Week 8 Assignment

1. Black Population

This map shows the distribution of population of black people in the United States as a percentage. The more heavily populations of black people are located in the southern and southeastern United States. There are also some medium sized populations in southern California. However, there are hardly any large populations located in any other area.





2. Asian Population

This map shows the population distribution of Asian people in the United States as a total number. The percentages were very hard to get, so I reworked the map to get the total number of Asian people in each county. The data shows almost the exact same results. The highest concentrations of Asian people are in large cities, mostly in southern California, Seattle, Chicago, Houston, Miami, Boston, and New York City.





3. Some Other Population

This map shows the population of non-white, black, or Asian people in the United States as a percentage. The map is referring mainly to hispanic Americans. While this is not explicitly listed, it can be inferred due to the locations of the highly populated areas. The most populated areas are near the Mexican border in areas that are known to have high percentages of hispanic people. These areas include Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, and parts of New Mexico and Texas.

This census map series was a wonderful exercise in learning how to create population maps using ArcGis. While it was very difficult at the start of the project, the tutorial proved to be instructive and helpful in making the maps shown above. The census map series is especially nice because it gives us a way to visualize populations of anything, anywhere.

ArcGIS, as a whole, is a frustrating, yet magical tool. It is something that is applied to nearly every discipline, but requires the proper training to navigate the software. I know that it will eventually become more user friendly in the future, but it is still quite difficult to learn. However, once mastered, is so incredibly rewarding and helpful. Maps as simple as the ones in this project can be of magnificent help when trying to show someone else data. Raw data is useless; however, when given a way to portray it, it can be portrayed in a wonderful fashion.

Week 4 Assignment: My First Real Map

The assignment was to create a map using the ArcGIS tutorial. During this assignment, I discovered the incredible potential of ArcGIS: the potential to create wonderful, instructive maps and manipulate data in ways never possible before and the potential to frustrate beyond belief. The assignment sounded easy enough, but turned out to be the most difficult lab of the quarter.
There many problems with this lab, which made the lab very time consuming and stressful. The biggest problem was definitely that the tutorial was not made for the same version of ArcGIS as the version that we were using in our lab. In our labs, we have the most recent version of ArcGIS: 10. However, the tutorial was written for the use of a later version. While the versions have many similarities, there are enough differences to get a new user lost time after time.
Another pitfall of ArcGIS is that it is very time consuming and not very user friendly. While ESRI is working towards making their products more user friendly with products like ArcExplorer, the software is still extremely difficult to maneuver. Each step of the map creating process requires extensive knowledge of the program and computers in general. Even getting the data into a format that ArcGIS will accept is so incredibly difficult. This is perhaps ESRI's biggest pitfall. If they want to become more widely used and known, they will need to make it much easier to use their products.
Despite the pitfalls just mentioned, ArcGIS has such brilliant potential. The moment when I saw my first real map that I created, I was overwhelmed with joy and felt so accomplished. With ArcGIS, users can manipulate data in ways that have never been so widely offered before. The program allows users to create beautiful maps and show data in ways that can and will affect every area of business, government, and life in general. It has become the standard to have magnificent maps in office presentations. As the program becomes easier to use, its user base will grow and so will its reach and influence.

Week 7 Assignment

1.Southern Nevada Digital Elevation Map

This area is located in mostly Southern Nevada. The area is almost entirely desert. The area is categorized by many rocky mountains with flat desert terrain in between. The city of Las Vegas is in the area, which has a population of about 2 million. The are also has Lake Mead, which is one of the largest reservoirs in the world.

Extent Information:
The Digital Elevation Model covers the range from 35.5180555547 to 36.6197222215 degrees Latitude and -115.155555555 to -116.166666666 degrees Longitude.










2. Hillshade Model of Southern Nevada

3. Slope Model of Southern Nevada

4. Aspect Model of Southern Nevada

5. 3D Image of Southern Nevada