Final In Class Activity

Lab 5a: More Practice with Spatial Analysis

1. How many counties does the State of Iowa contain? (2 pts)
99 Counties
2. Which county in Georgia contains the largest number of people, as of the year 2001? (2
pts)
Fulton County with a population of 832094

3. How many cities, with populations greater than 15,000, are located within the State of
Washington? (2 pts)
There are 39 cities with populations greater than 15000 in the State of Washington.

4. How many miles long are all of the interstates that are crossed by the outline of Los
Angeles County? (2 pts)
The total mileage is 3851.13751 miles.

5. Simplify the UrbanBoundaries feature class so that only the urban areas of Los Angeles
County are visible (Hint: you will use one of the overlay functions: clip, intersect, or
union). Include a screenshot of this new layer in your blog. How many acres of urban
area lie within Los Angeles County? (2 pts)
There are 1367445.890625 acres of Urban Area in Los Angeles County.

6. How many zip codes have their centroid in Los Angeles County? (2 pts)
There are 522 zip codes that have their centroid in Los Angeles County.

7. Create a layer displaying the provinces of Canada using the data provided to you in the
Canada dataset. Save this new layer under the Canada dataset using the name
Provinces. Include a screenshot of this new layer in your blog. (2 pts)




8. Which Native American Indian Reservations lie within 75 miles of the City of Thurso in
Quebec, Canada? (2 pts)
There are 5 Native American Indian Reservations that lie within 75 miles of the City of Thurso.

Lab 4a: Working With Tables

This series of maps provides a visual representation of Census data in the year 2000 of the percentage of the population by county that cho0se a specific race when filling out the Census. This map specifically is showing the nationwide distribution of people who chose Black on the Census, where darker colors represent an increased percentage. What immediately stands out is the high concentration of Black that runs through the South and Southeast portion of the country. However, larger concentrations of people also appear in other various counties across the country, such as the region around Chicago and Los Angeles and San Francisco. Another point that stood out to me was that even with in the south, the largest area with a high percentage of the population being Black follows the Mississippi River from the tip of Illinois through Mississippi down into Louisiana. It is worth noting though that compared to other two maps, the middle two levels of color coding still indicate a very significant percentage of the population. In this map the greatest concentration is up to 86.5% of the population versus other maps where the largest concentration does not exceed 47%.

This map shows the population distribution in percent by county of people who identified as Asian. Again certain areas immediately stand out, such as Hawaii and along the West Coast, specifically California along with congregation in other areas of large population, such as Houston, Chicago, D.C. and New York. As mentioned, even in the areas with coded with the highest percentage range could only be slightly over half the population by percentage compared to counties with a high concentration of Blacks. This may be a result of the size of counties, where counties are much smaller on the east coast in addition to the fact that many counties in California are very diverse with large populations of Latinos and Blacks in addition to Asian.

This map provides a population distribution by county in percentage for a group labeled “Some Other Race” on the Census. As is obvious on the map above, counties in the Southwest and along the West Coast have greater concentrations of people in this category. Again it should be noted that “Some Other Race” is never over 40% of the population and that this may again be due to the size of counties in the western half of the country compared to the South and South East. There are also other outlying hotspots of population concentration, such as Florida and in the Northwest, specifically Washington State. Though the category “Some Other Race” is supposed to cover all populations not covered by the other categories, it seems extremely likely that even considering other minority groups and people of mixed ethnic and racial background, that the group “Some Other Race” is dominated by Latinos. I think that this is a fairly safe conclusion given the distribution of population show on the map. It is well known, and anyone living in California or anywhere in the Southwest can attest to this, that there is a large Latino population in the Southwest and California. Given that there is no category on the Census for a group of people that make up a substantial portion of our local population it seems fairly obvious that they are the group best represented by this Census data. Additional details on this map also provide evidence for this conclusion, such as the increases in Florida, where there is a larger Cuban and Puerto Rican population and the increased percentages in the Upper Northwest where many Latinos have previously or continue to work in agricultural industry.

Overall, I found this Census map series project very helpful for applying some of the fundamental skills we learned in previous labs and lectures. This lab specifically highlighted the ease, but attention to detail required when performing basic data organization, calculations and applying classification schemes. GIS is a very powerful tool, but even on a simple project like this, if you did not pay attention to background details such as organization of your data files, projection settings and even something as simple as how you choose to save your data paths a simple project can become frustrating and require a lot of time consuming backtracking. However, given the number of steps it would take to accomplish these types of maps in other basic software, I was pleasantly surprised when the process of joining and selecting data to be highlighted was actually as straightforward as the lectures implied.

With that said, each project continually increases my awareness of the potentials of the GIS software and the opportunities to ask and answer geographic based questions. Not only does working with the program give you access to a powerful tool to do your own analysis, but I also think it provides insight into how corporations and agencies and other professionals are constructing and thinking about their analysis as well. At the risk of becoming tangential, I think that in the world of politics where many important decisions are made using data such as this, it is easy to overlook the potential faults or undervalue the potential of data if you have not been exposed to the science and methodology used to create that data. Ultimately I find working with GIS has highlighted the need to have a better geographic intelligence when thinking critically about other issues.

