Schuurman (finally) Chs. 1-5

Ch. 1

This chapter talks about GIS in general. Nowadays, it is becoming more common and recognizable. More fields are using GIS as an everyday program. GISystems and GIScience are talked about, but I talked about them in my midterm. It is used both for categorizing numerical data and to project this data into an easy-to-read map for the average person.

Ch. 2

This chapter talks about how human geographers and GIS combine to produce a something bigger. It also talks about epistemology and ontology. “Epistemology is the lens through which spatial phenomena are observed and studied. Different epistemologies such as positivism, realism, or social constructivism result in the apprehension of different entities or ontologies.”

Ch. 3

This chapter talks about how data can be manipulated to show what the mapmaker is trying to show. It can be used as propaganda. It can also be inaccurate. This happens more often than not. An example of this is the lithography and stratigraphy descriptions from well drillers. Some drillers are trained to identify the different strata, while other are not, causing a discrepancy in the data.

Ch. 4

This chapter talks about using GIS to analyze and model spatial phenomena. It talks about vector and raster data and how GIS differs from cartography in that it can show changes, while a single map cannot because it shows data from a single time. It brings everything from the first three chapters.

Ch. 5

This chapter talks about what you can do with a GIS background. It talks about the many realms of possibilities that include GIS. You’d be surprised at how many different things can be analyzed through GIS. It’s not just map making, it spatial analysis.

Project

My final project consisted of mapping air emission concentrations of each county in Ohio.  I found the data, but learned that I had to manipulate it in excel in order to find the total emissions for each county from multiple plants in that county where emissions were measured.  Once I got the data manipulated, I tried to join it to the Ohio layer I created, but it would not work.  The FIPS codes were all correct, but when I selected to match the FIPS codes in the Ohio layer, I was only given the ability to match the county names in my file.  I finally took the time to painstakingly put the ObjectID number in my table and was then able to match the data by the OID number.

Ridiculous.

However, it worked out and I was able to create three maps that showed the CO, SO2, and NOx emissions in each county, along with the general population of that county.

All of my data is on my personal laptop.

Getting to Know ArcGIS Chs. 17-20

These chapters covered geocoding addresses, making maps from templates, making maps for presentation, and creating models.  I had a hard time with finding the Address Locater, so I went to the GIS lab to see if it was on one of the computers in there, found the same way the book describes.  No luck.  But I explored and was able to find how to create a new address locater and went from there.  Everything else went very smoothly though.

Getting to Know ArcGIS Chs. 14-16

These chapters covered building geodatabases, creating features, and editing features and attributes. I didn’t have any trouble with the tutorials at all, and was able to use these chapters for the last problem in the midterm.

Getting to Know ArcGIS Chs. 10-13

These chapters covered selecting features by location, preparing data for analysis, analyzing spatial data, and projecting data in ArcMap.  I didn’t have any problems except for Chapter 11.  I didn’t have the tutorial data, even after reinstalling the data, it never appeared.

Getting to Know ArcGIS Chs. 8&9

These chapters covered querying data, and joining and relating tables. I understood how to join tables, but relating the tables were confusing to me. However, I did eventually figure it out.

Getting to Know ArcGIS Chs. 3-7

These chapters were exploring ArcMap.  The tutorials went by without a hitch. I especially liked chapter 5 when we added the animal symbols. I didn’t know that there were so many symbols in ArcGIS. It was pretty cool. I also thought that it was really cool to display the topography!

Getting to Know ArcGIS Chs. 1&2

Chapter 1 was a nice review to Geog 353 (which I also did as an independent study).  I was glad that this chapter reviewed layers, features, and surfaces.  Chapter 2 introduced ArcCatalog to me, which I found interesting.  I also liked how this chapter went over how the ArcGIS system works.