US Census 2000

     According to US Census Bureau, the map provides spatial information about Asian population distribution in continental United States.  The darker purple area shows were the majority of the Asian population are concentrated.  In the States of California and New York has the majority of the Asian Population, specifically the the cities of San Francisco, New York City, and Los Angeles County.  While in the Great Plains and along the Rookie Mountains there are hardly any Asian population.  From what I can observed most of the Asian population are concentrated along major cities of continental United States.

     In the southeastern portion of the United States is where the Black population are located.  The southern states where most of the plantations were located and where Black population are concentrated.  The States of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina are the predominant states which have large Black population.  One particular region of interest is the southern portion of the Mississippi River, where there is heavy congestion of Black population.  The Great Plains, New England, and Rookie Mountains have hardly any concentration of Black population.

     The southwest portion of the United States is concentrated with an other race.  Since the concentration is in the southwest, along the US-Mexico border, I'm assuming the other race is Latino.  Also, southern Florida also stands out with other race, but not in the same magnitude as the southwest portion of the United States.  Most notably from the map is the southern portion Central Valley, a predominant agricultural region of California.  This particular region has heavy concentration of other race compare to the rest of the southwest.  Since most of the field workers are of Latino background and also to the areas history of hiring guest worker from Mexico (Bracero Program) I'm assuming Latino is the other race.

    Overall the census map series provides geospatial information of where certain ethnicities live within the continental United States.  One population that I was surprised with was the Black population concentration in the south; I assumed that Midwest would have bigger population than the south due Industrial Revolution migration.   Besides the census map series, GIS has become more easier and fun.  This new perspective has to do with my growing knowledge of GIS usage.  Besides having more knowledge on GIS usage, it allows me to better provide spatial information to any map user.  Now creating maps can be made from my perpective to spread better geospatial information to map viewers.

Sierra Nevada DEM

     The area of interest is the southern portion of the Sierra Nevada, between the southern portion of San Joaquin Valley and Owen's Valley.  The Sierra Nevada is a distinguishable feature that is unique to the California's landscape. This area is perfect to show the usage and applications of DEMs in ArcGIS.   From the 3D model perspective the area looks very hard to maneuver by vehicle; therefore, DEM and ArcGIS allows the observer to scope the area using this tool.  In addition, other assets (Slope Model, Aspect Model, Shaded Relief Model) of the tool allows ArcGIS users to get overall picture of the terrain. 

Geographic Coordinate System:

• Spatial Reference:  GCS North American 1983
• Angular Unit:  degree 0.017453292519943295

Extent:

• Top:       39.8291666661
• Left:      -105.78888889
• Right:    -104.969444445
• Bottom:  39.3838888883

Map Projections

     Map projections are significant because each area is unique to its projection. Since the earth is almost an oval shape, the map user relies on the mathematical projections to represent the world into a map. However, with map projections some areas are subject to distortions.  Depending what the map user wants, the area can be conformal, equidistant, or equal area. The reason for so many map projections it gives the map user choices on whether they want to focus on for specific maps. With so many map projections the user can tailored their map to thier needs and wants.
     The potential of map projections it gives an idea of different areas projection. Some areas may get distorted severely, while other locations it remains the same. Depending on what the map user wants to display, each projections can be tailored to specific locations. For example, Mercator and Eckert1 both are conformal maps and they make Antartica look abnormally larger than what it is normally. While in Sinusoidal and Bonne, these maps can good area overview of the planet earth in general. Now in Azimuthal Equidistant and Equidistant Conic makes the equator of the earth appear wider and the continents appear smaller.
     Some of the perils, are the distance being projected. In the first map, after measuring distance between Kabul and Washington DC using Geodestic, Loxodrome, and Great Elliptic, each had different distance numbers. For example, in the Geodestic segment it read 6,934.478105 miles while in Loxodrome it read 8,112.06673 miles. In addition, with Loxodrome the length kept changing while Geodestic and Great Elliptic the length remained the same. Depending on what the map user is using, distance can be off depending on what the map user uses.
      Although different map projections gives a map user the choice on what to use, it can create different distortion or different widths. No map projections are perfect, thats why there are different map projections to choose from. The map user must know that with different styles of map projections comes with different outlooks. When it comes to map projections, it really falls on what the user wants.

GIS Potentials and Pitfalls

     This is the the second time I have taken an introduction to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course, and I preferred the Geog 7 tutorial from my previous class experience at community college.  For one, I was able to work in my own pace and not worry about keeping up with the rest of the class.  I will admit, I'm a little bit slow when it comes to using the ArcGIS software and the Geog 7 ArcMap Tutorial was perfect for me.  Although, I enjoyed my experience with Geog 7 ArcMap Tutorial, the excersise had some potential and pitfalls.

     One of the things that I enjoyed the most, I mentioned this before, is the ability work in my own pace.  The tutorial's walk through steps were very clear.  I enjoyed having the tutorial having the pictures on how the product was supposed to look like in each slide.  Besides having the pictures, towards the end of the excersise, it did tested us on what we learned from previous slides.  I did had to look at previous pages in order to remember how to complete some of the steps, but for the most part I remember.  New users of ArcGIS would find this excersise pretty straightforward. 

     Now some of the pitfalls, was when I had to work from the remote access in my pc.  When I did worked on it from my home's pc, the software was extremely slow.  Even though I saved my work from the remote access in my flashdrive none of  the work appeared during normal lab hours while on campus.  The result of this, I had to restart from the beginning; however, having to restart from the beginning made me more proficient in ArcGIS.  In addition, some of the steps were kind of vague, but for the most part I was able to figure it out for the most part.  For example, in excersise one, I had to manually expand the data sheet in ordet to look like the tutorial (using the blue arrows), it took me a while to figure where were the blue arrows.  For the most part, the ArcMap Tutorial was pretty straight forward.

     Overall, the excersise was pretty straight forward and user friendly for the most part.  The excersise allows the user to work in his or her own pace. Instructions are very clear to understand and the user can follow along.  I think the ArcMap Tutorial is perfect for anybody wanting to know how to use ArcGIS.