AT2 PART B - GROUP WORKING
Group 2
Layer 1: Ayan Shaikh Layer 2: Eva Vickers
Layer 3: Isabella Howe
Layer 4: Simone Cao Layer 5: Josef Sfara
Overall ambition in mapping the site: our map aims to communicate the cultural and physical transience of the site. The site is constantly changing due to exterior forces; climate change, erratic flooding and erosion. Through our research and fine details we represent the complexity of the site through these changes.
Layer 1: Landscape Structure (Ayan Shaikh)
The idea behind my layer was to produce a set of iterations that will develop over time to show various informations of the elements in the landscape structure and how they differ between each other with the usage of linewieghts, linetypes and the addition of grey scale colour. This comes in reference to all the layers below when considering what to implement and what not such as details to correspond with layers 2-3 while interacting with layer 4 to form sand areas impacted due to water drying over time.
Iterations 1-4
Iterations 5-8
Iterations 9-12
The four iterations above purely focused on lineweight to experiment how each effected other layers or how each lineweight stood out on its own.
Iteration 9 - shoreline (0.3), sand area and detials (0.18)
Iteration 10 - shoreline (0.5), sand area and details (0.3)
Iteration 11 - shoreline (1), sand area and details (0.5)
Iteration 12 - shoreline (0.7), sand area and details (0.3)
Research, Process and ongoing evaluations
Due to the specifications of my layer there was no need for extensive research but rather the structure of the map forming a strong foundation for the continuing layers was very important. Therefore I had taken into account various cartographic precedents (referenced below) along with references to the lecture precedents to form my layer.
Layer 2: Surface arrangement and Materiality (Eva Vickers)
My overlying aim when completing my layer: to represent the diverse textures of the land in a manner which reflects how the site has been effected over time through human and natural factors.
Reference images of site:
TheFrom these reference images, great insight is gained into the many surface topographies that make up the site. The crusted salt flats make up much of the surface, including the lake floor, consisting of protruding bumps and jagged texture. The coastlines contain a finer grain of sand, weathered and worn to be this way through erosion due to the coastline's slight elevation leaving it vulnerable to winds and deposits.
Vegetation as a subject to erosion and climate change
Naturally, areas that have extreme weather are subject to drastic changes by the gradual effects of climate change which is exponentially effecting the globe. Lake Eyre is predicted to rise in temperatures and become even dryer, endangering the land which is inhabited by the Arabana people. Through gradual changes the sands and soils will become too dry and hold little nutrients in which vegetation could grow from and stay anchored to in this arid climate.
The sand dunes on the site are subject to erosion and weathering, creating a linear grain of surficial matter. Vegetation follows this linearity, spotted in vertical densities across the land masses. These patches of vegetation have adapted to the surficial matter; dry coarse sand; which gets lifted and deposited by wind regularly. The dry climate ensures that only perfectly adapted vegetation can survive at the site, which even so is diminishing due to the gradual temperature increase of the site in relation to climate change, as well as the drying up of water in the lake which means that there is little nutrient matter.
The Australian landscape is relatively flat, being a continent that has eroded over millions of years since its formation. The over- erosion that has taken place means that nutrient movement is slow, allowing for less regeneration and overall poor soil quality. This is evident in the research below, dating the surface matter to 2.6 million years ago. The site represents this in its bare nature, with spotted vegetation.
Research on surface topography
This interactive map indicates the diverse surface topography that makes up the site.
mud, silt, evaporites, limestone; minor sand, peat. Dating to Quaternary period.
Dunes, sandplain with dunes and swales; may include numerous interdune claypans; may be locally gypsiferous. Dating to Cenozoic to Quaternary periods.
Iterations 1 - 6
Process and ongoing evaluations:
Layer 3: Shadow and Relief (Isabella Howe)
Intention: In my layer I aim to illustrate the site's topography, highlighting shadow and relief to reveal the nature of the surface's contours - a reflection of natural and human systems changing the landscape over time.
Precedents: David Ross, 2011, Day and Night: The Life of Death Valley / Erik Linton, 2018, Grand Canyon Map / Eduard Imhof, 1947, Canton of St.Gallen 1:125 000 / Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, 2018, Untitled / M. Monnier, 1825, Des Còtes de la Martinique / Ian Grassfoff, 2018, Mount Everest Grayscale Topographic Map
Iterations and Evaluations 1 - 6
Research and process:
The site's surface elevation ranges between -8 and 23 meters according to the topographic map of Lake Eyre (bottom left), with an average of 7.5m above sea level. This gives an accurate reading of the shape of land contours in this area with primarily linear sand dunes, which are shaped by the wind when "wind pressures are nearly equal on both sides of a dune" (National Geographic, 2011). Dunes are created by deposited sand over time and are vulnerable to erosion from both natural processes and human activity, the topography is therefore a window into the changes of the landscape through history.
Kati Thunda is located in the dry centre of Australia and is therefore relatively flat in elevation. This is particularly true for our site as it is located at the edge of the water basin of Lake Eyre North and lies within the Kati Thunda-Lake Eyre National Park. This protected park land is carefully conserved by the Arabana People who are traditional owners of the Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre region (granted native title in 2012), as the land is embedded in history and plays a central role in their stories, songs, culture and identity.
Layer 4: Hydrological Features (Simone Cao)
Intentions
To map the changing hydrological features throughout time and understanding this through the synthesis of living memory charts and satellite imagery.
Iterations
Research
‘Water is our life, need to think about keeping it, looking after it, the waterholes is where we all met back in the day, where the uncles went camping, hunting, we used them to wash in, swim in sometimes, now all over, its drying up...we need to find ways of keeping water in country’ (Arabana Respondent 2, cited in Nursey-Bray and the Arabana Aboriginal Corporation 2015).
"Projects around the preservation of Kati Thanda focus on the notion of participatory methods with Indigenous groups and western research principles. "The project also met the research protocols of Indigenous Australia at a very high level (AIATSIS 2011) while also recognising the diversity and dispersal of Arabana people. The project was conducted between November 2011 and February 2013."
“Indigenous Adaptation to Climate Change.” In Applied Studies in Climate Adaptation, 316–325. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2014.
PROCESS
Layer 5: Cultural and/or scientific interpretation (Josef Sfara)
Iterations 1-4
Process and ongoing evaluations
Cartographic Precedents
Danny Wills, 2014, D100 Ogallala Aquifer / Thomas Paturet, 2016, 10m Contour Lines – Great Britain Collection / Eduardo Da Rin and Josline Lambert, 2014, Pan-European Atlas / Christos Kakouris, 2014, Mt Olympus Regeneration Project / Architecture Association Society, 2015, Territorial Formation/ Picon, A. (n.d.), Substance and Structure II: The Digital Culture of Landscape Architecture, Harvard Design Magazine / Ashley Hohmann (n.d), Site Mapping - Thesis, Pinterest
Composite Iterations and Evaluations
Photoshop Iterations
Final Individual Layers
