Lab 7: Cartography and Geovisualization

The map on the top left shows the population in the United States in 2000. The population of the US is based on the census taken in 2000. The color choice of this map is chosen using the shades of purple. The darker color of purple represents the more populated area, whereas the lighter color of purple represents the less populated area. These color assignments are appropriate because we see that the more populated area should have a darker color because it's more crowded whereas the less populated area should have a lighter color to represent the less crowded area.

The map on the top right shows the population change in the United States in 2000. The value of this map is calculated based on the number of people moving in and out of a particular area. There are two shades of colors chosen in this map, green and pink. Green represents the positive growth in population. Area with more growth is represented by a darker color of green. Area with less growth is represented by a lighter color of green. Also, since population change can decrease, the negative change in population is represented in color pink. The greater the population deceased, the darker the shade of pink.

The map on the bottom left represent the percent change in the United States in 2000. Like population change, there are two shades of colors, purple and yellow. Purple represents the increase in percent change in the population. The greater the percent change, the darker the shade of purple. The lesser the percent change, the lighter the shade of purple. The shade of yellow represents the negative percent change in the population. The more negative the change in population, the darker the shade of yellow.

The map on the bottom right represents the population density in 2000. The color choice of this map is chosen using the shades of green. The darker color of green represents the area that is denser, whereas the lighter color of green represents the area with less dense. Population density is calculated based on the number of people concentrated within specific area. The denser the population, the denser the color should be, which shows in this map.

Lab 6: Spatial Analysis

North America Datum 1983 UTM Zone 11
Extent:
Top: 34.346
Left: -118.025
Right: -117.448
Bottom: 33.987

The Area that I had selected is a mountain near my home. It's called Big Bear Mountain. It's about 80 miles east of UCLA. Big Bear Mountain is famous for its snowboarding places. It is located at 8000 feet elevation and it is the closest mountain resort in the middle of the desert.

Lab 5: Geospatial Data Management

GCS and Mercator Projection

Both of these two maps are projections of the world. However, if you look at it closely, Antarctica on the geographic coordinate system map (top map) is being stretched out compare to Antarctica on Mercator projection map (lower map). However, the map below is not necessarily accurate either because it looks like Antarctica is the size of the world.

Mercator projection was first invented by a Flemish geographer and cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. Ever since then, Mercator projection became the standard map projection. The linear scale of this projection is constant in all directions around any point. While it preserve all points in all directions, Mercator projection distorts size and shape of the object, which explains why Antarctica became augmented.

The difference between GCS and Mercator projection is that GCS uses coordinate system that involves directions in reference to longitude, latitude, and elevation. While Mercator projection also has these intersecting lines that can be used as coordinates, the directions used in GCS may not be able to be accurately applied to Mercator projection because the Mercator lines intersect at a 90 degree angle while GCS projection does not.

Equidistant Maps

Equidistant Conic Map (top map) have a distinctive feature than other projection. The meridians are straight equidistant lines, converging at a point which may or not be a pole. The parallels arcs of circle is concentric in the point of convergence of meridians. Distortion is constant along each parallel lines not touching the cone. This projection preserves distance between any two points on the map. Conic projections are favored for national maps of temperate zones like Russia or the United States. However, conic projections are seldom appropriate for world maps.

Like Equidistant Conic Map, Sinusoidal Map (lower map) also preserves distance between any two points on the map. Sinusoidal projection shows relative sizes accurately, but distorts shapes and directions. The feature of this map is the same everywhere at the central meridian, and the east-west scale is throughout the map the same as that. This map is made in reference to the latitude, longitude, and the central meridian as the central reference point intersection.

Equal Area Maps

Gall Orthographic (top map), named after James Gall, is a configurable equal area map projection known as the equal area cylindric projection. This projection preserves area everywhere on the map. This projection however, suffers extreme distortion in the polar regions, as any cylindrical projection must, and its distortion along the equator is considerable. The map feature is overly stretch vertical ways, which causes the distortion at both poles. This map is made by inflating the sizes of regions according to their distance from the equator.

Mollweide (lower map) is a pseudocylindrical map projection generally used for global maps of the world. Like Gall Orthographic, this map preserves the area everywhere on the map. The proportion of the area of the ellipse between any give parallel and the equator is the same as the proportion of the are on the globe between that parallel and the equator. However, this is at the expense of shape and angle distortion, which is significant at the perimeter of the ellipse. Unlike the other projection, the map features an ellipse with all the longitude line emerging towards the poles but never actually meet to intercept at the poles. Constructing this map requires careful analysis of each parallel and perpendicular lines. Mollweide is a projection in which the equator is represented as a straight horizontal line perpendicular to a central meridian one-half its length. The other parallels compress near the poles, while the other meridians are equally spaced at the equator.

Lab 4: GIS Data Models

ArcMap is a very useful programs for those who are interested in making maps in a professional settings, or just for fun. The program is user friendly in terms of getting around the software and the software tutorial was really easy to follow.

Unfortunately, just like any product, there are some shortcomings to the software. While I was working on my map, I was stumbled upon a few incidence that took me more than half an hour to figure out. When ArcMap needs to export the data, it asks for the specific location of the files. However, not all those folders, such as My Computer, can be detected by the program. It was frustrating to have to locate for my flash drive. As a result, I had to manually type (or copy and paste) the location of my drive in the address and paste them onto the drop down menu.

At the time of exporting the files, the program gave me several error messages. However, these error messages came in a code which I had to Google in order to decipher what it means. Also, I feel like ArcMap does not let user explore his or her artistic side. Most of the color settings are pre-chosen and it is limited to that particular color. Unlike other famous programs such as Paint, which gives you a color palate and lets you chose the different shades of color, ArcMap has not such thing.

Overall, despite the shortcomings, ArcMap is still a very decent program for geographers and map makers. The program can make map making effort a whole lot easier. Especially when you need to make a proposal for certain constructions, ArcMap is up for the job.