Delaware County Data Review February 26, 2011

Delaware Data Inventory

Lakes and Ponds- this folder contained files that put lakes and maps in the Delaware area on a map.

Address Points- This folder contained information regarding where certain address points were on the map of Delaware-this included things like schools, churches, and cemeteries.

Annexations- contains annexations and conforming boundaries in Delaware County from 1853 up until now- includes ordinance, year, acreage, etc.

Archeological-this folder contained information that archeologists would be interested in- parks, water sources, etc.

Benchmarks- mapped out TOPO map points- this maps out places where the elevation and horizontal position has been surveyed, and represented as accurately as possible on the map of Delaware.

Building Outlines- this folder contained points where buildings stood in the city of Delaware.

Census Block- shows census blocks, and contains information on family size.

Census Tract- contains census tracts within Delaware.

Economic Development- The file in this folder showed economic development that is occurring in Delaware, Ohio

Farmlots- This folder had farming land mapped out, in and around Delaware

Floodplain-100 year- This folder had files that mapped out floodplains in Delaware in the past 100 years- these are places that have had floods occur.

Floodplain-500 year- This mapped out the same as above, except for the past 500 years- included more land than just the past 100 year floodplains.

Floodplain 2009- This file contained mapped out land that had floods occur within the year 2009.

Floodways- This has floodways in the city of Delaware mapped out, but also in Delaware County.

Historical-Local- This has historic sites that are locally recognized from the city of Delaware.

Historical-National- Similar to above, but this is mapping out nationally recognized historic sites in Delaware.

Hydro- displays the length of the Delaware Run.

Landmarks- This shows where specific landmarks- such as police stations, fire departments, and so on are located in Delaware.

LBRS Datasets- the folder contains address points and street centerlines, with land uses and coordinates.

Master Poing Coverage- contains addresses, land uses, and coordinates.

Municipalities- maps out different municipalities within Delaware.

Natural Heritage- displays locations of natural heritage in Delaware.

Parcels- displays size, values, taxes, etc. on all the parcels within Delaware.

Parks- maps out parks around Delaware.

Places of Interest- includes daycares, cemeteries, churches, golf courses, EMS, Fire departments, medical centers, mobile home parks, police stations, post offices, public buildings, schools, and polls.

Precincts- voting precincts, polling places, and city ward boundaries.

Public Land Survey System- boundaries of 2 different public land survey districts.

Railroad- maps out active railroads in Delaware- may also include a few railroad tracks that might not be used anymore.

Road Center Line- lines for roads.

Road Right of Way- lines, shows all of the road right of ways in Delaware County.

School Districts- provides data for different school districts- in zones not points

Soils- shows where different soils have been found to exist in the Delaware area.

Subdivisions- maps out newly built subdivisions around Delaware- most are not actually in the city itself, but surrounding.

Tax Dist.- displays data for all tax districts that lie within Delaware County.

Topography- map of elevations and other physical features.

Townships- townships in Delaware County- Berkshire, Berlin, Brown, Concorde, Delaware, Genoa, Harlem, Kingston, Liberty, Marlboro, Orange, Oxford, Porter, Radnor, Scioto, Thompson, Trenton, and Troy are each on a different shape file.

Townships-Historical- provides data that shows historic boundaries of townships in Delaware.

Watersheds- shows Delaware’s watershed- with boundaries of the data.

Wetlands- maps out previous and existing wetlands around Delaware.

Woodlands- provides data that displays complete woodland coverage for Delaware County.

Zipcodes- maps out which areas in Delaware county use which zipcodes.

Zoning- this folder contains information on location, taxes, type, value, area, number of times sold, house features on houses around the city.

Orthophoto- each set of orthophotos (2010 and 2008) contain folders with multiple images of Delaware.

Getting to Know ArcGIS desktop tutorial- ch. 3- ch. 7 February 25, 2011

Chapter 3:

In chapter 3, we explored data that was given to us, and learned how to navigate the mapping on ArcMap. We also began to look at feature attributes. For me, this chapter was very easy because it dealt a lot with what we did in Geography 353. Everything was very basic, and the tutorial steps were extremely easy to follow.

Chapter 4:

Although chapter 4 moved along in the processes that ArcGIS offers, it was still very easy and a review of Geography 353. I was able to complete these exercises very quickly, but did learn a little more than I had already known about ArcMap. In this chapter, we learned how to look through map data and where to find the data that is represented. We also learned how to add more data to a map, which we had done in 353. Differently from 353, however, we learned how to do this using ArcCatalogue, where we could simply drag the data over instead of having to add each file one by one and press a lot of buttons.

Chapter 5:

In chapter 5, we learned about symbolizing different features and rasters that are present on our maps. We did this in 353 last semester, but it was good to get a refresher of how to choose appropriate symbols. We went through changing symbology on maps that we were given, symbolizing features by different attributes, using styles and creating new layer files, and how to symbolize rasters.

 

Chapter 6:

Chapter 6 was a much needed refresher of what we learned in 353. While going through these exercises, I was able to re-understand the importance in classification, and how to do this on the ArcGIS program. In this chapter, we classified features by standard methods, classified things manually, learned how to map density (which we did in 353), and use graduated symbols.

Chapter 7:

Chapter 7 began to get a little tricky, but it was nothing that one couldn’t manage while using ArcGIS’s easy steps with the tutorial. We began to label features, using different types of labels. We used dynamic labels, and learned what rules to follow when placing labels on a map. We also discovered how to place interactive labels, when to use these labels, and how to create annotations for them.

Mitchell Ch. 1 Reading January 31, 2011

What is GIS analysis?

– seeing patterns and information in geographic data, and using it to discover the many “whys”, “hows”, and other relationships. The “spatial scientist” and advanced modelers mean that new sciences are evolving from the various GIS applications.

 

The Goals?

– to clearly and accurately represent the data you are using. Building a database is very time consuming, and it is a major limiting factor on why more people don’t use it more. Also, there is a lack of knowledge of what all GIS can do. We need a well-defined idea of what the question is and who the data is being presented to- we also need to put in more time and effort in order to get the best results.

 

3 Key Features

-Discrete features: locations, lines

-Continuous phenomena: blanket map (no gaps); series of points or boundry and area in between

-Summarized by area: counts or density of individual features within area boundaries

 

Map projections, Coordinate systems:

– A Map projection translates locations from a sphere  to a flat surface.

– A Coordinate system specifies the units that are used to locate features in 2D-space

 

Geographic Attributes:

-identifying anddescribing the multitude of geographic features-in order to do this, we need a very good understanding of what data is and what it represents to map it correctly.

-Categories, ranks, counts, amounts, ratios (proportions, densities)

Reading Notes January 19, 2011

One of the readings referred to Geospatial Analysis. In this reading, the authors and editors talked a lot about GIS as an area of activity, which drives many people to success in the real world. GIS applications are widespread, and in almost any topic GIS can be used. They talked about the differences in collecting data, and how it can be framed for certain implications. The authors defined geospatial analysis as a subset of techniques that are applicable when data is referrenced on a 2-D frame, and how it can relate to many activities. They also talked about the concept of visualization, and how it can be used to create and manipulate images- we did this in Cartography and Visualization last semester with out animated maps, Google Earth maps, and regular creation of the original static maps.

The next reading was more environmentally focused, and less informational. This reading provided examples of what types of environmental issues and concerns can be mapped, and how it can be done. They talked about how students at Swarthmore College in PA examined interactions between human and nature, and used many sites to compile the data they found. They talked about environmental justice, what it means, and how it ca be reached. They included a useful timeline about important events in Delaware, PA, and talked about green spaces that already existed and the possible creation of new ones. This reading provided many facts about the particular area, in the context of the students’ findings.

GEOG 360 projects:
When looking at the previous projects from Environmental Geography, it looked like a lot of time went into the collection and providing of data. All of the projects that I looked at were well planned, and regarded specific and important issues that we face in this area.

Green Maps

 

All three of these “green maps” have similar purposes of mapping out areas such as parks, recycling, pedestrian and bike paths, and other places that we would consider to be green. These maps probably look very different than a green map of Delaware, Ohio or OWU would look though, because they are of much larger areas. These maps are also of areas that have very large populations, so there is probably more of an emphasis on green spaces and going green.

Introduction January 12, 2011

Alexandra Bishop

Class: Junior

Hometown: Toledo, Ohio

Major: Geography

Activities: Tridelta, OWU Soccer and Lacrosse

 

GIS Applications

GIS has a lot of applications and uses. The area that interested me the most is the automated aspect of cartography. In geography 353, I had some experience actually creating automated maps, both static and animated maps, which was easy and fun. I think automated maps are important because they are easy to make, and they save a lot of time. With making maps on computers, data can be shown extremely accurately. This type of cartography is important in showing change, because maps can be easily updated or changed.

 

Sources:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system#Data_modeling

Webopedia: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/automated_cartography.html

UniversiteitUtrecht: http://www.cs.uu.nl/groups/AA/geometry/autocarto/index.html

Hello world! January 10, 2011

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!