Case Study: Interactive Storytelling

Exposure to air pollution in South Asia is a massive environmental and health problem. Much of this air pollution is caused by agricultural burning.

Because the impacts of agricultural burning are so complex and widespread, we asked how we could communicate the scale and gravity of this issue to students, policymakers, and the general public. And, how we could educate people on the solutions that exist right now to curb this problem.

We used interactive mapping, data science, and storytelling to show the widespread environmental and health impacts of agricultural burning, as well as existing solutions. We wanted to help convey how this issue affects the water cycle, human health, air quality and pollution, soils, and farmers–and not do it in an academic paper!

Sometimes, we need to see things (especially big environmental or social problems) to understand them. This interactive piece combines information from recent scientific publications with easy to understand visuals and language in order to engage people beyond scientists on this important topic.

See the final product here.

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