Geography 417
Mapping Exercise 2: Ethnicity in Urban California DUE by Wednesday April 28, 2004.
Make sure you print out a back-up copy of your results page (the page that comes up after you click submit).
In this exercise, you will use an on-line mapping tool called DDViewer to examine patterns of ethnicity in California. The objectives of this exercise include:
1) The student will produce maps of California using an on-line software program.
2) The student will interpret data and cartographic representations of the data.
3) The student will distinguish between two major strategies for classifying mapped data.
4) The student will be able to describe and analyze regional patterns of ethnicity in California and in urban California.
5) The student will recognize patterns of ethnic segregation.
6) The student will answer questions correctly on the test regarding concepts and terms in bold presented below.
Background: California is the nation’s most ethnically diverse state. Ethnic groups are arranged and arrange themselves in ways that affect the quality and lifestyle of all Californians. Where people are has an enormous influence on what happens in their lives. It is important for students to understand the linkages between space and ethnicity.
Instructions:
1) Fill in your name (first name first) and email in the response boxes below.
USE THE TAB BUTTON OR MOUSE TO MOVE CURSOR BETWEEN RESPONSE BOXES. IF YOU PRESS ENTER, THE FORM WILL SUBMIT AND YOU’LL HAVE TO START OVER.
Name (first name first) email. Four Digit Student Code
2) Press Ctrl + N at the same time. This action will open a second browser window. In one window you will read these directions and fill in answers, in the other you will launch the DDViewer, the mapping application upon which this exercise is built. You can use Alt + Tab to switch quickly between the two open browser windows.
3) In the second browser window, click on the link to the right à http://www.ciesin.org
4) Click on the Online Tools and Applications link on the left hand tool bar.
5) Scroll down to the United States Demographic Data Viewer (DDViewer) link and click on it. This will launch the viewer’s “home page”.
6) Click on the words “Java Edition v3.0” and give it a moment to load.
7) You should see the windows in figure 1 below.
Figure 1
8) Next you need to select the state you wish to further inspect or analyze. Make sure the “Select” radial button is checked, so you can select California by clicking on California. See Figure 2 below. Then click “Get Counties” button
9) Using your cursor, click on the outline of California. What you have indicated to the software by highlighting California is that you want to map some variables in the highlighted (now orange) state.
Figure 2
10) Once you have selected California, a green base map of California’s counties will appear. You are now ready to begin making thematic maps of different variables for the entire state of California, by county. See Figure 3 below.
Figure 3
11) Next you should click on the “Select Vars” button to bring up a dialog box displaying a list of variables that you can use to make a choropleth map. The first maps you are going to make are of the total number of “white people” and the “percent of white persons” by county. You should select from the list of population variables “white” and “pctwhite”. Your dialog box should look like Figure 4 below.
Figure 4
12) In the map window, click on the “Submit Job” button and map will be generated of California’s white population by county in the year 1990. Congratulations you have made a map! It should look like the one in Figure 5 below.
Figure 5
13) Drag your mouse over the various counties. You should make note that the name of the county and the statistic currently mapped both appear. For example, in figure 5 above, you’ll note that Los Angeles County displays a white population of 5044716.0 persons. Keep this function in mind as you will be asked to answer some questions regarding population.
Questions: Place your answer in the response box at the end of each question.
Question 1: How many counties have more than 1 million white people? Answer:
Question 2: As the map of “white” displays in the default mode, it appears that the “whitest part” of California is in what region?
a. Northern California
b. Southern California
c. The Great Central Valley
d. The Northeastern Corner
Answer 2. à:
14) Back in the map window, click on the words “pctwhite” displayed in the lower right window. This will change the map from total white persons to percent white persons.
Question 3: As the map of percent white appears, what now appears to be the “whitest part” of California?
a. Southern California
b. North Central California
d. The San Francisco/Oakland Region
Answer 3à:
Question 4: Which County has the highest percentage of white persons?
Answer 4à
Question 5: Either by using your cursor to scan over counties or by clicking on the “Statistical Info” button, report the value for highest percent white in any county in California.
Answer 5à:
Question 6: Which County is “least white” in California?
Answer 6:
Question 7: Did this county have a majority of white people in 1990? Answer 7à Check if yes
15) Next, in the map window, click on the “Select Vars” and this will open the Select Variables dialog box. Click on Clear All Selections to clear the variable list. Next, select, “pctwhite”,“pctblack”, “pctasian”, “pctamind” and “pcthisp”, to make maps of percent White, percent Black, percent Asian, percent American Indian, and percent Hispanic respectively. Your dialog window should look like the figure below.
Figure 6
16) Back in the map window, click on Submit Job. The map of percent Black will appear. To see the other three maps, click on the variable name for the map you want to make that appears in the lower right window.
17) Look at each of the maps. Try to get a sense of where various ethnicities can be found in large numbers and where certain ethnicities are relatively rare. Think about the obvious and less obvious reasons why some counties have few minorities. Why do immigrant groups move where they move? Why are certain places attractive to “outsiders” while others are not? You may want to click on Customize Map and map these variables by equal interval in order to see the results differently (see figure 7 below)
Figure 7
18) Answer the questions below.
