Question7 Panchromatic and Multispectral Images

Question 7


The SPOT multi-spectral false color image at the top of the page shows vegetation in red. Vegetation jumps out on the image when compared to the panchromatic image below in gray scale.
The SPOT panchromatic image appears clearer and more in focus and the white areas (sand, roads and buildings) really are contrasted compared with the darker vegetation and water areas. Also, the below ocean surfaces show greater detail.
I think the panchromatic image may be more suitable when measuring beach erosion after a storm or longshore flow given the way the sand jumps out on the image. Also, man made structures such as roads appear clearer in the panchromatic image. The multi-spectral color image appears well suited for vegetation studies both on land and possibly at the ocean surface (algae blooms, plankton etc...).

Digital Orthophoto Quadrangles

Digital Orthophoto Quadrangles (DOQ) have many positives
but there are a few negatives in using them. They include:
a small area of coverage and a straight down perspective which shows no relief or the ability to perceive depth.
DOQ's generally are used as base maps and need other layers to get much usable data.
Also, DOQ's are current only when made and my guess is they would be outdated quickly unless a new aerial photo is scanned and processed.

Wind Farm Potential Site

This site lies on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan which has nearly constant high winds year round(NREL) which is the primary factor when locating a wind farm.
The area lies to the north of Little Sable Lighthouse which along with Big Sable Lighthouse to the north of the site have had verifiable wind gauge measurements for several years.
BERR planning criteria are met by the following:
1. Wind speed is well above that necessary for wind turbines.
2. Ornithology is debatable regardless although birds are common in the area.
3. Noise is not an issue as the area is sparsely populated.
4. Shadow flicker not an issue as the area is sparsely populated.
5.Shipping impact would not matter as the site is not near a shipping lane.
6. Visual impact could be an issue except the area lies north of Silver Springs State Park and presumably people would not likely visit the site. Also it is not near many roads but is in an agricultural area where many turbines are commonly located.
I have personally verified high winds on several visits to the area.

Georgia Rainfall Isohyet Map

This map portrays Georgia annual rainfall using isohyets. They are in 5 inch annual rainfall intervals. The map was done in Adobe Illustrator freehand.

Immigration Flow Map

Well, here is a try at a flow map. Never fully got the hang of the curved line thing but gave it an attempt anyway. North America was an issue as it splits between Canada and Mexico/Central America. The two arrows combine to make the width of the 339K North American immigration total. Most being from Mexico/Central America.
Adobe Illustrator can be difficult to use which takes away from trying to use the proper mapping techniques.

Cartograms

These are cartograms of world GDP for the year 2004. On top is a non continuous cartogram that was created in ArcMap and finished in Adobe Illustrator for the legend creation.
The bottom map is a continuous cartogram was created wholly in ArcMap as the cartogram script creates a shapefile which allows easy insertion of a legend.

Freehand Dot Map

Roughly 1500 dots were manually added using Adobe Illustrator to a map of Florida representing housing unit density. Each dot represents 4 units of density because the lowest density was around 4 units per square mile.

The highest density areas really became solid color as there was not enough room to fit all dots in a coalesced manner. If the ratio was increased then low density counties would not get a dot even though they do have housing density. If the dots were made smaller then they were barely visible. A compromise was made to make the dots .5 points and use a color that was visible to try and offset the problems. This worked to a point but still not perfect in my estimation.