GEO
320 Urban Geography Fall 2007
Department of Geography and
Meteorology, Valparaiso University
Northwest
Indiana: What is a City? Census and Google Earth in-Class Exercise
Select and get data for Porter and Lake Counties (you will have to do this separately). Select County Subdivision and Place and the Population, Housing Unites, Area, and Density Table. This table a table that will show overall population characteristics for cities and towns in these counties. For reference you should have the following table: GCT-PH1. Population, Housing Units, Area, and Density: 2000 Data Set: Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF 1) 100-Percent Data for both Lake and Porter Counties. I will help you find it if you are having trouble.
1. What are the 5 largest politically defined towns or cities in Lake County? Are all them officially cities or are some of them towns?
2. What are the 3 largest politically defined towns or cities in Porter County? Are all of them officially cities or are some of them towns?
3. Are there towns that are bigger than cities?
4. How do the towns and cities in NWI compare in terms of density? Which places are most dense? Which the least?
5. Open up Google Earth (If it doesn’t work try Google Maps on the web). It is available in the application launcher. Zoom in on Valparaiso, IN and brows around a bit. What makes Valparaiso urban versus the surrounding area? Can you see a definite boundary between Valparaiso and the surrounding countryside? Or is the boundary more ambiguous.
6. Find East Chicago. Browse around. See if you can locate the little neighborhood of Marktown (it’s a postage stamp in the middle of industry). What makes East Chicago urban? How does it compare to Valparaiso in terms of the way it looks? Is there Nature in East Chicago?
7. Do the same for Gary. What is distinctive or mundane about Gary’s urban landscape? Do all the houses look run down as the common perception would suggest or does it look like a pretty nice place to live? Is there nature in Gary?
8. Look for Hebron, then Kouts, and then Lowell. All three are small towns on the very, very edge of the Chicago urban region. Even though they are small towns, and supposedly not urban, are there any characteristics that they share with East Chicago or Valparaiso? Do you see factories, houses, industry?
9. Now take a quick trip to Chicago. Do the towns and cities look the same as or different than Chicago?
