Week 7 Santa Barbara Maps

DEM

Slope

Aspects

3D

     The area I chose to geographically analyze is my home town of Montecito in Southern California. Since I have lived in this area my whole life I was curious to know the details of the surrounding landscape. Besides this, I have always been awestruck by the close proximity of coastal mountain ranges compared to other areas of Southern California. The approximate parameters of this area in decimal degrees is 34.5877777769 at the top to 34.3852777769 at the bottom. Then -119.757777777 from the left to -119.456666666 on the right.

Conformal, Equal-Area, and Equidistant Map Projections

     A certain map is used depending on its purpose. The most common categories for these projections are conformal, equal-area, and equidistant. The above maps show these different map perspectives.
     The first map set I created is an example of conformal maps. Conformal maps are used when the purpose is to represent angles and distribution from a local area. In other words, each parallel must cross each meridian at a right angle. Of the many conformal projections, the transverse and vertical mercators are seen most often. Transverse mercators is used to measure and analyze areas from East to West. Vertical mercator projections are used for North to South.
     Another map set I used is the equal-area map projection. These maps are used for getting a general feel of proportion for an area because this map preserves area consistently. The equidistant map projection and the equal-area map projection sound like they represent the same purpose, however they are different. The equidistant map projection is used to measure distance from a point or multiple points outward. This is not used for general proportions or areas like equal-area but rather used for more specific measurements for one point or between multiple designated points.
     Each map projection can be used in its best way as long as the cartographer knows the purpose of the map and what is desired.

Airport MAP

 

     I really enjoyed creating this airport map. I would say I am quite computer savvy but I have never worked with a program this intricate and detailed. I was especially interested about the different layering features, graphs, and tables, all of which I was able to get my hands on in this lab. This lab also gave me an better idea of how GIS relates to the real world.

    I think that GIS has so many potential uses. It can be used for finding renewable resources, discovering prime building sites for construction, and to create beautiful maps of specific landscapes. My interest in GIS mostly because of its multipurpose capabilities. I would specifically want to use it to map out elevations and environmentally friendly building sites.

     If I had to mention any pitfalls it would be that the computer-based aspect of GIS is taking away from the original mapping techniques that I believe are also wonderful. I believe you cannot include the artistic aspects of a hand drawn map in a GIS map. Otherwise, I think GIS is great.

    Once again, I really enjoyed doing this lab and I cannot wait to see what the next has to offer. I really want to get into topography so hopefully there is some lab this quarter that includes that.