Lab 4 Assignment

I have mixed feelings about my first experience using ArcGIS. Following the tutorial was relatively simple in the beginning. However, for some reason toward the end of the tutorial, I starting running into some issues that did not follow the guide as strictly as I would have liked. Most notably, many of the data files were not as easy to locate. I found myself scrambling through many folders trying to locate the correct data. This was very frustrating at first. Having completed the tutorial, the second run-through was a bit easier. This time around I began to notice the usefulness that ArcGIS has in real-world applications. Nonetheless, I still need a lot more practice with the program to become familiar with it.

With ArcGIS, the potential usefulness of this program is great. I feel it is very versatile in terms of applying it to different situations and scenarios. As evidenced by the example from the tutorial, ArcGIS can serve business that are interested in local/regional planning. It is important to consider factors of the environment, such as the the local schools within the noise contour in the example. Also, other attributes such as distribution and zoning is depicted using GIS. This is important for the field that I am particularly interested in, which is wildlife conservation. By using GIS, conservationists are able to identify which species reside where and where their distributions lie. From this information, conservationists are able to have evidence for environmental protection areas.

ArcGIS also has some pitfalls. One of the problems I see with the program that it is somewhat complicated to use. The learning curve of using the program is quite high and needs repeated usage to become familiar with it. Granted, it is a sophisticated program that requires many components to master. I just feel that this limits the "user-friendly" aspect of using ArcGIS. This also ties into another problem I find with GIS. ArcGIS is not readily available to the public. It's a expensive program that many people, who are not involved with its industry, normally would not have access to.

This is related to the concept of neogeography that we covered not too long ago. We discussed that neogeography is open-source, where as GIS is closed. Because of this, the availability of some geographical information is restricted to the public. But the upside to this is that, generally, information developed through GIS is reliable and accurate.