Tuesday, February 12, 2013

4 Introducing ArcMap



               GIS can have much potential in the real world;it can store and organize information. GIS can assist in planning as well as in implementing.  It is a tool to present ideas of the spatial world.  When I was working with the GIS software I saw that the software uses actual physical structures of distribution in the system. GIS can create a map with a vast amount of attributes, it can connect different map lines together, where we can duplicate or model items from the table of content. Such as streets, land boundaries, add the different amount and kinds of schools in a particular area where our focus is, GIS has the ability to manage facilities.
                This can be a great system for different companies to use to manage their company. It can also be used to manage statistical data and many different components in the world; whether it is quantitative data or qualitative data that needs to be mapped. The use of GIS can allow for the different program operators of GIS to have their data be more coordinated as well as more efficient, especially because in this modern world most information is already out in the world, using this spatially integrated utility just allows for the data to be more organized into one system. GIS allows you to design different kinds of maps that will target a specific study, in one of my previous projects with google maps I was looking into the different health clinics there was in the area of Westwood, GIS other than just show me what kind of clinics there are would more carefully target the health clinics in the system as well as the specific populations in need of those health services that are offered in the city of west-wood. A lot of the clinics in the Westwood area proved to be mental health facilities GIS would allow the tracking and monitoring of the incidence of mental health cases inventorying available health resources.

               Moreover, the data that is being managed can also be correlated to one another; perhaps looking at what kind of schools there are in a particular neighborhood (being the area) and looking at the socio-economic status of that area as well as the ethnic backgrounds of the population of the area and we can furthermore connect it to employment patterns and the property rates for that area. Aside all that we can also use the data overtime in order to analyze and visualize different patterns and trends in the area. All this allows GIS to have a great value as software because we can use the level of detail to project maps of particular areas for a wide variety of uses. It is a great program because it implements a great level of detail to be precise when working with the data.
                Nevertheless, software can also have its pitfalls. GIS is a software with a complicated process. Users of GIS need to know why, when, where and how to input information into the system. It literally took me a and hour and a few minutes for each assignment 1,2,3 and for the 4th and 5th assignment it took me a little longer to do. This is because GIS requires a great level of detail and if one creates an error or skips a procedure the map will not be created correctly or errors will follow and we cannot continue until the errors are fixed. This means that it takes a great deal of time and of attention to work with the software. Another thing is that just like creating errors in the system, the results that we create on the map might not be as reliable in real life as we make it in the map. Whatever, is added to the system is also data that is collected and not all the data that exist in the real world, for example collecting only data from particular cities in southern California but not in northern California would not allow one to input data for all of California because data will be missing. 

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