The purpose of this course is to introduce students to fundamental principles and concepts behind the use and application of geographic information systems (GIS).
Assignments
- Three Interesting Maps
- US topographic Maps
- Neogeography
- Spatial Analytics in ArcMap Tutorial
- Map Projections
- Spatial Analysis of Salinas Valley
- US census 2000/2010
- Final Project on Los Angeles Station Fire 2009
Lab 9: Los Angeles Station Fire 2009
The fire progressed rapidly, and in matter of a few days it had spread to 251 sq miles. As seen in the map, the fire started close to residential areas near the freeway. USFS recorded the fire as arson, and investigated it as a felony. The fire progressed from the foothills of mountain and it moved upwards. The following map shows the spread of Station Fire.
An overlay of Station Fire perimeter on the Los Angeles watershed shows that the most affected watersheds were the Big Tujunga Creek and San Gabriel River. Using the spatial analysis tools available, we can identify watersheds located upstream, such as Amargosa and Bouquet Canyon, that were not impacted. Therefore, no firefighting resources were needed to be mobilized for these areas. Thus, GIS can aid the fire fighting management by helping relocate resources, such as fire trucks and fire fighters, from unaffected areas to areas under fire.
I used Spatial Analyst to compute the slope of DEM for the area affected by Station Fire. Slopes are important to identify areas going to be affected by rain. Steeper the slope, higher the velocity of flow. When fire burns, it creates lot of debris. In addition, fire also fuses the soil, thereby reducing infiltration, and increasing runoff. Watersheds in the steep slope areas, as shown in the map, are in particular at great risk. The maps shows residential structures in the downstream areas of Big Tujanga Creek and San Gabriel Basin.
Debris flows can pose serious hazards to life and property. Fast-moving debris flows generated from recently burned areas are particularly dangerous because they can occur in places where flooding or debris flows have not been observed in the past and can be generated in response to very little rainfall (Cannon and others, 2008). Within the burned area and downstream areas of watershed, the force of rushing water, soil, and rock can destroy buildings, roadways, culverts, and bridges and can cause loss of life and property as shown in the image below.
USGS has published many predictive models that use statistics to predict the loss from debris flow. The models also predict the probability of rain and magnitude of rains. This information is critical for issuing spatially warnings, mitigation measures, and evacuation orders to people affected by fire.
Cannon and others (2008) mapped the debris-flow inundation areas along the northern margin of the fire using the volumes of material estimated for both storms. Inundation areas along the San Gabriel mountain front are also mapped using the volumes estimated predicted storms. At the foot of San Gabriel mountains, there are many sediment retention basin. They consider situations when the total capacity of each sediment-retention basin is available for storage, and when basins experience drain, spillway, or outflow channel blockages or failures (Cannon and others, 2008) . This assessment provides critical information for issuing warnings, locating and designing mitigation measures, and planning evacuation timing and routes.
We conclude that fire can make debris flow situation hazardous. The real impact can be known only by studying the probability and magnitude of storm. If the predicted probability and magnitude of the response of basin storms is large, it indicates the potential for significant debris-flow impacts to any buildings, roads, bridges, culverts, reservoirs, and other assets located both within these watersheds and immediately downstream from the burned area. Cannon and Others (2008) show that the combination of high probabilities and large magnitudes calculated for these basins indicates a significant potential for debris-flow impacts to neighborhoods and infrastructure along the San Gabriel mountain front.
References:
Cannon, Susan H. “USGS Open-File Report 2009-1227: Emergency Assessment of Postfire Debris-Flow Hazards for the 2009 Station Fire, San Gabriel Mountains, Southern California.” 24 Nov. 2009. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2009/1227/>.
Los Angeles County GIS Data Portal. LA County , California. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <http://egis3.lacounty.gov/dataportal/index.php/2011/02/22/la-county-land-types
USGS, Science For Changing World. Pubs.USGS. Gov. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2011/1257/OF11-1257.pdf>
InciWeb.Org. Web. 5 Dec. 2011. <http://inciweb.org/incident/1856/>.
