Lab 3: Neogeography

Biking Tour of Davis, California
View Biking Tour of Davis, CA in a larger map

By letting individuals create and update public maps, neogeography lets people literally everywhere share information with one another and makes a whole new type of knowledge broadly and easily accessible.  Individuals can add local advice or tourist input that may not be advertised through publicly distributed information or official records.  Using neogeography opens infinite opportunities for sharing experiences and advice relating to geographic locations.  By using pre-existing mapping toolkits and providing instructions, map programs such as Google Maps let almost anyone basic computer knowledge share their geographic experiences.  Individuals do not have to have advanced cartography skills to share their knowledge about places and locations. 

These same elements of neogeography, however, can also lead to potential problems and misuse of easily sharing geographic experiences.  Because anyone can create and access such online maps, individuals with poor or wrong information can appear professional and knowledgeable through the easy to use and stylized toolkit of Google Maps.  This could cause later map viewers to become confused or misinformed and possibly take bad advice that could put them in a less than enjoyable or even dangerous situation.  By providing limited options for features and details in the toolkit, such mapping toolkits can actually contribute to misinformation.  For example, on my bike tour map I wanted to put a stop at the dairy barn on UC Davis campus.  There were no options for “farm” or “cows” on the legend though, so I marked the location with a man on horseback even though there are no horses or opportunities for riding at the dairy barn.  Because of the potential problems that come hand in hand with the advantages of neogeography, it is essential to remember that other individuals are creating and altering maps.  Therefore, it is every neogeographer’s responsibility to create maps responsibility and read maps with caution.    

Week 2: USGS Topographic Maps

1) This is the Beverly Hills quadrangle. 

2) The adjacent quadrangles are Canoga Park, Van Nuys, Burbank, Topanga, Hollywood, Venice, and Inglewood.  The Pacific Ocean is also adjacent to the Beverly Hills quadrangle. 

3) This quadrangle was first created in 1966.

4) The datum used to create this map are the North American Datum of 1927, North American Datum of 1983, and the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929.

5) The map scale is 1:24000

6) Scale
a) 5 cm on the map is equivalent to 1200 m on the ground.

b) 5 in on the map= 1.8939 miles on the ground

c) one mile on the ground = 2.64 in on map

d) three km on the ground = 12.5 cm on map

7) Contour interval = 20 ft with supplementary contour interval of 10 feet

8) Geographic Coordinates

a) Public Affairs Building
                  Degrees/Minutes/Seconds: 34 degrees 4’ 30’’N, 118 degrees 26; 15’’W
                  Decimal Degrees: 34.075 degrees N, -118.4375 degrees E

b) the tip of Santa Monica Pier

                  DMS: 34 degrees 0’30’’ N, 118 degrees 30’ W
                  DD: 34.0833 degrees N, -18.5 degrees E

c) Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir

                  DMS: 34 degree 6’15’’ N, 118 degrees 25’15’’ W
                  DD: 34.1042 degrees N, -118.42083 degrees E

9) Elevation

a) Greystone Mansion: 560 feet, 170 meters

b) Woodlawn Cemetery: 140 feet, 42 meters

c) Crestwood Hills Park: 700 feet, 213 meters

10) UTM Zone 11

11) The UTM coordinates for the lower left corner are 37^63

12) Each cell of the UTM gridlines contains 1,000,000m^2

13) Elevation Profile along the UTM northing 3771000: (elevation is given in meters)

14) The magnetic declination of the map is 14 degrees. 

15) The water in the intermittent stream between the 405 freeway and Stone Canyon Reservoir flows south because elevation decreases from north to south.


16) UCLA from the topographic map

Week 1 Lab: Interesting Maps

This map shows the worldwide distribution of malaria from 1900-2002.  More specifically, it shows the results of the intentional eradication programs during the 20th century.  While malaria was found throughout the Northeastern United Sates and across Europe and Russia, the disease is now concentrated in the global South. 

I find this map interesting because it shows that some areas where malaria was once endemic have now eradicated the disease.  Although the map specifically shows a spatial distribution of disease, it also implies information about the distribution of socioeconomic factors.  For the most part, the areas in the global north that have eradicated malaria over the past century are also relatively wealthy nations with access to knowledge and resources to wipe out the disease.
I am interested in how climate change will affect the distribution of communicable diseases and how these changes could affect populations worldwide.  Using this map with a map of changing global temperatures and/or a map of the unintentional changes in malaria distribution could provide valuable information about the nature of malaria and future of the disease.  

This map is from the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences website.  It is located under the Vector Control and Malaria tab in the Infectious Disease section at the url http://www.koshland-science-museum.org/exhib_infectious/malaria_vector_control_05.jsp

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This map shows the various products that are produced in different Central American countries.  This product map is definitely oversimplified; it shows neither where each good is produced within each country nor all of the important products from each country.  Even so, I think it is extremely interesting and important to realize that many commodities come from Central America, especially as global commodity chains lengthen and different regions of the world become increasingly economically interconnected.  I am personally interested in economics and Latin America so I like being able to see the distribution of commodities geographically. While this map is not extremely detailed, such an oversimplified image can be a convenient and accessible way to begin research or further investigation on a topic.

This map is from the website classbrain.com and is located under "Central America" under "Country Reports."  It was published by the ClassBrain staff and is found at the url http://www.classbrain.com/art_cr/publish/central_america_product_map.shtml.

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This map is a screenshot I took from an online interactive map which shows the number of medals won by each country competing in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.   The sizes of the circles correspond to the number of medals won.

I think it is especially interesting that this map arranges the medal winners geographically.  Instead of simply listing country rankings, it is easy to see which parts of the world the Olympic champions come from and how one nation's medal tally compares to those of its neighboring countries. 

The interactive map has a slider which one can move to see the medal distribution from each Summer Olympic Games since 1896.  More nations participate in the Games and win medals in more recent years.  Additionally, the distribution of medals in some years show interesting phenomena and information not explicitly given.  In the 1980 Games for example, East Germany and the Soviet Union dominated the podium while several prominent countries including the United States apparently won no medals.  Although the map does not provide text explaining this anomaly, it is clear that something out of the ordinary happened surrounding the 1980 Games.  Indeed, the United States and many other nations boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games to protest the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.  I find it absolutely fascinating how in addition to statistics about athletic rankings, this map contains a plethora historical information and economic, cultural, and political implications.

The interactive map can be accessed at:  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/20080804_MEDALCOUNT_MAP.html