Georgetown City Park Locations Compared to Median Household Income Values

Want to go outside and play? Find a park, Georgetown is full of them. In fact, there are 30 city parks total.  Referring to the Georgetown Parks website, I plotted the location of 28 out of 30 city parks. Then, I used Fact Finder on the Census website to map out reported median incomes in Williamson County. There is a higher density of parks in the lowest income bracket in Georgetown. The middle brackets have few parks. The upper middle class has many parks separated by at least a mile. The upper class subdivision does not have any public parks.

Notice, each income level is distinctly separated in Georgetown. The highest income level lies farthest away from the downtown, while the lowest income levels are nearest the downtown. Parks may be more prevalent in lower income areas because there is a higher need, whereas upper class subdivisions tend to have larger private yards. More, the low income sector in Georgetown also overlaps the historic district. Perhaps, the parks were built first and as development spreads north, there are fewer parks being built.

This map focuses on the amount of elderly, ages 65 and up in Georgetown, TX. Each dot indicates 5 elderly. From the map, one can see the area of Sun City, located down Willams drive, south Willamson county down I-35, and east near Hutto have dense amounts of elderly in the area. 

GTography: Breakfast Tacos in Georgetown, Texas

Texas is known for serving delicious breakfast tacos, especially in the Austin/Georgetown area. This map displays all of the restaurants that serve breakfast tacos in Georgetown. I used yellowpages.com to find the addresses, uploaded them onto arcgis.com, and created a map displaying the locations. The map shows an interesting clustering of restaurants right off of highway I-35, and also on the main streets that lead to I-35. The clustering in these areas probably occur because people would rather stop somewhere on route to their workplace, rather than go completely out of their way, when commuting to work. 

Abstract: Correlations Between SAT Scores and Potential Influential Factors

High school students must take the SAT and/or ACT before applying to college in the United States. SAT and ACT scores are considered important in determining a student’s acceptance to their desired school. However, some may argue that these standardized tests may be biased, and influenced by factors other than a student's abilities in math, reading, and writing. For example, does the parental status of the student (e.g. divorced, married, single) have any correlation with the scores? In this project, the Texas Education Agency's annual report on college admissions testing for high school seniors in public schools was used to create a visual representation of SAT combination reading and writing scores across the state. In order to create a map with an uninterrupted range of scores, versus simply an accumulation points, the data was interpolated. Statistical analyses compared the scores to important factors such as race and ethnicity, household income, parental status, etc. These analyses revealed significant correlations between SAT scores and the above factors, suggesting that the scores may not be an accurate assessment of student's math, reading, and writing scores. 

Land use in Belize

In this article the author explores deforestation in Belize and the impact that road making has on the landscape and development of the country. Roads are what allow access to remote forests in the country and they do not always lead to the most efficient use of the land. The author suggests that is GIS methods were put into use by the people making the road then the land could be use more efficiently. By studying the land through the use of GIS it is more likely that road planners would have a better idea of what resources these roads may lead to so that trees are not needlessly cut down in vain. By planning out the use of land spatially and in the context of the environment, rather than just clear cutting a road, there can be a cut down on unneeded loses.

By following the model of von Thiinen and the equations that can better determine the cost and benefits of land use we can put value to the land so that a plot of land is used to its best economic and environmental potential. Methods like this and GIS can be used to better plan out the use of land not only in Belize but really anywhere there is land to be developed.

Chomitz, Kenneth M., and David A. Gray. "Roads, Land Use, and Deforestation: A Spatial Model Applied to Belize." Oxford University Press, n.d. Web.

Abstract: Ecuador's Rose Farms

Behind Colombia, Ecuador is the world's leading exporter of cut roses. In addition, they export numerous other cut flowers. The United States of America is the number one consumer of Ecuadorian roses, and the rose floriculture provides significant economic impact in both Ecuador and the U.S.A. This project's aim is to provide a visual of rose farm concentration in Ecuador and provide market information on the quality of roses as it relates to altitude. A map such as this does not exist, and as such, this map will provide a social service to the rose growers in Ecuador. ExpoFlores, an organization that manages the social and environmental impact and image of the Ecuador's flower farms, provides a list of farms. From this list, I will create my own specific list of rose farms. Luckily, most farms have a website;however, most do not list the address, but the town. Since the exact locations of farms are not always provided, I will use Normalized Digital Vegetation Difference (NDVI) technology through ArcGIS online to locate the farms.

Digital Elevation Models (DEM) will be used to determine the altitude of the farms. Rose growers in Ecuador claim roses grow taller, stronger and straighter with higher altitudes. Once I have the farms location and altitude plotted, I will refer to sights such as FlorEcuador and ExpoFlores to see if the quality of the rose does indeed correspond to the altitude. If the DEM model proves to be too time intensive, I will then plot all flower farms to create a map which models concentration of rose farms compared to other flowers.

