Fire Hazard Evaluation

The map displayed above shows the fire perimeter of the station fire which happened in Los Angeles County in 2009. It is important to take into consideration all aspects which are related to the fire; these are slope, fire perimeter, and fire fuel. The slope of the terrain which the fire took place in is important because it gives information such as the direction the fire will burn and how fast it will burn (depending on the steepness of the slope). The fire perimeter provides information on the bounds and extent of the fire. The fire fuel, which is vegetation, can help determine where fire is more likely to burn and also what types of ecosystems will be affected by the fire.

This paragraph concerns more of the practical steps taken to produce the maps displayed. The seamless server from the USGS website was an easy way to obtain the digital elevation model for the county of Los Angeles. Once this was set, the FRAP website (http://frap.cdf.ca.gov/) was useful in providing surface fuels map as well as the fire perimeter data. This was the data needed to evaluate the fire hazard. It was easy to follow steps to accommodate the data to display the Station fire along with the DEM and hillshade. However, I encountered a problem with the reclassification of the surface fuel; this is why I only showed the original information for this individual map.

The problem I encountered had to do with the grid form of the surface fuel data and it made reclassification of this not possible. In order to fix this problem, I tried to download the data and start the process for this data set from scratch (I thought maybe the file was corrupted), but I still could not fix this issue. However, the surface fuel map shown, still provides a great deal of information in terms of fuel for the station fire. This is a map which informs about the bounds of the station fire, the slope of where it took place, and the surface fuel for the fire. Also, the scale bars, legends, and north arrows provide orientation to readers of the map.

Landfill Suitability Analysis Factors-Lab # 5

Analyzing landfill suitability in terms of streams, elevation, cover class, soil drainage, and distance to landfills is very important and useful. These analysis provide information about specific identities in a place (such as Gallatin County in this project), so as to attain a prioritized suitability for landfills; for example, if the priority is determining where to put landfills based on cover class, the map of this category is used. These types of decisions are centered around the effects on humans, as seen in the Sahagun article, therefore it is important to note how each category analyzed affects humans as well.

Continuing with the cover class category, it is also possible within the category to make distinctions between places which could potentially sustain landfills and those which can not. When reclassifying the cover class category, I listed the cover classes of water and cropland as completely unsuitable (entering NoData in their fields); because landfills possibly represent danger in terms of toxicity and birth defects, they should by no means be found in these cover classes. Areas of water and cropland are of the most important resources needed by humans, therefore these should be most taken care of so as to avoid their contamination (which would lead to negative impacts on humans).

Knowing what kinds of toxic elements may be present in landfills as well as at what proximity they represent a danger to humans is also very important. In this case, we can put emphasis on the category of distance to landfills. By using this analysis, we can interpret the distance to landfills in terms of lethality for humans; how close to a toxic element is too close? At what proximity can PCB's (a cancer causing element mentioned by Sahagun) affect humans? We can also think about runoff of toxins from landfills to streams as a problem. If landfills are too close to streams, their contents may be carried off to the water; we see that the stream buffers category helps us analyze what the right distance of landfills from streams can be.

In similar forms, the soil drainage and slope of elevation categories help display how toxins can be carried off to places where they would have a negative impact on humans. The final analysis category, allows an investigation of all categories displayed in one map. It is important to analyze all of the categories together in order to account for overlaps; perhaps, places which are definitely not suitable can be more easily differentiated. This kind of analysis may also lead to the discovery of places in which it is reasonable to place landfills.

Therefore we see the importance of making educated and cautious decisions about the placement as well as the expansion of landfills. In Sahagun's article, expansion of a landfill in the Central valley is detained until further tests determine whether or not this creates a negative impact on humans. Because water is so necessary for human survival, efforts to clean already contaminated water are also being considered by environmental agencies.

Quiz # 1- L.A. City Schools and Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

I am in favor of the decision made by the L.A. City Council which requires medical marijuana dispensaries to be at least one thousand feet from places where children congregate. I think it is most important to evaluate this decision in terms of Los Angeles city schools; schools is where children spend majority of their time. Not only is it important that children spend much of their time at their respective school, also this is where their learning foundation is based. Therefore, I made my decision based on the perspective that schools are the pillar of growth for children and this should in no way be disturbed. However, I would like to point out that there can be other perspectives from which to view this issue which can result in a different verdict from mine.

It is important to provide voters with information such as is provided in my map, so that informed voting can take place. Therefore, it is also important to provide accurate data. I would like to point out that the main concentration is on the selected Los Angeles city. My map shows buffers of 1,000 feet around each and every school in the city of Los Angeles. I also geocoded the addresses for the medical marijuana dispensaries within Los Angeles. The purpose of this data display is to see where these dispensaries cross into the buffer zone (which means they would be violating the decision made by the Los Angeles City Council). At least half of the dispensaries cross into the buffer zones for different schools. This should not be the case if children and their environment is to be protected and respected.


Implementing this decision does imply the shutting down of those dispensaries which cross into the buffer zones; this results in costs of closure and, probably also affects the owners of the dispensaries. Even though there may be difficulties, it is important to measure the value of each side of the conflict. Is it more valuable to shelter children from the activities of dispensaries so as to not disrupt their developmental stage? Or is it more important to avoid the costs I previously mentioned and let the dispensaries keep earning their profit? I believe the priority lies within how the children are affected at all times; which is why I reiterate that I am in favor of the Los Angeles City Council decision.

Digitizing Iraq-1999

I had some trouble with being able to clearly separate the province and city names. ArcMap continued to give me an error message about the map units. Overseeing this minor detail however, the digitizing was relatively easy and straight forward. I liked having to figure out some of the operations by just experimenting and some by getting help from classmates. I had trouble with the function of cutting the polygon which was necessary to make the provinces; I had overlooked the fact that my overall tracing of the Iraq map had to be selected in order to do proper snapping. I believe this lab was very instructive and that it is also very useful in common practice.