final lab

Digital Elevation Model of LA County, overlay of progressive perimeters of Station Fire
The first map is the Digital Elevation Model of LA County with the perimeters of Station Fire. In the map, we can find out that the fire located in the middle part of LA County. At first it didn’t happen to a large area, only a small area, the red part shown in the graph. However, it spread to the north part of LA County quickly, which is going to the higher elevation with orange and yellow color part.

Digital Elevation Map of LA County with Station Fire Perimeters, Cities and Hospitals around the fire area.
The map is about how the fire would influence to the cities near it and hospitals around. The result is obvious. There are 3 cities and 2 hospitals which are the nearest to the fire. So, they are under threat. However, the fire was going to north. Well, we can say although the cities and hospitals are in danger, but they are not that “danger”.

lab 7

This map is about counties with a black alone population greater than zero, ranked by percent.The first impression after glancing at this map is that there is very few black people compared to other races, in most of the Midwestern, northwestern, and southwestern states. Although there are slightly higher percentages in the northeastern states, the highest proportions of black people are in the South.

And this map is about counties with a asian alone population greater than zero, ranked by percent.There are some historical reason caused the result of the spread and proportion of the Asian population even to this day, as demonstrated by this map.

The final map shows the percentage of the population that is "some other race alone". Although there are several apparent trends in the proportions of “Some Other Race” in counties across the United States, it is difficult to decipher the causes of these patterns because of the ambiguous nature of the racial category.

Conclusion:

This lab is one of the most interesting lab I have had. By making those maps, I got more familiar with ArcGIS, I know how to join data into the map and present the data through the map. I am able to change the properties of the map and make them in my own way. Also, by making those maps, I learned some different historical knowledge as well, I can learn some knowledge from the distribution showed on the map.

lab6

A 3D image of the location

An aspect map of the location

A slope map of the location

A shaded relief model of the area using a color-ramped DEM layered above a hillshade model

The area I selected is around santa monica mountain. The topography there is mainly mountains, hills, like that.
Name: Santa Monica Mountain
Top 34.3397222213
Left -119.233888889
Right -119.171388889
Bottom 34.2741666658
Geographic Coordinate System: (Spatial Reference) GCS_North_American_1983
based on the same extent

Lab 5

Lab 4 assignment

    After finished the lab assignment by using ArcGIS I can feel the great potential of this program. By following the tutorial guide, I learned how to create data frame, different layers and also different graph elements. At first, I was awkwardly looking for different things that the tutorial guided. Being more and more familiar with the program during doing those exercises, I can figure out some my own patterns using it. But I still can feel the complexity of different tools bar and setting variable properties also seems very complicated to a beginner.
    Although the interface of the program is not incredibly attractive, ArcGIS still gives the opportunity to create the visuals with some options for personal customization. By the end of final exercise, I was able to make my own choices about color, borders, map elements, and other basic customizations. Through this process of learning ArcGIS, I realized how much things I still need to learn about ArcGIS.
    From my point of view, I think ArcGIS’s advantage to other program like Google map is that it is more scientific in data producing. It reminds me the third lab assignment which is to make your own tourist route for others by using Google map. After experiencing those two different map programs, I think ArcGIS is more often based on data from the census and other governmental statistics, while Google Maps is usually used as a tool to communicate personal experiences through pictures, videos, and landmarks. So, ArcGIS was more useful and reliable than web based programs like Google Maps.
    ArcGIS contains more details and it is hard for a beginner to get started if without any very detailed tutorial. It is not very easy to use since it is much more complex than other program like Google map. Although I had done with the first lab by using ArcGIS, I was still not very skilled with it. Also, this program is very advance, but its improvements seem develop a little bit slow due to less competition. So, those are the pitfall for ArcGIS.

Lab 3

View Washington DC Tour in a larger map

This lab is focus on Neogeography, which is about people using and creating their own maps, on their own terms and by combining elements of an existing toolset. It is about sharing location information with friends and visitors, helping shape context, and conveying understanding through knowledge of place. In this week lab, I did a tour of Washington D.C. by using a pre-existing mapping toolkit, Google map.

Neogeography is different for everyone. So it is special and very creative. It has a large space to develop. Like Google map, it is quite easy to begin with, so everyone can easily express their own neogeography. It has some options for us to make our own map, we can add pictures, videos, also make our own tour routes and polygons.

However, neogeography is not very popular among people who are not geography major or work relevant with geography. If I didn’t take this class, I would not be able to know that I can make my own map just by easily using Google map, my map, to create. Also, neogeography needs a big space to share and develop, now, too few people focus on this thing, while it doesn’t have a enough effect.

lab 2

1.Beverly Hills Quadrangle
2.Canoga Park Quadrangle
   Van Nuys Quadrangle
   Burbank Quadrangle
   Topanga Quadrangle
   Hollywood Quadrangle
   Venice Quadrangle
   Inglewood Quadrangle
3.1966
4.Horizontal datum: North American Datum of 1927(NAD 27)
   Vertical datum: National Geodetic vertical Datum of 1929
5.SCALE 1:24000
6.a)1200 m
      1/24000=5cm/x
      x=120000cm=1200m
   b)1.8939 miles
       5*24000/63360=1.8939 miles
   c)2.64 inches
   d)12.5 cm
7. 20 feet
8.a)Public Affairs Building: 118degrees 27' 26" E, 34degrees 26' 12" N
   118.445 degrees E
   34.382 degrees N
   b)Tip of Santa Monica Pier: 118degrees 35' E, 34degrees 00' N
   118.58 degrees E
   34 degrees N
   c)Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir: 118degrees 30' E, 34degrees 5' N
     118.52 degrees E
     34.06 degrees N

9.a) 570 feet = 173.74 meters
   b) 140 feet = 42.67 meters
   c) 720 feet = 219.46 meters
10. UTM zone 11
11. -3763000 Northing, 361500 Easting
12. 1,000,000 square meters
13. see the graph below

14. + 14 degrees
15. North to South

16.

Lab Assignment 1

Map 1: The map of US at night


This map is taken at night. I first want to find a map like this because when I flew  to the eastern part of America and got back to LA during the spring break, I was enjoyed watching the beautiful night view from the window on the flight in the high sky. It was really beautiful.
This map shows how lightness for different areas in US.
It is lighter in the east part of America, and also some part of western part. It's amazing beautiful at night.

http://energyideas.ca/img/night-map.gif

Map 2: Flight map

http://simplecomplexity.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/flightmapcolor1.jpg

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/feb/map-flight-path/map-450.jpg

This two maps are the flight map during day and night. The different lines show every flight's route inside the US or some of them are also outside the US.
I found this interesting because I can't believe that everyday there are so many fights during a day. And what even makes my curious is that why every time I on a flight, I can't see any other planes in the sky. How big the sky is! Where are the other planes due to such a busy flights map as shown above.


Map 3:  Old Map of the World

This is an original map created in 1565 which shows the known world of the day. This old map gives an incredible view of the New World, recently discovered by Columbus. The map has a lot of interesting artwork, including pictures of period ships sailing the ocean.

http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revolutionary-war/maps/old-world-map.jpg