Week 9- Mapping the Census

      Mapping the census was a very useful exercise. It helped me develop my skills on ArcGIS by starting with the tutorial and repeating the tasks multiple times to make the three following maps. When I finished the tutorial and began to work on my own, I almost immediately had trouble joining the attribute data with the Counties shapefile. I soon learned that I had to change the format of my Excel documents in order to convert them into usable database files. After this, mapping the census was a breeze because I had done all the necessary steps before in the tutorial, just with different data. The end results, the maps, show me the type of power maps have. For all of my maps I chose to divide the counties by five quartiles, but I realize, if I were to have some specific agenda, I could easily plot the same data differently on a map, giving the viewer very different perceptions. Overall, I am impressed with the capabilities of GIS. It can serve as a very useful tool for many people in an array of situations. GIS visualizes spatial data and makes it easy to understand in relation to other data, which is why the technology is so helpful and sought after.

     This map shows the percentage of Asians in the United States. According to this map, the heaviest Asian population is in Florida, New England, and along the West Coast. The central part of the country including the Midwest and South has little Asian population. However, we must remember that the map is broken into quartiles, and in this case, the upper quartile is less than one percent. What this map shows then, is more so the areas of very low Asian population. Every county that is not the darkest color blue, which is 80% of all counties, has an Asian population of less than 0.88%.

     The African American population is broken up amongst the same way as the Asian population, by five quartiles. However, because the lowest percentage of the highest quartile is at 14%, we can see that there is generally a higher African American percentage dispersed throughout the counties. The heaviest African American population is in the Southeastern part of the country. By examining the trends created by mapping the Asian and African American populations, it is evident that there is not much racial diversity in the Midwest and the central northern states (North and South Dakota, for instance).

     On the census website, there is data available for downloading specifically for the following races: white, black, American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander. "Some other race" then, would consist of races not previously mentioned, such as Latino or Middle Eastern. If a diagonal line was drawn from Seattle to Houston, the highest percentage of some other race would be the highest to the southwest of that line. Besides in this region, the most populated areas with some other race are in Florida, North Carolina, and in the greater New York and Chicago areas.

Week 8- Los Angeles Station Fire

      

      The Los Angeles Station Fire occurred in the mountains of Los Angeles County between the dates of August 29, 2009 and September 2, 2009. It cost $83.1 million to contain, and the lives of two firefighters were lost in the process (KTLA).This 250 square mile blaze (Associated Press) located to the northeast of downtown spread in a generally northern direction, up into the mountains and away from the more urbanized regions of the county. The photo above was taken from the south, looking north toward downtown with the pluming smoke from the Station Fire behind it.

     

     The map below shows the progressive location of the Station Fire in Los Angeles County, laid over a digital elevation model. The perimeters of the fire are mapped over the course of the five days in which it was burning. We can see here that the fire started off in the relatively low elevations and progressively spread more to the mountainous north, east and west. The perimeters of the fire lie mainly along the mountain ridges.The perimeters of the fire at the specific times mapped were as followed:

8/29/09, 2:48 am- 12.78 miles

8/29/09, 2:55 pm- 22.62 miles

8/30/09, 9:14 pm- 84.68 miles

9/02/09, 12:39 am- 118.89 miles

On September 2, the extent of the fire was as followed:

Top: 1,981,813.86 feet

Bottom: 1,899,073.57 feet

Left: 6,458,073.78 feet

Right: 6,569,853 feet

     The map below shows the perimeters of the Station Fire, hospitals, and major highways of Los Angeles County, all laid over a digital elevation model. This map provides us with a general idea of where the more urbanized areas (where there are higher concentrations of highways and hospitals) of the county are in relation to where the fire was. My main focus is the proximity of the fire to hospitals and the impact caused by it.

     The two closest hospitals to the fire were Verdugo Hills Hospital and Impact Drug Treatment Center. They lie just south of the fire perimeters. Verdugo hills Hospital was only 1.34 miles away from the closest flames while the Impact Drug Treatment Center was 2.26 miles away. To the north, the main direction in which the fire spread, the nearest hospital  was the Lancaster Community Hospital at 17.1 miles from the largest perimeter. To the west, the nearest hospital to the fire was the Olive View Hospital, part of the UCLA Medical Center, at 6.6 miles away. In the minutes of a Sylmar town meeting, the town in which Olive View Hospital is located, the debris from the fire was brought up, that the amount from it was unprecedented (DL). Also, just a year earlier, Governor Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for another wildfire, and the hospital was evacuated (Schwarzenegger).

