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ASSIGNED in class Wednesday, Nov. 14

DUE via Google Drive by Tuesday, December 11 @ 5pm (or earlier)

The Final Take-Home Exam for Geography 222 brings together a vast universe of of mappish delights from your 3rd favorite class this semester, The Power of Maps and GIS.

Final Exam: Total of 100 ankle popping points.

• This is, once again, a thinky rather than memorizey and regurgitatey exam. Sorry. But it's good for you.

• Page Format: Use space-and-a-half leading, 12 point type, and 1 inch margins.

• Include the first line of the question you are answering prior to each answer (copy and paste from this page).

• Cite any sources you use in an appropriate manner. You may use any materials you see fit to use (books, lecture notes, lecture outlines, the web, talking to people) but cite them.

• Plagiarism is copying other people's work without citation. Yes, copying stuff from previous semester exams is plagiarism. You can discuss the questions with each other but don't copy each other's work. I can easily compare digital texts and have copies from previous semesters.

• Please contact me (jbkrygier@owu.edu) if you have any questions.

• More insightful, creative, and interesting answers will get higher grades. You are being graded in relation to your peers in the class.

• Review the updated and utterly fascinating Digital Submissions Guide. Again, use Google Docs and Drive for the format and email me when you have completed your exam. Make sure I respond that I can access your work.

Question 1: Map Projections: write 1.5 pages + 4 maps (30 pts)

The process of map projection transforms the surface of the spherical earth into a flat, 2D surface. As discussed in lecture and in the Making Maps book, there are an infinite number of ways to project maps, and every different map projection distorts something: areas, angles, directions, distances, etc. The goal is to select a map projection that doesn't distort some vital aspect of your data. For example, if you have data that is spread over areas (vegetation types, urbanized areas, land in cultivation) you don't want to distort areas. So use an equal area map projection.

With the increase in mapping and GIS applications, you may someday have to make a decision about which map projection to use. Probably not, but maybe. Ok. You never will. But maybe. This question requires you to select an appropriate map projection given a specific defined use of a map.

Sources of additional information on map projections which may be useful for this project can be found in the class readings (Making Maps, chapter 5) and at the following sites:

• Geography 222 Lecture Outline on Map Projections

• Peter Dana's Map Projection WWW Site

HEY, popsicles: The Interactive Album of Map Projections site goes off-line once in awhile. Check back if it is not working for you. As per usual, don't put this off until the last minute. Let me know if you continue to have problems with the site.

Projection: eleven awesome map projection options, all of Pappy's favorites.

- + to zoom in and out. Doy.

Central Meridian: This useful to recenter the map projection on the area of the world you are most interested in. Give it a slide! Set this to -90 (that's longitude west) to center on North America.

Update Map: hit this each time you make a change in any of the options on the page to generate the new map projection.

Distortion Elipses: all are circles of the same size on the unprojected Earth. Use these to see patterns of distortion. Just like we seed in class.

Graticule: yes or naught.

Plot a Location allows you to include a point symbol and name at a particular location. Crikey!

Map Projection Options and their Parameters

• Remember that West longitude is negative (eg., -90)
• Remember that East longitude is positive (eg., 90)
• Remember that North latitude is positive (eg., 45)
• Remember that South latitude is negative (eg., -45)

So Columbus, Ohio is about 40 North and -75 West.

Robinson
• This map projection preserves nothing (area, shape) but does not distort any of them too much, and it looks pretty spiffy for a world map.

Mollweide

• This map projection preserves nothing (area, shape) but does not distort any of them too much, and it looks pretty spiffy for a world map.

Winkel Tripel

• Possibly related to the infamous Triple Lindy, this map projection preserves areas and is used by National Geographic.

Plate Carree

• This map projection preserves distances in North/South measurements, but not area or shape.

Mercator

• This map projection preserves angles, thus the shapes of continental and smaller areas look ok. Straight lines are lines of constant compass direction; thus good for navigators. Ahoy ye, mateys! Does not preserve area. Aaargh!

Transverse Mercator

• This map projection is the basis of the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinate system. Shape preservation for continents and smaller areas, but, like the Mercator, does not preserve area. A real funky bastard.

Orthographic

• This polar centered map projection is Neither area nor shape preserving but does preserve distance and direction from the center (the north pole).

Cylindrical Equal Area

• This map projection does not distort area, but does distort shape (angles). More or less like the Peters map projection.

Albers Equal-Area Conic

• This map projection preserves area, but can't really show the entire earth without tremendous shape distortion. However, it is really swell for area preserving maps of continental areas of the world. Center, zoom, and Bob's your uncle.

