Massachusetts
Institute of Technology - Department of Urban Studies and
Planning
11.188:
Urban Planning and Social Science Laboratory
11.205:
Intro to Spatial Analysis (1st half-semester)
11.520: Workshop on GIS (2nd half-semester)
More
Census Data, Queries, and Spatial Analysis Examples
February 28, 2018,
Joseph Ferreira
Administrative notes:
- Lab
Exercise #3 (Census data) this week's lab is due Monday,
March 5
- Homework
#1 is due next Wednesday on Stellar
- Two more
labs and homework, then in-lab open-book test: Monday,
March 19
- Optional,
supervised lab times once again: Fridays 1:00-3:00 in
9-554
Today's Topics:
-
Discuss Labs #1 and #2
- Laura Delgado will comment on first few
lab exercises (in addition to individual comments
available on Stellar)
- Review key
elements of mapmaking, Census data structure, MS-Access
usage
- Basic concepts and
links to detailed discussion
- Examples of GIS
mapping services and spatial analyses
- MassGIS
& Metro Boston "Data Commons"
- 'Heat maps' of transit
access and walkability
- NYtimes analyses of
government benefit distribution
- DUSP PhD thesis: (Mi
Diao, 2010), "Sustainable Metropolitan Growth
Strategies: Exploring the Role of the Built Environment"
Review map elements, symbology, and color theory notes from
earlier lecture:
- Finding
the right data:
- Text
search for relevant tables and variable names
- Which
state data file contains the table/variables of interest
- Data
definition issues: which columns? values are
counts/percents/medians/
- Summary
level and normalization: what level of aggregation? what
is 'universe'?
- Joins
and overlays: unique identifier of record, join to
boundary files
Tutorials and training aides for MS-Access:
Examples of GIS mapping and spatial analysis
- MassGIS: http://www.mass.gov/mgis/
- The State's official GIS agency
- Many of the datasets we use in class are maintained
and freely distributed by MassGIS
- Find boundary files for Mass cities and towns:
- why three versions? polygons, arcs,
multi-part-polygons
- what are 'layers' vs. shapefiles vs. geodatabases?
- which information is saved with which feature type?
- Metro Boston data
commons: http://www.metrobostondatacommon.org/
- Boston'a metro area planning council (MAPC) maintains
this community data commons
- Originally, posted static maps and tables profiling
cities and towns in region
- It is 'under redevelopment'
- Why redo? how to organize datasets? which
interactive mapping tools to use?
- A recent DUSP PhD
thesis by Mi Diao
- See maps of vehicle miles travelled and
neighborhood characteristics in metro Boston (by 2550x250m
grid cells): Figures 1-10)
- 'Heat Maps' of transit
and walking accessibility
- Penn State video clips
about the 'GeoSpatial Revolution' (i.e., location-based
services): http://geospatialrevolution.psu.edu/episode1/complete
- Video clips showing, explaining (and promoting) GIS use
for municipal services
- Part of learning materials for grades 7-12
Last modified 28 February 2018 by Joe Ferreira
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