GIS: A Step Above
Urban growth in the suburbs and maintaining what is already built is one problem facing the United States today. One difficulty in regional planning is the visualization of the area in question. Finding the problem areas, addressing all the issues involved, and discovering the best way to implement changes can create challenges for those in charge. A technology that is growing to accommodate the various areas of study which helps address these issues is Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Geographical Information Systems is the prime tool for spatial research.
GIS at work
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used in a wide variety of businesses across the United States. The program can compile various amounts and types of data into the system’s database. The computer can then use the information to aid in spatially analyzing a specific research topic.
Information stored in the GIS database is structured to order the information in separate applications. In a study of an urban street, information about the poverty statistics over the last decade would be saved separate from the literacy percentages. This input data could serve to catalog all the information a homeless shelter would record for the different neighborhoods around it. The computer software of the GIS system is what is used to analyze that data. GIS provides “an accessible, realistic model of what exists in the real world,” (Martín 2) which allows different types of questions to be addressed.
“Spacial means related to the space around us, in which we live and function.” (Clarke 2) The foundation for the use of GIS is to incorporate the many details of life in one location to describe the unit as a whole. ...
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...ilities of GIS makes the program software realiable, accurate, and updatable.
6) Martín, David. Geographic Information Systems: socioeconomic applications. Ed. 2. Routledge: London, 1996.
- This book defines GIS by its uses, history, and the principles behind the technology. Its purpose is to explain to newcomers how to use the software. It details recent advances in GIS.
7) Vine, Marilyn F., Darrah Degnan, and Carol Hanchette. Geographic information systems: their use in environmental epidemiologic research. Journal of Environmental Health v. 61 no3 (Oct. ‘98) p. 7-16.
- This article shows how GIS allows for researchers to show the relationship between human exposure and inset of the disease. The data from previous technology analysis used with the recent data can be used to show the spatial relationsihp of these elements.
The boll weevil. It is a common name given to an insect that infests cotton plants. Fully grown, they tend to be “reddish-brown, gray, or almost black in color and are normally less than 0.24 inches long” ("What is a Boll Weevil?"). Its snout originates from its face with two fork like spurs that extend it further out. boll weevils hibernate in grass during the fall and will not reappear until the spring ("What is a Boll Weevil?"). This small beetle looking bug was responsible for shattering southern economies such as Enterprise, Alabama.
Trauma-informed care could be described as a framework for human service delivery that is based on knowledge and understanding of how trauma affects people's lives and their service needs.This requires consideration of a person's environment beyond
Cox, S. M., Allen, J. M., Hanser, R. D., & Conrad, J. J. (2014). Juvenile Justice A Guide to Theory, Policy and Practice (8th ed.). Sage publications Inc.
There are numerous critics of the juvenile justice system, and while most of their denunciations remain the same as those of the justice system at large, an ample portion of their criticisms revolve around the claim that incarcerating young people not only doesn’t work in deterring or rehabilitating them, but makes them worse and leads to adult misconduct. A report noted that youth sent to juvenile prison were 37 times more likely to be arrested as adults (Szalavitz, 2009). Another major problem some cite with the juvenile justice system is that most delinquent offends have some form of mental illness, and that while studies have shown that mental health treatment would be a better alternative, they are simply ignored or incarcerated (Ramirez, 2008), completely contradictory to the core values of the juvenile justice system which stresses rehabilitation and restitution above all else.
Based on my research, the assumption that teen courts help juvenile offenders recidivate less appears to be true; recidivate refers to the tendency to re-offend. The first part of my research consisted of interviewing my dad who is a juvenile probation officer, and my dad truly believes that teen courts help offenders stay away from crime. He told me a memorable story that relates to this topic about a girl name Sarah who had been caught with marijuana. About a month after Sarah was caught with marijuana, she appeared before a teen court and plead guilty to the charge of possession of marijuana. A girl named Jessica who disliked Sarah was one of the jurors on t...
