Week 9: Mapping the Census

Counties with high proportions of people identifying themselves as "black" primarily are located in the South (the Southeastern portion of the United States). The spatial pattern on the map overwhelmingly shows this. The majority of the United States has counties with less than 16.31% blacks, although most of the counties have much less than that. In California, the highest proportions of blacks are in southern California and in the Bay area. Even in this regions, the percentage is still not very high.
The counties with the highest percentage of Asians are primarily located on the west coast. Seattle, the San Francisco Bay area, and the Los Angeles region all have relatively high proportions of Asian Americans. There is also a relatively high proportion of Asians in the New England region. The tendency of having a high proportion of Asian Americans seems to be linked with major cities. This is likely due to the fact that many Asian Americans immigrated to the United States for the purpose of working in industrial areas, and the spatial trend today still reflects that.

Counties with a high proportion of people classified as "Some Other Race Alone" are primarily located in the southwest. Along the Mexican border on the southwest, there is the highest occurrence. This is likely due to the high proportion of Hispanic people of Mexican nationality in the region that do not consider themselves to be any of the other races listed. Counties that do not directly border Mexico but are still nearby also have high percentages of this category. The percentage decreases spatially from south to north in the western United States. The rest of the United States has low percentages of people in this category.

These three maps show spatial distributions of people classified for Census purposes as "Black", "Asian", and "Some Other Race". The general trends are that Asians are focused on the west coast, especially California, blacks are primarily in the southeast region of the country, and "some other race" along the Mexican border. Although there is not a specific map of Caucasians, the data from these maps could lead one to infer that the regions not specified as being associated with one of the previous groups are predominantly Caucasian. However, it is also important to note that these maps show percentages, not actual numbers. So, even though the largest physical area is predominantly Caucasian by percentage, these counties in the central part of the country have low population density and it would be misleading to assume that the total percentages of "black", "Asian", and "Some other race" in the country would resemble the distribution by county. A county like Los Angeles has far more people than a county of comparably physical size in Tennessee or Kansas. Nonetheless, these maps do allow us to see spatial patterns of how people of different groups are distributed, and it is evident that clustering does exist.

My overall impression of GIS is that it is very useful, but that it does have limitations. Using GIS we have been able to make interactive thematic maps, show the spread of a fire, make 3-D models of a region, and many other useful applications. What has struck me the strongest is that the mapmaker has so much power in regards to what the map conveys. Based on decisions that the GIS user makes, the data shown could be interpreted in very different ways. I think that GIS will continue to become more and more relevant in the private and public sector with increased access to shared databases. The field will continue to grow and find more and more applications. I was overall impressed with the user accessibility of ArcGIS and its associated software and I am looking forward to using it more in the future in advanced GIS classes.

Week 8: Station Fire

The Effect of the Station Fire on Local Transportation

In Southern California, transportation is always of concern for the millions of people who live in the region. . A fire with such a large range as the Station Fire that swept through in late August and early September of 2009 had to cross several roads that people depend on for transportation. The Station Fire covered over 160,000 acres (“Station Fire”). This report analyzes how and why the fire spread the way that it did, which roads were affected, and if the fire hadn’t been contained, which roads would likely have been affected next. This report is intended for use in planning for future fires. Three maps are included with this report and referenced by their respective numbers. Map 1 is a reference map showing how the fire spread. The fire’s perimeter on each day from August 29, 2009 to September 2, 2009 is shown on the map. This map gives a spatial reference of the fire’s location within Los Angeles County. The fire spread from its original extent (August 29) primarily north and another branch spread to the east by the second day (August 30). The perimeter continued to expand to the east, north, and west until it reaches its final perimeter on September 2, 2009.

