My GIS Experience

The Image to the left shows the Asian population by percent in the United States as depicted by the Census 2000. The picture shows that general distribution of Asian communities across America. It is easy to see the heaviest populated areas are those on the Eastern and Western Seaboards. Middle America's stark Asian population can also be seen from the colors on the mapped image. California, in particular, has the greatest population by percent of any other state in the United States.

The image to the right shows the African American population by percent across the United States in reference to the Census 2000. The map is very interesting because it shows the specific concentration of Black communities across the Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama regions, as well as the Virginias and other Southern states. Some counties within the specified regions have a percentage of in excess of 85% Black. In comparison, again, there are counties in middle america that do not even show up on the scale indicating an exceedingly low population by percentage.

The below image shows the Latino/Hispanic population by percent in the United States in reference to the Census 2000. Like the previous two mapped images, this image gives valuable insight to where the greatest and least percentages of Latino/Hispa

nic Americans reside. While the vast majority of the nation yields between 0 and 2% Latino/Hispanic residents, the Southwest holds the most population by percent than anywhere else in the US, with percentages capping out around the 40% margin.

My Census 2000 chloropleth map series were a yet another GIS experience. As the last project of the class, it was valuable to work through the ArcGIS program to find information pertaining to the population percentages by county across the nation. The maps themselves are could play a crucial role visualizing census data for infinite business and economic functions. While the mapped images above provide valuable insight, they are not the be-all-end-all of clorepleth maps. I personally used a 5 category breakdown to classify the different percentages, but for economical reviews, it would be necessary to go into further detail to review the populations more accurately.

Overall, my experience with ArcGIS and the Geography 7 geographic information systems has been positive. The learning curve is steep when dealing with the ArcGIS program, but it serves a valuable purpose to better understand such a crucial piece of data classification. ArcGIS can be used to see the extent of Fire Damage, or to see how populations of races vary among different counties in the United States. Throughout the labs, I have been able to experience just the rudimentary aspects of ArcGIS, but the labs have allowed me to see some of the various uses for GIS and just how much information can be gathered and visualized using ArcGIS.