Geography 481:  Intro to GIS
Review Project One

Problem

You are asked to test the idea that the number of Italian restaurants in the Northeast U.S. is highest in New Jersey and decreases as you move away from New Jersey. Specifically, you are asked to identify and explain the sequence of GIS operations you would perform to accomplish the following:

• Divide the cities into three identifiable groups:

  • New Jersey cities

  • Cities located outside New Jersey but within 100 miles of New Jersey border

  • Cities located between 100 and 200 miles of New Jersey border

• Produce a map and analysis comparing the number of Italian restaurants per 1000 people for each of the three groups of cities

First, work through the problem on paper. Then see if your logic works by downloading the files from Data on Geogsrv\Geog481-Carroll\ReviewProj1 site and attempting to solve the problem using ArcMap.

Data Set

US48_CITIES

• Major cities of contiguous 48 states <feature type = points>

• Attributte Fields:

  • CITYNAME: City name

  • STATE: State abbreviation

  • POPULATION: Estimated population

  • ITAL_REST: Estimated number of Italian restaurants

US48_STATES

• Contiguous 48 states plus District of Columbia <feature type = polygons>

• Attribute Fields:

  • STATE_NAME: State name

Please note: the data are estimates that have little or no relationship to actual conditions in the real world!