Humanitties

GEOG-210 / GEOG-221

Selected Ethnic Geography and

Population Geography of Africa

____________

Christopher Cottrell, Assistant Professor

Department of Political Science and Geography

Southern University A&M College

_________________________________________________________ __________

Assignment: Choropleth Mapping and Academic Article Review

Instructions:

You are going to translate statistical data into meaningful information in the form of choropleth (statistical) maps for the continent of Africa. You are then going to compare the maps you have created with the analysis performed in the following academic article:

The Fertility Transition in Africa By Ezekiel Kalipeni

Geographical Review, Vol. 85, No. 3 (Jul., 1995), pp. 286-300

1. Go to Moodle and download the .pdf file for the above article (READ!).

2. Go to: www.cia.gov (Central Intelligence Agency)

3. Click “World Fact Book” (Compendium of world geographic information for government officials.)

4. Select country.

5. Select CIA topic, locate and enter the data indicated on the spreadsheet for each country.

6. The number of languages and/or dialects spoken and the environment-international agreement data, along with the third data set of your choice selected from the spreadsheet, are required for mapping and analysis.

7. You may select additional data sets to map for extra credit, provided they are used in your analysis.

8. You will create your maps using the online mapping utility, http:// www.mapchart.net . Select “Africa”, then “countries”. Then use the following settings:

a. Borders: “on”

b. Country names: “off”

c. Border color: “black”

d. When coloring the countries guided by your data, click on the “fill color” box to change colors (notice that the colors you have selected are marked with a “check”).

e. USE PREVIEW! Use edit!

f. When finished, place the cursor on the map, right-click, select “save image as” or “copy image”, place map into a Microsoft Word document (one map per page). Your responses to the questions below will also be placed in this document.

9. Analysis: Answer the following questions using what you learned from the article and the maps you created.

a. In the article, Kalipeni states that “that sub-Saharan Africa has not yet experienced a genuine demographic transition and that it is doubtful whether the continent will achieve the transition in a timely fashion” and that “the main factor in achieving the transition is socioeconomic development.” Also, Kalipeni states that “the demographic transition postulates a necessary, causal link between modernization and fertility reduction.” Does a visual comparison of your maps and the maps presented in the article agree with these statements? Discuss.

b. Kalipeli states in the article that some argue that “deep-rooted cultural forces may prevent Africa from ever achieving the fertility transition”. Do your maps agree? Explain.

10. A complete assignment to be turned in will consist of:

a. Neatly typed Microsoft Word document with:

i. Title page:

1. Title: “Africa Choropleth Mapping Project

2. Student Name

3. Class/day/time

4. Christopher E. Cottrell, Assistant Professor – Geography

5. Department of Political Science and Geography

6. Southern University A&M College

ii. Your maps created with www.mapchart.net

iii. The answers to questions 9-a and 9-b.

b. A landscape printout of your spreadsheet, sorted by country.

c. Upload both of your documents to the class Moodle Page for grading.

11. Choropleth Mapping Procedure:

Use the following procedure for the quantitative data sets.

a) Use the following quantile equation to create the number of classes required for the choropleth maps:

where Qi = the quantile natural break, n = the number of data, i = the iteration being performed, and q = the number of classes desired.

b) For the choropleth maps to be created for this project using this technique, we will use five (5) classes.

Map Classification Lookup Table Creation Procedure:

The classification lookup table is the legend on the map that organizes your data being mapped, and sets up the data in a manner that allows for the revealing of meaningful pattern and quantity analysis of the spatial distribution being mapped. Here is how you will create one for each of the choropleth maps:

1) Use the spreadsheet sort function to sort the desired column of data (in descending order) you are going to create a map from.

2) BE CAREFUL! Make sure that when sorting, you keep your data consistent (for example, Angola’s data stays with Angola, Egypt’s data stays with Egypt, etc..) and not allow it to become mixed up. Use the spreadsheet help function for details on how to do this, if this is unfamiliar. I also strongly suggest you make a working copy of your master file, and use the working copy for the sorting. That way you can avert catastrophe.

3) Calculate the quantile natural breaks for the required classes in the classification lookup table (to be put on the map), using the equation above in step 3-a of the choropleth mapping procedure, as follows in the example below.

Example:

Consider the following data (already sorted in descending order):

( ) ⎟⎟ ⎠

⎞ ⎜⎜ ⎝

⎛ +=

q i

nQ i

1

93

81

72

65

58

42

36

24

18

Next, calculate the quantile natural breaks in the data. Assume three (3) classes are to be used. Therefore:

Q1 = (9+1)(1/3) = 3.3 ! 3

Q2 = (9+1)(2/3) = 6.7 ! 7

(Notice that this calculation is performed [q-1] times.)

Using the calculated values (in this case, 3 and 7), break the data into the number of classes by counting to the 3rd and 7th values in the data set, and placing a break after each data value. Like so:

93

81

72

___

65

58

42

36

___

24

18

See how the required numbers of classes (3) for the classification lookup table are the result?

Finally, construct the classification lookup table to be placed on the map similar to this format:

You will use this table to then shade the countries on your map. Notice how the highest range of values is assigned the color red. This is required for your quantitative choropleth maps.

Example map using the above classification lookup table:

93 - 72

65 - 36

24 - 18

The other colors I leave to your selection, but; think about the meaning of the colors you select relative to your data. Remember, cartography is the art and science of mapmaking.

Cheers! --Prof. Cottrell