GIS and Spatial Sciences

at USC Libraries

Andy Rutkowski

arutkows@usc.edu

 

Contact me for a research consultation:

 

arutkows@usc.edu
213.740.6390



Hazard and Disaster Log
 

5 significant natural hazard and/or disaster events that happened over the course of the semester that made media headlines.

 

 

After Action Report on one specific disaster.

 

The report will draw upon course lectures, discussions, readings, and outside sources to organize and deliver a summary of the disaster event and its associated impacts on the affected human population.

 

The report is limited to 10 pages in length (with 12-point font, 1 inch margins, single-spacing for text) and will mostly comprise maps, tables, and other graphics as well as a list of references.

Primary  

Secondary  

Teriatry 

Primary

direct, first-hand, closeness to an event or thing. 

Secondary

interpretation or analysis of a primary or secondary source.

good way of getting back to a primary source.

Tertiary

overview, summary, encyclopedia, wikipedia, textbooks, etc. 
Primary: 
Census data extracted from cenus website
Secondary:
Article or book that discusses and uses that census data
Tertiary: Wikipedia entry for the US Census

Basics of USC Libraries website

 

filters

filters

filters

 

Use advanced search to narrow / broaden your results

Click on full text

and get the article from a database.

 

Depending on which one you choose your article may or may not contain diagrams and images. 

sharing options!

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Google Scholar

change settings in order to link to USC Libraries  

  • click on library links
  • search for university of southern california
  • check off University of Southern California - Find it @ USC
  • save

 

if you selected USC you will see the Find it @ USC link for available articles

Data

Thoughts on Finding Data

  • Topic of interest?

  • Ideal dataset(s)?

  • Source of dataset(s)?

  • Spatial Scale?

  • Temporal Scale?

  • Primary or Secondary data?

  • Raster or Vector data model?

Access to USC subscription databases and other data sources

Other library sources

Statista: great source for data on a range of different topics

Data Planet: large range of data sources - especially international and other government and agency data

 Statistical Insight: reports and stats

Courses - access some specific disaster focused databases

your data is only as good as the metadata

  • where did you get it
  • how it was collected
  • dates
  • coverage
  • etc

Practice good metadata

  • describe the data that you download in a text document
  • write out any relevant information about it
  • if you change your data say what you did
  • name your data files something meaningful
  • with each change update filenames and offer description

Citation

 

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