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.