Vanessa G's Lab 7

 Using ArcGIS, it is easy to take information from the U.S. Census to layout maps that

display pages of information on to a simple to view map. From these maps people can form hypothesis about what might cause a cluster of a certain value at some places and not another. Furthermore, it is simple to explore the possibilities of there being relationships to one map to another. For these maps above, they are similar because they all involve information on the changes of the United States population.

                 

              From all of the maps above, the map of the total number of people as counted by the 2000 U.S. Census gives us the least amount of information to work with because most of the counties are on the darker color spectrum. However, when looking at the map on the population density connections can be made about where most of the U.S. population is clustered even if for a small area. From the information above it is shown that most of the population is clustered around the coastal areas, then it can be further examined why the populations are the most dense in the coastal areas, maybe because the coastal areas have better vegetation or perhaps more employment opportunities. 

            On the other hand, looking at the information on the other two maps gives even more information about the United States population. For instance, the map on the difference from the 1990 Census to the 2000 Census sparks curiosity about the reasons for large changes in one place and negative in other ones. The map tells us that the greatest differences in population seems to have happen in the south western states bordering Mexico. This can lead to a conclusion that there probably was a large Mexican immigration rise in between 1990 and 2000. Contrariwise, the map also gives information that the middle regions and Alaska of the United States had a negative change in population. For this reason, an investigation might be launched as to why this is true, because of greater deaths or because of large amounts of migration or global warming?

            With so many possibilities of the way this data can be interpreted simply by laying it out on a map that is color coded, makes ArcGIS that much more interesting to me. I was able to take just one set of data from the Census and display it in different ways to get ideas about topics to further research for the behavioral patterns of the U.S. population. In addition it was much more simpler than I had anticipated so I found myself continuing to experiment with the information even after I had finished the lab. Lastly, after studying the maps I decided to do a short personal research project about why there were certain population changes in certain areas (as previously discussed) which I found interesting.