Lab 4
Introduction: The question that was decidedly to pursue in this lab was "What is or are the safest places to hike in Wisconsin". The main objective is to find a place in a National Forests in which if someone were to get injured hiking help would be most able to get to them and save them. The secondary objective was to avoid places with records of fire in these forests. This Map would most likely be used by beginner hikers whom are cautious, or older hikers who are at a higher risk of injury.
Data Sources: In order to answer this question one needs lots of general information on Wisconsin. Most the information needed was taken from the Wisconsin DNR database, a database linkable through ArcMap and ESRI. The rest was found within the information provided by course. The data was three years old which was somewhat concerning, but the largest data concern was the shear amount of data provided for the question being asked, as there was little issue finding the required information. There was so much data in some of the features that the computer was slowing down and becoming difficult to use.
Methods: In order to answer this question a number of methods were employed. First all of the appropriate feature classes were added to the map, including a map of Wisconsin. Then all of the data sets were queried and new feature classes were created to ensure that all displayed data was within the border of Wisconsin. After this a series of buffers were created around hospitals, roads, and recorded locations of fires. After the area around fire areas was removed using the Erase tool the remaining buffers were intersected with the National Forests to find a safe location in which to hike. The areas that all three buffers intersected were such places.
Methods: In order to answer this question a number of methods were employed. First all of the appropriate feature classes were added to the map, including a map of Wisconsin. Then all of the data sets were queried and new feature classes were created to ensure that all displayed data was within the border of Wisconsin. After this a series of buffers were created around hospitals, roads, and recorded locations of fires. After the area around fire areas was removed using the Erase tool the remaining buffers were intersected with the National Forests to find a safe location in which to hike. The areas that all three buffers intersected were such places.
Results: The results of this question were actually quite surprising. There were a number of large areas that fit the criteria of safety that was required. All the areas were fairly far north, and were 10km away from any recorded fire, within 10 km of major roads so help can get there quickly, and finally all locations are within 25km of a hospital.
Evaluations: I enjoyed the project as it shows me I can make my own maps interesting to me which gets me excited for future GIS classes and potential jobs. Additionally I found that if I were to do it again I would likely choose an even more complicated question as it would be more fun to create the map and the end result would be more satisfying. My only challenges were with what order to use various tools. Because some of the feature classes were big if I did something in an odd order it would slow everything down. So I would avoid that.
