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View Humane Societies around UCLA in a larger map

Neogeography is new to people and has totally changed the view that people have on maps. It literally means the new geography and is now being commonly used by personal and community activities. It is new because it conveys the information about a location to individuals in a new way of presentation. One of the pitfalls of neogeography could be that information provided to individuals may not be always accurate. For example, neogeography cannot 100% constantly update its information, so people still needs to reply on other tools while traveling. One unfortunate event happened a few years ago as broadcasted by the local news related to the pitfall was that one family was driving and get lost in the mountains. Back then everyone was shocking to hear that the family did actually used the GPS. However, even though they have the GPS system, the system does not tell the family that due to the heavy snow, the route has been closed down. So the alternative routes were based on old road information and it leads to the family get lost. Tragically the father went out of the car to search for routes was never found, while the rest of the family was lucky to be rescued. 


Neogeography has limitless potentials. It provides people the platform, freedom, and the flexibility to share any content they want. An example would be this assignment, each students would create a map base on their interest, such as battle fields, old historical buildings in a city, or even number of schools in one city! Also, neogeography is inclusive, anyone without professional background of geography could create maps, without intense or formal training through school as additional living expenses. 


One of the consequences of neogeography would be an explosion of information communicating various discipline of studies, more importantly, people could understand it easily without any trouble. This fastens the speed of communication and engagement, it speeds up the time that people needed earlier to absorb information. However, we have to keep in mind that, since now that everyone is a map maker, we have to validate the content of the map before using it.

Geog 7 Lab Week 2

The 7.5 Minute Map


1. What is the name of the quadrangle?
    Beverly Hills Quadrangle
2. What are the names of the adjacent quadrangles?
    Adjacent Quadrangles (AKA left and right quadrangles of Beverly Hills) are: Canoga Park, Van Nuys, Burbank, Topanga, Hollywood, Venice, Inglewood and Hollywood
3. When was the quadrangle first created?
     The quadrangle was first created in 1966
4. What datum was used to create your map?
     North American Datum of 1927, North American Datum of 1983, and National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929
5. What is the scale of the map?
1:24000
6. At the above scale, answer the following:
a) 5 centimeters on the map is equivalent to how many meters on the ground?
    5cm * (24000cm/1cm) * (1m/100cm) = 1200m
b) 5 inches on the map is equivalent to how many miles on the ground?
     5inches * (24000inches/1inches) * (1miles/63360inches) = 1.8939 miles
c) one mile on the ground is equivalent to how many inches on the map?
     1 miles * (63360 inches/1miles) * (1inches/24000inches) = 2.64 inches
d) three kilometers on the ground is equivalent to how many centimeters on the map?
      3 kilometers * (100000cm/1kilometers) * (1cm/24000cm) = 12.5cm
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°26'15''W  118°3'08''N ; or 34.4375N 118.4994W
b) the tip of Santa Monica pier;
    34° 00' 18" N   118° 29' 58" W; 34.005N 118.4994W
c) the Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir;
    34° 07' 00"N 118° 24' 30" W; 34.1167 N 118.4083 W
9. What is the approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:
a) Greystone Mansion (in Greystone Park);
    560 Feet or 170.688 Meters
b) Woodlawn Cemetery;
    120 to 140 Feet and 36.576 to 42.672 meters
c) Crestwood Hills Park;
    720 Feet and 219.456 Meters
10. What is the UTM zone of the map?
       zone 11
11. What are the UTM coordinates for the lower left corner of your map?
      3,764,000m and 362,000m
12. How many square meters are contained within each cell (square) of the UTM gridlines?
      There are 1,000,000 square meters contained within each square of the UTM gridlines.
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.

       
14. What is the magnetic declination of the map?
      The magnetic declination of the map is 14º.
15. In which direction does water flow in the intermittent stream between the 405 freeway and Stone Canyon Reservoir?
      The direction of water flow between the 405 freeway and Stone Canyon Reservoir is from north to south.
16. Crop out (i.e., cut and paste) UCLA from the map and include it as a graphic on your blog.

Week 1 Lab: Fun Maps!

This map is found from the blog Strange Maps post, which is originally published by a study done by the MIT Sensible City Lab. This map not only shows the regular United States divided by its state boarders, the color layer of the lab is the "call data communities." It means that regions with the same color are more likely to call each other. So if we think that each states would be each individual calling friends, we can tell who are friends and who are not! It is not shocking to see that people in states near each other tends to call each other more frequently, but California, has an so called "internal" conflict because it is divided into north and south regions. And both Norcal and Socal form allies in the neighbor state Nevada.

US Maps of Shame


This Map of Shame is published by Pleated Jeans, originally posted by Jeff Wysaski. This map is composed by rationale and statistics, charting 50 things that each state is best at. Examples include: crime, road accidents, moral nadirs etc. Disclaimer is that all claims are backed up by references like reliable statistics, but others do have a less scientific straw polls. Guess our lesson learned in this class is that the first step to compose map is to gather data scientifically, what a great example!  Anyways, our dear state California is famous for its air pollution. Can we say that LA is a big contribution to this title?  :P 



We have to talk about the awesomeness now! This map is published by way of retort by Political Language. The indicators of awesomeness inlcude health and welfare, economy, environment, education, and even moral. Interestingly Virginia and Indiana are the states with the most birthplaces of presidents and vice-presidents. Oklahoma has the best licence plate, while Missouri is the best in bromine production. California is the best in Safest for workers. But what does that mean? Maybe we can contact the map creator Llya Gerner via tumblr?