Week 9 Reading Reflection

This weeks reading was on a student project conducted in Kentucky on the walkability and bikeability of a local neighborhood. The article begins speaking about how the newer generations have a bend towards seeing automobile transportation as the norm. Where as previous generations were geared towards walking and biking. The older streets in the study were narrower and the side walks wider and on both sides of the street. While conversely the newer parts of development have wider streets and diminishing sidewalks. Additionally the article discusses how this automobile trend has lead to an increase in childhood obesity, this study was a way to propose a solution to the childhood obesity issue.

The result of the subject neighborhood was three solutions increasing the walkability and bikeability of the area by 12, 40, and 50%. While they were unable to get to a 100% increase do to modifying the land surface in the current neighborhoods, new developments can be catered to the walking and biking crowd. Providing easier and safer access to schools for children in the area. The cost of these changes was relatively negligible, the changes are more related to proper planning and thought about the placement of the pathways and trails in the neighborhoods. This study was good, it would be a benefit to neighborhoods to plan better pathways and trails for transportation through their extent.

The Station Fire of 2009 that occurred in the Western United States was started by an arsonist in the Angeles National Forest of California just north of LA county. The map below shows the county parks that stretch through the map extent overlain with the extent of the fire. As one can see from the map a majority of the spreading of the fire did occur in LA county parks surrounding the city. The Station Fire is considered the largest fire in LA County history, burning a total extent of 161,189 acres or 252 square miles. While the fire was mainly contained within the national forest this is still a major blow to the diversity and ecology of the national forest surrounding LA. The fire did eventually destroy several structure and encroach on communities but its massive impact was in the national forest land. 

 

The map also shows the encroachment of the fire on the highways system supporting the LA County area. The Angeles Crest Highway was right in the path of the fire and provided a confusing setting in which to fight the fire for the hotshot teams. The highway's pavement wasn't much effected but many of the guard rails and signage was severely damaged during the course of the fire and rendered the highway unusable until the DOT could get in to repair the damages. In the south west corner of the fires extent you can see where the highway has been included in the red amoeba of the fires extent.

The map above is the second one completed for the discussion of the Station Fire, as you can immediately tell the red area is the extent of the fire and I have included in white the areas that are highly populated in LA County with additional city tags to accompany the areas. The total structural damage from the fire totaled 209 buildings, 89 of which were homes. From the looking at the map it becomes evident that the populated county perimeter overlaps slightly with the area the fire inhabited. Towards the beginning of the fire approximately 12-15 homes were destroyed and the potential of harm to 12,000 more was predicted. Luckily the firefighters were able to somewhat control and minimize the loss of structure from the fire.

As having mentioned before the fire was believed to have been started by someone, there was evidence of a substance later found at the source that would have helped accelerate the flames. Unfortunately for all there were two fireman on duty at the station where the fire was set and were tragically killed when trying to escape the blaze. Their truck drove off a cliff due to limited visibility and both the men lost their lives. As such there was a homicide investigation into who started the fire.

Overall this fire is one of the worst LA county has ever seen, the total burned area is unthinkable, the habitats and ecosystems that will have to repair themselves and try to flourish again is unimaginable. Despite having lost several lives and an number of structures the damage caused by the fire could have been much worse, had the fire spread more rapidly any further it would have started encroaching on heavily populated areas and wrecked havoc through many a community. Luckily through the effort of the state and the fire department the fire was relatively directed and contained.






Bibliography:

Garrison, Jessica, "Station fire claims 18 homes and two firefighters", Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2009, Accessed March 4, 2014.

Molina, Genaro, "LA County fire doubles in size; more homes destroyed; Mt. Wilson threatened", Los Angeles Times, August 31, 2009, Accessed March 4, 2014.


Angeles National Forest, "Station Fire Recovery", United States Department of Agriculture, July 1, 2011. Accessed March 4, 2014.

Wikipedia, "2009 California Wildfires", Wikipedia, Sept. 21, 2013. Accessed March 4, 2014.

Report of the Review Panel, "Station Fire Initial Attack Review", Fire and Aviation Management, November 13, 2009, p. 1-72.

Claifornia Condor in the Desert

For the ArcGIS online project we received for this class I began to do research into the several endangered and threatened species of animals located in the US. As the research progressed I began to think about how easy it would be to choose a case where there has been no recovery of the species and discuss the declining situation of the animal in question. Instead I began to think about trying to find a specific case where there has been some success in rehabilitating either the environment in which the animal lives or the animal itself on the way to recovering a healthy population. As such I stumbled upon the California Condor, while not the most glamorous of animal species it does still represent a small victory in the recognition of humans as to their effects and the subsequent mitigation of those effects.