“Wildfire Spreads along 241 Toll Road Just East of Anaheim Hills [Updated] – Latimes.com.” Blogs – Latimes.com. Los Angles Times, 24 Nov. 2009. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/wildfire-spreads-along-241-toll-road-just-east-of-anahiem-hills.html>.
Lab 8: US Census 2000/2010
The purpose of the exercise is to study the concentration of asian, blank and other population in the continental United States.
Asian Population: Asians are found mostly on coasts. On east coast, they live in states like New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Florida etc. On the west coast, they live mostly in California and Washington, though they are also found in Oregon, Nevada and Arizona – States that are close to western coastal States. In addition, Asians are also gathered up around big cities in the Midwest region such as Chicago, Houston etc. The Asian population is less than 5%. Immigration of Asian to United States is a fairly recent phenomenon, even though Chinese are known to have immigrated during the Gold Rush era and construction of Trans Continental Railroad. This is because in the late 18th and also in 19th centuries, there were laws passed by the Congress that forbade the immigration of Indians and Chinese. Indians became eligible for immigration after 1950. But most Indians immigrated during the Y2K era that preceded the year 2000 where due to a computer glitch, business operations could have been adversely affected if the Y2K bug was not fixed. Large number of Asians are professionals. Large number of students from Asia come to study in the US, and most of them prefer to go to universities on the coast or northern mid-west regions of US. The population distribution shown on the map confirms it.
Black Population: Blacks live mostly in the Southern East States of US. Thus, they are found mostly in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, and adjoining southern States. After the Civil War in 1860s, Blacks were allowed to move to the northern parts of the country. This has to do with the history of US. When European settlers came to the US, they wanted to plant cotton and other crops in the farms of southern States. They needed labor, and this demand was fulfilled by bringing Black from Africa as indentured labor who worked on farms in the Southern States. This pattern of population distribution is evident in the map.
Other Population: It is reported that most Hispanics and Latino population reported their race as “Other” in the census in 2000, though the trend is now changing towards greater accuracy in the recent census. They are mostly found in the Southwestern States such as Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Consistent with the trends found in other races, they are moving towards north and east. In the 1820s, Mexico was the great power of North America, and extended from Guatemala in Central America to Oregon in North America. Thus, they have been living in these regions for a long time, and have cultural ties in these areas. Many Mexicans immigrating to the US are able to find family links in the Southwestern US. Cubans and Puerto Ricans are also included in the Other category, and these people are found concentrated in Florida and adjoining areas. This shows in the population pattern seen in the map.
In this exercise, I learned to obtain data from US Census sources, and use them in ArcMap for map making and analysis. The data needed to be cleaned up, as it contained headers that were not understood by ArcMap. I also learned to create relationships between tables to draw on greater information related to layers. This is a useful exercise that exposed me to many map making features of ArcMap.
GIS is an outstanding software application for creating map data, to conduct spatial analysis, and to make maps. There are many flavors of GIS available to us. We were exposed to the desktop and web version of GIS. For desktop GIS, I worked with ArcMap software produced by Esri, Inc. There are other desktop GIS software also available, but Esri is the world leader, and is used by practically every government agency in US, and most private organizations. GIS answers the “where” part of a question, and provide tools to analyze and visualize the impact in space. For example, GIS can predict the spatial areas going to be flooded, and this information can be used to warn citizens living in the area to take precautionary actions such as recommending escape routes and shelter areas. Traditionally, map making has been the subject of royalty or military. The web based GIS systems such as Google Earth and ArcExplorer are challenging that exclusion, and have made map making facilities available to everyone with an internet access. GIS is having profound impact on decision making and dissemination of information to people in a way they can relate to it.
I plan to pursue my GIS studies further!
