Module 6

Scale can have a large effect on vector data. When studying hydrographic data with varying scales it is clear the line water will change depending on scale, a higher scale giving much more accurate data. Resolution, just like scale, will have a large effect on data. When you have a better resolution your data will be smoother and more accurate. 

Gerrymandering is the manipulation of boundaries to favor one party over another. One way to measure this is using the Polsby-Popper score to find the compactness of a district. The lower the score the worst the 'offender' is. Below is a screenshot of the worst offender in the data.

Module 5

 

Image of Spline interpolation method using tension. 

In this weeks lab we used different methods of interpolation to map data from water qualify samples.

The first method was non-spatial, which was just getting the data from the actual points. The next method was Thiessen. this method draws lines from neighboring points and create polygons with the resulting polygon having the value of the center point. The next method was IDW. This method estimates unknown values from points nearby. In this method the further away the point is, the less weight it has in determining the unsampled value. The last method is the spline method. In the spline method the data is used to create smooth curves from sample to sample. 

This weeks lab was pretty straightforward and I know feel like I have a good understanding of interpolation methods.