The Asian population alone by percent map is perhaps the most random of the three census maps, with no extremely clear pattern to settlement. One thing interesting to not is that there is a very large percentage of Asian population on the west coast, and California in particular. This could be due to the fact that the west coast is the geographically closest place on the continental U.S. to Asia, hence many Asians move there. There also seems to be a dense population of Asians on the northeastern seaboard. This could also be due partly to where the center for immigration was on Ellis Island. Historically, many Asians move to America and join relatives and friends in the big cities.
The black population has the most clearly defined pattern, with the highest percentage of black populations in the American South. The states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and the Carolinas have the highest percentage of black population. This makes sense when looked at in an historical context. Historically, the Africans were brought over to America and sold as slaves. All the states mentioned above that have a high percentage of black population were all slave states before the Civil War; therefore, many African Americans were living in them. Even though slavery has long been abolished, African Americans continue to call those states their homes until this very day.
The "other" race category by percentage also has a very apparent trend of populating the American Southwest and the Western U.S., although it is unclear what races comprise the "other" race category. California tends to have the densest population of people with the category of "other" for their race, but New Mexico and Texas also have high densities.
The Three Maps Overall
The census map series was an interesting assignment to geographically determine where certain races are prevalent. In each map I took the counties shapefile and joined it with the respective dbf file created from the census' excel sheet. I then color graded the map through natural breaks into 5 categories and inserted a legend, a north arrow, and a scale bar on each of the maps. It is interesting to note that there is not data for certain counties on certain populations; these counties turn out white on the map. It would be interesting to learn why data could not be obtained for these specific counties, and why there are different counties that are missing data information for each race. These maps could be used to figure out different geographic trends in regard to race, if overlaid with these maps.
GIS: Reflections
Throughout this course, I have come to learn more about how important geographic information is in the world. Since almost everything takes place in space and has a location, information can be gathered and patterns analyzed in regards to space. I've learned about the many applications of GIS through watching the film on GIS usage, like mapping fires or the effects of deforestation, as well as discovering public safety hazards. GIS has a variety of different uses, and now GIS is a very important and marketable skill to have, yet not many people know what it is. We use GIS and neogeography in our everyday lives. For instance, I was looking at the "top adventure towns in the U.S." neogeo map on the national geographic website. I had an awesome realization that I could make one of those maps myself. GIS is not very user friendly at first, but I have come to understand how the program operates and thus it has become more intuitive. I think that if the program were to become more affordable, it would be easier to access and thus even more trends could be analyzed. Regardless, GIS is in common usage today. In addition to the more typical geocaching app I have on my iphone, I found a GIS application the other day. This shows that GIS is an important part of today's world and has a bright future.
