Hey! My name is George Naples and I’m a Junior from Youngstown, Ohio. I am double majoring in Environmental Studies and Geography. In my free time I enjoy collecting vinyl records, going to concerts, learning about cars, and watching TV. I also have an almost 2 year old golden doodle named Arlo.
In reading Schurrman’s first chapter of GIS: A Short Introduction, I expected a far more textbook, scientific explanation of the software. As most of my previous studies have leaned toward the field of Human Geography, this was a pleasant surprise. After all, Geography can always bend and be applied to what you are researching so this shouldn’t be too shocking. Although this summary was not limited to developments from a Human Geography perspective, the necessary scientific explanations were present. It created an easily digestible culmination of the uses of this versatile software. The simultaneous development of GIS in completely separate countries was very interesting to read about. This entirely emphasizes the importance of this software and the necessity of it being developed. The use of overlays from the original physical pieces of paper to what we now know as overlays was something that I had never considered. The section in which Schurrman defined the difference between ‘mapping’ and ‘spatial analysis’ was a critical section to explain the importance of GIS. “Mapping represents geographical data, with varying degrees of fidelity, in visual form.” Spatial analysis generates more data upon the geographical location than that of mapping can provide.I was pleasantly surprised to learn of how many unique uses GIS has in modern application. The application that caught me the most off guard was when Starbucks was mentioned. I have worked at Starbucks for almost five years consecutively at this point, and this company does not come off as tech-savvy in the slightest. I had heard that Starbucks considers a number of factors when finding locations for new stores such as median household income, traffic volumes, etc, however I did not get the impression that this process would have so much overlap with my academic goals. This diversity of uses within GIS makes perfect sense when understanding the definition of spatial analysis.
For the first application of GIS, I searched “household income GIS.” I was presented with an entire mapping of the continental United States with information for every census district in 2023. In order to have a small, more digestible population of data, I chose my hometown. Youngstown, Ohio is part of the midwest rust belt. This means that the inner cities are known for levels of poverty reaching far past the national average. While the data does still determine that this trend of poverty has not changed, it does show an improvement from what these incomes were when I was growing up. When I was growing up in the mid to late 2000s, I remember household incomes averaging around $20,000. This data showed that the area in the city with the lowest median household income averages around $12,000. While this specific piece of data does not indicate any growth , the rest of the city shows averages from $20,000 to $40,000.
https://owugis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=9e256998acd64827a2ec22574c4bd923
For my second application I searched “Heat map GIS.” I once again chose to focus on my hometown. This map showed different statistics of urban heat in metropolitan areas. This issue with heat is linked to underinvestment not only economically but also infrastructurally. This map shows that the same areas with low household income averages are shared by areas that have urban heat challenges. However, they are not entirely the same. This is due to the lack of any inhabitance in large portions of Youngstown after Black Monday in 1977 which caused a mass exodus from the city. Youngstown has worked tirelessly over the last 45+ years to ‘clean up’ the city. This included demolitions of completely abandoned neighborhoods. The heat map certifies that these efforts have made an improvement. However, the impoverished neighborhoods of the inner city where a majority of the population still resides needs a solution.
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?layers=d77c640241d84b6889ab290cd4cb755b