Lab 8: Census 2000/2010

Here are 3 maps showing the percentage of only asian, only black, and only white by county, respectively.

The counties with the greatest percentages of Asians are grouped on the west coast, mostly in California, and a little on the east coast. This could be because the west coast is the closest to Asia, and more asians populate the west coast since there is already a high percentage, probably comming all the way from the California goldrush and when laborers were brought to work on the transcontinental railroad.

Whites are the majority in many counties, especially the whole northern part of the U.S. Again, i think the reason is mostly people tending to remain and move to areas where they are surrounded by people of similar race and culture.

The counties with the greatest percentages of blacks are in the South. This is probably from when slavery was legal and many blacks were forcefully brought to the South.

The clumping of races into certain is a very obvious phenomenon. There are many possibilities on why this happens. Maybe people tend to live and have families where they were raised, so the next generation contains the same homogeneity. Another factor might be when someone moves to to a new area, whether from another country or another area in the US they might find a area that is already populated with people of their same culture and race more appealing that a area where the majority of people are of a different race. So areas that have some sort of race dominance will slowly get a bigger percentage of that race overtime with less people from other races moving there and an increased amount of the race that is already dominant.



This course has been a good introduction to the power and utility of GIS. I got a foundation in using the software as well as many general geographic concepts. I think GIS is easy, I find amazing the amount of transformations and data manipulation it can do with a few clicks. It uses are so varied and important because of its power and flexibility.

Lab 5: Projections in ArcGIS

For this Lab, I created 6 maps with different projections. 2 are Equal area, 2 are equidistant and 2 are conformal(preserving angles). For each of these maps I measured the distance between Washington D.C. and Kabul, Afghanistan. The shear amount of difference in the distance measured clearly shows that one must always keep in mind what they are trying to accomplish with the map when deciding on a projection.

Each map has certain distortions because no 2-d map can accurately represent our 3-d world. When going from a 3-d model to a 2-d model, a projection is used. Each projection is good at accurately mapping a specific property. As the name implies, Equidistant projections retain distances. When you know you will use a certain map for measuring distances, then it would be prudent to use a Equidistant projection. If you will measure area, then an Equal-area projection should be used. A conformal map is used when the map will be used for navigation or when angular relations must be preserved.

In addition to choosing the projection type, there are also other considerations. It is important to consider the "center" of the map. The most accurate part of a map is where the projection shape is the closest or overlapping with the 3-d world. So different types of projections have different centers or areas of focus. Choosing a projection that distorts the area of interest the least is very important to consider.

If one does not choose a projection wisely, the information from the map will be worthless. The data can be extremely skewed without a good projection. It is important to think about the use of the map and the area it will be displaying so the right type of projection, of the right geographic region, will be used.

Lab 7: Mapping the Station Fire in ArcGIS

Here is a map of the Station Fire in red, superimposed on on elevation map. Blue is the highest, then green, then yellow is the lowest elevation. I have also included the major streets in the area.

Lab 6: DEMs in ArcGIS

I chose to map Mount St. Helens. It has very steep slopes and has a cavity in the middle which provides and interesting landscape. The coordinates I used were 46°00′00″N 122°0′0″W till 46°30′00″N 122°30′00″W. The geographic coordinate system used is the GCS North American 1983 and the map was a grid based raster. The datum was the North American Datum of 1983 using Geodetic Reference System 80.

Lab 4: Introducing ArcMap

Using Arcmap for the first time has been an interesting and exciting experience. Its very complicated, but behind every button is a feature to manipulate data. I am in awe of the power and usefullness it has. Also it very cool that with a couple clicks it can calculate things that would have taken a very long time if done with out a computer. My experience has been overall a good one and the tutorial proved to be understandable and easy to follow. I enjoy the learning by doing strategy and was able to produce stunning maps. I had some problems because I saved files in different areas, so I lost data when I thought I had it all on my flash drive. That problem is just from being new to the program and next time I'll be sure to save all the nescessary files together.

The potential and power of Arcmap is obvious. The data can be manipulated in huindreds of ways by just clicking on different functions. No math is needed, so you can concentrate on organizing and manipulating the data to give some sort of insight. The computer does all the repetetive calculations and the user is left to think and reason about what the data shows in more visual and new ways.

There are some pitfalls but I think they are rapidly disapearing. As computers become better and better and the software improves, and as users get better at Arcmap, errors become much less common. But I think the bigest source of pitfalls lie within the users inputs. If someone doesn't know what they are doing, or are purposefully changing the data or maps to suit their own personal bias, then the maps will be bad. But if the data is correct, the program is a very impartial and perfect thing that can display and manipulate the data with no bias.

Overall, it is readily apparent why Arcmap is used for almost anything. It powerfull, flexible, and impartial. It does all the numerous calculations for the user with minimal input. It makes data extremely easy to view and manipulate. I think its very enjoyable to learn how to use such an important and useful program.

Lab 3: Neogeography

View Geography 7 in a larger map

Nowadays, its very easy for anyone to make a map. I just made this map illustrating the fairs in the US with fried junk food with google maps. The openess of mapping can be good, as more information and perspectives can be created and shown, but it also has downsides. One downside is that the information is less and less reliable either due to errors or biases of the makers. Since anyone can make the maps, when using another person's map for information one must be critical of their expertise and their agenda. If one uses a map from a biased mapmaker one might get the wrong idea if the information shown is skewed or adjusted by the creator.

Also privacy becomes harder and harder to keep safe as everything can be found and illustrated with maps online. Information about criminals that live in one's neighborhood might cause a backlash of hate against the said criminals. It becomes easier to access the information, and now anyone can organize the data and allow others to view it.

Lab 2: USGS Topographic maps

1. This is the Beverly Hills quadrangle.
2. The adjacent quadrangles are

1. Canoga Park
2. Van Nuys
3. Burbank
4. Topanga
5. Hollywood
6. 
   
7. Venice
8. Inglewood

3. The quadrangle first created in 1966
4. National Geodetic Vertical Datum, North American Datum of 1927, and the North American Datum of 1983
5. The scale of the map is 1:24000
6.

a) 5 centimeters on the map is equivalent to 1200 meters on the ground.
b) 5 inches on the map is equivalent to 1.89393939 miles on the ground.
c) one mile on the ground is equivalent to 2.64 inches on the map.
d) three kilometers on the ground is equivalent to 12.5 centimeters on the map.

7. The contour interval on the map is 20 feet.
8. The approximate geographic coordinates in both degrees/minutes/seconds and decimal degrees of:

a) the Public Affairs Building is: 34° 4' 30'' North 118° 26' 14'' West or 34.0749° North 118.4372° West
b) the tip of Santa Monica pier is: 34° 0' 31'' North 118° 29' 52'' West or 34.0086° North 118.4979° West
c) the Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir is: 34° 7' 10'' North 118° 24' 37'' or 34.1195° North 118.4104° West

9. The approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:

a) Greystone Mansion (in Greystone Park) is: 177 m or 581 feet
b) Woodlawn Cemetery is: 43 m or 141 feet
c) Crestwood Hills Park is: 194 m or 636 feet

10. 11 is the UTM zone of the map.
11. 3,763,000 mN and 361,500 mE
12. 1,000,000 square meters are contained within each cell (square) of the UTM gridlines.
13.

14. +14°
15. North to South
16.