     Luckily, the Station Fire did not necessarily cause damage upon any of the hospitals in the surrounding area and none had to be evacuated. On average, there are twenty-one hospital evacuations per year, and six percent occur due to the threat of an external fire (Westchester).

Bibliography

     Associated Press, "Road Named For Firefighters Killed In Station Fire." November 15, 2010.http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2010/11/15/road-named-for-firefighters-killed-in-station-fire/ (accessed November 29, 2010). 

     DL, "Minutes (to be approved) of the SYLMAR NElGHBORHOOD COUNCIL (SNC) TOWN HALL MEETING." September 30, 2010.http://www.sylmarneighborhoodcouncil.org/minutes-board/2010-0930-minutes.pdf (accessed November 29, 2010). 

     KTLA News, "Report: Number of Firefighters Reduced Before Station Fire." October 2, 2009.http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-angeles-fire,0,5292469.story (accessed November 29, 2010). 


     Schwarzenegger, Arnold. "Gov. Schwarzenegger Proclaims State of Emergency in Los Angeles County Due to Wildfire." November 15, 2008.http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/11045/ (accessed November 29, 2010).

     Westchester Medical Center, "Hospital Evacuation." www.gnyha.org/304/File.aspx (accessed November 29, 2010).

Week 7- Digital Elevation Models

      These digital elevation models are of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. It was at one time an actively volcanic island, giving it its mountainous terrain. Oahu is in UTM zone four and the coordinate system used is GCS North American 1983. The extent information is as follows:
top: 21.7011111111618
bottom: 21.24000000004439
left: -158.2872222221853
right: -157.6344444443986

Distances between Washington D.C. and Kabul, Afghanistan by projection:

Conformal:
                GCS WGS 1984- 7,000 miles
                Mercator- 10,100 miles

Equal Area:
                Goode Homolosine- 10,000 miles
                Mollweide- 7,920 miles
                             
Equidistant:
                Plate Carree- 10,100 miles              
                Equidistant conic- 6,950 miles

            A map projection is a representation of the three dimensional globe on a two-dimensional surface, such as a piece of paper or a computer screen. Because of the difference in the number of dimensions, it would be impossible to copy the globe onto a two-dimensional surface completely accurately. There are many different types of projections that can be used, preserving some certain geographic properties while allow distortions in others, depending on the purpose of the map.
            One type of map projection is equal-area, in which the area of objects on the map is preserved, making these types of maps ideal for projecting continuous raster data. The equal-area projections I used were the Goode Homolosine projection and the Mollweide projection. Goode Homolosine is pseudocylindrical and interrupted, whereas Mollweide is pseudocylindrical and uninterrupted.
            Another type of map projection is equidistant, in which, a distance from some specific point or line on the map is preserved. The equidistant projections I chose to use were Plate Carree and Equidistant Conic. In Plate Carree, distance is preserved at the equator, whereas Equidistant conic is centered on the North Pole.
          One more type of projection I did was conformal, which preserves angles. For this I did GCS WGS 1984 and Mercator. GCS WGS 1984 is the standard coordinate system used for GPS, and Mercator is a cylindrical projection, useful for navigation because of its ability to chart courses without them becoming distorted.
          Clearly there are many different ways to project maps, and we can see why we may want to choose one projection over another, depending on what we want to map. It is also clear that we must be careful with the maps we look at, and we need to consciously take into consideration the amount of distortion present. The distance between Washington D.C. and Kabul, Afghanistan varies by over 3,000 miles depending on which projection is used. Even looking from map to map, we can see how drastic these distortions are. The representation of Antarctica is by for the most various and most profound throughout the different projections.

Week 4- ArcMap Tutorial

 

        I learned a lot from doing the ArcMap tutorial. I realized this nearing the end of tutorial, when it started having me perform specific tasks on my own. I realized I no longer needed specific instructions on how to perform many of the basic tasks. This is because of the semi-repetitive process the tutorial goes through, creating similar, yet very different maps throughout.

       However, I realize I have a lot to learn about ArcGis. I must devote a great deal of time with the program in order to become proficient in using it on my own. As I was working through the tutorial I kept noticing more and more options, actions, settings, objects, and so on, to use. This has led me to believe that the capabilities of this software are not nearly fathomable to me.

