The County...The County...LA COUNTY IS ON FIRE

Joshua Green

Ashraf, Cameran

Geography 7 Lab

29 November 2012

Station Fire 2009

            For my final lab, I decided I wanted to illustrate, using arcMap, how the Station Fire in 2009 spread across LA County as well as what areas it affected. I wanted to show the proximity of the fire in relation to recreation areas and county parks. I, also, included major U.S. highways and roads that run through Los Angeles County to convey how the fire affected traffic as well.

            According to NASA, the fire initially began to burn August 26th, 2009 and would continue to burn until mid-September. Their satellites happened to create a "burn scar" using combinations of infrared and visible lights. Therefore, NASA was able to notice the large amounts of vegetation that were obliterated in the blaze. This is significant, because the fire did burn a few hundred thousand acres most being in the Los Angeles county forest. This was one of the most catastrophic events that occurred in Los Angeles County, as it led to destruction of natural habitats left a large portion of our forest in debris from the smoke, fire and etc.

            During this epidemic, more than just the forest were affected by the blaze; plenty of commuters and residents were also affected because of the thick clouds of smoke and climate changed that occurred. According to InciWeb.org (link from NASA), there were hundreds of properties destroyed including: 89 residences, 13 damaged; 26 commercial properties and another 22 damaged. Clearly, the fire got out of control and cost many people their homes, jobs and possibly their lives as 22 people were injured during the blaze. This illustrates the destruction of this fire and how much chaos it inflicted in the process of a few weeks. Furthermore, a larger concern was the aftermath of the epic fire as USGS, the United States Geological Survey, had to install equipment for future destruction. However, it was not fire future fires but for floods, because the post fire run offs and erosion caused made certain areas--specifically the Dunsmar canyon--more susceptible to future dangers. As a side note, three years after the incident USGS still monitors the area.

            With a more sensational aspect to the entire fire incident, is the Los Angeles Times, which created an article stating how the fire was arson and officials initiated a homicide investigation to bring in the culprits. Also, the article mentions how the bomb squad even entered the area to solve problems but were unfortunately, turned away. In addition, to the sensational news the Los Angeles times, CNN exaggerated some numbers about the amount of threatened structures, for example they state thousands of structures were threated while Inciweb.org--a credible source--states only one hundred structures were in harm’s way. Clearly, there are efforts for CNN and newscasters, in general, to place emphasis on the negatives of the fire such as deaths and number of properties threatened. Unfortunately, they never commented on the reservations or parks that were in danger, in contrast, to the credible sources which mentioned both the human and environmental aspects.

            In conclusion, the Station Fire of 2009, caused devastation across the board from affecting county parks to the homes that neighbored them. Also, it is evident there are different perspectives on the fire as more credible sources, such as NASA and InciWeb used objectionable data as the news articles used subjective data to convey their point. With information from either source, it is evident that the fire caused a tremendous amount of destruction and this can be seen using the maps I created as well. Both maps portray the extent of the fire up to September 2nd, but my thematic map illustrates what recreational and park areas were in danger or were damaged during the blaze. In addition, my map shows nearby major highways and streets that were closed or immobilized due to the heavy flow of traffic for the weeks the fire burned. Ultimately, one can realize how much a fire can affect a community whether it wildlife or human beings commuting from their homes to their workplace.

Works Cited

"2009 Station Fire, Dunsmore Canyon, Glendale California." 2009 Station Fire, Dunsmore Canyon, Glendale California. USGS, Dec. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://landslides.usgs.gov/monitoring/dunsmore/>.

"'Angry Fire' Roars across 100,000 California Acres." CNN. N.p., 31 Aug. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://articles.cnn.com/2009-08-31/us/california.wildfires_1_mike-dietrich-firefighters-safety-incident-commander?_s=PM:US>.

Bloomekatz, Ari B. "Station Fire Was Arson, Officials Say; Homicide Investigation Begins." L.A. NOW. N.p., 03 Sept. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/09/station-fire-was-arson-homicide-investigation-begins.html>.

"Station Fire Burn Scar : Natural Hazards." Station Fire Burn Scar : Natural Hazards. NASA, 18 Sept. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=40245>.

"Station Fire News Release." InciWeb the Incident Information System: Station Fire News Release. N.p., 18 Sept. 2009. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.inciweb.org/incident/article/9549/>.

