Signed Off
LEP Maping
last updated on Wed, 12/31/1969 - 16:00
General Information
Description
This project entails building a web-portal for maps of demographic data on the United States’ limited English proficiency (LEP) populations. The main feature of the website will be a mapping tool in which users can view LEP demographic data at the level of states or public use microdata areas (PUMAs).Purpose and goal of the project
Client contact
Dr. Steve Reder
Dept. of Applied Linguistics (Chair)
Email: stevereder2003@yahoo.com
Phone: (503) 725-3999
Office: 122B East Hall
Personnel
Josh Caplan (geographic data management) jcaplan@pdx.edu
Cris Holm (programming) holmc@pdx.edu
Dave Percy (GIS consulting) percyd@pdx.edu
Will Garrick (project manager) will@pdx.edu
Scope and Scale
Customer
National Institute for Literacy
http://www.nifl.gov
Users/ audience
The map will likely be accessed by a wide variety of people. The users for whom the data are most relevant include researchers (linguists, geographers, social scientists), advocates for LEP individuals, and those interested in determining the LEP status of their region.
Scope
This project has a national scope.
Partners
US Census Bureau: Provided spatial and demographic data.
http://www.census.gov/
Geography division contact: geography@geo.census.gov
Architecture/Design
Project Specification
Geographic and demographic data will be stored together in shapefiles. There will be a shapefile for (a) state level data, (b) PUMA level data using the 1% definition, and (c) PUMA level data using the 5% definition.
MapServer will generate choropleth maps using options specified by the user (see below) to determine the shapefile and field on which to base coloration.
Bounds for coloration classes (for all shapefiles and fields) will be pre-determined, and stored in a MySQL database.
The map served up will display the following:
- Geographic boundaries for the states/PUMAs
- State boundaries
- Cities/towns (with only large cities appearing at large scales
- Labels for states and cities
- A legend of all map layers and choropleth classes
- Greyed-out polygons where demographic data are based on < 80 cases
The user must be able to customize the following:
- The geographic units of interest (States, 1% PUMAs, 5% PUMAs)
- The demographic variable to be mapped
- Whether data are shown for LEP populations using the broad definition of LEP, LEP
- populations using the narrow definition, or the base (non-LEP) populations
- Whether data are displayed as numbers of individuals or as percents
Tools to do the following will be included:
- View numeric values for individual states/PUMAs
- Recenter the map based on a mouse click
- Select the map scale (one of six zoom levels)
- Navigate across a map by clicking on direction arrows
- Turn city polygons and labels on and off (These tools will be implemented as Chameleon widgets.)
Requirements
Software requirements:
- Apache server
- MapServer and associated libraries
- MapScript PHP
- Chameleon
- PHP
- MySQL Java Script
Project home and resource storage
Though the surrounding website will be located remotely, map generation will take place on PSU's geospatial server (mimer.oit.pdx.edu) and will be powered by MapServer.
The map can be viewed at: http://geospatial.research.pdx.edu/lep/
Old info:
While under construction, the project is located on geotest.oit.pdx.edu.
The following paths are notable:
/home/gis/puma (contains data files)
/disk/local/mapserver/html/chameleon/samples/htdocs/puma (contains map generation files, username: mapserver)
Related Projects
The RLIS/OSCDL project is also a web-based mapping project powered by MapServer.
Project status
Timeline
Beta testing completed. As many changes as possible should be made Friday 1/13/06, when Dr Reder meets with funding agency.