Lab 7: Census 2000/2010

In this lab, our main objective was first to find and collect data from a secondary source. Then, we used ArcGIS software to interpret the data practicing important concepts and issues.

Here are the representation of Census collected by the US Census department regarding the ethnicity of "Asian", "Black", and "Some other race".

The above two pictures are the representation of census regarding "Asian" in the United States. Notice that the first picture tells the distribution of the exact absolute number of Asian population by counties. The second picture, tells the distribution of the percentage of Asian population by counties. Notice the differences between two pictures: In terms of the absolute number of population, most Asian populations are resided in the Southern California region, while some in reside in Washington, East Coast New York region, Texas, and Florida. On the other hand in the percentage distribution, there are lot more shaded counties where Asian reside. This proves that there are Asian people living in other countries that I have not mentioned above. The number is very low though, and it only became significant to stand out from the overall census when we calculate with percentage, that a few Asians will just "pop out" easily in a small area of county that the majority ethnicity is not Asian. 

In this graphical comparison of "Black" ethnicity, the difference between the calculation of distribution of absolute number and percentage became very obvious. If someone was asked "where do you think most African American people reside now?" They might have answered either "Los angeles or Southern United States", and both answers are right, depends on the context of reference. In the year of 2000-2010, most African American people, in terms of total number live in Southern California, Los Angeles area. However, the percentage of concentration of African American people is still high in the Southern states. Why is that? One possible reason is that counties in Southern United States might be comparably smaller in terms of area, compare to the counties else where in the United States. Thus, the ratio of the few residing African American people in Southern states over the actual area of the county will be high. Another reason might be that there is actually a very high concentration of African American population in the Southern United States compare to the region of Los Angeles in Southern California. California is known to be "a melting pot", where a mixture of various ethnicity creates the diversity of the state. So, even though there are a lot of African American people reside in the Southern California region in terms of absolute number, other ethnicities might have a high number of population reside in Southern California at the same time. We cannot exclusively conclude that Southern California, the Los Angeles region is full of African American people choose to reside. We must make a conclusion that is valid and includes the context of the data. 

The graphical representation of the "Some Other Race" data is another reinforcement of my argument, that we must make conclusions base on the context of the data. For example, in terms of absolute concentration, states such as California and Arizona is very diverse, because a lot of people of the ethnicities other than Asian and Black reside in the two states. However, their concentration is high mostly in the Southwestern United States and the coastal lines of the Eastern United States, with a few blocks in the inland region here and there. The sparse blocks of their concentration here and there, may means that their actual population is so few in some small area counties that they stand out when we calculate the data in terms of the percentage. 

Also, we must note that, besides the context of the data distribution is important, the classification of the data is important as well. In this practice, we are looking at the population distribution in terms of counties. We need to remember that the classification number must be low. Or, in another way to say it in terms of statistics, the numerical range must be high. This way, counties with similar census will be easily gathered and compared. The more the detailed comparison and classification of data, the harder we can compare and make conclusions. The more we are using the ArcGIS software now, the more I am amazed at how convenient this software can provide for us. It is extremely well built for data analyzation, I am impressed at how this software is complexly written to save us time on analyzing the data. Once again, this exercise reinforce the idea that, even though the ArcGIS is extremely convenient and easy for us to make conclusions at a shorter time, we MUST know what we are analyzing. The way we are "manipulating" the data can provide very different results, thus very different conclusions. Even though we need less time now, we must realize and understand that the connivence that ArcGIS bring to us is to let us have more time to undergo scientific research, not to produce conclusions carelessly. 

Lab 6: DEMs in ArcGIS

  




























For the location that I have chosen, here are the geographical related informations on location.
Extend:

Extent:

Top 38.0125

Left: -119.5869

Right: - 118.85

Bottom: 37.5327

Spatial Reference:

GCS_North_American_1983

Angular Unit: Degree (0.01745329)

Datum:

Datum: D_North_American_1983

I actually googled the location given from the information obtained from the ArcGIS application. On the website, it gives the selected location as in Tuolumne, California, USA. I find this very interesting and fascinating, that given the information of the geographical location, I could find out exactly where it is. More and more as I am doing labs in this class I find that Geographers actually speak a different language! A language that helps people to communicate through space. 

