UCLA Lab 3- Creating my own map

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Pitfalls, Potential, and Consequences of Neogeography

Of the many pitfalls of Neogeography, one of the greatest I think is the reliability of the information that is being put out there. What’s stopping someone from putting up information on a map that has false information? Therefore how can we trust the information being put out there if any person could create it? Anyone could make their map look professional, I made a map in about 15 minutes that looks somewhat like a real map someone skilled could make, but my map was made up, based on a fictional location; therefore, mine is not a good source that could be used in the writing of a research paper. Another pitfall of Neogeography is that I feel like the technology is not one hundred percent glitch proof. When I was creating my map I had to re-due it two times because I kept having issues with placing markers. In my map somehow one marker was placed about fifty times, and I tried to delete them all but for some reason it wouldn’t let me and I was forced to restart my map. The technology has many bugs that make it a burden to work with sometime, therefore limiting Neogeography greatly in my opinion. Repressing people’s ideas because the technology can’t keep up with what the users want it to do.

            The potential of this technology is great. I feel like Neogeography is slowly going to take over the old ways we do geography, and that many of the techniques or technology we use now to create maps or study subjects will be replaced with the techniques that Neogeography uses, becoming the standard for the daily practices of the field. I think one of the greatest potentials of Neogeography is the access to information we have now. The ability to open any webpage and have an interactive map that allows you to access information is something that is a great way to get information to the public. Therefore, the greatest potential of the technology is that a large percentage of the global population has access to this, and that you don’t have to be a geographer or a GIS minor to cerate these simple maps that provide tons of information that anyone can access. I think there are many consequences to Neogeography. One example is how some people might abuse this technology. In Orange County, which is where I’m from, there were cases of people robbing houses by using Google maps and scouting out houses that seemed to be wealthy. Therefore they would scope out neighborhoods that had large houses, using the maps to find the address and then rob the houses. 

7.5 Map- Week 2

1. What is the name of the Quadrangle?
 -Beverly Hills Quadrangle, California-Los Angeles CO. 7.5-Minute series (topographic)

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

3. When was the quadrangle first created?
-1995

4. What datum was used to create your map?
-NAD 27 (North American Datum of 1927) and NAD 83 (North American Datum or 1983

5. What is the scale of the map?
-1:24,0000

6 At the above scale, answer the following:
A)1200 meters on the ground
B)1.89 miles
C)2.64 in
D)12.50 cm

7. What is the contour interval on your map?
-20

8. What are the approximate geographic coordinates in both degrees/ minutes/ seconds and decimal degrees of:
A) Public Affairs Building:
 - 34 degrees 3' 31" N 118 degrees
B) The tip of the Santa Monica Pier
- 34 degrees 00' 26" N
C) The Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir
34 degrees 07' 12 N"

9. What is the approximate elevation in both feet and meters of:
A) Greystone Mansion
-520 feet/158.50 meters
B) Woodland Cemetery
-140 feet/42.672 meters
C) Crestwood Hills Park
-700feet/213.36 meters

10. What is the UTM Zone of the map
-11

11. What are the UTM coordinates for the lower left corner of your map?
 - 3763000'N and 366200' E

12. How many square meters are contained within each cell (square) of the UTM gridlines?

1,000 X 1,000= 1,000,000 ft^2 convert to meters 92,903.04 meters.

13. Obtain elevation measurements, for west to east along the UTM northing 3771000, where the eastings of the UTM grid intersect the northing. Create and elevation profile using these measurements in Excel (hint: create a line chart). Figure out how the label the elevation values to the two measurements on campus. INsert your elevation profile as a graphic in your blog.

14. What is the magnetic declination of the map?
-14

15. In which direction does water flow in the intermittent stream between the 405 freeway and stone canyon Reservoir?
-North to South

16. Crop out (i.e., cut and paste) UCLA from the map and include it as graphic on your blog

UCLA Campus map 

Intresting Maps- Lab 1

This map was found on the website http://theantilove.deviantart.com/art/Disney-Map-207593214. The map shows where all the Disney Movies were set in the world. I chose this map because I thought it was interesting where all the movies were set, because I was not aware that some of them were set outside of the United States. Some of the locations surprised me in where they were set. For example, I did not realize that Dumbo was set in Florida. Another one that was interesting was that The Little Mermaid was set in the Caribbean; I thought it was set in a completely different location. What I found really interesting about this map was how many of the movies were set in Europe. I found this weird because Disney is located in the United States, therefore I assumed that more of the movies would be located there. Something I thought was very interesting about the map was how there is only one movie set in both South America and Australia.

This map was found on the website  http://wanttoknowit.com/where-do-jaguars-live. The map demonstrates the present and past range of the South American Jaguar. What I found interesting was how the Jaguar range has changed so greatly, mostly due to humans. This map shows that the species had such a huge range, but it has shrunk to an area that is very small compared to what it used to be. Something that I thought was very interesting about the map was that the species used to live in North America. The animal used to be found through the Southern United States including California. It's hard to believe that the large predator used to live where I did. Another thing that interested me about the map was how many different types of habitats the species can live in. When I think of a Jaguar, I do not picture the animal living in the deserts of California or Arizona, but this map clearly shows that they used to.  

 The map comes from the website http://www.asn.tv/news.php?n=3374. The map depicts where certain fans of college football teams live within in each state where the college is located. I personally found this map interesting because of how little fans some schools had within their own state. For example, if you take Stanford University, one of the best college football  programs in the nation, it has one of the smallest fan bases by area. This either demonstrates that the fans of that university are just concentrated in that area, or Stanford does not have that many fans. Another aspect of the map that I found interesting was how LA seemed to be evenly divided between UCLA and USC, I would have actually thought that USC would have had a greater area in terms of fans. The University of Texas also has an interesting distribution, where it almost takes up more then half the state of Texas, while Texas A&M, a better ranked team, has only a smaller portion of the state. This map reveals that fan base is not generally determined by a college program's national ranking.