Currently, over 50 percent of the nation's population lives within close proximity of the coast. Geographic information system (GIS) software can be used in conjunction with demographic data to visualize population growth and its effects on the surrounding coastal environment. This module focuses on the thematic visualization of tabular data. In the first exercise, students prepare for the thematic visualization of census data by selecting Gulf Coast features from national datasets, then joining the attributes of these features to census data tables. In the second exercise, students calculate and visualize population change, explore different thematic visualization techniques, then choose a demographic parameter to map using the visualization technique of their choice.
At the conclusion of this module, students will be able to: