Jessica Oh
UEP 232: Intro to GIS
Assignment 1
Project idea 1: The Extent of Marine Plastic Debris and its Effect on Endangered Species
There has been a large amount of media attention on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The Patch contains higher concentration of plastics and trash than is normally found in the ocean
and is estimated to be the size of Texas. This marine litter is trapped by currents of the North
Pacific Gyre, and this accumulation of plastics is known to have profound effects on wildlife.
For example, many marine birds and animals ingest the long-lasting plastic debris as food and
eventually starve to death. The ingested plastics can also cause hormonal imbalances in the
animals. Lastly, floating pieces of plastics increase the spread of invasive species that attach to
the floating debris.
For this project, I would like to overlay a map containing the projected marine debris
patch with the range of several endangered marine species found in that area. Endangered
species commonly associated with marine plastic pollution include the Hawaiian Monk Seal,
Laysan albatross, and Green Sea Turtle – although over 200 species are affected by garbage
patches. Or looking at the complete opposite angle, it would be interesting to focus on a specific
endangered animal (especially there has been a lot research conducted on this species) and
overlap the area of several different threats, one of which includes the garbage patch. In addition,
any information about weather and ocean currents might helpful in elucidating the extent of the
garbage patch.
References:
http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html
This NOAA website is a good source of basic information and clears up common
misconceptions about marine debris patches. The NOAA also has an extensive list of scientific
literature related to marine debris patches, although not all are focused on the North Pacific
Ocean area.
Donohue, M. and D. Foley. 2007. Remote sensing reveals links among the endangered Hawaiian
monk seal, marine debris, and El Niño. Marine Mammal Science 23(2):468-473.
In this research paper, Donohue et al. show that monk seal entanglement is greater during
periods characterized by the El Nino phenomenon. This paper sparked my interest in using
multiple and distinct sources of data. For example, the authors used monk seal entanglement data
(from a previous biology paper), mean wind stress data (NOAA), and other oceanographic
features.
Data:
Marine garbage patches have generally not been well studied. In addition, the small bits of
floatable plastic debris are unable to be seen by satellite and thus field sampling is required to
gather data. However, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation website contains GIS maps from
their sampling survey data. Hopefully it is possible to get the raw GIS data from the foundation
that was used to create those maps.
http://www.algalita.org/research/plastic_pollution_GIS_maps.html
Project 2: Starbucks v. Independently Owned Coffee Shops in Seattle, WA
As coffee consumption in the United States has risen, Starbucks coffee shops are
ubiquitous on every street corner. Although Starbucks has popularized the current coffeedrinking culture, how does this enormous corporate franchise affect smaller, independently
owned coffee shops? The conventional wisdom is that large companies such Starbucks, Walmart,
Home Depot generally outcompete local, mom and pop shops, causing them to go out of
business. Interestingly enough, the number of locally owned coffee stores has not decreased with
the Starbucks expansion over the past decade. In fact from 2000-2005, locally owned coffee
shops in the United States increased by 40%.
Taylor Clark from Slate argues that locally owned coffee shops actually benefit from
nearby Starbucks stores due to local buzz and marketing that trickles down to independent coffee
shops. As a result, I would like to map out Seattle, WA (my hometown) as well as another
metropolitan area to see if a spatial relationship exists between Starbucks stores and
independently owned coffee shops. In addition, as Seattle is the home of Starbucks, I am curious
to see if there are differences in Seattle versus another city.
Spatial Questions:
1. Is Starbucks pushing out independently owned coffee shops? If so, what is that radius
around Starbucks store?
2. Where are independently owned coffee shops generally found in cities i.e. Cost of lease?
Near commercial areas?
3. Are there any differences between cities (i.e. Seattle, LA, Boston) when answering
questions 1 and 2?
References:
http://www.slate.com/id/2180301/
Taylor Clark’s article about how Starbucks is helping local mom-and-pop coffee shops. As his
evidence is mostly from personal anecdotes, the spatial relationship between Starbucks and local
shops can provide either stronger support, negate, or provide no support for his argument.
GIS Helps Find Profitable Locations for Schlotzsky’s Deli by K. Richardson
http://www.directionsmag.com/articles/gis-helps-find-profitable-locations-for-schlotzskysdeli/122544
This article looks at the use of GIS in franchising. The GIS system was used to find successful
franchising locations and 3 major types of information was used: the companies’ competitors
geocoded to specific street addresses, leasable area and anchor tenants¸ block group and ZIP
Code demographics. As a result, I will likely be looking at similar data for this project.
Data:
Starbucks locations in any area can be found online on the Starbucks website or even on Google
maps. However, information about local independently owned coffee shops can be generally
found via their websites.
http://web1.seattle.gov/dpd/maps/dpdgis.aspx
In addition, the City of Seattle has data sets for $125. The website also contains an interactive
GIS map, in which you can click on layers to appear on a map of Seattle.