{"id":78901,"date":"2017-08-07T12:07:57","date_gmt":"2017-08-07T12:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/product\/uncategorized\/producing-the-big-dams-story-map\/"},"modified":"2018-03-26T21:14:12","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T21:14:12","slug":"producing-the-big-dams-story-map","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/\/uncategorized\/producing-the-big-dams-story-map","title":{"rendered":"Producing the "Big Dams" Story Map"},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[],"tags":[24861,27881],"industry":[],"product":[36551,36611],"class_list":["post-78901","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-story-map-journal","tag-storytelling","product-arcgis-online","product-story-maps"],"acf":{"short_description":"\n\nLast week the Esri story maps team published \u201cBig Dams: Boon or Bane?\u201d featuring a gallery of the world\u2019s largest dams. Although ...","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week the Esri story maps team published \u201cBig Dams: Boon or Bane?<\/a>\u201d featuring a gallery of the world\u2019s largest dams. Although our team\u2019s main role is to create and update Story Map apps for the benefit of our growing user community, we like to publish our own stories, for several reasons:
\n\u2022 To experiment with new functions and user experiences
\n\u2022 To provide storytelling examples and inspiration to our users
\n\u2022 To collaborate with organizations, especially non-profits, to help them get in the habit of producing story maps<\/p>\n

In the case of Big Dams, I wanted to feature Esri\u2019s imagery basemap, and to publish a story without any customization. We\u2019ve found that imagery-based stories are almost always popular\u2014lots of people, myself included, love to look at the Earth from above. I considered using the Story Map Cascade app, but decided on Story Map Journal because of its versatility; I also wanted to use \u201cstory actions\u201d here and there to emphasize specific locations.<\/p>\n

In compiling the story I used Wikipedia\u2019s lists of largest dams\u2014and learned that there are several ways to measure how big a dam is. I decided that was interesting, and used size of dam, size of reservoir, size of hydro plant, and height of dam as a way of organizing the story. But I also wanted to spotlight some dams that pose, or have posed, a safety threat, and to show how some rivers have been dammed multiple times.<\/p>\n

So I used all-caps lead-ins to the section titles to make the story\u2019s structure clear. I also used colored type to lend a consistent look to the story. I chose a buff color from the lead photo and copied the hex value (#b7ab93) into the \u201cSelect color\u201d function in the Journal builder:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I frequently add color to text to give a story a unified look. In the dams story, the running text is light gray rather than white, which I think is easier to read. I also made the story actions bold and red to make them more visually prominent.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And of course I chose the option for light type on black background in the Settings > Theme menu. Somehow the black theme works effectively with the imagery in this story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The maps showing locations of the largest dams in each category were produced in ArcGIS Online. It\u2019s a single web map<\/a> with separate layers for each of the four categories of \u201cbiggest\u201d. For each layer I created a simple CSV file with dam name, country, size, and lat-long coordinates. I used ArcGIS Online\u2019s smart mapping function to assign graduated circle sizes and colors.<\/p>\n

I also wanted to locate each of the dams featured in the story. I used Adobe graphics software to generate simple, static maps, and saved them as PNG files so that they would blend into the black background.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I hope you find these pointers helpful the next time you create a journal story.<\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":7221,"user_firstname":"Allen","user_lastname":"Carroll","nickname":"Allen Carroll","user_nicename":"allencarroll","display_name":"Allen Carroll","user_email":"ACarroll@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:19:28","user_description":"Allen founded the story maps team at Esri. 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