Chapter 1 Homework

Chapter 1, Section 1

1.  What are at least two of the concerns cartographers have when they select a map projection?  Explain your reasoning.
Answer:
Two things that cartographers must think of when they make maps are the size of the area they are mapping and what the map will be used for.  If it's a bigger area of land, the cartographer knows that it will be more distorted than it would be if it were a small area of land.  If the map is used to navigate then it should be as accurate as possible to avoid pople getting confused or lost.
2.  Identify two physical features, two human-made features, and two political features that could be shown on a typical urban-area map.
Answer:
Two physical features on a map would be bodies of water, such as rivers and lakes, and mountains.  Two human-made features would be roads and cities.  Two political features would be coutry boundaries and state borders.

Creative Writing:  Imagine that you are a city planner in a fast growing urban area, and you are using a GIS to create a map to help choose locations for new elementary schools.  What types of information would be useful?  Write a paragraph about the features to be shown on the map.
Anwer:
If I were a city planner trying to map a location for a new elementary school on a GIS  I would look for four things: Location, population, roads, and other schools.  The location of the school, or at least the desired one, would be important because it's the first thing to enter in the GIS in order to analyze the surroundings.  The population would also be important because we need to see how many people could possibly have children that they would enroll in the school.  Roads is very important...we wouldn't want to build a school in the middle of the street or have a part of a building plan incompleted because there's a street in the way, now would we?  The last important factor is other schools.  If there are many other elementary schools around the new school, the school might not have as many children enroll.  However, if there is a nearby nursery or preschool, parents and teachers will note the building and might enroll their kids in the new school.
Chapter 1 Section 2

1.  What are the major branches of geography, and what topics does each branch study?
Answer:
There are two main branches of geography are physical and human geography.  Physical geography tells us about climate, land, bodies of water, native plants and animals, and their relationships with one another as well as their relationships with humans.  Human geography studies political borders, economy, population growth, city development, and the import and export of goods.
2.  How is geography used?
Answer:
Geography is used to help people navigate.  When I say navigate, I don't mean just direction, or just their place in a big city.  I mean how to navigate the businesses around them, the people, the climate, how to change their lives or surroundings to create harmony in their enviorment,

Creative Writing:  Consider the place where you live.  Write a paragraph describing its site, situation, and a type of region in which it belongs.  Include examples of how the movement of people has affected its culture and how human enviorment interaction has changed the enviorment.
Answer:
Huntington Beach is located near the coast line of Southern California.  The  location used to be a marshland, but since many people moved here and set up businesses all the marshes are gone, replaced with sidewalk and streets and buildings.  Lot's of different people live in Huntington Beach, but the population is mostly Caucasian or Asian.  The weather is mild beach weather with a marine layer in the morning that burns off by noon.  The seasons don't change that much, just with a couple of exceptionally cold weeks or exceptionally hot weeks.