GIS Gazette

Map Critique For this assignment, I tried to come up with the most practical example of maps where the legibility and usefulness affects people on an everyday basis. The first thing that sprung to mind was map apps; Google vs. Waze vs. Apple Maps, but since we're looking at the history of mapmaking in this module, I scratched back a bit further and dawned upon subway maps. They're some of the last actual physical paper maps that real people hold, decipher, and depend upon. When getting from point A to B on foot or in a car when confronted with a new place, I immediately whip out my phone and go to Google maps, however when it comes to public transportation, I find it much easier to wrap my head around train/bus connections with a map pamphlet in hand.  Whenever you venture into a new city and try to tackle a foreign public transportation system, the value of a good map can be the difference between a smooth journey and precious hours of lost travel time caught up in confusion ...

Supervised Classification: Germantown, MD   Final Layout It took me a little toggling around to figure out the best band combination, but after playing with different ones that highlighted distinct vegetation types, I settled on R-4, G-5, B-6. This band combo clearly contrasts agricultural, grass, and forested lands, making it ideal for the image in question. For the supervised classification I opted to create signatures from “seed” using the inquire cursor in ERDAS imagine. Area calculated in ERDAS

 Hey all! Alex here- I'm a crazy diving nut that loves GIS. Check out a map of my South-East Asia adventures.  https://arcg.is/0iCPG4 I graduate this summer with a degree majoring in Environmental sciences, minoring in GIS.  I hope to drastically improve the aesthetic quality of my map presentations and formulate much more professional deliverables after completing this course. 

Feature #1: Large water bodies Fig.1- Feature 1: Layout- True Color  Upon analysis in the ERDAS Imagine histogram, the most prominent features of the landscape in question are a series of large rivers and offset streams dividing the terrain. Band 4 is the ideal layer for identifying contrast between land and water, and in this particular image there is a spike between pixel values 12-18 over water that is not present on land. Below is attached a picture of the layout (Fig.1) in True Color which clearly shows the distinction between the "dark" water body compared to the surrounding land.  Also shown is the Layer 4 histogram (Fig.2) for the water feature, with pixel values spiking at 12-18, and the complete spectrum of pixels throughout the layer profile. (Fig.3) Fig.2- Feature 1: Layer 4 Histogram Fig.3- Feature 1: Complete layer pixel profile