SO262 Physical Geography Project

3/29/2011

Spring 2011 Student Final projects

Each student in the course will prepare a final project.  This semester our projects will work toward creating an on-line atlas of the provinces of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Kazakhstan, presented in Google Earth.  This will build on Fall 2009 Student Final Projects. You may work on the project in groups of up to three students, but the group will do one province per member.  Provinces will be assigned by email request to the instructor, and the lists below will be updated.  Your request can include several choices in case your first choice has already been taken.

• Discuss the physical geography of the region.  This will include climate, landforms, soils,  vegetation, and natural hazards of the region.  Particularly in Afghanistan, you should cover earthquakes. 
• Briefly discuss military operations and political and social characteristics of the province, but concentrate on how the climate and physical landscape affect military planning, and operations.
• The project will be presented as a KMZ file (a zipped KML file that also includes all the graphics) for display in Google Earth.  We will cover the specifics later, but for starting you can will create a series of Word files each of which will be linked to a specific spot in the province and pop up your document when the user clicks on it.
• You will have the following graphics as a minimum:
  • Maps showing elevations and slopes in the area, from the SRTM.
  • Climograph created in MICRODEM, using the standard scales and conventions which allow easy comparisons of climographs for different provinces.
  • Graph of ETO
  • Graph showing the length of daylight throughout the year.
• In addition to graphic images, your KML should have a substantial text component to explain the landscape, climate, and the effects military operations. You can use the maps in the text book to look up the soil, climate, and vegetation classifications in the area, and then discuss the characteristics of those classifications and how they influence military operations.  You should discuss how the battle or operation might have been different if it had occurred during a different time of the year.
• All measurements should be in the metric system (m, km, and °C).
• Any imagery you use must be free of copyright restrictions.  You will credit the source of the imagery, and if you are not sure about the copyright, you will not include the image.  Just because you can grab an image does not mean you are free to use it.
• You will have a references cited section to list your sources and to refer readers to additional information.

As you should have learned by now, because it involves learning how to get the computer to do something, this project has the potential to require extra love and care at the end.  You should get the project done early to insure that you can get help if you need it.  At the very least you should insure that you know how to transform your Word file into KML, and have done that with a rough draft of the final project well before the due date.

Map showing combat losses by province (AF, http://icasualties.org/OEF/ByProvince.aspx) ( Iraq, http://icasualties.org/Iraq/ByProvince.aspx )

Data showing opium production by province (AF): http://finder.news.geocommons.com/overlays/170

KMZ files for AF (USNA Only)

Within MICRODEM, there are directions in the help file on how to make maps.  Look in the contents, Tutorials and Labs, Physical Geography, Provincial Map.   There is also a Help forum (not on a USNA computer).

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