Special Topics in GIS (GIS5935): Lab 14

In this week's lab, we learned about MAUP. MAUP can affected many different subjects in relation to mapping, such as political boundaries. Gerrymandering is manipulating boundaries of congressional districts to benefits the one's own political gain.

To measure compactness, I looked at the perimeter and length of the districts because the perimeter and length determine the space that the feature occupies in. I had to change the project of the map to projected coordinate system to allow me to utilize the Calculate Geometry feature in the attribute table. I added a new field called Perimeter which measure the area in meter squared. I then added another field called Compactness and open on the Field Calculator. In the Field Calculator, I used the formula (4 * 3.1415 * [Perimeter]) / [Shape_Length]^2*100  allow me to rate the compactness on percentage of compactness.


Congressional District 12 - North Carolina