Lab #7

In the year 2009, Southern California had over 83 wildfires already. However, the most notable fire is the Station Fire in the north of Los Angeles on the Angeles Crest Highway. This fire was the largest and deadliest of the wildfires, which burned 160,577 acres. The Station Fire destroyed 209 structures, including 89 homes, and took the lives of 2 firefighters. The fire was started on August 26th and not fully contained until September 19th. The US government spent over $93.8 million in fighting and containing the flames.

Other than the buildings destroyed, the blaze also threatened 12,000 structures in the Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles County National Forest. Many nearby neighborhoods and communities such as Glendale, Acton, La Crescenta, Pasadena, Littlerock and Altadena were forced to evacuate to escape the flames. The fire threatened television, radio and cellular telephone antennas that provided communication for nearby neighborhoods on the summit of Mount Wilson. Also, the flames threatened the Mount Wilson Observatory which contained historically significant telescopes and expensive astronomical facilities operated by California universities such as UCLA, USC and UC Berkeley. The starting point of the fire was right along the Angeles Crest Highway, causing some major damage to the signs on a 40 mile stretch of the highway. Part of the Angeles Crest Highway have been close since then.

Due to the dry climate in Southern California, wildfires are unpreventable. The high temperatures and strong winds make it hard to extinguish the fires. During the late summer and early fall, temperatures are often as high as 100 degrees with no rain throughout the seasons. Other than natural resources, sometimes fire could be caused by human activity. For the Station Fire in LA, investigators of the fire found a substance at the fire's origin point that was believed to have caused the fire. On September 3rd, officials announced that the fire was caused by arson and have started a homicide investigation to find the people responsible for the damage.

The thematic map that I’ve included above is showing the schools in Los Angeles County. These schools include preschools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and universities. Due to the fire, many school districts postponed the starting date of the school year. Two school districts that were right along the borderline of the fire were the La Canada Unified School District and Glendale Unified School District. As you can see from the map, many other schools were in the close proximity of the fire. According to the LA Times, the Pasadena, Saugus, Eastern San Fernando Valley school districts prohibited outdoor activities due to the horrible air quality. Even as far as the school district in San Gabriel warned students about the impact that the bad air quality could have on their health. According to Science Daily and The Boston Globe, there was a great amount of ash and smoke hanging in the air which lifted carbon monoxide more than 27,000 feet into the atmosphere. Most schools near the fire were closed or evacuated. However, since the fire progressed northward, none of the schools were burned down.

This Station Fire lab shows the usefulness of GIS in every aspect of our lives. With arcGIS, experts can predict the spread of the fire to help evacuate the communities around the fire. Also, these maps provide visual images so experts can examine the patterns associated with the fire such as air quality, wind, and elevation. With the thematic maps, like the one I created for schools around the fire, it can be useful to analyze how communities may be affected. The use of maps and spatial analysis can help reduce the damage of natural disasters, although wildfires in Southern California are sometimes inevitable.

Work Cited

City News Service. "Schools remain closed because of Station fire". L.A. Now. Los Angeles Times, 1 Sept. 2009. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/schools-remain-closed-because-of-station-fire.html.

Weikel, Dan (4 September 2009). "Angeles Crest Highway closed indefinitely because of fire". Los Angeles Times, 5 September 2009. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/angeles-crest-highway-closed-indefinitely-because-of-fire.html.

Mapshare. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. http://gis.ats.ucla.edu//Mapshare/Default.cfm.

The National Map Seamless Server. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. http://gis.lacounty.gov.

"InciWeb the Incident Information System: Station Fire." inciweb.org. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. http://inciweb.org/incident/1856/.

Lab #6

Maps of The Sierra Madre

Shaded Relief Model

Aspect Map

Slope Map

3-D Model

These images are digital elevation models (DEM) that represent the area around the Sierra Madre in California in UTM zone 11N. I selected this area because since the Sierra Madre is a mountain range, it would have some areas with greater elevations than other areas. This region looked appealing on the elevation map of the United States. The shaded relief map highlights the high and low areas of the area around the Sierra Madre. The lighter blue areas have lower elevation than the dark blue areas. The slope map focuses on the inclination of the land. I finished my slope map before I got the hint that we were supposed to change the z factor from default to 0.001, therefore my slope map is not very significant. Therefore, the slope inclination is not very clear. The aspect map shows what direction certain parts of the map are facing. The red areas are facing north, green facing south, blue facing west, and yellow facing east. The 3D map was my favorite one. It looks really cool! Basically, this map shows the 3-dimensional figure of the Sierra Madre and the areas around it in California. The dark purple areas are the peaks while the yellow areas display the flat lands. The spatial reference I used for this exercise was GCS_North_American_1983. The extent information of the area I picked is as follows:

Top: 34.34017 degrees
Bottom: 33.98703 degrees
Left: -118.40653 degrees
Right: -117.70025 degrees

Lab # 5

This lab exercise was really interesting because I got the chance to actually make map projections myself after learning about them in class. After creating the maps in different projections, I started to realize what the professor was talking about when he mentioned how map projections often lead to distortions. Each of these maps brings to attention how relative these maps truly are in relation to the actual distance between Washington D.C. and Kabul. Map projections show the 3-D world in a 2-D image, therefore, there are inaccuracies within each projection. Each map projection requires complex mathematical tools and there is not one that is perfect. Since none of the projections calculated the same distance in miles in this exercise, this proves that projections are often skewed and distorted. Therefore, it is important to know which projection is best for a specific project because each projection preserves a certain aspect.

