IT242_FinalProject
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Southern New Hampshire University *
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Course
242
Subject
Geography
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
Pages
13
Uploaded by DukeHummingbirdMaster1028
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Final Project:
Disaster Management: Meltdown at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station
Southern New Hampshire University
IT-242-J7288 Intro to Geographic Info Sys
Dr. Matthew R. Cartlidge
Sharvonte Page
November 16, 2023
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I.
Statement of Problem
There is a Nuclear Generating Station that is located within proximity of Phoenix Arizona.
The state wants to take precautions and provide the citizens with being able to provide with an
accurate map in case there is a meltdown at the plant. There is critical information that they want
to relay to the citizens that could help them in case of this emergency. The reason why the state
needs to be provided this information is due to the nuclear disaster that was caused by
Fukushima Daiichi in March of 2011. By creating a map and giving it to the public this helps to
relieve everyone of an unwanted burden. It also helps to stay ahead so that everyone can plan.
The spatial problem chosen for my final project is disaster management. I will be
providing a new disaster management map for the state of Arizona. This map will serve the
public as knowledge in the case of a meltdown at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. The
area of focus will be Maricopa County which is in Arizona. In specific we will be locating
hospitals that will be able to handle a capacity of 200 or greater and bodies of water located near
the Nuclear Generating Station. I will be identifying the danger zones of 10, 20, and 25 miles
with the generating station. Also, I will be attempting to identify bodies of water that could
possibly be affected by contamination as well and give them a number to rate by severity.
The reasoning behind picking this spatial problem was because I like the idea of going
into natural resources. It’s something about doing research and data for places and things that
could affect our everyday living or health. Not only does it excite me, but it helps me to believe
that there is a cure for everything. Also, because this is the focus that I would like to lean towards
once completing my degree. I want to get my hands dirty and be outdoors looking for answers
and ways to solve problems. I feel as though this will challenge me in the right capacity. This
will help me to attempt to understand what I will be getting myself into in the future. These
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issues hit home as there have been a lot of natural disasters lately in the United States, this seems
like focal point that will always need some attention.
Using cartographic techniques, which not only does this problem call for, but mapping in
general. We will be using an imagery map, that will give a clear, legible, and visible image of the
area we’re focusing on. On the map there will be single points (Palo Verde Generating Station)
and all the hospitals with a capacity of 200 or more. There will also be lines on the map that are
different colors, these lines represent the bodies of water that are in Maricopa County Arizona.
There will also be different icons to differentiate between hospitals and bodies of water.
Hospitals are designated with a first aide symbol while the bodies of water are just lines and each
type of body of water is identified by a different color line. Using this method, it will add
color/art to the look of the map.
I’ll also be using spatial techniques! This technique will be utilized so that we are able to
outline the danger zones of 10-, 20-, and 25-mile radius of the generating station. Also, this will
allow me to make the correlation between the different hospitals by referring to their
geographical location and where they are within or around the danger zone. Using this method,
I’ll be able to extract all the data given data and add to the maps by doing an overlay of all the
new information that is found. This will also allow me to discover patterns and relationships that
may be in demographic area that I’ll be researching, along with any calculations that would need
to be completed. Using the spatial technique will allow me to give you, the reader, a more
precise visualization of what is going on in a flat form. All information will be labeled by
symbols or icons and will be charted on the graph. Everything will have a correlation, so you
will see shapes, distances will be notated, places, and objects. So, the map will summarize the
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transformation that will be taking place. I will be giving the reasoning when answering the
questions asked.
II.
Data
Spatial data is used as an analyst for geographical locations. It provides information to
identify specific locations and the boundaries of that location. I will be using spatial data in my
final project to provide specific information about Maricopa County. The spatial data information
I used will help me to provide valuable information just in case there is a meltdown at the Palo
Verde Nuclear Generating Station.
All spatial data used within my map is directly referenced to a particular location. The most
of my information used is geographical because it pertains to a specific location, and I am
providing a specific mile radius for one of the datasets. We are possibly using geospatial data as
well. The issue at hand could affect the Earth’s surface if there were to be a disaster, the only
thing is we are not referring to latitude or longitude coordinates. We are using points, rectangles,
boundaries, and poly to put the information on the graph.
While we are targeting to gather the information for hospitals and bodies of water, we
will look at the whole catchment area. I will be combining different data and maps to get an
overall picture of the county in question. Using maps, we can target zones and areas that will best
benefit what I am researching. Also using maps can help me gather the environmental
information I need. I will be using the indirect spatial reference for the final project as it’s used
for geographic features.
I will be using points and lines, along with overlap and proximity. The reason for using
overlap and proximity is because we need the data to be within a certain radius and we want to
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capture anything that overlaps. Points and lines will be used because this is what I am used to
using when it comes to mapping.
The information I’m using should be reliable as I am pulling the information from the
county site. This means that the state has provided this information, and I am just plugging it in
into the map. Also, the information about the bodies of water is pulled from following the actual
map information.
Quality information is important for this assignment as it is to any map. There are a ton of
reasons why it’s important to have quality information. One of the reasons is because we need
information about hospitals and bodies of water for emergency purposes. Hospitals in cause of
emergency with hazardous situation is crucial. Depending on the contact and type of hazardous
material an individual comes into to contact with, could mean life or death. Not to mention, but
having quality information is having factual and actual information. This means that all the
information is true and accurate. No one can question or second guess the information that is
being provided.
The one site that I used for more than most of my data was AZ geo data. This website is a
government database that provides information in all types of files about the state of Arizona.
This site is used for the purpose of mapping, and it is open to the public for them to be able to
search everything they need to know about the state. This platform, supported by the Arizona
Geographic Information Council (AGIC) and the Arizona State Land Department, was built to
allow people to explore and download authoritative data for the state of Arizona. Most data
published by AZGeo is accessible to the general public. AZGeo also utilizes groups to allow
people to share sensitive data within groups
(AZGeo Data, n.d.).
