Week 4: Map Projections Assignment

The distance between two places can amount to a lot, depending upon the projection used.  In this assignment we illustrate this by creating multiple map projections, and measure the distance between two points.  Washington D.C. and Kabul are anywhere from 10,112 miles apart, to 5,061 depending on if you are using the Mercator or the Equidistant Cylindrical projection.  

This is highly problematic, and highly misleading.  A good lesson here might be that minor differences in calculations at short distance add up to extraordinary changes at larger distances.  

The production of the maps was actually great practice, I was able to move through it fairly quickly and by the end I was warming up to the tools on the bar, menus and exporting the files.  All basic skills in the program, and an assignment that integrates just enough repetition that it leaves you feeling confidant and not bored.  

I am really fascinated by the massive differences  in distance, we look at whatever map is in front of us and think "This is correct, this is fact," When in reality, this is not the case.  The projection can manipulate our ideas of space.  For that matter it manipulates our ideas of importance, (for instance look at the tiny size of Africa in a Mercator projection), and of course this is a symptom of Imperialism.  Maps are subjective, just as anything made by man is subjective. 

Mercator: 

10,112 Miles

WGS 1984 Web Mercator (Auxiliary Sphere):

10,113 Miles

Eckert IV:

7,835 Miles

Eckert VI:

7,520 Miles

Azimuthal:

8,341 Miles

Equidistant Cylindrical:

5,061 Miles

GIS I: Week 3 ArcMap Tutorial

So.  What a mess. Right?  My first impulse is just to complain about the outdated tutorial, which is probably what everyone has done, so I'll start with the good stuff.

There were some great moments of "OH! That did what?!" which were awesome- and proof of how great this program is.

The Updates PDF was helpful, however it did nothing to assist me when it came to FINDING things that had changed from the previous versions.  There were entire steps that, while still intact, you had to do something different to reach the menu you needed, and that wasn't in the updates pdf. 

This was a hugely annoying project because of that, an i honestly feel i'd have learned more if I had just spent time playing with the product on my own, instead I spent all my time trying to figure out where a drop-down arrow was and just sticking so close to the guidelines that I couldn't tell you WHAT I just did.  So much so that when i messed something up (like the map on the lower right for instance)  I had no idea how to FIX it, an was too scared to push any buttons an mess it up further.

GIS I: Week 2 Lab

GIS Week 2 Lab:

1. What is the name of the quadrangle? Beverly Hills Quadrangle
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?  Canoga Park
4. What datum was used to create your map? NAD 27
5. What is the scale of the map? 1:24,000
6. At the above scale, answer the following:  1,200m
a) 5 centimeters on the map is equivalent to how many meters on the ground? 1.89m
b) 5 inches on the map is equivalent to how many miles on the ground? 2.64
c) one mile on the ground is equivalent to how many inches on the map? 30
d) 3 kilometers on the ground is equivalent to how many centimeters on the map? 1.25
7. What is the contour interval on your map? 20 Feet
8. What are the approximate geographic coordinates in both degrees/minutes/seconds and decimal degrees of:
a) the tip of the Santa Monica pier   34°N 118°30'W

b) The Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir 34°7'10"N 118° 24' 35"W
9. What is the approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:

a) Greystone Mansion in Greystone Park  650ft, 198m

b) Woodlawn Cemetery 140ft, 43m

c) Crestwood Hills Park 600ft, 183m

10) What is the UTM zone of the map? 11
11) What are the UTM coordinates for the lower left corner of your map? -Skip-
12) How many square meters are contained within each cell (square) of the UTM gridlines? -Skip-
13) Obtain elevation measurements, from west to east along the UTM northing 3771000, where the eastings of the UTM grid intersect the northing. Create an elevation profile using these measurements in Excel (hint: create a line chart). Figure out how to label the elevation values to the two measurements on campus. -Skip-
14. What is the magnetic declination of the map? 14°
15. In which direction does water flow in the intermittent stream between the 405 freeway and Stone Canyon Reservoir? South

Week 1 Lab: 3 Maps

This map of Seattle from the turn of  last century, has a really interesting, almost aerial view- as one would have imagined the city looked from above.  It contains what would have been considered the most important locations at a time when tourism wasn't the major industry, but shipping was.  This one is located in files originating from the University of Washington and was created in 1891.  It shows the familiar grids of downtown before the advent of the Alaska Way Viaduct and the freeway system.  It's interesting to think about the similarities that still exist along with the obvious changes.

 

 In this fantastic topographic map of the moon, we get to see the low-points and high-points as they would be colored for any Terran location, which gives us an impression of what the moon would look like if it were a green planet, where it's oceans, if there were such things, would be located, and so also what those coast lines would potentially look like.  In addition to that, the craters add such interest to the landscape. This map comes from an online astronomy site, http://cseligman.com/text/moons/moonnear.htm, where maps of many other views of our moon are also available.

The above map of Nashville TN shows details of a Cholera outbreak, defining where the illness sprang up and illustrating quite handily the source of the water-born disease.  It also shows that the wells and still water were more contaminated, than the moving waters of the river and streams.  Maps like this are so incredibly useful- and this is an early example of finding the correlations between geography and public health.  This map is from a cholera specific website, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cholera/images.html, and was created in 1873.