There are three types of map projections: conformal map projections, equidistant map projections, and equal area map projections. Conformal map projections, like the Mercator projection and Miller Cylindral projection, preserve local angles therefore making them useful for navigational purposes and identifying the shape of continents and countries. Equal area map projections like Bonne projection and Goode Homolosine projection are better at preserving area in relation to one another, therefore they can be used to calculate the area of countries and continents efficiently or measuring and analyzing population density. Equidistant map projections like the Equidistant Conic and Equidistant Cylindrical maps preserve distance, therefore, they are most useful for calculating the distance between two fixed points. It is the best choice to use Equidistant map projections to calculate the distance between Washington, D.C. and Kabul, although the conic projection calculates the distance as 6,729 miles, while the cylindrical projection calculates the distance as 5,051 miles.

Some issues can be related to using map projections. One issue is making sure which map projection to use for the purpose of the project. Each map projection has its pros and cons for specific uses. As seen from this lab exercise of measuring the distance from Washington D.C. to Kabul, I got 10,186 miles from the Mercator projection and 5,052 miles from the Equidistant Cylindrical projection. Each of these distances would be meaningful, as long as it is used in the right context. Another issue is that all these map projections are distorted in a way. In most cases, the areas around the equator is preserved and as one gets further away from the equator, the distortions increase. For example, since Antarctica is far away from the equator, its size is disproportionately large in the Mercator projection.

Map projections also have a lot of potential. For example, each map projection gives us a different perspective of the same features on a world map that we would not normally see. They can be used to analyze the world around us in many different ways. Also, map projections are easy to read and practical. For example, one can use a conformal map to plan a trip from Long Beach to Cabo on a ship by using a Mercator projection or any other type of conformal projections. Therefore, map projections are useful in our everyday lives. Although globes can display the world in 3-D without distorting distance ratios or the shape, maps are a lot more portable and accessible.

Lab #4

My experience with ArcGIS was quite interesting. The first time around, I found everything really confusing and frustrating. I felt like this lab was just a test of my patience and ability to follow directions. I had to follow the directions very carefully to ensure that I did not make any mistakes. For example, for the first exercise, I forgot to change the scale on the map from feet to miles. I did not realize I made that mistake until the end and I was not very familiar with the application so I did not know how to go back and fix it. I felt like it was really easy to miss some steps as well when I scrolled down the pages. This application also felt really time consuming since the it took me almost 3 hours to go through the tutorial the first time. I realized that GIS was not as easy as I expected it to be, and this ArcGIS application was a lot more complicated than the computer programs that I am familiar with.

However, this application amazed me in many ways. First of all, the tutorial was very helpful, despite how frustrating it was in the beginning. It got easier the second and third time around when I got used to using the application and became familiar with where the buttons were located. The tutorial was very user-friendly since the directions were clear, and it even had pictures showing exactly what the steps should look like on the computer. Because I am interested in geography and I enjoy looking at maps, I found this lab very enjoyable. It exposed me to a totally different perspective on maps. Now, I realize that creating maps is not as easy as I thought it would be. It takes a lot of time and effort. Other than that, I think these maps created from GIS can be very useful to geographers and landscapers because they can use these maps to analyze spatial relationships easily. Also, the part I thought was interesting is how there can be many layers embedded within each map. This feature can be useful to see the relationships between each layer.

There are countless potential for using GIS as we can see from this application. When an individual learns how to use this application, they are able to create maps and images that can display a lot of information. But, these maps can be very overwhelming to someone that has no background in geography. When my friend saw this lab that I was working on, he was amazed by how I was able to create such complex images with ArcGIS. However, for experts, they are able to use this application to create maps that benefit our daily lives. These maps created from GIS can help to visualize and organize a lot of information about our landscape.

Despite its usefulness, there are also some pitfalls that can be associated to GIS and the ArcGIS application. A major pitfall that I have already addressed is how complicated and frustrating this application can be. It is not the easiest computer program to be used by people that are not experts in the field. Because there are so much information being exposed, one can be easily confused and overwhelmed by the amount of information. An individual must have some prior knowledge about geography and computer programming in order to use this application successfully. Another pitfall is that in order to be familiar with the program, an individual must repeat the tutorial many times like we did in lab section. This makes the application very time consuming. This program requires an individual to spend long hours in front of the computer, which often causes a lot of frustration and stress. However, I enjoyed this lab overall!