Lambert Conformal Conic

• Scary. Don't use this projection.

Equidistant Conic

• Don't use this projection either, flaps.

For each question below, select the best map projection for the application, then save a copy of the projection and include it in your answer. Title each section with the map projection you chose and then explain (in a paragraph) why you chose the map projection. In some cases, there may be more than one appropriate projection. Choose which you think is best and explain why.

1/2 page answer + map projection for each:

1a. (6 pts) Plot the location of your home on the map: Use the Plot a Location (decimal degrees) feature near the bottom of the main page. You need to find the decimal degrees in latitude & longitude for your home town. You can do this with Google Earth (zoom to your home town, point the cursor at it, and read the location at the bottom of the page. If the location is not in decimal degrees, you can change it to decimal degrees in the preferences). If your home is west of Greenwich England and east of the international date line, your longitude value must be negative (so put a minus sign [-] before the number). If your home is south of the Equator, your latitude value must be negative (so put a minus sign [-] before the number). You don't have to write anything for this section.

1b. (8 pts) Your dim-witted cousin Konrad "Ten" Crease-Brink believes that Santa Claus flies directly from the North Pole to his home at precisely 410 mph. Choose a map projection which can show the accurate distance from the north pole to Ten's home (which is, unfortunately, in your basement). Save the map projection and explain why it is the best option.

1c. (8 pts) Ten's dad Dr. Martin Crease-Brink is revising his textbook 299 Boring Geography Facts and needs a world map to plot out items he has collected since the poorly selling 1st edition of his book. Select (and create) a map projection which is most appropriate for this educational text book, sadly aimed at impressionable youngsters, and explain why it is the best option.

1d. (8 pts) Dr. Crease-Brink's hobby is worm rooping and everyone wonders why he doesn't just write a book about that topic (which is much more interesting than Boring Geography Facts). To set him off on the right track (and maybe get him and Ten out of your basement), you create a map projection of the south-eastern United States, upon which, if Crease-Brink Takes the Hint (also a great name for a mystery novel) he can plot out prime regions for worm rooping (also known as worm grunting, fiddling, and charming). Create a map projection that is appropriate for this regional scale topic, and explain why it is the best option.

Question 2: Map Symbols: write about 2 pages w/six symbols (20 pts.)

Map symbols represent stuff in the real world based on relationship, resemblance, or convention. Examples of these different categories of map symbols are shown in chapter 9 of Making Maps 3rd ed. Review the entire chapter on Map Symbols and answer the following questions.

2a. (10 pts) Find three symbols on your USGS Topographic map of home (from Exercise 2) and look them up on the Topographic Map Symbols legend (ask your instructor if you want a paper copy, otherwise use the web version here. Embed copies of the symbols in your exam. Describe how each of the symbols "works" - by relationship, resemblance, convention, or some combination (of relationship, resemblance, convention). Again, use chapter 9 in the Making Maps text for more information.

2b. (10 pts) Select three examples of map symbols from this old page from the first (and worst!) edition of the Making Maps book: Ye Olde Map Symbol Chapter Opening Page. For each, include the map symbol, describe, in one paragraph, how they "work" - by relationship, resemblance, convention, or some combination (of relationship, resemblance, convention).

Different Maps of Home: Introduction

Maps are not merely images of the human and natural environment. Indeed, they are selective and only partial representations, shaped by the human and social context within which the maps were created.

Yet maps allow us to see things in a unique manner, and learn about places and what happens in them in a way other media (words, numbers, etc.) don't allow.

The key to understanding maps is that they always involve tradeoffs - we put up with shape or area distortions of a map projection to be able to see the entire Earth all at once, for example.

Recall the following quote from Monmonier's book:

"As historian of cartography Brian Harley has noted, government maps have for centuries been ideological statements rather than fully objective, 'value free' scientific representations of geographic reality. Harley observed that governments practice two forms of cartographic censorship - a censorship of secrecy to serve military defense and censorship of silence to enforce or reinforce social and political values. This second, more subtile form of cartographic censorship usually occurs as silences - as features or conditions ignored. Hence basic maps of most cities show streets, landmark structures, elevations, parks, churches, and large museums - but not dangerous intersections, impoverished neighborhoods, high crime areas, and other zones of danger and misery that could be accommodated without sacrificing information about infrastructure and terrain. By omitting politically threatening or aesthetically unattractive aspects of geographic reality, and by focusing on the interest of civil engineers, geologists, public administrators, and land developers, or topographic 'base maps' are hardly basic to the concerns of public health and safety officials, social workers, and citizens rightfully concerned about the well-being of themselves and others. In this sense, cartographic silences are indeed a form of geographic disinformation." (Monmonier, How to Lie with Maps, p. 122)

One way we can grasp the complex nature of maps is to critically examine and compare different maps of the same place. It is vital to ground-truth such maps: compare what they show to what we know about the actual places the maps represent.

