Data Collection

    The first of my data was acquired through the lower mainland census data that was placed on the Avdata file in the S: drive.  From those I used the lower mainland census file, enumeration file and the municipality file.  As well I used the street network file for the lower mainland that was on the S: drive.  From each of these I queried the data that was equal to Port Moody and clipped that data creating a new file.

    The census maps came without a projection and therefor without a scale.  I played with the projection in View Properties and finally made it work using metres for both map units and distance units.  A scale was produced and when I double check against another map it was right.

    The street network file was very useful on its own but I was unable to overlay my census maps with it.  They both had different projections and map units.  Lorraine (the 354 teacher's assistant) worked with and taught another student (Greg Zemrau) and I how to import the street network file into ArcInfo transforming the file from  geographic into UTM coordinates.  After that I had no problems overlaying the maps.

    The research and development lab of SFU has a web site from which census figures can be acquired.  I began looking at the 1996 data figures and then had to change to the 1991 data as the 1996 data was unfinished and too general.  the 1996 data was given as total for the entire country and each province as a whole.  The break down of the individual census tracts had not been downloaded yet.  I then went to the Statistics Canada web site to see if I could get a further breakdown of the 1996 data. They did have a breakdown by census tract by each area but the system had a bug.  When clicking on the area which you wanted, in my case Port Moody, a different area would come up, in my case census data for Delta would come on screen.  I finally decided to use the 1991 census data as the library has it in print and the research and development lab also had the web site with the information.
 
 I  interviewed a gentleman from the planning division of the City of Port Moody by the name of Ron Reichelt.  He provided me with ideas on how to decide where to place the recreation centre.  He shared with me perameters that the planning division generally follows and which I could use to base my analysis of the city on.  For example he explained to me that to make the recreation accessible it should be placed near transportation routes and in areas of high density.
 
  Mr. Reichelt was also kind enough to give me a magazine about Port Moody that the city had published.  It contained a map of the locations of the parks and recreation centres as well as their uses.

    For the locations of the bus routes I used the "Bus and Skytrain Timetable".  A map is provided in the centre of the pamphlet that shows the extent of the bus routes.  Finding the name of the roads that the buses followed I queried the street network file and created a new theme for the bus routes.

My sources
  The census data on the Avdata file
  Ron Reichelt from the planning department of Port Moody
  Statistics Canada web site www.statscan.ca
  The research and development lab web site www.sfu.ca/rdl
  The "Bus and Skytrain Timetable"
  The magazine "City Guide '99"

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