In 1987 the United States government put into action a conservation plan that lead to the capture of the remaining 22 California Condors and the introduction of a program to start reducing the risk to the bird. The California Condor is one of the world’s rarest bird species so steps were taken to breed the birds back to a healthy population total, this was accomplished at Los Angeles Zoo and San Diego Safari park. The leading cause of the decline of the California Condor has been due to poaching, lead poisoning and habitat destruction. There have been several initiatives to help reduce the risk from each of these areas of potential danger.

The Condor lives in the terrestrial desert biome  of Earth, mainly a scavenger it relies on the death of small to large mammals to feed on. As such one of the leading factors in the decline of the population was lead poising from gun shot left in the carcasses of animals and then eaten by the condors. The condors think the pellets are bone and eat them, then they become exposed to increasing amounts of lead and become poisoned, the leading prevention and mitigation of this issue was the introduction of copper pellets to be used when hunting. These are cheaper to manufacture and don’t have the same effect on the birds as the lead pellets do. In addition the poising habitat destruction has been a major factor in the decline of the bird species. As we push our populations out into more developable areas we begin to encroach on the natural habitat of many species.

The thing about the Condor story is that is has been a relative success, the map below shows the population density of California cities, the red to brown polygons, overlaid on the area extent of the Condor habitat, that area shown in purple. Despite inhabiting areas that are relatively close to the major city centers the Condor has been able to thrive and bring itself back from the brink of extinction through conservation plans instituted and conscious decisions being made to help the bird thrive. The most recent count of the condor put the population total of known condors around 435 birds, 237 living in the wild and 198 in captivity. For having a birth rate of one egg every two years per adult couple this is pretty good for the Condor. The come back of the bird shows that through the recognition of the problems caused by humans the decision to try and change those problems it is possible to rehabilitate a species into a thriving and healthy population conserving the animal for generations to come.

 

 The map below is a quick look at the total extent of the biome of the California Condor, a good 1/4 of the US on the West coast is denoted as viable territory for the bird species to thrive.

Humanitarianism and GIS

The article picked this week to read is a report on how GIS has been able to assist in a variety of ways concerning humanitarian issues surrounding war zones. The article specifically sites Kosovo as an example of how a readily accessible data base can help to assess damage, place refugees, evaluate resources available and keep everyone informed. The ease of modification of this global database allows people on the ground to upload real time data and it can be processed and analyzed by those around the world so different actions can be allocated to assist.

One of the more interesting pieces of the article talks about how the goal after the war in Kosovo was to locate land mines and unexploded ordnances. The global database was able to allow the keepers of the data base to use military intel to place known locations of land mines and explosives in the areas where people are trying to move back into. This helps to locate and disarm these harmful explosives keeping the people safe and moving the area back into development. 

Week 7 Reading Reflection

The article I chose to read this week is concerning the census and how there are going to be changes to way in which data is collected for the count. The article talks about how traditionally the census has two parts, the short form which gives total household occupancy and several other things and the long for which allows for more in depth collection of information such as education, citizenship and marital status.

The most interesting part of the article to me was the way in which the new ACS census system will allow for the counting of seasonal residency. In the previous count you needed to maintain your residence for a year to be considered as occupying it, in the newest version of the count you need only be in one place for 2 months, which in and of itself can pose issues if someone is moving several times a year as to where there residency is.

Mysterious Diseases

The reading that I chose for this weeks assignment is about mysterious diseases that do not have an explainable source for the diseases. The article discusses how there are groups forming world wide that are formally based on discovering the source of the unidentifiable diseases. Additionally there are groups that are forming for people effected by these diseases, essentially support groups for persons with the unknown diseases.

The second part of the article gives 7 different diseases that the causes have not been able to be identified, prior to listing all these disease the article author gives some speculation on the reason for these diseases. They speculate that the exposure to the things we have in our everyday life could be a feasible source for the causes of diseases. Most radically they say that governments are releasing chemicals into the environment that are effecting populations.

Mt. St. Helens

I chose the area surrounding the peak of Mt. St. Helen's, I see this as an environmental issue in that it could possible replicate the events of the mid 1980's which destroyed acres of timber and took several lives in the direct blast. The hazard of lahar flows from another eruption could devastate the population near the mountain as it did in its most recent blowout. As you can see from the 3-D model the blue area indicates the growing crown of the volcano again as it refills and begins to build up again. As the mountain top begins to grow and reach its max capacity again the danger of another eruption also grows. The map coordinates are under the geographic coordinate system 1983. The extent info in decimal degrees can be found below.

