Developing Visualizations to Better Understand Peter Taylor’s concept of World City Networks

Jared Lang working with Danny Dorling, Bethan Thomas and Peter Taylor (Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network)

Introduction

Visualizations have already been developed to compliment Peter Taylor’s World City Networks, but they are very simple. Depicting world city linkages is a complicated task. Consequently, this project was untaken to expand upon Peter Taylor’s already existing visualizations.

When the project began, the research group came up a few different ideas about how to show connections between cities. The task for the next four months was to implement those ideas. The result was five new Atlases of City Network Connection

The following five chapters gives a flavour of each of the atlases. Here is the link to the full Atlas—full screen shots, some 3D visualizations, and detailed explanations: GAWC Visualizations

Atlases

Atlas #1: Basic Atlas: Wrapping Flow Lines Around a 3D Globe

Atlas #1A – Experimental Atlas: Representing Flow Lines in 3D

Atlas #2 – City Views: Regional Compacting

Atlas #2A – Experimental Atlas: The “Out of This World” Atlas

Atlas #3 – EarthWise: A New Landscape of Globalization

Endnotes

i Dodge, Martin and Kitchin, Rob. Mapping Cyberspace. London: Routledge, 2001.

ii Thomas, Bethan. The Visualization of Flow Data: From UK Telephone Calls to a General Method. Leeds, UK: The University of Leeds School of Geography, September 2002.