Group Members: Mason Kirkpatrick & Rose Mayer Background Continuing our investigation into the effects that land use and cover change have on the anthropocene, this lab furthers our analysis of our crowdsourced data that be began working with in Lab #3. Here we are working to create visual representations of our qualitative data as opposed to the graphs we created in the lab prior. Using GIS to conduct spatial analysis of Collinsview, RVNA, and Lewis and Clark’s campus we were able to compare a current image of these areas to historic photographs from 1939, 1961, and 1982. Using ArcGIS online we were able to layer these images over each other to view how that had changed over the course of 79 years. Procedure Using ArcGIS we set a satellite map of Portland as our base map on which to put the rest of our data. Then we uploaded the spatial data to our map from the zip files to our base map so that we could view the separate areas where our research was conducted. We changed the color for each area so it would be easy to differentiate between the areas. We also make the layers transparent so we could see the satellite images underneath. Next, we upload our data from the spreadsheet we made during the previous lab to our map. This put all of the centroids on a map so we could easily see where they were and compare the information of each one as well. We then layered the historical photos from 1939, 1961, and 1982 over our current photo to compare how the areas have changed since each of these years. Results Viewing our data in this format we were able to see a couple noticeable trends. The first being, areas with more canopy cover tend to have higher average humidity. While areas with less canopy coverage tend to have lower average humidity. Lewis and Clark’s campus has gotten less and less canopy coverage as it became more of an urban area. From this the conclusion that can be drawn is that as Collins View and Lewis and Clark’s campus became more populated and urban canopy coverage and high humidity levels left with it. RVNA has remained unchanged during the time these pictures were taken. Discussion
The larger implications of our results and the trends we noticed were as follows. The main trend we noticed in relations to canopy cover and humidity could be used to infer about similar trends on a global scale. If canopy cover and humidity have an inverse linear relationship then we could infer that areas that are experiencing large scale deforestation could be experiencing a change in humidity. The issue with making inferences such as this one is that it would only be accurate in areas with a similar microclimate to portland. It very possible that areas with different climates would also have differences in the relationship between canopy cover and humidity. The issue with collecting data on a local scale is that it is only applicable on a local scale as long as the areas are similar in climate. If we collected data from all types of other climates in different areas of the country and compared them the same way. We would have a more accurate demonstration of how the data relates to each other. Thus we would be able to assess the relationships between the factors that we collected data on. Additionally if we expanded the scope of our research to the Portland metro area we would have more accurate results while maintaining our local approach to collecting data.
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December 2018
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