lab 6

National Elevation Dataset

 

The spacial reference : GCS_North_American_1983.

 The angular unit : Degree (0.0174532925199433).

The datum : D_North_American_1983.

 

Extent:

Top : 39.8291666661°;

Left : -105.788888889°;

 Right : -104.969444445°;

Bottom : 39.3838888883°.

3D image

lab 5

Equal Area:

Equidistant:

Conformal:

The map projection gives people the ability to move the image on a sphere surface to a flat surface. That helps people to have a better general view of the image and enables people to collect data easier from the image. I did experienced the significance of map projection in this map projections exercise. However, we need to pay attention that since the curve of the surface has changed, images can never be exactly the same as the original ones. What we can do is just keep one element the same, such as distance or area, and than use one specific method according to that element. In future, we might be able to create a method which can keep two or more elements exactly the same, which must be able to give people more help than present.

Then, I am going to talk about three kinds of map projections, which are equal area, equidistance and conformal projections. First of all, for the equal area projections, I choose Mollweide projection and Gall Orthographfic, which also known as Gall-Peter projection, to be examples. Although both of them are equal area maps, they still have different features. Mollweide is a pseudo-cylindrical map projection, which has accurate proportions in area. On the other hand, Gall-Peter projection is one specialization of a configurable equal-area map projection known as cylindrical equal-area projection. The standard parallels of the Gall–Peters are 45° N and 45° S. 


Secondly, for the equidistance projections, I choose the Plate carree projection, which is an equirectangular projection centered at the equator, and the Azimuthal equidistant projection, whose distances along great circles radiating from centre are conserved. Because those two projections use different method to keep the proportion of distance the same, the exact distance between Washington D.C. and Kabul from two maps are different.


Finally, for the conformal projections, I choose the Mercator projection, whose Rhumb lines are represented by straight segments, and Stereographic projection, in which  any circle of a sphere, great and small, maps to a circle or straight line.

P.S. Information is from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection#Conformal

Lab 4

 

In these two weeks, we learned the basic usage of the ArcGIS software. In order to practice, we did a series of exercises and finally created a group of maps on the topic of the expansion of airport and the effect of its noise. During this process, I learned a lot and had a fun experience.

 

The ArcGIS software has many advantages. It simplifies the process of making a map and increases the accuracy of map. At the same time, the software makes map making, which can only did by professionals in the past time, nowadays, become handleable for non-professionals, such as students. Moreover, the ArcGIS trained our logical thinking ability, since you have to make map steps by steps. It also trained our sense of spatial, so that we can have a better idea of how our word looks like after finish those maps.

 

However, the ArcGIS also has some disadvantages which need to be improved. First of all is the automatic saving function. The ArcGIS has to have the function of automatic saving so that people will not lost their valuable work by accident, since it really takes a long time to finish a good map. The second point is timing. Although it is handleable for normal people, the steps are still so complicated that people can hardly finish the work individually at the first several times.  Moreover, there are so many steps we need to keep repeating, such as adding north arrow, legend and scale bar. I believe the program can be more simplified so that we only need to add those tuffs once for all the maps in the same group.

 

In conclusion, ArcGIS is a great software which helps people to have a better idea about how to create maps, and, at the same time, trained people’s mind. Of course, it also has some disadvantages, but I believe that it can become more powerful after those improvements.

 

Week 3

View Ancient Egyptian Culture Trip in U.S. in a larger map


This map is about major Museums in U.S., which have ancient Egyptian collections. I am glad that almost every state has at least one museum which has some Egyptian collections. With the help of Google Map, I can easily mark they out and give a general view of their locations and density.

The blue points and the pictures are where the museums located. The density of museum in east coast in so high that I have to mark them as points in order to make it clear. Most Museums are located in east and west coast (the area I have marked out). Moreover, the quantity and quality of collection in those museums are usually very high. On the other hand, although other states have museums with ancient Egyptian collections as well, according to their website, the quantity are often very low. Some might only have one or two collections. Therefore, we can tell that people's interest in art is proportion to people's economy ability. 

The neogeography is interesting to use. It helps us to get the sense of what information does a map need and let normal people have a chance to make their own map. 

However, it also has some disadvantages. If everyone can make their own maps and publish them, it will be hard to control the quality of maps. There might be many fake information and mistakes. At the same time, it will be hard to keep everyone updating their maps. As a result, many maps will become out of date.

In conclusion, although neogeography has some weakness, we can still take advantages of it. Moreover, I believe that it has some potential. 

