot teleports the map to the county's location. To change the scale, zoom and pan on any white space in the scatterplot. If a county geometry has been selected on the geographic map, the corresponding dot will appear to be colored purple in the scatterplot. This provides an understanding of where a given county situates in relation to all other counties based on those two variable values.
Development is still ongoing, and please feel free to report any bugs you encounter via the "User Testing" link of the landing page footer.
Thank you!
Demographic Variables
* includes people identifying as both non-hispanic and hispanic within the respective category
Air Pollution Variables