Greenland Glacier Changes

About the map

Explore three of the largest glaciers in Greenland: Helheim, Jakobshavn, and Kangerlussuaq. You’ll notice that these glaciers exhibit a pattern of advance in some years, while in others, they retreat. However, a long-term perspective reveals a predominant state of retreat across all three glaciers. Notably, by 2019, Helheim was approximately 10km behind its position in 1985.

Delve into the impacts of climate change on these majestic ice formations and see how their termini (the ends of the glaciers) have been changing

Why it works

This map condenses a stack of temporal data into a dynamic animation through time with the use of time sliders. The slider provides the ability to control the temporal data and its focus, whether it be looking at the year-by-year changes through the Yearly view or looking at the larger picture of long-term changes by switching to the Grouped view.

Important Steps

1.

Data management – Download the data and open in ArcGIS Pro to manipulate and filter the data. This can be done in ArcGIS Online too but performing these steps in Pro reduces your exposure to credit usage.
2.

Remove unnecessary data - The TermPicks dataset has 278 individual glaciers with their positions across the years. The data has been filtered to include the 3 specified glaciers and only one position per year at the same time of year where possible from 1984-2020.
3.

Upload to ArcGIS Online - Upload the files to ArcGIS Online to host as a feature layer. Using Map Viewer, web maps can be created using the symbology and labelling available in Map Viewer.
4.

Use ArcGIS Instant Apps – Use the Slider template from ArcGIS Instant Apps to create an app for each glacier. These individual apps are embedded into ArcGIS Experience Builder to further customise the interface.
5.

Combine ArcGIS Instant Apps and ArcGIS Experience Builder - Using Experience Builder as your framing, you can add headers with buttons to different pages. Embed the Instant Apps to these different pages, bringing everything into a single app.

Data and software

The dataset is from TermPicks, which has ~40,000 individual terminus traces for 278 glaciers. The Satellite imagery is readily available from the ArcGIS Living Atlas “Arctic Imagery” and is used as the basemap. ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online were used throughout.
Analysis

The configuration of this map has focused on data filtering/selection to effectively convey how these glaciers are changing year on year.
Time

Accessing and loading the data is a quick and easy task, however data selection did become quite manual. Once the data was uploaded to ArcGIS Online, creating an Instant App is relatively fast. Configuration in Experience Builder can be more labour intensive, but did allow me to bring everything together in a single app with advanced customisation.

Embed Instant Apps

ArcGIS Instant Apps might have what you are looking for with a simple configuration. If you’re after further customisation, then embed the Instant App into Experience Builder to design and customise your app to suit your needs.

ArcGIS Instant Apps
Duplicate Layers

Duplicate layers to create different effects. This allows you to show the data in two-separate ways and control the end user experience.
Less is more

The data is made of nearly 40,000 lines. Condensing down to 100 allowed us to convey our message without overstimulating with 1000s of lines.

Links & Resources

Map Author

James Colinese (he/him)

I am a Graduate GIS Consultant at Esri UK. In my spare time, you might find me outside on the Chiltern Hills Trail Running and exploring nature.

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About the map

Why it works

Important Steps

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Requirements

Data and software

Analysis

Time

Tips and tricks

Embed Instant Apps

Duplicate Layers

Less is more

Links & Resources

Termpicks Data

Data Filtering and Selection

Embed widget in Experience Builder

James Colinese (he/him)

Start making maps with a free trial of ArcGIS Online