Where the Donors At?

Though I haven't posted anything for a while, it doesn't mean I've been completely absent on the map-front. Au contraire, I've given myself a few projects to do at work showing where the donors, donations, and lecture attendees come from, and today I'll share a map of donors for [place of work omitted].

I chose to show this map by zip code for two reasons. First, I have zip codes for all the donors. Second, there are zip code map shapefiles easily obtainable online. Future variants of this map will be more neighborhood specific, though I'll probably just translate all the addresses into GPS positions and map those, rather than find a way of using street maps or something crazy like that.

You would think, for those of you familiar with Chattanooga, that you should be able to identify wealthier areas of town based on the number of donors for that zip code. This map is sort of surprising in that regard, as the heaviest donor base is actually in Marion County, which would not have been my first guess.

More of the Same

I have version 2 of the Hamilton County, Tennessee, watershed map ready to go today. Prepared again using QuantumGIS, with Elevation data downloaded from the National Map and transformed into a lovely elevation/terrain model.

I had to download the data because, even though there is a WMS service for USGS data that lets you pull it directly into Quantum or your GIS software of choice, it limits the size of the map you can "print." What that meant for me was that when I tried to create an image of the map, it was considered too large, and the images served up by the WMS (Web Map Service.. I have to remind myself of what these acronyms stand for so that someday I'll actually remember them) didn't show up in my map image.

I like this map okay but I like it less when I go back and look at the original HCWQ map that motivated this project in the first place. Oh well, it's a learning project... and I can't do it exactly the same way as Adam did because that would be unoriginal!

A Quantum Leap

I just had QuantumGIS installed on my work computer, which is exciting for multiple reasons. First off, I can give myself projects to work on when there's a lull. Second, I'm all for supporting open-source software use when possible. Third, it explicitly gives the finger to ESRI, who charges an arm and a leg for ArcGIS licenses as well as fees for admission to their user conference (even for non-profits).

The first time I downloaded Quantum was before I had ever used Arc, and I was naturally bewildered about how to do anything with it. I had downloaded some gigantic files and an outdated tutorial that required the use of GRASS alongside Quantum and was doing my best to come to some sort of understanding, but really to no avail. After working with Arc and coming back to Quantum, I must say I'm a fan of the interface now. It seems far less cluttered but still presumably with all the functionality (however that works). I haven't done any analysis with it yet, just trying to get my feet wet by making some maps.

Here's my first offering exclusively using Quantum: a labeled map of the watersheds (HUC 12 level) in Hamilton County, Tennessee. There's all kinds of data I'd like to put on the map, so it's hard to limit it for clarity's sake, but I'm still looking at making some future changes, like adding a shaded relief basemap from USGS and coloring the individual watersheds different colors instead of having chunky borders around each one.

That Moment..

.. when you realize that you used fabric softener instead of laundry detergent, and that's why your clothes smell and feel awesome but maybe don't look so clean. And then realizing that you've done other loads in the past using only fabric softener and cold water. Yeah, sometimes that happens.

Land Use, ArcGIS, and You!

.. Well, maybe not You, but at least Me.

There's some pretty cool data hosted at the McGill Geology department, and I took a peek at the first set on Global Cropland and Pasture data from 1700 to 2007 (whoa!).

It's in NetCDF format (yeah, I hadn't heard of it either), which is pretty cool because it holds a bunch of time slices of data, so in just one file you have ALL those years from 1700 through modern-day. Plus it's a relatively small file and really easy to flip through those years in Arc. I'm still trying to figure out how to get ArcMap to play nicely with it in raster format, as the Raster Calculator seems displeased trying to operate on the data.

So here's what I came up with: a combined map of land use for crops and pastures in the year 2007. Pastures are blue and crops are green, and overlapping areas are various shades of turquoise, going all the way to dark dark green-blue. (Very pale greens and very pale blues means there's not that much of either, but there's even less of whichever color isn't showing.) Pretty intuitive with the different areas (northern parts of Africa/Canada/Russia aren't used for much of either, midwestern US is for both, and so forth).

In other news, some of the land use analysis and mapping I did for the Land of Sky Regional Council in North Carolina is going to be discussed next Tuesday in the US Department of Transportation Eco-Logical Webinar on Green Infrastructure and Transportation Planning! Klasse!

Fun with GIS

I'm trying to beef up my GIS portfolio in hopes of finding an awesome full-time position somewhere (anyone?). And naturally I'm doing this by having a little fun, that is, by doing some small and easy yet interesting projects. I found a really nice collection of links to data repositories (located here), with collections ranging from precipitation and temperature maps to land cover and health. It's just a matter of figuring out what to do with it all.

So I started out with an observational exercise: looking at the difference in precipitation levels across the US over the past half century. For being so simple, it's actually pretty telling stuff, and it at least seems to match with observations people have made in the Southeaster-ly parts of the country, namely that many bodies of water were once regularly higher than they are today after our near-annual droughts.