Uncensored Census

This weeks lab was a fairly simple lab, that combined arcGIS with data from the 2000 U.S.Census data to create a thematic map. My three maps used census data about percent population in all U.S. counties for the following ethnic groups: Blacks,Asians, and some other.

My first map was the population of blacks; the majority of blacks tend to be concentrated in the south of our country compared to the other regions. Being an African American, I expected my map to portray our population in this fashion--most of my family lives in the Deep South and on the Southern East Coast( North Carolina,Virgina, etc). Also, I knew few blacks lived in the Northwest but I did not know we were well under one percent. For instance, in the Dakotas and Wyoming areas there are blotches of white which means there are few to no blacks in that county. This is very interesting, because blacks account for about thirty five million people in America, but we are heavily concentrated in one area and America is only about three thousand plus miles wide! Not only was this census map educational, but it is a legitimate source because it links prior expectations, geography, and history(blacks stayed in the South ever since colonization and only a handful moved out West).

My next map is the 'some other' population census map which is the Hispanic population, respectively. This map is very similar to the Black map, because it has the Hispanics heavily concentrated in the South West, which was the Mexican Cession Territory and it is the closest region of America that is near Latin America. Once again, the map lines up with prior expectations, but I did learn that an abundance of Hispanics live in the Texas area; I thought the majority of their race migrated to Arizona and California because of work opportunity. In addition, this map is very interesting because it illustrates how races tend to move in large units and they reside in areas closer to their native land--there are few Hispanics any where West of West Texas. In addition, the Sun Belt area, which was the famous Mexican migration period into America--read about Caesar Chavez for more information--is where a large percentage of the Latin population remains. Again history gives a reliable source that explains the heavy percentages in specific areas of the country.

My third and final map was the Asian population map, which is the most compelling of the three because it conveys how few Asian communities migrated to America. According to the arcMap and census data, the Asian population is scarce across the nation and has few if any counties where they are populous. Prior to this lab, I thought that Asians contributed a large percentage to our population, but they do not! This is illustrates how Asians tend to remain in their home countries and thrive there, but handle business in foreign countries--this can be seen today as our country has a large percentage of goods manufactured in Asian countries. If Asians do come to America they are more likely to live on the West Coast, in Northern California or in Hawaii. Although, Hawaii is not shown, Asians do make up a large majority of their population. As a whole, the Asian map is the most interesting to me from a business aspect because it shows how Asians rarely migrate from their nations to America as other races do.

In conclusion, all of the maps were educational and relate to historical migrations. However, the most interesting map was the Asian Census because it illustrates how you can have a significant part in American lifestyles without a significant population contribution(quite baffling if you think about it). Furthermore, the project itself was relatively simple, but it had more educational value than arcGIS value because all of the functions were basic steps used in prior labs with a few new tricks here and there. Nonetheless, I still enjoy having the opportunity to use the arcGIS software to make compelling thematic maps.

So far the arcMap and arcGIS software have been fun and challenging as I have been able to make a plethora of maps and manipulate a multitude of data. This map was probably one of my top three favorite assignments because of the educational value it possessed. For the most part, the arcGIS software is easy to use, but one issue I do have is that when you get stuck, YOU ARE STUCK; unfortunately, it is quite difficult to troubleshoot or know what you did wrong unless you are an experienced user.One thing I do like is how you can export your creations and place it into a blog. Although, arcGIS isn't the easiest program out there it has the most capabilities compared to most software programs. Not only does the software assist the geography field in becoming easier to use, but it seems to have the ability to draw interest in geography as a whole. Before this class I had no interest in geography at all but now I have been enlightened and I see a tremendous amount of possibilities and a very bright future. Although, I may not major in geography it never hurts to have knowledge about the field.

RASTER! RASTER! RASTER! 3D?

