Special Topics - Project 2 Report

Project 2 Report: I have been putting my info on this blog but then I realized perhaps for the Special Topics class - I should have been putting the posts on the other blog so this week - I am doing both.

Special Topics Project 2 Marin City, CA

Project 2 Analysis of Tree Cover in Marin City

Project 1

I certainly hope this is what is being requested for homework. I am rather confused...but here goes.

Final Project - GIS Applications

I would just like to say thanks! I have enjoyed this class. Learned a little or a lot every week.
This final project was very enjoyable to me. Looking forward to the next semester!!!
Final Proposal
Slide Summary
Powerpoint

A little glimpse into some quick analysis and thinking on how to assess areas for security purposes. No real major hangups on this one. I was familiar enough with the area to know where to put some observation points. Running viewsheds did take a little time and I am not sure I put enough into - reduced due to speed but I understand the process a little so I think I got what I was supposed to out of the class. Mistakenly posted this to my remote sensing blog or maybe it's just so good - I had to post it twice or maybe I just mistakenly posted it to the wrong blog...or maybe...

Week 8 GIS 4048

Week 8 starts with analyzing crime in Washington DC and poses some questions on where to possibly build new police substations, which areas have certain crime hot spots, and what if any does time of day have on crime activity. The following figures show definate patterns on locations and time and do give insight on where additional patrols and substations would hopefully benefit in reducing crime.

Week 7 Site Selection

Week 7's assignment was to come up with a scenario of our own regarding site selection. I chose to work a parish in Louisiana.
Parish commissioners wanted to locate parcels that could potentially be purchased and developed into a park or recreation area.
The criteria:
Funds allowed for approximately 400 acs to be purchased. I brought in the parcel layer and ran a calc'd acre field. I then broke it down in to 6 size categories. I added an additional field to note the rank of 1-6 so I could run a merge as converting to raster didn't work without that.
I then brought in Gap data and to look for land that was suited for a park. Primarily to exclude water areas and highly developed areas.
I looked at roads to allow for accessibility. I ran a 100 ft buffer on all roads. My ranking was within 100 ft and outside 100 ft.
I think used the only recreation area that already exists to run a distance. As we might want to place a park away from an existing park for greater opportunities.
Running analysis:
I first ran all criteria as equal. The results were not good as I suspected they would be.
I then ranked the parcel data as the highest (50% weight), gap data (30%), roads and proximity to existing wma (10% each). This allowed for a better result.
You can certainly play with these rankings as well as add a few more criteria to narrow your searchs. Once you find some parcels that would fit your needs, running another series of analysis could be done to decide the uses within those ideal sites. This would then help with determining which site is better as well as what to develop in the site (i.e. boat ramps, bike trails, etc.
Enjoyed the exercise.

Week 6 Site Selection

We were tasked with creating some maps showing desirable locations for a couple moving to a location. We were given some criteria that was important to where they wanted to relocate. Using spatial analysis, we were able to find areas that fit a specific set of criteria. This exercise was a good example of some real life GIS applications. I have used this type of analysis in determining recreation needs in South Florida.

Urban Planning Mod 5

Here are a few maps from the urban planning module.

Participation Post - Week 2-4 Natural Hazards

"Summarize the role of GIS in disaster response and discuss how it relates to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill even occuring in the Gulf of Mexico."
GIS and disaster, it has become an invaluable tool in the before, during, and after a disaster (natural, manmade, or both) has occurred. I will focus a bit on the during and after as the participation request asked about response. GIS has become a necessity in tracking the path of the event, whether it’s a fire or an oil spill. Those fighting the “fire”, those that might be affected by the course of the “spill” are just two groups needing that information. Where it has been and where it is going are best tracked, analyzed, and displayed through maps and GIS software. Other groups come into play more in the “after” part. Where do relief supplies and cleanup and or aid workers need to go, how best to get them there are all questions that GIS can help with. There are many other applications GIS can be used for to respond to a disaster of any kind. Last but not least, GIS can show where the most extensive damages have or will occur for monetary assistance to people and agencies affected or fighting the fight!

Animation...Week 4 Oil Spill

Testing...testing...

Exercise was interesting...had never done animation before so that was good to learn a little about. Again, the biggest hangup...like most everyone else...just because the defined projection says one thing - doesn't necessarily mean it is...I hadn't had much problem with those pesky projection issues until these oil spill lines/polygons. Also - the animation doesn't work too well when the shapefiles have a display transparency greater than zero. It didn't seem to matter with the raster files. Now, get a big bowl of popcorn and enjoy the show...or maybe just a kernal or two.

Week 4 - Applications in GIS

Here are the project 2 map deliverables. I actually did 4 maps as the creature info - I felt - although not greatly - was best displayed on a map as opposed to a spreadsheet. I did include the marine mammal info on another map as well - as this was a small area and I thought needed to be seen by itself as well as with the other "creature" data. Learned some things as usual about GIS and ArcMap.

GIS 4048 Applications Week 3

First post for the Applications Class. The biggest hiccup I had was trying to work on my own computer with that elevation file that apparently gave others fits as well. I am still trying to figure out the problem just in case something like that happens in the "real" world but I managed to work the entire project on the UWF server so other than just wanting to know why - it didn't mess me up too much. I am just quite spoiled on speed and dual monitors. It's nice to work real data and real scenarios much like my job!

Applications.....

And now for something really different...

