LAB 3 - My Maps: My European Tour

View Europe in a larger map

Neogeography is a relatively new phenomenon that has had the effect of revolutionizing the field of geography. It has put the power of map-making into the hands of untrained individuals. This change has brought both expected and unseen consequences. Although very advantageous, neogeography also has some negative attributes that should be acknowledged in order to maintain the accountability of geography as a whole. Neogeography has generated a new found interest in geography as people are able to create and interact with their own maps. In some ways, it has made every person a geographer. This interest has benefited the field for the importance of map-making has begun to be more widely recognized outside of the scientific community. Maps are a window to the world that we are too close to see for ourselves. Without maps, people would never be able to connect their mental maps with the actual layout of the planet. Maps can be extremely informative and are therefore very valuable. This widening of scope has allowed the field to experience a boom in interest allowing new facets of exploration, such as Geographic Information Systems, to take hold and become official segments of geography as a science. Neogeography has contributed greatly to the understanding of the value and importance of map making.

Despite this new-found respect for maps and their makers, it has also bred a new kind of map that threatens the validity of the maps created by professionals. As peopled are given the opportunity to create maps for themselves, some have begun to abuse this power, knowingly and unknowingly, to create maps that are not accurate. These maps undermine the field of geography by providing false or inaccurate information to people seeking to learn things from looking at a map created for the purpose of educating individuals about the world around them. As a consequence, the source of maps has become an integral piece of information when using a map in order to avoid using inaccurate maps made by inexperienced people. This may become more of a problem in the future as maps made by people other than professionals begin to appear more convincing.

Regardless of this setback in the field of neogeography, I believe that this new phenomenon will be beneficial overall. Ignorance is the enemy of education because you can't learn if you're unaware of what you don't know. Without acknowledging what we want to learn about the world, we will not be able to educate ourselves and others. Neogeography enables people formerly without access to these resources the ability to create and interact with maps. The interest generated from this experience has transformed, and will continue to transform, the field of geography opening the eyes of people as they are exposed to neogeography.

LAB 2 - USGS Topographic Map

1. What was the name of the quadrangle?
The name of the quadrangle is "Beverly Hills Quadrangle."


2. What are the names of the adjacent quadrangles?
Adjacent quadrangles include Canoga Park, Van Nuys, Burbank, Topanga, Hollywood, Venice, and Inglewood.


3. When was the quadrangle first created?
The quadrangle was first created in 1966.


4. What datum was used to create your map?
The horizontal datum used to create this map is the North American Datum (NAD) of 1927 and the vertical datum used is the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929.


5. What is the scale of the map?
The scale of the map is 1:24,000.


6. At the above scale, answer the following:
a) 5 centimeters is equivalent to how many meters on the ground?
1/24,000 = 5 cm/x cm = 120,000 cm/1,000 = 1,200 meters
b) 5 inches on the map is equivalent to how many miles on the ground?
1/24,000 = 5 inches/x inches = 120,000 inches/63,360 inches = 1.89 miles
c) 1 mile on the map is equivalent to how many inches on the map?
1/24,000 = x miles/1 mile = 0.00004167 miles x 63,360 inches = 2.64 inches
d) 3 kilometets on the ground is equivalent to how many centimeters on the map?
1/24,000 = x km/3 km = 0.000125 km x 100,000 cm = 12.5 centimeters


7. What is the contour interval on your map?
The contours on the map occur in intervals of 20 feet.


8. What are the approximate geographic coordinates in both degrees/seconds and decimal degrees of:
a) the Public Affairs Building
34 degrees, 4 minutes, 28.8 seconds or 34.074 degrees North
118 degrees, 26 minutes, and 18 seconds or 0.438 degrees West
b) the tip of the Santa Monica Pier
34 degrees, 0 minutes, 27 seconds or 34.007 North
118 degrees, 29 minutes, 59.3 seconds or 118.5 degrees West
c) the Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir
34 degrees, 7 minutes, 12.5 seconds or 34.12 degrees North
118 degrees, 24 minutes, 37.01 seconds or 118.41 degrees West


9. What are the approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:
a) Greystone Mansion (in Greystone Park)
570 feet or 173.736 meters
b) Woodlawn Cemetery
140 feet or 42,672 meters
c) Crestwood Hills Park
700 feet or 213.36 meters


10. What is the UTM zone of the map?
The map is in UTM Zone 11.


11. What are the UTM coordinates for the lower left corner of your map?
The UTM coordinates for the lower left corner of the map are 3763000 northing and 362000 degrees easting.


