Map Description and Analysis
This map, Opinions of Cuyahoga River and Location of Survey Respondents, depicts five Northeast Ohio counties -- Lake, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Portage, and Summit. The data used for this map was collected by myself with the use of a survey which asked Northeast Ohio residents their age, zipcode, length of residency, and several questions regarding their opinions about the Cuyahoga River. This dot map was designed to show the distribution of the survey respondents and the distribution of their general opinions of the Cuyahoga River. I wanted to map this information so that I might have a better understanding of the data, including the distribution of survey respondents and the location of opinions.
The data is mapped using colored dots one dot for each respondent, and the dot colored one of five shades of either dark blue, light blue, green, dark green, or brown. The location of each dot is in the respective zipcode for that individual survey participant. I had two viable options as to where to locate the dots; either in the region where the respondent is most familiar with the Cuyahoga River, or in the zipcode in which they reside. The problem with the first option is that many people listed more than one location of familiarity, which would force me to choose where to place their representative dot. Another problem which would have arisen if I had used this method is that I would have had to place all dots on or beside the River, making the actual distribution unclear and too cluttered. So, I placed each dot in the corresponding zipcode area in which the survey respondent resides.
By looking at the data without the map, I really had no concrete idea of where my survey participants were located along the Cuyahoga River. Originally, when I designed my study, I had hoped that I could get an even distribution and representation of Northeast Ohio residents along the Upper, Middle, and Lower Cuyahoga River. As seen on the map, many more opinions are needed in the upper portion of the river in Geauga County and in the lower portion in Cuyahoga County. This map illustrates the concentrations of opinions in Kent (Portage County) and in Akron (Summit County), and these congregations coincide with the regions where I was able to gather my data.
Besides locating the survey participants, I also wanted to see if there is a pattern to the opinions given. A hypothesis I had formed at the beginning of the project was that there might be a pattern of good-bad opinions of the Cuyahoga River in the direction of the River; that upstream (Geauga County) would have better opinions than those at the end of the River (Cuyahoga County) due to human and environmental use and pollution. After looking at the map of the data, I can see that more surveys are needed of these two counties in order to make a well-informed, responsible answer to this. Cuyahoga County does have one brown dot, indicating an opinion of total impairment, but the county also has a dark blue dot (opinion of "No Problems") which balances it out. Overall, I can see that the light-blue dot has the most frequent portrayal, which indicates a majority of "Slight Impairment" opinions.