Protecting the Golden Axe
–This project was completed for Exercise 2: WordPress post with CartoDB–
Goals:
My goal with this project was to use maps created with CartoDB to inform the UC Berkeley campus community of the possible routes of entry onto the Berkeley campus through surreptitious means. The primary motivation for this particular study is to provide for the security of the Stanford Axe in preparation for its return to our campus following Cal Football’s upcoming win in the Big Game this year. While this has little to do with my academic interests, I believe it is the responsibility of every Golden Bear to Beat Stanfurd.
Because of the importance of this artifact, disgruntled Stanford students may attempt a heist by crawling through the storm water and sewage systems. I assumed that the Axe will be stored on campus and that marauding Stanfordians would pilot their yacht to the Berkeley waterfront and then enter the storm water drainage or sewer system there. I intend for this map to foster a discussion on the security of the Stanford Axe and our university’s heritage, and to prepare for possible retaliation.
Maps:
Overview
The three maps I created show the underground storm water and sewage lines in Berkeley large enough for a person to crawl through, with entrances near the Berkeley Marina and exits near campus. The data used was acquired and adapted from the City of Berkeley Data Download Catalog and was downloaded in ESRI Shapefile firmat, “.shp.”
Storm Water Map
I first created a map of the storm water and the sewage systems separately. I chose only pipes that were wider than or equal to “30” in diameter, which I assumed to be in units of inches—so a person could fit through. Because of the difference in data types applied to each data set by the CartoDB application, I used different categories to display the data through the program, even though the final appearance is nearly identical.
Sewers Map
For the sewers map, “Sewers in Berkeley Large Enough,” I used the data set [ss_main] and after querying for the sewer lines larger than or equal to 30 in diameter, I made a new data set, [ss_main_bigenough]. I and plotted this new data set as brown lines using a “Simple” category map. For the storm water map, “Storm water Drainage in Berkeley Large Enough,” the CartoDB classification chose string as the default diameter category based on the large number of entries listed in “numberxnumber” format (example: 32×20), which could not be converted to integer format. Because of the large number of data—over 7,000 entries—I plotted the data using a “Category”-type map, with the acceptable routes as blue lines and unacceptable routes as white.
Final Map
These two maps display the possible routes to campus possible either system, so I then combined them in a third map, “All Routes Through Berkeley” to make it possible for the viewer to reference both. I manually added red lines with low opacity to highlight potential routes on this map.
Problems
The problem I ran into with the CartoDB program relates to not being able to convert data types based on the format of the data and inability to edit these data in batches. I was not able to find a way to choose all data with one specific diameter value and then edit or delete them, which led to my category workaround. This problem may be avoidable in the program itself when choosing the type of data, but the automatic data type classification and the apparent lack of ability to easily manipulate data in CartoDB itself are issues in the default setup. Another solution is to use a format like “.csv” that is easily opened and edited in spreadsheet or text-editing programs.
Happy mapping,
William Zell