Category: Shaina Lo

A8: Lying with Maps

Posted on Author Shaina Lo

The first Google Fusion table here shows three different SmartChoices types of schools in Connecticut. To learn more about the description of SmartChoices schools, please click here. SmartChoices includes public schools in the city of Hartford as well as 19 other suburban towns. It is important to note that it does not include other types of schools, such as private.

Below I have divided my schools into three different SmartChoices: 1=interdistrict, 2=district, and 3=more PreK centers. By combining the data with the city KML layer, the polygon map shows the most prevalent types of schools in each city area with a shade of blue.

The second map I formed with the same data and boundary lines. However, the map shows points of the three types of schools present, instead of polygon layers. It is interesting to view these maps together because by looking at the one below, it is clear that especially within the Hartford city area, one may get easily confused by the amounts of dots present. They can overwhelm an audience unfamiliar with this type of data. The map above only shows one color per city and identifies that city with a type color. One may think that that particular city only contains mainly those types of schools. However, the other types are available as well.

Assignment 7

Posted on Author Shaina Lo

This week Mary and I met to review the Schools in the Park Watershed excel sheet. From there we added columns with color and text ID. This shows the types of schools are which. We created categories that are relevant to nature or watershed research. In Google Fusion tables we were then able to change the point markers and colors to show differences among the schools of the area.

Next step will be to add the polygon layer of the watershed as well as the municipal boundary lines. There needs to be a little clean up done on the pop up boxes (URL links, taking out unnecessary data, etc.). I would like to add a legend as well to distinguish what each color means. Are the colors and markers seen in Google Fusion the only ones we can use? Are there any other ways to change the styles of these markers? Need an explanation on how the map works for the general public.

We were also wondering if there was an excel sheet of the private schools. Mary knows of some popular Environmental programs/schools that are private that would be nice to filter on the map as well.

We would like to integrate this map and its framework into the Park River Watershed website.

 

Assignment 6: Updates on A5 Schools in Park Watershed

Posted on Author Shaina Lo

This week I wanted to be able to combine the point layer of only the school points in the watershed, with the Park River Watershed outline, as well as boundaries of the municipalities. However, this task proved to be more difficult than I thought as I had some difficulties with Google Drive and Google Wizard Fusion. There wasn’t a problem so much with the codes of my data. But there were some issues with the tools and applications I used, which were not cooperating very well. Below is the map of the my school points and the watershed boundary. The schools each have a type:

1 = interdistrict

2 = district

3 = more PreK centers

I would like to create a choropleth interactive map that shows the three different types of schools in the watershed. There are no private schools included. It would be very beneficial for schools to have the information available to them, in order for science programs and environmental clubs to seek out a student networks.

*March 10th update from Jack: As Shaina reported, she is having difficulty with web hosting on Google Drive. Her interactive map below is only visible to me on Safari, so I have inserted a static image. The best way to fix this may be to shift to web hosting on GitHub.*

static version
static version

 

Assignment 5: Updates on A4 of Park Watershed Schools

Posted on Author Shaina Lo

Using Google Fusion Wizard, I was able to combine the point layer of the schools and the polygon layer of the watershed together. I will have to play around with the colors of the points as well as the watershed for my final map. I would also like to be able to show the schools in the watershed alone and take out the other schools. But the map below is starting to look more to how I would like my final map to look like.

Now that I can add layers to point maps, I would like to add more to my final map. For example, it would be nice to include boundary lines of the municipalities, parks/nature centers/libraries, impaired water systems, etc. My next step is to search for other shape files with the above details in either the Trinity GIS folders or by downloading them.