Lab 4 - Arc GIS

The use of Arc GIS can be very useful in construction planning or work. As this exercise suggests, planners can determine population trends and geographic attributes in planning their construction activity. This way, they can fully comprehend the consequences of their actions before they actually carry their work out. If there are dire potential consequences, they may have to forgo their work and create another, more effective plan. If otherwise, they may be able to continue with their project. One can combine data sets, compare them and also draw useful conclusions.

Arc GIS also lays out everything quite simply. One can look at the map above and not have much questions. Labels make every data set easy to recognize and differentiate one from each other. There is a lot of data above and people can pick and choose data that is useful. Further, color coding and labels make the data easy to read. Individuals can simply look at the labels and scales in order to determine what is what on the map. Little icons and symbols on the Arc GIS map are also helpful to the reader. Although the actual map is very complex and complicated, the end result is easy to use and comprehend.

However, one pitfall of Arc GIS that I found was that it was quite difficult to use. At times I would ruin my whole data by misclicking a certain box option or typing in the wrong data. There are also so many property options, buttons and steps in the actual program. It is at times difficult to keep track of everything and it is easy to make simple mistakes. This makes the program and the end result data prone to errors.

Another pitfall of Arc GIS is that the program is completely computer based. One has to be technically savvy and understand the whole process. The program is also very specific. People need to have the money to buy this program and need to learn how to use it effectively. This may take a lot of time, money and instruction. People who may not really understand computers (perhaps older generations) may have a difficult time even if they are given step by step instructions. If this difficult, it may be even harder to manipulate the program for one's own personal use. It would be hard to create everything from scratch, for I had difficulty even following step by step instructions.