Thursday, March 26, 2015

Demographic transition

Image above: The Demographic Transition Model (DMT)

 
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Population change as time goes by

Populations, including the demographic variables of total number of people, age breakdown, sex ratios, birth rates, death rates and rate of growth are not static but change over time as the conditions in a country change for the better or worse. In most countries, such change involves development and the associated improvements in health and social conditions as a result of industrialisation and economic improvements in a country. The following sites attempt to explain the modelling of such changes over time and introduces the DemographicTransition Model (DMT). The DMT is a model that describes a predicted and in most cases expected population change over time. It is based on an interpretation begun in 1929 by the American demographer Warren Thompson, of the observed changes, or transitions, in birth and death rates in industrialized societies over the past two hundred years or so. Although not perfect and as always there ar exceptions to the model (rule), the DMT is used by demographers as a way to look at population change over time.






* Video explaining thedemographic transition model

* Videos explaining the impact of development on a countries population and the Demographic Transition Model (DTM)
http://wn.com/demographic_transition_theory
http://wn.com/demographic_transition_theory

* A detailed look at the stagesof the DMT

* A good summary of the DMTstages

* A corny but accurate animation

* Worth looking at the Age-Sex Pyramid animation showing the movement through the stages of the DMT (from youthful population to the ageing population).

* Youthful and Ageing populations

* Youthful population video

* Ageing population video

* More animations to aid understanding (simple, a little annoying but useful)

Happening all the time



Image above: The Poodwaddle clock interface

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Poodwaddle is an excellent resource to highlight the dynamic nature of statistics (and to question the origin of and veracity of data). There are many such population clocks available on the Internet but this clock does a little more than most. It breaks much of the data into regions and various categories and shows more than just population. The clock also counts mortality, crime, illness, environment, energy, food, economics and even happy things like 'first kisses' in real time. The site also hosts a life expectancy test to personalise the data. Obviously questions arise on the reliability of the data but the clock provides a great entry or teaching point on demography and diversity around the world.

Data visualisations of development













Image above: Worldmapper

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Investigating development geography through data visualisations

This posting is about two excellent data visualisation sites that can be used to identify the stage of development of a country and/or region: WorldMapper and Gapminder. Both of these sites have been around for over 6 years, but they continue to be amazing free and user friendly tools for you to study development geography.

Firstly let's look at the concept of development and the branch of geography called development geography.

Development geography is a branch of geography with reference to the standard of living and quality of life of its human inhabitants. In development geography, geographers study spatial patterns in development. They try to identify development status of a country/region by looking at economic, political and social factors.



Development indicators are numerical data on the characteristics of a place which can be associated with development of a country. They include:
  • Economic indicators include GNP (Gross National Product) per capita, unemployment rates, energy consumption and percentage of GNP in primary industries. Of these, GNP/per capita statistics are the most used as they measure the value of all the goods and services produced in a country, excluding those produced by foreign companies, hence measuring the economic and industrial development of the country. GDP per capita is also a useful data source.
  • Social indications include access to clean water and sanitation (which indicate the level of infrastructure developed in the country) and adult literacy rate, measuring the resources the government has to meet the needs of the people. Indicators such cars/TV/radios per thousand may also be use as social indicators. 
  • Demographic indicators include birth rate, death rate, life expectancy, natural increase and fertility rate and age structure. Health indicators include nutrition (calories per day, calories from protein, percentage of population with malnutrition), infant mortality and population per doctor (indicate the availability of healthcare and sanitation facilities in a country). The GDI (Gender-related Development Index) measures gender equality in a country in terms of life expectancy, literacy rates, school attendance and income
  • Environmental indicators include how much a country does for the environment. A more developed and wealthier country has the luxury to spend some of it's money on protecting the environment.
The HPI (Human Poverty Index) is used to calculate the percentage of people in a country who live in relative poverty. In order to better differentiate the number of people in abnormally poor living conditions the HPI-1 is used in developing countries, and the HPI-2 is used in developed countries. The HPI-1 is calculated based on the percentage of people not expected to survive to 40, the adult illiteracy rate, the percentage of people without access to safe water, health services and the percentage of children under 5 who are underweight. The HPI-2 is calculated based on the percentage of people who do not survive to 60, the adult functional illiteracy rate and the percentage of people living below 50% of median personal disposable income.

With development geography there are a range of classifications of development. The most popular are the classifications of:
  • Undeveloped/Underdeveloped/developing/less developed/developed
  • Rich and poor countries
  • The haves and have nots
  • High to low human development (based on the HPI)
  • 1st/2nd and 3rd world (rather unpopular classification today)
  • The North/South divide (see below)

No matter what the classification, when we view the indicators it seems that countries group into various development categories in a consistent way.

