Assignment 8

          The Los Angeles Station Fire of 2009 was significant because it was one of the biggest fires in California in 2009.  It originated in the Angeles National Forest and "threatened the nearby residential communities of La Canada Flintridge, Glendale, Acton, La Crescenta, Littlerock and Altadena, Sunland and Tujunga forcing mandatory evacuations of inhabitants from their dwelling." (Wikipedia)  My station firemap outlines the residential neighborhoods that the fire affected as well as the severety and impact the fire had on the interstate transportation system.
          Given the high combustion potential of the Angeles National Forest, and the close proximity of the suburban communities of the Los Angeles county to the south, the question of arson comes up because this seems like the perfect place to initiate a fire.  On September 3, officials had confirmed that an act of arson had started the fire, "after discovering certain accelerants at the fire's point of origin" (Slate), which is labeled as the green-blue figure on the map.  It would seem that the arsonist attempted to start it as close to the residential areas (gray) as possible.
          The map shows the major streets/freeways throughout the Los Angeles county, and from speculation it doesn't seem like the station fire was relatively catastrophic to the transportation sector as it could have been.  There are freeway systems to the east/west of the station fire which still connect the Hollywood/the Valley to central Los Angeles.  They probably only slightlier congested.
          In the aftermath of the fire, a spatial analysis calculated that the Station Fire had destroyed 168,000 acres of forest land.  A widespread ecosystem restoration movement needs to take place in order to accelerate the regeneration process to get the forest back to a sustainable condition.  "Two organizations - Tree People and the US Forest Service - have collaborated to offer training classes for restoration volunteers." (Real-estate-blog)
          Even though only minimal structural damage was caused by the Station Fire, surrounding residents had to deal with the aftermath of "thick smoke and ash hanging in the air, causing air quality to drop to unhealthful levels in many parts." (Boston) This fire also contributed to further increase the amount of greenhouse gasses in the global atmosphere because of the decrease of carbon fixing evergreen trees which in turn leads to an increase in global warming.
        
"2009 California Wildfires." Wikipedia.com, n.p., 31 Oct. 2011, Web. 09 Dec 2011
"How Did the Station Fire Start?" slate.com, n.p., 3 Sep. 2009, Web. 09 Dec 2011
"Report: Number of Firefighters Reduced Before Station Fire" ktla.com, KTLA News., 2 Oct. 2009, Web. 09 Dec 2011
"Wildfires in Southern California" boston.com, Big Picture., 2 Sep 2009, Web. 09 Dec 2011
"Station Fire La Canada Flintridge - Reforestation Volunteers Needed " real-estate-blog.com, The Real Estate Blog, 28 February 2010, Web. 09 Dec 2011

Assignment 7

The Black Population Density by Counties map shows that there is a significantly higher density of blacks located in the southeastern United States, especially in east Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, with some areas in California.  From my speculation, this distribution is due to the establishment of black communities/populations when slavery was prominent. The majority of the national population was settled in the eastern United States during the days of slavery.  The Civil War was between the division of the north and the slavery-favored south.

The Asian Population Density by Counties map shows that most Asians have settled in mostly coastal regions especially California, New York, and Washington.  They are also distributed fairly consistenly, albiet sparsely throughout the entire United States.  The reason for this distribution is because many Asian are immigrants and many coastal regions (especially New York's Ellis Island) serve as gateway hubs for entrance into the country.  Upon coming to the country, it is just more convenient to settle somewhere along the coastal regions due to three reasons: 1) Its expensive to commute far 2) Many Asian communities are already established around these regions making it a relatively safer haven for incoming Asians  3) Many coastal cities are industrial and globalized compared the rest of the nation, allowing for ease of job placement and advancement.

The Other Race Population Denisity by Counties map is referring to the distribution of the Hispanic populations within the United States.  Through observation, one can point out that most Hispanics have settled throughout Southern California, Texas and New Mexico.  This is because of these locations close proximity with the Mexican border which a good amount of Hispanics illegally cross.

