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.