In this exercise you will ground-truth several different maps of the same place - your home. Sometimes maps help you learn new things about a place - things you didn't know despite having lived experience in the place. Other times maps are limiting - not showing things you know are important about a particular place, or showing them in such a way that is limiting or even deceptive. Regarding Monmonier's quote above, you should also be aware that there are many things - toxic waste sites, health statistics, etc., that can be either difficult or impossible to find on maps.

You will use multiple maps of your home in this exercise (many of which you already created in previous exercises). You will compare, contrast, and comment on these different maps, many of the "same" place: the area around your home, and all focused on something or somewhere that is important to you. The main point is to get some sense of how maps represent the world and to ground truth these different representations given your personal, lived experiences.

Question 3: Your USGS Topo Map as Biography: write 2 pages (20 pts)

Read a brief article by Brian Harley called "The Map as Biography." In this article, published in a map collecting magazine, Harley talks about his "favorite map" - which happens to be a detailed topographic map (the British equivalent of your USGS topographic map).

Harley's point is that you can read the map as a biography - actually many kinds of biography - including your own.

After reading Harley's article, compose a 2-3 page personal biography based on your USGS topographic map. This should start with your impressions of the map, what struck you about it when you first saw it. Please be as creative as you want with this question.

International students: Please feel free to use a map of your actual home for this part of the exercise: it can be a map you found in one of the previous exercises, or one you found on the web. Just make sure it is detailed enough to show streets, neighborhoods, etc. Ask me if you have questions about an appropriate map.

Question 4: What Maps Show and Don't Show: write 2 pages (20 pts)

Refer to the quote by Monmonier above and Chapter 5 in Monmonier's How to Lie with Maps where he discusses the human and social context of such large scale topographic maps and some of ways in which seemingly "objective" USGS topographic maps are shaped by their human and social context. Today, Google and other online map providers present us with the equivalent of the old topographic maps.

All maps are selective and a partial representation of "reality" - topographic maps or Google maps. But it is important to ponder what kind of information is on the map, and which information is left off the map. For example, should information about toxic waste and other human-created environmental hazards be included on Google maps? You can search for pizza, Apple Stores, and wig shops, but not toxic waste locations. The data is easily available in digital form, yet... it's not on the map. Huh.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides such information at their EnviroFacts WWW site:

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HEY again: The EPA EnviroFacts site seems to often go down over the weekend, and sometimes during the day. As per usual, don't put this off until the last minute. Let me know if you continue to have problems with the site.

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• Go to the EnviroFacts WWW site.

• You will see two areas to enter your "home" zip code. Use the first box. Hit "find it."

• A map near your zip code area should appear.

• Under the Search Envirofacts menu select Search by Program. A menu appears to the left on the page.

• Check boxes with the black type (grey means no such toxic locations in the area on the map).

• Click on any of the sites (square green box) or zoom in to see clustered locations (green circle).

• To find out more about a particular location, click on the symbol for a pop up window. Click on the title of the location and, on the resulting page, the button labeled EPA Facility Information.

• Save a screen shot of the map of your zip code showing the toxic sites.

Write one page on your reaction to these maps of the toxic geography of your home. Any surprises? What kind of toxic releases are around your home? What sense of your home do you get from looking at this particular (toxic) aspect of "reality" mapped out? Are these toxic sites things you were aware of?

Write one page in reaction to the quote at the beginning of this exercise. Are Google (or other online) maps ideological because of their silences about certain important aspects of our environment? Should toxic sites be included on Google maps? Why aren't they? Who might oppose including such information on such basic detailed maps? Who might support it?

Question 6: Thoughts on "The Power of Maps": write 2 pages (10 pts)

Ponder the maps you have created this semester. Review what we have covered in lectures and readings this semester (look at the two previous exam reviews). Discuss three of the most important insights you learned about maps this semester using your maps as examples. Which exercises were the most engaging, and why? What would you like to have done more of in the course?

Discuss your personal development over the semester: what have you learned? Comment on both your intellectual/conceptual and technical (mapping, digital submissions) development.

E-mail: jbkrygier@owu.edu

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