![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/geog-291\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/208\/2026\/08\/1000048085-237x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n*I have completed the GEOG 291 Quiz<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My name is Keira Bruner and I am a sophomore from Cleveland majoring in Environmental Science and minoring in Sociology. I chose to take this class mostly because it is required for my major, but also because I think it would be a helpful science for me to understand if I ever want to actually work in the environmental field.<\/p>\n
Before reading the Schuurman reading, I had no idea that GIS was such a widely used system. For some reason I thought that people only used it to map environmental issues\/improvements, but then again, I thought it was closer to just being cartography. I learned that it is actually the analysis of a map, not the map itself. I was also impressed to find out that the US Census Bureau uses GIS, because I have had to use that website to analyze information even further for a sociology class, and it is just interesting to find out that I have used the information already without knowing what it was.<\/p>\n
It is also interesting that there isn’t a way to avoid making some sort of distinction between two categories when approaching a blurry line in data, like the difference between a mountain and a valley. This would mean that two people could do a map on the same thing and end up with completely different boundaries and conclusions depending on where they decided to place lines. Also in this situation, the approach on the analysis of the data could completely differ because there are so many factors one could chose to define, but they can’t just do all of them or the final map will be entirely too busy and confusing to look at. I am gathering that this is just another instance, like coding, where the output from the technology is pretty customizable depending on the user.<\/p>\n
As far as its uses go, I wasn’t surprised to learn that it can be used for predicting urban growth based on the analysis of current conditions. Looking into and preparing for the future seems to be a goal that a lot of people aim for when approaching new technology, because it is something humans can’t yet do while getting results that have certainty.<\/p>\n
One application for GIS is shown in this map from a study connecting susceptibility of soil erosion to wildfire affected areas in Attika.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/geog-291\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/208\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-28-195333-300x120.png\")
<\/p>\n
The map shows that there is a correlation between the two, as soil is much more eroded from heavy rainfall in the affected area post wildfire both compared to prior in that area and the unaffected areas around it.<\/p>\n
Efthimiou, Nikolaos, Emmanouil Psomiadis, and Panos Panagos. “Fire severity and soil erosion susceptibility mapping using multi-temporal Earth Observation data: The case of Mati fatal wildfire in Eastern Attica, Greece.” Catena<\/i> 187 (2020): doi.org\/10.1016\/j.catena.2019.104320<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Another example of a GIS application is to represent environmental injustices.<\/p>\n This map is representing air pollution in proximity to a factory in Canada. The thickness of the lines represents the density of air pollution in an area, and it is higher the closer you move to the factory.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.owu.edu\/geog-291\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/208\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-28-200438-300x263.png\")
<\/p>\n