Thursday, January 31, 2013

Week 3 Lab: Digital Mapping

How to cruise the Central Coast: an interactive digital map


View How to cruise the Central Coast in a larger map

I admire neogeography's ease of use and how it is accessible to anyone with a computer. I only had a few technical difficulties in making this map, mainly with drawing the route efficiently and accurately. It took time to draw the line route that adheres to already existing routes, roads or freeways on the map, since it was difficult to tell the computer which exact route you wanted your own line to follow. It was also a bit difficult figuring how to properly embed or insert photos and videos into the map markers. But other than that it was easy to use and it can definitely help people share information with their peers in a visually attractive way.

However, from this experience with neogeography it seems as if the kind and extent of information you can use or present with neogeography is very limited. It seems as if - at least with GoogleMaps - all you do is make your own routes and then add place markers for places you find interesting. You cannot really do much analysis with neogeography, since it only allows you to create one-layer maps and only shows you where to go or where things are. This kind of neogeography seems more appropriate for social networking purposes or educating about place rather than doing spatial analysis, as you could with GIS. Thus the limits of neogeography seem to lie in the fact that it deals with more superficial information.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Week 2 Lab: Topographic Maps

  1. This is a map of the Beverly Hills quadrangle.
  2. The adjoining quadrangles are Canoga Park, Van Nuys, Burbank, Topanga, Hollywood, Venice and Inglewood.
  3. The quadrangle was created in 1995.
  4. The national geodetic vertical datum of 1929 was used to make the map.
  5. The scale is 1:24,000.
  6. At the above scale:
    1. 5 centimeters x 24,000 / 100 = 1,200 meters
    2. 5 inches x 24,000 / 63,360 inches (1 mile) = 1.894 miles
    3. 1 mile = 63,360 inches / 24,000  = 2.64 inches
    4. 3 km = 300,000 cm / 24,000 = 12.5 cm
  7. Contour interval = 20 feet
  8. Locations of:
    1. Public Affairs
      1. 34 degrees, 4 minutes and 30 seconds north, 118 degrees 26 minutes and 15 seconds west
      2. 34.075 degrees north, 118.44 degrees west
    2. Santa Monica Pier
      1. 34 degrees, 0 minutes and 36 seconds; 118 degrees, 30 minutes and 0 seconds west
      2. 34.028 degrees north, 118.5 degrees west
    3. Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir
      1. 34 degrees, 7 minutes and 0 seconds north; 118 degrees, 24 minutes and 30 seconds west
      2. 34.1167 degrees north; 118.408 degrees west
  9.  Elevations of:
    1. Greystone Mansion:
      1. 560 feet
      2. 170.688 meters
    2. Woodlawn Cemetery
      1. 140 feet
      2. 42.67 meters
    3. Crestwood Hills Park
      1. 750 feet
      2. 228.6 meters
  10.  UTM zone 11
  11. 61.5 north (61,500 meters), 63 east (63,000 meters)
  12. 1,000,000 meters


     14.  14 degrees, 48 minutes and 0 seconds
     15.  It flows from north to south.
     16.  Graphic of UCLA: