I really liked using the Euclidean Distance Tool and running models with confidence. It's really helpful when learning something new to have this kind of set up. What I mean is learning it one week and then doing it yourself the next. The few problems I had were frustrating, but resolved by switching servers. I also had an issue with calcuting the right age but someone was extremely helpful on the discussion boars. Last but not least, I had issues with the medium house value data I download from the U.S. Census website. Even though I added all the values for Miami-Dade county, the upper northeastern part was the only area with the values on my map.

Week 6 - Location Decisions

I greatly enjoyed working on this assignment, not only because I finished it without running into the usual complications, but because it put a lot into prospective for me. I am no longer afraid to try creating my own modules or using more of the tools in ArcTool Box. Not only that, but I feel confident going into this weeks assignment. Although problems my problems were few, some of the tools wouldn't work the first time around so I resolved that issue by closing out of the portal and then making a second attempt. It usually worked by then. At times I forgot to set the environment too so my map was a little crazy, but an easy fix. Last but not least, it was hard to post the combinations on a single map while trying to add all the map elements. I may have omitted a few things.

Week 5 - Urban Planning and Impact Assessment

This is very thought provoking and extremely useful for future assignments, projects, and those seeking jobs in this field. I will have to go over it a few times to make sure I absorbed everything. With every exercise I become more amazed by what GIS can do. Not to say that doesn't come with an equal if not greater amount of frustration when trying to get the end results. I did run into the predicted problems when trying to add a field and run the model. Thank you for fixing it. I don't think I could have suffered another week of failure.

Participation Post

http://students.uwf.edu/cml30/animation/oil.avi

I'm truly amazed by how many applicable things ArcMap can be used for. The exported video would be very useful in disaster events, especially when you can show the oil extent and future trajectory to the public. I did run into some problems but they were minor and the mistake was easily recognized. At first I clicked on the 'one slide at a time' and then my other mistake was switching over to my local computer before it was done exporting.

The role GIS has in disaster management is crucial and overlooked by so many who are unfamiliar with the field. GIS is the foundation for putting together a base like those such as awareness programs for the public, evacuation routes for counties, the location of medical aid, and areas that are prone to the most disaster. In the case of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, the spatial data can be used not only for tracking trajectory, but for evaluating the ecological damage expected along the coast. It is also useful when other alarming factors such as hurricane season is thrown into the mix. Last but not least, maps can be created showing were treated areas that are being burned, sprayed, and so on.

Final Presentation

http://students.uwf.edu/cml30/final/presentation.pptx

Lab 11

Model Builder Exercise:
For some reason my model never connected so I couldn't get the colors to show up even when used the right tools. For this exercise, and the others as well, I ran into a lot of trouble. I couldn't located some of the tools they were referring to and I wasn't getting the same results. At times, ArcMap wouldn't let me perform the operation anyways due to the lack of a particular license.





3D Exercise:
This exercise was my favorite and it is a shame that it's something most people to get paid to do. Most things are always better in 3D but I can understand why most maps don't need to be. ArcScene is very useful to know though.

Week 10

This weeks spring break activity was fun to work on and I learned something new. In the past years, I would have never saved a joined layer as a new one. But now I know how to and can easily manipulate the data so to get the results I need. I also feel a lot more confident working within the attribute table. The calculator is a cool tool and I plan to make use of it for future projects. Geocoding is also useful, but those ESRI course can be a lot of information at once. I do like the exercises they provide and plan to go back in practice for the final project.

Week 9: Vector Analysis II

This was a fun exercise and really useful because you can apply it to so many things needed in a job setting and save time. For me, it would be a little hard to reenact without practice because I wouldn't have known how to do some of the sets. For instance: everything on page 6 of the lab instructions and along with similar things. Again though, it's a really good lesson and that was definitely something I was hoping to learn in this class.

1) I used the Intersect tool because it seem like the second best tool to use for getting the results I wanted. There was no difference in results.

2) This time I used the Erase tool because it performed the task that was needed. It creates a new layer from features that are outside the erased area, or conservation area.

3) There are a total of 79 features in this layer. The largest feature is 1918.77 acres and the smallest is 0.18 acres. Hopefully acres is a good unit to use.

Week 7 Deliverables

This was a good tool to learn and I wish I had known about it sooner. I thought this would be my least favorite lesson in GIS but I was wrong. I had fun and tried my best to interpret what was expected of me. Still questioning the background and placement of my legend but it just seems to awkwardly fit there. Anyway, glad it's spring break next week.

Week 6 Deliverables

UWF North: 1st order polynomial, 10 points, Total RMS Error: 6.56039

UWF South: 2nd order polynomial, 21 points, Total RMS Error: 6.09519

This exercise was actually a bit fun and useful as well. Up until this class, I never really understood nor knew about georeferencing. Now I'm sort of doing it on ArcMap and it wasn't as painfully as I imagined. The few problems I had were not being able to go back to the north jpeg image. Fortunately I did a print screen so I knew what the RMS error was and all, but there was no way of changing the transformation without starting over. With the south jpeg image, I was always able to go back and add more points and change the transformation so I don't know what happen. Also, there was space between both images but more to the right side. I noticed it more when changing transformations but I was afraid a small bit would still show up. Last but not least, I wasn't sure if positioning the legend in the map space with a background was the wisest decision but I took and chance and sort of like it. Great exercise though.

Haiti Participation Post

I chose this map because I never realized the different resources Haiti had. Now as to how much is left, how degraded the land is, and how this influences their economy is beyond me but I thought it was interesting none the less. Initially I was looking for a map showing soil loss but failed to retrieve one. Below is the link were I found it at. I'm not familiar with the site but I did a search through Google images and this is what came up.

www.margueritelaurent.com

Candice LaRussa
Week 4 Deliverables
February 9, 2010





This exercise was useful especially when comparing the areas and adding the raster to the different projections. It's also definitely important to know how to change the projections for future reference when gathering data for our projects.

Week 3 Deliverables

Candice LaRussa
Week 3 Maps
February 1, 2010



I had fun working on these maps and the skills are very valuable, something I have overlooked in the past. Map 1 was easy enough to understand but I had some issues with Map 2. I ran into problems while working on the label properties but I think it all worked out in the end. Also, the other countries would have 3 labels instead of 1 when I did the annotations so I just deleted the extras but I couldn't figure out what caused it to begin with. Map 3 was fun because I like the visual aspects of rasters although I have never really worked with them. Is it ok if all of Mexico is not displayed on the maps? I cut out a small portion in Map 1 and Map 3.

Map 1:




Map 2:


Map 3:

Lab 2Delieverable: World Pop Map

Candice LaRussa
Lab 2 Deliverable: World Pop Map




I did enjoy working on this map and felt like the directions were easy to follow. In the end though, I just didn't like how it looked so I used the drawing toolbar in order to fill in the open space. The only problem I had during the lab exercise was accessing the ArcGIS desktop help.

Candice LaRussa

January 17, 2010

Module 1 Maps