Natural Hazards / Earthquakes
This weeks' assignment really was a great way to shake off the cobwebs from the break and start making some maps again. We concentrated on using some tools in ArcGIS that I hadn't used before and that will prove VERY helpful in my current job.
For part 1, we considered the impact on infrastructure in the event of an earthquake near Memphis, Tennessee. On this map, I decided to make it 11" x 17" rather than 8.5" x 11" to try to best display all three scenarios (dams, Interstates, and railroads).
For Part 2, we looked at the peak ground velocity of the aftershocks.
For Part 3, we examined aftershocks that were greater than magnitude 3.0
And for part 4, we looked at the intensity of the aftershocks.
We also created a couple of graphs along the way using the built in ESRI tools:
Here is my Process summary for the lab this week:
Process Sumary:
Earthquakes
Part I
1) Copied all the data from the r: drive
to the s: drive.
2) Unzipped the files
3) Opened up the NewMadrid.mxd file
4) Used the identify tool to research
the data
5) It appears that Memphis would suffer
the most damage in an earthquake in this region
6) Performed a select by location to see
the areas that would be affected
7) Next we learned about the summary
feature which I wasn’t aware of. I can
see this being VERY useful in my day to day work.
8) We can see that there are 91 areas
that would be greatly impacted by this event
9) Next we calculated the population
density of the counties. Again, VERY
useful lab so far and I have just started !
10) Next we intersected the county data
(including population density) with the New Madrid data
11) Created the PopMMI table
12) Using the summarize tool, we can see that
60,088,857 people live in the affected areas
13) Created the graph as instructed
14) Added my numeric values to the
Modified Mercalli Scale data
15) Created my clipped Istaterisk layer
16) Next I did a SELECT BY ATTRIBUTES to
determine all the areas where the intensity was 8 or greater
17) Then I did a SELECT BY location to
see which Interstates intersected these areas
18) Clipped this data to the map to see
my At Risk Interstates
19) Did a similar process for Railroads
in the are that had an index of 10 or higher
20) Finished this section by doing the
dams at risk as well
21) For my map on this section, I wanted
to try to think outside the box a little bit so I choose a different map size
of 11x17 instead of the normal 8.5 x 11.
I hope this was OK for this map which will display all 3 results on it.
Earthquakes
Part II
1) Now on to the second part of the lab
2) Opened the Northridge1.mxd map
3) Made sure the Spatial Analyst
extension was enabled (Under Customize, rather than Tools)
4) Symbolized the dots for the building
damage and arranged layers as instructed.
5) Did a select by attribute to choose
only the red and yellow tagged buildings
6) Set up the Kernel Density tool as
instructed
7) Cleared the selection and turned off
unused layers
8) Set the lowest level of symbolization
to “No Color”
9) Used the effects toolbar to set
visibility to 15%
10) Saved the Damage Pattern as a layer
file
11) Added the layer back in and
symbolized
12) Opened the Geology layer
13) Examined the Liquefaction layer
14) Tuned on the Stations layer
15) Opened the Spline Interpolation tool
16) Ran this tool with the recommended
settings
17) Created the PGV Layer and set
symbols/transparency/etc…
18) Prepared Map
Earthquakes
Part III
1) Now on to the third part of the lab
2) Opened up the Northridge2.mxd map
3) Added the text file while changing
the Projection to WGS
4) Exported this data out to a shapefile
5) Removed the CSV file from the project
6) Selected the Main Shock by doing a
select by attribute
7) Created a new layer to represent the
Main shock and symbolized as a red triangle
8) Created my map of Aftershocks greater
than 3 and symbolized appropriately. I
am a little worried that my dots are in a “grid” format rather than randomly
scattered, but hopefully that is how it is supposed to look. I actually reloaded the project from the R:
drive to ensure that this should be fine.
9) I didn’t see any of the ArcScene in
this lab which it referred to
Earthquakes
Part IV
1) Now on to the fourth part of the lab
2) Opened up the Northridge3.mxd map
3) Created the Summary table similar to
the process we did earlier in the lab
4) Created my Graph and exported it out
as a JPG file
5) Posted my contents to dropbox and
blog
I really
enjoyed this weeks’ work even though it was very time consuming. I learned a lot of new tips with ArcGIS that
I can start applying to by job already.
I hope this is a sign of what kind of labs to expect for this class,
because it really is helpful. I tried
to make my maps a little different from each other just to try to get back into
the swing of making maps each week.
