In my work with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre I get to translate information, data, knowledge, and stories in all kinds of ways: science to be understood by communities, policy to be more useful to the public, practitioner insights to be actionable by decision-makers. ArcGIS StoryMaps is a tool I’ve worked with a lot in recent years, alongside with incredible GIS specialist colleagues. It’s an accessible way to present multiple layers of information (not just maps!) and has the capacity to include art and stories in different ways.

In many of the earlier StoryMaps I worked on I contributed illustrations, portrait art, or other visuals to add an art-based component to the multimedia mix. A way to make more visual the stories presented by maps and text. Along the way of creating many of these StoryMaps I found that we can do so much more. While many projects represented by these scrolling maps often necessitate a quick turnaround and don’t leave space for much wild creation, I’ve gotten to do some more experimental pieces in more recent StoryMaps.

The most exciting StoryMaps have been the ones where there’s been a space to connect with people living within the contexts presented in the maps (like members of Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTS) in Lebanon) and tell stories in more creative ways (like the fictional story in the Cabo Delgado map or the speculative fiction in a map for a Zambia project).

Experimenting with StoryMaps has been invaluable in demonstrating the need for holding multiple perspectives, types of knowledge and information, and scales of seeing. More StoryMaps coming soon!

*An illustration for a StoryMap for* *Climate risk screening of ICRC operations in Sudan (2022): A map-based complement to a screening of 73 project documents across 6 sectors.*

*An illustration for a StoryMap titled* *Honduras — Eta & Iota: Understanding compound events in fragile contexts: Retrospective compound risk analysis of two Tropical Storms.*

*A piece of the story from* *Climate, disasters and conflict in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique: Cyclones Kenneth & Idai (2019) as a backdrop for compound risk.*

*From* *Zambia: Retrospective analysis of the 2018-2020 humanitarian food and water crisis in Western Province, Zambia*.

*Both above from* *Communities Who Care. Preparedness in Bekaa & Akkar, Lebanon: How Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) build resilience before, during, and after crisis.*

A slide set for prepared for colleagues to introduce the StoryMap tool. Scroll through for links to StoryMaps: