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 26, 2020,
Joseph Ferreira
Administrative notes:
- Lab
Exercise #4 (Census data) this week's lab is due Monday,
March 9
- Homework
#1 is due today on Stellar
- Two more
labs (with only one lab exercise) plus homework, then
in-lab open-book test: Monday, March 16
- Optional,
supervised lab time once again: Fridays 12:30-2:00 in
9-554
Today's Topics:
- Continue
discussion of map elements, Census data structure, and
usage examples with ArcMap and MS-Access
- 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
mentioned in earlier lecture:
- Census example from last week: median earnings of workers
aged 16+
- Compare male and female earnings for Cambridge block
groups
- Adjust classification breakpoints to facilitate
comparison
- 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): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poMGRbfgp38
- Video clips showing, explaining (and promoting) GIS use
for municipal services
- Part of learning materials for grades 7-12
Last modified 20 February 2020 by Joe Ferreira
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