Some factors which influence the way that a fire spreads include aspect, elevation, and slope. Aspect, or the direction a slope is facing, affects the wind and solar radiation that the area experiences. This also has an influence on the humidity and fuel types in the region. South and southwest aspects encourage spread of the fire because they receive more solar radiation, resulting in higher fuel temperatures and lower relative humidity. The daytime upslope winds are also stronger on these slops (Long). Map 2 layers the fire perimeter from August 30 and from September 2 over a digital elevation model showing the aspect of the region affected by the fire. There is a large amount of south and southwest facing slopes within the perimeter of the spread. The region the fire did not spread to is dominated by east facing slopes. Therefore, it is very possible that aspect influenced the way that this fire spread. Another factor that influences the spread of fire is elevation. At high elevations, temperature is lower and precipitation and relative humidity are higher, all reducing the spread of a fire (Long). Because this region is in Los Angeles County, which is near sea level, this area is not at extremely high elevation and the spread of fire is not limited by these factors. Map 2 shows the Hill Shade of the region, and you can see that the region is hilly. Some areas in the fire's perimeter had higher elevations than others, which also may have influenced its spread. The final influencing factors is slope. Greater slopes increase the spread of fire because flames are closer to fuel upslope from the front of the flames, preheating the fuel (Long). The slope model in Map 2 shows that the fire’s region experiences a “High” level of slope, while the area south of the fire had a “Low” level. The terrain in the incidence report also describes this area as “steep and rugged” (“Station Fire”). Both of these sources indicate that the region has steep slopes, which likely influenced the fire to spread north. The fire’s spread can then be attributed to aspect, elevation, and slope, among other factors.

The roads and their relation to the fire are shown on Map 3. The major roads within the perimeter of the fire by September 2 include Big Tujunga Canyon Road, State Highway 2, and the Angeles Forest Highway. On September 10, the following roads and highways were closed: Santa Anita Canyon Rd to Chantry Flats is closed at Arno Dr., Aliso Canyon Rd at Angeles Forest Hwy, Big Tujunga Canyon Rd at Angeles Forest Hwy, Big Rock Creek Rd closed at Big Pines Rd, Highway 39 between San Gabriel Canyon Road and East Fork Rd, Angeles Crest Hwy between Big Pines Hwy and mile marker 26.7 north of Altadena, Big Pines Hwy at SR-2, and Cheney Trail at Angeles National Forest gate. These roads lay both within and outside of the limit of the fire perimeter, shown in Map 3.

Had the fire not been contained when it did, it would have likely continued to burn east. This would have affected a greater portion of State Highway 2. This is because the aspect of the area to the east is south and southwest, which encourages the spread of fire, and the terrain is still greatly sloped to the east. The fire was not likely to start spreading south, because the slope and aspect of the land to the south are not conducive to the spread of fire. Interstate 210 was close to the region where the fire started, but it remained safe because of its position south of the fire. This was fortunate, since shutting down an Interstate would inconvenience large numbers of people. The roads and highways to the north, northeast, and northwest of the original perimeter were in the burn area and were (and some continue to be) shut down. If the fire had continued burning north, Soledad Canyon Road and State Highway 14 would have been affected as well.

Part of the recovery process after the fire included rehabilitating the roads (“Station Fire”). However, the denuded landscape still threatens the safety of people using these roads. The Angeles Forest Highway and Big Tujuna Canyon Road were closed to the public months after the fire in January 2010 due to the anticipation of a large storm (KPCC). The status of the affected roads changes frequently. As of May 13, 2010, State Highway 2 from La Canada-Flintridge to Mount Wilson Road was closed to the public due to severe damage resulting from heavy rains. This section of highway is expected to reopen by mid to late Summer 2010. As repair work continues on the highway at lower elevations, the highway is open at higher elevations from Mount Wilson Road to State Route 138. County roads (Angeles Forest Highway, Big Tujunga Canyon Road, Upper Big Tujunga, etc.) leading to SR-2 are open to the public, but are construction zones, so drivers should expect delays (Chandler). Therefore, transportation continues to be affected by the Station Fire even months after it has been smoldered out. It is necessary that we be able to contain fires before they burn such a large area so that resources are not spent making repairs and so many lives are not inconvenienced.

Works Cited

Chandler, Patrick. “Angeles Crest Highway (SR-2) Repair Work Continues.” State of California Department of Transportation. 13 May 2010. 19 May 2010 http://dpw.lacounty.gov/CARE/files/caltrans051310.pdf.

Long, A. and D. Kennard. “Effects of Topography on Fire Intensity and Rate of Spread.” Forest Encyclopedia Network. 14 Nov. 2009. 19 May 2010 http://www.forestencyclopedia.net/p/p489.

