Our team put together the project proposal with the goal of creating a visual/spatial representation of the problem of DWAs on First Nations Reserves in Ontario. As we developed our project, we were forced to narrow the scope of our project. This is because First Nations reserves (according to our GIS analysis) make up only 0.76% of the province’s total land area. As a result, the polygons of each reserve were practically invisible when looking at the map at a provincial scale. We still wanted to show the magnitude of the problem at the provincial scale, so before narrowing our scope, we created a provincial map using points data instead (Map 1). To narrow our scope, the group came to a consensus about which areas we would choose to zoom in on; Inset A) Southern Ontario showing DWAs on reserves in close proximity to main urban areas (based on CMAs), and Inset B) Northwestern Ontario with the highest concentration of DWAs (as visually deduced from our points data) near the only nearby CMA, Kenora. These insets were the boundaries for the rest of our maps.
In terms of project management, all members of the group brought different skills to the table. Some of these skills include experience and knowledge using excel, cleaning up data, writing and research for framing the problem, mathematical skills, and visual/ascetic skills. We worked really well together and enjoyed creating this project as a group. For the most part, we all worked together in the lab. Everyone participated in acquiring and downloading our data, we made most decisions as a group, and everyone played a role in creating the maps. For the report, we did the analysis/results portion together, and divided the rest of the work equally. We then met up all together to go through it as a group to ensure continuity and provide feedback to one another.
One issue we had was keeping our naming conventions clear. We did our best, but in the end our geodatabase was still pretty confusing to navigate. What makes sense to one person didn’t necessarily make sense to the others. We were also nervous to change or move anything for risk of altering it and not being able to open it anymore in ArcGIS. Since we made an effort to all be in the lab together for most of the work, it did not become too much of a problem.
I think one of the key things I learned in this project (in addition to using ArcGIS tools) is how difficult it is to obtain data about First Nations reserves. Since all the data is collected separately from the rest of Canada, it is difficult to locate these issues within national data. Further, all the information we used regarding reserves (from various government sources) used inconsistent naming practices which cause a lot of extra work in excel and created more room for error.