Final - Bobwhite Manatee Transmission Line

Summary:
http://students.uwf.edu/mpm18/final_bobwhitemanatee/slidesummary.pdf
Powerpoint
http://students.uwf.edu/mpm18/final_bobwhitemanatee/bobwhite_manatee_transmission_line_project.ppt

Learning ArcGIS 3D Analyst

Week 11's final post involved learning a little about 3D Analyst - Mod 1 focused on ArcScene. I found this rather interesting in the example that was used was Mt. Shavano - a sight I saw daily for about 12 years as I lived and worked in the vicinity of Mt Shavano. My view is approximately the direction looking west towards Mt Shavano - and when the snow is right - the Angel of Shavano appears. It's a beautiful area.

Learning ArcGIS Spatial Analyst

Another task for Week 11 was to go through Module 1 regarding the Spatial Analyst Tools. I have worked a bit with the spatial analyst toolbox and model builder but had not really worked the command line option so that was good to learn.

Creating and Editing Labels And Annotation

Our tasks were to complete Module 1 and create 2 jpgs from the exercise portions of the module. I actually learned a few things on labeling as our work labeling tends to be simple and mostly on-the-fly. I am going to try to incorporate some of this into one of my projects as they don't have access to Maplex.

Week 9 Vector Analysis II

The lab was to create buffer polygons based on criteria using 3 different polygon layers, then determine where these buffer areas intersected. We created areas for potential campsites that were within 300 meters of existing roadways, within 150 meters of lakes, and within 500 meters of rivers. We were also asked to exclude areas that were considered conservation areas. The answers to the following questions:

1, I used the intersect tool - intersecting the road buffer and the water buffer files. I did not find any difference between the two.

2. I used the erase tool to exclude areas that fell into the conservation areas since as campgrounds could not fall into those areas.

3. I ended up with 79 separate polygons. Acreage of the largest feature was 1918.77, acreage of the smallest feature was 0.18.

Extra Credit GIS 4043

The extra credit exercise we were given involved bringing in data and joining to our attribute table as a way of analysizing outside data within GIS. We were to locate and symbolize the four largest landowners in Gulf County, Florida. This was done with data from the Florida Department of Revenue. In order to join tables with a shapefile - you need to have some common field. The field names do not need to be identical but they do need to hold the same data. This was a fun and quick exercise.

Week 7 Data Editing

We created an ArcMap. We created a new shapefile. We digitized features from aerial photos - creating, correcting, and snapping.

Week 6 Georeferencing

This exercise involved georeferencing 2 aerials to projected shapefiles. The north aerial was relatively easy and involved little manipulation. The south aerial was "warped" more and required alot of additional links to get it to line up with the shapefiles. I ended up using way more links as I would find an area that I didn't like the results of and in my attempt to correct that area - distorted others. The only structure I really didn't like the alignment on was the watertower. I would imagine that since we are lining up on rooftops as this was the only good visual line and not footprints - the heights of the buildings played a role - assuming the terrain is relatively flat. I also looked at the line where the 2 aerials met and for the most part liked how they lined up but again - in trying to fix the parking lot on the east side - I made it worse - so I quit. This is a useful tool and needed alot especially when dealing with historic aerials.

Week 5 GIS Data Search

Week 5's assignment involved finding data on the internet, downloading the data, manipulating the data for display purposes, and if necessary define and/or reproject the data. All of the data I found at FGDL (Florida GIS Data Library), FNAI (Florida Natural Areas Inventory), and LABINS (Florida Land Boundary Systems) sites as listed in our lab papers. The roads and stream layers presented a problem as they had much more data than I needed and wanted to show. The streams had shorelines, underground streams, etc. The roads had everything. I tried to show all roads with the minor ones being very thin and gray but they still were way to many. Both layers - I used the definition query to extract just the streams, ditches, canals, and major roadways. I did this so I could then easily set my symbology as one feature. Perhaps not all counties have a solid amount of roads as Okaloosa had but if I had shown all - that is all you would see on the jpg. I did try to download tiger data but it wasn't in shapefile format so I nixed that idea. I did make 3 separate maps as my Wetlands and Strategic Habitat were in raster format. I could have converted them to vector but I chose to show them as raster.

Another Haiti map

I also liked this map although I forgot to get the location and could not find it so I thought I would post it as my runner-up. This map is useful for anyone that wants an idea of where Haiti is, where the damage took place, and how much damage in some of the areas. This is a good "open your eyes" map.

Participation Post - Haiti and the Earthquake

This map shows a quick view of where the most damage in terms of structures occurred. This should help in isolating the locations to get to quicker. The areas with the most damage would probably need help the soonest in terms of first aid and trapped people. It would also indicate where access to areas is most likely difficult. This map is good for a quick visual of the area and the damages involved.

Location:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/site_images/normal_9870.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/index.cfm%3Fid%3D2820%26dt_code%3DHLN%26obj_id%3D437%26lang%3Den&usg=__uQRQPievtm_dJbd-GrT6sfpJpuI=&h=719&w=1022&sz=309&hl=en&start=172&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=JJnfsSToS4qVSM:&tbnh=106&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmaps%2Bhaiti%2Bearthquake%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7ADBR_en%26sa%3DN%26start%3D160%26um%3D1

Week 4 Deliverables

This map shows Florida in three different projections. We also were to show the slight variations on square mileage calculations in regard to those different projections. There are shifts in size and locations when you compare the three to each other. Depending upon your scale (area of interest), one projection may be chosen over another. In today's software environment, projection decisions are easier but you still need to know what projection all files you are working with are in, the standard projection for the map user, as well as the background of the projection and how they are derived.

Week 3 Deliverables

Map 3 is showing elevations for Mexico with a stretched raster.

Week 3 Deliverables

Map 2 is a zoomed in view of central Mexico showing urban areas. We added some additional shapefiles of rivers and roads, labels, and map inserts.

Week 3 - Deliverables

Map 1 is of Mexico and populations by state. We were asked to add some labeling as well as some map inserts such as the north arrow, legend, etc.