ArcGIS

Today I got my first look at ArcGIS. It took a little time to load, but once it was up and running we were good. The first thing I noticed is that it is set-up very similar to how you think it should be set-up. It has organized toolbars that we are so very much used to along with a very Microsoft like set-up, having the drop down menu’s. I then started the tutorial up to start my first project of an airport expansion. After the map loaded, I noticed that it then looked very much like Adobe Photoshop, as it was designed to have layers in which you could move, modify and choose which layers are to be seen. Once you go though the tutorial, you can see just how this software is indeed designed to work.

For this tutorial, I first started off with a general map of an airport with schools located nearby. I was then asked to locate the schools that would be affected by the noise due to the airport expansion, and was able to see that one school would be affected. From there, I was asked to see how the rest of the land was being used around the area of interest, from which I was able to make a bar graph. After I found out how the land was being used around the airport, I was asked to make a population density map to see just how many people would be affected with the new airport expansion. I was then asked to modify a road leading to the airport and highlight it on the map. Finally I was asked to clean up the maps and present it a clean fashion such that it may be used to present a point to City Planning. This was all done in a few short hours, showing me just how helpful this software can be.

This software has an amazing capability to get a message across in our universal language as human beings. We can then present our information in a reasonable fashion and get a clear message across. For example, we could make a map of forest fires are make reasonable predictions for which land might be susceptible to flooding during the rainy season. This could then serve as a preventive measure allowing people to either compact the soil, or be forewarned when there is a high chance that there could be flooding in that area. This is just one example of how this software can be used to help get a point across, and potentially save lives.

However, we must be forewarned that this software could also be used to drive bias points across as well. A good example of that is logging communities. Let's say that a portion of the amazon rain forest was cut down for lumber and another was burned down due to natural causes. If one were to make a graph showing the changes in tree density for that general area, one could omit the fact of the fire and make the conclusions that a big portion of that forest was lost due to logging. This example introduces a lot of bias towards the fact that logging is bad and that it is devastating the land, when a portion of that would have been done due to natural causes anyway. It over exaggerates the effects just to drive a point across. Even though this software has great potential, it must be checked. In the words of Uncle Ben from Spiderman, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”