The first computerized trauma registry was created in 1969 by the Cook County Hospital in Chicago which became the model for the state of Illinois Trauma Registry. This registry commenced to accumulate information from fifty chosen trauma center hospitals in the state in 1971. The early registries were stored in mainframe computers but in 1985 they began to be stored in microcomputers. Subsequently, many hospitals all over the world have established trauma registries. In the United States alone, there are thirty seven states that have a trauma registry. These registries comprise of information on patients treated in trauma centers (Nwomeh).
Norris, Fran H. “Epidemiology of Trauma: Frequency and Impact of Different Demographic Groups.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 60.3 (1992): 409–418. Print.
Everyday we read in the newspaper or watch T.V and hear news of crimes committed by Juveniles. With all of the crime being reported by the media about juveniles, one can’t help but wonder if all of our nation’s youth are juvenile delinquents. Although there are many cases where the juvenile did not commit a serious crime, there are others where the crime is so bad the juvenile court system tries the juvenile as an adult. Instead of seeking help for the individual, our justice system places them in adult facilities to “teach them a lesson.” The justice system fails to see what the cause of this outbreak is in a child whether it was abuse, neglect, or where they grew up. The juvenile justice system needs to see that by simply teaching the juvenile a lesson, it does nothing to deter crime.
Castle, Gilbert H. GIS in Real Estate: Integrating, Analyzing, and Presenting Locational Information, Appraisal Institute, 1998.
As applications of geospatial technologies continuously break the disciplinary barrier, the need for books on these technologies to reach diverse audiences is greater than ever. The challenge, however, is to write a book on this complicated subject that incorporates the knowledge of multiple disciplines and makes it valuable for those who may or may not have diverse educational backgrounds, but require using these technologies. Most books on geospatial technologies target a specific audience. Contrary to this, Geographical Information Science tries to target three different audiences (users, students, and engineers) by using formats and languages comfortable to them. While this effort is laudable, maintaining the balance and attractiveness to all the three audiences is challenging. The author, Narayan Panigrahi, has accomplished this balancing act but with mixed outcomes. His computer science background is clearly seen in the structure and contents of the chapters.
Geographers plan new communities, decide where new highways should be placed, and establish evacuation plans. Computerized mapping and data analysis is known as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), a new frontier in geography. Spatial data is gathered on a variety of subjects and input onto a computer. GIS users can create an infinite number of maps by requesting portions of the data to plot.
Staff training in GIS technology, database operation and maintenance and good data documentation practises is essential.
GIS is an emerging method of data storage and interpretation. GIS is, simply put a database. It is many tables of data organized by one common denominator, location. The data in a GIS system is organized spatially, or by its physical location on the base map. The information that is stored in the database is the location and attributes that exist in that base map, such as streets, highways, water lines, sewers, manholes, properties, and buildings, etc. each of these items don’t just exist in the database, the attributes associated with the item is also stored. A good example of this would be a specific sewer line, from and arbitrary point A to a point B. Ideally, the sewer line would be represented graphically, with a line connecting the two points or something of the like. When one retrieves the information for that line in particular, the attribute data would be shown. This data would include the size of pipe, the pipe material, the upper invert elevation, the downstream invert elevation, the date installed, and any problem history associated with that line. This is the very gist of what a GIS system is.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of youth enter into the justice system. Incarceration is not designed to properly meet the needs of youth nor strengthen their development. Research indicates that relying on punishment and incarceration, rather than rehabilitation, is harmful to youth and may
...ffects on human health. These have high negative effects on low income areas, as a result of pollution, visual, oral and air, as well as high levels of overcrowding. The World Health Organisation predicts that in the next 30years most of the world’s population growth will occur in cities and towns of poor countries. This rapid, unplanned and unsustainable pattern of urbanisation, is creating cities into focal points for environmental and health hazards (World Medical Association, 2010).