Week 8, Lab 7: Mapping the Station Fire in ArcGIS

In this lab, I wanted to create various maps depicting the Station Fires from the end of August to the beginning of September in LA County and how the fire may influence certain institutional aspects of society, such as hospitals and schools. I also wanted to show how certain natural aspects of LA County, such as debris basins, parks, and significant ecological areas may be affected by the fires.

In order to do this, I created a reference map by extracting an LA County DEM from the USGS Seamless Server website and layered a boundary of LA County that I found from the Department of Public Works website on top. From there, I added significant highways and a few nearby cities to give the viewer a better idea of where the fires occurred. Finally, I layered the station fire information that was downloaded from the LA County GIS website.

First I wanted to layer LA County's hospitals on top of the county boundary to show which hospitals were closest to the fires. The map shows that of all the hospitals in LA County, only a few are at risk. These at-risk hospitals are labeled on the map. Fire could have a significant impact on social health because if hospital care is not readily available to its nearest citizens, those people must travel further to receive care. I also wanted to layer LA County's public elementary, middle, and high schools on top of the LA County boundary to show which schools were closest to the fires. One can see in the image that there is a significant amount of at-risk schools along the southern border of the station fire. Fire could have a significant impact on education because kids who are put out from school may fall behind in their studies; others may have to transfer to other schools temporarily, which could affect their social circles.





I also wanted to show certain natural aspects in LA County, such as debris basins, parks, and significant ecological areas, and how they may be affected by the station fires. In the debris-basin map, one can see that there are many debris-basins that line the southern border of the fires, just like the map with the schools. These basins are important and if the fire destroys them or dirties them with ash, there could be a severe, negative ecological impact. Concurrently, if one looks at the map depicting the LA County Parks, one can see that the parks most susceptible to fire are labeled. Parks are unique because they have natural and social implications. If a park is destroyed by fire, citizens would lose a public place of recreation and a natural place to visit in the busy city. Finally, if one looks at the map with the significant ecological areas map, one can see that the areas most susceptible to fire are labeled. These ecological areas are important because they are reserved specifically to protect biotic diversity. If these areas are destroyed by fire, we would potentially lose much of our natural biotic diversity.







In summary, I have come to realize that these station fires could potentially have great sociological and ecological impacts on LA County. If schools and hospitals are engulfed by the fires, then children would have to temporarily sacrifice their education and patients would have to be transported elsewhere. If debris-basins, public parks, and significant ecological areas are destroyed by the fires, there could be severe negative impacts on our ecosystem and overall well-being. This is why it's important to know where these places are in relation to the fires, as well as how the fire progresses over time.

Works Cited

Archive for Fire. Los Angeles County Enterprise GIS, 2 Sept. 2009. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. .

GIS Data - Available Layers. Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, 19 Jan. 2005. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. .

Mapshare: UCLA's Spatial Data Repository. UCLA, 2008. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. .

"The National Map Seamless Server." The National Map Seamless Server. U.S. Department of the Interior, 16 Nov. 2009. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. .

"Spatial Information Library Site Options Page." Dpw.lacounty.gov. Web. 21 Nov. 2009. .

Week 7, Lab 6: DEMs in ArcGIS

I selected a mountainous region outside of the East Bay in Northern California. I chose this location because I am from the Bay Area and was interested to see what a 3D elevation model would look like (of the region that I am from). The extent and datum information is listed below the 2 maps, taken from the USGS seamless website.





Extent (in decimal degrees):
top: 38.2913888882
left: -119.951388889
right: -119.391388889
bottom: 37.904166666

Datum:
GCS North American 1983
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Shaded relief model(s) of the area using a color-ramped DEM layered above a hillshade model:



A slope map of the location:



Aspect maps of the location:





A 3D image of the location:

Week 6, Lab 5: Projections in ArcGIS

The equator spans 360 decimal degrees in this 30 degree x 30 degree quadrangle. The northernmost and southernmost graticule lines on the map represent the North and South Poles, and the distance between the two spans 180 decimal degrees.

Standard Projection:



There are approximately 10,135.71 miles between Washington D.C. and Kabul in this 30 degree x 30 degree Standard projection.

Equal Area Map Projections:



There are approximately 6,716.8 miles between Washington D.C. and Kabul in this Equal Area: Bonne Projection.



There are approximately 8,339.5 miles between Washington D.C. and Kabul in this Equal Area: Hammer Projection.

Equidistant Map Projections:



There are approximately 10,160.7 miles between Washington D.C. and Kabul in this Equidistant: Plate Caree Projection.



There are approximately 6,984.9 miles between Washington D.C. and Kabul in this Equidistant: Conic Projection.

Conformal Map Projections:



There are approximately 10,085.9 miles between Washington D.C. and Kabul in this Conformal: Mercator Projection.



There are approximately 7,129.8 miles between Washington D.C. and Kabul in this Conformal: Gall Stereographic Projection.

Write-Up:

Map projections are extremely useful and complex. The complexities arise when trying to project a 3-dimensional surface onto a flat, 2-dimensional surface. We worked on three different types of map projections, which included: equal area, equidistant, and conformal projections. These projections minimize distortions in some of the following properties while maximizing the error in others: conformality, distance, direction, scale, and area.

The Mercator and Gall Stereographic projections are examples of conformal map projections. A conformal map projection has straight meridians and parallels that intersect at right angles. The scale is true at the equator and these types of projections are useful for marine navigation because all the straight lines are of a constant azimuth. Equal Area maps, suych as the Bonne and Hammer projections, preserve area. In other words, these projections distort the sizes of land to make each country the same size in terms of area. Finally, equidistant maps, such as the Plate Caree and Conic projections, preserve distance from a standard point or line.

These map projections are significant because they are each designed to serve different purposes and help people complete various tasks. The problem with these projections is, however, that people who are not well versed in the different types of projections may misread or misuse the projections in trying to complete certain tasks. These projections are also difficult to understand at the onset; it's difficult to grasp which maps distort what attributes, and so on.

Overall, I found this exercise extremely interesting and am interested to learn more about the uses of these different map projections. My favorite projection out of the six that I posted is the Bonne projection because the shape is the most original and the most interesting. I am still unsure about how the spherical surface of the Earth can be projected onto something like the equidistant, Conic projection, so I will need to look into that and attempt to understand it. The distances between Washington, D.C. and Kabul, Afghanistan were all different depending on which map projection was used, which highlights how different map projections can distort the size, area, and distances between different places.