My ArcMap experience & Potential and Pitfalls of GIS

ArcMap is generally a user friendly software. It bares striking similarity to some other software used by the publishing industry such as Adobe In-Design and Page-Maker. The software developers have probably deliberately done so to make it easy for publishers to use the software. However, the instructions on the ArcMap tutorial are sometimes confusing as it sometimes does not match up with the software we’re using. It took me quite a while to figure out what’s going and familiarise myself with the software as a result.

Geographic Information System (GIS) is an extremely powerful tool for dissemination of information. It takes advantage of the fact that humans are far better at understanding pictographs than just words and numbers. It has a great deal of potential in enabling both the government and the citizen to make better decisions and inferences based on the vast amount of real time information available. GIS also stores historical data, making it an excellent tool for predicting future trend and consequences based on current and past changes. 

However, GIS has its pitfalls; GIS can be both used to inform and confuse. GIS works the best with accurate data. Due to the large amount of data presented in GIS, it is inevitable that some of the data stored may be incorrect or corrupted (sometimes on purpose). It is often very hard to find and identify these corrupt data. Another pitfall of GIS is that GIS is ultimately dependent on technology, which may not be reliable. While this may not seem to be an issue as GIS was not available at all in the past, the increasing reliance on GIS for both business and leisure have certainly made this a major issue.  

In my two years of service in the military, I’ve came to the realisation that Murphy’s Law (Anything that can go wrong will go wrong) definitely applies in GIS when I went into the field for an exercise with no maps (by order). It was a 3 day mission to test the effectiveness of Singapore’s new network centric warfare system whereby we were given tablet computers which gave updated real time information on ‘enemy’ positions. Perhaps due to the high heat and humidity, each of the 10 hour battery lasted only for 4 hours. I have to use hand drawn maps in the end. It is a sobering situation that people today have lost much of their map reading and navigational skills due to advancements in GIS technology. I think that the ability for a person to be able to navigate instinctively on a traditional map is extremely important. However, there is a great deal of potential of GIS with advancements in technology and its benefits cannot be ignored. 

Lab 3 - Neogeography

View Singapore's East Coast Bike Tour in a larger map



Singapore is a highly urbanized nation. Yet, it is also a beautiful tropical island with numerous parks and gardens. The most beautiful parks in Singapore are East Coast Park and Pasir Ris Park. Embedded above is a cycling route beginning with East Coast Park and ending at Pasir Ris Park I’ve used during my stay in Singapore.

Pitfalls of Neogeography

One for the most obvious pitfalls of neogeography is that anyone can make the map. Most of these “mappers” are generally not trained in mapping. Hence, it is often quite difficult to tell if the maps are accurate. However, this problem can be adverted by enabling neogeographers to draw their maps with an accurate map as its base, as used by Google's My Maps. This also enables users to easily check for errors on the mash-ups by comparing it to the base map.

Another consequence of neogeography is loss of privacy and security. In Singapore, there were incidents in which national servicemen released restricted information on camp activities and troop movements via the Internet through mash-ups. Privacy may also be a concern, especially when photos and videos uploaded are made available to everyone. Google have attempted to resolve this problem through blurring faces and car plate numbers on it’s street-view application. However, it is still unable to control the massive amount of information net users upload on its network. In my view, the best solution to this problem is through public education and self censorship.

Week 2 Lab 2: USGS Topographic maps

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? 


National Geodetic Vertical Datum

5. What is the scale of the map?


1 : 24 000

6. At the above scale, answer the following:

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


1200 m

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


1.89 miles

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


2.64 inches

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


12.5 cm

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

North: 118 degrees,  28 minutes, 34 seconds  118.48 degrees
West: 34 degrees 4 minutes, 22 seconds  34.07 degrees

b) the tip of Santa Monica pier;

North: 118 degrees,  00 minutes, 25 seconds 118.01 degrees
West: 34 degrees, 30 minutes, 34.50 degrees 

c) the Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir;

North: 118 degrees,  05 minutes, 54 seconds 118.10 degrees
West: 34 degrees, 27 minutes, 15 seconds 34.45 degrees

9. What is the approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:
a) Greystone Mansion (in Greystone Park); 


550ft  168m

b) Woodlawn Cemetery;


140ft  43.7m

c) Crestwood Hills Park;


800ft  244m

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? 


361500m East, 3763000m North

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

1000 000 square meters

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 degrees East

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

South

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

Interesting Maps

Source: Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe - NASA

This is one of the most interesting maps I've seen to date. It is an infrared map of the early universe, taken by extremely sensitive microwave detectors on a space probe. This map shows the detailed history in the formation of our universe - as the microwave has been traveling through space for many years before being detected. It provides evidence that the big bang occurred and that the universe is expanding.

 

Source: http://www.geekologie.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?tag=maps&blog_id=1

This is a graphic representation on all McDonald restaurants in the United States. Every McDonald restaurant is represented by a bright orange dot. This map is used for research and informational purposes; hence, the way in which the information is shown is unbiased. This map is interesting to me as an international student as it tells me about the demographics of United States. It clearly shows a higher density of McDonald restaurants in the eastern half of United States compared to the western half. This may be due to the higher population density in the eastern half of United States; it also means the people in the western half of United States will have to travel further to get to the nearest McDonald restaurant (or any other fast food restaurant) and this inconvenience may result in a healthier population in the western half of United States.

 

Source: http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=114

This map shows the world's distribution in the usage of nuclear power. Territory size shows the proportion of worldwide nuclear electricity production that occurs there. The way in which the information is presented makes this map very interesting as visual representation (through sizing of countries) is used in place of numbers. It allows us to get a complete picture of the situation easily.