Thursday, April 23, 2009

Contour Map showing Mean Annual Preciptation

I used manual interpolation method for contour map. The minimum value of 45" and maximum value of 70" is used. The isohyet interval is 5 inches. The width of contour lines is 2 points.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Wind Farm Location in Great Lakes

The potential off shore wind farm location is near "Water intake crib" which is around 3-4 miles off from the NW of the downtown Cleveland,OH.
Reasons for selecting this location:
1. There is estimated wind power of class 3 to class 5 in offshore areas of Lake Erie. Prevailing northerly and westerly winds have a long, smooth fetch across Lake Erie which results in strong winter and spring winds, especially along the coastal areas [1].
2. Already a pilot project is being done in the selected location.
3. BERR criterias: a) The average winds on the lake Erie are the highest recorded in the state. The average wind speed in the location is 16.4 mph which is excellent for power generation(utility scale wind farms require average of 15.7 mph). Prevailing winds are Southwest [2].
b) There could be impact on aquatic organisms, fishes due to placing the wind turbines , electrical cables. But this would not be a long term problem according to the study by DLZ Ohio Inc., a subcontractor to JW Great Lakes .
c) The nearest dwelling is around 12 miles from the location which satisfies the noise and shadow flicker problem criteria in BERR. According to the BERR criteria for noise, if the turbine to receptor is between 200 & 300 m, then noise power level is less than 50dBA. Also, source noise level of wind turbine is between 100-106dBA[3]. As regards to the nearest port "Cleveland" is nearly 16 miles from the location.
d) It being a off shore site, landscape visual impact would not be a reason for concern.
Sources:
[1] http://rredc.nrel.gov/wind/pubs/atlas/chp3.html#lake
[2](http://blog.cleveland.com/pdgraphics/2008/09/large_01FGWIND.jpg)
[3] http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/sources/renewables/planning/onshore-wind/noise/page18728.html

Thursday, April 16, 2009

FlowMap




I used maximum line width of 40 points. I did not put the heading for the legend because of space constraint.

Friday, April 10, 2009

CARTOGRAM

Contiguous Cartogram, Robinson Projection; 10 Iterations
Non-Contiguous, Feature shape Cartogram

Non Contiguous Circular Cartogram (Most appropriate)

I feel Non Contiguous Circular Cartogram is most appropriate for showing the World's GDP. One can easily figure out the countries GDP from the changing size of circles. I have added both Feature shape and circular types of Noncontiguous cartogram just for comparison.