Caveats: the precipitation data from the PRISM project is part of a research project that models precipitation for entire areas based on a small number of actual measurements; while that idea makes me put on my skeptical face, PRISM is apparently considered some of the best data out there. However, the data is not awesomely labeled; I believe the numbers in all the data files were in millimeters but wouldn't stake my life on it based on the lack of metadata. Furthermore (and here's the iffiest part).. the data files are averaged over a period of years. There's a file of averages from 2005-2009, 2000-2004, 1995-1999, 1990-1994, and.. 1961-1990. Yeah.

So the difference displayed by this map is between average precipitation levels during 2005-2009 and average precipitation levels during 1961-1990. No fancy intermediate averages or anything like that, just comparing the average levels during those two sets of time. Open it up and have a look!

I'll likely be posting these sorts of things on a regular basis, so check them out or contribute your own ideas, data, and maps!

City By the Bay

In keeping with the theme of visiting places I hadn't been for a while, I decided that late April was high-time for a trip to San Francisco and Berkeley. I couldn't believe that over a year and a half (closer to 2) had passed since I lived there!

The trip started off on a really bad foot; I had been pretty sick with some sort of upper respiratory nastiness for the preceding week, but decided to power through the trip anyway, popping vitamin C pills and drinking liters of water 2 or 3 times a day. That regimen seemed to do the trick, and I ultimately returned far healthier than I had left. As much as I hate flying, I really enjoy flying across the country, for the completely different scenes you can pass back-to-back. I have a whole series of shots I took on the plane, but I'll just post one example here. From elaborately laid-out fields to chiseled snow-capped mountains:

Turns out I chose a great time to visit.. because it was FREE WEEK! The first week of each month means tons of museums and galleries open for free, so I had my pick of daily cheap entertainment. Most noteworthy were the De Young Museum, the ever-fun Exploratorium by the elegant Palace of Fine Arts, and the Conservatory of Flowers, with Plantosaurus Rex busting through one of the greenhouses!

In addition to doing prodigious amounts of walking (we're talking Bay to Breakers every day), I revisited at least one new old friend each day, had a fabulous and much-needed night of swing dancing at 9:20 Special, spent lots of time exploring Golden Gate Park, and ate so much delicious food I could've popped. (Well, not really, since I learned that lesson while living there..) And naturally, I paid a visit to Berkeley.

The weather was great the whole time, and it allowed me to be outside most of the day everyday. (How would I have gotten to see the horse racing at Golden Gate Fields otherwise?) It was exciting to get to spend a week in SF, as I never really explored the city that thoroughly, evidenced by my lack of knowledge that there are actual bison living in Golden Gate Park.

 

But when it came time to return home, I was pretty excited to see the Tennessee green under my plane. (Actually.. that's a lie. It was totally dark when I flew home, but whatever. I was still very happy to be back.)

Hello, Mr. Arch!

Continuing with old posts that never actually got posted...

Back around Easter, I made the trek into St. Louis that I had made at least twice every year for fantastic 4 years but hadn't made since graduating from WashU in 2008. 

While I was there, I visited the ever-changing-yet-ever-the-same beautiful WashU campus, saw a lot of old friends, partook in tasty food, harassed a nesting robin, danced, attended a house party, and visited family in Illinois all which made me reminisce fondly on my college days.

 The majestic steps of Brookings.. unchanged.

The creepy Donny Darko-esque bunny statue.. unchanged.

And Graham Chapel.. unchanged, but for the cherry blossoms in bloom at the time. My favorite time of year on the WashU campus.. maybe!

Bats in the Belfry

At the start of spring (or summer... though technically it was still winter.. this would make more sense to you if you'd been in Chattanooga in February and March this year), I went up to a friend's cabin in Damascus, Virginia. The Appalachian Trail winds around this area, and we ended up doing a 9 mile hike to Mount Rogers along the AT. The hike started off innocently enough, with gray skies and feeling a little cool, but right as we were half a mile from the summit, in rolled a vicious thunderstorm and cold mist, so we high-tailed it to a nearby shelter and sat out the rain for nearly an hour. As soon as the rain let up, we took off jogging back to the car and made it back in an hour and a half, an hour shorter than our hike up the mountain had taken.

Along with the AT, there's the Virginia Creeper Trail, which is a 17-mile stretch of old railroad line that has been transformed into a biking trail through the "Rails to Trails" program. It was a nice day "ride" (or more accurately, coast). 

The highlight about the Wolf Den cabin by Little Laurel Creek was a bat flying out of the chimney on our first night, though the outdoor heated shower was pretty cool as well. The trip was filled with copious amounts of bocce ball, horseshoes, and croquet, plus a little trout fishing action along one of the local streams.

Chillin' Like an Ashevillain

I've been on a number of domestic trips lately, and I have yet to post about any of them. So here begins a series of a few posts that will be mostly pictures, mostly to remind myself of what I've been up to the past few months.

First up: Asheville, North Carolina. Hipster capital of the South and very Good Eats.

The whole reason for the trip: Yonder Mountain String Band with the Infamous String Dusters playing at the Orange Peel. Great show, great bands, great venue. I wish Track 29 or any other of Chattanooga's music venues had more of this place's feel.

Yes, it is.

 Chimney Rock... because it looks like a chimney. Pretty sure this is a national park, too, though it was closed for the season after we drove tens of miles down winding mountain roads to get to it.

 It was cold, okay?