Plotting out census data into maps allows for spatial analysis that's easier and more efficient than just looking at the numbers from the data.  Sure, its possible for one to recognize these patterns from just the datasets, however, it takes time and high intellectual capacity.  GIS allows the average person to see trends and make conclusions on the distribution of race according to density, in regards to this lab. After the completion of this assignment, I have come to realized that GIS still has a lot that it could improve on, especially the process of editing, saving, and altering file types.  A tutorial or explanation is necessary for most processes, otherwise one could rely on trial and error and poring through toolbars to get their task done.  A program's efficiency is hindered when its powerful features are difficult to fully utilize. 

Assignment 6

          These maps oversee the merging of the California Interstate 215 with the 15 directly north of Fontana and south of Hesperia.  The road cuts through the a mountain structure with the Cleghorn mountain on the upper right with the Lower Lytle Creek ridge on the bottom left.  The coordinates for this location  stretches from -117.922 to -117.133 in terms of latitude, and 34.109 to 34.547 in terms of longitude.  The datum for this map originated from the 1983 North American GCS.  The slope view shows the terrain moderately inclined in the lower left half, while relatively flat in the upper right.  The direction of the slope is torwards the north for the area east of the freeway, while the slope direction varies in the area west of the freeway.  From the observation of the 3d model, it is obvious that landscaping was necessary get the freeway to cut through the mountainous pass. 

Assignment 5

Conformal Projections

Equidistant Projections

Equal Area Projections

          The selection of map projection is dependent on how one wants to convey specific information.  All projections fall under three categories: Equal Area, Equidistant, and Conformal.  Each category has different guidelines on how the spatial data is presented.  Equal area projections preserve equivalent areas to their real-world counterparts, while equidistant projections preserve equivalent distances and conformal projections preserve local angles which account for equivalent shapes. 

          Conformal maps preserve shape proportions but lose size proportions in the process.  This is obvious in the Mercator projection where the lines of latitude are increasing in distance as they move further from the equator, distorting Greenland and Antarctica to extreme proportions.  In the Stereographic map, Australia is shown as big as the U.S. and Canada combined. This also distorts space between locations, giving a distance from Washington DC to Kabul much higher than the true measured distance. 

          Equidistant maps preserve distance proportions but lose size and shape proportions in the process.  An equidistant map gives the closest approximation of the distance from Kabul to Washington D.C. to its true distance of 11,153 km.  This map is distinguishable due to the equal distance between its lines of latitude and longitude.  In the Equidistant Cylindrical map, South America is obviously stretched out vertically to preserve distance.

         Equal Area maps preserve area proportions but lose shape and distance proportions in doing so.  The margin of error in terms of distance is usually less then conformal projections but not as good as equidistant projections.

Assignment 4

 

       Upon initiating my first experience with ArcMap, I was initially intimidated by the foreign program layout and the multitude of powerful features it possesses. However, those were the two things that gave me much appreciation to the program after I had completed the tutorial in its entirety.  It functions not only as a database management system, but one that could store, manipulate, analyze and store data in a spatial format.  The spatial distributions, connections, and associations of information presents data in a different light than what statistics could offer.  The effective use of GIS formulates new questions and hypothesis, not previously seen without a spatial perspective.  For example, in a hypothetical situation, say we map out the distribution of Republican/Democratic voters throughout the United States and observe that there are more Democrats in coastal regions.  A conclusion of that nature would be relatively difficult to encounter without the implementation of GIS. 

         

          Another feature that had really impressed me was the plethora of features that ArcMap had to offer, enabling one to customize the output of spatial data to their liking.  This enables to analyze data in a method that brains, calculators, statistics programs, and other programs can’t compete with.   A sociologist, geologist, geographer, politician, scientist, engineer and/or many other professionals could find the specific answer to the specific question they are asking. 

         

          Despite its impressive potential, GIS has several pitfalls.  One hindrance towards maximum efficiency and the universal implementation of ArcMap is its learning curve and its complex code translation among developers working on a big project.  Finding, hiring, training, and maintaining skilled candidates who are intellectually capable of processing such tools can be costly and time consuming.  In large GIS projects, developers usually work in large teams splitting up different facets of map.  This could the potential for overlap, miscommunication, confusion with different developer’s intentions and coding styles.  This could lead to missed deadlines, reduced efficiency and misinformation regarding the spatial analysis of data.

