Blog #5: Mapping my Interests

     I have previously discussed my major here (Human Geography and Global Studies) which is of a prime interest to me, as I enjoy all things human and development. But there is another huge aspect of geography that I don't think many people are well aware of. That is GIS- Geographic Information Systems. It's a bit complicated, but one can think of it as the computer programming side of the discipline. Basically, you are able to use software to display data in a spatial form. So instead of presenting a spreadsheet of the number of Ostriches per country, I could make a map where the more Ostriches, the darker the color filling the borders.

    I am by no means an expert in GIS. Far from it. There are many students in Geography where this is all they do and they are amazing at it. I, on the other hand, have let it take a bit of a back seat as I study more within my emphasis. But as the pandemic continues, and I am stuck inside with less and less to do (come fall semester I will be regretting those words), I have started to make maps again. And I am really having fun. The program I use is called QGIS and it lets me do all sorts of fun things. Right now I am working on a map showing where the top 200 tennis players are from. I have no idea why. I like tennis, and I like maps. So I suppose that is why. By finding a subject that I enjoy, it makes it way easier to learn the program's ins and outs. It feels exciting to teach myself how to highlight certain countries, or make the map look old, or have a tennis ball represent Bulgaria get bigger the more players I say they have.

    GIS can be for silly home projects, but it can also represent important data for research purposes. A great use for it is comparing two variables and seeing where they intersect. For my introductory course, I made a map that compared Human Development Index scores (how developed a country is) vs. carbon dioxide output per capita (how much CO2 the average resident uses). Maps like this are important because they are able to visibly show us how to think about a subject. In this case- that more developed countries use more CO2 per capita, and therefore should not be spared blame just because they have fewer people than countries like China or India.

    I realize this is all a bit in depth and specific, but I think its an interesting subject myself, that will affect us all in some way. Google Maps, Zillow, etc. all use some form of GIS.

My final map for my first GIS course.