Temporal GIS
GIS has for a long time now been able to display and analyze data based on time, but with recent release of ArcGIS, it is a little easier to display this data and to perform temporal analysis, even if its very basic temporal analysis. However, I must confess, I could never figure out the out of the box animation toolbar that came with ArcMap 9.3.x. I have used the one that comes with Tracking Analyst Extension, but could never get the generic toolbar to work with my data. But that’s enough about my geospatial short comings!
The data that I used for this animation came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics-Local area Unemployment Statistics. I pulled the One-Year Net Change in Employed Workforce from January 2007 to May 2010 at the County Level. Then I joined this data to the Census Bureau, and then joined this data to the Census Bureau 2009 TIGER/Line® County Boundary Shapefile.
Then after all that comes the "EASY" part: since I couldn't get the Animation Toolbar to work, I created a layer file with the symbology that I wanted the data to be in and then I created a key frame for EVERY time period, 41 in all and it only took me about 4 hours. Yeah I hope ArcGIS 10 has a better animation toolbar, or one that I can understand.
Please take a look at my time animation.(click here)