12. How many square meters are contained within each cell (square) of the UTM gridlines?
Each cell of the UTM gridlines contains 1,000 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 measurements on campus. Insert your elevation profile as a graphic in your blog.

14. What is the magnetic declination of the map?
The magnetic declination of the map is 14 degrees easting.


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


16. Crop out (cut & paste) UCLA from the map and include is as a graphic on your blog.

LAB 1 - Maps

Map 1 - "Earth at Night"


Source: http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/49259main_flat_earth_nightm.jpe

“Earth at Night” is a satellite image courtesy of NASA and DMSP depicting the world at night in each region of the globe. This map is an extremely informative image that provides insight into phenomena such global population distribution trends and relative levels of economic development. By examining the lights of the world at night, it can be deduced that most of the world’s population lives near the coastal regions of countries. Additionally, urban centers are prominently featured as clusters of bright lights. With this knowledge, anyone can easily spot and point out the major urban areas of the world. Moreover, major landforms and their effect on population distribution can be observed. For example, the lack of lights in the region occupied by the Sahara Desert in northern Africa reveals that this area is relatively uninhabited. However, it should also be noted that this map is slightly misleading in terms of major centers of urbanization, for it is also an indicator of economic development for regions throughout the world. Access to electricity is an amenity enjoyed by the citizens of more developed nations so an image of the amount of electricity being used at night in each country reveals their relative level of economic development. This is clearly seen in the image with the most developed countries such as the United States and those of Western Europe appearing to be extremely bright on the world map at night. Although some nations in Africa have extremely large populations, this map would not depict this because of their lack of electricity during non-daylight hours. This map is interesting in that it appears to be a simple map of the world at night, but it reveals so much more about the world than would be expected. The trends and patterns that are depicted in this image are far more informative than one would expect.

Map 2 - War and Death

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-439315/How-world-really-shapes-up.html

This cartogram of war and death in 2002 paints a grim picture for some of the world’s less developed nations. This map depicts the world in terms of each country’s size in proportion to its number of deaths due to war in the year 2002. If the number of war deaths throughout the world were distributed equally in proportion to each country’s size, then the map would appear undistorted. However, as seen in the above image, this is not the case. Africa obviously bears the brunt of the number of people lost in fighting wars. In fact, the website on which this map was found revealed that The Democratic Republic of the Congo accounted for 26% of all deaths due to war during the year 2002. That is one country that absorbed over a fourth of the globe’s loss of life due to war. An interesting aspect of this map is the correspondence between knowledge of war-torn countries and their relative sizes on this map. The Middle Eastern nations appear extremely bloated on this image because of the constant wars and thousands of lives lost because of them. This map is interesting to me because of the dramatic distortion caused by the cartogram’s topic. It’s disturbing to see small countries ballooning to epic proportions simply because of war.

Map 3 - World Happiness

Source: http://ancaonuta.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/world_map_of_happiness.jpg?w=470&h=327

The World Happiness map is a survey map exhibiting the relative levels of happiness of the citizens of the world’s countries. This map has a six color scale going from unhappy (yellow) to average (orange) to happy (dark red). The image reveals trends in the subjective happiness of the people in each country of the world. For example, the happiest countries according to this map are also the most industrialized and developed nations of the world with countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia appearing in dark red. The unhappiest people, according to this map, appear to be in the less industrialized countries mainly in Africa, with various other countries in parts of Asia. The largest nation that reported and unhappy populace was Russia appearing as a yellow band over Asia and most of Europe. However, it should be remembered that this is a survey of subjective happiness – some cultures are more likely to report high or low levels of happiness which could have been interpreted by the researchers according to their own cultural bias. This map is interesting because of its close correspondence to the level of economic development. Also, I expected the opposite pattern with less developed nations reporting higher levels of happiness. This, of course, could be due to my own cultural bias of hearing that the people with less appreciate more and are therefore happier because of it. In any case, this map is a subjective rendering of the reported happiness of people of the global community.