Question 8: Which of these counties has the largest percentage of African Americans?
a. Alameda
b. Los Angeles
c. Inyo
d. Kern
Answer à
Question 9: Which of these counties has more than 25% Asian population?
a. Los Angeles
b. San Francisco
c. San Diego
d. Orange
Question 10: Which county has over 25% American Indian population?
a. Mono
b. Inyo
c. Alpine
d. Modoc
Question 11: Which of these counties would be least attractive to tourists who only spoke Spanish? (this is an ethnicity question)
a. Tulare
b. Fresno
c. Monterey
d. Trinity
19) Click on the “Statistical Info” button to bring up a list of statistics for each of the variables you’ve been mapping. Scroll down until you come to the statistics for Percent Hispanic. Examine the data.
Question 12: What was the average (mean) percentage of Hispanics in California’s counties in 1990?
20) Make sure your map window is displaying percent Hispanic, then click on “Customize Map”. The customize output window will appear (see figure 7 above). Click on the radial button next to Customize to make a map using your own data intervals.
21) When you click on the customize radial button, a new window under the words “Enter break Value” appears. In this window, enter the number you used to answer question 12. Then click apply. A map will appear in the mapping window that will have only two colors (red and yellow). This map will show counties only above and below the average for percent Hispanic.
Figure 8
22) Refer to map of percent Hispanic and answer the following questions.
Question 13: Which of these parts or regions of California have below average percentages of Hispanics?
a. Big Cities
b. The Great Central Valley
c. North Coast Region
d. The Desert Region
23) In the map window, click on the ‘Sel New Region” button. This will refresh the map window and return you to the green base map of California. Place your cursor in Los Angeles county and click once to select LA county for further review. See Figure 9 below.
Figure 9.
24) Click on the button “Get Tracts” to get a map of Census tracts in the selected county (in this instance LA County). A map of census tracts in Los Angeles County will appear in the Map Window. See Figure 10 below.
Figure 10
25) You probably will want to zoom in on the mainland of LA county, so click on the Zoom In button. This changes your cursor to a crosshairs and you can click and drag (position the cursor at the northwest corner of LA county and left click the mouse button, pull the mouse down and to the right, creating a red outline box around the area you want to zoom into) a box around the space on the map you want to see up close.
26) Click on Select Vars and make sure you still have your percent white, percent black, percent Asian, etc. select from above.
27) Click on Submit Job and a map should appear of ‘percent white’ in Los Angeles County.
Question 14: How would you describe the pattern of white residence in Los Angeles County?
a. Whites are mostly in the San Fernando Valley
b. Whites are mostly on the borders of Los Angeles county and less in the middle of the county.
c. Whites are mostly in the Northern part of the County
d. Whites occupy the beach areas, but are pretty rare in the inland parts of the county.
28) Make a customized map of each of the three major “minority” groups in Los Angeles (pctblack, pctasian, pcthisp). Use the custom intervals of 33% and 66% to make your maps. This will give your three maps that show you where there is less than 1/3 (black,asian or hisp) between 1/3rd and 2/3rds (black,asian,hisp) or more than 2/3rds of these groups. Notice the spatial extent (how compact these ethnic neighborhoods are, how sharp the boundaries are (red next to yellow?), how many different “pockets” of these three ethnicities can be found around Los Angeles County. Answer the question below.
Question 15: Which of the three ethnic groups below, seem to be most “ghettoized”, or seem to be most concentrated in a single region?
a. Asians
b. Hispanics
c. Blacks
d. Whites
29) For the last step, you need to make a new variable. Click on the build new variable button in the map window. The dialog window depicted in figure 11 below will appear.
30) Click once on the variable “pctwhite”, click once on the plus (+) sign on the key pad, then click once on the pcthisp button. You need to enter a variable name for the equation you have made. In the example below, I called this variable wh_hisp. You may wish to put a variable description in the lowest response box.
31) Click apply and return to your map window. In the map window, click on submit job and then click on the new variable name in the variable name box. Examine your results…closely. I would suggest that you customize the map, examine the statistical information, etc.
32) Answer the last question below.
Figure 11
Question 16 OPEN ENDED QUESTION: You may have noticed that if you add percent white and percent Hispanic, you may not get results that you expect. Discuss in a paragraph or two in the response box provided below what results you came up with and how/why it is possible (and logical) to get results that may not at first glance seem logical to everyone. My goal is to get you to think about the categories of “white” and “Hispanic” and the type of categories each represents.
33) After you have finished filling in each of the input boxes, INCLUDING the input box for your NAME!!!, click on the submit button below. A web page will appear confirming the posting of your answers to the email server. PRINT THE CONFIRMATION PAGE OUT AS EVIDENCE OF YOUR SUBMISSION. Thanks. I will email you all a confirmation of receipt.
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If you have comments or suggestions, email me at steve.graves@csun.edu