This week is the final module for my GIS Cartography course. This week’s lesson topic covered Volunteer Geographic Information (VGI) and OpenStreetView (OSM). VGI is open data that is collected by individuals who volunteer their time to map locations they have access to. The pros of VGI are that locals can provide firsthand data, which helps create more accurate community map data. This is especially valuable in locations that may be at risk for crisis and natural disasters because organizations, such as Red Cross, can use the VGI data to navigate communities. The cons are that there are no concrete systems in place to QAQC the data. Like Wikipedia, anyone can submit data and that data could be inaccurate or completely wrong. Another con to VGI is under-representation, as the map data is mostly contributed by individuals who have the technology and access available to them to map their communities.
In the lab portion of this week's module, we explored exporting and converting map layers from ArcGIS Pro to a KML file to open in Google Earth. In Google Earth, I was able to explore the map in 3D alongside my exported KML layers from ArcGIS. We were instructed to record a tour of the major cities and locations in South Florida. I used my mouse and keyboard to zoom and pan around Miami and Tampa to explore the 3D buildings on the map. I set placemarks for each location to quickly zoom around the map. The attached Google Earth map image shows South Florida, surface water bodies, and a dot map of the population density.
This is great Emily!!
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