lab4 Introducing Arcmap

 My first experience with arcmap is really frustrating and disappointed. It pushes me to do much more work than just follow the instructions in the tutorial. I spent nearly six hours to deal with the data of noise pollution, population density, land use, proximity to schools, and I countered lots of difficulties due to the new version of the Arcmap. For an example, some tabs are not in the positons according to the instruction, such as Draw palette is actually not at the bottom of the data frame, so I have to discover them and search the website for help. I even left my USB memory device in the computer lab which contains all my lab work, but fortunately I found it at last.

However, I learned a lot and felt really successful when I finished the lab even it is not perfect. Through   solving the problem of noise of the airport area, I deal with variables such like noise, population, land use, and proximity to schools to solve the problem. First, if the noise expansion is in the school area, it will be reconsidered. And the public also plays an significant role because the airport should be convenient to serve most people. At last the land use is also important as the airport should not influence human activity. I learned the steps of basic GIS: updating, storing, manipulating and presenting the given data. And I found that ArcGIS is much more complex than handmade map. Collecting the data must be more complex and time-consuming than operating the database.

So the pitfall of the ArcGIS is that the program is complex and time-consuming to operate. People need to be carful enough and focus on the detail because a simple inaccurate step or a skipped step may ruin the whole map. Second is that the database for the ArcGIS should be precise enough to offert the accurate information. So it will take a long time to collect data and finish an arcmap. Finally, ArcGIS is still too professional to average people. People without GIS knowledge have difficulty to understand the arcmap and reach the data contained in arcmap, not to mention operate on ArcGIS. They may prefer to easily understood map such as Google maps and MapQuest. 

ArcGIS still have some advantages unattained by other programs. The biggest advantage is the convenient manipulation over data. ArcGIS offers an opportunity to put different data together, make them related and let us to operate them at the same time in one program. Second is that ArcGIS is costumed to satisfy different purposes because people can just download the database and hide the database according to their preferences and intentions. For example, if I would like to know the relationship between the population density and airport are, I can realize it by simply checking the box for population density data frame and closing other database to make my own thematic map. Third is that the database for ArcGIS is obtained carefully and more reliable than that of neogeographic maps.

ArcGIS now is under the control of government to protect the data accuracy, but I hope one day it can be accessible to ordinary people. In this way, the modernization will speed as people can obtain information more easily. And I hope ArcGIS can offer dynamic maps one day by updating the data

 automatically. ArcGIS is still on its way to provide a better view of the world.