Sep 9–The Importance of Scale in Coupled Natural-Human Systems Research
Notes from David Saah’s GIS guest lecture (Sep 11)
Forthcoming
Notes from Carol Spector’s “Accessing Environmental Data” lecture
Session Date: Tuesday, September 16, 12:45-2:30 pm
Sample topic: How social variables relate to physical variables; water use in Central Valley agriculture, wildlife management, urban waste management, urban agriculture/food production
Guides: “More Data and Statistics” webpage
- Intro to data/statistics
- Very difficult to collect your own data and have it be statistically significant
- Consider looking at what data relating to your topic has already been collected
- Look broadly – you may not find the exact variable you want, but related variables may be useful
- Look for reliable sources of data – government agencies, widely recognized non-profit organizations
- Look at 2ndary sources – news and journal articles – for references to data. May lead you to a dataset or their own collection of data. Let the journalist or scholar do some legwork for you.
- Think about context: compare your location of interest to other locations; within a location, compare variables
- Environmental Data
- EPA My Environment: search by county or state
- San Francisco select icons from banner
- Mapping feature is a bit clunky, but website provides easy access to data.
- Try “My Maps” for best mapping: 94117 select “Air Emissions” click on a site and see demographic data within one mile radius!
- Right to Know – easy access to Toxic Release Inventory and other info on waste and spills
- search all databases (beta): try San Francisco or California
- search TRI: good for comparison maps (state data); can also search by city or state
- Surf Your Watershed: use zip code click on “Impaired Water for this watershed” for better map
- See online guide for additional recommended sources
- EPA My Environment: search by county or state
- Socio-Economic Data – county level data (income, education, race)
- Local Labs – county and city level data
- American FactFinder
- Street address – 2130 fulton St, San Francisco, CA 94117
- Select census tract – 157
- Select GeographiesMap and change boundaries/features to view tract boundaries
- Can visually select adjacent areas (and “add to selections”) using select tool and changing geography to tracts or blocks, or select all census tracts in SF, for comparison purposes
- Under topics people data profile or choose “selected social characteristics”
- See online guide for additional recommended sources
- Mapping – for visualizing and integrating data
- Census Explorer
- Policy Map (free version) – easy mapping!
- TOXMAP Beta overlay health and census data
- Multi-disciplinary Sources
- Google: forest data clunky results, doesn’t always find data
- Google Public data: forest good for global data, country comparisons
- Statistical Abstract of the United States forest
- Statista: forest tends to be global and business oriented limit by geography
- Searching for Articles (aka “The Hidden Web”!) Library Homepage
- Fusion: deforestation and statistics
- Access World News
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/guidance_for_data_users/estimates/
Sep 23–Quiz 4
- Name one of the two reasons that an evaluation component might be required in a grant proposal.
- Describe what is meant by “dissemination” in writing grant proposals.
- What would be a fatal mistake one might make in a grant proposal’s budget?