Industrial Evolution in Austin, Texas: From Environmental Hazards to a High-Tech Explosion (Abstract)

Grady Sampley

Abstract:

As the Capital of Texas, Austin has always been a major epicenter and leader for  Texas economic and cultural progression. Generally, Texas has been known for their large-scale  manufacturing industry wherein the petrochemical sector takes the lead. This highly industrial  economy and culture carries along with it a variety of environmentally hazardous byproducts.  Austin has also historically absorbed this kind of large-scale manufacturing industry as will be  shown in this project via GIS applications using the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI); however, as it  has advanced into modern times, Austin has moved towards a more innovative, creative, eco-friendly, and high-tech culture and economy. This budding cultural and economic change has resulted from the influx of young and educated populations who are mainly attracted to Austin’s unique and recently fostered progressive reputation which, in turn, prompted the explosion of its high-technology industrial sector generally due to the abundance of suitable potential employees. To show this explosion of high-tech industry within the Austin area my project uses the “Directory of Austin-Area High-Tech Firms” produced by The Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce in unison with GIS mapping applications. Through the utilization of both TRI and this directory, my project will illustrate the evolution of Austin’s Industrial landscape from a large-scale manufacturing industry – along with its environmentally hazardous byproducts – towards a much more clean, creative, and innovative high-tech industry. With these illustrations, my project analyzes the positive and negative implications of this industrial evolution on Austin’s socio-economic landscape.

Mexican-American Socioeconomic Status and Obesity

Source: 

Fisher-Hoch SP, Rentfro AR, Salinas JJ, Pérez A, Brown HS, Reininger BM, et al. Socioeconomic status and prevalence of obesity and diabe- tes in a Mexican American community, Cameron County, Texas, 2004-2007. Prev Chronic Dis 2010;7(3)

In this article, the risk for obesity and diabetes is examined in a small county on the U.S-Mexico border in Texas. The study is partial to Mexican-Americans, as the county is predominately made up of Mexican-Americans. Randomly selected and studied persons aged 35-64 year olds are looked at along with their socioeconomic status and the correlation to diabetes risk along with obesity. The final sample, after going through multiple cuts to make the sample more accurate, was made up of all hispanics with 68% being female. 

Variables such as, BMI, waist circumference, fasting blood glucose and insulin were taken into account. They then took this information and compared it too the annual household income, using GIS "to visualize spatial distribution" by different income quartiles. The findings were phenomenal, as this county was found to have a large uninsured racial minority population. People in the lower income stratum were found to be more likely to have undiagnosed diabetes, as the risk increases with age. Oddly enough, there were no differences between socioeconomic status with prevalence of obesity. 

Conservation of Viperids in North-West Africa Using Ecological GIS

When one thinks of the wilderness of Africa, one of the first concerns that comes to mind is the presence of venomous snakes.  Scientists are also extremely interested in the locations of these snakes, and in conserving them and their habitats.  They are now beginning to implement High-Resolution GIS imagery into their methods of determining the environments of these snakes.

As you can see in this first image, the use of raster data is crucial in the determination of the landscape of various regions in this section of NW Africa.  This map also includes vector data of the points at which the various species of snakes are located.  These two types of data are combined to create the map below, which shows the different species of snakes along with the likely overlap of species in the various regions.

The knowledge of the density and variety of viperids in the various biomes of NW Africa is instrumental in their conservation.  Knowing the variety and density of viperids in each type of habitat allows conservation biologists to tailor the conservation programs to the individual scenarios that occur.

1. • Brito et al., 2011
   • J.C. Brito, S. Fahd, P. Geniez, F. Martínez-Freiría, J.M. Pleguezuelos, J.-F. Trape
   • Biogeography and conservation of viperids from North-West Africa: an application of ecological niche-based models and GIS. Journal of Arid Environments, 75 (11) (2011), pp. 1029–1037

Links in Diabetes Rate Among Mexican American

 

Mexican Americans are more likely to have diabetes than any other ethnic group in the United States. Many believe that this is because the disease is genetic but may in part be due to the lower economic status of this ethnic group. Many cannot afford the decent health care that can identify early warning signs of diabetes and they do not get treatment right away.

 

 

 

Using GIS we can conclude that many of the clusters of diabetes form near the border to Mexico. The correlation between higher risks of diabetes and these areas is due largely to the socioeconomic status. Many Mexican Americans living along border towns are not wealthy and therefore cannot afford proper medical care. It can be seen that with better medical care comes less cases of diabetes among Mexican Americans. People who can afford the better medical care will be healthier and it shows among this particular group of people. This data can be useful for government agencies wishing to release funds for better medical care among struggling communities.

 

https://lms.southwestern.edu/file.php/5109/Literature/Wilson-2010-OBESITY_MEXICAN_AMERICANS.pdf