KPCC. “County roads in Station Fire area to close in advance of rain.” Southern California Public Radio. 16 Jan. 2010. 19 May 2010 http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/01/16/county-roads-station-fire-area-close-advance-rain/.

KTLA. “Evacuation Info, Road and School Closures.” KTLA.com: Info. 10 Sept. 2009. 19 May 2010 http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-station-fire-evacuations,0,7123246.story.

“Station Fire.” Inciweb: Incident Information System. 10 Nov. 2009. 19 May 2010 http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/.

Maps: 1, 2, 3

Week 7: Digital Elevation Models

The area that I selected is in the Los Angeles region. The extent of the area, in decimal degrees is 119.409 W to 118.824 W, and 34.438 N to 34.827 N. The geographic coordinate system is North American Datum 1983 (UTM Zone 11). The region I chose is hilly in its topography, as easily seen by the 3-D models below. By looking at the aspect map, it can be seen that a lot of the land faces north/south rather than east/west. The slope of the hills is relatively gentle, except at the peaks (shown by red areas on the slope map). The hillshade map gives a good picture of the general terrain. I included the 3-D images from two different angles to give a greater picture about what the region generally looks like.

Week 6: Map Projections

Map projections are necessary because a three dimensional sphere, like Earth, cannot be flawlessly represented on a two dimensional map. When we try to represent the Earth on a flat surface, distortions occur which could be deceiving to the map reader. However, maps are able to preserve certain features, such as direction, distance, or area. This makes particular maps better for specific purposes than others. Three map projection categories that I have included in my ArcGIS project are equal area, equidistant, and conformal. Depending on what the map is being used for, each of these categories could be beneficial. When looking at the distance between two cities, such as between Washington D.C. and Kabul, Afghanistan in my project, different results will be yielded based on the type of projection used. Some projections exaggerate the distance by almost double. This is one example of why map projections matter when doing spatial analysis.


The first two maps on my project are equal area projections. An equal area map is made so that one square kilometer drawn on one portion of the map is equal in area to a square kilometer drawn on another portion. The Bonne projection is a pseudoconical equal area map projection. It has a slight heart shape, and on the central meridian and standard latitudes shapes are not distorted. The other equal area map on my project is the Hammer-Aitoff. Hammer created this equal area map based on Aitoff’s equidistant map. One aspect of the significance of an equal area map is that it does not exaggerate the sizes of continents relative to each other. This could be important because for political purposes, political leaders could choose a map projection which makes their country look gigantic compared to another country, when in reality the countries are close to the same size. It could be used as propaganda to advocate going to war against another country. Thus, the map projection could be purposely used to deceive the viewer. When relative area is an important aspect of a map, an equal area projection is a useful tool.


The next map projections are equidistant, a map that is centered so that any distance from the central given point is an accurate representation of the distance from that point. Distance is not preserved from any point on the map, but only to the one or two control points. One type of map projection that can be classified as equidistant is the Sinusoidal projection. This is equidistant in the respect that the true distance between two points on the same meridian corresponds to the distance on the map between the two parallels. Another equidistant projection is the equidistant conic projection. On this map the meridians are all equidistant, straight lines which converge at a point, and parallels are arcs of circle, in which distortion is constant along the arc. One significant feature of an equidistant map is that you can compare your distance to other places on the Earth, if you were located at a control point on the map. This could be helpful in determining the shortest route to take if you were on an airplane. Equidistant maps in my project were fairly accurate in projecting the distance from Washington D.C. to Kabul, Afghanistan, even though neither city was a control point on the map. The equidistant conic projection gave the most accurate distance between the two cities of any projection featured in my project.


The final map type represented in my projection is conformal. On conformal maps, angles are preserved locally. This means that a small area can be rendered in its true shape. These maps use grids of longitude and latitude. They do not preserve area or distance, but give a good general picture of the Earth. One example is the Gall Stereographic projection. While temperate countries are shown well on this projection, its vertical stretch creates a large amount of distortion at the poles. This would make this map a poor choice for analyzing how much remaining habitat there is for polar bears. Another example is the Mercator projection, which also greatly distorts the size of land near the poles. The significance of this map is that it is useful for nautical purposes due to its ability to preserve local angles. The linear scale is constant in all directions around a point.


