Lab 7

In this map, I show how the LA County wildfires affect the population and landmarks of Los Angeles County. Landmarks include schools, parks, building, famous locations, etc. I think this an important issue because, while it is unfortunate that wildfires are burning in the wilderness, it's much worse if they are burning in downtown Los Angeles.

I added the major highways (Los Angeles County Major Highways) of Los Angeles because I think it helps as a reference point to where certain locations are in Los Angeles. From looking at the most major highways (1, 10, 405, 101, etc), it is clear that most of them will not be affected by the fires. This means that there will not be huge traffic problems because of road closures. However, the major road that goes into the national forest will clearly be affected.

The population of Los Angeles County is 9,862,049 (Los Angeles County, California). Los Angeles' population is mostly condensed into the Southern part of the county, however, there are definitely some people who are directly affected by the fires. I added population density (Los Angeles County Census Urbanized Areas) because I think it's important to examine if the fires are burning next to a scarcely population area, or a densely population area. The map shows that the fires are mostly burning around less population areas.

I included landmarks (Los Angeles County Large Area Landmarks) to show how businesses and schools could be affected. If the fires force school closures or amusement park closures, that would adversely affect Los Angeles' economy. If the fires are threatening certain areas that have a lot of landmarks, it may influence where the fire department decides to fight the fire. Similar to population density, the fire threatens some landmarks, but it is burning in an area that does not have a lot of landmarks.

This fire seems to have started in a national park (Los Angeles County Major Parks). This makes sense because there is a lot of fuel for a fire burn in a national park. While it is unfortunate that there is a fire in the first place, this fire is less devastating than other fires that have burned in heavily population areas, like the Oakland Hills Fire in 1992.

Citations:
"Los Angeles County Major Highways". FGDC, ESRI Metadata. May 25, 2010 .

"Los Angeles County, California". Wikipedia. May 25, 2010 .

"Los Angeles County Census Urbanized Areas". ESRI. May 25, 2010 .

"Los Angeles County Large Area Landmarks". ESRI. May 25, 2010 .

"Los Angeles County Major Parks". ESRI. May 25, 2010 .