Top: 47.0016
Left: -123.0016
Right: -121.998
Bottom: 45.998

Debris Flow

For this weeks reading I chose an article that discusses the hazard of landslides in areas around the world. More specifically it talks about areas where recent fires have denuded the landscape, the ash from the fires makes the soil more impenetrable to water infiltration which can increase runoff and potential slope failure. The research in this article is sited to be occurring in parts of California where recent fires have devastated national parks. USGS is packing equipment out into chosen and modeled basins where they are collecting data about infiltration rates and how much precipitation is falling in the area.

The second and end part of the article discusses warning systems that researchers are trying to get put into place. By identifying areas that are potential dangers of slope failure it becomes possible to monitor rainfall levels through weather forecasting and potentially warn of debris flows. They admit that this work isn't of the most dire nature but they have found that there were over 2000 deaths last year from slide related incidents. By collecting any kind of data concerning the slides it will help in the prevention and mitigation of future events.

Projection Distances

Total measured distances from Washington, D.C. and Kabul, Afghanistan for the 5 different types of map projections shown above:

GCS WGS 1984- (geodesic) 6954.5 miles
Mercator- (planar) 10,112.12 miles
Azimuthal Equidistant- (planar) 8,341.4 miles
Behrmann Equal Area- (planar) 8,763.1 miles
Polyconic- (planar) 7,346.56 miles

Our assignment this week was to take data concerning the geodesic locations of the major cities in the world and locate them on a map using several different types of projections. More specifically we were required to analyze the distance between Washington and Kabul through the various projection styles. The goal was to use several different measuring techniques to show variation and or consistency with the measuring styles. Unfortunately I was unable to get the type of measuring style to change so was only able to report data in the planar measurements.

As can be seen in the above map I chose to put the initial main map with all the data points assigned, note Washington and Kabul called out in blue. From there I chose the mercator, azimuthal, behrmann and polyconic projection styles. As you can see from the recorded data the type of projection changed the measured distance between these two destinations substantially. Here in lies the rub of this capability on ArcGIS, if you are not aware that the measured distance can be variable with the type of projection chosen data you are attempting to extract can be skewed. Although I imagine another style of measurement other than planar may give you more consistent data.

As for the potential of the projections, one is capable of understanding the type of distortion being created under each style and compensating for that in their reported conclusions. You can essentially set the world up into any orientation, whichever best suits the type of reporting one is trying to do. Also the ease at which distances can be measured is quite nice, essentially no measuring has to occur, strictly point and click and record data. As I am learning more about the program it has become possible to see the vast potential one can exploit in delivering data.

GIS excel interface

The article I chose to read for this weeks assignment has to do with interfacing between excel spreadsheets and the ArcGIS program as a whole. It speaks about how the capabilities to manipulate data and organize spreadsheets and formulas in excel can be directly translated and used in the ArcGIS program. This allows the user to utilize the excel program, which was built to handle data and analyze it, without having to touch ArcGIS until they are ready to import the necessary and useable parts.

This as a tool opens up a world of possibilities for users, think about it, excel was essentially built to be the easiest program to handle data. If those capabilities can be used in conjunction with ArcGIS the ease at which complex and voluminous data can be inserted into maps and presentations is limitless. Interestingly enough this article ended with a schedule of classes one can take in learning how to use ArcGIS and the class length days. Luckily I am able to take the class through the university.

ArcMap

This assignment/lab was an exercise in getting to know ArcMap, we were given a file database and a tutorial to follow to learn several ways in which we could manipulate the program and the feature it offers. Once having completed the tutorial we were asked to export an image of the final product we had created (as seen above) and write a summary of the pitfalls and potential of using the program.

On the whole my experience thus far with the program is positive, having said that I was essentially following a step by step procedure on how to do everything I did to create the final product. If I were asked to analyze the data given to me in this assignment without any introduction I would be utterly lost. Having said that I see the biggest issue with the program being its complexity, the vast number of things one can do with the program and knowing how to manipulate it correctly to get the results one desires. This may deter people from even attempting to get to know the program and how to work it, although those who do stick with it and work to a point of familiarity will reap the benefits.

Having discussed a pitfall it seems appropriate to discuss the potential of the ArcMap software. Using the tutorial as a guide I was able to analyze noise contours around an airport and its effect on the population of the area. It was possible to generate graphs of land use within the affected area as well as create a map showing the population density in the proposed area. From such a small amount of given data it became possible to generate several detailed figures showing a multitude of facts and ideas in one presentation. The ability to duplicate items then manipulate them in a different matter made it very easy to use information already compiled and analyzed.

I am looking forward to becoming more comfortable with the ArcMap program, coming from a geologic point of view I see this being a very useful tool in distributing data and presenting findings in an easily understood way. The ability to manipulate different layers and set up quick legends can allow more time to spent on the content of the graphic rather than wasting time with all the formatting of the necessary elements of a graph or map.

