Final Exam 2013

Acronyms

Q282. Explain these acronyms: USGS, NOAA, NASA

Q281. Explain these acronyms: AAG, ABAG, BART

Q261. Explain these acronyms: DMS, EPSG, CRS

Q277. Explain these acronyms: CSV, UTM, JPEG

Q279. Explain these acronyms: SQL, WMS, WGS84

Q280. Explain these acronyms: NAD83, NAD27, OSGB

Q278. Explain these acronyms: PNG, TIF, geoTIF


QGIS Skills

Q311. Show that you know your way around how QGIS lets you create a new vector layer of polygons, points, or lines.

Q304. Open and explain attribute table. What are rows, what are columns? What do the controls along the bottom do? How do you sort rows? Change column width? Show only selected records? Select one or two rows and then reverse the selection.

Q308. Take a basic thematic map of Oakland, set up a print composer, and add graticule and customize annotations.

Q287. Download this zip file, open the QGIS workspace inside, produce a map that looks like this:
output.png
and post it to a wiki page.

Q303. Show, in QGIS, how to select features individually and by radius, rectangle, etc.

Q306. Create custom labels based on two fields for a polygon layer.

Q313. Create a point layer by importing a CSV file containing geographic coordinates.

Q312. Join a csv data file to a vector shape file.

Q314. Show how to set snapping options to make vertex matching while drawing polygons by hand easier.

Q305. Open properties dialog for a vector layer and explain briefly what the Styles, Labels, Fields, Metadata, and Joins tabs are for.

Q307. Find a color scheme using ColorBrewer and implement it on a polygon layer in QGIS.

Q309. Demonstrate that you know you way around the Print Composer.

Q310. Show you know your way around the Georeferencer plugin in QGIS.


QGIS General

Q272. Explain/illustrate what these geoprocessing operations do: clip, intersection, union, difference, buffer, convex hull, symmetric difference.

Q266. What is interpolation and how do heat maps work?


California Geography

Q292. Name these California counties.

CACountiesSouth.png

Q293. Identify the counties in the greater Bay Area.

bayareacountiesblank.png

Q274. Fill in the names of the "districts" in Oakland.

oakland-districts-blank.png

Q294. Identify the counties in this band across northern California

CCSzone3Counties.png

Q295. Locate these prominent California geographic features:

CA-nine-features.png
  • Cascade Mountains
  • Coastal Mountains
  • Colorado River
  • Kalamath Mountains
  • Mojave Desert
  • Sacramento River
  • Sacramento Valley
  • San Joaquin Valley
  • San Joaquin River
  • Sierra Nevada Mountains

Oakland Geography

Q274. Fill in the names of the "districts" in Oakland.

oakland-districts-blank.png

Cartography

Q263. Explain/illustrate the idea of 1+1=3.

Q269. Explain longitude, latitude, parallels, meridians

Q318. What does the indicatrix on this Fuller projection or "Dymaxion" map tell you about this projection (which projects the globe onto an icosohedron and then unfolds the solid figure)?

FullerProjection.png

Q319. What does the indicatrix tell us about the Mollweide projection? Specifically, what do the red and black "12 o'clock" and "3 o'clock" lines mean?

mollweide_w_indicatrix.png

Q271. With reference to cartography, explain what we mean by scale, resolution, simplification/abstraction, representation, point, line, area, volume

Q316. What is Tissot's Indicatrix and what is it used for?

Q273. What kind of map is this:

oakland-east-quad-1.jpg

Q296. (1) Read this thematic map. (2) Offer a critique of its graphic design.

Q291. What do we call this kind of map?

africapolitical.png

Q289. What map is this and what is it "famous" for?

gall-peters.pngQ290. What kind of map is this and what is it used for?
sfbaychart.pngQ317. Match the name with the projection.
South Polar Azimuthal | Mercator | Albers Equal Area Conic | Mollweide | Lambert Conformal Conic | North Polar Azimuthal
albersequalareaconic0.png mercator0.png Mollweide0.png
northpolarazimuthal0.png southpolarazimuthal0.png lambertconformal0.png

Coordinate Reference Systems and Projections

Q261. Explain these acronyms: DMS, EPSG, CRS

Q264. What is a datum?

Q299. What is the California CRS zone for Oakland and the Bay Area? What units is it in? What datum is it based on?

Q298. Explain what's going on in this apparently distorted map

world-CA-stateplane3.png

Q297. With reference to the figures below, describe what the California State Plane System is.

cal_st_plane.pngca_state_plane_CRS_list.png

Web Mapping

Q286. When using Leaflet to create a webmap, we use code like this:

var cloudmade = L.tileLayer('http://{s}.tile.cloudmade.com/{key}/{styleId}/256/{z}/{x}/{y}.png', {
            attribution: 'Map data © 2011 OpenStreetMap contributors, Imagery © 2011 CloudMade',
            key: 'BC9A493B41014CAABB98F0471D759707',
            styleId: 22677
        })

to create the "attribution" on the map. What does this refer to? Why do we need to do it?

Q276. Go to OpenStreetMap.org and edit a building structure in the neighborhood around Mills.

Q284. What are "map tiles"? Where do we encounter them? How do they work?

Q285. Name a few suppliers of map tiles.


Generic GIS Skills

Q272. Explain/illustrate what these geoprocessing operations do: clip, intersection, union, difference, buffer, convex hull, symmetric difference.

Q266. What is interpolation and how do heat maps work?

Q300. You have been hired as a consultant to estimate the effects of a new criminal offender registry law that prohibits individuals on the registry from living within 1000 meters of a school. You are asked to

  • Make a map showing all areas that are off-limits to registered offenders
  • Calculate about how much of the city's rental market is off-limits to registered offenders based on this law.

