Which California Counties Received Drought Aid in 2014?

The question I was trying to answer with this map was, which counties received aid for the extreme drought in 2014? I chose the choropleth scheme of qualitative because it displayed the information in the least confusing way possible. I decided that the best way to convey the drought aid data was to only show two colors on my map. It clearly shows which counties received aid and which did not for that specific month. The color red was used because I was linking the color with the idea that the drought is bad and that it has become even worse as the year has progressed. My extent map is showing where California is in relation to the west coast of the United States for people who do not know where California is. I chose this extent because I assume that people already know that California is on the west coast of the United States. I chose to create three maps because it made the message of which counties received aid the most clear. When the different months were layered over each other, the message was confusing to which counties received aid in a specific month. The three maps takes away the confusion of the overlap.

The intended application of this map is for viewers to see the different counties in California that received aid in 2014. It allows the viewers to understand how the drought progressively intensified as the year 2014 continued. This map also shows viewers which counties were hit harder by the drought in relation to other counties in California. This map could be used for policy makers and land managers because they can easily see where the problem areas of drought are. This would make it easier for them to apply drought restrictions for water usage. Other intended audiences for this map would be citizens of California and the surrounding states. This would effect the citizens' water usage around the drought areas. This map would be considered a time series analysis due to the fact it is comparing different times within the year 2014. The intended purpose influenced the map style because the message had to be clear enough for viewers to understand. The separation of the three different months was influenced because when they were layered upon each other the message was not as clear.