Lab 6: Spatial Analysis of Salinas Valley
During my vacations, I often visit the Bay Area to see my friends. I usually take the U.S. Route 101 because of its beautiful view. The US 101 route has Pacific Ocean on the west side, mountain ranges on the east, and the Salinas River flowing alongside for a certain distance. Salinas flows underground also, and it is the longest underground river in the nation. I enjoy observing changes in vegetation on the mountains as the elevations fall and rise. That is why, I have chosen the Salinas Valley area for this project. The map extent for this area is: Top: 36.3436111103, Left: -121.344722222, Right: -120.656666666, Bottom: 35.809722221. The Spatial Reference used is G_North_America 1983. The datum is D_North_American_1983.
The Salinas River is the largest river of the central coast of California. It is 155 miles long and drains an area of about 4000 square miles in the Salinas Valley. The Salinas Valley is endowed with great biodiversity. It supports a wide variety of vegetation and wildlife. It is the main source of water for the farms and vineyards in the valley. In the relief map shown here, we can see many tributaries draining into the Salinas River.
On the southwest side of the Salinas River shown in the map, the dominant natural trees are from the Douglas, Fir and Tanoak family. Redwood trees are also found on this side of the valley. Oaks are found on the steep canyon side slopes. California Sagebrush and Oat grass occurs at lower elevations such as near the ocean, while mixed conifers are found at higher elevations.
Following map layouts show the river and mountain ranges. To provide a spatial context, I have added the basemap showing the US 101 and Salinas River and its tributaries. All other layers added on top of basemap have a transparency associated with them. Layouts with hillshades, aspect and slopes are titled as such.
Shaded Relief
Slope
Aspect
3D Model
Lab 5: Map Projections in ArcGIS
A map projection is a systematic representation of all or part of the Earth’s surface on a plane. To present the three dimensional Earth on the two dimensional is quite a complex task and requires mathematical formula. In this assignment, I have experimented with six different types of map projections available on ArcGIS map collection.
World Equidistant Conic projection can be based on one or two standard parallels. As its name implies, all circular parallels are spaced evenly along the meridians. This is true whether one or two parallels are used as the standards. Some of the highlights of this map projection are that the graticules are evenly spaced, and meridian spacing is also equal (ArcGIS Help 10.0).
World equidistant Cylindrical projection is considered simple because it is based on grid of equal rectangles. This projection was used widely in past. The highlight of this map projection is that there is less distortion of area and shape in polar regions than in the Mercator projection.
In the Cylindrical Equal Area projection, map is stretched vertically to a considerable extent. The Behrmann Equal Area projection is an equal-area cylindrical projection suitable for world mapping.
The World Stereography projection is a unique conformal projection. Over a small area, angles in the map are the same as the corresponding angles on Earth’s surface. The Gall Stereography was designed around 1855. It is a cylindrical projection with two standard parallels at latitudes 45° N and S. Area distortion slowly increases away from 45 degree North and South latitudes.
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Lab 4: ArcMap Tutorial
This is a map exported from ArcMap showing the airport and other layers.
In this Lab exercise, I completed many GIS exercises using ArcMap. In the first exercise, I created a map showing locations of schools near the airport. To assess which schools were impacted by the noise of the airport, a noise contour layer was also provided, and added to the map. I learned to zoom, pan and identify features on map that showed various attribute values for a feature such as school and roads. The symbols for school features were changed, and finally all layers in the map were added to a map layout that could be printed on a paper.
In the second exercise, I mapped the amount of land use type within the noise contour. I added a new dataframe with parcel layer. I copied airport and noise layer from the previous dataframe. I changed the symbology of parcel layer to show parcel features by category uniquely defined by Land_Use attribute. I also applied a custom style to land use layer to show features in a certain style. I also learned to spatially select features. I also exported the layer with selected features. I also learned to create a chart (graph) using attribute values of a table.
In the third exercise, I worked with a population density map for the county. I created a new data frame to add the population density layer. I learned to join the table containing population data to the census tract table. Next, I used a field calculator to calculate the population density for each tract. In the fourth exercise, I learned to edit features. I extended the airport road to create a new loop road joining an existing arterial road.
