Chapter 1:
The first chapter I found to be rather uneventful. Merely being a basic rundown of the different features of GIS software and general GIS terminology students should be aware of. I personally found the way the textbook categorized the terminology to be somewhat confusing at best and forcing me to re-read the same pages several times at worst. The way I understood the textbook’s definitions of different GIS uses was that they are divided into two categories: Discrete locations which represent individual points, lines and areas which are easily separable and can be viewed in a vacuum, and continuous phenomena which describe much more intertwined data that relies on the geography surrounding it. (Such as ground elevation or surface temperature.)
Other features discussed in this chapter include how GIS software can present geographic attributes relative to the different points/regions/whatever put on the map. Although this is at first glance a very useful feature, I have general concerns as to the level of data these charts can present. The textbook categorizes the types by value but I know for a fact I would want to put more “general” notes on the maps I create (yeah, I am that guy) and my experience using different specialty software to create generalized notations have varied widely and if I do pursue the geographic analysis of the Whitechapel murders in this class I know for a fact I would be adding notes pretty much everywhere and the examples of the data tables in the textbook shows very little capacity for my notes and whatnot.
Chapter 2:
The beginning of the second chapter talks about the practical applications of geography and cartography. I think given how much people still rely on maps, even in the digital age, the points given are rather obvious. Therefore most of my notes will be on the reminder of the chapter.
This is a small thing but I love the emphasis on geographic coordinates the textbook stresses. Reading and writing coordinates is a very useful but sadly dying skill and I’m glad that it will play an important role in this class and that we will be learning the exact coordinates of the points of data plotted on our maps.
I’m also very excited to use the subsets on my maps. I personally love organizing things and reading this chapter I was absolutely blown away by the amount of options the textbook referenced how the various data points could be organized by and how you have the option to only view data points under a certain classification in your analysis or even displaying the features by type. (It’s probably dangerous for me to have this power.) The chapter also discussed the visual science of analyzing a map, such as organizing data points into broad categories to avoid confusion and labeling the data points in different colors, but no more than seven colors.
Chapter 3:
This chapter summed up the critical thinking aspect of mapmaking quite well and stressed the idea of finding relationships in the data across geographic and numerical lines. (or as the textbook referred to it, “mapping the most and least”) This is also where the textbook begins discussing the mathematical values within geography. Many instances reminded me of my high school statistics class.
Luckily for me, most GIS softwares (at least according to the reading) can aid in calculating the stats and preparing them for analysis.
However, the classification schemes look rather difficult to deal with. Midway through the chapter, there are several tables displaying the advantages and disadvantages of using each one. (Nothing worth doing is easy I guess) Given the rather point focused data I will be experimenting with in this class, I wonder if any of these classification schemes are applicable, or even worth doing in the first place since many of the examples in the textbook using them represented maps analyzing continuous phenomena and/or maps with different data values per region that are being analyzed.
Moving towards the realm of the types of digital maps presented by the textbook, they show a similar story to the classification schemes in regards to practicality in terms of the situation at hand. I will admit I found the 3D maps to be a somewhat corny feature at best and an outright terrible way to display data at worst. Though it is undoubtedly the most versatile of the map types discussed in the textbook in terms of what can be marked, it still (in my opinion) shows very little point by point data, can be very confusing to read, and honestly just looks tacky.
I know for a fact that the Graduated Symbol map would be my go to on the more independent projects for they look ideal for the kind of geographical criminal profiling I want to do in this course.