Fire Department Response Times

This week in class, we were asked to analyze the Fire Department response times for any city we want and see how the city would be affected if we removed one of the fire stations. Our challenge was to visualize our data without using a map. I chose Worcester, MA, as my city and removed the Tatnuk Square Fire Station (TSFS). I chose the TSFS because it was one of the outlier fire stations (located on the West side of the city) and I wanted to see a dramatic change in coverage. I analyzed the data from the US Census Bureau for population in the city along with the Network Analyst tool to determine how many people would be affected by the closing of the TSFS, mainly taking into account the critical 6 minute sudden cardiac arrest response time.

As stated in the document, one of the flaws with this analysis is that it does not take into account the surrounding cities' fire departments. The next town over's fire department may be able to respond to a victim with sudden cardiac arrest within 6 minutes, therefore reducing the impact of closing the TSFS. Another flaw with the analysis is that it assumes equal distribution of the population over each block group in the town. This is obviously not true; some block groups are very heavily populated on one end and very rural at the other end but this is the only way to fairly represent the block group.

*Block groups are clusters of census blocks created by the Census Bureau as a geographic level between blocks and census tracts. Block groups have anywhere from 600 to 3,000 people located within them and has the most detailed population data available.

Below is the document that I created for this project.

Also, you can click here to see the actual infograph on the web!

I hope you enjoy it and keep posted for more!

Straight-Line Distances

Good Wednesday evening, everyone! I seem to be a bit behind on posting recent class assignments but on Monday, the class was asked to calculate the straight-line distances from one point to several other points. This was accomplished using ArcGIS Desktop 10.1 and the Point Distance Tool. Simple enough, right? Using this tool, I was able to calculate the straight line distance from my house to several horse farms in Western Massachusetts.

Below is the map that I've created for this assignment.

I also created the same map with a grey background to better see the location of the points in Western Ma. You can choose which you find more appealing.

An important thing to keep in mind when looking at this map is that these are straight-line distances...that is, it is the distance "as the crow flies" as the saying goes. This is not the same as driving distance, which in reality is longer than a straight line distance. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy it!!

Introduction

Hey everyone! As you may have seen in my About Me section, I am currently taking an Advanced GIS class and this blog is dedicated to showing you the super cool maps I have made in class. To start out, below are the links to the first maps I have made.

Angelina Jolie's Tattoo Coordinates
In this map, I plotted the coordinates that Angelina Jolie has tattooed on her arm of where her children are from.

Horse Jumping Shows
In this map you can see the locations of where I have shown within the past year or so as well as what horse I showed, what show it was, placement, class size, etc.

Geocoding Address Points
In this map, we were given 6 addresses to geocode on the map. In the pop-up, you can see what business it is, the address, and a link to the business itself.

Digitizing Buildings
For this map, I digitized 3 buildings on Westfield State University's campus.

Horseback Riding Track
This map is different from the other maps in that this was done using GPS mapping. Now I know it seems like just a silly brown line but its really cool because it accurately depicts the track that I walked on with my horse down to approximately 5-10 feet. There are more sophisticated GPS receivers that can get down to within an inch or so of your actual location but this is just showing you the power of GPS mapping.

Feel free to ask any questions about the maps and be sure to stay posted for more!