Lab Week 6 - Map Projections

This two projections are under the Conformal Projection. As you can see, even if two map projections are preserving the same properties - in this case the shape and the angle, there are still a lot of differences in terms of distance. Under the Gall Sterograhic projection, the distance from Washington DC to Kabul is much shorter than the distance on the Mercator Projection. 

In the two Equal Area Projections, the Bonne projection is what I would like to talk more base on my personal experience. The Bonne projection is so fun to me! It totally contradicts the general perception about map, which is classified to be boring, or tedious with accurate outlines of each countries or the regions. The Bonne projection proves that the general perception is wrong! It is fun, with its heart shape that could potentially win all the girl's affection - it is a heart shape! Who would think that the Earth, which we all know is a sphere, could be a heart?! Also, it is obvious that the Bonne projection has distortions. I am sure the airline companies would be much more happier during the current economic states that the distance from Washington DC to Kabul is really about 6730.718 miles. This will greatly reduce the cost for the airlines in terms of the oil they needed when flying planes back and forth from two cities. 

In this case of the equal distance projections, once again it proves that point that the transformation from the 3D sphere earth to the 2D plane is a hard job to do. Even though both projection preserves the distance, they are still different in terms of the visualization of representations. Although, I am quiet surprised to learn the statistics that the Cylindrical projection actually has a shorter distance from Washington DC to Kabul compare to the Conic Projection. Just by my eye view, I would definitely say that the conic projection gives the shorter distance. This also proves the point that what projection we use is critical depends on our uses of the map. The potential error of using the wrong projection could affect the conclusion of a projected, and of course the resulted effects would be greater as well. 

Mapping a three dimensional sphere onto a two dimensional surface is a challenge. This transformation from the 3D sphere to the 3D plane is never easy, due to Earth's spherical properties. When this transformation occurs, distortions are unavoidable, some country might seem larger than it actually is, like Greenland; and some will see wider than it is, like the polar areas. Different map types focus on alleviating certain distortions based on the certain uses of the map. For example, an equidistant map allows for little to no distortions in the distances on the map; however, the size of countries may be distorted. Although accuracy in map projections is not one hundred percent, map projections are essential for spatial awareness in this world.

Map projections allow for humans to be aware of their location on the world's surface. Toddlers are often amazed at the concept of maps, while they are pointing at the location of their homes, they are also looking at other areas, with weird irregular shapes and outlines, wondering what is out there on those 'strange places.' This is the perfect example of the awareness of the location. Before the world was mapped, people were uniformed of the surface on the earth and what the world consisted of beyond their scopes regime. Map projections allow for awareness of spatial positioning. Many conformal maps contain country size distortion, but they allow for humans to see the shape of the world all at one time.

Map projections also create a means of travel because of this spatial awareness. Human early in the centuries had used maps, striving for greater accuracy, voyaging the world for exploration. With the increase of technology, map projections became a necessary advancement because people began traveling larger distances. The importance of a map projection became needed with the invention of airplanes. An equidistant map projection will allow for an airplane to fly certain distances with accuracy; however, a conformal map projection would cause massive accidents. Map projections are important for spatial awareness in this world and indispensable to the success of air travel.

Equal area map projections maintain the accurate size of countries on the world's surface. These are important for power relations and seeing the land area that each country contains. Although distortions are unavoidable, mapping the earth's surface is necessary in a modern world. Humans are able to obtain spatial awareness and learn of what the world consists. Without map projections, the world would be an unknown area.

Overall, different map projections are developed for different uses. While we are appreciating the development of 3D projection such as google earth, seeing it on the aerial level; 2D map projections are still widely used for  people in this world for their own benefits.

