Languages
Pages
Legal
Intro to GIS Mapping April 23, 2014
• Why mapping data is effective
– Bill Kennedy, Legal Services of Northern California
• The basics of GIS
– Christina Sanabria, Legal Services Corporation
Agenda
Why GIS, and what is it?
Agenda
How can mapping help my organization?
Examples of GIS in legal aid organizations:
• Advocacy
– Bill Kennedy, Legal Services of Northern California
• Planning
– Dave Sobie, Legal Aid of North Carolina
• Assessment
– Jonathan Pyle, Philadelphia Legal Assistance
• Experiment with a few free tools
– Christina Sanabria, Legal Services Corporation
• Join us for a two-part tutorial
– May 14 and 21 trainings on Google Fusion Tables
Agenda
How can I get started?
Why Mapping?
The Cognitive Science of Mapping and Graphic Presentations of Data
Bill Kennedy,
Legal Services of Northern California
Spatial Memory and the Brain
Spatial Memory and the Brain
• Hippocampus is the
center of “spatial
memory.”
• Showing data in a map
gives advocates
opportunity to bypass
other memory centers
(amygdala, entorhinal
cortex).
• “Re-orient” the viewer
and build new memories
using different parts of
the brain.
Images can be more accessible than numbers
The same data, now on a map
It has been done for a long time W.E.B. du Bois’ map of Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward, 1899
GIS Basics
Christina Sanabria,
Legal Services Corporation
GIS Map = a Database with Spatial Info
File containing attributes
about geographies
• How much/ many
• What kind
• When
File with your data that can be mapped
File containing spatial data
Resource: http://www.census.gov/cgi-
bin/geo/shapefiles2010/main Joined
Nodes (points) 2012 LSC grantee
offices
Arcs (lines) NYC subway lines
Polygons (shapes) Percent change in DC
population 2000-2010,
by Ward
Data: Three Geographic Representations
Nodes (points)
• Input: address converted to latitude and longitude
coordinates
• Ways to use
– Color and/or shape can show type/category
– Proximity can show concentration
– Color and/or size can show magnitude
• Input:
– Reference pre-existing geographies (e.g. counties)
– Create your own geographies (advanced)
• Ways to use
– Color can show type/category or quantity
– Styling (e.g. cross-hatching) can show type/cat.
Polygons (shapes)
Layer multiple
datasets to show a
fuller picture
Data Can be Layered
Mapping in Advocacy
Bill Kennedy,
Legal Services of Northern California
Avondale Glen Elder Neighborhood Association
Environmental Justice
• In December 2008, staff from Sacramento
Natural Gas Storage Company contacted clients
in a historically African American community two
weeks before Christmas offering $500 cash and
a $200 gasoline credit card for the mineral rights
beneath their homes.
• Their plan was to pump 7.5 billion cubic feet of
natural gas into bedrock beneath the homes.
Maps in Less Than an Hour
Advocating against proposed closure of mental health centers
Potential burden on patients traveling to health centers
Takeaways
• Maps are processed differently by the brain than
written/spoken material.
• Maps don’t have to be “pretty” or take a long
time to be meaningful.
Office Location Assessment
Dave Sobie,
Legal Aid of North Carolina
Mapping for Planning
Do we need an additional legal aid office in this area?
Why map the data?
• It would help answer a specific question (“Do we
need an additional legal aid office?”)
• We wanted to see spatial relationships within
this area. Where are the concentrated areas of
poverty? For adults? Children? Seniors? Etc.
• Mapping the data may raise additional questions
for further inquiry.
Poverty in the Focus Area
Poverty and Clients Served in the Focus Area
Extreme Poverty (income <50% of FPL) in the Focus Area
Poverty and Clients in Richmond County
Poverty and Clients in Richmond County
Results
• LANC established an office in Rockingham.
• Increased number of clients from this area.
• Local judges got involved and allowed LANC to
do domestic violence work in neighboring
county.
• Reduced travel time for clients.
Map project advice
• Create more maps than you need.
• Search web for map examples and great ideas.
• Check out local county/city GIS departments
• Avoid trying to put too much information/data
into your maps.
• Create a workflow – it will save you time.
• Experiment!!
Reaching Asian Populations in Philadelphia
Jonathan Pyle,
Philadelphia Legal Assistance
Mapping for Assessment
Reaching Populations in Philadelphia
Ratio of intakes to pop. in poverty, by race:
Category: Intakes People Ratio
Black: 5,714 201,633 0.028
White: 1,764 82,912 0.021
Hispanic: 966 74,399 0.013
Asian: 206 25,430 0.008 Sources:
Intakes: Philadelphia Legal Assistance in 2013
Poverty: Census Bureau American Community Survey, 2012 5-year
estimates
Locations of Asian social service organizations
Chinatown
Social service agencies
Relatively large number of households
Relatively small number of households
Social service agencies
Number of linguistically isolated households (Asian languages)
Relatively large number of households
Relatively small number of households
Social service agencies
Number of intakes
Social service agencies
Relatively large ratio
Relatively small ratio
Chinatown
Ratio of intakes to linguistically isolated households
Relatively large ratio
Relatively small ratio
Drilling down: studying potential outreach targets
Relatively large ratio
Relatively small ratio
Drilling down: studying potential outreach targets
Potential outreach partners
Suggested Resources
• U.S. Census Bureau American FactFinder web
application:
– http://factfinder2.census.gov
• LegalStat web application (PLA’s TIG project):
– http://legalstat.philalegal.org
A Few Free Mapping Tools
• Google Fusion Tables
• Google Maps Engine Lite
• Tableau Public
• QGIS
• ArcGIS (reduced price through TechSoup)
See LRI for more information about each of these tools.
Thanks for Joining Us
• Join us for parts two and three of the series
– May 14, 1 PM ET
– May 21, 1 PM ET
• Contact us for additional information
– Brian Rowe, [email protected]
– Christina Sanabria, [email protected]
– Dave Sobie, [email protected]
– Jonathan Pyle, [email protected]
Top Related