Citizen Sensors

For this weeks reading I chose the Goodchild article about citizen sensors and the generation of VGI (volunteered geographic information), he discusses how the evolution of easily accessed software and broadband internet connections has allowed for regular everyday people to post an assortment of information connected to geographic locations. Goodchild discusses how with the voluntary act of giving information about geographic locations can be a useful tool to all who have access to it. It can let people explore areas and topics not covered by media as well as learn about life everyday for all kinds of other societies. Most often the information provided by everyday persons is all that exists about places, therefore it becomes an invaluable resource for all the population.

Several posts back I wrote about the concept of neogeography, this seems like an appropriate time to try and relate the two disparate posts. As the article concerning neogeography points out it has become possible for nearly everyone in developed countries to gain access to the internet and advanced software that allows them to contribute data to the masses. Goodchild uses this in his argument as well, taking it further claiming that the info listed by everyone can be a free resource to explore our natural world.

Reading Topo Maps- Reading Reflection Week 2

The article I chose to use for this weeks reading reflection pertained to the organization and reading of topographic maps and interpreting all the symbols and labels included upon them. The article provided a detailed description of specific areas of the maps indicating the quadrangle the map was taken in, how to read the contour intervals and how to locate where the specific map was located inside of the United States. Once the basics of the legend and the labeling of the map was given the article began to focus more on the interpretation of contours.

The last several pages give a brief but quite informative description of how contour lines work, from the rule that they will never cross to how to decide what the interval is between each line. Figure 2-12 is a visual of how the contour lines correlate to three dimensional image of the landscape. Additionally a few simple rules as the orientation of contours on maps and what they generally mean is given. The last portion of the paper gives a step by step how to on the contour interval. Most of this information you are given and expected to learn in the classes we have taken thus far but as  result of reviewing this article I feel like some points have been solidified and the review was quite helpful.

Neogeography

In regards to the topic of neogeography it is my personal opinion that, as stated in the lab description it can be a hazard but also perhaps a unique and highly variable new way to share information. The idea that each individual person has free access to the tools to potentially create a completely individualized map of things that interest them is pretty mind blowing. It allows for the expression of personal interests and new ways for others to learn about the things people around them find valuable.

The power to be a unique and cool way for people to communicate ideas is all well and good, but one must consider the fact that with each person putting out a new idea and new map the derth of information could get overwhelming. The shear volume of topics that people may not be interested in will clutter the pathways of others trying to locate applicable maps or subject matter. There are definitely pros and cons to the access we now have to computer technologies but on the whole I see it as a good thing for people to be more involved and take the time to deliver their ideas and thoughts to the access of the masses.

Google My Maps tour of the hazard on Hangman Creek

                     https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zvQXdplUjzOg.kUBvrvcG8OEs

Clicking the link above will take you to a Google My Map I created that takes you from the laboratory classroom where my GIS class meets to a selected point on Hangman Creek off 195. When you arrive at this site you will be looking at the scarp of a mass wasting event that is endangering the property of the person situated above. Having said that most of the cause for the slide is due to the activities of the neighborhood situated above. The over saturation of the sediments has lead to the wasting events, as well as the creek below beginning to eat into the toe of the slide destabilizing it.

Drinking water sources

The map above shows the distribution of populations using improved water sources worldwide. The most staggering issue shown by this map is that a good portion of the world do not have access to clean and improved water sources, while we take clean and sustainable water sources for granted there are still many countries that don't have access to these improved resources. Water is becoming privatized and rather than everyone having easy access it is becoming more and more difficult for certain peoples to access this clean and rather abundant resource. Sourced (http://cnx.org/content/m41441/latest)

Oil Shale...Energy Source?

As a country we are constantly on the search for the most effective way to import oil to run our society. As we reach the "end" of easily accessible oil reserves our sights have migrated to less readily accessible sources for this resource. One such resource is oil shale reserves located right in our own country, the only issue at this point is the extraction techniques available to make using these resources feasible. As newer techniques are developed resources that were previously deemed un-accessible now become a viable source of energy and oil for our society. Source (usgs).

Best of the States

I've chosen this map for two main reasons. Firstly, when one typically looks at a map of the United States its often one covered with roads, names of places, and any number of other facts. This map simplifies the situation and strictly communicates a singular fact about each state, sans even the names. Secondly a majority of the topics delivered about the states relate to their positive contribution to a slew of environmental issues. With these accomplishments contained within each state the potential to spread individual skills laterally could see the US as a multifaceted conservative force in each of its statehoods. Map sourced (http://front.moveon.org).