Lab #1 Maps

 


Matt's House
I found this map interesting when I was looking through maps online at handmaps.org. It was drawn by two people named Courtney and Matt from the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle. This was Courtney's mental map of how to find Matt's house in the general area. What I thought was most interesting about the map was that Matt's house is not located in the center of the map, but a Jack in the Box is (or close to the center). This represents the concept of landmark knowledge or identifying unique features as reference points in order to make sense of your navigational tactics. The reasons why the Jack in the Box is represented is probably because both Courtney and Matt are familiar with the location of the Jack in the Box and it serves as a sort of benchmark for a relative location to Matt's House. I also liked the fact that this map is not draw to scale and there are missing streets and other missing landmarks due to Courtney and Matt's lack of knowledge or unfamiliarity of the area. This map is like many other mental maps people store in their minds of places where they either live, work, or just walk around. It represents the importance of memory and that the things left out aren't as important as the objects being reproduced on paper because in reality, someone doesn't need to deal with extra distractions when getting to a destination.

Map of CO2 Emissions in the United States of America
 I found this map on an environmental awareness website called One Green Generation at the following url: http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/?p=366 . It was made by Kevin Gurney and the Vulcan Project, Purdue University and supported by NASA and USDOE. This map shows the approximate Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the United States back in 2002. What I found to be the most interesting thing about this map is the distribution of the CO2 emissions throughout the United States. The high concentrations of emissions are clustered into the urban and highly populated areas. This is because since most CO2 emissions are from automobiles, the highly populated areas will emit the most CO2 pollution. It's also generally located in urban areas because people need to earn a decent living in order to own a car, therefore the urban areas are the areas with more cars. This also works in reverse: the rural, underpopulated areas have less emissions because there are less people who own cars. Since many different maps can be associated with urban areas in the United States such as pollution, fast food restaurants, and obesity, I can say that there is a strong interaction between the highly populated urban areas, cars, CO2 emissions, obesity etc. because they are all linked to one another and have an effect on each aspect.

Topographic Map of Mauna Kea

This is a topographic map of Mauna Kea made by the USGS found at this website: http://www.skimountaineer.com/ROF/ROF.php?name=MaunaKea. Located on the big island of Hawaii, this dormant volcano is the highest point in the state. I initially chose this map because I love the Islands of Hawaii (who doesn't) but more importantly I love looking at topographic maps. Just the idea of someone trying to produce a three dimentional figure onto a two dimentional piece of paper (or computer screen) interests me. I enjoy looking at this map because it gives me a slight idea of how tall the mountain is and how steep the slope is. The closer the contour lines, the sleeper the slope, therefore, since this map of Mauna Kea shows very close contour lines, it indicates a steep slope. However, the thing that intrigues me most is the tricks topographic maps play on your mind. To me, although I know that this is a 13,000 foot mountain, it looks like it could be the opposite: a crater with below sea level or decreasing elevation. This shows the complexity of making topographic maps and how maybea  more accurate way of making these maps could be developed.