“Portraits of Landscape Evolution” is a cartographic project that focuses on depicting the historical land uses of a part of Vienna, with special emphasis on its historic waterscapes. The selected area centers around Praterstern, a historic site and symbol of urban integration in the city.
This project aims to create intuitive visualizations on this subject, referred to as portraits. These portraits merge two main components: space and time. The selected periods correspond to the years 2010, 1912, 1825, 1704, 1529, and 1100, providing a broad historical perspective.
In the project, you find three different attempts to portray this urban landscape history. The first creates a vertical statistical visualization of historical land uses and waterscapes. The second treats the historic waterscapes as ghosts that have often imprinted their shape on the present urban form. Lastly, “Stacking Time” is a map that embeds time, where the thickness of each layer corresponds to the time elapsed, simultaneously visualizing how land uses have evolved.
This cartographic project aims to ignite a reflection on how humans transform the territories they choose to inhabit, how they incorporate and make use of the surrounding natural resources as they build their cities, and how they too leave a permanent imprint on them.
Data was kindly provided by the URBWATER research project.
The software used comprehended QGIS, ArcGIS, AutoCAD, and Inkscape.
Have a look at all the interesting details in the original pdf (5.4mb).
The map was created as part of the course Project Map Creation at TU Wien in summer semester 2024.
Student: Joselyn Salinas