lab8 station fire

The most famous and devastating wildfire in California is the Station Fire occurred in September of 2009. This fire, which burned in Angeles National Forest, lasted for over a month and spread to over 160,000 acres. Starting on August 26th, the fire reached to its full potential until September, forcing thousands of evacuation and destroying thousands of structures. The fire was definitely a disaster for people, as it took the lives of two firefighters and caused a cost at around $90 million, although it was a case of arson. (Garrison, J., Zavis, A., & Mozingo, J, 2009)

From my reference map, people can find that the fire originated in in the San Gabriel Mountains, the eastside of Crescenta Montrose, a circular region labeled with red color. There is an insertion of my map under the reference map, which shows the location of fire in a county view, so people can easily get the idea which part of Los Angeles County was the location of fire. I also use semi-transparent layers gradually varied colors to show the different fire perimeters from August 29th to Sep 2nd. As shown in my reference map above, the growth of the fire was rapid. The fire initially spread northward on August 30th into a rectangular like shape, and then roughly shifted to west on August 31th. Then the fire spread northeast and southeast in early September, maybe because it could not spread to the mountain ranges at the central east. I also include digital elevation model in my map, so people could connect the fire spread patterns to the local topography, as the east part of location of fire is at higher elevation than the surrounding area. I labeled the major high ways and major cities in L.A. County to offer a general picture of the influence of the fire. This fire took much longed than expected to control. It was fully controlled on October 16th, thanks to the moderate rainfall in the San Gabriel Mountains (M，Rob., Myers, C., Torigoe, J., & Chen. S, 2009)

My thematic maps are about the influence of Station Fire and the actions to take. The first one is about the damage to the natural environment, so I include forest and water area to show the contained area. From the map, people can see how much impact the fire had on the environment. The fire was originated in Los Angeles National Forest and actually it burned nearly 25% of the forest, and it spread to Big Tujunga Dam. The station fire would have negative effects on forest health and ecosystem, as the oxygen can not produced and the carbon dioxide can not absorbed. Also the loss of plants meant less food for animals and microbes, which lead to the decrease in biological diversity (Thomas, K.,2009). The Big Tujunga Reservoir was adversely affected by the Station Fire, as the burned trees no longer provide soil stabilization, causing sediment to accumulate in the area’s waterways. In this way, quality and quantity of water to the local municipalities that rely on this watershed are affected. According to a report, “there are three phase of rehabilitation following wildfires on federal land: wildfires on federal lands: Fire Suppression Repair; Burned Area Emergency Response; and Long-term Recovery, also known as BAER. ” (Inci Web, 2009). However, there are project that would help to mitigate this situation, Willows and cottonwoods, which thrive in riparian areas, can help reduce erosion, filter pollutants and reduce sedimentation. Also, these trees provide increased canopy cover, which is good for the recovery of burned soil. (American Forest, 2012)

The second thematic map is about the influence on social part and social actions to take after the fire, as I include emergency systems such as emergency centers, hospitals and fire stations. From the map, it is obvious that there are several hospitals on the south of the fire perimeters, but the nearest hospital is Verdugo Hills Hospital, which is located southwest of the station fire perimeter. As measured in the map, the Verdugo Hills Hospital was only around 3,660 meters away from the edge of the fire when it started. So this hospital was facing the danger of the expanding fire and might be subject to evacuation. But the hospital could also serve as an emergency place for the injured, alone with the other hospitals. There are also lots of fire stations located on the south part of fire perimeters, which offer a convenience to take actions after the fire. The fire had lots negative effects on firefighters, as the carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide from the smoke could combine with the hemoglobin in human bodies instead of oxygen. Also, the dry, dense brush in the area of the fire was at high risk for potentially extreme fire activity and may pose unacceptable risk to firefighters. (USDA, 2009). 

In conclusion, the reference map offers a general view of the location of the Station. And from the thematic maps people can see the area affected by the fire, especially forest, water area, hospitals, and emergency centers, and find the impacts on both environment and society. Station Fire was a truly disaster for human, and it is everyone’s responsibility to prevent forest air.

Reference:

American Forest, (2012), Revitalizing Los Angeles’ Backyard: Station Fire Restoration Part 2. Retrieved from

http://www.americanforests.org/our-programs/global-releaf-projects/alcoa-foundation-and-american-forests-global-releaf-partnership-for-trees/2012-alcoa-foundation-and-american-forests-global-releaf-partnership-for-trees-projects/revitalizing-los-angeles-backyard-station-fire-restoration-part-2/

Garrison, J., Zavis, A., & Mozingo, J. (31, August, 2009), Station fire claims 18 homes and two firefighters. Retrieved from

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/31/local/me-fire31

Inci Web, (10, November, 2009), Station Fire. Retrieved from 

http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/

M，Rob., Myers, C., Torigoe, J., & Chen. S, (31, August, 2009), ‘Angry fire’ roars across 100,000California acres. Retrieved from

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/31/california.wildfires/index.html

Thomas, K., (2008), Forest Fire. Retrieved from
 http://library.thinkquest.org/07aug/01254/effects.html

USDA, (13, November, 2009), Fire and aviation management. Retrieved from

http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/station_fire_report.pdf

Sources of data:

http://scec.usc.edu/internships/useit/content/california-emergency-facilities-shapefile

http://scec.usc.edu/internships/useit/content/california-area-hydrography-counties

http://egis3.lacounty.gov/eGIS/2009/08/31/station-fire-perimeters-gis-shapefiles-as-is/

http://egis3.lacounty.gov/dataportal/2012/11/13/national-forest/drp_forest/

lab7 Census 2000/2010

This map shows the percent of black population in the U.S counties. In the map, the counties colored the darkest red represent the highest percent, while the lightest colored counties represents the lowest percent. It is obvious that the black population is scare along the west coast, which is less than 5%, but mainly located at the southeast part of counties, from Mississippi to Virginia. The reason for the black race distribution may be the Civil War, which left many African Blacks settle down at the east coast.

From the second map, we can find that compared to black population, which is dominated only on the east coast of counties, the Asian population is evenly distributed across the counties. It is easy to find the areas covered by darkest purple, such as California, Washington, and New York City, have the highest percent of Asian population. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that Asians have to cross the Pacific Ocean and pass by the west coast to the U.S counties, and that New York City has a high rate of immigration all the time.

The third map represents the percent of some other race population. From the map, we can find that the population of some other race is mainly concentrated on the southwest part of U.S counties, from west coast, like California, Arizona to the mid-west of U.S, like New Mexico and Texas.

 These three maps are based on the census data and are really informative. They together can offer the audience a full picture of the racial population distribution in the U.S counties, which is crucial in policy and government decisions. Audience can easily find the area where certain race is dominated, and get information like where immigrants always choose to settle down, and where to choose to plan an event for a certain race.

My impression for GIS is that it is a beneficial and useful tool in mapping, although my experiences with GIS are often frustrating, as this time I had some trouble in exporting the Excel to .dbf. But all in all, the process of inputting the data from census allows us to use a broader range of information easily and directly, and it is really inspiriting when I successfully transform the data into representations of actual maps. GIS is well designed for learners to manage data and create maps, but the operation is not easy, as we need to have some backgrounds of GIS. Also the output of map is significant.