Mapping and Spatial Analysis
LORL offers a variety of mapping and spatial analysis services to members and staff. These services are handled by LORL staff, or in the case of large or complicated requests, services are provided by a university in the LORL network.
Mapping
Reference Maps - useful in helping locate places and things. Examples of reference maps include:
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1. House District Maps (see below) 2. Senate District Maps 3. Congressional District Maps  |
4. County Boundary Map 5. Historical Maps (see below) 6. Transportation Maps  |
Thematic Maps - present data, concepts, and trends in a concise, visual manner (see below). LORL and Temple University's Legislative Atlas for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, use thematic maps to show demographic information for House and Senate Districts.
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Spatial Analysis:
Spatial Analysis refers to the techniques used to understand the spatial or geographic connection among geographically-referenced data. Some possible questions answered by spatial analysis are:
Q: How many cell phone towers are within a 5-mile radius of the geographic center of Scranton?
A: 151 (Source: iMap Data)
Q: How many households are in a floodplain in Cumberland County?
A: Estimated households - 20,961 (Source: Penn State University, Office of Remote Sensing for Earth Resources; U.S. Census Bureau)
Q: How many people live in a floodplain in Cumberland County?
A: Estimated population - 55,525 (Source: Penn State University, Office of Remote Sensing for Earth Resources; U.S. Census Bureau)
Q: How many oil and gas wells are in Allegheny County?
A: 1,088 (Source: Pennsylvania GIS Compendium CD)
Q: How many veterans live within 20 miles of State College?
A: 13,184 veterans, or 10.5%, of the population (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)
LORL Mapping and Spatial Analysis Projects
LORL and Temple University provided members with a decennial atlases of legislative districts after the 1990 and 2000 federal censuses. The maps in the new Legislative Atlas for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are based upon key 2000 U.S. Census data and are intended to provide important, up-to-date information and insight on issues that affect their districts and the Commonwealth as a whole. The maps were produced using GIS technology by means of a partnership between LORL and Temple's Center for Public Policy, Department of Geography and Urban Studies, and Cartographic Laboratory.
In another long-standing partnership, LORL and the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) have collaborated to provide House and Senate members with large-format maps of their constituencies. Each of the 3' x 3' maps provides detailed coverage of streams, roads, rail networks, airports, parks and other features of the districts, in addition to county and municipal boundaries. These maps are produced using GIS technology by the Spatial Sciences Research Center at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
