@elyhienrich This was a tough choice, I like all of them but for me it came down to choosing between the Menindee Lake and Lake Isabella stories since both stories show the impacts of climate on large water storage systems. After a little research I discovered that the Menindee lakes in Australia are about twice the total volume and about 8 times shallower (approx. 7m in depth) than Lake Isabella in California (approx. 54m in depth), and they have also been known to run dry and become flooded again on various occasions  in the past.

The lake Isabella animation shows how that system goes through cycles of reduction and filling back up annually, however, the reduction phase has been getting worse in successive years. 

For these reasons, my favorite story above is ‘Lake Isabella’. 

The high spatial and temporal nature of planet images allows us to monitor these patterns very well .

I think the Lake Isabella is a very dramatic and approachable view that shows how significant draughts can be.  We are on the verge of ecosystem collapse in the Salt Lake, and there are dozens of reservoirs in the US West that have been drained to dangerously low levels.  I think this is a stark reminder that we need to not just conserve but take action to protect our planet.

A key strength of what Planet Labs provides to industrial and governmental decision makers results from the high frequency revisitation rate of Planet imagery assets. Therefore, my favorite story is the Lake Isabella example because the time-series illustrates significant changes in water level across the various data assets visualized. 

Thank you all for participating! We will be notifying winners soon!