Patrick O'Shea

Web-based 3D map · Open geodata

Meandering Rio Commons

An interactive 3D map of the historical meanders of the Rio Grande / Río Bravo along the US–Mexico border, with stories contributed by people who live along the river.

Year
2020–22
Role
Data and mapping systems, 3D website, publication contributions
With
José Villanueva, Land Arts of the American West (Texas Tech University) and a wider research network
Medium
Interactive 3D web map, user-contributed stories, GeoJSON datasets, Google Earth Engine
Shown
Links
Historical channels of the river by decade, with a contributed story placed at its location in Street View.
Historical channels of the river by decade, with a contributed story placed at its location in Street View.

A web-based 3D repository built from materials developed during Land Arts of the American West's 2020 Adaptation program. It began as an interpretation of the historical meanders of the Rio Grande / Río Bravo, where the river forms the US–Mexico border, within a larger effort with Texas Tech University, Marfa Books, Zoe Leonard Studio and a wide research network (original prospectus).

The site is an interactive, user-contributed database of stories from the river. Each story is placed where it was told, against the river's shifting channels, and the underlying geographic data is published as open GeoJSON.

Past channels of the river traced over present-day satellite imagery of the border cities.
Past channels of the river traced over present-day satellite imagery of the border cities.
Historical meanders mapped over satellite imagery.
Historical meanders mapped over satellite imagery.
Time-lapse of vegetation index (NDVI) around El Paso, computed in Google Earth Engine.
Excerpt from the publication in Southwest Contemporary vol. 5.
Excerpt from the publication in Southwest Contemporary vol. 5.