Lab 4 - Introducing ArcGIS

 

In this lab, our main objective is to learn how to use the ArcGIS. ArcGIS is a complete system for designing and managing solutions through the application of geographic knowledge. Once we have acquired the skill to master this system, it would be very helpful for us to understand and analyze geographic information in a much more effective way, comepare to the traditional methods prior to the inventions of softwares like ArcGIS.

My experience with this lap is a little mixed feelings. Overall, I find the tutorial very helpful. It gives out detailed explainations and even screen shots for instructions. The visualization part of the tutorial saves me a lot of time, and preventing any rooms for confusion. However, since the version of the ArcGIS is actually the updated one, it does not strictly follow the tutorial. Or, in a better wording, the tutorial is a little outdated. This creates a lot of frustration for me personally, because I feel like when I am totally "enjoying" the lab and following the instructions like in a easter egg hunt, I was forced to stop due to the human error, such as a clue is missing. Luckily, the forum was really helpful, where students and TAs have all been posting answers to the questions, helping everyone to finish the project. Lastly, I love this week's lab assignment very much, because it helps me to give a real life example on how the ArcGIS has been used, how it has been used, and how effectively it helps people at work.

In this lab, we have walked through a possible city proposal of expanding an airport, using GIS. This allows us to study the possible noise pollution, the affected population density, the required land use, and the proximity to schools. This is essentially a detailed research project. However, instead of the traditional way - which is done everything in paper, GIS allows us to present the paper in the computerized method, bringing the instant visualization of effects while we are constructing the report. It allows us to provide much more extensive information, such as the needed zoom on areas, the road names, and each variables.

GIS is integrating into our daily lives so quickly that it is hard for us to recognize that we have ever lived without it. GIS has various purposes, and could be used into various fields, such as transportation, population, wildlife population, deforestation, architectural planning, and much more. This great versatility, which is one huge advantage or potential. People not only can study current phenomenons with GIS, but also can study and predict the future effects of the same phenomenons. One familar example for a lot of people in showing the potential of GIS is the reports on global warming. You often see the global map with various intensity of color, typically green in hundreds of years ago, indicating the gloabl temperature then at various continents on the globe. Then, there would be a scroll bar on the bottom of the presentation where you can visually "travel through time", showing how the global temperature has been rising over the years. Not only presentations done with GIS saves the general population from the boredom of reading or listening to the typical research reports, they attract audiences' attention, with easy and colorful graphics. Besides, researchers can convey more effectively regarding their research results with the general population, who may not have an extensive knowledge background to understand such concepts instantaneously.

Even though GIS is so critical in our daily lives now, it still has its own pitfalls. One obvious pitfall is that even though GIS allows us to explore the world and study many possible effects in various academic fields, we must rely on one assumption that the data we gathered in the process, are precisely done with accurate information. If the data provided in the study is biased, then the GIS would only go ahead and work on the false information, since it does not have the ability to detect such errors. Also, as a beginner who is just learning how to use related GIS software, the other pitfall is that the software are not as easily accessible, (exclude similar ones like Web 2.0, google map etc.), thus not easily learned on how to use. It is understandable that GIS is such an engaging field with updates everyday. If information on how to use such tools at this stage are not neatly organized, it will create tremendous difficulties for people to use it correctly, or even, lose its appealing to people. One clear example is that while we have tutorials to guide us through the exercises, the version of the tutorial was not updated on time, thus there is are difficulties for new learners to master such program.

Overall however, GIS is still helpful at our everyday lives now, as it is more easily accessible to the public, and the easing restriction of the high officials in the government. The guaranteed access of such a mass information might be alarming to those who fear about the national security, but the overall benefit to the entire population is tremendous. While technology is continuing on its advancement, I am sure GIS would be developed much more sophisticated ways, continuing on building greater potentials, and gradually eliminating pitfalls that we currently have now.