Interactive Maps: Timeslider and Change Map

Organic Production and Farm Size 2000-2022

The following map is an interactive time slider map. The map shows Switzerland with its 26 canton boundaries. The backdrop of the map – called a choropleth map – shades each canton according to the percentage of the average area per farm (in hectares) in each canton of the selected year. With the time slider in action, the color values of the cantons change, depending on the time slider movement. Darker orange indicates a larger average agricultural area per farm, whereas a lighter orange indicates a smaller average agricultural area per farm. For each canton, there is a pie chart with two colors representing the share of conventional (dark blue) and organic farming (light blue). Additionally, the size of the pie chart displays the total amount of farming for each canton. A larger circle indicates a higher number of farms while a smaller circle means a smaller number of farms. On the right side of the map, there is a legend depicting examples of the color and size of the pie charts, as well as the size of the pie charts and the different ranges of the average agricultural area per farm displayed with a discrete color gradient.

On the left side, an interactive checkbox allows the user to turn the two layers on and off, showing only the pie charts or the choropleth map. In the left-hand top corner, the plus/minus buttons are for zooming in and out, while the home button leads to the initial view. The time slider at the bottom of the map enables the user to display a year between 2000 and 2022 by moving the orange bar to the year one is interested in. A second option is to let it run automatically with the play button. The speed of the time animation can be chosen on the bottom right of the time slider. Furthermore, the user of the web map can select a canton, which then enables a pop-up for that selected canton. The pop-up then provides the user with information on the pie chart (the exact number of total/conventional/organic farms) and on the second page in the pop-up (use arrows to switch pages) the average utilised agricultural area per farm can be viewed.

Change maps 2000 - 2022

Total change in the number of organic farming in per cent & total change of average size per farm in per cent

In the map above, you can see the interactive change maps, which both show the outline of Switzerland with the boundaries of each canton. The first change map in blue displays the total change in the number of organic farms in per cent across Switzerland between 2000 and 2022. The second change map in orange depicts the total change of hectares per farm in per cent in Switzerland between 2000 and 2022.

On the left-hand side, there is an interactive checkbox which allows the user to choose between the display of the layer with the “Number of organic farms” and the “Ha per farm”. The plus/minus are for zooming in and out, while the home button leads to the initial view. Another interactive perk is the slider function, which is placed below the layer selection. The slider function allows the user to swipe between the different layers to compare the two maps.

As the two change maps are strongly interlinked with the data behind the time slider map, the color ranges of the change maps are identical to the color selection of the pie charts and of the choropleth map from the time slider map to enhance the user’s understanding of the connection between the two.

Both maps show the change in per cent, depicted by the color value in each canton. Darker shades of the color value indicate a higher change in percentage in the number of organic farms or more increase in the average size per farm per that canton. The legend on the right side of the map explains the color gradient with the specific percentage ranges. The classes of the legends aren’t equal since the increase of number of organic farms in per cent is much stronger than the increase of ha per farm in per cent. Furthermore, the user of the web map can select a canton, which then enables a pop-up for that selected canton. The pop-up then provides the user with the exact percentage of change between the years 2000 and 2022 of the selected canton.