Reference no: EM133722078

Statistical Methods in Geography

Evaluation

In this unit we stared working with some of the methods and strategies we need to get to know our data. Including descriptive statistics to measure central tendencies, spread, indexes, and thinking about spatial data. We also continued to practice tools learned in past units, and thinking about visualizing data.

Part 1a) - Ottawa Weather

If we were starting a new project about weather changes in cities, we could start by downloading historical weather data from Environment and Climate Canada

For example the fle "OttawaMonthlyClimateData.csv" has the record of monthly averages for temperature and precipitation between 1938 and 2011 for the weather station at the airport. It's a lot of data, but we are not interested in all of it.

So we need to start by cleaning our data, meaning organizing our data in the format and with the amount of data that is useful for our research.

• The spreadsheet "2006_w22_u4_table1.xls" is the cleaned data.
• The cases are each month during the years 1991-2010.
• The variables are:
a. average monthly temperature in degrees Celsius;
b. total monthly rain in millimetres;
c. total monthly snow in centimetres;
d. total monthly precipitation in millimetres.
• The row names are the variable Date/Time which provides you with the year and the month coded as a number in order form January (1) to December (12).
• You can also fnd this information in the metadata of the spreadsheet file.

At this stage of the project we want to calculate some descriptive statistics to get to know our data better. Our research questions at this stage are:
a. What is the central tendency for each variable?
b. What is the spread for each variable?
c. How do the values of each variable vary or deviate in relation to the mean?
d. How does change for each variable compare to each other?
To respond to these questions we started be calculating a series of measurements that you'll fnd at the bottom of the sheet.

Questions:

1. What is the central tendency of each of the four variables?
Report the measurement names and values.
[Hint: you should report more than one measurement]
[Hint: if you need a reminder of what the measures of central tendency are review Unit4, Lesson1]

2. Calculate the best measure of spread for the four variables.
Report the name of the measurement, its values, and the strategy you used in your calculation.

3. How much does each of the four variables deviate from the mean? Report the measurement name and for each variable, the value .

4. We are also interested in change.
Calculate a measure of relative change for each variable.
We'll look at the change for two different seasons.
I. with July 1991 as the frst value and July 2010 as the second value.
II. with December 1991 s the frst value and December 2010 as the second value.
Report the name of the measurement you used, value of change for each variable for both time periods (eight values all together), and your strategy for these calculations.
[Hint: you calculated a measure of relative change in question 8 of the Unit 3 Evaluation] [Hint: when the frst vale is negative divide by the absolute value (Excel formula abs()]

5. Comparing the difference between the medians and the means of each variables, which variable would you say is the most skewed?

6. We can also compare change by looking an index of snow and rain.
The sheet Ottawa_CI has a selection of cases and the values for two of the variables normalized using standardization (z-score).
Complete the index using weights where snow 66.67% and rain is 33.33%. Use linear aggregation.
Report the top three Date/Times, and describe your strategies for completing the index.

Part 1a) - Vancouver Weather
Download the spreadsheet "VancouverMonthlyClimateData.csv" to respond to the questions below. The data in the spreadsheet is the record of monthly averages for temperature and precipitation between 1938 and 2011 in Vancouver.

Questions:

7. The frst Call to Action in Wong et al. (2020) discussed in Unit 3, Lesson 4 is to "understand the socio-political landscape around [...] research sites."

Thinking about this Call to Action, what is one Indigenous Nation we should be consulting as we start weather and climate research in Vancouver. In other words, on whose territories is Vancouver hosted?

8. I) Add an additional sheet to the spreadsheet you used in Part1a) of this assignment.
II) Add the data for Vancouver and add it to the new sheet.
III) Clean the data to replicate the data and format of the 'Ottawa' sheet.
So that it has the same cases (Date/Times), and variables (temperature, rain, snow, precipitation).
IV) Calculate the same descriptive statistics as provided on the 'Ottawa' sheet.

9. What are the mean and median for each variable in Vancouver?

10. What is the range of each variable in Vancouver?
What was your strategy for calculating the range values?

11. What is the standard deviation for each variable in Vancouver?

12. Comparing Ottawa to Vancouver, which city has the most variation in precipitation? There is more than one way to answer this question correctly, so respond with the city, the measurement(s) you used to respond, and why you chose that approach.

Part 2 - Public Opinion

A lot of information comes in the form of categorical data. For example, the results of opinion surveys. Since these variable are not true numerical variables, we use tools like frequency tables and cross tabulations to describe them in detail.

Environics Institute is a non-proft public opinion polling company that regularly conducts large surveys in Canada to gage people's opinions on a wide range of social topics.

Questions:
13. Using the data in this table, complete the frequency table on the sheet titled ‘freq' by entering and calculating the correct data.
14. How many total respondents somewhat disagree with the statement?
15. How many total respondents strongly agreed with or somewhat agreed with the statement?
16. What percent of valid respondences strongly agree or somewhat agree with the statement?

Part 3 - Faculty Research

• Descriptive statistics are an important part of academic research as well.
• For this part of the assignment you should choose one of the four articles, all written by faculty in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies.
• Following the directions for the specifc paper (listed by fle name), you will examine the descriptive statistics used to report the data in each study.
• Before you get started, read through the abstract of the article to understand the questions, methods and context of the study.

17. Provide the correct APA-style reference for the article.
Refer to Table 1. to respond to the rest of the questions
18. For ‘All plastics' what is the mean number of pieces of plastic detected in bird stomaches?
19. For ‘Industrial' what is the standard deviation for pieces of plastic detected in bird stomaches?
20. For ‘All plastics' what is the maximum number of pieces of plastics found in bird faecal precursors?

17. Provide the correct APA-style reference for the article.
Refer to Table 3. to respond to the rest of the questions

18. What is the N of the study (how many people were interviewed)?
[Hint: you should read this horizontally and will have to sum values to get the result]

19. What is the average number of livestock per household for Tier 4?

20. What is the maximum percent of households with eucalyptus plantations cross all tiers?

17. Provide the correct APA-style reference for the article.
Refer to Table 1. to respond to the rest of the questions
18. What is the N for the study (how many shrub individuals were measured)? [Hint: you will have read the table caption and sum values to get the result]
19. What is the mean for %shrub cover in the Mixed Tundra region?
20. What is the maximum %moss cover across all three regions?