Mid-term Exam
GIS I

Answer three out of four questions.  Make sure you clearly mark which questions you answered. Your answers should be typed and double spaced and any relevant diagram neatly drawn. Please make an effort to be thorough yet concise (no more than two pages per question, not including graphics).  Use all resources available to you including texts, manuals, lab exercises, and help files.  The exam is due on November 3 at the beginning of class.

1. Explain some of the issues involved with geographic representation.  In this explanation be sure to describe the difference between the field and object views as well as how geographic data are represented in the raster and vector systems.
2. You are a GIS manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation.  You have ten employees who have learned how to use the projection tools of ArcGIS in a very expensive one-day workshop.  They know how to use the menu system for projecting data in ArcToolbox but they have no idea how to make particular choices.  Write a one-page description of the issues involved with converting your data from latitude-longitude to UTM.  Make sure the document describes the significance of the following concepts: ellipsoid, flattening, semi-minor & semi-major axes, projections and their properties, and cartesian coordinate systems.
3. Geographic data are imperfect and uncertainty in spatial data are introduced in three stages including conception, measurement, and analysis.  Explain each and explain some of the details of how spatial data are uncertain. In other words, describe what you know about the uncertainty of spatial data.
4. One student studied the voting behavior in Iowa using county level census data and found the percentage of Republican vote and the percentage of annual household income over $50,000 were positively correlated. He concluded that people making over $50,000 tended to vote Republican. Explain why his statement might be wrong. Make sure your answer includes the discussion on MAUP and ecological fallacy. How would you state the results of the student’s statistical analysis? What will be a more rigorous way of investigating the relationship between voting behavior and household income?