The map projection that is most useful for a specific purpose depends on what is trying to be shown by the map. Equal area, equidistant, and conformal map projections are all useful for certain purposes, but can be misleading if used for other purposes due to distortion. In order to determine the utility of a map, we must be able to understand the implications of the distortions. While these distortions may be dismissible on a small scale, when looking at the world as a whole the distortions are magnitudes larger. By looking at the distance between Washington D.C. and Kabul, Afghanistan on each map projection, it is clear that the distortions really do matter.

Week 4: GIS Data Models

The ArcGIS tutorial takes the user through many of the features available on the program. While it gives the user the freedom to analyze spatial data, many of the features are not intuitive and the user is therefore limited by the program’s complexity. Yet undoubtedly, the potential of GIS is huge. Because it allows its user to store, edit, and create data, it brings us to a new age of information sharing. The main pitfall of the software that I observe is that it is not easy to use for the untrained geographer.
GIS gives people the ability to create maps without having to perform repetitive work. It stores information such as population density, county borders, and school locations so that each geographer making a map of a particular area does not have to start over and collect information all over again. It gives users the ability to build off information already input into the program, while leaving creative freedom to the individual. As more and more information is acquired, GIS becomes very important. It gives us a way of analyzing this data. Population density is important to analyze when deciding where to place community resources such as hospitals and fire departments. GIS can help us decide how to allocate resources in the most spatially effective way.
Another great area of potential in GIS is that we are able to see relationships and correlations by plotting data on the same map. This is applicable to many fields and careers. An example is compiling a map to judge environmental justice in a region. This may consist of a map layered with pollution information and with the race of people living in the region. This type of spatial analysis allows us to determine when environmental injustice is occurring, giving us the possibility to better address it. It would obviously be best if no one had to live in pollution, but unfortunately there is not so much environmental equity in reality. Certain neighborhoods bear the brunt of our pollution, and it is only by comparing these areas spatially to other areas that we can pinpoint these problems. GIS therefore gives us greater understanding of spatial relations so we can make sensible decisions.
However, GIS does have its pitfalls. Unlike neogeography, GIS is map-centric. Neogeography is friendly to the user, and the average person is able to easily create and use maps in new ways. GIS, on the other hand, requires training. While the tools desired by the user may be available through the program, if the user is unable to access these features then it is useless. GIS also has the potential to make the user think they are seeing the “whole picture” when looking at a region, when in reality key information may be missing. An example is that if an elementary school was placed in a region because the population density was relatively high but there was an absence of schools in the area, the school may not be needed because the majority of the population in the region may be past retirement age. Therefore, a flaw in GIS is that it may seem to be representing all the important features of a region, but in reality could be excluding very important data.
When going through the tutorial for the 4th or 5th time, I felt like I was getting a firm grasp on the program ArcGIS. I am comfortable with the main tools and feel that I would be able to do spatial analysis regarding any of the features in the tutorial. However, I do feel that I am limited in my knowledge to what was included in the tutorial. If I had to do spatial analysis in a rural area, I might not be prepared. When something went wrong in the tutorial and I couldn’t click “Undo”, I had no way of troubleshooting the error. The problem comes down to this fact: Using GIS is a skill that must be learned and practiced to be effective. The tutorial is easy to follow and is a great algorithm for making the specified map, but even after thoroughly reviewing the tutorial, the user has barely even tapped the surface of the capabilities of the program. So, while GIS has clear potential to make astonishing leaps in information technology, the pitfall is that its success is limited by the number of people who can use it.

Week 3: Neogeography

Be In the Audience!

Attending tapings of TV shows is an entertaining, inexpensive way to spend your day without much planning, especially if you live near a major city. This map lays out TV shows that use live studio audiences when they tape. These shows are all free to attend so the only cost to you is transportation. Ticket reservations for most shows can usually be made online.

Use this map to find show tapings near you, or near a place you will be visiting!

Click a flag on the map to find which TV show is taped there, a brief description of the show, the link to request tickets, and a video clip to give you an idea of whether or not this show would be interesting to you.

It is recommended that you open this map in a larger window using the link under the embedded map for user convenience.

View Be in the Audience! in a larger map.

