Final Lab; Due 12/8/10

This map shows that there are "Asian alone" concentrations on the east and west coasts. This makes sense, as immigrants choose gateway cities as their entry portal into the United States. (Such "gateway" cities are New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc.) There is an especially high concentration in the Bay Area, which is reasonable; there are quite a few Asian neighborhoods in the Bay. It surprises me that there is such a high concentration in one area of Texas. This concentration is right outside Houston however, so perhaps there are ample job opportunities.

This map shows that there is a considerable "black alone" concentration in the southeastern United States. States like Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana are known for their exceptionally high African American populations--I would expect my map to show concentrations there. History is probably the reason for this concentration, as the South owned many African slaves during the Antebellum. Big cities across the US also exhibit high black alone populations, highlighting the diversity found in urban centers.

 This map shows concentrations of "some other race" (not white, black, Asian, Hispanic) in the southwest. Such an obvious spatial correlation denotes some sort of pattern, but I can't be sure as to what it is. Since there is a focus in California's central valley, maybe these "other races" work in the agricultural sector. (Texas also has high agricultural yields and high "other race" concentrations.) I chose to color ramp this map to red and green for the holiday season--an example of mapmaker's bias.

This census map series was my favorite GIS exercise. It seemed the most useful, but perhaps that's because I'm taking a demography class in tandem with this one. I really enjoyed setting the color ramps! Earlier in the class I complained that there weren't enough colors to choose from, but that's because I was only looking at the pre-made colors. There are unlimited color choices. The census has an extremely large data collection--you can literally make hundreds (if not thousands) of thematic maps with this counties shapefile and the census data website.

My GIS experience in general was kind of a roller coaster ride. In the beginning I think I expected it to be really interesting, all the time, but in reality a lot of GIS work is tedious. Finding data is extremely frustrating, though I got better at it eventually. The way this class was formatted, the way it was SUPPOSED to frustrate you, ended up really helping. The only way you can really learn about ArcGIS is to play with it--to lose data, get those red exclamation marks, click around, use the help function. I recognize that there is so much more to this program than I've been exposed to, and that's exciting. I think overall, I have a love-hate relationship with Arc; I hate it when I'm working with it, but in retrospect, the things I do with it seem uniquely applicable to everyday life. (What analysis software could be more worthwhile to learn about?) Intermediate GIS is sure to be a challenge, but that's alright. I look forward to it.