Final Project

Introduction
As you may already know, the United States is currently enduring a gas crisis. In the state of California, gas prices have reached an all-time high of 4+ dollars! With these skyrocketed gas prices, people everywhere seek the cheapest gas stations in their area to purchase fuel for their vehicles. This made me curious about gas stations in our region, Los Angeles, California. I wanted to find out what company has the most gas stations in the City of Los Angeles, and if this company was able to sell gas for cheap as a result of their success in the industry. My hypothesis was that the companies with the most gas stations in Los Angeles offer the cheapest gas. Before I could find this out, I had to find out what company, if any, has a monopoly on Los Angeles gas. In other words, what company has the most gas stations in the City of Los Angeles? I then decided to offer suggestions where new locations these gas stations should be installed in Los Angeles.

Methods
To find out these questions regarding gas stations in Los Angeles, I decided to focus on the two most popular gas stations in our area, Shell and Chevron. Using their company’s websites, I searched the addresses of every respective gas station in Los Angeles and typed each address into an Excel spreadsheet. I did this with the purpose of mapping these addresses in order to find how many and where these stations exist in Los Angeles. Before I could do this, I downloaded shapefiles of the City of Los Angeles and its streets from the UCLA GIS Data website. After adding these two files to ArcMap, I used the geolocator tool to map out every Shell and Chevron address I had put into the Excel Spreadsheet. I was then left with a map of Los Angeles filled with red and green dots, which pointed out Shell and Cheveron gas station locations.
On new maps, I created 2-mile buffers for each gas station. The parts of Los Angeles that the 2-mile buffer did not encompass showed me where a new gas station is likely to be built in the future. For both Shell and Chevron stations, I picked out the top three locations in Los Angeles where I think new stations should be installed. I did this by looking up addresses where the station's buffers did not reach. This was done using the streets shapefile and the Identify tool on ArcMap. I then looked up these addresses in Google Maps to make sure I was not proposing a station to be built in an illegitimate area like a gated community, airport, park, etc.

Results
Based on my maps below, I was able to determine that Chevron is the most abundant gas station in Los Angeles. Although there are less Shell stations in Los Angeles, their 2-mile buffers cover a similar area as Chevron’s 2-mile buffers, which shows that Shell stations are more evenly distributed throughout Los Angeles, though less in number. In many instances, Chevron and Shell stations are located within the same block or even across the street from each other. I handpicked three new locations for each gas station where I thought a new station would fit best. The three addresses I propose for a Chevron gas station to be opened up at are 5399 10th Avenue, 4879 Colina Way, and 1199 Euclid Avenue. The three addresses I propose a Shell gas station to be opened up at are 100 Clearwater Street, 898 Brooks Avenue and 2150 West 91st Street. All six of these locations appear to be legitimate locations for a new gas station in the City of Los Angeles.

Conclusion
It is clear by the maps I constructed on ArcMap that Chevron has the most gas stations in Los Angeles, with Shell as the runner up. After looking at various up-to-date gas prices in Los Angeles, Chevron and Shell are both in the upper-echelon of gas pricing. Valero and ARCO gas stations are examples of cheaper gas stations in our area, even though they do not compare with Chevron and Shell as far as the amount of locations. This proves that my hypothesis that the biggest gas companies have the cheapest gas is incorrect.
This project has taught me that even though Chevron and Shell are successful and popular gas stations, as show by their number of locations, their prices are not what attracts customers. There are cheaper gas stations in Los Angeles, however, Chevron and Shell are the most common and accessible in Los Angeles. Simply possessing the familiar name “Chevron” or “Shell” tells costumers that they have quality gas and fine facilities. Before I did this project, I believed the more stations a gas company had, the cheaper they were able to price their gas, which is why costumers went there. But in reality, having many locations allows a gas company to price their gas high because of the positive notion costumers recieve that Chevron and Shell gas is of a higher standard than the lesser-known gas stations.

Maps






Brian Law

Lab 8

Lab 7 introduces us to spatial interpolation techniques. These techniques take us through the process of predicting values of unknown observations and creating a surface, using preexisting data. The methods of interpolation we used are IDW (Inverse Distance Weighting), Kriging, and Spline. All three methods are unique and can be used effectively in various scenarios.

