Final Lab

Source: On the Fire Line (Los Angeles Times) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bigpicturefire,0,5985825.htmlstory

            The Station Fire in 2009 started from the Angeles National Forest, which manages the habitats, flora and fauna ecosystems, and watersheds. An arson fire began on August 26^th, 2009 near the Angeles Crest Highway and quickly spread, burning the dead plants in the mountain. It was the worst in Los Angeles County history and burned for more than a month, threatening the Mount Wilson Observatory atop Mt. Wilson, the origin of the Big Bang Theory (Jessica Garrison, 2009). One forth of the forest was burned, wildlife displaced as well as 91 homes, and worst of all, two firefighters died while trying to avoid the flames and drove off the (Wikipedia, 2012). The smoke from the fire could be seen even in downtown Los Angeles, leaving scars not only in the mountains but also in the hearts of the residents in the LA area. Below is a picture taken from LA downtown, featuring the smoke of the fire rising up in the air, blocking the clear view of the skyline.

Source: On the Fire Lines (Los Angeles Times) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bigpicturefire,0,5985825.htmlstory

            Using GIS as a tool, I downloaded data from various government and university websites, trying to get a better understanding of the fire and its effects. History cannot be reversed, but we can certainly learn from the mistakes and prevent it from happening again. Although there was wide criticism that the officials were not able to contain the fire in the first 48 hours from when it started, a report from the USFS stated, “Appropriate decisions were made on the fire.” In addition, while the public complained about the insufficient resources devoted into containing the fire on the second day, the report argued that even if there were additional resources, the effectiveness of their firefighting operation could not be improved, if not to result in “needless exposure of firefighters to the hazards of wildland fire“  (Gabbert, 2009). As an amateur on the issue of wildfire, I could not comment on the adequacy of the resources devoting into firefighting at the forest, but I could present the data regarding the facilities, the origins and the fire and other facilities (churches) nearby.

            I began by looking at the perimeter of the fire with the fire suppressing facilities labeled on the map. The most eye-catching scene is that none of the fire stations were very close to the forest (United States Geological Survey ESRI, 2006). I thought it was strange at first, but I came to realize that the forest was on a slope, and with the high risk of fire leading to high risk of debris flows, it seemed rational not to build a fire station on the slope, with people 24/7 in it with expensive machines and vehicles. I measured the straight-line distance from the nearest fire station to the origin of the fire and the result was 25.18 miles. Since the distance was not measured along the roads, it is safe to say that the actual traveling distance from the station to the fire is more than 30 miles.

            The next thing to look at is the fuel rank. As one can see in the legend, the fuel rank goes from -1 to 3, with -1 being non-fuel, 1 being moderate, 2 being high and 3 being very high. It is easily seen that the places covered in purple are the areas could fuel the fire and cause the fire to spread more quickly than other areas (California Depatment of Foresty and Fire Protection, 2005). Now look at the perimeters of the fire (shown by the shapes with black outline), the origin of the fire was in the part of high fuel rank, which cause it to spread very quickly, eventually to ¼ of the forest (Wikipedia, 2012). These two factors justified the quick spread of the fire and the difficulty to contain the fire before it spread.

            Another interesting thing I wanted to know while glancing through the data available to me was the effect on different churches of the Station Fire. As we can see, as far as the perimeter of the fire went, no churches were really included in the black hollow shape. However, three churches of different religions were very close to the perimeter, indicating high risks. Had they been built on a land of high fuel rank, they may be at even greater risk. There are two conclusions I made from this: when building churches, hospitals and other facilities, various areas such as fuel rank, slope, and risk of fire should be considered; the other is that religion, in this case, was not a big factor of which the churches did not get burned (although one could argue that the churches were safe due to their protection from God). The most important thing is that fire threats are not as simple as we thought and actually happens more often then we expect. One way to prevent losses is to constantly review the areas of threat and renew information of the area. In that way, the chances of such devastating fire could be diminished.

Source: On the Fire Line (Los Angeles Times) http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bigpicturefire,0,5985825.htmlstory

Bibliography

California Depatment of Foresty and Fire Protection. (2005). Fuel Rank. Fuel Rank . California : California Depatment of Foresty and Fire Protection.

Gabbert, B. (2009, 11 13). USFS report says steep slopes and fuel conditions inhibited initial attack of Station FIre. Retrieved 11 27, 2012, from Wildfire Today: http://wildfiretoday.com/2009/11/13/usfs-report-says-steep-slopes-and-fuel-conditions-inhibited-initial-attack-of-station-fire/

Jessica Garrison, A. Z. (2009, 08 31). Station fire claims 18 homes and two firefighters. Retrieved 11 27, 2012, from Los Angeles Times: http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/31/local/me-fire31

United States Geological Survey ESRI. (2006, 10 01). U.S. Geographic Names Information System Churches for Los Angeles County. U.S. Geographic Names Information System Churches for Los Angeles County , 2006. Redlands, California , USA: ESRI.

