Analyzing a Real City against Urban Land Use Models

In the course of this lab, you will:

• Create a set of maps that illustrate patterns of urban residential land use by census tract.
• Format the maps and capture them.
• Paste your maps into Microsoft Word and annotate each map by responding to the questions below.

Procedural Details: Using DDViewer for This Lab

To begin you will need to launch DDViewer.

1. When the connection to DDViewer has been made, select the Java Version v3.0.
2. A map of the U.S. will appear and you should highlight Massachusetts on the map by clicking once.
3. In the menu bar below the map, click on "Get Counties".
4. Highlight Worcester County by clicking once on Worcester County (it's in the middle of Massachusetts).
5. Next, click on "Get Tracts". This should produce an empty county map with the census tract boundaries.
6. Notice how there are lots of smaller tracts in the south central portion of the county? That's Worcester and its environs. You'll want to see that in a little more detail. Click on the "Zoom In" button and click 'n' drag to form a box that encloses the Worcester urban area (about a quarter of the county). When you let go, the selected area will blow up to larger scale.
7. Now, with census tract boundaries on your screen, click on the "Select Variables" button. This brings up a dialogue box that lists all the Census variables in the database. At the top of the screen are tabs that group the data. These tabs are labled "Population," "Income," "Education," "Employment," "Housing," and "Other." DDViewer v3.0 allows you to select all variables at one time.
8. Select any five of the following variables:

   poppsqmi (population per square mile, or population density)

   one or more ethnic variables given as percentages (pctwhite, pctblack, pctamind, pctasian, and pcthisp)

   medhhinc (median household income)

   pci (per capita income)

   pctunempl (percentage civilian unemployment)

   pctmgpr (percentage managerial and professional employment)

   pctothoc (percentage other occupation, including manufacturing)

   medyrblt (median year built, with low as old neighborhoods and high as new neighborhoods)

   medhval (median home value for owner-occupied housing)

   pctowner (percentage of housing units that are owner-occupied)

9. You should now have five variables listed in a box called "Select Mapping Variables" located on the right-hand portion of the screen. If so, press "Close" and press "Submit Job."
10. After pressing "Submit Job," a map of your first variable should appear. You can map the other variables simply by highlighting them in the variable list.
11. Capture the map image by pressing [Alt-Print Screen] and a copy of the screen will be sent to your clipboard. Import this map by opening Microsoft Word and pressing either [Ctrl-V] or selecting "Edit" and then "Paste." With the image in Microsoft Word, you can format the map by selecting from the tool bar "View," then "Toolbars," then "Picture." If you select the "crop" option, you can crop the image so only the map is visible. Add a title to the map in Microsoft Word and annotate the map by responding to the questions in the exercise below. It's okay to leave it as the raw image that comes out of DDViewer, too.
12. Retrun to DDViewer and dowload the remaining maps by repeating the previous two steps for the other four variables.

Describing Your Findings

Knowing nothing else about this city far, far away, describe the character of the residential neighborhoods you'd encounter going out from downtown in several directions. Neighborhood by neighborhood, bring together the information you mapped and described above.

Interpreting Your Results

Document maintained by © Dr. Christine M. Rodrigue
Adapted from an exercise developed by Harrison S. Campbell, Jr. (1998)
First placed on web: 02/14/01
Last revised: 02/14/01