This is hands down the fastest and easiest lab I have done in my Geography class so far! Saying that there were a lot more ups than downs doing this lab compared to my prior experiences. For instance, everything was a simple 1,2,3 process from opening up a pop up window from accessing the toolbar to copying and pasting information. Yes, it was that simple and the only hard part was probably creating the title...exactly! Furthermore, I enjoyed my experience of this lab especially, making a three dimensional raster because it illustrates the potential of arcGIS as well as technology as a whole. I always thought making three dimensional models would involve complex data and formulas; luckily, this was not the case. Another part of the assignment I enjoyed was the ability to choose multiple color schemes (color ramps) which changed my rasters from dull grey scale objects to colorful masterpieces from a simple click of the mouse. The most mesmerizing colorway I used was for my three dimensional model,because it looked like a real mountain having green trees as the base to white snow peaks at the highest elevation. Although, the assignment was fairly simple I was able to learn an abundance about rasters and how to create them with different layers from slope layers to a simple hillshade layer. I expected this to be a lot harder because in lecture our professor told us it was a pain to make rasters because of multiple layers. As a whole, I did not have too many issues with the assignment at all, the only irritating part was trying to undo a neatline for a new map because it would tamper with the whole layout. Ultimately, the assignment was both educational and fun (those are arch enemies as far as I am concerned) as I learned how to create rasters and three dimensional models as well as how to manipulate them. I look forward to utilizing the tools I learned in this lab not only in future assignments but the future itself!

Lights, Camera, Projection!

Map projections, in general, are intriguing as they illustrate the world we live in numerous ways from distorting one part of our world such as size as the stereographic conformal projection. Although, we know Africa is one of the largest continents the projection doesn't convey that at all. Even though, some of the data is skewed the projections still explain many things about size, ratios, distant and the gradient. Each of my maps helped me look at the world from in a different eye, from being flat(planar) in the cylindrical conformal map to looking at the world as a hexagon in the Eckert series projections. The significance of this is that you can be educated of distortions as well as realize how different people view the world for various reasons. There is now way to look at our world or measure it as different measurements give you a variety of results--I had the option to measure the two points in the geodesic, planar, loxodrome, and Great Elliptic. The different measurements varied from type to type from a few miles to few hundred miles. It is almost overwhelming how many ways Earth can be measured, seen and manipulated by technology.

Another benefit of the ArcGIS program is the ability to customize your data as much as you please. For example, all of my maps have different colors for the different data and I deleted the borders (could have added) to make the final draft look spacious.Customizable features such as the previous listed are reasons why projections can be very interesting and information you want to be seen can easily by recognized compared to some maps that are cluttered and confuse the reader.

My map projections were spot on for the most part, for example the scale for my equal area maps were equivalent as it should be but my equidistant maps gave me different distances from D.C. to Kabul which is unusual considering its suppose to be equidistant. Although, it was only ~2000 miles difference it still could throw someone off if they decided to use this projection to get an exact distant; they would be in Turkey or China instead of Afghanistan.

As a whole, the overall experience of using different projections is a compelling aspect of ArcGIS because it allowed me to manipulate the axis of the Earth as well as other attributes. Also, the ability to have a multitude of projections at your fingertips is another reason ArcGIS has so much potential for the geography field. In addition, if you are new to geography you may have trouble deciphering the distortions in the projections but, if you are familiar with the different distortions and projections it should not lead you astray when you are making a map. Ultimately, the possibilities of ArcGIS are expanded by projections and the efficiency of the geography work field.

ArcGIS Tutorial

My experience with ArcGIS was had its ups and downs especially, more downs than ups unfortunately. ArcGIS is a high tech gadget that makes you reconsider if you are tech savvy; I thought I knew everything about computer however, I felt like a kindergartener driving a stick shift Ferrari. Yes, it was that bad! The beginning of the tutorial is not the problem it comes toward the middle of the tutorial around page 26.


For the most part the system was cooperative and easy to use until your realize the tutorial is not updated and is a few updates short. This didn't become an issue for me at first until I got into the more technical parts such as doing layers and graphics. The updates are suppose to make the software easier to use but I felt it would have been much easier to use the prior versions to do the assignment. I know it seems as if I am giving ArcGIS a bad rep but there are plenty of benefits to the software.


Once you began to get into a rhythm of how to use the software you begin to glide through the assignment like a hawk searching for prey. For example, when you have to start giving titles and selecting certain parts of the map it becomes mechanical and you complete task with ease; until you hit the part of the section that throws you for a loop and your TA is helping a multitude of other students and you begin to have an anxiety attack(good times...good times). Nevertheless, ArcGIS is a helpful tool and even after a few mishaps it becomes second nature.


Since ArcGIS has a somewhat steep learning curve it is not for everyone to use but if you fight through the hardships whether for your job or a good grade you will realize how far geography has come in the past decade. This software is phenomenal considering you can make a map and layers in a few hours when it would take cartographers months if not years to do. Clearly, the software is well worth the trouble if you are headed into the geography work field but you will find a few issues but I am sure these pitfalls will be fixed in soon to come updates.