Notes About the Map:

Destinations on the map are placed based on the address of the studio where the show is filmed. While the link to get tickets for all shows is shown, tickets are not available year-round for all shows, and some shows tickets are given out based on a lottery system. Video clips are shown for all shows except Saturday Night Live because video clips from SNL are usually taken down almost immediately due to copyright infringement, so there is a still image in place of a video.

Commentary:

Neogeography opens up a world of potential when it comes to information sharing and spatial thinking. With easy-to-use technology like My Maps on Google Maps, virtually anyone can create mashups and display information in a spatial way. With billions of people in the word and increased availability of internet access, there is an abundance of custom maps that range from useful to entertaining to bazaar. With this abundance in information comes the potential for great leaps in technology and progression as a society. Neogeography allows users to interact with the world around them in new ways. One way that these maps have the potential to help people is through interactives maps such as the one found at http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/. This map plots sex offenders in California so that anyone can pull up the map and see where sex offenders live in their neighborhood. While this is not desirable for the sex offenders themselves, especially if they are trying to move on from a mistake in the past, or to a person trying to sell a house that happens to be located next door to an offender, it does give useful information to families living in an area with many registered sex offenders. These families may want to take extra precautions to protect their children. It allows parents to recognize individuals that live nearby that have committed atrocious acts, so that they can better protect themselves and their families. If having this information available prevents even one horrible act from occurring, then it would be difficult to argue that this information availability doesn’t have positive consequences.

While neogeography is revolutionary in terms of the organizing and displaying information, the question arises, as it does with every breakthrough in information technologies, can this be a bad thing? It could be certainly argued that neogeography has dangerous pitfalls. For the same reasons that neogeography is good, such as that it allows data to be viewed spatially by users, it could also have undesirable consequences. One example of this is the mashup found at www.eightmaps.com, which is a mashup of Google Maps and Prop 8 Donors. This map shows the locations, names, occupations, and amounts donated of people who donated to pass Proposition 8, a highly controversial proposition on California’s ballot in November 2008 that banned same sex marriage in the state. This map is a user-friendly way for anyone to see which people in their town, or even street, donated to help pass Proposition 8. This subjects the donors to consequences such as vandalism or violence from those whose lives affected by the proposition passing. Another pitfall of neogeography is that the information on the maps may not be accurate. Unless the maps are from a credible source, their utility is limited by their reliability. Neogeography opens up new possibilities, some good and some bad, that can and will change the way we think about the world.

Week 2: USGS Topographic Maps

Lab 2:

1) The quadrangle is called the Beverly Hills Quadrangle (Located in Los Angeles County, CA).

2)

NW: Canoga Park
N: Van Nuys
NE: Burbank
W: Topanga
E: Hollywood
S: VeniceSE: Inglewood

3) 1966
4) North American Datum of 1927 and North American Datum of 1983 were used to create the map.

5) The scale is 1:24,000.

6)

a. [1/24,000] = [5 cm/d) d= 120,000 cm
[120,000 cm] x [1 m/100 cm] = 1,200 m

b. [1/24,000] = [5 in/d]
d= 120,000 in
[120,000 in] x [1 ft/12 in] x [1 mile/5,280 ft] = 1.8939 miles

c. [1/24,000] = [d/1 mile]
[1/24,000] miles x [5280 ft/1 mile] x [12 in/1 ft] = 2.64 in

d. [1/24,000] = [d/3 km]
d= .000125 km
[.000125 km] x [1000 m/1 km] x [100 cm/1 m] = 12.5 cm

7) 20 feet

8)
a. 34*04'26'' N, 118*26'21'' W or 34.074*N, 118.439*W

b. 34*00'27'' N, 118*29'58'' W or 34.008*N, 118.499*W

c. 34*07'13'' N, 118*24'36'' W or 34.120*N, 118.41*W

9)
a. 580 ft or 176.78 m
b. 140 ft or 42.672 m
c. About 650 ft or 198.120 m

10) Zone 11

11) 3,763,000 m N, 361,500 m E

12) 1 square kilometer

13)

14) The magnetic declination is 14 degrees (or 249 Mils) East.

15) The water flows south because the elevation is higher at the most northern part of the map and decreases as the stream goes south.

16)

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