For this Lab, we used Los Angeles precipitation data from the county’s Water Resources homepage to determine the current amount of rainfall in LA County, as well as the normal rainfall values and the difference between these two values. Both values were interpolated using the IDW and Spline methods. To do this, I loaded the Los Angeles County shapefile to Arcmap, as well as an excel sheet with the rainfall data. I also marked the locations of the rain gauge stations on the map using display X-Y values. Spatial analysis tools let me calculate the values which were shaded into the map.

Based on my maps, I feel the IDW maps are better suited for this project. This method uses linear data points to find unknown values. This works in this lab because we have limited amounts of point on the maps. Because IDW is a deterministic process, it better shows us the rainfall values than Spline. Looking at my Spline maps, one can see a significant difference between the normal and total maps. This is another sign that the IDW interpolation technique works better for our data.

Lab 7

On August 26, 2009, a massive fire broken out in Los Angeles, California. The fire took the lives away from 2 men, as well has wiping out over 160,000 acres of land and destroying over 200 structures. Nearly two months later, the consuming fire was finally contained on October 16, 2009. This fire is know as the Los Angeles Station Fire.
To create my hazard map for the area of Los Angeles, California, I downloaded elevation data, fire perimeter data, and vegetation/land cover data online. Unfortunately, a last-minute computer malfunction has inhibited me from including my perimeter data and my reclassified items to my map. I was forced to only use with my first two maps; land cover and reclassified slope.
The Station Fire consumed the area of the Angeles National Forest in the City of Los Angeles. This area is shown on the map above as consisting of mostly light brush, medium brush, chaparral, and hardwood. They are depicted by the red, blue, light blue, and pink on the top map. All of this land cover in the area of the fire makes for great fuel for any fire. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much green and/or maroon on this section of the map. Green stands for rock and maroon stands for water. Both of which are not flammable and would help contain a fire of this mass.
The slope map shows us that the area where the fire took place is high in elevation, compared to the rest of the map. This must have helped the fire for two reasons. First, high elevations experience tougher climates like wind, which is detrimental for any fire. Second, the high elevation makes it tougher for fire trucks and other aid from getting to the fire. On a lighter note, the urban part of the map was located outside of the fire location so no neighborhoods were taken by the fire.

Lab 6

The oldest form a waste management, landfill, appears to be an effective way to remove trash. However, landfills are permanent; once you fill the land with trash it will stay there forever. When the trash begins to decompose, we face the risk that toxic substances will sink into our groundwater supply or even be released into our air. This is why all precautions should be taken in choosing where to install a landfill.
In recent news, a debate revolving around a landfill in Kettleman City, California has risen. Some would like the landfill to expand while others oppose it. It is believed that the toxic wasteland in central California is releasing arsenic into this farming town’s water supply. Arsenic has been shown to cause health problems when elevated levels enter the human body. A team has been sent to see if this is truly the case, and whether the landfill is safe enough to expand.
In Lab 6, we checked the suitability for potential locations to put a landfill in Gallatin County, Montana. Our suitability analysis included the counties slope of elevation, distance to landfills, soil drainage, stream buffers, and land cover. All this information helped us determine what part of Gallatin County could most safely accommodate a landfill.
One of the more important factors that we analyzed is the slope of elevation. Topography of an area is crucial in deciding where a landfill ought to go because it must be on relatively flat land so the waste will settle evenly. Another crucial factor is soil drainage. You would not want to put a landfill on weak soil with a shallow rock depth. This would inhibit growth and your landfill as well as cause harsh damage during earthquakes. I feel these two factors are the most important when deciding where to locate a landfill.
After completing Lab 6 and checking my analysis, I see potential spots in Gallatin County to place a landfill. I believe the planner of Gallatin County should create another landfill above the existing landfill in the Northeast part of the map. This area has little slope of elevation, good drainage, and doesn’t have a stream flowing through it. All these factors should make this an ideal location for a landfill.

No More Marijuana!!