You have

  • a point layer with school locations
  • a street layer
  • a census blockgroup layer with information on number of rental units (or at least renter occupied units as of the last census)

Q288. How would you estimate the number of people who live within 500 meters of MacArthur Blvd in Oakland?


All Other Problems

(soc128)
Q265. Identify graphical elements of a map: border, legend, scalebar, north arrow, author, date, projection, coordinates, data source, data date, title, body of map

(disease epidemiology health historical soc128)
Q302. What is the significance of this map? What does it show? Who made it? When was it made?

snowsmap.png

(soc128)
Q270. Describe and give examples of different types of maps: topographic, thematic, schematic, choropleth, isopleth, political, mental, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), political, physical, topographic, cadastral, climate, road, nautical charts, bathymetric chart, aeronautical chart

(soc128)
Q320. Explain this diagram:

lambert-conic-diagram.png(soc128)
Q275. What do the four digit numbers on this map of the Laurel District most likely represent?
laurel-tracts.png

(data gis soc128)
Q267. What is a csvt file and why is it useful?

(soc128)
Q282. Explain these acronyms: BG, CT, XML, CRAP

(historical soc128)
Q315. Identify and describe. What does it show? Who made it? When was it made?

minard-napoleon.png

(analysis data soc128 visualization)
Q262. Explain the difference between equal interval, quantile, natural break, and standard deviation as classification methods If your data looked like this, and you have 5 class intervals, what would they be if you used each method?

state-pop-density-data.png

(soc128)
Q268. Projections: explain the terms cylindrical, conical, azimuthal, conformal, equal-area in conjunction with map projections and coordinate systems

(soc128)
Q301. Explain what we mean by "taxi-cab distance."

Skills

  1. Prepare a downloaded Excel file for import into QGIS as a csv file for joining to a vector boundary file.
  2. Georeference an aerial photograph or raster map image.
  3. You have a vector layer that is currently in WGS84 but you want to convert it to California State Plane NAD California 83. How do you do it?
  4. Edit a Wiki page.
  5. Make a map with several layers, customize legend, layout professionally, export as graphics file, and post on a Wiki page.
  6. Update (with proper metadata) Open Street Map using the OSM interface.
  7. Print a map with Field Papers and update OSM.
  8. Given a boundary layer (shapefile) of California Counties and a csv file of county data, make a thematic map using two contrasting methods of grouping the data and discuss the pros and cons of them.
  9. Given a point layer of Oakland homicides, and population density by census tract or blockgroup, describe how you could estimate how many people live within, say, 1000 meters of a homicide.
  10. Export a QGIS map and insert it in a Word document and a PowerPoint presentation.

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/map_projections.png

Learning Goals

To pass this course you must be able to

  1. Demonstrate knowledge of GIS, cartography, and computers vocabulary and concepts
  2. Demonstrate cartographic knowledge of the world, the US, California, and Oakland
  3. Use a map. Read a map. Interpret a map. Assess the quality of a map and make suggestions for improvement
  4. Find and obtain and manipulate geographic data and maps
  5. Use four map products to produce a requested map (including obtaining and preparing data). Make maps that use point, line, and polygon data
  6. Use maps to tell a data story.
Demonstrate knowledge of GIS, cartography, and computers vocabulary and concepts
  1. scale, resolution, simplification/abstraction, representation
  2. point, line, area, volume
  3. types of maps: topographic, thematic, schematic, choropleth, isopleth, political, mental maps, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), Political Map, Physical Map, Topographic Map, Climate Map, Economic or Resource Map, Road Map, Thematic Map, star charts, nautical charts, bathymetric chart, aeronautical chart, cadastral map, plat, isochrone map, topological map
  4. important maps: Sanborn, London Underground, Peters Projection, Booth map of London poverty (1885), Snow's cholera map (1854)
  5. Longitude, latitude, parallels, meridians
  6. Projections: cylindrical, conical, azimuthal; conformal, equal-area; shape, area, distance, direction; datum, false northing/easting
  7. Visual variables: color, intensity, texture, size, contrast, hierarchy,
  8. 1+1=3: optical illusions, texture vibration, unintended information
  9. graphical elements of a map: border, legend, scalebar, north arrow, author, date, projection, coordinates, data source, data date, title, body of map
  10. Information transformations: Data collection, Selection, Classification, Simplification, Exaggeration, Symbolization, Use of map
  11. triangulated irregular network (TIN), interpolation, heat maps,
  12. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog486/l6_p6.html (https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog486/home.html)
Demonstrate cartographic knowledge of the world, the US, California, and Oakland
Find and Obtain Geographic Data and Maps
  1. Oakland data sources and maps
  2. California data sources and maps
  3. US Census data and maps
  4. Open Street Map
  5. Google maps/earth, etc.
Use a map.  Read a map.  Interpret a map.  Assess the quality of a map and make suggestions for improvement
  1. Find one's way using a map.
  2. Orienting a map.
  3. Translate thematic map into alternative qualitative and quantitative descriptions
Use four map products to produce a requested map (including obtaining and preparing data).  Make maps that use point, line, and polygon data
  1. Make a map using Google maps, customize it, any tool export it as a picture, embed it in a web page, send link in an email
  2. Make athematic map using Social Explorer Contribute to OpenStreetMap
  3. Make a thematic map using QGIS
  4. Make a thematic map using ESRI online map server Leaflet and Javascript
Use maps to tell a data story.  
  1. In a Word document, a PowerPoint presentation, a video, a poster.  
  2. Write around maps.  
  3. Be honest with a map.  
  4. Move back and forth between other kinds of data visualization and a map.