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III.
Methodologies
A.
Outline
My methods of organization are simple. All my information and data are placed into
folders and those folders are located within ArcGIS pro. Some of those folders are hospitals,
lakes, rivers, cities. These folders have all the information that is important to the data that I will
be providing. A lot of the information is in shapefiles and geodatabase. Navigation in the
windowpane the folders we added and located with mgisdata as the main folder.
To gather the information for my final project I will be using land records and field
surveys that have been completed and placed on file, along with geographic information that is
available to us. I will also use information that’s available through the internet as well like search
engines such as Google. These methods seem to be the best way for my final project as the
information needed would be easily found as they serve a huge need for the city. The information
that I find will make it for me to create spread sheets. With the information that I am placing in
spread sheet, I will need to list the following information name, location, size, and some other
things in depth. Placing this information into a spreadsheet and then importing it into ArcGIS Pro
will be the best way to go. I will possibly be able to use the imagery base layer map to zoom in
on some of the things that are needed as well.
I will also be creating additional folders within the map to house the information
that I find relevant to the final assignment. Doing this will allow me to keep all my information
together and organized. I will also be creating geodatabase files that will house information as
well using point locations for this final project. I will pretty much be importing the csv files,
shapefiles, and geodatabase files into ArcGIS Pro which is how I will be listing the geodatabase
information.
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B.
Data Sets
I will have multiple sets of data along with multiple sets of data for the same information.
Considering, I must make a list of hospitals within a certain mile radius that has a capacity of
more than 200 people. I will be creating the data as a listing that will need to be imported. While
providing a listing of hospitals, I will also be providing a listing of all the bodies of water that
surround Maricopa County. Areas of contamination and danger zones could possibly have
multiples in the same area.
In this instance one set of data for hospitals and bodies of water is suffice. It suffices
because we don’t need anything past that information nor do their multiples that we need to
compare of those geographics. Now as far as the danger zones are concerned and possible areas
of contamination, I will need to provide multiple sets because this could include multiples of
places, or an area may host more than one business in the area. I will continue to do research on
the places, business, and buildings in the county and I will prepare the data that is most relevant
to what I am doing research on, so right now I don’t have a definitive answer on joining as I am
still pulling research. Also, due to needing to provide information about the danger zones of 10,
20, and 25 miles could possibly mean the information that I provide will be used multiple times
due to being within that range multiple times.
C.
Geoprocessing Tools
I will be using several geoprocessing tools with my final project. The reason I will be
using multiple geoprocessing tools is because my final project makes for some specific
boundaries. I will first be using the attribute table and inserting a clause due to my final project
requesting that I give information about danger zones that are within 10, 20, and 25 miles.
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I will also be utilizing the merger tool as I need to provide data about hospitals that have
a capacity of 200 or more patients while also providing the data for the bodies of water that are
nearby. Since these items have multiple and they are all the same type of geographic item ill need
to merge the data types together. I also think I will need to use the dissolve tool as well. I will
need to use this tool because I need to focus only on Maricopa County in Arizona and no other
area. So, this means I would need to block out the surrounding areas to give the most accurate
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D.
Symbols
I will be using several symbols in my final project. I will need to identify water, hospitals,
danger zones, and possible contamination areas. I will be identifying the hospitals by either a
hospital or first aide symbol. I will identify water by the stream symbol, I will use natural
disaster or hazard for others. This could possibly change as I am able to download symbols into
the program as well. So, depending on how close the colors are and how big the symbols look I
could possibly change them around.
I used the dark blue square for major water bodies, light blue square for lakes, purple line
for rivers, dark blue line for major streams, red line for major rivers, and the white circle with red
heart for the hospitals, the black out line for the county, and the dotted black lines for the danger
zones.
E.
Maps
For my map selection for my final project, I utilized the open street map. I utilized an
open street map because when I zoomed in it allowed me to see some of the things I needed to
notate. This allowed me to have an accurate pinpoint for my map. This map gave me the best
results for the illustration I was trying to display. The following maps will depict what I had to
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research.
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F.
Best Practices
My best practices for creating my map were to make sure that everything was organized,
made sure that all the symbols and icons were small enough for the map, so that it was
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legible and transparent. I also made sure that I used as many different symbols as
possible, so everything did not look the same on the map. This is to ensure that the map is
visual.
IV.
Conclusion
My conclusion on the spatial problem was that a map for the citizens is absolutely necessary.
It’s necessary because the nuclear plant is extremely close to a ton of national parks, an old
airport, several bodies of water that would fall within the danger zone. With this if there was
ever a natural disaster that occurred it could have the potential to not only harm the people,
but animals and cause a hazardous issue with the water supplies that are within the state.
Citations
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Spatial analysis in ArcGIS Pro—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation. (n.d.).
https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/analysis/introduction/spatial-analysis-in-arcgis-
pro.htm
Wikipedia contributors. (2023). Spatial analysis. Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spatial_analysis
Nelson, G. D. (2020, May 27). Bending Lines: Maps and Data from Distortion to Deception.
https://www.leventhalmap.org/digital-exhibitions/bending-lines/how-to-bend/cartographic-
techniques/
“Quick Links • Maricopa County, AZ • CivicEngage.” Www.maricopa.gov,
www.maricopa.gov/QuickLinks.aspx?CID=124. Accessed 22 Sept. 2023.
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Category:Bodies of water of Maricopa County, Arizona -
Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Bodies_of_water_of_Maricopa_County,_Arizona
AZGeo data. (n.d.).
https://azgeo-open-data-agic.hub.arcgis.com/