The proposition to disallow Medical Marijuana Dispensaries within a 1,000 foot buffer from children-filled locations is vital to our future generation. A 2006 Monitoring the Future Survey found that 15.7% of 8th-graders have tried marijuana. These eight graders are barely in their teenage years, and yet they have experienced illegal drugs. This shows us that the banned substance, marijuana, is too easily accessible in our country. This, in part, is made possible by the countless amounts of marijuana dispensaries found in the City of Los Angeles. A recent look at Los Angeles tells us that there are close to 100 dispensaries in this weed-abundant city! Due to President Obama’s regulations to not persecute these marijuana dispensaries, it will be nearly impossible to ban them, but the least our city can do is disallow these establishments to be easily accessible to our younger generation of children. The only solution is to ban dispensaries within 1,000 feet of a school or park.
In the map above, I have geocoded the school and parks of the City of Los Angeles and included the proposed 1,000 foot buffer, in blue. I also geocoded the marijuana dispensaries in a section of Los Angeles. In the zoomed in box to the left of the map, one can clearly see that multiple dispensaries are located within these buffers. This allows the children who occupy these schools and/or parks easy access to get their hands on weed. The fact that these dispensaries are so close and attainable to these children is a source of temptation for them. If a 10 year old student walks passed a marijuana dispensary on his way home from school every day, he seems more likely to experiment with the banned substance than a child who rarely comes into contact with a dispensary. This is why we have devised such a plan to limit the locations of these establishments.
I am not saying to ban all of the dispensaries in the City of Los Angeles, but to carefully chose where their foundations can be built. Our future generations will eventually be taking care of us, and I am sure all of us would prefer our caretakers to not be marijuana abusers.

Iraq Reference Map

Del Taco Addresses in LA County

Del Taco Address Zip Code
2735 South Figueroa Street 90007
844 East Union Street 91101
3020 Los Feliz Boulevard 90039
6550 San Fernando Road 91201
2060 South La Cienega Boulevard 90034
880 North Wilcox Avenue 90640
11446 Jefferson Boulevard 90230
3714 West Verdugo Avenue 91505
8650 Washington Blvd 90660
3540 South La Brea Avenue 90016
3705 Robertson Boulevard 90232
2101 West Glenoaks Boulevard 91201
6710 Laurel Canyon Boulevard 91606
4050 Lincoln Boulevard 90292-5614
3566 East Foothill Boulevard 91107-3118
12690 Ramona Boulevard 91706-3548
8028 Firestone Boulevard 90241
9200 Flair Drive 91731-2836
2515 North Hollywood Way 91505
3190 East Pacific Coast Highway 90804-1721
14485 Inglewood Avenue 90250-6715
20135 Hawthorne Boulevard 90503
17504 Avalon Boulevard 90746-1561
3510 West Century Boulevard 90303
1816 West Imperial Highway 90047
230 South Rosemead Boulevard 91107-4952
15055 Imperial Highway 90638
6275 Foothill Boulevard 91042-2723
1933 East 223rd Street 90810-1608
13701 Roscoe Boulevard 91402-3834
18604 S Western Ave 90248-3827
14301 Clark Avenue 90706-2901
12320 Washington Blvd 90606-2503
1801 East Willow Street 90755-2091
11344 Telegraph Road 90670
11023 Rosecrans Avenue 90650-3605
10664 Alondra Boulevard 90650-5301
11879 Artesia Boulevard 90701
9719 Carmenita Road 90605-3248
7545 Balboa Blvd 91406-2709
106 South Azusa Avenue 91702-4555
19644 Vanowen Street 91335-4945
16216 Crenshaw Boulevard 90249
1595 Sepulveda Blvd 90501-5102
6821 Balboa Boulevard 91406
459 South Citrus Avenue 91723
15353 Chatsworth Street 91345-2040
3705 S Robertson Blvd 90232
13204 Imperial Highway 90670-4818
15266 Whittier Boulevard 90603-1334
1229 Pacific Coast Highway 90710-2931
1006 North Western Avenue 90732
445 West Foothill Boulevard 91741
21060 Golden Springs Drive 91789-3831
2021 Glenoaks Boulevard 91340
1495 North Garey Avenue 91767-3809
18070 Chatsworth Street 91344
20259 Valley Boulevard 91789-2633
19309 Roscoe Boulevard 91324-4242
18200 Gale Ave 91748-1242
8941 Corbin Avenue 91324
1834 E Route 66 91740-3868