For this week’s lab, I used ArcGIS as a tool to help me locate potential future job opportunities. I am majoring in Environmental Science and double minoring in Environmental Systems and Societies and GIS&T. My plan is to graduate UCLA with a better understanding of current environmental issues, a better grasp of the role societies play in creating and solving these issues, and the ability to use the powerful tools of GIS to become a valuable part of the solutions. I would like to start in the field of environmental consulting, using GIS as an indispensable tool for researching and presenting the best ways for companies and consumers to become more sustainable.
After graduation I would like to work for an environmental consulting agency, preferably in Southern California, but most importantly near either Los Angeles or San Francisco. My task for this week’s lab was to find which environmental consulting agencies in California are closest to these two major cities. To help solve this inquiry, I geocoded the address of 53 different environmental consulting agencies in the state of California. By geocoding each agency’s address, I was able to create a map showing their distribution throughout the state. Most were near Los Angeles, but there were many spread throughout the state as well. To find out exactly which ones were near LA and San Francisco, I created two buffers, one extending 25 miles and one 50 miles from the center of each of these cities.
Geocoding these addresses allowed me to see exactly where each agency is located within California. Using these geocoded addresses, the two buffers highlight exactly which agencies are located where I would like to work, near San Francisco or Los Angeles. I created one map of the agencies near San Francisco and an additional map of those near Los Angeles. By using geocoding and buffers, I was able to discover and display the environmental consulting agencies that best fit my criteria.
Thank you GIS, you saved the day yet again.
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