Now for the two sites:

* Worldmapper
Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to a chosen criteria. Criteria relevant to development include: demography, income, wealth, poverty, health, education, death exports etc.


* Gapminder
Gapminder is a great visualisation over time which plots on a dynamic graph a range of criteria (many being development indicators). There is also an excellent section for teachers with ideas on using the site.


*Check out this data on the countries today


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita


Thinking population


Image above: Short video from Hans Rosling called 'Don't panic, Truth about population.


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Don’t panic: The truth about population by Hans Rosling

For many geographers into spatial and visual literacy, the name Hans Rosling resonates as the epitome of creativity, innovation and fascination when talking about all things population.

Hans Rosling (born 27 July 1948) is a Swedish medical doctor, academic, statistician and public speaker. He is Professor of International Health at Karolinska Institute and co-founder and chairman of the Gapminder Foundation which has previously been profiled on GeogSplace.

Gapminder is used around the world as an interactive graphic over time application to visualise population & development data. Hans is a bit of a Geography legend and influences politicians, teachers and students all around the world. Check out his Twitter feed to see the sorts of things that he tweets about on a normal day in 'Hans World'.


The ‘Geography for 2014 and beyond’ site uses Hans Rosling’s Don’t panic: The truth about population’ resource has some fascinating exercises for great demographic thinking.

Harvesting world data

Whilst on about population, these two sites are useful to gather some up to date data on development indicators for some GIS mapping (just add the chosen field to a spatially referenced database of all the countries of the world). The data also provides the latest indicators compared to the 1990's indicators we looked at in class on 'World Guide'.




* Index Mundi: An excellent site with up-to-date statistics on all countries


**** For an excellent summary of a country demographics just replace the country name in this URL.http://www.indexmundi.com/angola/demographics_profile.html This is the data for Angola.
* Currrent international GDP per capita data


These two sites are interesting examples of visualisations of data.


* A visualisation software called Manyeyes.




* A spatial visualisation of London growing over 2000 years
Researchers at UCL's Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis collated vast datasets to map the capital's transformation from first-century Londinium to modern megacity.

Great population sites



SACE Board of SA
GeogSpace
Spatialworlds blog
Spatialworlds website
Course details on Flo
Australian Curriculum Portal
Geogaction
DECD Learning Resources

Sites related to GeogSplace for Australian Curriculum
DECD Achievement Standards Charts
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website

Geography Teachers Association of South Australia

Scoop.it sites






* Migration flows
This interactive migration map allows you to see for every country in the world either the top ten providing countries of lifetime migrants or the top ten receiving countries of lifetime migrants. On top of that, when you let your mouse hover over a country, you can see the total population, the GDP per capita, the HIV and Tuberculosis prevalences and the death rate of children under five.




* Population pyramids
This interactive site enables you to see the age-sex pyramids for every country in the world. A great resource for comparison across the globe and awareness of diversity in age-sex structures between countries. The pyramids raise many question as to why they are the shape they are. The pyramids also go back in time and project forward - fascinating.







* World population data interactive map from the Population Reference Bureau. This site provides excellent data updates in tabular form, as well as a user friendly interactive data map for every region and country in the world.



* CIA World Fact Book
Whilst this site is not a visualisation, it does provide plenty of world data that would support the above population visualisations.

Population starters




Sites related to GeogSplace
SACE Board of SA
GeogSpace
Spatialworlds blog
Spatialworlds website
Course details on Flo
Australian Curriculum Portal
Geogaction
DECD Learning Resources for Australian Curriculum
DECD Achievement Standards Charts
Australian Geography Teachers' Association website

Geography Teachers Association of South Australia

Scoop.it sites







This posting provides you with some sites to get you thinking about population as described in the Geography curriculum (from the SACE document):

This topic introduces students to the key factors that influence human interactions with the natural environment, including population pressure and the level of consumption. Students begin to understand global, national, and local population patterns and trends, and the factors involved in population change. Throughout this topic, students investigate contemporary population issues, using local, national, and global examples.

Key Areas for Investigation

Students demonstrate knowledge and understanding in the following key areas, which are developed using local, national, and global examples.


