Lab 4 – Housing Affordability
My main accomplishment: Worked with various methods of data classification (natural breaks, equal interval, standard deviation, and manual breaks), which increased my understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of each method and the purposes for which they are suited for.
The most important part of Lab 4 is working with methods of data classification. Many people who look at maps are not be aware that the method of data classification will have a tremendous impact on the visuals of the final product, which can sway the map user towards certain narratives. Through Lab 4, I understood exactly how data can be classified using GIS software and saw for myself how the visuals can be manipulated through data classification even though the same dataset was used.
Lab 5 – Environmental Impact Assessment
My main accomplishment: Obtained and organized data from external sources, to familiarize myself with the sources of data provided by governments and organizations.
In the real world, a GIS analyst would need to acquire his or her own data for the project at hand. Lab 5 allowed me to work with data from various sources and understand how different sources of data have varying data quality. I also understood that using other entities’ data meant that I would need to clean or format the data into a manner that is useful for my project analysis, as often times the format of the data follows the convention or structure set by the data provider.