Wikipedia. (2012, 10 5). Angeles National Forest. Retrieved 11 27, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angeles_National_Forest

Week 8: Census Data 2000

    The Asian population is more dense in the West Coast as well as the North Coast. This is probably due to the massive Asian immigration to the United States a few generations ago. The result of the immigration is that immigrants seeking higher living standards tend to linger around in the more urbanized areas such as Los Angeles and New York City. In contrast, in the northern area of the US, the counties are covered in green - meaning that less than 1% of the population are Asian. The reason of this may be the result of traveling routes of the immigrants: they usually arrive in the US through the coastal areas and tend to stay there. The county with the highest concentration of the Asian population is one among the west coast - almost half of the population identify themselves as Asian. 

   The Black population is mostly concentrated in the southeastern tip of the United States. Due to the unfamiliarity of the US history, I cannot be certain of the reason of this concentration. One interpretation of this may be that this is the result of the slavery history until the 19th century. Similar to the Asian population, we can see that the black population tended to linger in the coastal area where they lived during the past and had not moved to other areas so much. This may be because of the cultural difference of the different races in different areas. In the north, there is again less concentration of the black population - generally less than 3%. The area with the highest concentration has a black population percentage as high as 86.4%.

    Some of the other races has the highest concentration in the southwestern tip of the United States. Again, one interpretation of this may be that the immigrants with hispanic roots tend to enter the States from the southwestern direction, since Mexico is in that direction. Interestingly, the county with the highest concentration of these races is significantly lower than that of the black population: 30% compared to 86.4% mentioned above. The cause of this is not clear: whether it is because people in this category are more scattered than Asians and Blacks or it is because the overall "other race" population is less in the United States could not be defined. In addition, the definition of "other race" in the census data could make a difference and should be taken into account when interpreting this data. 

The ArcGIS experience

    With the introduction of ArcGIS in this course, I have come to realized that geographers are of significant influence in both the private and public sector in our economy. As an economist, one thing that interests us is "incentive". People act on their incentives and incentives come from people's past experience or base knowledge of a certain material. Powerful maps and other GIS materials created by ArcGIS are good tools of leading people to understand certain materials in certain ways. Although maps are presentations of the reality, the process of map creation selects and arrange data in such way that lead viewers to certain conclusions the map makers intend to.  

     With that said, ArcGIS as a user-friendly data management and map creation tool is a very good assistance for not only geographers, but also businessmen, politicians and policy makers. An example of the use of map uses in marketing strategies is the case of Verizon advertising its coverage of 4G LTE network across the nation. With ArcGIS, more and more users could make full use of the beauty of maps in various industries. 

Week 7: DEM

      The area I have chosen is the Big Bear Lake Area. I have chosen this because this weekend will be the first time I go skiing and my first experience will be at the Big Bear Mountains. For this reason, I decided it would be a good idea to look at the local elevations of the mountains. The following is the information retrieved from the original source.
      Extent: Top: 34.4072222213; Left: -116.839166668; Right: -116.465000001; Bottom: 34.2069444435;
     Spatial Reference: GCS North American 1983
     Angular Unit: Degree (0.0174532925199433)
     Datum: D_North_American_1983
     It is relieving to see that the mountains are not as steep as I thought. There are no very steep slopes; Rather, one can gradually climb up or glide down the slope. I guess this would be good for a beginner.
    

3D map of the area

Week 6: Map Projections

    Map projections exist because of the unavoidable distortions when trying to put the three dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface. Different kinds of map projections perserve different features of the Earth and therefore serve different purposes. In this lab, we learned to deal with conformal, equal-area and equal distant projections. When measuring the distance between two cities: Washington DC and Kabul, the significance and pitfalls of different projections can be seen.

     One of the most important uses of a map is navigation. If one wants to use a two dimensional map for navigation, the best choice is then probably a conformal map, since local  angles are preserved. However, from the two conformal maps I have chosen for this lab, it is easy to see that there is significant difference. Mercator is clearly more useful as a world map than stereographic since the stereographic projection usually just projects one hemisphere. The two representations of a sphere onto a piece of paper give the viewer different sense of the world. This, again, shows the "art of a geographer": representing the world in the way you want to to affect people's perception of the world.

     One pitfall of using different map projections is that when measuring distances, different projections give different answers. Although the two projections, equidistant conic and equidistant cylindrical projections both suggest that they perserve the distance characteristic of the world, the distance between Washington DC and Kabul is still significantly different. One may be confused by this without taking a GIS class. The equidistant projections preserves the proportional difference in distance: it does not mean the the distances one measures from two equidistant projections are the same. Without an understanding, a map viewer may be confused. 

    Another pitfall of map projections is also linked to the "art of a geographer". A map maker could "manipulate" people's thoughts by representing the world in different ways using different map projections. As the video we have seen in lecture suggests, some maps lead to the false perception that certain countries are smaller than others when they are actually the same size. As said in the video "Why are We Changing Maps"shown in lecture, the lady pointed out that the traditional Mercator projection has "fostered European imperialist attitudes for centuries and created ethnic bias against the third world". This has significant implications on social equality and is something that politicians and policy makers should be educated on. 

