Lab #3: Neogeography

View Florence, Italy Tour in a larger map

Neography is a great tool to allow anyone to work their way through a new city. It allows for anyone to show their favorite areas to eat, drink, look at a view, or enjoy simple pleasures. It is a customized outlook for a person to demonstrate what they want others to see specifically. It can act as itinerary for business, tour guide for tourists, to do list for residents, etc. Furthermore, it is a great tool that is easily accessible for anyone to use.

While there are numerous advantages and benefits to Neogeography, there are some pitfalls and consequences. Some pitfalls of setting up this map for people to see can be frustrating at first, especially when one doesn't know how to work the new tools. After some practice though, it is easy to catch on. Another pitfall is that while this device is useful, it doesn't allow for people to explore through a city like in the old days. Therefore, people become somewhat on technology, and this makes a city at some times more impersonal to people.

LAB #2 - USGS Topos

1. The name of this quadrangle is Beverly Hills, CA

2. The names of the adjacent quadrangles are:

a. Canoga Park

b. Van Nuys

c.  Burbank

d. Topanga

e. Hollywood

f. Venice

g. Inglewood

3. The quadrangle was first created in 1966.

4. The North American Datum of 1927 & National Geodetic Vertical datum of 1929 was used to create the map.

5. The scale of the map is 1: 24,000

6.  a) 5 centimeters on the map is equivalent to 1,200 meters on the ground.

     b) 5 inches on the map is equivalent to 1.89 miles on the ground.

     c) 1 mile on the ground is equivalent to 1,520,640,000 inches on the map.

     d) 3 kilometers on the ground is equivalent to 7,200,000,000 centimeters on the map.

7. The contour interval on the map is 20 feet.

8. The approximate geographic coordinates in both degrees/minutes/seconds and decimal degrees of each place are:

    a) the Public Affairs Building;

34°4’15”N, 118°26’18”W

34.071°N, 118.438°W

    b) the tip of Santa Monica pier;

            34°0’35”N, 118°28’50”W

            34.0097 °N, 118.481°W

    c) the Upper Franklin Canyon Reservoir;

            34°6’5”N, 118°24’15”W

            34.101°N, 118.404°W

9.  The approximate elevation in both feet and meters of each location is:

     a) Greystone Mansion (in Greystone Park)

570 ft & 173.74 m

     b) Woodlawn Cemetery;

140 ft & 42.67 m

     c) Crestwood Hills Park;

            800 ft & 243.84 m

10. The UTM zone of this map is 11.

11. The UTM coordinates for the lower left corner of the map is (37)63 Easting & (3)61.5 Northing.

12. There are 1,000,000 sq meters contained within each cell of the UTM gridlines.

13. The two dots placed on Intersection 5 and 6 indicate the two intersections on UCLA campus.

14. The magnetic declination of the map is 14°.

15. The direction that the water flows in the intermittent stream between the 405 freeway and Stone Canyon Reservoir is South.

16. UCLA Map

LAB #1

I found this map at this web address http://www.ing.unitn.it/~grass/conferences/GRASS2002/no_background/italy1.jpg. This map is an illustration of Italy. The reason why I chose a map of Italy is due to my family being from there. We travel there often, and I have traveled to many places within Italy, so I find it to be a country that I know quite well outside of the United States. This map is interesting to me because it separates the distinct districts that encompass Italy. The way in which these various districts are separated is through the contrasting colors that lay next to one another. Furthermore, it highlights the main cities of Italy, which I have visited many of them.



I found this map at the web address: http://del-mar.sandiegorealestateagent.com/images/del-mar-map3.jpg. This second map that I chose is a map of Del Mar, which is a small town in San Diego, CA. This map is interesting to me, because it illustrates an extremely realistic portrait of Del Mar, it as if someone took a picture of Del Mar from a plane high above, while it still reveals the details of the town. The reason why I chose a map of Del Mar is because I grew up in this beach city right on the sand. This map perfectly represents Del Mar, with its clean blue water and huge racetrack in the upper left hand corner that is a city landmark. Furthermore, this map illustrates the grid like system of how the city is planned, which can be shown through the red lines covering the surface of this map.

I found this map at http://www.nees.uni-bonn.de/biomaps/worldmaps.html.  This map illustrates the diversity patterns of plants on the earth’s surface around the world. It reveals the range of biodiversity throughout the world, and also shows the places in which there are a plethora of plant species as well as where there are low levels. I found this map to be interesting due to it illustrating the difference in the species number of vascular plants throughout the world, while making it simplistic enough for anyone to read. This allows for anyone to look at the map and have an understanding of where most of the variety of plant species exist, which can be shown near the equatorial regions, rather than the other regions that are at a further distance from the equator and have less diversity in vascular plants.