Lab4 Introducing ArcMap

It is my first time to really creating a map by using arcGIS and I do think it is a bit hard for me, which is not a computer person at all. I always made mistakes without even knowing why so I would have to go back and check what I did wrong. But I think I would get better when I am more familiar to this software. It is kinda fun       for making my own map though it is not as easy as I thought.

In my opinions, ArcGIS has more potential than its pitfalls, as people nowadays are more aware of the Earth that we are living, ArcGIS provides us more information for both academic or daily use! It made it so much easier to analysis the data that we have in hand and helped a lot for explaining why some kind of phenomena are happening all over the world. It increased productivity with better quality, people can find out where the problems are and they tried to solve it. It put everything in a big picture, people can see it all in a glance!

People can even search things and data easily since people can tell things by seeing the symbols and scales, it would be much more easier than reading books or essays, newspaper could explain more in a big picture then a few paragraphs.

However, there are some pitfalls, too. For example, for me as a new learner for GIS, I have a lot of difficulties in using GIS and it takes a lot time to learn this professions. Not everyone can easily approach this program ! People in university like me and my classmate have to take a lot of classes in order to master in using GIS! And other pitfall is people can use the wrong data or exaggerated data to mislead people, and some time people with little knowledge would get faked by the big companies which have very cunning marketing method! 

Google my map! Neogeography

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View Fun and Historical Alamosa Traveling Plan in a larger map


This is my map for my future trip to a small town called Alamosa in Colorado. I like exploring small towns, there are always something historical and cultural that you can't tell until you really go there.  It basically maps out the route that I would take if I really go there. It would be a two-day trip and  I will go there by plane, so arriving at the Alamosa Regional Airport. Then, I will be going to different places like Alamosa National Refuge, Zapata fall etc and ending my first day by camping at night, which would be the best way to feel the power of nature. In the next day, I would start my journey from Little Medano Creek and going for a relaxing hot spring spa afterward. And I would staying in Comfort Inn for that night. It would be an amazing trip for nature-lovers since there are many reserved places and natural landscape in and around Alamosa. 


Neogeography is a fun way to play around with maps and locations. There is a huge potential for this new-found technology, and it is getting more and more important, from business to own-use for navigation. It is easier for us to make our own maps now, everyone can create one in their own laptops, even small kids to elderly or those without any geographic knowledge.  It also increased our geographic awareness. For example, People nowadays can get direction and other information before actually going out simply from Google map or other Mashups.  So that people won't get lost and probably can get to their destination more on time, also they can share their maps online or printed with their friends and co-workers for navigation to business uses. 


Although Neogeography gives us a lot of fun and convenience, there are still some pitfalls in it! Since everyone can make their own maps, there could be some different standard of expressing oneself, so it could be confessing or hard to understand others' maps. Some maps can be misleading or easily to be misunderstood, since most of the Mashup creators are not professional in making maps, they just believe everything on the website or did something really wrong without noticing it. That's why we have to use our geographic knowledge to analyse different maps from different sources before really trusting everything in the Internet! The bad thing is we have to determine the quality, accuracy, reliability and responsibility of the maps that we are using, but sometimes we just don't look at the map carefully. 


However, I think Neogeography's good outweighs its bad. It makes it easier and more accessible for everyone to the geography by creating their maps. We can still learn a lot from Mashups, and most of the time, it is reliable to use Google Map or the other resources. It would be best if the technology can overcome the cons of Neogeography. By that time, I believe many people can be a professional geographer, too! 

Week2 Lab 2 USGS Topographic maps

GIS Lab 2

1)      Beverly Hills Quadrangle

2)      Canoga Park, Van Nuys,  Burbank, Topanga, Hollywood, Venice,  Ingiewood

3)      Topography compiled 1966.

4)      Datum used to create the map are : Selected hydrographic data compiled from NOS/NOAA, North American Datum of 1927 (NAD27) : Projection and 1000-meter grid: Universal Transverse Mercator, zone 11 and 10 000-foot ticks : California Coordinates System of 1927, and also the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83).

5)      1:24,000 scale

6)   a) 240x5= 1200meters. So, 5 centimeters on the map is equivalent to 1200 meters on the ground.

b) 2,000x5=10000feet. So, 5 inches on the map is equivalent to 1.89393 miles on the ground.

c) one mile on the ground is equivalent to 2.64 inches on the map.

d) three kilometers on the ground is equivalent to 12.5 centimeters on the map.

       7) The contour interval on the map is 20 feet.

       8) a) the Public Affairs Building    34°4’28’’N,  118°26’18’’W ( 34.074 degree N, 118.438 degree W)                 

         b) The tip of the Santa Monica Pier    34° 00'31''N, 118° 29'52’’ W (34.00861 degree N, 118.498 degree W)

         c) the Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir 34°07’12’’N ,118.24’39”W (34.12 degree N, 118.41083 degree W)

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

a) Greystone Mansion (in Greystone Park) 560feet = 170.68800 meters

b) Woodlawn Cemetery 140 feet = 42.7 meters

c) Crestwood Hills Park

700 feet = 213.36 meters

  10. The UTM zone of the map is zone 11

11.  3763 northing and 361.5 easting

12.   1,000,000 square meters

13. 

14. 14 degrees north

15.  From north to south.

16. Crop out (i.e., cut and paste) UCLA from the map and include it as a graphic