Week 2 Lab

1. What is the name of the quadrangle?

        
           Beverly Hills

2. What are the names of the adjacent quadrangles?

   Canoga Park, van Nuys, Burbank, Topanga, Hollywood, Venice, Inglewood

3. When was the quadrangle first created?

  
   1966

4. What datum was used to create your map?

   North American Datum of 1927

   North American Datum of 1983

   National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929

5. What is the scale of the map?

1: 24000

6. At the above scale, answer the following:

a) 5 centimeters on the map is equivalent to how many meters on the ground?

   5cm × 24000 = 120000cm = 1200m

b) 5 inches on the map is equivalent to how many miles on the ground?

   5inches × 24000 = 120000inches = 1.89mile

c) one mile on the ground is equivalent to how many inches on the map?

   1mile / 24000 = 1/24000miles = 2.64inches

d) three kilometers on the ground is equivalent to how many centimeters on the map?

   3km / 24000 = 1/8000km = 12.5cm

7. What is the contour interval on your map?

  
    20 feet

8. What are the approximate geographic coordinates in both degrees/minutes/seconds and decimal degrees of:

a)the Public Affairs Building;

34°04'N, 118°26'30"W

b) the tip of Santa Monica pier;

34°00'30"N, 118°30'W

c) the Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir;

34°06'30"N, 118°24'30"W

9. What is the approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:

a) Greystone Mansion (in Greystone Park);

550 feet (167.64m )

b) Woodlawn Cemetery;

140 feet ( 42.67m )

c) Crestwood Hills Park;

720 feet ( 219.46m )

10.  What is the UTM zone of the map?

   Zone 11

11.  What are the UTM coordinates for the lower left corner of your map?

  
   3763000m N, 361500m E

12.  How many square meters are contained within each cell (square) of the UTM gridlines?

  
   1000m ×1000m = 1×10⁶ m²

13.  Obtain elevation measurements, from west to east along the UTM northing 3771000, where the eastings of the UTM grid intersect the northing. Create an elevation profile using these measurements in Excel (hint: create a line chart). Figure out how to label the elevation values to the two measurements on campus. Insert your elevation profile as a graphic in your blog.

            

      14.  What is the magnetic declination of the map?

   14°

15.  In which direction does water flow in the intermittent stream between the 405 freeway and Stone Canyon Reservoir?

   
North to South
16.  Crop out (i.e., cut and paste) UCLA from the map and include it as a graphic on your blog.

 

Lab week 1

Map1:
                            

 

Travel time to major cities (in hours and days) and shipping lane density  

http://bioval.jrc.ec.europa.eu/products/gam/index.htm

  This map was made for the World Bank's World Development Report 2009 Reshaping Economic Geography and it is about the travel time to major cities in the world. The blue lines between each continent represent the main flight line. 

  The map, colored the popular cities with bright yellow, makes those cities looks like they are on fire. We can see that there's only a little wildness left, people can go to almost everywhere on the earth within one day. It is interesting that we can tell some significant nature landmarks on the map by colors such as the Himalayas in the middle of Asia and the Sahara in North Africa. Because of those landmarks, the time to get to two very close places can have a difference of two or three days.

Map2:

http://jys.hfjy.net.cn/showtopic.jsp?id=1789

  This is a map for that distribution of Chinese population. The red parts represent the high density of population and the white parts mean the low density of population. 

  On this map, the darker the color is, the higher the density of population is. Therefore, we can tell that most Chinese people are living on the east coast and beside two rivers. The place with highest density is usually one the big cities. It is interesting that the red line on the map divided China into two part. The bigger south part has 57% area of China but only has 6% of the population, yet the east part just has 43% area of China but has 94% of the population.

Map3:

http://nalakagunawardene.com/tag/el-nino/

These two maps show what usually happens during El Niño and La Niña. The red part in the first map represents warm water and the dark blue part in the second map represents cold water.

  With the help of those two maps, even the person who doesn't know what is El Niño and La Niña can clearly understand the cause and effect of those to complicated phenomenon. From the first map, we know that El Niño is the warm current on the middle of Pacific Ocean. It can bring drought to Australia and India and heavy rain to east Africa. From the second map, we learn that La Niña is the cold current appears in the middle of Pacific Ocean. It can bring heavy rain to Australia and India and drought to east Africa. It is interesting that those two phenomenons are just totally opposite and La Niña usually happens right after El Niño ends.