       I am now starting to realize the power of ArcGis. The five items which are included on my poster collectively give a very clear visual basis for a proposed airport expansion. I created something that people, from airline pilots to school teachers, can look at and form a very good idea of what such an expansion would entail. Immediately they are able to see where the airport is, where the noise contours, and schools are. They can see what type of land (or parcels) are around the airport, and where most of the population lives. By having this knowledge immediately available by glancing at maps and tables, we are more able to make better decisions about land use.

      There are somethings we need to be careful about when using GIS. We need to be careful of the data we acquire, making sure it's accurate and up to date. Because the visual elements of maps and tables that GIS provides are such strong influences of people's perceptions of the world around them, inaccuracies will literally imprint the wrong pictures in people's heads. This is often very dependent of how we acquire data, so it must be made sure that the sources from which it comes are reliable.

Week 3- Neogeography

View Marin County in a larger map

My family and I lived in Novato, California, which is in Marin County, from the summer of 2001 until this past summer of 2010 (though I started living in LA in 2009 for college). Throughout my eight years of living in Marin, I did a lot of exploration. On this map I marked some of the places that grew to be some of the most important places to me.
Thanks to neogeography, I am able to show these places on a map with relative ease. The convenience of having the map, and then being able to lay out points, lines, and polygons over it, marking wherever is desired, is great. Even beyond just marking places or routes on the map, embedding links, photos, and videos within these makes the experience of the place much more real, in a sense. Neogeography is a huge collaborative effort of people from all over the world and it has the potential to contribute greatly to our knowledge and understanding of the world.

While neogeography has the potential to contribute to our knowledge and understanding, it also has the power to detract from it. Unfortunately, not all people are honest, and even those who are are capable of making mistakes. The accuracy of mash-up maps is certainly something to be wary of. Someone can falsify information about a place, whether on purpose or by accident, and thus provide viewers with wrong information. A viewer may believe things to exist that in reality do not.

Neogeography has both positive and negative consequences. Positively, users are able describe place to others in an unforeseen way, being able to digitally update information and add multimedia. Marking online maps though neogeography as opposed marking on paper maps is by far a much cleaner, easier, and more attainable process. It is also a more environmentally friendly process as well, saving paper and thus, at least to some extent, limiting deforestation. Negatively, not only can people can falsify information about places as mentioned above, but people also have the potential to exploit others through neogeography, and a decline in privacy may result in consequence. Someone can make a mash-up map of celebrity homes, for example, and suddenly crowds could swarm the properties in efforts to get glimpses of their favorite movie stars.

Week 2- Beverly Hills Quadrangle

1. The name of the quadrangle is the Beverly Hills Quadrangle.

2. The names of the adjacent quadrangles are Canoga Park, Van Nuys, Burbank, Topanga, Hollywood, Venice, and Inglewood.

3. The quadrangle was first created in 1966.

4. For horizontal datum, North American Datum of 1927 is used, though North American Datum of 1983 is also represented by off-set corner ticks. For vertical datum, National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 is used.

5. The scale of the map is 1:24,000.

6. a) 1,200 meters
    b) 1.89 miles
    c) 2.64 inches
    d) 12.5 centimeters

7. The contour interval is 20 feet.

8. Coordinates of:

    a) Public Affairs Building
        34.07441°, -118.43931°
        34° 4' 27.876", -118° 26' 21.516"

    b) Tip of Santa Monica Pier
        34.00749°, -118.49982°
        34° 0' 26.9634", -118° 29' 59.3514"

    c) Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir
        34.09801°, -118.41201°
        34° 5' 52.836", -118° 24' 43.2354"

9. Elevation of:

    a) Greystone Mansion (in Greystone Park)
       550 feet
       167 meters

    b) Woodlawn cemetary
       140 feet
       42.7 meters

    c) Crestwood Hills Park
       620 feet
       189 meters

10. The UTM zone of the map is zone 11.

11. The UTM coordinates for the lower left corner of the map are 362000m E, 3763000m N.


12. 1,000,000 square meters are contained within each cell of the UTM gridlines.


13. The points in which the elevation profile crosses UCLA are demarcated by blue squares.

14. The magnetic declination of the map is 14 degrees east.

15. The intermittent stream between the 405 and the Stone Canyon Reservoir flows from north to south.

16.