Description
The map is a Seealsology network of the knowledge surrounding dam controversies according to Wikipedia. The arrangement of the nodes allow one to identify clusters enclosing specific topics. At first glance, it is recognisable that Hydropolitics and Water Issues and Environmental Issues and Controversies are the main subjects that generally surround the debate. Energy Economics is another recurring topic, that interestingly acts often as a bridge between different clusters built around controversies. The size of the clusters and the variety of topics surrounding a seed can tell how wide is the explorable territory for a debate concerning that specific dam.
In this map, one of the most extensive discussion revolves around the Belo Monte Dam, in Brazil, followed by groups of Indian and Ethiopian dams.
Protocol
A general exploration of dam controversies was the starting point of the research, in order to focus afterwards on one of the most controversial dams based on the findings. Thus, this is the first of the two bootstrap protocols focused on Wikipedia. Starting from the pages mentioned in the category “Dam Controversies” as of 6th November 2018, after manually removing the non-relevant ones, the remaining page links were used as seeds for the Seealsology tool. The map generated by Seealsology was imported in Gephi, and the nodes were manually categorised according to the topic of the pages. 8 topic categories were applied to the Wikipedia pages linked to the seeds (Energy Sources, Energy Economics, Hydropolitics and Water Issues, Natural Water Resources and Protected Areas, Environmental Issues and Controversies, Infrastructure, Human Geography, Other). The .svg file exported from Gephi was graphically enhanced in Adobe Illustrator to increase the appeal and readability of the visualisation.
Data
Data Source: Seealsology, Wikipedia
Timestamp: 06/11/2018
View Data (15Kb)
Two .tsv files collecting nodes and edges from the Seealsology network. Some nodes were manually removed according to their relevance with the general topic.