ArcMap is powerful software to create maps from data stored in a geodatabase, and to conduct analysis to find relationship among features in space. It provides many editing tools, and other GIS tools that need to be explored. At the same time, we notice that this is an expensive proprietary software, and requires one to buy them to build maps. Someone may prefer a cheaper alternative. Further, it is required that the data from other sources (for example, paper) and other software be brought into the geodatabase format for an analysis. It also requires training to become efficient in its use.
The final map after the completion of ArcMap tutorial is shown below:
The ArcMap document and geodatabase files are attached here.
The attached file is actually a zipped file. Before using it, please change the extension to zip, and extract the ArcMap document and geodatabase files.
Lab 3: Neogeography
Spread of Buddhism Across the World
The following map shows how Buddhism spread from India to other parts of the world. As a Neogeographer, I enjoyed doing it. I identified places of interest in conveying information about Buddhism, and placed them on the map as shown below. I also charted the spread across geographic space of the religion, and these are shown as well.
Google Maps is a web application software that provides tools to Neogeographers to create content, and overlay them on basemaps providing geographical context to the information. If I physically visit some of these places shown on the map, I can create a symbol (placemark) and add information about my experiences with the place. It is fun and informal to convey knowledge about any tourist place and point of interests. This is a great way to get someone excited about maps, and the study of planet Earth. These web based maps allow us to develop knowledge about the importance of location, and the advantages of knowing where things happen in space. For instance, I can search for a place on the map, and the Google Map knows about it, and shows me information about it, This is exciting! Using the basemap provided, I can create content and share it with my friends who use internet and computers anywhere in the world. One of the consequences of these free web based maps is that it democratizes the use of maps among users. Everyone with access to computers and internet can now see places, and get directions to a place of interest so they could reach there. In the past, maps have been the domain of specialists and royalties, now anyone with computers can access them.
Google Maps have the potential to make spatial analysis using maps mainstream. This is already happening, and evident in the number of Google Map mashups showing everywhere. This trend is likely to strengthen in future. Neogeographers are going to play a vital role in identifying which content is more desired by users on maps, and will thus provide focus to mapping specialists.
Like many new technologies, this technology has some pitfalls too. For example, these maps lack credibility. These were created by mapping enthusiasts with the sole purpose of sharing the information with their friends and families, and other users on the internet without going through a proper quality check. While a fun thing to do, it would be hard to take them seriously for any academic and critical exercise in decision making. What if the map was wrong, and worse an example of sabotage thereby deliberately leading users to false information. We must be careful in using its content.
The following video talks more about Buddhism.
“Angkor.” World Heritage Convention. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. .
“Bodhgaya.” Buddhists-temples.com. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. .
“Burmese Temple (Dhammikarama), Penang.” Virtualtourist.com. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. .
“Great Buddha of Kamakura (Daibutsu).” Japan-guide.com. Web. 2011. .
Lankapura, Historic Images of Srilanka. Bawantha Perera. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. .
“Leshan Giant Buddha.” TravelChinaGuide.com. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. .
“Lingshan Great Buddha.” China-tour.cn.com. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. .
“Lumbini, the Birthplace of the Lord Buddha.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. .
“Samye Monastery.” Tibettours.com. Travel Spirit International Private Limited. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. .
“Tian Tan Buddha (Big Buddha).” Synotrip.com. Web. 2011. .
“Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok.” Sacred-Destination.com. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. .
“Wat Phra Kaew, Temple of the Emerald Buddha.” Into-asia.com. Web. 16 Oct. 2011. .
Lab 2: US Topographic Maps
Q 1 : Beverly Hills, CA
Q2: 1- Canoga Park, 2. Van Nuys, 3. Burbank, 4. Topanga,5. Hollywood,6.——–, 7. Venice , 8. Inglewood
Q 3: 1966
Q4: North American Datum of 1927 (NAD27)
Q 5: 1: 24 000
Q 6: a) 1200 m, b) 1.89 miles , C) 2.64 inch ( I miles is 63360 inches, so 63360/ 24000), d) 1/8 cm
Q 7: 20 feet
Q 8: a) The Public Affairs Building Longitude, Latitude in degrees are -118 , 26′, 21″ and 34 ,4′, 27″ respectively. Longitude and Latitude in decimal is – 118.4391 and 34.0743
b) Santa Monica Pier Longitude, Latitude in degrees are -118 ,30′, 00″ and 34 , 0.5′ respectively. Longitude and Latitude in decimal is -118.4994 and 34.0074
c) The Upper Canyon Reservoir Longitude, Latitude in degrees are -118,24′,4″ and 34,7′,15″ respectively. Longitude and Latitude in decimal is -118.411 and 34.1214
Q 9: a) Greystone Mansion elevation in feet and meters are 550 feet and 164.59200 meters respectively.
