Lab 5: Lab Blog:-

Lab 5 required us to conjoin the processed data to the ArcGIS map we had created so that we could record population changes in our states every ten years. We had to first make sure that we had the right state/states map required for the project for which we added a frame in ArcGIS which had the entire county in the United States. We did not need all of them obviously, hence by selecting through attributes we managed to get an outline map of our state/states. We also had to add a projection to the map. I used the Hawaii-Albers-Equal-Conic Area projection. The part where we had to connect the census data to the map was really troublesome as it showed null values for all data when we tried to hook up the data through FIPS code. This was resolved by the help of our professor who guided us to join the data through the county name itself. It worked. In the next step we had to calculate the population changes using formulae given in the exercise. This was hardly much of a trouble. After we were done calculating all data, we could use these as layers on the map which was quite intriguing. Select by attributes feature helps us make a selection on the map through certain basic command types which act as characteristics of the map. There are fields on the table which store data in columns and rows. The attribute table of the map holds the linked data. The field calculator helps us do calculations on the data that is present in the attribute table. The join and relates function being one of the most vital is the essential link between our data and the final map. The following map is a sample:-

Population Change in Florida and Georgia 2000-2008

Lab 4: Lab Blog:-

The fourth lab was an introduction to ArcGIS. We started by learning how ArcGIS evolved as a software. We had to create two basic maps for the assignment. This was the first time I used ArcGIS. It was a very exciting software in the sense that we could generate world maps, road maps etc. add layers to the map, extract data from the map. We got familiar with many functions and features of GIS. As I proceeded in this exercise, I was able out to figure more and more features of ArcGIS. We could add pre-designed map layers to the data frame and have additional layers to augment any data or theme. A file containing a map, its layers, display information and other elements used in ArcGIS is called a *.mxd file. The table of contents lists all the layers on the map and shows what the features in each layer represent. It is very useful for a working platform. A data frame is the most fundamental element in a map document and in the ArcGIS user interface. When you create a map, it contains a default data frame listed in the table of contents as Layers. Hence these terms are basic and important. A map layer represents geographic data in ArcGIS such as rivers, lakes, streams, major roads, political boundaries etc. The attribute table links the map to the data in the traditional way where rows have the same kind of columns and the columns have the same type of data sets. ArcGIS has been a great software in the field of mapping and by the end of this exercise I did get a hang of how to use ArcGIS for the most basic functions. I was bale to make three maps, the first being a world map with loximuthal projection and showing drainage patterns in a second layer, a second map of Florida showing population of 1990 and a map of Georgia showing owner occupied homes.

Lab 3: Lab Blog:-

This lab assignment was a relatively easier exercise. We just had to sort out the population data for the states that we had selected. The main goal of the lab assignment was to create useful data from raw data from internet resources. We gather information from the WWW about the population data but we do not realize that the softwares used to generate map of the data might not be able to process some unrequired data. We had to create excel as well as .Dbase files of the population data as required by the lab assignment. I ended up with a full formatted population data for the states of Florida and Georgia in excel files where the years from 1900 were formatted column-wise. We had to keep the FIPS code as the ArcGIS would need that part to link the population data. Since the latest version of Excel did not allow us to save the files in .dbf format, we had to use Open Office to get the desired file format. We also had to format all data in the ‘General’ format with no commas as ArcGIS does not identify those characters. Finding the data sources wasn’t an issue at all as the link to to the data was provided in the previous assignment. While generating the files we could infer from the population data if a given county ceased to exist or appeared a little later than the others as it was relatively new. We could make obvious guesses looking at the data, e.g. Campbell county of Georgia did not have the population data starting from 2008 going to somewhere about 1940′s. This tells us that the county must have stopped existing after a certain period of time in history. Altogether this was not a very tedious exercise, people who are adept at excel and are comfortable with copying and editing data would not take too much time with this exercise.

Lab_2_Lab_Log

Lab 2: Lab Log

The second Lab assignment meant us to create a website of our own and make the basic links to our data that we had collected in the first lab. Since I had not used HTML before, I had to start from scratch. Honestly, my knowledge in C++ and Java did give me a vague idea how this web designing software worked. Creating a personal home page, course project page, animation page, a map-mashup page and a lablog page was our first step to the exercise. Creating a tree like structure for the web pages and their links helped me do the exercise more efficiently. Initially I had a tough time figuring out the map mashup link but later when I figured it out, it seemed pretty simple. Making all the links work was very important, if one link didn’t work we loose a vital part of the information or the web site becomes incomplete/dysfunctional. Figuring out what command at what part of the program would bring out desired effects was much base on hit and trial and some logic. Using the cuteFTP software to upload my site was the most interesting part. The idea of an own website did seem quite exciting. Some of the HTML commands to embed image etc. had to be found online. There is an entire agglomeration of sites if one just types in basic html commands in the Google search bar. Once we have the list of commands, the task becomes easier. Lab 2 was a foundation to what we probably are going to build on for the rest of the semester.

Lab1_Blog

Rajiv K. Rao

GEOG 353: GIS & Visualization

Professor John B. Krygier

August 31, 2009

Sine my home country is India, I had a quick thought about mapping a state from back home. At the same time I realized that getting mappable data for states back home might be very difficult as the government statistical department is not well facilitated and to keep a count of 1.4 billion people roughly especially when you are not that well equipped with surveys and technology can be really hard. There are few statistical sites about the population and population growth within the states.

Indian Census Site – was a horrible site and I am pretty ashamed when I see almost most of the links in this site were broken. I typed in ‘India Census’ in Google and the census site of the Indian government showed up in the search result. I tried to get some data from this site and almost all the links were bad. I have very little idea where to get population data state wise when the most basic data cannot be supplied by the government.

Indian Census source – this site looked kind of spurious and unreliable. Though there was the population data for the year 2001 but getting decennial data from this site looked kind of unlikely. This site also had statistics on sex ratio, population density, population density and literacy but this data was not substantial for the assignment.

I did surf a lot other sites but I realized that I should leave my endeavors of finding basic population data of India at this point especially when all the government links failed. I decided to find population data for Florida and Georgia.

U.S. Census – I went to the U.S. Census Bureau site to find population data on Florida and Georgia. On the site I recognized that we could search population data state wise which was very useful. I did have to search around before I got to what exactly I was looking for. In my search I realized there were quite old records of population data that we could find. One of the links led me to a page where I could find statistics on population back in the 1800s. It was rather amusing to see such readily available data. I was actually able to find the data under the ‘PEOPLE’ link under Basic Counts/Population. This link led to page where there was an agglomeration of links on historical population data which made things much simpler. Though I could find the population data by counties for the state of Florida and Georgia from the year 1900-1990, for the rest of the data I had to try other links. The following links helped me to get the data that I acquired:-

Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Counts

County Population Census Counts 1900-90

FLORIDA:
Population of Counties by Decennial Census: 1900 to 1990

GEORGIA:
Population of Counties by Decennial Census: 1900 to 1990

For estimates of population in 2000 and thereon for the states of Florida and Georgia, I decided to follow the links below:-

Population of Florida from 2000-2008

Population of Georgia from 2000-2008

Information on population Changes:-

1. Georgia’s Dilemma of Population Growth
2. Resident Population of States in the United States, 1900-2000
3. Florida population Growth:Past, Present and Future
4. Georgia population projections 2015
5. State Population Estimates and Demographic Components of Population Change