GIS is a software that helps us us to work with maps and geographic system and edit them at our convenience. It is an amazing software, that can also help amateurs work with maps. As I was working with ArcGis, I experienced its potentials and pitfalls.

Among the potentials, I would say GIS, helps the editing of the maps very easy and comfortable. the fact that you can make the maps the way you want is highly advantageous. The feature allows us to build our own maps, like building your own roads, highlighting the cities and the characteristics you want and work with them. Also, GIS eliminates most of the calculation required to make the maps. For instance, the calculations required for the scale of the map and calculating the distance between two points are all the done by GIS, thus reducing the work. Along with all the properties, GIS is very user-friendly and makes the work very easy.

Among the pitfalls, I did not experience many. Some drawbacks I saw were that, it sometimes became complicated to use some simple tools like resizing the map and these complexities can distort the maps. Along with it, I believe that GIS accuracies depend on the source data which sometimes could be unreliable.

No matter, how many pitfalls, GIS might have, it is a great system that helps to manipulate maps according to the users will and helps the user understand the science of maps much better. 

My mashup

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=207108120669446174779.0004aef9690fda09683f0&msa=0&ll=28.531844,77.246203&spn=0.010689,0.021136

This link takes you to my map mashup that gives you a small tour of the area I grew up in. 

Lab 2 Assignment

1) Beverly Hills Quadrangle

2) The adjacent quadrangles are Canoga Plark, Van Nuys, Burbank, Topanga, Hollywood, Inglewood, Venice and 'Pacific Ocean'

3) The first quadrangle was created in 1966.

4) Datum is mathematical model of Earth. National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 was used to create the map.

5) The scale of map is 1:24000

6)a) The scale is 1/24000
    1/24000 = 5/x cm
    x=1200m
   
   b) 1/24000=5/x in
        x = 1.893 miles

   c) 1/24000 =  x/1
       x= 2.64 in

   d) 1/24000=x/3
        x=12.5 cm


7) Contour interval of map is 20 feet.

8) The approximate coordinates are
a)
b) 34 degrees 28 seconds N and 118 degrees 28 minutes 58 seconds
c) 34 degrees 6 minutes 11 seconds North and 118 degrees 24 minutes 43 seconds
   
9) The approximate elevation of the following are
a)  570 feet
b)  140 feet
c)  680 feet

10)The UTM zone of the map is zone 11

11) The UTM coordinates of lower left corner of the map are 3763000m northing and 362000 easting.

12) 1000000 square meters are contained within each cell of the UTM gridlines.


13)

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

15) Water flows to the south to Stone Canyon Reservoir.

16)

The above map was taken from DMRC.com. It shows the map of metro in Delhi. The interesting thing I find about the map is that it shows how the Delhi metro has spread out itself all over Delhi reducing the number of people travelling by bus and thus reducing the traffic on the road. Also, the way the map has different colors for different routes and marks all the stations with bug dots which makes it easier to read and understand it.

 

This map was taken from the website - Smoke Free Partnership. It deals with smoking related deaths in the different parts of the world. If we look closely, we see that in the this problem is highly prominent in the first world countries where the percentage of smoking related deaths is more that 15%. The poor countries where the number is far lower and this can be attributed to the fact that poor countries have adopted this habit fairly recently. I believe smoking is a habit that is usually picked in a young age and over time it becomes difficult to quit it. Personally, I feel the only way to discourage cigarettes in the society is to tax them high. This will at least discourage children of middle-class from buying them and thus the percentage of smokers will automatically come down.

The above map was selected from the website - https://www.amherst.edu/taxonomy/term/1706. The map is shows the various degrees of light pollution at night. It is interesting to note that the problem is prominent in the countries that come in the developed or the developing categories including United States of America, majority of western Europe, densely populated parts of India and China. This phenomenon is also known as over-illumination and is responsible for unnecessary energy consumption, interference with astronomical observatories and like any other pollution disrupts the ecosystem in several ways.