Figure 1. Pre-settlement stem density in the US Midwest based on Public Land Survey data. Dark green is highest stem density, yellow is prairie, and white and red are regions outside the domain.
I have made so many maps of the Midwest here at UWisc, and, before I made maps of the US Midwest, I made maps of British Columbia. Lots of them. I can draw BC and the Midwest by hand without thinking twice. That said, I’ve been looking for a new challenge, and I found it. Inspired in part by a great book we got for Kid #1 (The LEGO Ideas Book), and by the great stratigraphic art my mom made, here is an alternate version of Figure 4 of our upcoming paper (the draft will be done as soon as I put away my LEGO, quit bugging me mom!).
This is part of a submission for the PalEON project, using these pre-settlement estimates to help constrain models of future vegetation, by providing an opportunity to validate model predictions (from dynamic ecosystem models such as ED) against real data.
Figure 2. This was the inspiration for Figure 1.
Genius! I’ve never considered using legos for a raster map. Such an awesome way to visualize things like vegetation, soil type, etc. Now I just need to get some legos and start building maps!
Thanks. I enjoyed looking through your blog, some great links!