          GIS is also costly from a hardware and software standpoint.  I had wanted to install ArcMap on my own personal computer for convenience, however it was extremely expensive, and I needed a computer with a relatively fast processor to handle the bulk of the program.   Making a more compact, cheaper GIS program would sacrifice its current functionality.  This is similar to neogeography, where the average person could afford and understand with minimal work. 

Assignment 3

View JJ's Grand Canyon Trip in a larger map

about the pitfalls, potential and consequences of neogeography.

          Neogeography allows everyone to be considered geographers to some degree. It allows people with a limited understanding of geographic principles the ability to map out their vacations, share location information of their experiences, or convey understanding of any random information they might want to share. For the more technologically saavy, several neogeographic programs have the capability to allow the user to program mash-ups that map out geographically based data.  This leads to the new statistics, metrics, frequencies and trends that no-one might've discovered before.  This also eliminates the need for the average layperson to purchase and invest time learning expensive and complex GIS programs.  Neogeography also supplements GIS and the field of geography as a whole, getting a bigger mass interested in the study and investing in it's development. 


          However, nothing is perfect, just like neogeography is not short of pitfalls.  The notion that it is accessible by everyone is both a boon and a hindrance.  This leads to a lack on consistency, accuracy and reliability on a good number of maps.  A map-maker's vision might not be able to be fully transposed into a map using neogeography, because he pretty much working with a template from a certain program. GIS, on the other hand allows the user to create coordinates, terrain and other dynamic features using his perception.  However, given the recent exponential development of neogeography, I am certain that programs will soon emerge with in-depth programming capabilities that your that average Joe could use.

Assignment 2

1. What is the name of the quadrangle? 
Beverly Hills 

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

3. When was the quadrangle first created?
1966

4. What datum was used to create your map?  
 North American Datum of 1923, North American Datum of  1983, National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929

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

6. At the above scale, answer the following:

  a) 5 centimeters on the map is equivalent to how many meters on the ground? 
  1200 meters

  b) 5 inches on the map is equivalent to how many miles on the ground? 
  1.89 miles

  c) one mile on the ground is equivalent to how many inches on the map? 
  2.64 inches

  d) three kilometers on the ground is equivalent to how many centimeters on the map? 
  12.5 centimeters

7. What is the contour interval on your map? 
20 feet

8. What are the approximate geographic coordinates in both degrees/minutes/seconds and decimal degrees of:

  a) the Public Affairs Building
  34°4’30’’N , 118°26’45’’ W       DD=34.068° N , 118.4425° W

  b) the tip of Santa Monica pier
  34°30’’ N,  118°30’ W      DD= 34.008° N  , 118.5, 34°  W

  c) the Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir
  34°7’15’’ N , 118°24’30’’ W      DD=   34.121° N , 118.408° W

9. What is the approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:

  a) Greystone Mansion (in Greystone Park)
  560 feet, 170.69 meters

  b) Woodlawn Cemetery
  140 feet, 42.67 meters,

  c) Crestwood Hills Park
  800 feet, 243.84 meters

10. What is the UTM zone of the map? 
UTM zone 11

11. What are the UTM coordinates for the lower left corner of your map? 
3763000 N and 362000 E

12. How many square meters are contained within each cell (square) of the UTM gridlines? 
92,903 square meters

13. Obtain elevation measurements, from west to east along the UTM northing 3771000, where the eastings of the UTM grid intersect the northing. Create an elevation profile using these measurements in Excel (hint: create a line chart). Figure out how to label the elevation values to the two measurements on campus. Insert your elevation profile as a graphic in your blog. 
See below.

14. What is the magnetic declination of the map?   
14 degrees east

15. In which direction does water flow in the intermittent stream between the 405 freeway and Stone Canyon Reservoir? South

16. Crop out (i.e., cut and paste) UCLA from the map and include it as a graphic on your blog.

X-axis	Longitude
1	362000
2	363000
3	364000
4	365000
5	366000
6	367000
7	368000
8	369000
9	370000
10	371000
11	372000
12	373000