World Population


·   The broad global distribution of the human population and examples to illustrate the interrelated factors that influence this distribution (e.g. environment, history, resources, culture, and politics)


·   Global population trends


The Processes of Population Change


·   Crude birth rates and the economic and sociocultural factors that influence fertility


·   Crude death rates and the economic and sociocultural factors that influence mortality


·   The push-and-pull factors that influence the migration of people


·   The characteristics and interpretation of population pyramids


·   The demographic transition model and its limitations


·   Examples of trends in population change in economically developed countries and in economically less-developed countries


Issues Arising from Changes in the Composition of Populations and the Movement of People


·   The social, economic, and political implications of changes in the composition of populations


–   a case study of a country with a young and expanding population


–   a case study of a country with an ageing population


·   Case studies to illustrate the social, economic, and political implications that movements of people between countries have for both the country of destination and the country of origin


Now have a look at these videos/sites, containing, information, conflicting perspectives and ideas.

* World population clock

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

* Stable population
 http://www.populationparty.org.au/

* Population

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CNC_VJ11CM

* 7 Billion: National geographic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc4HxPxNrZ0

* World population

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BbkQiQyaYc

* World population growth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbwNgI_gFMI&list=PLA7827A5FD5166156

* Population growth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmEosykOesE&list=PLA7827A5FD5166156

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b98JmQ0Cc3k

* 2.1 kids

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBS6f-JVvTY

* The science of overpopulation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD-yN2G5BY0

* Population and poverty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFgb1BdPBZo&list=PLA7827A5FD5166156

* A personal view

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-a6VdF96TY&list=PLA7827A5FD5166156

* Another view

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsAracLBCxI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iodJ0OOdgRg

* Suzuki on overpopulation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x98KFcMJeo




* Demographic Transition model


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nonCD5GR9bw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzxREH08EkI


Sunday, March 22, 2015

Tough bits for students on mapping


Vertical Exaggeration




Vertical exaggeration simply means that your vertical scale is larger than your horizontal scale (in the example you could use 1 cm is equal to 1000m for your vertical scale, while keeping the horizontal scale the same). Vertical exaggeration is often used if you want to discern subtle topographic features.
To determine the amount of vertical exaggeration used to construct a profile, simply divide the real-world units on the horizontal axis by the real-world units on the vertical axis (both need to be in metres)
Vertical exaggeration formula: VE = (real world units of horizontal scale) / (real world units of vertical scale).

As an example for a 1:50000 topographic map, we can set the horizontal scale (x axis) of the profile the same as the map.

*    Labelling 1 cm units on x axis: 1cm on map = 50000cm in real world = 500m in real world. If we decide to use the same value for our vertical scale (1cm = 500m for y axis), then there will be a vertical exaggeration (VE) of (500m / 500m) = 1x or no vertical exaggeration.

*    Changing our y axis scale so that 1cm would represent 250m then we would have 500m/250m = 2x (read 2 times) vertical exaggeration.


Another explanation of how to calculate vertical exaggeration?

Step 1:

You basically look at the vertical scale and the horizontal scale and convert them to the same unit of measurement. Metres is usually the best one.

e.g. vertical scale - 1:50m
horizontal scale - 1:100 000 (the horizontal scale would always be in centimetres at first as marked on the map)

Convert them to the same unit of measurement and this would make

vertical scale - 1:50m
horizontal scale - 1: 1000m

Step 2: Then you just divide the metres of the horizontal scale by the metres of the vertical scale

1000m divided by 50m = 20

i.e. The vertical exaggeration is 20.

Just remember that when you're trying to calculate the vertical exaggeration on a topographic map, it won't always be a whole number so you'll be expected to round it to the nearest one.

Calculating a Gradient (Slope)




  • Decide on an area for which you want to calculate the slope (note, it should be an area where the slope direction does not change; do not cross the top of a hill or the bottom of a valley).
  • Once you have decided on an area of interest, draw a straight line perpendicular to the contours on the slope.
  • Measure the length (run) of the line you drew and, using the scale of the map, convert that distance to metres.
  • Determine the total elevation change (rise) along the line you drew (subtract the elevation of the lowest contour used from the elevation of the highest contour used). You do not need to do any conversions on this measurement, as it is a real-world
  • To calculate the gradient of the slope, divide the elevation change (rise) in metres by the distance (run) of the line you drew (after converting it to metres). The angle you calculated is the angle between a horizontal plane and the surface of the hill
…and another explanation


Calculate the difference in height between the two points, then calculate the difference in length between the 2 points and divide.
So lets say you have a rise of 100m and a run of 1000m. It means the gradient is 100/1000, but the numerator must be 1 so that would equate to 1/10, or 1:10. It means that for every 10m you travel, the height goes up by 1m. Also make sure the rise and run are in the same units. In this case the gradient can be explained as 1 in 10 or 1:10 or 1/10 or 0.10, which means that for every 10 units travelled horizontally, the ground rises (or falls) one unit vertically.