Unit 8

http://bit.ly/17bIaQQ

Above is the link to my map. My map shows the health of watersheds throughout the United States, where each color represents the health of the watershed (shown below). I also included areas where hydro-fracturing occurs, which poses a big risk towards water pollution. Areas involved in hydro-fracturing are represented by the orange circles. Thanks and enjoy!

	Functioning Properly
	Functioning at Risk
	Impaired Function

Lab 7

Remote Sensing:

Remote sensing is the process by which the electromagnetic energy (reflected light) reflected from an object to a device, often a satellite, is collected. When light from the sun hits an object, it then reflects off that object back into space,  and will eventually hit a sensor on a spaceborne platform way out in space. The sensor then records and measures the reflected energy. Remote sensing can be used to aid in a number of different fields including monitoring shorelines, measure ocean temperature, can track erosion rates and has many natural resource applications. An example of how remote sensing could be used in my field of interest is to measure the health of a forest. A healthy, full forest will reflect more electromagnetic energy. If a forest is suffering from deforestation or poor health, the area will reflect less electromagnetic energy which allows scientists to record/measure the health of forests.

To better help explain how remote sensing works, look at the picture above. It can be seen that the sun is emitting solar radiation which eventually comes into target with objects on Earth. Once contact is made, the solar radiation will be reflected off that target object, to a sensor on an aircraft above which can record and measure the reflected electromagnetic energy. This information is then used to study research from a wide variety of applications.

Exercises 1-4 

The map below is the finalized map from exercise 1inwhich we had to familiarize ourselves with the basic applications of multispec. The map below is set to thematic display.

 

The next map shows the different displays in order of linear, equal area and Gaussian

The next map shows unsupervised classification with clusters where each cluster represents a different section of interest

Lastly the last map shows a classified map with associated images

 

Population Density in Michigan, 1999

The population distribution in Michigan is most heavily concentrated in the south-east region of the state. Wayne county has the highest population density which I expected since Detroit is a part of Wayne county. The western-lower peninsula also has a relatively high population density. The entire upper peninsula of Michigan has a low population density which I also expected to see. Interestingly, the Hispanic population density in Michigan has a similar distribution as the overall population with Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county holding the highest Hispanic population density. 

Below is my choropleth map showing the population distribution from 1999 in Michigan 

And here is my  dot density map showing the distribution of the Hispanic population in Michigan

Spatial Analysis with GIS

For this assignment I did steps 1-5.

Assignment 1 and 2:

Step 3: The query I used to identify all the cities that had a population more than 500,000:

"pop2000">500000

29 cities qualified for this attribute and I noticed a great majority of these cities were located on the coast or near bodies of water. Below is a snapshot showing the location of these cities.

Steps 4 and 5:

There were 99 cities completely in Washington and two bordering states (Idaho and Oregon).

Introduction to GIS

The above picture is my Shapefile made in ArcMap.

The second picture shown is a snapshot of the Orthophoto for Washtenaw County.

Response to Blog Prompt:

 My area of interest is biology but specifically conservation. Different types of datasets that could be used in this field with GIS mapping are: location of a specific type of tree being researched (vector), researching forest cover/diversity in a given area (raster), charting den location of species of interest (vector), recording rainfall (raster), location of bird nests (vector). Vector is better to use when collecting data about things that are stationary. Vectors are also good to use when the data you want to model is recorded on something that is the same, such as location of a certain type of tree species. Raster models however are better to use when you have data that is continuous and may vary in what is being studied. For instance, mapping forest cover would have varying fauna that would be more accurately represented by the raster model.

Locate Those Fire Hydrants!

For this assignment I used my Dad's Android iPhone and downloaded Google's mobile app: Google Maps Coordinates. This receiver was very easy to use and quite basic. The receiver displayed the coordinates in both DMS and decimal coordinates which was helpful for plotting my data in excel. My only complaint with this coordinate system is that the numbers fluctuated quite rapidly and, for many coordinates, I had to guess on what the correct coordinate numerical value; a slightly different value displayed every time I looked down. Overall this was a good experience, I was surprised at how easy it was to transport the coordinates to Google Earth. This also further supports how helpful GPS mapping might be for my future career. If it's this easy to plot the coordinate location of fire hydrants, I can imagine how easy this would also be to plot the location of a particular type of tree involved in research. Google Maps Coordinates uses the datum WGS84.

Unit Blog 1 GEOG 100

I must confess, I had only used Google Earth once or twice prior to this unit, so I had a lot to learn! I discovered just how much you can actually do with Google Earth, like how simple it is to measure the distance between two points. Google Earth would offer a fun and easy way to plan out a trip and to visit places you may not have heard of if not for the program. Something that surprised me about Google Earth is that regular people can upload their own pictures of places and upload them to the site. I thought this was a fun and unique way to get a glimpse at a wide range of different landscapes and buildings. Another new thing I discovered is what looks to be a beautiful park in Australia called Gregson Park. I was looking at the snapshots of this park and have added it to my list of places I would like to one day see! To implement some of our new found Google Earth skills, I took a snapshot of the park outline and encourage anyone who is curious to follow the coordinates and check out the pictures visitors uploaded.