Lab 3a: ArcGIS and Projections

Having knowledge of your physical surroundings has always been important whether it is for economic, political, military or even basic survival purposes. Having an accessible, detailed and accurate representation of these physical surroundings is a continuing challenge even in modern times. The primary source of this problem stems from the fact that a sphere cannot be represented or transformed into a two dimensional object without distortions to the original object, such as distance, area and shapes. In order to address this projections are used to preserve specific characteristics of the sphere. A projection is a method of representing a sphere or an ellipsoid on a flat surface utilizing mathematical models, or originally using a light to project an image or shadow of the sphere onto a flat surface. This ability to create accurate two dimensional representations using projections is incredible valuable, seeing as carrying around a 3D dimensional model at all times is highly impractical. Even today with 3D or pseudo-3D digital models, time and resources are saved by using the appropriate flat projection and it seems doubtful that computer 3D modeling would have developed without the original techniques to make accurate 2D models.

There are an unlimited number of possible projections; however the most common types can be separated into three types: Conformal, Equidistant and Equal Area. Figure 1 shows two examples of Conformal projections, a type that focuses on preserving objects and shapes located on the globe. In both the Stereographic and Mercator projections angles are preserved, as seen by latitude and longitude maintaining intersections at right angles. Another type of projection, Equidistant, shown in Figure 2, attempts to maintain accurate distances between objects. The third main category of projections, because it is not focusing on distance or shapes, focuses on preserving the area of objects on the globe. Figure 3 demonstrates this as each 30 degree by 30 degree cell on the grid has approximately the same area.

Taking advantage of the strengths of each projection is dependent on the creator of the model and if done correctly can provide important benefits. As mentioned previously, there are immense advantages to having accurate spatial data in all areas of society, and in the modern era the necessity of having this data is growing. From a technical perspective, choosing and correctly utilizing a projection has benefits in the form of time and energy. If a sufficient 2D model is created time can be saved when it would have been used to create a physical or digital 3D model instead. However, also on a societal scale projections have allowed for increased ease of planning and operating from areas of marine charts that allow easier straight line navigation to projections that allow efficient planning of satellite orbits. Regardless of the purpose the benefits of choosing the appropriate projection for the task at hand should not be overlooked.

With this said, as projections are chosen for their benefits, one must also acknowledge their faults and the challenges they present. Referring back to the previous Figures, in each case where a feature or element of a sphere was preserved another component has significant distortion. In Figure 1 with Conformal projections as you get farther from the equator the area of each grid box increases, until Greenland is the size of Africa and Antarctica becomes an enormous disproportionately large landmass at the bottom of the map. Each projection has its own disadvantages, which is potentially problematic not only for users of the maps, if they are unaware of the extent of distortions and the implications that may have on their calculations using the map, but also with creators of maps. If incorrect projections are used, people working in GIS may unknowingly create incorrect data, if the projection they are using does not match up with the projections of their other data, or if they are using the wrong projection for their intended purpose. However projections are made, whether using modern day computing or existing as century old maps, their development and subsequent widespread use attempts to overcome the same fundamental problem that has always plagued geographers.

Lab 2b: An Introduction to ArcMap

As demonstrated in class and through a tutorial lesson, ArcMap and the ArcGIS Suite are sophisticated tools for spatial analysis that delve beyond the needs of neogeographers and the software found in Geobrowsers. While neogeographers have the ability to overlay various sets of data, such as a map and their favorite restaurant locations, ArcMap allows for a much more detailed set of manipulation that focuses on data analysis versus generating and sharing media content.

The program highlights the opportunity for data analysis and comparing seemingly separate data sets. For example, in the relatively simple introductory tutorial you are able to analyze the changes in the noise contour generated by an airport expansion to see which of the surrounding areas and schools will be affected. The potential benefits are extensive, providing an efficient means for dealing with a large quantity of data that can be organized and then analyzed, and finally presented in an accessible format. I can easily understand the widespread use of this in various sectors of business and government.

From a user’s perspective, the software also has many benefits. The organization of toolbars and data is easily understandable for someone with basic computer experience. Also various functions such as layout organization, graph creation, color scheme presentation and other visual elements or medium for presenting data, though not intuitive are also easily understood following the tutorial.

However, despite the numerous benefits, from my learning experience, there also seems to be a significant number of challenges to those learning to use the software. Though the layout is well organized and relatively simple, the system used for organizing and saving source data is challenging and there are many opportunities for error that can send the user struggling to correct or locate the problem. This difficultly continues in many of the more simple steps as well, where a small error will leave a user frustrated and struggling to find where they went wrong. Also, at this point, despite using the tutorial multiple times, though I understand and can replicate the processes it seems difficult to develop an intuitive feel for the program that would allow one to efficiently plan and edit their own project using the software. However, despite this steep learning curve, the program is very well designed and with patience and practice users will have a powerful tool at their disposal whose application seems limited only by the data available.