Lab 5

1. How many counties does the State of Iowa contain? (2 pts)
99 Counties

2. Which county in Georgia contains the largest number of people, as of the year 2001? (2
pts)
Fulton County

3. How many cities, with populations greater than 15,000, are located within the State of
Washington? (2 pts)
39 Cities

4. How many miles long are all of the interstates that are crossed by the outline of Los
Angeles County? (2 pts)
3851.137043 Miles

5. Simplify the UrbanBoundaries feature class so that only the urban areas of Los Angeles
County are visible (Hint: you will use one of the overlay functions: clip, intersect, or
union). Include a screenshot of this new layer in your blog. How many acres of urban
area lie within Los Angeles County? (2 pts)

1367445.890625 acres

6. How many zip codes have their centroid in Los Angeles County? (2 pts)
522 Zip Codes

7. Create a layer displaying the provinces of Canada using the data provided to you in the
Canada dataset. Save this new layer under the Canada dataset using the name
Provinces. Include a screenshot of this new layer in your blog. (2 pts)


8. Which Native American Indian Reservations lie within 75 miles of the City of Thurso in
Quebec, Canada? (2 pts)
Doncaster Indian Reserve 17
Kitigan Zibi Indian Reserve
Kahnawake Indian Reserve 14
Kanesatake Indian Reserve 16
Akwesasne Indian Reserve 15

Lab4

Lab 2b

Lab 2b: ArcMap Tutorial

Geographic Information Systems is amazingly useful for not only spatial analysis, but also for demographic research, urban planning and a host of other sciences and studies. GIS gives researchers the ability to view geographic information visually, highlighting the attributes they wish to know more about and query information from the stored data. This opens the door to easier data queries, quicker research, and more accurate analysis.

As a result, GIS contributes to furthering many fields that rely upon geographic data and cartographic information. The more GIS advances, the more these fields that rely upon GIS advance themselves -- because GIS helps them access the necessary tools and resources that drive their own studies. Thus, as a multi-field tool, GIS is bound to continue to develop as quickly as it has been, because the demand for quick information gathering software is so high.

Although GIS is an amazing tool for many fields of study, it does have its limitations. Researchers cannot rely upon its models as complete truth. They are, after all, only models and therefore only provide representations of the data they are equipped with. Researchers must be careful not to rely upon GIS too much, and must continue to fact check their models and perfect them as new data is inputted. In addition, GIS is limited by the data it builds its models upon. Therefore, new advances must be made in data collection technology to improve accuracy and decrease the labor time and effort that is currently necessary to build accurate data models.

Regardless, GIS is changing the world. It gives us the ability to look at our world from different angles and perspectives, cut layers out of it, highlight aspects and most importantly -- ask questions about the globe and its inhabitants. The ability to access cartographic and demographic information is priceless to countless academic and productive fields that drive our global processes. The faster GIS grows, the faster we can work, build and deconstruct this globe we call home.

Lab 3b

Lab 2a

View Mexico City Highlights in a larger map

There are plenty of advantages to neogeography. Mobile technology allows us to not only locate exactly where in the world many monuments and important places are, it allows us to post pictures of the street level view of the area, link videos, hours of operation, facts, notes and pretty much any kind of information you would like to attach to the point of interest on the google map. This shrinks the world, mentally, and allows for massive geographic collaboration. In so doing, neographic maps are much more accurate because every time a possible error arises, users can edit the error or at least post discrepancies.

However, problems arise in neogeography when massive ammounts of users disagree on locationality all the time. This negates any possibility for a locational authority to insist on a true location. The question arises whether in the future consensus building will remain the authority, or whether a greater authority will arise to consolidate locational edits and discern a true geography for GIS usage. Otherwise everyone will be using different GIS systems based upon different authorities and it will become more difficult to collaborate.

Lab 1B

1. What is the name of the quadrangle?
Beverly_Hills_O34118A4_geo.pdf (Beverly Hills, 1995).
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?
1995
4. What datum was used to create your map?
North American Datum 1927 and 1983 (NAD 27; NAD 83)
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?
1.72 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 cm
7. What is the contour interval on your map?
20 ft
8. What are the approximate geographic coordinates in both degrees/minutes/seconds and
decimal degrees of:
a) the Public Affairs Building?
34 degrees/ 4 minutes/ 28.95 seconds N by 118 degrees/ 26 minutes / 20.4 seconds W
b) the tip of Santa Monica pier?
34 degrees/ 0 minutes/ 28 seconds N by 118 degrees/ 30 minutes/ 0 seconds W
c) the Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir?
34 degrees/ 6 minutes/ 7.2 seconds N by 118 degrees/ 24 minutes/47.8 seconds W
9. What is the approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:
a) Greystone Mansion (in Greystone Park)?
Approximately 575 feet, 179.68 meters
b) Woodlawn Cemetery?
140 feet, 43.75 meters above sea level
c) Crestwood Hills Park?
Approximately 650 feet, 203. 13 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?
34 degrees by 118 degrees
12. How many square meters are contained within each cell (square) of the UTM gridlines?
1000 meters

Lab 1A

Map #1: Acton -- my morning commute

This map (from maps.google.com, where 1 inch = 2 miles) includes my home at the top right hand corner. It includes the major freeways I use and some minor geographic features of the area. I normally commute every Monday and Wednesday to UCLA from this location in Acton, if I'm not staying at my aunt's house. On those days my mental map expands to include this radius from the outer reaches of LA County to Westwood, or Hollywood, where I work Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Growing up in a location where I had to drive quite a distance to go to school, and growing up with a mother and a father that commuted every day to Downtown LA and Edwards AFB, respectively, caused me to develop a large mental database of geographic knowledge. Driving large distances were never a big deal to me, so I continued to expand my knowledge of Southern California as I drove to different places of work and social engagements as far south as San Diego (where my family is from originally) and as far north as Santa Barbara almost on a weekly basis. Therefore, I find that I might have justification in saying 'freeways are my forte' and I consider all of Southern California 'my playground.'

Map #2: Westwood/West LA

This map (from maps.google.com, where 1 inch = 2000 ft) centers on the address of my old apartment (northernmost red box) in Westwood and is enlarged to incorporate Westwood and parts of Mar Vista that I visit often. It is mainly limited to streets and the 405 freeway, with a little information about UCLA, the LA National Cemetary and the Los Angeles Country Club). It includes my Aunt's house (southern red box) and my cousins' preschool that I drive to every day after class when I pick them up. This mental map is part of my daily commute and I know the microscope details of this area down to the residential streets.

Map #3: Historical Map of El Camino Real

This map is taken from the California Historical Society Collection, and is part of the USC Digital Archive. Titled "California Antigua y Nueva," it was drawn in 1787 and only really features important mountains, rivers and of course the "El Camino Real" or "Kings Highway" that connected the California Missions. This map shows the very limited geographic knowledge of California in 1787 in comparison to the extremely detailed maps I included above (which are dynamic and can become almost as detailed as a person wishes Google to make them). This map is static, includes some latitude and longitude, and stops around Mission San Gabriel. I was unable to find a key, but the minuted rulers on the edges of the map help to preserve the scale. I found it incredible interesting to see the disparity in information between this map and the modern dynamic maps we have available to us through the internet today. This map is on a very small scale and would probably have been used for more general information such as looking at the distance between missions, etc, rather than travel routes because it wouldn't have been very useful as a guide. It was probably hung in a Bishop's office or used by a Spanish Governor of California or something of the sort. Information this general, that included a view of all of California, would only have been needed by someone in high office that oversaw a large amount of regional activity.