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.
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