b) Woodland cemetery in feet and meters are 140 feet and 42.627200 meters respectively.
c) Crest wood Hill Park in feet and meters are 640 feet and 195.07200 meters respectively.
Q 10 UTM Zone on map is zone 11, 10,000 meter foot ticks grid.
Q11: Longitude is 361500 E and Latitude is 3763000 N
Q 12: 1,000,000 sq meter
Q13: Profile of Line UTM 377100 N passing through UCLA. Point at elevation 500 ft shown in brick red symbol is close to the Drake Track and Field Stadium. Point at elevation 460 ft shown in brick red symbol is close to the Royce Hall.
Q 14: MN 14 degree
Q15 : North to South
Q16: Map of UCLA
Lab 1: Three Interesting Maps
Among many maps that I reviewed, I have selected three maps that interested me. These are described below:
The first map is from the Center for Geospatial Technology at Texas Tech University. The purpose of this map is to show an active earthquake zone in Japan. The map displays areas affected by an earthquake, and demonstrates its impact from the origin of earthquake, also known as the epicenter. I like this map for its interactive design. Users can pan, zoom in and zoom out to see details at various levels of resolutions. At higher resolution, users can see the buildings and streets, and at lower resolutions, they can see the city and provinces of Japan. The base map makes it easy to view the location of earthquake in context of the street map of Japan. The circles in the map show the area of influence and assets affected by the earthquake. The map demonstrates that as the distance increases from the epicenter, the impact of an earthquake decreases. Impact on coastal areas is shown in various color to show the degree of damage. The red triangles on the ocean show the location of minor earthquakes causing aftershocks.
For details, visit http://mapserver.gis.ttu.edu/japanquake/
Earthquake in Japan in 2011
The second map I found interesting is from Space Science And Engineering Center managed by University of Wisconsin, Madison. This is a two dimensional static map showing sea surface temperature across the world. The developer of this map has presented the complex subject matter of sea surface temperature in a simple way. The map shows that water is warmest at the equator, and as we move away towards the poles, the temperature drops significantly. The warmer temperatures are shown using the shades of orange color, and colder temperatures are shown in shades of blue color. Temperatures are warmest at the equator because Sun falls normally on the surface of earth. On the other hand North and South Poles do not get enough Sun making it colder. This is evident in the map.
For details, visit http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/sst
Sea Surface Temperature
Finally, the third map which I found interesting is from Good Business. This map shows the distribution of a Fast Food restaurant MacDonald across the United States of America. I found this map quite interesting because it explains how MacDonald has located its restaurants across the nation to serve its customers. The developer of this maps has used orange color on the black background which makes it appealing and easier for viewers to understand it. It is remarkable to see that no matter where you are located in United States, there is a MacDonald restaurant to satisfy your cravings for burgers and fries! The map shows that McDonald restaurants are densely located on the east side of the Mississippi river that passes through the middle of the nation. This region between the Mississippi river and the east coast is also one of the most densely populated areas of the nation, which explains the greater number of restaurants because larger population means greater number of customers. On the other hand, the Great Plains and desert areas towards the western side of the Mississippi river are sparsely populated, resulting in fewer customers, and therefore lesser number of McDonald restaurants. But the West Coast is densely populated and it has, as expected, large number of restaurants.
For details, visit http://www.good.is/post/map-of-every-mcdonalds-in-the-country/
Distribution of McDonald Restaurant
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