Lab 4

ArcGIS is an instrument that provides tools to people to understand and analyze spatial relationships between objects and data that links through location. The locations and their relationships can be represented in ArcGIS using points, lines and polygons and also cells with different represented data in each cell. While this may sound confusing, ArcGIS is extremely useful when analyzing data that relates to location and spatial representations. The trouble comes with first encountering the program, because it seems daunting at first. The tutorial was 50 pages at least, however it walks the reader through each step in great detail. That by itself was not enough to begin to master ArcGIS, the true way to learn the program is to actually perform the tasks required and to struggle through encountered problems to come away with a greater understanding of how the program works. Only then can a greater understanding as to the significance of this set of tools is to understanding and analyzing spatial relationships.

There is quite a lot of potential with ArcGIS once the user masters the nuances of the software like layering data onto datasets, manipulating data tables, uploading the data to present in ArcGIS, and integrating data from multiple sources, the potential of ArcGIS can finally be realized. In this lab, we layered data about the noise contour of an airport, and its potential effects on the surrounding neighborhood. This is just one of the potential uses of GIS, and because the user gets a bird's eye view of the area being analyzed, the spatial relationship and the extent of the noise effect on the neighborhood can be easily determined. This type of analysis can also be useful in subjects such as urban planning, farming and land use, emergency response, and navigation for travel, to name a few. The potential resides in the fact that GIS allows the user to layer data obtained from multiple sources look at how the data relates to each other in a spatial manner. They can see how their crop of wheat is affected by the temperature increases over the past years to gain a better understanding of their crop for the future, a meteorologist can layer rain patterns on a map of California and relate the rain to different seasons of the year. With this lab, GIS could be used to inform people of the neighborhood how expansion of the existing airport would affect their lives.

However, there are some pitfalls associated with GIS, beginning with overcoming the scope of information that must be presented. The user must be aware that massive amounts of data could be used, and to begin step-by-step with the process of presenting and layering the data that relates to each other. But that pitfall isn't even the beginning, because to begin with there are some nuances to know about the system. First, especially with this lab, the data must be saved together using some sort of flash drive because if a different computer is used each time, the work will not be updated and the user will have to start over each time. On top of that, a lot of hours are spent just trying to get acquainted with the interface because there are so many different toolbars, editing features, layout features, and view perspectives that must be utilized to present the information in a readable, user friendly way. Then comes the frustration with utilizing all of the aspects of the software like zooming in on a plot of land which takes away the overall relationships between objects and then not knowing how to get the old view back, and that provides some users with a lot of frustration at the software. Finally the amount of memory GIS takes up is quite a handful, and that comes from the shear amount of data being put into one application. All of these pitfalls seem overwhelming, however the final product does give a good presentation of data in an easy to visualize way.

Overall, GIS is an incredibly useful tool to represent spatial data and relationships between objects on a large scale. While the software may be costly in time and memory space, the finished product provides a better understanding of the spatial relationships between locations and objects. At first it is hard to understand and grasp the interface and the data management may seem frustrating, but when needing to deal with large projects such as natural resource management or land surveying, using GIS is the easiest way to present and analyze data on a large scale basis. With GIS all of the data is can be seen in one easy to analyze overview and therefore can be manipulated and scrutinized as the user sees fit. The professional way in which the data is represented makes an amateur user feel overwhelmed because of the massive amount of time needed to master the software, however the final product of a well presented and easy to read map is well worth the initial struggles of the software.