    

ArcGIS: First Try

ArcGIS Tutorial Image

ArcGIS Tutorial Image

         To be honest, I was not a fan of maps. I usually take the use of maps for granted. But as I went through this tutorial, I realized how powerful GIS could be in terms of providing information and presenting ideas in a clear and aesthetic fashion. In addition, as mentioned in the lecture by professor Illes, map makers tend to have their own "arts". Using map as a means of communication, it is easy for them to present their intended theory or idea by selecting which features of the map they want to stand out. Overall, my experience with ArcGIS was pleasant: the instructions were very clear and it was very fun manipulating the data and being amazed by how powerful a computer software can be. This could be my first step of being a map maker!
        GIS as opposed to traditional printed map, enjoys another advantage. For the map makers a hundred years ago, it is clearly a lot of work when trying to edit an old map from someone else. Unlike GIS, traditional maps do not have their raw data ready and therefore when someone wants to edit a printed map, they may have to draw the whole map again. In addition, information of the raw data may be lost in which case editing can be difficult.
       Despite the benefits and potentials GIS brings, there are also some pitfalls. To begin with, with increasing access to the raw data and map editing, someone could easily make a map that could mislead people. An example I have seen is that a map maker was trying to discriminate against a certain race in a certain state by stating that the wealth of a certain race is in the hands of another race due to massive immigration. These maps could be misleading and even cause conflicts to those that do not have high levels of media literacies.
     The biggest pitfall of GIS, as stated by professor in lecture, is that it requires very accurate information input to get a accurate output. Although I stated that GIS is very useful even with amateur users like me, I am not certain if I had made a mistake or not when processing the data. If I got something wrong while inputing data, my map would provide inaccurate information and the potential consequences to the viewers cannot be underestimated.
     In all, GIS, as a modern map making, data manipulation and analysis tool, is very useful for geographers. It reduces a lot of work using contemporary technology  While one enjoys the fruit of technology innovations, one cannot forget that one has to be careful not to let the pitfalls of GIS undermine our handwork.

Interactive Map: Trip to the Town of Little Mermaids

View Trip to the town of the Little Mermaids in a larger map

The pitfalls of Neogeography

   While neogeography, characterized by accessible to users around the world, has been useful in providing instant informations to its users, pitfalls arise from all the benefits. Two of them are loss of privacy and information inaccuracy.
   With neogeography tools such as Google maps with street views, pictures from ordinary people taken at any time can be uploaded online for the whole world to see. While this can be convenient for virtual tourists, people actually appearing in the picture may feel uncomfortable for being exposed at certain places. For example, someone wearing a high school uniform definitely does not want to be posted in a picture entering a liquor store on a school day. Privacy cannot be ensured when you have to look out for everyone that has a camera on his or her phone. Hence, authorities of such useful tools should consider filtering the photos posted online or at least try to get consent from the person shot in the picture. 
    Another aspect we have to look out for is information accuracy. With the accessibility to editing the information posted online, it is very likely that information that is not accurate or tested is posted online. With low media literacy level, many viewers may intuitively think what they get from the internet is always correct, which is obviously not guaranteed in the case of Wikipedia. An example is the interactive map I posted in this blog. I had the opportunity to edit the notes I post to every spot I tagged. If a note a price of a dish at a certain restaurant now, it is very likely that 3 years from now, the information will not be up to date and will lose its original usefulness.
   In summary, while more use of neogeography is an emerging trend among global users for personal usage, one has to be aware of the information acquired online and the developers of the tools should be careful not to breach the law in terms of privacy issues.

Lab 2 USGS Topographic Maps

Lab 2

1. Beverly Hills Quadrangle
2. Adjacent Quadrangle 1. Canoga Park;
    Adjacent Quadrangle 2.Van Nuys;
    Adjacent Quadrangle 3. Burbank;
    Adjacent Quadrangle 4. Topanga;
    Adjacent Quadrangle 5. Hollywood;
    Adjacent Quadrangle 7. Venice;
    Adjacent Quadrangle 8. Inglewood.
3. 1966
4. National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929; North American Datum of 1927 (NAD 27)
5. 1:24,000
6. (a) 1,200 meters
    (b) 1.89 miles approximately
    (c) 2.64 inches
    (d) 12.5 cm
7. 20 feet
8.  Public Affairs: +34° 4' 30", -118° 26' 0" (34.075, -118.43)
     Tip of Santa Monica Pier: +34° 0' 27", -118° 29' 57" (34.0075, -118.499167)
     The Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir:  +34° 7' 0", -118° 24' 30"(34.116667, -118.408333more infoAddress:)
9.  (a) Greystone Mansion 580 feet; 176.78 meters (approximately)
     (b) Woodlawn Cemetery 140 feet; 42.67 meters (approximately)
     (c) Crestwood Hills Park 620 feet; 189.00 meters (approximately)
10. UTM zone 11
11. 10 N 361500E 3763000N
12. 1,000,000 square meters
13. Elevation Profile

14. 14 degrees 48 minutes East
15. South
16.